Interview - BATTALION

Martín: Hi there! Your debut album for Silverwolf Productions is out now; tell us about BATTALION´s career and the birth of “Underdogs”.

Samuel: Hello Martin, thanks fot the interview! Thats a simple good old school story! Me an Silvan went to school together, and formed this band in the year 2001, I think. We made some crazy music, beatbox mixed up with guitar sound. His brother Cyril joined us, the years passed by interests changed, and now we got that Ass fucking Underdog thing in our row!

M: How were the recording sessions of the album? Are you satisfied with the results?

S: It was a hard time for us. We were in the studio for the first time and Tommy Vetterli, the producer (Ex- Coroner and ex-Kreator guitarist) is a perfectionist. So we had to rip up our bloody asses to get in to it! We are very satisfied with the results. We wanted from beginning on a non “modern plastic sound”! We wanted some kind of a good old recording, and I think we get it! Well, there are always things I want to change after listening to it. For example some other drum fills and other musical stuff like that.

M: I think that BATTALION is between the old school and the new generation of Thrash Metal. What is your opinion about that?

S: Well, we really like Old school thrash, but that`s not the only thing we’re listening to! Our influence is mostly from bands like Metallica, Motörhead, Priest, Saxon, Sepultura and some others. I think we separate us from other modern old school trash bands. I can’t explain it, it’s in the music you got to listen it;-) . There is a special thing going on in our sound in my opinion. A good mix, let shake ya mothers tits.

M: “Underdogs” has a cool artwork. Who is the artist behind it? Tell us about the artwork.

S: The artists called Paul Raymond Gregory and he is from UK. He painted for Bands like Molly Hatched, Saxon and others. As we seen it for the first time, it smashed us away from the energy that is coming out of that picture. I also felt in love with one of the machine bastards behind the deadly ripped off face man.;-) Iron dicks, bloody things.

M: What can we expect about BATTALION´s live on stage?

S: Pure adrenalin, aggression and power. Let the good old times roll, baby, come to our gigs and smash your brain in to the stage!

M: What about touring plans?

S: We would really like to tour around the world, but there aren`t any tour dates at the moment. Just single gigs. The album was just released, so we have to let some time pass, then we`ll see, if some maniacs want us to come and play in their cities.



M: Tell us about the Swiss Metal scene; any interesting bands we should know?

S: The scene is fucked up over here. There are some old bands from the early days, but none from the present I really like. There`s no big support here. But it’s better than 5 years ago. Metal is getting “in” again. Pretty cool, uh?

M: How do you see Thrash Metal scene in the world today?

S: The scene really grew up the last years. Maybe we`re 20 years to late, but I’ don`t care. We just play the music we like. Bay the way, I wouldn’t call our music old school thrash. It`s more a mix between Heavy Metal and thrash to me. Songs like Wings of a demon, Headbangers or Dictators of stone aren`t typical thrash songs in my opinion. I don’t like that categorisation stuff anyway. It`s not important to me, if they put us in the old school thrash-, Heavy Metal- or Fucking school what ever genre. If ya know what I mean.

M: Many extreme bands are making videos to promote its songs, are you planning to film one?

S: Yes, why not? If we got the money together and the other Hollywood shit, we`ll do it. It`s a new thing going on these days with that youtube stuff. It`s a good part of the Internet for young upcoming bands. It makes us joinable all over the world. And that`s what we want – to reach every person in the world and touring in there countries!

M: What is your opinion about music in our days with the internet and mp3 downloads?

S: It has good parts and bad parts. You reach much more people as in the early days, but making music isn`t very profitable anymore, cause a lot of people are downloading songs for free. But we don`t want a lot of money, we just wanna play gigs. But making a new record isn’t for free, you know! So, money talks, if you want, or not!

M: Thank you very much for your time. Here you have space to write what you want as farewell.

S: Well bastards, send us money, gold and diamonds, to build a throne with it, which I can use behind the drums. And check out our homepage:

http://www.battalionmilitia.com/
http://www.myspace.com/battalionofficial