"The brutal death metallers Crucifix have been
a part of the Danish underground since the early nineties, but the
band has been silent for the last couple of years due to various
reasons. Crucifix recently put out their third demo Where Angels
Rot and in that conjunction I thought it would be interesting to
learn a little more about their whereabouts and doings so I came
up with a few questions and dropped the band a mail and the result
is as follows.
You recently released your new demo Where Angels Rot.
How has the response been so far?
The response has been pretty good. Some people seem to think that
we sound too old school and outdated but a big fuck off to them.
Death metal is supposed to be dirty and evil like back in the day.
Most bands play light metal now and confuse it with death metal
and they are a disgrace to the scene. The real death freaks seem
to love the demo though. Hopefully we will sound even more old school
in the future and remain a fist in the face of the soft Danish scene
of today.
Crucifix has been around since the early 90's, but
you've only released three demos so far! Are the other reasons for
this besides trouble with the line-up?
As you yourself point out, we've been very unlucky regarding line-up
changes all the time. Every person in a band knows how hard it is
to find decent new members to replace old friends. Living in a part
of Denmark where musicians are few didn't make it any easier. Also,
we needed a break from each other. Back then some of the members
had been together for a very long time! We also had to deal with
death in the band. First when the original singer got killed in
an accident, but later on Lars' mother died of cancer. All in the
band grew up together so this was very hard on us.
I read somewhere that you were close to getting signed
based on the Extermination demo, but things fell to the ground.
Is this is this another reason why you have laid low for such a
long time?
Yeah that's one reason. We didn't make the record because some of
the members, three to be exact, left the band right after we were
approached by Diehard Music. And when we finally got around playing
some new material to them, they didn't like it. Also we still hadn't
a complete line-up so we couldn't play live. But their strongest
reason for not cutting a deal with us was that the new material
wasn't brutal enough! But honestly, listen to the new demo and tell
us if you don't find it brutal and fast! We don't play metal the
Illdisposed or The Haunted style. It seems as if everyone plays
this type of metal today. That's not our style. We like it fast,
evil and dirty.
When and why did you decide to reactivate Crucifix?
Lars and Morten decided to try once again back in November 2004.
The line-up is the same as before except we had a new singer. We
felt that the time was right and also there was Danish Melodeath
Grand Prix [a contest] in Aarhus a couple of months later so we
had something to look forward to.
You've had some line-up problems over the years. Have
you finally solidified the line-up?
After the gig in Aarhus we decided that a new singer was needed
so we called on our former frontman Jens Killhailer of Victimizer
and Church Bizarre. He stepped up and we hope that the current line-up
is also the final.
I understand that Where Angels Rot is going to be released
through Grüft Prodüktion. Is there any difference that
release and the demo?
We received an email from a guy in Poland who asked us if he could
distribute the demo in Poland. We said yes. That's really it. Nothing
fancy about that.
I assume you're still looking for a label or will you
release more through Grüft Prodüktion?
We are still looking for a label who will sign us. Grüft Prodüktions
cannot offer us anything worthwhile, so he just ships the demo around
down there [laughs]
There's quite a difference between the material on
Where Angels Rot and your previous demo Extermination. Is this due
to natural progression or the many changes in personnel?
Back in the Extermination days the music was written together as
a band. Today all the music is written by Lars and Morten and when
they decide to play something for the rest of the band Jens comes
in and writes the lyrics. Also, back then all in Crucifix was very
much into Suffocation so it was only natural that the music sounded
like it does on Extermination. Today we have a much broader variety
in the musical influences.
Extermination was produced by Jacob Hansen, but this
time you chose Alberto Gallista to produce. What were your reasons
for doing so?
Financial reasons more or less. With Alberto we had more time in
the studio to experiment a bit. We are quite happy with the overall
product [also thanks to the mastering by Jacob Hansen]. The next
release will probably be recorded somewhere else though, with a
producer who has more roots in extreme metal. Alberto is more of
a heavy metal/hard rock kind of guy and he does not understand where
a band like us is coming from musically speaking.
Your sound appears to be strongly rooted in how Danish
death metal sounded in the early and mid 90's. Do you have any explanation
on why that is?
We don't think we sound typical Danish at all, We have never been
into Danish metal apart from Mercyful Fate, Artillery and lots of
obscure heavy metal and thrash bands from the early to late eighties
like for instance Batallion, Mirage, Witchcross, Alien Force, Metal
Cross, Evil, Nigro Mantia, Samhain, Desexult [first demo only] and
stuff like that. It's safe to say that none of us have roots in
bands like Illdisposed, Konkhra and so on. Nothing against those
bands personally, but they are not really the kind of death metal
we like. In our opinion Crucifix anno 2005 has its prime roots in
the old American scene with a tad of the Swedish style as well [think
the early brutal scene, not the melodic Gothenburg shit]
Are there any bands in particular who have been a source
of inspiration or have had a direct impact on your music?
There is no point in denying that the old stuff by bands like Morbid
Angel, Deicide, Immolation, Death, Grave and Incantation to name
a few have inspired us, but we have vary varied taste within the
band.
Are any of you involved in other bands besides Crucifix?
Jens is a very busy man. Besides running his own label Pentagram
Warfare, he's also the founding member of Vitimizer and Church Bizarre
and when that's not enough he and another friend of ours have formed
Opus Obscurium. Until recently Lars has been playing in a few bands.
He was fulltime member of Lunar Caustic and session drummer for
Vitimizer and Church Bizarre. He is in the progress of joining another
band but since is not official yet we can't go into details. Morten
was also in Lunar Caustic, but when they broke up he decided only
to focus on Crucifix. Besides he recently got a daughter so that's
taking a lot of his time. Måns and Martin have formed a band
in which they play when they are not busy with Crucifix.
Do you have any live shows in the melting pot at the
moment?
On November 12th we will destroy Odense alongside Spectral Mortuary
and Dawn of Demise. We will return to Herning sometime in Marts
2006 to fuck things up once again.
Anything you wish to add to conclude this interview?
Keep death metal dark and satanic and let all the faggots and pussies
play nu-metal!"
|