02/20/2009 18:38
God Dethroned
God Dethroned: 'Passiondale'
Dutch metallers God Dethroned's upcoming new album 'Passiondale' is a concept album about the battle of Passendale around the city of the same name in World War I.
Mainman Henri Sattler explains how he came up with the story and the concept:
"It says Passendale on the street sign. The little village with its huge Tyne Cot cemetery and memorial centre. I passed it many times on the way to Isaac (Delahaye, our former guitar player) for another of our notorious drinking sessions in Ypres not far from the French border. I got really impressed by how this town breathes World War I. The numerous cemeteries, the Menin Gate with its daily last post ceremony since 1929 with the exception of just one day during a bombardment in World War II, the buildings that have been rebuilt in their original state and definitely all the English, Irish and Scottish people that visit Ypres every weekend, probably because one of their relatives died there during the war. During the night at the bars & pubs they tended to get really drunk and sang louder than the barman could crank up the stereo set!
It’s during these times that I got inspired by the Great War and decided to write a concept album about it. Ypres and Passendale were the center of war activities during the war with around 900,000 casualties compared to 9 million worldwide. I realized how harsh it must have been there during those 4 years. Passchendaele was the official name of the little village during the war, but since the English speaking armies couldn’t pronounce that, they nicknamed it to: Passiondale."
'Passiondale' will be released as a double digipak including a 9-track bonus CD ('Live in 2005') as a regular jewelcase CD and on vinyl (ltd. to 666 copies).
'Passiondale' is set for release on the 24th/27th of April in Europe.
(source: Metal Blade Records)
(older news about this topic)
"Hi People,
Henri from God Dethroned here. It's been awhile so it's time to give you folks some news about the recording of our new album Passiondale.
Rhythm guitars, bass and lead guitars are all finished now. We took some time off from the studio to prepare some new things for us like different bass lines, harmonies and other stuff we haven't done like this before.
Producer Joerg Uken learned some new things when it came down to my unconventional way of composing harmony lines. One day we would record a melody line and the harmony just on the clicktrack to put it into the song later. He goes "this already sounds out of tune like this and we haven't even put it in the music yet". I go "just put it in the music Joerg". It was nice to see this big questionmark above his head when we checked out the result. It sounded just great. You can check that out yourself when our album comes out somewhere in April next year.
Right now I'm finishing my lyrics and I already screamed my lungs out on a few tracks. Actually now I'm writing the lyrics for the album, I realise how intensely sick this war was. World War I had the biggest amounts of casualties during a single battle than any other war in history. I've been stunned quite a few times when I did research for my lyrics. Anyway, vocals should be ready by the end of next week.
Then last but not least, we also started to work with keyboard player Danny Servaes again. He also played keyboards on the 'Grand Grimoire' and 'Bloody Blasphemy' albums. He just knows what to play to our songs and as promised our new album will go back to those old times, sound and song wise.
Cheers, Henri
God Dethroned"
'Passiondale' tracklisting:
01. Under a Darkening Sky
02. Behind Enemy Lines
03. Drowning in Mud
04. No-Man's Land
05. Passiondale
06. Poison Fog
07. Fallen Empires
08. Artifacts of the Great War
09. No Survivors
(source: God Dethroned)
(older news about this topic)
Dutch death metal grandmasters God Dethroned are busy recording their 8th studio album, entitled 'Passiondale'. Vocalist /guitarist Henri Sattler commented on the going-ons:
“Last week we started tracking down drumtracks for our new album 'Passiondale'. With Roel back on the drum throne all speed limits have been broken again. We took a lot of time in order to get the best results ‘cause we want the album to be as tight as possible. Producer Jörg Uken from the Soundlodge studio’s is drummer himself so we actually managed to get some really spectacular drumming on tape.
We also wrote a new song in the studio called 'No Survivors' bringing the total of songs to 9. Yesterday we made some heavy crushing guitar sounds and this week we’ll track down the guitars.
More news to come soon…
Cheers, Henri
on behalf of GOD DETHRONED”
(source: Metal Blade Records)
(older news about this topic)
Dutch death metal grandmasters God Dethroned have finished the songwriting for their upcoming new album!
“We're ready! We finished 8 songs for our new album 'Passiondale'. Those of you who are fans of our 'Bloody Blasphemy' and 'The Lair of the White Worm' albums can take a deep breath now and wait out the time until the album comes out. Cause this motherfucker brings back all the good things you liked so much. Bringing back Roel to the band after all these years was a good idea. His drumming gave us the right vibe to come up with the stuff we needed for so long. We're really happy about the results and we can't wait to start tracking down those songs. We start recording on October 13th in the Soundlodge Studios in Germany.
"The album is a concept album about World War I and the song titles are: ‘Under a Darkening Sky’, ‘Behind Enemy Lines’, ‘Drowning in Mud’, ‘No-Man's Land’, ‘Passiondale’, ‘Poison Fog’, ‘Fallen Empires’ and ‘Artifacts of the Great War’. Stay tuned for more news 'cause we have some more interesting stuff in the works..."
'Passiondale' is to be expected for release in April/May 2009 on Metal Blade Records.
(source: Metal Blade Records)