Astharoth

Out of place being on this planet

Polish band Astharoth left their mark in the history of metal music with their peculiar thrash metal. The band hailed from town located at the base of the Carpathian Mountains, Bielsko-Biała, where they formed in 1988. They released only one full length album, 'Gloomy Experiments' (1989), but during their shortish existence they managed to do a lot of things. Just read on... Jarek Tatarek was the mastermind behind Astharoth. Archaic Metallurgy contacted him, so let him to do the talking, because there's quite a lot of it coming your way.

AM: Almost all Astharoth material has been re-released on one CD. 'Gloomy Experiments' album with all but one song from three of your demos was released by Polish label Metal Mind Productions in mid 2009. The sound was remastered and the reissue was limited to 2000 pieces. How do you see this reissue?

Jarek Tatarek: I worked very closely with MMP on this release and provided them with photos from the archives, all songs recorded in the USA that ended up being bonus tracks, and I wrote all the liner notes. Everything they did was up to my approval so I am very pleased with the package and the way it turned out. It is the ultimate monument to what Astharoth created. It a vary special treat for all the young thrash fans of Astharoth that have not been able to find the original release or if they got lucky on eBay, they would have to spend $50-$65 on the original Finnish release.

AM: Well, eBay sucks big time, better to search second hand stores I think. Which reminds me, that I need that vinyl version too...
Astharoth was born in 1988. Was it tough to be a musician, and go as far as form a band in Poland at that time? Can you reveal some steps that led to the birth of the band, please?

JT: When I formed Astharoth I was 18 years old, had been playing guitar for four years at the time, and had aspirations to become a rock star :) With that said, it was hard to get good equipment and find a place to practice. In Poland at the time you would go to a local youth/cultural center and they would give you a room and equipment for free, however it was usually of low quality. A lot of these centers did not want a metal band. They prefered to have a rock or jazz band. Usually there would be one or two bands per such center. We were going to school, and did not work so getting money for buying equipment was an issue. We also had a situation with skinheads that was a constant threat in the street, on the way to practice, etc.

Astharoth in 1989: Dorota "Kerr" Homme (lead guitar), Dariusz "Davy" Malysiak (drums), Witold "Drill" Wirth (bass) and Jaroslaw "Blake" Tatarek (vocals & lead guitar)

AM: Do you have any special memories, good or bad, about the Polish metal scene in the end of the 1990s

JT: Polish metal scene underwent a massive change from 1989 to 1990. What happened was that death metal was invented, mostly in Florida at the time but it seemed like the winds brought it straight to Poland. It was no longer cool to play speed or thrash metal. Everyone was changing their style to death almost overnight. To this day I think that Poland is a massive stronghold for death metal.
I was never interested in such sound and it wasn't my thing, so I was glad I was leaving that scene behind when moving to the US in 1990.

AM: Yes, death metal is still huge in Poland. No need to name bands, hehe. However, it still is more important to be true to yourself, not to any scene.
What were your musical and possibly other influences?

JT: I was influenced by bands like Coroner, Mekong Delta, Kreator, Nasty Savage, Death Angel,
Voivod, Testament.

AM: What was your "mission" with your music?

JT: I'm not sure we had a mission. We wanted to be different and push our musical abilities (sometimes a bit far).

AM: What about Astharoth's lyrical themes?

JT: I wrote some of them on the original 'Gloomy Experiments' release and they basically had to do with the fact that I felt out of place being on this planet, that nothing really made sense, and Man was a fucked up creation. After we moved to the US, Dorota (the other lead guitarist) wrote all the lyrics, that had to do with her internal struggles to find her own identity. I did not understand them at the time at all. I just sang the words. When I read them now, they scare the shit out of me, I mean they go to some fucked up place in her mind, that's very dark and complex.
I can safely say that I never really knew what was in Dorota's head. She was a strange individual.

AM: Well, it's said that man has straight pipe type brain, and woman has something way more twisted...
At first, the band recorded two promotional tapes. These tapes were only sent to labels? What labels did you target with your thrash propaganda? Can you tell me some facts about these two tapes, as they really are extremely rare and practically very much unknown?

JT: Oh man, trust me, you do not want to hear them. They were recorded live, straight into a four track. They sounded horrible. On the other hand if you like underproduced black metal, you might actually love them...

AM: The second tape aroused the interest of Metal Mind Productions, but it was not yet time for the album. It was about "Battle Of Bands", a band competition organized by the said label. Astharoth were succesful in this competition. Can you tell about those times?

JT: To play at "Metal Battle" in Spodek in Katowice meant to play for 10,000 people and being exposed to the whole country, pretty much. It was the only way at the time to get out of the underground into the open. We had this unstoppable drive at the time, it was the energy that surrounded us. On top of that Dorota was the first female metal guitar player in Poland and possibly elsewhere at the time. So it had a huge impact on changing how people thought of women's role in metal.

AM: The album 'Gloomy Experiments' was released in 1989. Can you tell about the creation of the album and how it all came to be?

JT: The album was actually recorded in 1989 in the summer between various festival appearances. We were the youngest band on Metal Mind Productions and they guys working for Gielda Recording Studio in Poznan did not take us seriously.
They let us do whatever we wanted instead of actually making sure that we gave the best perormance. They did not give a shit. The album could have been ten times better if they actually helped us to get a good sound as they were supposed to. Bunch of fucking assholes. Tommy Dziubinski was not too hapy with their work.

AM: Maybe the producers only loved jazz or something like that.
What happened after the album was released?

JT: After the album came out in Finland and Italy we played the final for us "Metalmania Festival". Soon after me and Dorota moved to San Francisco, California and re-started the group there.

AM: How do you see the album now?

JT: I wish I could go back in time and play better ;) For us it was a personal achievement. I personally can not believe that here is so much interest in it almost twenty years later.

AM: Still, mostly those re-recorded past legends bite the dust in my opinion. Only rarely something works, and the biggest fault is usually the lack energy, which played important part in the original piece.
Anyway, you decided to move to the USA. You were followed by the part of the band. Why you made this kind of a decision, surely the Polish death metal orientated metal scene wasn't the only reason?

JT: I was supposed to go to the army for two years, and didn't want to. Didn't really want to continue education or get some shitty job. Didn't have my own place to live, so California sounded like a dreamland with all the Bay Area bands I loved at the time.

AM: On the new continent, you recorded four demos in five years between 1990-1994. How do you see the evolution of the band and the music when looking back at them?

JT: Well, it was pretty much a departure from Kreator like sound over to dissonant sounds of Voivod, and developing our own psychadelic thrash metal thing; overall we slowed down a lot.

AM: Despite doing these four demos and playing numerous concerts, the things didn't go too well in the USA. Grunge was the new big thing and record labels lost their interest towards metal bands. What kind of feedback Astharoth got from the labels?

JT: No feedback whatsoever, thrash in 1994 was dead in the US.

AM: And look how things are now...
So, no bright future in sight for a metal band... Did you consider going back to your home country, or just split up the band for good?

JT: I never considered going back to Poland. There is nothing there for me. San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County to be exact is my home and I would never leave it. I love the cultural variety here, and the mountains, the ocean, everything about it.

AM: Now it is the right time to ask, if there are any special stories about the bands that Astharoth played live with?

JT: There was this band named Magnus and we were sharing a hotel room. Kind of though we would jam or something, so I pulled out a guitar and started playing some blues. Their guitar player got really mad and told me to put the guitar down, I guess he was intimidated by my playing. He was playing with a knife... and had a really hot, sweet girlfriend. Later on I found out that he ended up stabbing her... What a fucked up thing to do.

AM: Magnus, what kind of a fucking band name is that?! And yes, very fucked up thing to do. Maybe that guy was following his band's lyrics a bit too closely (if we're on the same band anyways).
How different it actually is living in Poland or in the USA?

JT: Two different worlds. Poland is always oppressed by something, communism, religion, materialism. Here in California you can be what you want, nobody cares.
There is a lot of freedom still here, and people are very openminded. Lots of great events and festivals. I know Poland has changed a lot in the last twenty years, but I've been back a few times and it still seems like a grinding spot to me.

AM: Enclave and Halcyon Days were two bands you had after Astharoth. Did you leave the music for some time when Astharoth was finished, or was it immediately clear to you, that you will return with another band?

JT: After Astharoth disbanded, I was sick of being in the band, playing metal, and all that. I started going a lot to goth/industrial clubs, just kind of hung out for three years and didn't do anything with music.

AM: Can you tell about Enclave and Halcyon Days, please?

JT: In 1997 I did Enclave, which was industrial metal, where I wrote everthing as far as music and lyrics.
Halcyon Days represented my fascination with Pink Floyd, and the sounds of guitar synth, which I used a lot at the time. People though it was a keyboard but I actually played everything on the guitar.

AM: Your new band Arcane Dimension was formed in 2001. Arcane Dimension's sound is very much different when compared to the one of Astharoth's. How did this new band come to be?

JT: I was tired of harsh sounding music. I wanted to play something more pleasant and melodic. I was fascinated with Type O Negative and the San Francisco band Switchblade Symphony. I though one day "what if you combine female vocals with gothic metal?" I know how this sounds, but believe me, at the time I had no idea that bands like The Gathering and Theatre Of Tragedy existed... I thought I had my own, original idea. Unfortunatelly it took me years to find people in the Bay Area, interested in doing that. Thus I ended up behind hundreds of female fronted bands... Fuck!

AM: Yeah, female-fronted bands are nothing like a rarity now. So, again, it is the matter of uniqueness.
Do you have more ideas that you'd like to realise?

JT: Yes, tons! I have just purchased an instrument called Guitarviol. Tyler Bates (who wrote 300 movie soundtrack) is using one. It is a bowed guitar. The sound is more like viola, but it opens up a huge door to sonic possibilities. I am now not just a musician, but a Sonic Artist. So I invite everyone to check out Arcane Dimension acoustic page on myspace to give it a listen: www.myspace.com/arcanedimensionacoustic
I have also contributed 13 songs to the indepentend movie made in San Francisco, last Summer, called "The Filmaker". The movie is currently being submitted to various festivals and I hope that it gets picked-up. A buddy of mine, Lee Stoneman produced and it is a great, funny flick. Almost all the music in the movie is form various metal bands so it is different form other comedies in that respect. I'm also working with my wife and the vocalist of Arcane Dimension, Teresa Camp on a whole new performance featuring the musisc of Arcane Dimension and tribal fusion bellydancing. We should be up and running in 2010.
Also the new album from Arcane Dimension, called 'The Becaming' is in the final stages of production.

AM: Interesting project, indeed! I wish all the luck with them.
Now we have reached the end of the interview. If you have something to say, please do so.

JT: Well, if anyone reading this interview has a story about picking up Astharoth CD, maybe even years ago, I would love to hear it. If you think you've been influenced by our music, let us know. Check us out at: www.myspace.com/astharoth
or drop us an email: astharoth@myspace.com .
Thank you Lane for the interview!!!

AM: Thank you Jarek for interesting things and your time.
People, give Astharoth a try if you love thrash metal. The experience is hmmm... Different.

When death metal was still smaller than thrash metal!!!

Interviewed by Lane

11/12/2009 15:27