Two weeks after the premiere of their new track “Nothing”, we sit down with Hanover based metallic hardcore band CREMATIONS (members of Empty Vision, Downfall Of Gaia, King Apathy) to discuss the band, local hardcore scene, and their new album Dissolution Of Balance, slated for January 21st release via Isolation Records, with pre-orders available now via Evil Greed in Europe and Deathwish Inc. in North America.
Cremations were founded four years ago in Hanover by Hannes, Alan and me (Michael), who knew each other for some years at that point. After some changes on the bass, Alex finally joined us in the beginning of 2019 and completed the current line-up.
We all played in differents bands and projects before. Hannes, our drummer, also played drums in Downfall Of Gaia and King Apathy. Alan and I played in Empty Vision, who split up a decade ago. Alex played in a band called The Pyre together with the engineer of our two records, David Deutsch. Unfortunately they never released a physical record, but their stuff was really awesome and should be available on bandcamp.
In December 2017 we released our first EP „1417“. In Spring 2019 we recorded our first full-length record „Dissolution Of Balance“ which will be out on February 21st via Isolation Records.
The new record
We recorded “Dissolution Of Balance“ at Waveland Studio in Hanover with our friend David Deutsch aka 1408 Productions who already tracked our former release. We were in a totally comfortable situation, as the studio is in our hometown and there was no pressure of time. Maybe it was even a bit too comfortable, as we spent 6 weekends on recording the instruments, haha…
Meanwhile I did the vocals during the week after work. Our goal was to record an album that should transport nothing but pure rage. The songs should be heavier and way more aggressive than our former release. On the other hand we wanted it to sound like a punk record. David totally felt the vibe that we wanted to create and did a great job at the mixing desk. After all our work was done, we send the album to Alan Douches who mastered the songs at his studio in New York and all in all I must say we are really satisfied with the whole result.
Continued below…
Track-by-track commentary
The inspiration for the lyrics on this record was the current state of our environment and humankind. They describe the imbalance of our planet, that is rapidly disintegrating and the perennial destructive nature of society that we all witness nowadays. As my lyrics are quite concrete without much room for interpretation, I’ll try to summarize them as short as possible.
Nothing: Humankind is not immortal. We’ll all die someday and there will be nothing left of us.
Vanishing Self: Society is trapped in a rat race and suffers under the pressure it creates.
Beneath The Soil: People suffer and live a life without hope, before dying someday. The vultures are already waiting.
Aftermath: Humankind destroys itself and its environment. Everyone is part of the problem. No one is innocent.
Broken Shell: You can’t deny who you are. You can’t hide behind a masquerade. Truth will always prevail.
Dehumanized: Humankind degrades itself to a mass of replaceable slaves whose only purpose is to serve the well-oiled corporate machine it created.
Secure And Safe: Mighty people think they can act how they want without fearing any consequences. They are wrong. Their safety is just an illusion.
No Salvation: Greed has infested our minds and controls our lives. There’s no cure in sight.
Among Wolves: Greedy people prey humankind and its environment without remorse.
Dissolution Of Balance: Nature takes revenge on humankind and confronts it with the consequences. People suffer and regret their ignorance. They pray for salvation. But it won’t come.
CREMATIONS in 2020
After the release of „Dissolution Of Balance“ we’ll focus on playing as many shows as possible. We already booked a dozen of shows for the near future and can’t wait to hit the road again. A few weeks ago we started to write some new tunes. But there are no plans to record them in the near future.
Hanover and German metallic hardcore
I would say that Hanover has quite a few bands that are doing pretty well these days. When it comes to hardcore with a metallic edge, Angst should be known best at the moment, I guess. They play 90ies influenced hardcore in the vein of Disembodied or actual stuff like Knocked Loose.
Then we have Declaimer. The also play a very 90ies influenced sound with some death metal elements.
Last but not least I‘d like to mention November 13th here. A band we all really love and who already released 4 albums. They mix punk with hardcore, crust and metal and their songwriting skills are out of this world. Guess they are on hiatus since a few years now.
Concerning the current state of the german hardcore scene in general I think it is doing fine. Lots of bands, lots of shows. Somehow I have the feeling that there were times, when more people came out to support bands and shows. Maybe it’s because of all the alternatives that you have nowadays like Netflix and stuff like that. I hope that this will change for the better within the next years. But I won’t complain here. I am glad that there are still enough shows and bands around that I really enjoy.
Other bands worth a check
As we all love so many different bands I try to list five bands we all can agree on and that we highly recommend:
Angst: Mentioned above. Check their current EP „Decay Of All Purity“. Great 90ies influenced metallic hardcore. Good friends, great band.
A Secret Revealed: I am usually not into black-metal. Don’t even know if this can be described as (pure) black-metal. Would describe them as Heaven Shall Burn on speed. Love their current album and the people in the band.
Canine: Chaotic hardcore in the vein of bands like Converge and Every Time I Die. Great (live) band, good friends and way too underrated.
Kolari: Also chaotic hardcore somewhere between Gallows, Every Time I Die and the likes. Way too underrated, too and a great liveband.
Swoon: Another band that combines different styles to their own blend of hardcore. Lots of punk, rage and some decent hard hitting moshparts. Their singer sounds totally awesome and I am glad that she lent us her voice for one of our songs on our new album.
