Mephisto: You did a great gig today! Actually I like Epic more than the new album, but the new songs were better on stage. Do you think it’s a better Live Album?
Maurice: I don`t think so, but I think Epic is an album that is more listenable on CD, because it’s more melodic and more complicated. Shadows & Dust isn`t that complex, but it's pretty hard at the same time. It`s more groove-oriented, but it’s a really dark album. The vocals are very different and very similar at the same time. It just came up that way.

Me: You had a really good Live Sound!
M: Cool!

EquimanthorN: What did you think of the girl that jumped on the stage and kissed you?
M: That was cool!

E: Don’t you think it’s disturbing somehow on stage?
M: If people stay on stage too long it becomes pretty weird for us, because we don’t see each other anymore, because we move around so much. But there was a security on stage, so it was okay - but the thing with the girl was pretty funny.

Me: What do you think about groupies?
M: As long as there is music there will be groupies, that`s it.

Me: So you don`t really care about them?
M: Not really.

Me: In the middle of the Shadows & Dust - Cover are three crosses, surrounded by a lot of symbols of death like skulls, artillery and stuff. Is there a certain message behind this picture - like that most wars are caused by religion?
M: I think that the picture on the cover shows us how this world will end up if we continue going the same direction like we do now. It`s not a political statement, it`s just reality. The 11th of september affected us a bit, when the thing happened we were in Berlin on tour with Vader and Dying Fetus. When the thing happened we didn`t know how it would go on, because we thought that maybe a third World War would start or sth like that. So it made us realize that it`s good to enjoy every moment of your life and keep what you have. We wanted to do a record that represents that, for example Face The Face Of War is about our generation that doesn’t realize how happy we can be, that we have never been into a World War. But we always want more and more and we are never satisfied with anything. Shadows & Dust is about these topics and there is nothing godly about it.

E: About war - do you think it’s something it can be avoided or something that just has to happen, like a natural desaster?
M: I don`t think it can be avoided. There are 4 or 5 billion people on this planet and everyone thinks differently and as long as people will think differently there will be conflicts. People still behave like animals and fight for their territories , and we are so many years away from being able to co-exist. There are too many different races and it doesn`t function the right way. And then they put in religion to control the people. For example the islamic religion isn`t a bad religion, but it`s the most extreme one and they want to fight their holy war. People become brainwashed and they don`t have anything else than the religion so they would do anything for it. I think that’s the main problem.

Me: What do you think about the role the USA played in the September 11th thing? Were they completely innocent or was it also their fault?
M: Nobody knows, but I don’t think that anyone is innocent.

Me: I for myself think that you have a rather uncommon drum-style…do you see that the same way or am I just wrong…?
M: You’re right, that`s not wrong. We have our own special drumsound that you can also hear when we play live. Max has his own special style which he developed during the years he is playing. He is a rock drummer, not a jazz drummer - and today I think that a lot of bands have very technical drummers who are very jazz-orientated. He’s not into Jazz, he’s just a rock drummer. His blastbeats are very different and that’s because we invented these blastbeats, it`s a trademark for us since 10 years. I think it’s cool because the bassdrum is not pure noise, it makes you headbang and gives you the tempo beat. People think it`s easy to play like that, but it`s very hard that every time when you hit the bass drum you hit the snare for four times. It doesn’t have so much recognition, but a lot of drummers respect him and I think he is a very talented drummer.

Me: I think so too.
M: It’s the KATAKLYSM Trademark. There are a lot of blastbeats, but ours are special.

E: About your earlier stuff, especially your EP - do you think you could play it live or is it too much for the people because it`s so complex?
M: Most of the time when we do a headliner or co-headliner tour we play The Orb Of Uncreation, we play Frozen In Time and Mystical Plane Of Evil or Shrine Of Life. We actually did Shrine Of Life last year on a few shows. Sometimes we have requests for these songs, but not a lot. We have so many records and it`s really difficult to choose what people want to hear, once when we played Shrine Of Life people didn`t react because they didn`t know it, that’s pretty bad. The Orb Of Uncreation is a great song and we still play it, but on a tour like this where they give us 30 minutes we don`t play stuff like this, because we just don`t have enough time.

Me: Could you imagine to do a song or even more for the soundtrack of a movie? If yes, what kind of movie would it be…?
M: Probably something that would be very epic and old, a historic movie or something like that. Or maybe a war movie.

Me: Would this be something like your last album or sth completely different?
M: I think it would be different, because it had to be darker. If you do a soundtrack it doesn`t fit if you play it very fast, so it should be a slow song, but very heavy.

Me: Would you also play on a soundtrack of a splatter movie?
M: If it would be a really fucked up movie, we would do something extreme. I mean if it’s a historic movie it has to be something epic, drum-oriented, barbaric and if it’s a gore movie it should be some crazy shit.

E: Your old vocalist had something more metaphysical, mystical influences in his lyrics. Was it only his part in the band to do something like? Because I think the style changed when he left the band.
M: When he came into the band he had his ideals what he wanted to do and we talked together and he had some really good ideas - it was something original and very different - so I said “Let`s do it” and so we did and it was cool. I think that the lyrics represent the thought of every member in the band and not only of the vocalist. When I changed from the bass to the vocals I wanted to spread my message as well, so I am not the guy who does phantasy stuff, I am more realistic - I can do a storyline, but it will be more realistic stuff.

E: After he left you did the Victims Of This Fallen World album, which was very realistic.
M: It was an album we just did for us and we didn’t know where it would go to, it’s an album like Metallica’s “Garage Days” - a record where we had fun. And at the same time it was a very depressive time for KATAKLYSM and we had some problems with our record label Universal in Canada who wanted us to bring more people and we had more hardcore influences. We still have them today, but more grindcore and Hardcore from the older days, it was not a jump out of what we did before, it was still with blastbeats. The artwork and the pictures of the band really affected the band for that time, we made a lot of new fans though, but at the same time we lost a lot of our old ones. And one day we thought “are we really comfortable in doing this” and we said “No” and decided to do what we should do and go on blasting and stuff.

E: I think you didn`t have a lot of promotion at that time, because no one really knows that album..
M: It wasn`t released in a lot of countries and now they want to re-release it, but I want to remix and fix it, because I think that the production wasn`t very good. That record took us 2 ½ months to record.

Me: Are you kind of happy that you are not the “Big Headliner” on this tour? I mean after 8 bands the audience is for sure tired and not able to give that great reactions anymore.
M: We are really a lot of bands, 6 bands would be the maximum, 9 bands are way too much. I think we have a really good position in this billing, they wanted us to be a little bit higher, but I decided to stay in the middle. I think that it’s enough where we are, because the people are always into it, so it`s the best position.

Me: What about the metal scene in Canada? Is Metal a tolerated form of art or is it like here that Metal is some kind of outcast form of music - like you hardly ever get a chance to see any real metal on TV or hear a good metal-song in the radio.
M: No, it´s very tolerated. We actually have a metal show on TV which is called “Loud” and they play Death Metal songs and crazy stuff. The scene in Canada is very good. I book the shows in Montreal, which is my city, and I book bands like Slayer - and we do shows in front of 1000-1500 people, so it’s always very full with lots of people, it`s a really strong scene. All the bands want to go to Canada to play there.

E: Most of the Canadian bands are pretty technical. Do you think it’s the influecne of Voivod, because they somehow invented that style?
M: Death Metal Bands?

E: Yeah, especially Death Metal Bands and also Black Metal Bands like Blasphemy.
M: I don`t think it`s because of Voivod, I think it`s more because of Suffocation. It’s very technical and in our area, Montreal and Quebec, there are a lot of bands who play like that - for example there are surely about 15 bands that sound exactly like Suffocation. I think that Voivod inspired some of the Black Metal Bands, but not really the Death Metal bands.

Me: What do you think is the best reason to say that Santa Claus can`t exist?
M: *laughing* Because he is just not real… and that’s religious stuff again.

E: When you released the Sorcery album you had pretty bad reviews in Germany, but now you get really good reviews and you are pushed very much. Do you think that`s because of the changed style or because you became bigger?
M: I think it`s a combination. When KATAKLYSM were formed and released “The Mystical Gate Of Reincarnation” the big bands were Bands like Obituary, Death etc. and it was not an extreme scene and so the people thought that our music was much too heavy. And so we got pretty bad reviews like 3,5 points in Rockhard and they said it was the biggest piece of shit and stuff like that and then a year later it has become a classic album. And we didn’t`t know how it did come, because people stopped promotings us because of the bad reactions. And so I think it’s a combination, because we’ve calmed down the music and it’s not as chaotic as it was, it’s more melodic now, there’s still lot of crazy shit, but I think we have calmed down a little. Now we have come to a point where we have a good atmosphere in all the magazines and it’s amazing for me that albums like Sorcery and Temple Of Knowledge get great reviews now. So it`s really difficult to convince the people with the next album you do, because it`s impossible to beat scores like 10 from 10.

E: Do you have a lower opinion of these magazines because of that?
M: I think that when Rockhard started they had no people who wanted to do Death Metal Reviews. And they had people who were listening to Edguy and they had to write a review about Suffocation.

E: I think that those people only knew Obituary and that stuff.
M: Exactly. They even gave 3 of 10 to a Band like Suffocation who became so big. So I believe it was not our time and our time is now. Even if it took us 10 years and 6 albums it’s great that our last 3 albums have become so big. Especially the new one, it’s great to get such responses. That was because of Epic, because Epic is really good and so people wanted to see what would follow.

Me: Don’t you think it`s a bit dangerous for a band in the early days to have a review in a big zine, because when it’s a bad one it could be that no one would listen to the band again?
M: It’s bad because then people don`t really give it a chance. Also a big problem is that CDs are so expensive and people can`t buy everything they want. So if the magazine says it sucks they won’t buy it and they will wait until there is something better.

E: When you got this bad reviews, did you think about becoming a demo band again or was that something impossible for you?
M: If we had no deal I don`t think we would have stayed around any longer. So we were very lucky. Century Media wanted to sign us then, but it wasn`t possible because we were under Nuclear Blast and if they had signed us Blast would have signed the other Century Media Bands. So then Nuclear Blast came and said “Come Back” and we said “Okay”. It’s very political, trust me, very political.

Me: Which Invention should have never been made?
M: That’s a hard question actually. The Nuclear Bomb, because someday some crazy fuckers will come and blow it up for nothing.

Me: We already got enough Nuclear Bombs to blast the whole world to hell.
M: Exactly.

E: I think that will happen rather soon.
M: Yeah. And it`s like this, that they are not fighting face to face, they are fighting with these fucking bombs. It’s pretty barbaric that you put all the responsibility to a simple man who can push that little button and then all is over. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Or should I say gun powder? Because it all started from there.

E: What happened to your Ex-Vocalist?
M: When we finished Temple Of Knowledge we had a lot of problems during our tour and he couldn’t get along with these problems. He couldn’t get along with our drummer Nick and our guitar player. When we came back from the tour Nick left the band and Jean left the band, so I lost both my drummer and guitar player. And we couln’t agree, so he also left the band, he said he would do something else, I didn`t throw him out. So it was about to quit KATAKLYSM and put it to rest. And then our guitarist called me if I wanted to do something with him and our ex-drummer Max was interested in coming back too. So we tried it as a triple, but I think the visual of KATAKLYSM is a bassplayer, guitar, drums and vocals and I can’t play and sing at the same time and neither could the guitar player. I always made the highpitch vocals so I tried to do the Deathmetal vocals and it was a bit different for me, it took me three years to become better and now I do it right, I think. And it was obvious for me to take this place, because I was already in the band and if we had taken anyone else it would have not been the same anymore. It was a very difficult thing to play, because our former singer was kind of a legend in some countries already. I don`t understand why, it`s really crazy. I heard that he has schizophrenia and stuff like that now, he’s pretty fucked up now, he needs a strait jacket. There were rumours that he wanted to kill me at a few shows with a knife on the stage... but it never happened. Some weird things happened and nobody has seen him for a longer time, but he has told me about 3 or 4 times in the last 2 years to take him back to the band and that I should go on playing bass again and we should be playing like we played before. But it was impossible to work with him and so we broke up with him. He told the drummer and the guitarplayer what they had to do, but he never played guitar or drums, so how could he tell them what to do…

E: Does it make a difference for you to play bass and sing at the whole time and when you just sing without playing the bass?
M: When you just sing you have the most place for being creative, it’s a hard time for playing bass as well for sure. If you only have a mic there is a limit of what you can do to push, because sometimes you need to push it some more. And sometimes you just have the mic and it goes great and you can`t do that if you have a bass.

Me: I have great respect for Eric Rutan because of he is really insane.
M: I think so too - Hate Eternal is a killer band and so is he. He started his own thing now and he has to be commented for that. It’s really cool that he wanted to do his own thing and they are really cool guys, we get along with them very well.

Me: So do you have any last words to tell us?
M: You can expect the best from KATAKLYSM, because we haven`t finished yet and we have a lot of stuff to do. The band will reach a new level now and we will not release a CD in the next year, we will wait until 2004 so it will be better. And of course we want to thank everyone that supports us. It was a great experience to play in Austria, the reactions from the crowd were really great.

December 2002, Martin "Mephisto" Grünberger & Robert "EquimanthorN" Schupitta