Jussi: Wanted
to say hallo and congratulations to the good reviews with Metamorphine.
How does the group feel about that?
Oliver Klein: Hello and thank you very much. First
I would like to say that my English is not very good and that
I hope I can make myself be understood. We feel very good about
the good reviews and the appreciation that most of the people
give to us for releasing Metamorphine.
We are very proud to see that there are many people who like
what we are doing although I also have to mention that there
are some who think what we have done is already done to many
times before and is not needed anymore. But those are not too
many. We can say that we have reached the aims we followed with
Metamorphine and hope that our next
album will be as successful as this one.
Jussi: The
band is described as pure melodic death metal. Do you think
there is more to PAIMON’s sound than what one perceives
the music to be?
Oli: There are many influences in the songs you can
hear on Metamorphine. For example
they come from Folkmusic, dark-, and black metal or thrash metal
and are more or less clearly to get. There is also a difference
between the songs so that one can say A Moment Of Pride
and Millenial Troubles are the songs with the most
folk-elements and for example Misanthrope has more
thrashy parts, but the main direction in our music is melodic
death metal.
Jussi: Can
you give me the reason behind naming the band PAIMON? Was it
chosen cause of the bands musical nature, if so why? (Considering
Paimon is a demon of sorts)
Oli: When the band was founded, André, Voland
and the others where playing dark- and black metal. Their intention
was to find a name that fitted with this dark direction and
decided to name the band PAIMON. Nowadays this
isn’t relevant anymore though there are still some dark
metal elements in the music. For us the meaning of the name
PAIMON has changed into standing for our music,
8 years of band history and a lot of fun and important moments.
There is no occult message anymore.
Jussi: For
the ones that have not heard of the group how can you explain
your musical sound?
Oli: As I said before, we play melodic death metal
with many influences from other metal styles. In all songs we
often use double lead-, rhythm- and melody guitars, but also
lots of clean- and acoustic guitars. The vocals mainly consist
in deeper grunts, growls but also screaming and some clean sung
parts. In many reviews the vocals are mentioned to be very special
and the music is described as Gothenburg melodic-death like
the old albums from bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquility,
so build your own opinion about it.
Jussi: How
long has the band been around? Can you give the readers a brief
history of how PAIMON came into existence?
Oli: PAIMON came into existence in
1997. The only members of PAIMON who are still
in the band since then are André and Voland who where
the founders of PAIMON. In the early days of
PAIMON there where some lineup changes: In
1998 and 1999 the band recorded the demos Sweet
Sin I’ll Find and Following
The Afterglow. In the year 2000 PAIMON
signed a deal under the Liechtensteiner label MOS-Records and
released the debut album Terra Oblivionis.
2000 was also the year when our actual drummer Daniel joined
the band. In 2002 the label went bankrupt and so again PAIMON
was without a deal. In 2003 it seemed as if the end of PAIMON
was reached when on one hand in May the rehearsal room was lost
and a band member decided to quit and on the other hand too
many private and personally problems started to have impact
on the band. But after a half year lasting break - in December
2003 – André decided to bring PAIMON
back to life and so Alex and I joined the band (they only chose
me because I had a rehearsal room, haha). From then on we worked
up to release some songs that where written since 2000 together
with some others that were written after the reunion. All of
them were published by Elysian records in May 2005.
Jussi: Seeing
that there are many talented dark intense metal bands coming
from Germany these days (such as Nocte Obducta and countless
others) do you find the bands musical direction following a
broader scale due to the death metal influences involved as
opposed to black metal?
Oli: Now I’m in trouble because I do not know
if I got the meaning of your question but we will see. PAIMON’s
music surely is different from black metal, but I would not
say “opposed” because there are still some few black
metal elements in the music. And one should also see that PAIMON’s
was nearer to black metal in the past. But we can clearly say
that the BM - elements are not the most important ones in our
music but the melodic-death and folk elements are those which
are characteristic for the band. We were already on stage with
Nocte Obducta and other more or less “true” black
metal bands and we have to say that this always was a good mixture
of music styles fitting together.
Jussi: Does
PAIMON have any plans to bridge their musical horizons outside
of Europe?
Oli: This would be great but at the moment there is
no money for realizing plans like that - but of course we hope
that this will be possible one day! But in some countries outside
Europe it should at least be possible to buy Metamorphine.
Jussi: In
previous performances of the bands past was there an interesting
experience that you care to mention?
Oli: There always happen many things I would care to
mention but I think that they are not that important or even
not funny for someone who does not know the band members personally.
On one day something goes wrong with the equipment or the rented
PA-systems and the show becomes really awesome and on the other
day the people in front of the stage go mad and give us the
feeling of doing a really great job. The most important experience
is the experience of the feeling being on the road together
with your band and to live in a way that is very different from
the regular day.
Jussi: What
is the one thing that makes the group different from other bands
in Germany?
Oli: The one thing?? There are so many! First of all
the excellent songs, the handsome and charming band members
and, and, and… hmm – I don’t know –
who said that? Haha! I hope it is the music that makes us different
from all the other bands.
Jussi: Can
you tell me more about the album and its theme of elements that
went into the creation of it?
Oli: You can see the album as a compilation of songs
that are each a theme in themselves. The album did not come
into existence as one part. We have decided to record these
songs which we have chosen from all the songs that have been
written in the years between 2000 and 2004 for they where our
favorites. Into each of them went a lot of ideas, emotions and
many different moods from a certain point the Band was at when
writing the song.
Jussi: PAIMON’s
lyrics are deeply rooted in depth to the worded structured involved,
for example song Madman’s Revenge seems to be
a song with some pagan occult subject matter for it mentions
(on the first verse, third and forth lines) “white robe,
the dagger in the hand-he’s standing in the circle of
salt”. (for anyone pagan salt is used as a form of protection)
as for the rest of the song it seems to be more of a musical
story of personal damnation. Can you tell me more about this
song and what influences went into it?
Oli: These words in the beginning where chosen to create
an occult atmosphere. The protagonist is preparing a ritual
for taking revenge. He is trying to do that through a power
he has no control over though he thinks he has. So he fails
and falls into this damnation without a way out. Voland uses
the story as a metaphor. What he wanted to say in this song
is that one shall not do anything without thinking of consequences
when being lead by ones own emotions and not taking dangers
seriously.
Jussi: Song
four Millenial Troubles is a sung both in Russian and
German mix, why the utilization of that with this particular
song?
Oli: There is no particular meaning about the use of
Russian language in this song. Voland writes some of the texts
in Russian what is his mother tongue or in German and translates
them into English afterwards. When Millenial Troubles
came into existence the band decided that the text fitted best
in its original version and so there was a Russian text. It
is not the first time for PAIMON to release
a record with a song sung in Russian. The song On The Black
Wings Of Sorrow from Terra Oblivionis
is also sung in Russian. (by the way – the song is almost
completely sung in Russian and one verse in English –
we decided to print the German translation in the booklet)
Jussi: With
the instrumental compositions of To A Stranger and
On The Way both are very compelling pieces of music,
for a group such as PAIMON was this something that the band
wanted to showcase on Metamorphine to show diversity?
Oli: We think the album shows diversity even without
these two songs. They are on Metamorphine
because they are two more ideas we wanted to be recorded. We
think they fit very well with the other songs on one hand and
on the other they create breaks that make it possible to calm
down a little bit and – in the case of “…on
the way” – to realize that the album is finished
what both is intended to bring the listener into a special mood.
But we do not think that this is something special, because
there are also many other albums on which bands use instrumentals,
intros and outros for purposes like that. And hey – on
Metamorphine they are not intended
to show what the musicians can do or not ;)
Jussi: Any
current band related news to report?
Oli: The only news we have to report right now is that
we again have a new bassist – his name is Till again (Tilman).
The Till who took Alex’s place had to quit too because
he also has run into problems with his spare time so that he
has no chance to do the job in the future. So we asked my best
friend Tilman who is the guitarist of the progr. black/death-project
Mercury Sun to play a gig with us in the next week. This gig
was cancelled but he has already learned the bass lines and
so we could persuade him to stay with PAIMON.
I have played with Tilman in our old band from 1994 till 2003
and now I am glad to play together with him in another band
again.
Jussi: Can you describe a typical day in the life of
PAIMON while touring?
Oli: Until now there never has been a continuous touring
for PAIMON but we have often been on the road
together for playing all over Germany. Usually the day begins
early at the rehearsal room. We meet there, put the things we
need into the cars and drive to the location we are going to
play. Then we check in at the hotel if there is one; build up
everything and the bands start with the sound check. This means
a lot of hanging around at the concert place or in the city
when there is nothing special to do because you are already
done or waiting until it is your turn. Sometimes there are more
things that need to be done for example building up the merch.
Then the evening breaks, the people are coming and the first
bands begin to play. Either we watch them or we are sitting
at the backstage room and talk about anything. Then it becomes
time for us to do our show. When we are ready the party begins
for those who do not have to drive anymore. Often some of us
watch the headliner. When we stay at a hotel for the night this
usually becomes a long night (when we drive back home at the
same night it can even become longer – once, after playing
near Duisburg we ran into a traffic jam at 3am in the morning
because everyone from Köln was going to vacation and there
was only one track free for use because of road works) with
a lot of fun and drinking. The last evening like this ended
up in a fight between Danu and Voland on their balcony and Alex
and me on our balcony with cookies – while using our deodorant
as a flame thrower.
Jussi: Do
you see PAIMON bridging to newer audiences in the upcoming year?
If so, where do you think the band will be and what will the
band be doing?
Oli: I’m sure that we will reach more people
and enlarge our audience with the release of Metamorphine.
Now our aim is to play some more gigs in the winter and start
to work on new songs for the next album so that we can make
another release within the next one or two years. This is a
reason why Metamorphine is that especially
important for us. The many good reviews made some people pay
attention to us and our music. This is a great chance for us
to reach even more people with the next album.
Jussi: Who
writes most of the music/lyrics?
Oli: In the past André has written most of the
songs and Voland was responsible for the lyrics. During the
last summer André and I have written two more songs for
the album (A Moment Of Pride and Sir General Freedom)
and we think that we did a good job so that from now on we will
write the songs together. This is meant for the basic structure
of the songs – the guitar-lines. The arrangements and
some details of the songs are usually worked out at the rehearsal
room. This is also the moment when we start to think about a
concept for the lyrics which Voland is going to write.
Jussi: Wanted
to say thanks for putting out a powerful album and interviewing
you as well. Thanks for making me a new fan. Keep up the good
work and let me know what comes to be for PAIMON in the future.
Oli: Thank you very much for the great review and the
interview. Sorry for the short statements but as I said –
my English is not the best, so that I sometimes felt really
handicapped when answering your questions. I hope it was at
least good enough to be understood. Thanks for everything and
greetings from Germany!!
Oli & Paimon
