The story behind Desaster's "Hellfire's Dominion" - an Interview with Markus "Infernal" Kuschke

Hell-o again, Infernal! Let’s start with this great record namely „Hellfire’s Dominion”!

Hi! I have listened to this album for this interview as I have not checked it as a whole for a very long time already. It was cool to listen to all the tracks in a row. Great memories.

Let’s start with the period when it was about to be released. You were already after the “Stormbringer”, so you had strenghten your position on the scene. How it was then with a band, you had you first bigger gigs in Germany. How do you recall that time? 

Yes, I remember it was a very active time. We did a lot of shows, especially in east Germany, and were on the road nearly every weekend. We travelled in our small cars, we didn’t have any van back then. It was very narrow inside, it was like 5 of us sitting there with our guitars and other gear & beer on our knees. We had also my ex girlfriend with us to sell some t-shirts at the shows. We were not that well organised those days, no hotels and so on. We slept on the stage after the gigs or in a shitty backstage room. But it was all a great adventure. 

Hard, but good times. If we are mentioning gigs now, some time ago I have watched the video from the Under the Black Sun festival. It was back in 1998 but just before the release of “Hellfire’s Dominion”. You did not play any song from that album yet. Any memories from that show? 

It was a great one for sure. This festival was organised by a good friend of ours – Jorg from Folter Records. As far as I remember we had also played on the very first festival organised by him, still under the name of Folter Records festival. It was in 1995, I think.  It was one of a few gigs we played with Thorim behind drums. All in all both were a great experience. We already have the Wacken back then but still such festivals were not that common yet. We had such ones in Underground, like the Under Black Sun, not hat professional but it was fun to play there. We were able to reach bigger audience. 

Ok, so let’s move to the album itself. When I listen to “Hellfire’s Dominion” I have an impression that this one is  different than any other with Okkulto on vocals. It’s the most raw-sounding one from the albums you have recorded in the 90. Was it planned or it just came like that? 

The rawest? Really? Well, it just came like that. Back in those days we never knew what will came out after the recording.  We were of course very well prepared when we came to the studio, but we never knew what sound we would achieve. We didn’t have enough experience. We just trusted the producers. That time we were recording at a studio in Velbert. We have arrange it with a help of our friend Atomic Steif who used to play in Violent Force, Sodom or Living Death. Due to this connection we also got in touch with a Velbert Heavy Metal Fanclub. When you take a look at the old pictures of Sodom or Kreator you can find guys wearing t-shirts with this name. “Hellfire’s Dominion” was also the period when Hellbangers came together. We met the guys from Heavy Metal Fanclub to get inspiration and feeling of the old bands once again. During the recording session were were visited by the guys from the fanclub. We also stayed for like 2 weeks at Atomic Steif’s house after the recordings where we drink every night and had fun. It was a great time. 

You have mentioned the Heavy Metal fanclub and now I just have to ask about Hellbangers Moselkranken because that’s the period when it started really. I want to ask what was it, who was behind it? The mark of the Hellbangers appear on quite a lot albums from German underground scene. 

Yes, and not only on Desaster records. On Witchburner ones, Metal Inquisitor and many other bands. Hellbanger’s started back in the 1996. It was a time when we met a lot of maniacs from our region, especially Mosel. There was Costa who is currently running the Iron Pegasus Records and playing with Okkulto in Eurynomos, some other guys who were very active in the scene like King Wolle who was running the Desecration of Vrigin zine (mostly obscure South-American bands there, killer stuff). We gathered with this guys drinking, headbanging, playing music from our cars. Once we thought it would be good to give this whole shit a name, to gather together as a group, a club. That’s why we had an idea to start a heavy metal fanclub. I remember we had two suggestions for the name of the club. My was Hellbangers and Costa suggested Metallians. We were voting, there were like 15 of us back then, and my idea won. 

And who came up with the logo, that Flying V guitar? 

I don’t remember who came up with it but you are probably familiar with that guitar. It’s stolen from Accept “Restless and Wild” cover. The arm with bracer was painted by one of the fanclub members. The logo itself is inspired by Possessed of course. 

And I can see some Hellhammer here as well! 

Yes! So you know where the roots are. 

Ok, let’s return to the album. I must ask about the hit from the release – the “Metalized Blood”. Three guests on vocals there. What is the story behind creating this anthem? Because it is one, to be honest. 

Yes, it’s our smash hit. It’s a cool song. I remember that Okkulto came up with an idea of writing some sort of a hymn dedicated to heavy metal and our passion towards this music. We invited some great singers, not only from extreme metal but also from other styles. We got Lemmy from Violent Force and Wannes from Pentacle – our good friend. It was hard to get Toto from Living Death. That’s the singer you love or hate, we totally loved him. We asked Atomic Steif to help us reach him as we really wanted to have him on this song. Toto was no longer doing anything connected with music but it turned out that he was really eager to cooperate with us. There is a funny story about him coming to the studio to join us. Okkulto was opening the door with a cigarette in his mouth and when he saw Toto standing there he was just left with his cigarette on the floor and mouth wide open. Toto told us that he was rehearsing “Metalized Blood” while driving his car to the studio. He had the window opened and other drivers were looking at him as he was some sort of a weirdo, you know, singing “Metalized Blooood!” with his specific high pitched scream. 

Cool story! Now I want to move to two other songs I have picked up for discussion. First will be my favourite from the album – “In the Ban of Satan’s Sorcery”. It perfectly mixes the black metal vibe from the debut album with an oldschool Teutonic thrash. 

Thank you. It was my idea as I wanted to mix all our influences in just one song. There is some black metal blasting with melancholic melodies at the beginning and then comes that even speed/heavy metal riff. A bit in a Running Wild style. We were wondering if it fits together but we didn’t  take much time for us to get into it totally. This song was later an inspiration to write “Necropolis Karthago” which is done in the same style. That’s our trademark at some point. 

Now it’s time for “Teutonic Steel” – another anthem of yours. Another composition with this incredible medieval feeling. It’s the same atmosphere that “A Touch of Medieval Darkness” and “In a Winter Battle” has, it’s cream of the crop. Could you tell me more about it, that’s the song you play on every gig. 

Yes, we have to play it on every gig together with “Metalized Blood”. If we wouldn’t the fans would have killed us. There was a funny thing when we were rehearsing “Teutonic Steel” during album recordings. We had that little casette recorder for recording ne wsongs and ideas and the quality of it was not that good. The other guys thought that “Teutonic Steel” sound was rather terrible but I was convincing them that it will grow with a proper production and equipment and will become a hit. It’s sometimes a bit boring to play these songs on and on, but the reaction of fans is just priceless. They not only sing the chorus but also the intro melody of my guitar! 

Do you remember any memorable moments connected with the studio recording of “Hellfire’s Dominion”? Just like the ones you have shared with me last time when we were talking about “A Touch of Medieval Darkness”.

You know, it’s always different when there a new producer. The one we worked with that time told Tormentor to put bricks, gig stones into his bass drums. The reaction on this idea was like “what the hell is that?”! He told us that it will improve the bass drums sound, that we had to do it. We were also visited by members of the Heavy Metal Fanclub almost each day at the studio. 

Now let’s move to the visual aspects of “Hellfire’s Dominion. There was another cool photo session but a bit different, without all that gear, I mean swords, candles etc. Could you recall how it went?

This time it was more in a thrash metal style. I remember we had two locations then. One at the ruined castle at the river Mosel and one at the old monastery. At the castle we were frequently looking at our backs as there was a danger that some stone may fall on our heads. 

T-shirts you are wearing on that photos give a clear sign about the feeling and influences on the album. 

Yes, you are right. “Stormbringer” was a turning point for us, that was the moment when we started to play in a more oldschool thrash way. On the debut it we were still looking to the North and Norwegian scene. Later we decided to focus more on our roots. We wanted to underline our own style, not to become Immortal clones or so. “Hellfire’s Dominion” was the album that strenghten the chosen path. At the beginning of the 90s everyone wanted to be evil, traditional heavy metal was not evil enough. We rediscovered this music getting into for example Manowar or Iron Maiden again.

The cover art – it corresponds of old fantasy stuff from like Morcock or Howard. Why you have decided to move this way in case of graphics? 

I don’t know what is the story behind it. We probably stole it from somewhere, from a book probably. I remember that on the flag there was originally some different sign. We asked our layouter if there is a possiblity to exchange it and he managed to do it. I hope the artist of this paint will never find out that we used his art, otherwise he will demand a lot from money from us for the sold album copies haha. 

I know that around the “Hellfire’s Dominion” you got to know the guys from Sabbat. You played shared some gigs, released two splits so far. How you got to know each other? 

I remember it very well. It was around 1997. They were on tour in Germany, there was Behemoth as well. Our tours met together in Schweinfurt. We met those Japanese guys and it was so fucking great. Gezol – the singer nad bassist of Sabbat – is a total maniac, so crazy. We couldn’t speak any English, our was shitty as well but we still had a great time. It was a beginning of a long friendship. Tormentor joined Metalucifer back then, the other project of the Sabbat guys. 

I know recall Gezol running with that leather pants of his on stage, damn, haha. 

Hahaha, I remember when he was staying at Koblenz to record some Metalucifer stuff. He was staying at Blumi’s house, the guitarist of both Metalucifer and Metal Inquisitor. Blumi once told us that he loves the bratwurst – the German sausage. That loved it that much that already in the morning he was at the kitchen cooking bratwurst. Fucking great!

Let’s sum up this chat of ours with some information considering the reissue of the “Hellfire’s Dominion” on CD this year. Could you uncover some details about it? How it will loook like, will there will be anything special added? 

Want to do something special as it is a classic Desaster album. So it will not be a simple jewelcase edition. It will be a kind of black box with a CD and booklet in it plus something more. When re-releasing stuff we always remember about the people who have the first edition, so the second must be something new. I think it will look great and hope everything will go according to our plans. I think the layout will be similar to the vinyl reissue.

Interview by: Przemysław Bukowski