You can read this post in:
Português
Germany has always delivered awesome bands to the world and Battlesword is one ot them. Playing their Melodic Death Metal with personality, the band doesn´t sound boring as it can happen with this style. Axel, the vocalist, talked with us and answered our questions that you can check below. If you do not know the band and likes extreme music you really should check them.
GroundCast: To warm up, can you tell a bit of the band’s journey?
Axel: First of all let me please thank you for giving us the chance to introduce our band to your readers! This really means a lot to us.
Our drummer Andreas, his brother Michael and our longtime guitarist Björn played together in a hardcore band called Bloodstring. But when they felt, that they were more and more into Death Metal like it was played by scandinavian bands, BATTLESWORD was founded in order to give them the chance to play that kind of music, they really wanted to play. That was back in 1999. When the line-up for the new band was completed, they recorded the first Demo „Crusade Of Steel“ in 2001. That demo was quickly followed by the first full-length „Failing In Triumph“. BATTLESWORD was lucky to find a label for its release and presented their music live a lot. But as often, the band had to face several line-up changes, when they were close to start the work on a new album. That forced them to make a pause with the band. In 2008 Ralf, Ben and me joined and completed the band. We thought, that we have found a new stable line-up again and so we released our next demo „The 13th Black Crusade“ and began touring again. But in 2009 the next and not the last change within our line-up happend, as we had to replace our guitarist Ralf, who left Battlesword. We were glad to find a new guitarist within a short time. When we had enough good material for a new full-length, we released „Banners Of Destruction“ in April 2016. Since then we tried to play live as often as possible to promote the album. But at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 our both guitarists left BATTLESWORD and we had to find new members again. That went faster than expected, but we first had to prepare the live-set for the shows, that were already booked. We recently started the songwriting for a new album and the first songs are close to be finished so that we will open a new chapter in our history soon.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
Axel: We in principal play melodic death metal and combine it with traces of other metal styles. So you can find a lot of traditional heavy metal vibes on our latest album for example. There´s no certain or primal influence. We just focus on ideas that sound good and heavy in our ears. Normally we work out special ideas from our guitarists together in our rehearsal room. They come up with single riffs or nearly complete songs.
Every one of us has a wide range of music he likes. We are not limited and also listen to other music styles. But the common denominator is melodic death metal as it is played by Scandinavian bands.
For the lyrics I´m inspired in different ways. Sometimes it´s based on literature or a cool movie, sometimes on personal experiences. To me it´s important to tell short self-contained stories that can be interpreted by everybody in his own way.
GroundCast: Battlesword was founded in 1999 and I was making some research and saw that you have one demo from 2001 (Crusade of Steel), a full-length (Failing in Triumph) from 2003, another demo (The 13th Black Crusade) from 2008 and in 2016 you released Banners of Destruction. Next year the band makes 20 years and it is remarkable for any band nowadays. Could you tell us why it took so long to release another full-length album?
Axel: We weren´t a band that was writing songs very fast and very numerous. This process was also often interrupted by health problems or private issues. So it took us a long time to have enough material for a new release. Then we had a lot of problems during recording and producing it, so that we had to face another delay of nearly a complete year. But finally we managed to release this album. We released the two songs „Enemy Divine“ and „Where Demons Awake“ in 2012 in digital form for online promotion and to show the world that we are still alive. They were re-recorded and released as bonus tracks on „Banners Of Destruction“.
GroundCast: So let’s talk about the Banners of Destruction, how was the composition process? You already had the songs or they were all fresh new ones?
Axel: We used some older ideas, but arranged them in a new way, the rest of the songs was written especially for the new album.
GroundCast: What can you say that changed in Battlesword as a band since the foundation, I do not talk about line-ups, but how do you see the band’s evolution through the years?
Axel: Throughout the years we have created our own style and idea about BATTLESWORD. For us, the focus is always on the music and not on a certain image. We just want to be honest and authentic. That´s what the fans should see and feel. We are still only some metalheads that want to play metal and have a good time on stage, as well as we are also still fans that bang their heads in front row to their favourite bands´songs. We are burning for our music and want to share it with as many metalheads as possible. Therefor it´s important to us to have a good spirit within the band and a good friendship.
GroundCast: As said before, the band makes 20 years in 2019 and I know it is soon to say 
something, but have you already thought in something to celebrate the 20th anniversary?
Axel: There are already some ideas how to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are still discussing them and will communicate the final result via facebook and our homepage.
GroundCast: I live in Germany since 2014 and I heard and read already that the metal scene here is vivid, active and alive, but what do you think could be better in the German metal scene (underground or mainstream)?
Axel: I think the scene is not so healthy anymore as it used to be. Since music and meanwhile also metal became a big business, it is getting worse, I think. There are too many bands, too many trends and too many assholes in the scene. More and more clubs have to shut down, so it gets more complicated to get booked for shows. The sales of CDs or merch decline for many bands. And so on. There are many problems that you are faced with, within our scene. But I´m shure that at the end quality will survive and that hard work will be honoured.
GroundCast: We live in the internet era and you know too that Germany has serious punishments with people that are caught downloading illegally, but even here isn’t possible to avoid this. What do you think about this, do you believe that it helps more than damages the music scene?
Axel: I personally don´t like downloading music in general. That´s soulless and superficial. It´s disrepectful to download illegelly and without appreciation for what the artist(s) has (have) created. For an oldschool maniac like me it has to be a physical product like a CD or vinyl record. Sound without quality loss plus artwork and information about the band and the record. And it´s self-evident for me to pay for this piece of art. But nevertheless we also offer our album for download for those fans who prefer this way. Music in digital form is at least functional and may help to spread our music and to find new friends and fans.
GroundCast: What are the plans for 2018 then (once that I already asked the ones for 2019 hahaha)?
Axel: As I told before, we have already started the songwriting for a new album and the first songs are close to be finished. Due to the last changes in our line-up, with two new guitarists, we hope to meet the expectations of our fans and for sure our own. But at this point I can say that we are confident to release another killer album with all our trademarks. We hope to find a label for the release and a booker to get us on stage. In the meantime we will play further handpicked shows like Metaldays Open Air in Slovenia. Maybe it will be possible to extend touring a bit across Europe.
GroundCast: Thanks for the interview, now the space is yours to say something to our readers.
Axel: Thank you for your interest and support. If anybody has now become curious about us, we would love if you check us out at facebook, leave us a like and send us a message with an order or just with your feedback. Never stop supporting the metal underground!