DESASTER 1989 – 2009

20 years of hellish inferno and pure blasphemy:

The Legend pt I written by Infernal:

The history of DESASTER is going back in the year 1988 when two young Metal- possessed maniacs, namely Creator Cassie (v,b) and me, Infernal (g) got their money together to buy some cheap instruments and wrecked equipment (that also was a prehistorical guitar amp from East-Germany !). Influenced by the godz of Black/Death/Thrash Metal of the 80’s, for example VENOM, HELLHAMMER, KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION (whose song „Total Desaster“ gave our band it’s name) we played traditional Black Metal without compromise since the very beginning. The early DESASTER did some rehearsal tapes with the help of session drummer Alex but these recordings were actually never officially released because in this time of bermuda-shorts and skateboards an interest in satanic music was simply not present and to speak the truth the material wasn’t good enough though. We also performed a still remembered live- gig in 1989 which marked the official beginning of the band. Due to several problems, especially because we couldn’t find a permanent drummer, the band split up in 1990. So, I was the only remaining member of the first original line-up but I tried to keep th e fla me of DESASTER alive by constantly searching for new musicians and writing new material. Finally I found t he right warriors to contuine the battle in early 1992 which were Luggi (d) and Okkulto (v) who also tried to handle the bass at first. The first live gig with this new formation took place in July 1992 at the pub of Luggi’s parents when they were in holidays and I can tell you that it was more a drinking-orgy and a complete catastrophy than a concert! Some totally drunken maniacs felt into Luggi’s drum kit and one guy was so „excited“ that he even pissed on stage! After the show we found a new bass-player in Odin, who was too drunk to say „no!“, so the line-up was completed for a while.Two demos followed: First of all „The fog of Avalon“ in 1993 which was by the way recorded in our rehearsal bunker where it was so fucking humid that some interesting mushroom-cultures grew in our amps and on the walls! Then there was the very succesful „Lost in the Ages“-demo in 1994 which really started to roll the ball for us because we got great response on this tape, even from all around the globe. Unfortunately our drummer Luggi hindered the development of the band with his incredible laziness, so the only solution was to banish him from hell! A first mini-tour with the dutch fukkers of Occult (now Legion of the Damned) in April 1995 was than perfomed with another session-drummer, namely Tormentor, who should later play an important role in DESASTER and who played in a local Thrash band back than. After the 2nd demo we got many offers from record labels, even from some very well known ones, but we decided to sign to MERCILESS RECORDS, a small but true underground label. Our first release on MERCILESS was a split- 7“ with UNGOD from Germany in Ocotber 1995, a to 1000 copies limited single which is completely sold out since years! This co-operation with UNGOD almost failed because Schiekron’s (the mainman of UNGOD) letter where he asked about doing a split-ep together got lost in the fukking mail! So he thought there was no interest from our side until our good friend Costa (Tales of the Macabre Zine/ later Iron Pegasus Records) solved the misunderstanding because he was also in contact with Mr. „Luuuutsch Alde!“ Schiekron. This piece of vinyl which became a collector’s item in the meantime included the DESASTER- song „The hill of a thousand souls“ on which the session member Thorim handled the drums. We were glad to have this young but very talented drummer for the recordings. But unfortunately he didn’t dare to join the DESASTER- horde permanently, he was only willing to record the upcoming first album with us. The debut album „A touch of medieval darkness“ was released in April 1996 and contained once more the typical DESASTER –mixture out of „old-school“ Black/Thrash/Death/Speed/Heavy Metal of the glorious 80’s to which we of course still let our heads roll! There’s no doubt about that also some bands of the so called „2nd wave of Black Metal“ like SAMAEL, DARK THRONE, IMMORTAL, MAYHEM had some big influences on our music and there are of course the medieval-sounding elements which have become another trademark of the DESASTER- sound. The following output, the „Stormbringer“ mini- album in March 1997, showed our metallic roots better than ever: Bored to death by modern keyboard infected-female vocals-gothic-whimp-shit-so-called Black Metal we decided to kick every poser’s ass with some real blasting Black Metal parts, sharp thrashing guitar riffs and pounding drums! With this release we wanted to seperate us from the trendy part of the Black Metal scene which was and still is full of people who think Black Metal was invented in Norway 1991 and who also don’t know what real Heavy Metal is all about! „Stormbringer“ showed what we mean when we speak of our „Traditional Black Metal“ which is also far away from the music of certain so-called „retro- thrash“ bands which are so impudent to steal the riffs of the old bands note for note! On „Stormbringer“ the new beast on the drums, Tormentor, can be heard for the first time. With his unique fast-forward drumming he gave the DESASTER-sound it’s accomplishing note and he also completed the line-up which grew together to a real unity – a band of four die-hard metal- maniacs who satify their metalic desires and deliver asskickin’ songs to the worldwide undergound Metal scene! DESASTER are no fast songwriters and we also don’t feel the need to release a full- length album every fucking year only to be continuously present in the media, so we planned to release another ep. We had the idea to release another split-ep, this time with our label mates SCEPTER, but unfortunately this idea failed because the yankees had not additional song left. Therefore we decided to release a picture 7“ with two new songs to shorten the time to the next album. The limited „Ride on for Revenge“- single became again a jewel for every fan of the good old vinyl! The second album in September `98 started where the pic-7“ had ended. Again we made no compromises and continued consistently in our own effective way, ignoring all modern musical influences and commerical trends. „Hellfire’s Dominion“ stormed forward and included skullcrushing riff-attacks with straight ahead rhythms and pure violent aggression on a high level of recognition. A special killer on the album was the neckbreaking Speed Metal hymn „Metalized Blood“ which included guest vocals from Wannes of PENTACLE as well as Lemmy of the old German Speed Metal kings VIOLENT FORCE. And we could fulfill our greatest wish and achieved to get Toto of our all-time faves LIVING DEATH to sing on this track! It was a hard job to dig him out of his grave because he has retired from music business for a long time now. We got his number from our good friend and Toto’s old band mate Atomic Steif and attacked him on the phone until he finally came to the studio. After he had signed all our LIVING DEATH records he listened to the song, liked it, took the micro, got his balls together and sung like in old times - incredible! When the time came nearer to celebrate our 10th anniversary the idea came up to release a collection of rare and unreleased material out of ten years together with some new stuff. It was not our aim to release a simple best-of-cd to make some extra money with it, but we wanted to give our fans something special, the ones who have supported us during the years! So we started to rummage in old recordings, tapes and photos and released „Ten Years of total DESASTER“in 1999. We also did a birthday party with concert at the place where our first gig in 1989 took place and I can tell you that it was a great event with many nostalgic feelings!

The Legend pt II (’99-’01) written by Tormentor:

After the hangöver of the 10 years party was gone we played some single shows in Germany, Belgium and for the first time in Italy and Switzerland. We drove over 1,000 kilometres with our old, white van to show the Italian and Swiss crowd that German Metal was still alive and met many cool maniacs during that trip! Too bad that, especially in Italy, it was cold and we froze like hell. But that’s life! Another great event was the reunion show of Destruction in Engelsdorf (Hellraiser). We had the chance to open the show (together with Necronomicon and Fatal Embrace) of this cult band who also gave Desaster its name. What a night! In the same year Costa from Iron Pegasus Records came up with the idea to release a Split 10“ with our friends of Pentacle, where each band would present a new song and a cover version of the other band. We entered again Wally’s „ToxoMusic“ studio and recorded „Hell-Born“ and „A serpent in blood-red“. This rare piece of evil Metal was released in 2000, limited to 100 picture 10“s, 500 black and 333 „supposed to be red“ vinyls (the pressing company messed up the vinyl colour, so instead of red it turned out to be some kind of „pink“....) The „red“ version was released only outside Germany. In 2000 we played again some gigs in and around Europe to spread the blasphemic thrashing rage to the hungry metalheads before we entered again a studio called „...“ in the south of Germany to record the „Tyrants of the Netherworld“ album. This was the first full length to be released on Iron Pegasus Records and we worked very hard to create a really dark and evil piece of Metal. Release Party for this album was on the 11.11.2000 together with our friends of Metal Inquisitor, Pentacle and Metalucifer (with me on drums). The party ended late and we really had a lot of fun and the next hängöver deluxe was on its way! 2001 started with a 4- day tour through Germany and the Netherlands called „"Netherworld in Flames" with Pentacle and Pulverizer. Followed by the very successful „Fuck The Commerce“ Open Air in Torgau, a small weekend tour through Switzerland and the „Open Hell“ Festival in Czech Republic. In summer 2001 DESASTER contributed the song “Darkness and Evil” with Gezol himself on guest- vocals for a Brazilian SABBAT tribute LP. At the first weekend in August we had our biggest gig so far at the famous Wacken Open Air in Germany.

The legend pt III written by Sataniac:

After the 99^th gig of DESASTER at the very famous Wacken Open Air, myself, Sataniac (v.) joined the horde in September 2001 to replace Okkulto who left the band due to some personal reasons. Here´s my story: In 2000 Tormentor and Infernal organised a gig with my old band DIVINE GENOCIDE together with ASPHYX and WARHAMMER in Koblenz. So, the first contact was done. In the meantime both guitar players of DIVINE GENOCIDE quit the band because of very serious personal reasons and I was not able to find any replacements. In the meantime Tormentor told me by phone that Okkulto had left DESASTER and was wondering if I had balls to have a rehearsal with the band. I was always a huge fan of DESASTER and couldn’t even believe that they called “me” to replace their old singer. Right after the first rehearsal with the guys it was clear that I got the job ! This was only 2 weeks after Okkulto had left the band. The others told me that they won´t stop the fight only because one soldier turned his back to the battlefield. After changing the front-beasts, the “Souls Of Infernity”- 7” was released and Okkulto could be heard for the last time. The single was meant to be the fare-well release for Okkulto. Beside the title track, a RAZOR-Cover “Cross me Fool” and two live- tracks “Sataniac” and “Show ‘em How” captured at the Wacken show a few months before found it’s way on this release. Unfortunately the sound of the live recordings was more than shit, but it was the only memory of this event and Okkulto´s last show and so banned on vinyl forever. My first gig with DESASTER was gig No. 100 for the band and was celebrated with some of the truest fans in the band´s hometown Koblenz. After this the “Seven Spells Of Death” tour in December 2001 with ZEMIAL was done to bring total desaster for seven dates to Germany, Belgium and Holland. “Divine Blasphemies” saw the light in 2002 and was the first output with me as the “new one” on vocals. Serving nothing more or less than typical neck-breaking riff-violence what made DESASTER famous through the years. Two old DIVINE GENOCIDE songs, namely “Shadowinds” and “Necrolord”, were desastered and recorded for my first offer on a DESASTER record, and this also marked the definite end of DIVINE GENOCIDE. We kept the tradition and had a guest appearance on the song “Nighthawk”: Mille of KREATOR was so kind to come to Koblenz and sing a few lines to the song and even as we offered him some money for petrol he refused, great guy! After countless single gigs in Germany and outside (ok, maybe someone out there would be able to count!) DESASTER moves East in 2002 with HOLY MOSES and FATAL EMBRACE to play in “exotic” countries like Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia on the “Triple Thrash Tour”. A really crazy trip with our friends from Bruchstein Records who organized the little chaos journey, but we had fun as well doing a lot of parties especially with our comrades from FATAL EMBRACE. The tour was completed with shows in Italy, Austria, Switzer- and The Netherlands. This was the longest tour DESASTER had ever played and will play. Several single shows mostly done at the weekends followed and it was ZEMIAL again who followed us in the “Black Crusaders invading Europe” battles through Germany, Holland, Italy and Spain, and again Bruchstein “Entertainment” booked the shows what meant some problems and troubles and a lot of fun! So we played in front of 8 (eight!?) paying fans at Irun in Spain, and it was “nobodies fault”, like anytime. But on the other hand we had great days in the south of Europe and also some better frequented shows. Music business is hard business! Who cares, Desaster isn’t in any kind of music business at all!!! Hahaha!! In 2003 we were invited to the Party San Open Air for the first time. Memorable moment! The bastard of universal blasphemy was followed by the “Brasilian Blitzkrieg Blasphemies” double album, showing the band at a live show in Sao Paulo/Brasil in October 2003 in front of nearly 1000 headbangers. This album of teutonic live aggression was also banned to Dvd and gives some good impression of South American metal hell and the desastrous live appearance. A great experience for us, even as it was a long trip for a single show, but at first we like the live album and it was amazing for a us to see the “insane-metalized-blood” pounding in the veins of these sisters and brothers in the crowd. Unbelievable! You rule! In 2004 we had done again a lot of festivals and single shows for example the famous Rock Hard Open Air and the Headbangers Open Air (Gartenparty!!!) and also the stupid Summer Breeze thing with joke-bands like JBO. Why we did that? We don´t know! Hahaha! After countless gigs in Germany and outside (England, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Switzerland...) and another tour to the East with the Thrashers from DELIRIOUS we recorded our fifth album “Angelwhore”, released in 2005 by “evil” MAJOR label Metal Blade. Not worth to take any word about that theme, it’s a record label which didn’t and would not take any influence to the sound or anything else belonging to DESASTER. That’s all folks!!! We are speaking about music, not labels!! “Angelwhore” bares the trademarks of the band at any time, but the songs are even longer and bringing some other (not really new!), maybe “epic” aspects to the unholy riff-orgies. This time we invited Martin Missy of Wolfsburg´s Thrash Attack PROTECTOR to sing together with Sataniac on the track “Nihilistic Overture”. It was Mutilation Records who contacted us again for another assault of South America in October 2005. We did six shows in Brasil and two single shows in Peru and Columbia which brought again the maniacal energy that we knew from the first visit in 2003. Especially in Lima and in Cali the audience was totally insane and for a short time the little pissers from Germany felt like rock stars. Hahaha! Not really, as every night of this trip we had to get the bus to the airport right one or two hours after the shows, so this was not very “Rock Star” like. You spend the hole day and night travelling through the continent or visiting the record shop of a good friend of the club managers sister. But we also found the time to get drunk and wasted and had some sightseeing and fun for well and health. Mhh Mhh. Like anytime! Selbstverständlich! Back in Europe we played a lot of festivals and single shows again in 2006. Highlights were the best festival on earth, the Party San Open Air (the second coming), but we also brought blasphemy to the small but great United Metal Maniacs Open air. It was time for a change, and we wanted to try out the Harrow Studios in Losser, NL because our comrade Wannes of PENTACLE came up with their new album “Under the Black Cross” which was recorded in the small studio near to Enschede. We liked that sound and decided to record one track for the special vinyl-only 12” release “Infernal Voices”. Spawned out of hells fire in the tradition of “Maxi-Singles” like KREATOR`s “Flag Of Hate” and SODOM´s “Sodomy And Lust” back in the glory days. The title-track was followed by the re-recording of the song “Fields Of Triumph” and the UNLEASHED-cover “Before The Creation Of Time” which was recorded already during the “Divine Blasphemies”-sessions i n 2002. Several single gigs had done before we entered the Harrow’s studios again, to bring our 6^th album“666-Satan’s Soldiers Syndicate” to life. Harry and Mark, the team of the Harrow studio, did a great job again and we had relaxed 6 days to record our sixth album. The only place to go was a s mall pub in this typical town in the Netherlands, where we drank after the recordings. And I think we were the main attraction for the local people, trying to do Darts and Jenga (Dat Spiel mit den Bauklötzen!) after working on the album and drinking a lot, and fast. (We HAD to get drunk very fast, because we wanted to record right in time at the next days!) Recording is not fun at all, but the worst for me (for us!) is the mixing of an album. Terrible - to hear your own shit again and again! Ashmedi from MELECHESH did some amazing guest appearance on lead-guitar for the track “Angel Extermination” and Proscriptor of the great ABSU delivers the Intro for “SSS” and together with Mr. Nemtheanga from irish legends PRIMORDIAL he can be heard with some fine vocals in “Tyrannizer”.What’s next? Easy! Like after every record we had to do a trip to Brasil, bringing German noise and ugliness to the folks in Sao Paolo, Curitiba, Belem, Fortaleza and Cuiaba. Crazy things like start playing at 5 o clock in the morning and countless other insanities made the trip memorable my whole life (I need to go to a REAL restaurant again! Churascaria rules!!) In 2009 we entered again the ToxoMusic studios here in Koblenz, to record 3 new songs and an old classic for the "20 years of total Desaster"- Box which was released by our friend Hurricane on Knell-Before-The-Master's-Throne-Records on our birthday- gig. This event happend on a boat called Pure-Liner 1. 600 Metalheads on father rhine. It was a great experience. We also had some old bandmembers on the boat who joined the stage with us once again. Another release will follow in this year. A split 7" with the Japanese warriors SABBAT. For the year 2010 a shape- 7" is planned, which will be released on Soulseller Records in January. Some more gigs are confirmed and we also started writing new songs for the next album. So beware of the next strike of pure fucking metal- overdose from hell!

DESASTER in the year 2009