“Metus Mortiis” by was among the most surprising heavy/power metal albums of 2001. Brainstorm is a budding band and they shall be bigger in the years to come. Grande Rock caught up with the guitarist Torsten “Todde” Ihlenfeld and informed about the latest news of the band…
First of all, I’ve heard your latest album, which I think is a really great. Give me some information about the recordings (how many days, where,)… what do you mostly remember from those “recording-days”?
T: We recorded the album between May and June last year in different studios. The house of music studio near Stuttgart (drums and vocals), our own Storm Your Brain studios near Ulm (guitars and bass) and the Gate studios in Wolfsburg (keys). What I remember most is that we just finished the work on our Storm Your Brain Studios one day before we started recording. But luckily, everything worked very well and none of the walls we had built broke down.
Is the new album sound exactly the way you wanted it to be? Would you change anything on it if it were possible?
T: No, we wouldn’t change anything. We are totally satisfied with the album. We really love it.
Are there any differences on the sound of your latest work when compared to the previous albums?
T: Every album has something special. You learn with every album you record and you try to make every new album better than the previous ones. What worked out very well is that we had the chance to record all guitars and basses totally on our own. This gave as a lot of time to check out and try different ideas and things.
What do the lyrics talk about and who writes them? Which are your favourite subjects in terms of the lyrics?
T: On the new album the songs are about the fear of death, all kinds of human phobias and things like that. That’s one reason for the album title and the cover. We tried to express the lyrics and the music in the album title and the cover. We like to talk over lots of different themes in our lyrics, so we try not to limit us in a certain direction. Andy B. is the main man for the lyrics.
What kinds of music do you generally like to listen to? Which bands have inspired you all those years and which continue to do so?
T: We like many kinds of music, mainly rock and metal music, but also classical tunes and everything that sounds good in our ears. There’s no reason why we should think there are only good songwriters and musicians in metal music. There are great inspiring maniacs everywhere in the music scene and in every musical style and direction.
Our biggest influences have been Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden... you know, all the big heroes, and American power and thrash metal bands like Metal Church, Vicious Rumors, Testament and also bands like Queensryche or Crimson Glory. You see, many bands we like very much, inspired and still inspire us.
What do you think of the Internet and all those things that happened with Napster and Metallica? Which is your opinion on the so called “free music” that anyone can find over the Internet?
T: I personally think, sound samples are OK for free to get a first impression of the songs of the band and it also is a good thing to increase your popularity, but also I think if complete songs are available for download somebody should pay the musicians for their work.
What are your impressions from your latest visit here in Greece? Are there any plans to come here again soon?
T: We all love Greece, the people, the food, the weather, especially our fans there very much and it is definitely one of the best places to play for us. All shows we played in Greece turned out to be something very special and if I had to choose one concert as very very special I would say it was the concert in Athens together with Armored Saint and our Greek support band Crush, which I liked very much, by the way. We hope and try everything possible to come to Greece and play there this year, hopefully before summer.
What are your Top 5 albums in the History of Heavy Metal?
T: I guess 5 are not enough, there are so many great albums in Heavy Metal History. These are some of my favourites:
Judas Priest – “Painkiller”, “British Steel”, “Defenders of the Faith”…
Iron Maiden – “Powerslave”, “Number of the Beast”…
Rainbow – “Long Live Rock ‘n Roll”…
Black Sabbath – “Heaven and Hell”, “Paranoid”, “Headless Cross”…
Deep Purple – “Perfect Strangers”, “Machine Head”…
Slayer – “Reign in Blood”, “South of Heaven”…
Queensryche – “The Warning”, “Operation Mindcrime”…
Crimson Glory – “Transcendence”…
Metal Church – “Metal Church”, “The Dark”… and many, many more...
Do you know of any Greek metal band? And if yes, what do you think of them?
T: I just know a few, here they are: Crush who played with us in Athens have been really cool, Nightfall which play cool death metal and Astarte very, very cool all girl black metal band.
OK Todde, we wish you the best for this new album. The last words of this interview belong to you…
T: OK. Let me say a big hello to our fans in Greece and thank you for this incredible, never-ending support since the very beginning. We try everything possible to play in Greece again this year. See ya all as soon as possible.