Matthew Greywolf (Powerwolf)
June 2007
Your band has just released their debut album two years ago. How was "Return in Bloodred" received by the media?
Very good. It was a debut album from out of nowhere, nobody knew the band before, and the reactions were fantastic. We could gather a huge crowd of wolfmaniacs with this album and this makes us very proud.
How many have you sold of the album? Do you have the sales figures?
I don't have any detailed sales figures now, but we're quite happy with how it all went.
What were your expectations when you put the band together? Did you imagine such a successful start?
Yes. We didn't form a band to do nothing. We wanted to release album, be out on tour and be successful.
Did you feel the pressure when it came to the writing of the new album?
To be honest: yes. Return in Bloodred was a highly praised album by both media and fans, and we didn't want to disappoint anyone. Anyway, when we finally started working on the album we soon felt that it would become slightly different and so we ourselves didn't compare it to anything we did in the past. It was only about writing the best possible songs, and this became a true obsession for some months. It was a really intense time.
Can you tell me about the writing process? Did the new songs come easy?
Absolutely. We are a spontaneous band, we never plan what to do and we never work on songs for a long time. I think that the best songs are the ones who come out easy and spontaneously. There were days where there was this special atmosphere, call it chemistry or magic - and we wrote two songs in just one rehearsal without even thinking about it. You can't plan to write a song. It must happen.
So how long have you been composing?
We wrote the album in about four intense months, and then spent about four weeks in studio and another week for the mix.
You've been recording parts of the album in a chapel. That's not very usual...
Well, a good friend of us offered us the chance to use a small church built in the 12th century for some recordings. That church was located in the middle of nowhere in a forest, and the atmosphere was haunting. Exactly the surrounding we needed for an album like Lupus Dei. You can't compare recording in a studio to recording in a church - it's so atmospheric and special that it can only be highly inspirational. The only disadvantage was that there was no heating system in the church and we recorded in January with snow outside and temperatures at minus 10 degrees.
One of the songs features an orchestra. How come?
The orchestration is written and conducted by David Buballa, a really talented and dedicated guy, who is a close friend of the wolves and helped us a lot on this album.
Wasn't it expensive to hire an orchestra?
No, as they all worked for the honour to be on a Powerwolf album. David Buballa gathered all of them and convinced them of doing their job on this album just for the honour to do so.
Would you like doing a complete album with an orchestra?
I don't think so. The orchestration is a nice bonus adding atmosphere and density, but at first we're a heavy metal band and this is what we'll focus on. And besides that: too many metal bands already did album with an orchestra, it's not that original to do that anymore.
What does the album's title "Lupus Dei" stand for?
The wolf of god. It has to do with the lyrical concept of the album. There's a concept making the album a full circle: in the introduction "Lupus Daemonis" the wolf who is the protagonist of the concept story, loses belief in everything, he struggles with God and finally descends. He becomes an evil creature being greedy "We take it from the Living", signs a contract with the devil "Saturday Satan" and believes in nothing but blood anymore "In Blood We Trust". During the album he starts seeing rays of light again, realizing the misleading practice of some religious groups "Mother Mary is a bird of prey", and finally witnesses god in the final "Lupus Dei".
"Saturday Satan" is a funny title. What is that song about?
One day I found a flyer in my letterbox from a strange religious group that's around here in Germany, saying that every weekend the devil takes the souls of thousands of young people who go to rock concerts or to discos - I thought this was very funny and took it with me to a rehearsal. Attila immediately wanted to do a song about it - well, and some hours later "Saturday Satan" was written.
Are you guys anti-Christian or it's just part of your image?
Not at all, on the contrary, some of as are practising Christians. I know our image might be misunderstood, but it's not meant to be anti-Christian. We all are spiritual yet religious people, but we don't have any common belief inside the band. As I said, some of us are Christians, our drummer Stefane for example is an atheist - so all we have in common is that we're spiritual and interested in spiritual and religious things. As concerning our image: you can provoke, but you can respect something at the same time, don't you?
Is there any message you wanna bring through with your songs?
Heavy metal is our religion!
What are your favourite tracks on the album?
I especially like "Prayer in the dark", as there's everything Powerwolf is about in just one song for me: great old school metal verses, a dramatic hymn-like chorus, horror passages, and some nice Iron Maiden influenced melodies. (Laughs)
You did a support tour to Gamma Ray in 2005. How did you get onto the bill?
Because Gamma Ray wanted to have us on the tour, and we wanted to play that tour, an easy thing.
What were your best and worst memories?
The best memories were without no doubt the fantastic crowds we had everywhere - especially in Southern Europe the shows were like huge metal parties, absolutely great, and we were blown away by the fact how many people could already sing along our songs when we entered stages. Well, the worst memories probably were the long travels we had, there were quite a lot of day offs on this tour we spent sitting in the nightliner for some 20 hours or so.
You didn't play in Hungary and neither in Slovakia. What happened?
Attlila got ill some days before the tour started. We had the choice of trying to play the first shows anyway, but then risk he gets even worse and we'd maybe have to cancel the whole rest of the tour before we even played five shows or so - or to cancel the first four shows to let Attila some time to recover, which we found the better choice after some consultation. We felt really sorry for not being able to play in Hungary and Slovakia, especially as the other bands later on told us about the fantastic audiences - but there was no other choice - anyway: I hope we'll get the chance to play there on our next tour.
What can we expect from Powerwolf touring-wise this year?
Well, we're right now checking possible tours for autumn. The only thing confirmed so far is that we'll play some shows with Grave Digger in October and November, but only here in Germany. But I'm quite confident there will be a tour covering whole Europe as well.
Is there any band you'd like to support?
No. We like touring and the wolves get along with any band.
How about King Diamond? With all the make-up and the music you would fit the bill very well…
Maybe. But then again, King Diamond is something really special, and he has a lot of show and stuff on stage. Supporting him would mean us not being allowed to bring our full show as then there would be no space on stages at all anymore. (Laughs)
What do you think the latest King Diamond album?
I basically like Mercyful Fate and some of the King's earlier solo albums. I haven't heard the new one yet.