aaamusic | On 27, May 2012

Daniel chats with Mark Weichert of Heaven shall Burn about Heaven and Hell and purgatory and what they do for a living.

AAAmusic: The name of the band is taken from the title of a ‘Marduk’ album are you big fans of the band, and explain why you chose that title as a name?

Maik: We are not fanatic Marduk fans of course it’s a band we totally respect and a few of us also adore, I’m one of those guys and we were just inspired by the title. It was so much without compromise also like Marduk. I think they took the name from some Bathory lyrics and thought it was really cool so we just decided to have that name, but it’s not like an anti Christian statement. It is more of a statement that people should face reality and not wish for a fake paradise. It’s our sound without compromise.
AAAmusic: Your last album was ‘Invictus’ in 2010 when can we expect a new album?

Maik: We are doing the festivals in the summer and after that I think we come together and start writing new stuff. I think it will be the beginning of 2013 there should be a new album out, we have already got lots of recordings on tape that we are working on. We rehearse once or twice I week so material comes out of that. We always have time in the sound check to start writing new stuff, also when we are sitting on the bus we start playing with things.
AAAmusic: What are the next steps for ‘Heaven shall Burn’?

Maik: We don’t really plan things we just take things how they come, we don’t pay the rent with our music we all have other jobs these is just like a huge hobby that got far too big and that’s how the band developed. Of course we plan to play certain festivals and we have in mind when our cd will come out, but if that doesn’t happen it’s no problem. Our jobs are very different our singer is a nurse and does half days in the hospital and I am a lawyer and our other guitarist is a producer and owns his own studio. The bass player is a physiotherapist, we have to pick jobs were we can work two months and then have time off. Luckily we have really cool bosses that let us have time of so we can go on tour.
AAAmusic: Which bands are the main influence on you?

Maik: There is a difference between bands that influence us lyrically and ideology to music wise. For us music wise a huge influence on us was Bolt Thrower music that rolls over you like a tank not necessary complicated just something with primitive energy, that’s what we really aimed for and we still do today. And lyric wise bands like Napalm Death and Earth Crisis that very political brutal music. In our band are political attitude is fifty percent of the music. I found at school if I wanted to say something political that more people would listen to me when I had a guitar in my hand, than if I was handing out flyers. When you have a guitar people would listen to my opinion that’s what Heaven shall Burn is about. We open the hearts of the people with our music and put the message into it. Heaven shall Burn works in two forms if your just someone that likes brutal music you can listen to it and enjoy it, but also if you are someone that listens to the lyrics there is something there for you to. We could never write about problems with our girlfriends or how bad our daddy treats us. That would be a waste of energy for us. If I want to say something I put it into a story so it’s a lot more interesting for people that listen to our music and then people can make their own mind about it that is the main point of literature.
AAAmusic: If you had to put your music into three genres what would they be?

Maik: Punk attitude, Hardcore opinion and lyrics and metal music.
AAAmusic: How do you decide on the imaginary for the band?

Maik: We have a few people that do drafts from the song titles to give artists impressions. I am always curious about what the artwork will come out.
AAAmusic: You spend a lot of time on the road, does it sometimes get too much for you?

Maik: We don’t play so much, some American bands play two hundred to three hundred shows a year. We play about seventy shows, so not that many. We kind of cherry pick, only picking the shows that we want to play. I think it’s cool to play a festival in front of ten thousand people than to play loads of club shows in front of fifty people. So we are always keen to play, not like some bands that are sometime a bit lackluster because they play so many shows. We never tour longer than four weeks so we have loads of gaps in between.
AAAmusic: Who would you most like to support?

Maik: I think supporting Rammstein would be a pretty cool thing, cause that band is from our area. We saw their first shows and I still remember seeing them play in a squat in front of eighty people and now they have risen to be one of the biggest bands in Europe or even in the world. That’s really impressive; it would be really cool to play with them.
AAAmusic: Are you going to go to ‘Heaven’ or ‘Hell’ ? Explain your answer?
Maik: I have no idea, well for me I hope we are not going to hell. I think maybe we can do a compromise and just go to purgatory first and then go to heaven. That would be a good thing cause we are no bad boys or satanic. I don’t know what music will be in heaven.

 

Daniel Cairns