Deathstorm interview

Hi! Deathstorm has been flying the flag of hate since 2010, but after For Dread Shall Reign and that quiet Swarming demo in 2022, a lot of fans were wondering if the fire was still burning strong. With Cascophonies finally here, does it feel like the real Deathstorm is back in full force, or has something fundamentally changed in the band’s guts?

The flag of hate was always raised. It’s been a bit longer since our last album because everyone’s been pretty busy with things outside the band. We recorded “Swarming” entirely on our own back then because we’d never been completely satisfied with past recordings, and this way we had full control over everything. As a result, the whole recording process took longer, just like it did with “Cascophonies.” And with “Cascophonies.” we’re definitely back in full force.

The new record sounds like classic Kreator getting dragged through even darker, more twisted corridors - hyperspeed bursts, mosh parts, leads, and this almost chaotic but still controlled atmosphere. Was that a conscious evolution, or did the riffs just demand to go in these contorted directions while you were writing?

There wasn't really any intention behind it; the riffs just came together that way. Of course, we've evolved over time, but basically, that's always been our style. Our songs have always been very dynamic and varied, both in terms of tempo and mood. What has changed compared to the previous album is that we wanted to strip things down to the essentials and leave out everything unnecessary so that the energy stays high throughout.

Cascophonies is a vicious title. What the hell does it mean to you personally, and how did it influence the way the album was put together? Were you deliberately trying to create something more disorienting and diseased than your previous work?

Not at all. It came together as a play on words and sounded kool. Actually, the idea for the cover came first, so that might have been the main influence behind it. If you wanna get picky, there's of course a coffin on the cover, but the word “casket” just works so well with “cacophony”.

Tracks like “Body in a Barrel”, “Partially Devoured”, and “Mask of Sanity” have that proper grim horror vibe. Are these lyrics ripped from real Austrian nightmares, newspaper stories, or pure filthy imagination? How important is the lyrical side for Deathstorm compared to just delivering pure audial violence?

The music does come first, of course, but the lyrics definitely have to follow the music’s aura. Violent and weird music calls for violent and weird lyrical content. The titles you mentioned are pure fiction (Body + Devoured) as well as pure reality (Mask). I did a lot of research on the BTK killer and managed to go to Wichita last summer to check out some of the most important locations. I did that with other killers in the past as well, but the vibe in Wichita was just difference – the community still seems very affected by what happened decades ago. I've never experienced that before, heavy stuff.

You’ve been on I Hate, High Roller, and now Dying Victims. How do these labels compare in terms of actual support and underground understanding? Does Dying Victims feel like the right home for this era of the band, or are you still looking for something more savage?

They all support the underground and provide great support in terms of bringing the music to the people. That’s what a label should do – we’re fine with where we are.

Austria has never been the biggest thrash/death hotspot compared to Germany. How has the local underground scene treated Deathstorm over the years? Do you feel properly supported at home, or have you always had to look abroad to get real recognition?

It’s a mix of both – first it was more abroad but as soon as a very strong scene developed within our own borders it changed, I guess. Id have never imagined saying that, but the current scene in Austria is strong and by far the best in all of Europe.

At just 29 minutes, Cascophonies hits like a hammer and then disappears. Was that short, lean runtime a deliberate decision to keep the intensity fucking merciless, or did you simply refuse to add filler?

It was both. On the one hand, we didn’t want any filler tracks, because it doesn’t do the listener any good to get something mediocre just to make the album longer. Plus, that would cause the energy and intensity to drop. And we were determined to keep the intensity high throughout the entire album. The 29-minute runtime just kind of worked out—we had the songs, and it felt right that way.

The production on this album sounds organic and clear but still sharp. Who was behind the desk, and what kind of battles did you have to fight to avoid that plastic, over-compressed modern thrash sound that so many bands are choking on these days?

This time, we handled all the recording ourselves, and we were also closely involved in the mixing and mastering process. Julian Jauk did the mixing and Bernd Heinrauch did the mastering—both of whom are from our area. That made communication much easier, and we were able to meet in person as well. They both did a fantastic job. 

In general, we don’t like that modern plastic sound at all, and it was very important to us that the album sound natural yet still aggressive. And since we knew exactly how we wanted it, it wasn’t really a struggle.

Beyond the obvious Kreator, Slayer, and Dark Angel influences, what else secretly crawled into the songwriting for Cascophonies? Any obscure European thrash, crust, or even non-metal shit that left its mark?

Of course, the classic thrash influences. Brazilian bands like Sepultura or Attomica are also major influences, even though they’re rarely mentioned. And then there’s early death metal like Morbid Angel or Deicide. That said, those are all influences, and we’ve since found our own sound. But perhaps an unusual influence for the album was AC/DC for the guitar sound. We really wanted the guitar to be crunchy, like on the old AC/DC albums, for example. Where you can still really hear that the strings are being played aggressively.

After such a long wait between proper albums, did you feel any pressure, from the scene, from yourselves, or from the label, to prove that Deathstorm still has the real hate in 2026? Or was this album written in pure “fuck everyone, we rage” mode?

We weren't under any pressure from anyone; we just felt like making an album and writing songs again. And we wanted to make our most aggressive and intense album yet. So it was more the “fuck everyone, we rage” mode.

Which songs on Cascophonies came together like a fucking chainsaw through flesh, and which ones gave you the biggest headaches during the writing and recording process?

As far as writing goes, all the songs actually came together relatively easily and quickly. Recording “Body in a Barrel” was exhausting, especially the drums. You can actually hear Manuel cursing at the end of the track, which we left in as a joke. But since we recorded it ourselves, we had more time, which made everything a bit easier. The easiest song to record was probably “Let this one be a Demon,” because it’s also the shortest song and relatively straightforward.

In this fucked streaming era where everything is instantly available and attention spans are dead, how do you still approach making a physical release (vinyl, tape, whatever) feel like a proper event for the real underground metalheads who actually care?

For us its an event, each and every release. For the public not so much. New music gets released, if you dig it – go for it. If not – so what. After a collection of songs is made into a physical product its not in your care anymore, you're not the one to decide what happens next. People who dig music and follow alternative cultures will always work as an audience for underground music. Everybody else is lost anyway.

Looking back at everything since the early days on I Hate Records - what’s the biggest lesson Deathstorm has learned about staying true in this scene, and what pisses you off the most about the current state of so-called “thrash” or “death” metal? Horns up!

Be who you are and do what you want to do. There's nothing to be pissed off about – it's more like a general thing - in metal culture as a whole. If you tick off all the boxes, you're in, if not, you're not. That’s very square, and I don’t like squareness.

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