1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
FRANK DAMAGER: The Band was formed in 2007, but in the first couple of years we had several line-up changes and didn´t get to the point really. So in 2013 after years of getting drunk in the rehearsal room, but not getting anywhere else, it was me, as the last founding member, and Jo Fingergrinder, as the bassplayer for quiet a while to set up the band for a second time. We decided to concentrate on our Old School Thrash/Death-Roots and stripped down our music to the bone and started all over again. The only thing we kept, was the name. We found guitarist NIKO and singer PLORATOR, who gave new life and fresh blood to the band. NIKO with his Death Metal Roots from Bands like Death or Morbid Angel took the riffing in our songs to a new direction. PLORATOR comes from a Black Metal background and is still the singer of the infamous Black Metal band SADISM UNBOUND, celebrating the true evil with their blood soaked performances. (And I really mean blood-soaked, because they use pig blood as corpsepaint for their shows.)
So most of the old DAMAGE SOURCE songs then were dumped or changed completely. It was a total rebirth of the Band in Blood, Death and aggressive Thrash Metal. Since then we keep writing stuff and it´s getting more intense all the time. I am totally happy with the way things were going, even if we still have Spinal Tap-like situation regarding the drums. For the moment Dominick, the Drummer of SADISM UNBOUND is our drummer for live shows. We played a lot of shows with Bands like FUNERAL WHORE, EXHUMED, TOXIC HOLOCAUST or PRIBJAT. And this is exactly where I see the band: In between Death-Metal and Thrash Metal with an aggressive Old School vibe. Like old German Thrash, like Destruction or Kreator´s first records. Like it should be. No nice melodies in the music, no nice things on stage.
JO FINGERGRINDER: Well, the band itself is what it is: 5 guys with the passion for heavy, entertaining old school metal. We all grew up with the thrash and death metal of the nineties. after some lineup changes we got NIKO and PLORATOR into the band and it suddenly took it´s way. We sounded more evil and blacker than before!
2.A year back you had released a demo, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
JO FINGERGRINDER: It sounds the way it sounds. It´s a demo. Nothing more to say about it. No predemo, no frills, just a demo.
FRANK DAMAGER: The Raise HELL-EP are some of the first songs we had written with the new band members back then. We didn´t have a drummer but we urged to have a record out, so we asked a friend of ours, Hannes Feder, who is a professional drummer with a Jazz-Background, to play on the recordings. He listened to the songs for a couple of days, came into our rehearsal room and layed down the drum tracks you hear on the CD within four hours, including setting up the drumkit and the microphones (!). The rest was recorded in our rehearsal room as well, though recorded with a Macbook, it is a rough demo after all, with no expensive studio sound and no copy/paste-stuff. The sound might be a bit too muddy, but well, that´s how it sounded at the recording session! You can almost smell the old carpet in the rehearsal room, with the gallons of beer and sweat soaked into it.
Today the main focus for recordings seems to be on the post-recording side, with all that re-amping and editing going on, but that is something I really don´t understand. How can I play a guitar track, without hearing the final sound? I could play an acoustic guitar or a banjo as well, reamp it with two Triple Rectifier and there is the next big thing in Melodic Death-Bullshit! WTF??
Our next record will be recorded the very same way as the first, with the only difference, that we will use better microphones to get a less muddier sound.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
FRANK DAMAGER: The lyrics are written by NIKO, JO or me and everyone has different approach to the lyrics, so I can speak for myself. I write lyrics about my thoughts about life, death and spirituality. Though I am not a spiritual person, I like to use occult patterns or metaphors, to point out my view about Humanity in contradiction to divinity, spirit in contradiction to matter, religion in contradiction to freedom and finally the fatal contradiction between life and death. So for example there is the metaphor of Lucifer as the bringer of light, the bringer of individuality and freedom of will in the song „Enlightenment“. But I would not say, we are a satanic band, at least not in a theistic way. I would describe myself as an atheist, with a morbid fascination for satanism, but even that is not completely fitting. I try to be an individual and develop myself in every shape of my individuality. To me, the development of a conscious individuality, with the power to choose between instinct and consciousness is the most important achievement for mankind and every individual as well. And more or less, that´s what I am writing about in the lyrics. We are going to release a lyrics video for the song „Enlightenment“ on our Youtube-channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DamageSourceMetal
JO FINGERGRINDER: Inspiration for me is life itself and the human habit to make someone else responsible for their situation.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Damage Source‘?
FRANK DAMAGER: Well, actually the main inspiration was to find an name, that has not been used yet, so back in 2007 we spent hours of searching the internet with a long list of names and words, and finally DAMAGE SOURCE was the one left. It sounded good, looked good as a logo, so we took it. Besides that, there is no deeper meaning behind it.
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
FRANK DAMAGER: The best show so far was to play with EXHUMED/TOXIC HOLOCAUST at the Underground in our Hometown Cologne. But we enjoy every show, as long as the bands we are playing with are cool people and there are none of the big ego-backstage-performers, you sometimes meet in the modern metal-scene.
Well, our stage performance is just a bunch of old, half-drunk guys, trying to make an evil face…well, not really, but basically it is us playing as intense as we can. We don´t use stage prompts or anything. Just less lights and more power. It is the music, that should be in the focus and people should bang their hands excessively instead of looking at my fat belly struggeling with my guitar.
JO FINGERGRINDER: The best show was definitely the EXHUMED / TOXIC HOLOCAUT gig. And our stage performance is passionate! You should show up, if you have the opportunity and see PLORATOR on stage. He´s a maniac!
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
FRANK DAMAGER: We will play some shows with HUMILIATION from Malaysia here in Germany in October , we will support REPUKED and NEKROFILTH hier ein Cologne, and some more gigs are planned, but not fixed yet. We all have jobs, so unfortunately it is difficult to go on a real tour, but we would really like to. Especially in other countries, but for the moment we play shows at the weekends. For us it is more important, that we like the music of the other bands we are playing with, then if the location is interesting or how big the crowd will be. We will never make any fortune with our music, so we prefer to be with good bands in a small locations to a fine crowd of metalheads instead of playing with some Metalcore bands in front of a bigger crowd of emo-kids, performing karate dancing.
7.Currently the band is unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
FRANK DAMAGER: Of course we would prefer to be on a label, because that would mean less work for us, but it should be a good one, with the same attitude as we have. We do not sign a label contract, just to get signed. Therefore we are organizing everything by ourselves now, wich is not a bad way to handle things nowadays. At least you have total control. With the opportunities of the internet we still can reach fans worldwide and they can order CDs or merchandise via bandcamp (http://damagesource.bandcamp.com). So if we would decide for a label, they should offer something more than this, something we cannot do by ourselves. ….or a shitload of money ;-)
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrash metal?
FRANK DAMAGER: We received a lot of good feedback, good reviews in underground magazines, we receive orders for CDs and stuff from different countries, so it is working quiet well. But especially at our shows, people really give us a good response. To have a bunch of complete strangers headbanging to our tunes, wich they have never heard before, is something, that really makes you proud as a musician.
JO FINGERINDER: Some people get it and some don´t. And it´s great to see the ones at our show headbanging and moshing although they´ve never ever seen or heard us before.
9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
FRANK DAMAGER: We recorded drums for some tracks with our Drummer ULAS SAGLAM, who left the band in the meantime, and we will release some of them digitally, like the lyrics video of „Enlightenment“. For next year we are planning a 7“ or maybe 12“ on vinyl first, and then another CD by the end of 2015, wich will be a full length or at least much longer than the RAISE HELL-EP.
Musically we will maintain our simple, rough and aggressive style, maybe with a bit more Death Metal influences. But it will always contain a whole lot of aggression. You can be sure, that we will keep stripping our songs down to the core, the riff, the essence of the songs and avoid things like never-ending guitar solos or endless repetition of meaningless bridges and stuff, that destroy the dynamics of a song. We will not change our style, because we have battled a long time to develop it.
JO will also have a release with his other band TANKOBOT by the end of this year. Cool thrashy stuff, with a more technical approach, you should check them out. I am writing stuff for a new Doom-project called NAVTIKH, with JO and PLORATOR joining me for the recordings. A release will be mid of next year, earliest.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
FRANK DAMAGER: I initially started playing guitar because of Black Sabbath and still Toni Iommi is a huge influence for me. He is the God of Riffs and he has already played everything, so we all are just bad copies of his style and creativity. I also like a lot of Doom-Bands like Trouble, Candlemass or Saint Vitus, Windhand, Blood Ceremony, but also modern Death Doom bands like Ahab or Isole. Then the Swedish Death Metal like Dismember or Entombed and bands in between all this like like Venenum, Grave Miasma or Nekromantheon.
Finally, of course the German Thrash movement of the early 80ies is a main influence for DAMAGE SOURCE! Bands like Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Living Death, Assassin, together with Venom, Motörhead and the almighty Slayer. While I am writing this, I listen to the new GOATWHORE record, wich is a real killer!
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
FRANK DAMAGER: My main Interest is Heavy Metal Music. Full stop.
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12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
FRANK & JO: Keep supporting underground metal! It is the underground,that keeps the spirit alive! Thank you for supporting DAMAGE SOURCE! Stay Metal!
FRANK DAMAGER: The Band was formed in 2007, but in the first couple of years we had several line-up changes and didn´t get to the point really. So in 2013 after years of getting drunk in the rehearsal room, but not getting anywhere else, it was me, as the last founding member, and Jo Fingergrinder, as the bassplayer for quiet a while to set up the band for a second time. We decided to concentrate on our Old School Thrash/Death-Roots and stripped down our music to the bone and started all over again. The only thing we kept, was the name. We found guitarist NIKO and singer PLORATOR, who gave new life and fresh blood to the band. NIKO with his Death Metal Roots from Bands like Death or Morbid Angel took the riffing in our songs to a new direction. PLORATOR comes from a Black Metal background and is still the singer of the infamous Black Metal band SADISM UNBOUND, celebrating the true evil with their blood soaked performances. (And I really mean blood-soaked, because they use pig blood as corpsepaint for their shows.)
So most of the old DAMAGE SOURCE songs then were dumped or changed completely. It was a total rebirth of the Band in Blood, Death and aggressive Thrash Metal. Since then we keep writing stuff and it´s getting more intense all the time. I am totally happy with the way things were going, even if we still have Spinal Tap-like situation regarding the drums. For the moment Dominick, the Drummer of SADISM UNBOUND is our drummer for live shows. We played a lot of shows with Bands like FUNERAL WHORE, EXHUMED, TOXIC HOLOCAUST or PRIBJAT. And this is exactly where I see the band: In between Death-Metal and Thrash Metal with an aggressive Old School vibe. Like old German Thrash, like Destruction or Kreator´s first records. Like it should be. No nice melodies in the music, no nice things on stage.
JO FINGERGRINDER: Well, the band itself is what it is: 5 guys with the passion for heavy, entertaining old school metal. We all grew up with the thrash and death metal of the nineties. after some lineup changes we got NIKO and PLORATOR into the band and it suddenly took it´s way. We sounded more evil and blacker than before!
2.A year back you had released a demo, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
JO FINGERGRINDER: It sounds the way it sounds. It´s a demo. Nothing more to say about it. No predemo, no frills, just a demo.
FRANK DAMAGER: The Raise HELL-EP are some of the first songs we had written with the new band members back then. We didn´t have a drummer but we urged to have a record out, so we asked a friend of ours, Hannes Feder, who is a professional drummer with a Jazz-Background, to play on the recordings. He listened to the songs for a couple of days, came into our rehearsal room and layed down the drum tracks you hear on the CD within four hours, including setting up the drumkit and the microphones (!). The rest was recorded in our rehearsal room as well, though recorded with a Macbook, it is a rough demo after all, with no expensive studio sound and no copy/paste-stuff. The sound might be a bit too muddy, but well, that´s how it sounded at the recording session! You can almost smell the old carpet in the rehearsal room, with the gallons of beer and sweat soaked into it.
Today the main focus for recordings seems to be on the post-recording side, with all that re-amping and editing going on, but that is something I really don´t understand. How can I play a guitar track, without hearing the final sound? I could play an acoustic guitar or a banjo as well, reamp it with two Triple Rectifier and there is the next big thing in Melodic Death-Bullshit! WTF??
Our next record will be recorded the very same way as the first, with the only difference, that we will use better microphones to get a less muddier sound.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
FRANK DAMAGER: The lyrics are written by NIKO, JO or me and everyone has different approach to the lyrics, so I can speak for myself. I write lyrics about my thoughts about life, death and spirituality. Though I am not a spiritual person, I like to use occult patterns or metaphors, to point out my view about Humanity in contradiction to divinity, spirit in contradiction to matter, religion in contradiction to freedom and finally the fatal contradiction between life and death. So for example there is the metaphor of Lucifer as the bringer of light, the bringer of individuality and freedom of will in the song „Enlightenment“. But I would not say, we are a satanic band, at least not in a theistic way. I would describe myself as an atheist, with a morbid fascination for satanism, but even that is not completely fitting. I try to be an individual and develop myself in every shape of my individuality. To me, the development of a conscious individuality, with the power to choose between instinct and consciousness is the most important achievement for mankind and every individual as well. And more or less, that´s what I am writing about in the lyrics. We are going to release a lyrics video for the song „Enlightenment“ on our Youtube-channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DamageSourceMetal
JO FINGERGRINDER: Inspiration for me is life itself and the human habit to make someone else responsible for their situation.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Damage Source‘?
FRANK DAMAGER: Well, actually the main inspiration was to find an name, that has not been used yet, so back in 2007 we spent hours of searching the internet with a long list of names and words, and finally DAMAGE SOURCE was the one left. It sounded good, looked good as a logo, so we took it. Besides that, there is no deeper meaning behind it.
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
FRANK DAMAGER: The best show so far was to play with EXHUMED/TOXIC HOLOCAUST at the Underground in our Hometown Cologne. But we enjoy every show, as long as the bands we are playing with are cool people and there are none of the big ego-backstage-performers, you sometimes meet in the modern metal-scene.
Well, our stage performance is just a bunch of old, half-drunk guys, trying to make an evil face…well, not really, but basically it is us playing as intense as we can. We don´t use stage prompts or anything. Just less lights and more power. It is the music, that should be in the focus and people should bang their hands excessively instead of looking at my fat belly struggeling with my guitar.
JO FINGERGRINDER: The best show was definitely the EXHUMED / TOXIC HOLOCAUT gig. And our stage performance is passionate! You should show up, if you have the opportunity and see PLORATOR on stage. He´s a maniac!
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
FRANK DAMAGER: We will play some shows with HUMILIATION from Malaysia here in Germany in October , we will support REPUKED and NEKROFILTH hier ein Cologne, and some more gigs are planned, but not fixed yet. We all have jobs, so unfortunately it is difficult to go on a real tour, but we would really like to. Especially in other countries, but for the moment we play shows at the weekends. For us it is more important, that we like the music of the other bands we are playing with, then if the location is interesting or how big the crowd will be. We will never make any fortune with our music, so we prefer to be with good bands in a small locations to a fine crowd of metalheads instead of playing with some Metalcore bands in front of a bigger crowd of emo-kids, performing karate dancing.
7.Currently the band is unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
FRANK DAMAGER: Of course we would prefer to be on a label, because that would mean less work for us, but it should be a good one, with the same attitude as we have. We do not sign a label contract, just to get signed. Therefore we are organizing everything by ourselves now, wich is not a bad way to handle things nowadays. At least you have total control. With the opportunities of the internet we still can reach fans worldwide and they can order CDs or merchandise via bandcamp (http://damagesource.bandcamp.com). So if we would decide for a label, they should offer something more than this, something we cannot do by ourselves. ….or a shitload of money ;-)
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrash metal?
FRANK DAMAGER: We received a lot of good feedback, good reviews in underground magazines, we receive orders for CDs and stuff from different countries, so it is working quiet well. But especially at our shows, people really give us a good response. To have a bunch of complete strangers headbanging to our tunes, wich they have never heard before, is something, that really makes you proud as a musician.
JO FINGERINDER: Some people get it and some don´t. And it´s great to see the ones at our show headbanging and moshing although they´ve never ever seen or heard us before.
9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
FRANK DAMAGER: We recorded drums for some tracks with our Drummer ULAS SAGLAM, who left the band in the meantime, and we will release some of them digitally, like the lyrics video of „Enlightenment“. For next year we are planning a 7“ or maybe 12“ on vinyl first, and then another CD by the end of 2015, wich will be a full length or at least much longer than the RAISE HELL-EP.
Musically we will maintain our simple, rough and aggressive style, maybe with a bit more Death Metal influences. But it will always contain a whole lot of aggression. You can be sure, that we will keep stripping our songs down to the core, the riff, the essence of the songs and avoid things like never-ending guitar solos or endless repetition of meaningless bridges and stuff, that destroy the dynamics of a song. We will not change our style, because we have battled a long time to develop it.
JO will also have a release with his other band TANKOBOT by the end of this year. Cool thrashy stuff, with a more technical approach, you should check them out. I am writing stuff for a new Doom-project called NAVTIKH, with JO and PLORATOR joining me for the recordings. A release will be mid of next year, earliest.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
FRANK DAMAGER: I initially started playing guitar because of Black Sabbath and still Toni Iommi is a huge influence for me. He is the God of Riffs and he has already played everything, so we all are just bad copies of his style and creativity. I also like a lot of Doom-Bands like Trouble, Candlemass or Saint Vitus, Windhand, Blood Ceremony, but also modern Death Doom bands like Ahab or Isole. Then the Swedish Death Metal like Dismember or Entombed and bands in between all this like like Venenum, Grave Miasma or Nekromantheon.
Finally, of course the German Thrash movement of the early 80ies is a main influence for DAMAGE SOURCE! Bands like Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Living Death, Assassin, together with Venom, Motörhead and the almighty Slayer. While I am writing this, I listen to the new GOATWHORE record, wich is a real killer!
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
FRANK DAMAGER: My main Interest is Heavy Metal Music. Full stop.
Hide message history
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
FRANK & JO: Keep supporting underground metal! It is the underground,that keeps the spirit alive! Thank you for supporting DAMAGE SOURCE! Stay Metal!
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