Roarback! A name you’d best get familiar with. These Danish thrashers are only just out of their teens and have released a total banger of a debut album with ‘Echoes Of Pain’.
Ave Noctum caught up with vocalist Dennis Ullehus for a quick natter. Don’t be a ‘sad sexual harassment panda’……. Read on!
AN: Hi Dennis thanks for the interview and congratulations on the new album, it’s great.
Why don’t you tell us how the band got together?
DU: No problem and thank you very much! Well it was basically our two guitarists Dixø and Rohde who was looking for people to make a Thrash band by placing adverts on the internet and that is how me and Kåre joined up. Mikkel was in the same class as Rohde and that is how we got him. There is no fancy or heroic way we found each other and made the band hehe. But Kåre didn’t really know any metal bands other then Metallica and Pantera and Mikkel didn’t even know the word heavy metal, so we kind of did a good job with those two, didn’t we?
AN: Where did the name ‘Roarback’ come from?
DU: We don’t even know. We went through like 50 band names and finally all agreed and Roarback because it sounded cool and old…. or did we really just steal the name from Sepultura’s album Roorback?!?!?!?! Muhuhahahaha
AN: What’s the metal scene like in Denmark? Are there many young thrash bands like yourselves?
DU: Yes and no, the Thrash scene in Denmark is definitely growing as we speak but all these Thrash bands like ourselves are like max 5 years old or so? Sure we got Artillery and Hatesphere but that is it!
Our scene in Denmark is pretty much Metalcore and Deathmetal… A lfew folk and black bands here and there. To be honest, the Danish metal scene makes me a sad sexual harassment panda.
AN: What are your plans for touring the new album?
DU: We are trying to plan a Danish tour at first and see how that goes but I really don’t know when we are doing this tour, all I know is that we are doing it soon?! and then we hope to do a world tour by asking Sepultura to take us with them because we stole their album name? Or hope that the Best and Most Brutal band ever DETHKLOK will see us worthy and make us their klokateers!
AN: If you could go out on tour with any band, who would it be?
DU: DETHKLOK!!!
AN: You sound so old school yet are all very young, what are your top ten favourite thrash albums?
DU: That is a good question. We all like different music in the band and also different Thrash albums! But I guess the list might look like this but in a random order!:
Reign in Blood – Slayer
Season in the abyss – Slayer
Kill em all – Metallica
Ride the Lightning – Metallica
Time is up – Havok
Killing is my business and business is good – Megadeth
End game – Megadeth
Damnation formation – Testament
Beneath the Remains – Sepultura
Arise – Sepultura
Most of these are my favourite Thrash albums
AN: Dennis your vocals are brutal, they really remind me of Peter from Vader, how do you produce such a noise from such a young larynx?
DU: Well thank you hehe. I guess it all comes down to practice a lot and warm up your voice before you sing, and I always push myself further to make my vocals even more brutal because it makes it even easier to sing the way I do for longer periods. I am also working on even more extreme vocals to use in our newer material to catch a more brutal and devouring atmosphere in a couple of new songs. I like to experiment and develop myself to add new elements to our music. But one thing is sure, you will not here me growl in Roarback! you will only hear me ROOOOAAAAARRR hahahaha…
AN: Who was responsible for the album artwork? Reminds me of some of the old record sleeves from the 80’s.
DU: It is Andrei Bouzikov. He is a great guy and really easy to work with! I would love to work with him again!
AN: What do you think of the current state of the metal scene?
DU: I don’t know and I really don’t care, It bores me all the new bands. Their sound is ridiculous perfect and boring, and you have heard all their music before just like ours… Hmm do I really hate my own music then? haha. I mostly listen to old bands because their music is usually more simple catchy and I like that…
AN: Any final words for the Ave Noctum readers?
DU: Remember to brush your teeth and neuter your pets.
(Interview by Mark Eve)
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