The end of the world could come in many forms; war, famine, plague, meteors, climate change, natural and ecological disaster, zombies, Vogon Constructor Fleets. One thing seems ever more assured though and that is that the end is indeed nigh. This is something that Swiss band Coldcell have contemplated in their new opus ‘The Greater Evil’ an album that lays the blame very much at mankind themselves and humanities selfishness. We caught up with aW (drums), S (vocals), w4 (guest vocals) from the band in their secret underground bunker to ask about their music and ideas as well as what is going on in their own country at the moment. Are we all doomed, is there no escape? Find out here.
AN: Firstly, congratulations on the new album. You don’t seem to be alone right now though as far as extreme music releases are concerned from Switzerland. In the last few weeks there have also been albums from Ungfell, Paysage D’Hiver, Stortregn and Borgne to name just a few. Would you agree there is a lot of creativity from the country at the moment and if so, why do you think that is?
aW: Thanks a lot! I guess that’s a tough question to answer. Obviously, there’s a lot of shit bands everywhere, means also in Switzerland. I don’t name any of them, that would only be free PR. But yes, there’s also a wide range of cool, authentic, creative and innovative acts. The ones you named (cheers to Sergio from Borgne and Romain from Störtregn!) plus other Helvetic Underground Committee-related bands such as Lykhaeon or Dakhma. Some of these bands have already been active for quite a long while and have been very creative in that time under various constellations; some are younger and new. Fresh blood is important, but also established acts (Bölzer & Triptykon for example). Maybe due to Covid, bands have (or had) more time to focus and put all the energy completely into creating new stuff, since there has been no opportunity to get distracted by live shows. But’s that’s only a personal hypothesis.
AN: Is there much of a common affinity between yourselves and other artists in Switzerland, would you consider you all share similar ideals and grounds or are things more fragmented with everyone split up and doing their own thing?
aW: There are some personal relations and friendships to individuals playing in other bands, and somehow, everyone knows everyone, because Switzerland is not that big. As soon as a truly inspired new act rises up, you’ll have it in sight. I also got the impression that all the childish gossip and bitch-talk within the scene has slightly decreased; besides some old farts no one cares about. I personally re-gained my interest concerning the Swiss scene and Swiss bands as well as Black Metal in general. Maybe a midlife-crisis, haha. Speaking ColdCell: We are and have always been completely autonomous and autarkic within our own small cosmos.
w4: Back in the day, joining ColdCell as somebody from abroad, I must confirm what aW describes. There was, at the time more backstabbing and envy in the scene, than I was used to from the frosty north. I have the feeling the scene has matured though in the last few years, with people realising that a rising tide lifts all ships. From the start where I met ColdCell, it was clear, they do their own thing, musically and otherwise. There are some musical and personal connections. Schammasch being the most obvious one, Ashtar being another example.
AN: I am sure I am not alone in being fascinated by an area’s shadowy underground and organisations that gather from within it. Switzerland has The Helvetic Underground Committee and I was wondering what your thoughts were on such an organisation? Have you had any dealings with them or are they more of a closed off community? Would you be interested in joining their cause as such, would they have you, or would you perhaps consider it more a case of simply elitist underground snobbery?
aW: As long as creative energy rises from such a community, I am fine with it. Personally, I was involved in similar organizations years and years ago. In the end, it was a clash of egos instead of focussing on promoting the art of Black Metal. But does Black Metal need that sort of promotion? I’m not sure. And I also don’t really mind, to be honest. I know a few guys from the H.U.C., and all I can say is that there seems to be a lot of ideas, a lot of enthusiasm and also serious extremism for the art. For us as a band, there haven’t been any dealings so far.
w4: Everyone has their clique they prefer to work with. Every scene has a group of friends or like-minded people who form a feedback loop of ideas and creativity. Give it a name and you are the new Black Inner Circle. I´ve seen weak people hide behind this kind of elitism of course, but it usually backfires. Keep pushing yourself and taking the criticism of people you trust seriously, and maybe what you and your friends make won´t sound like shit. There is power in a community like that, just be careful not to hide behind it, because that usually means you didn´t earn it.
AN: We can’t really go further without mentioning Covid, how have you coped through the pandemic? What has it meant for you both personally and as a band and how have you coped with its challenges?
S: Since we are actually all rather withdrawn individuals, we did not have so many difficulties on a personal level. Some had more time for their families and were less able to escape from there – others were already alone and had more time for themselves, haha. But at some point I also miss a good old concert as a guest or to be able to act out myself on stage again. As a band we also got through relatively well. Our recordings for the album were hardly affected because we were pretty quick with the recording and that at a time when it wasn’t all too difficult. When personal meetings became less frequent, we still had the energy to rehearse and try out and discuss new ideas for the future.
AN: Switzerland for an outsider looking in seems to be a very organised and controlled country, perhaps that has something to do with military service, maybe you completely disagree with that though? How has the country as a whole dealt with Covid and where would you consider yourselves to be right now in the grand scheme of things with levels of infection, freedoms and borders opening up?
aW: “Controlled” is a very fitting adjective. “Organised”, “calm”, “regular”, rational”, “conservative”, “focused on security”. I don’t think this is due to military service though. This institution has lost more and more of its importance. Believe me, I am far away from being a patriot (not only due to I’m half Italian), but speaking for Switzerland in general, this country offers a lot of stability for its citizens, a working democratic system. On the other hand, Switzerland is over-bureaucratical, sometimes Kafkaesque-slow and absorbing, our banks deal with the money of basically every corrupt person in the world and we also have some really disgusting, nasty political actors. Still, I guess being born in Switzerland is a benefit, which was also proven due this pandemic (I won’t bore you with the details right now). At the moment, we are re-opening almost everything but cultural institutions (which is a shame), infection rates are decreasing constantly, so do the numbers of hospitalizations and fatal casualties. We can already see the vaccination’s effect, so I guess the worst is over at the moment. Still, there are weekly demonstrations of Corona-deniers, conspiracy theory-assholes, Eco-hippies walking side by side with Nazis and other disgusting scum. Corona definitely hasn’t revealed the nicest face of our society.
AN: As I mentioned I remember the band releasing debut album ‘Generation Abomination’ back in 2013. What were your ideas back then and what did you hope to achieve, would you say that you have progressed in a fashion that has met your expectations back then?
S: Generation Abomination was a cut in the history of the predecessor band called Atritas for which it is was initially written. It’s the first album I participated in a way and took over the vocal part. I remember joining the project relatively close to the recording process and tried to mimic the spirit and style in some parts, but it felt different and maybe a bit wrong. We closed that chapter of Atritas and released that album as a cornerstone for ColdCell to mark a change and a new beginning (although that album still heavily breathes Atritas). Without any hard feelings we pushed away the burden of that old band and felt eager to try new stuff as the later musical output might tell. A musical progression without any expectations that had to be met.
w4: I remember joining the Band on the eve of “LowLife”, where the material for “Those” was being written. Ath was writing both guitar parts at that time, since I was still in the progress of learning the old songs. Knowing that I wrote songs for the bands I was in back in Iceland, Ath was very open about me writing my own guitar parts for the songs, and that what he was writing was just a suggestion. And you know, I actually enjoy doing exactly that; writing melodies over melodies. But each time he showed me what he had written as a “suggestion” for the second guitar I was just: “Yes, this is it, I would not have come up with anything close to this.” So, for me, the first shift is from Atritas to ColdCell, with Generation Abomination, but the second important shift is from “LowLife” to “Those”, where Ath started polyphoning both guitar parts!
AN: I missed the next couple of albums but there seems to be a common theme running through them leading up to The Greater Evil. It seems as though you consider there is an enemy the ‘Those’ that you talk of whose greed and selfish control have led up to the state of the world right now. It also strikes much more as fact than fiction to anyone who is sensible and looking at the overall picture. Is this the basis of the underlying narrative of the themes in your music and would you care to elaborate on them?
S: Shame! (accompanied by ringing of some small bells) You are right in a way. The lyrical themes are connected, although not every song text was written by the same person. But, I guess we shared in that moment similar backgrounds and had discussions and beer over different topics that moved us. “Those” are not very much unlike you and me. We don’t intend to draw a picture of an invisible evil, maybe a conspiracy of a new world order that only a minority of “enlightened people” know of. When we, or I write about “those” there are more sides to it. It’s easy to say “It’s the evil they do” when in fact it also includes us and our own doings. I like to rant about what’s going amiss and why we are doomed when I very well know myself as a part. It puts me in a way of overthinking my own lifestyle and at the same time I can pose to be an unethical, unthinking and uncaring part of society. (In secret I only wished to be a Vogon and blabber my murderous poetry out to the world. Sorry, but you started that – in addition this line was written on Towel Day 2021.)
w4: With regard to your first question: Yes.
With regard to your second question: No
AN: There were four years between ‘Those’ and ‘The Greater Evil’ not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things but was this caused by any particular challenges or were you just looking at perfecting things? Do you think you have done so and is the album one you consider a major step up from its predecessor?
S: Sometimes things just take longer. We don’t want to wear any harness that forces us to write and release an album in a specific rhythm. Sometimes personal affairs are more important than working on new music, like growing a family or parting from loved ones etc.
However, I think all circumstances in your life can form you and influence you in a specific mind-set. Musical wise I think an album benefits from a longer creational progress. For me it’s hard to tell if this album is a huge or major step up as I like them both, but it’s a step up all the same.
AN: You have classed yourselves as “Extinctions Advocates” which is certainly a fitting moniker from what I have heard? It’s all very well to herald the apocalypse and as a band playing extreme music to say you can’t wait for the end of the world but is this truly what anyone wants? Mankind deserves their fate for sure but when one thinks of the wider picture especially those that have children, they would not seriously wish for the end of everything, or would they? Heavy question perhaps, discuss?
S: Are you calling out an extreme metal band on a lyrical conclusion they put up in their work, how dare you? The wording “Extinctions Advocates” is influenced by the activists from “Extinctions Rebellion” being more present in my perception and me reading or having heard about the political idea of accelerationism. As I hope I stated earlier, I like to take not only the side of the accuser of things going wrong but also the side of the “evildoer” that can’t grasp the whole picture of his/her very own vile evil – in this case to forget about the younger ones and future generations. There might be a glimpse of hope. Nature is having its way but mankind as a part of it will find a way through all the struggle it put itself into… or be done.
AN: The subject matter is obviously heavily represented in not just reality and music but also film and literature, where else do you take inspiration from and do you have any favourite examples?
S: Although reality should actually be enough to make various thoughts about yourself or those trapped in this social construct, I still like to spend time escaping from it. The distraction can then also be inspirational. I find strong emotions, profound and sometimes repulsive ideas in films well implemented and transported by Lars von Trier (Melancholia, Antichrist) and Gaspar Noé (Irréversible). From popular literature, of course, the works of George Orwell were important and, if I don’t want to think so much about the world and the unimportance of my own life, I lose myself in the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Douglas Adams.
w4: What I felt, being part of ColdCell, both at practice and on stage, was a connectedness with the desolation of being human, for better or worse, at this stage in time. Cold automation, distancing of people, meaningless self-indulgence, greed, a longing for meaning. I think this disillusionment, and the anger it carries with it, is a big influence musically and lyrically (for me at least)
AN: Another factor unless I am mistaken is that four core members of the band have stayed in the established line up with just one person leaving during the time you have been active. Would you say that is shared ideals, values and goals that have kept you together over this time?
aW: It’s true, four core-members survived our journey. Well, actually three, but more to that later. But yes, absolutely. We are extremely diverse as individuals, but when it comes to ColdCell, the heads responsible for the creative source fit together like twins or triplets. In and Ath have been creating music for decades and are still able to come up with fresh and thrilling ideas. For the crazy stuff, we have our not-so-silent ghost member w4 who supplements the extreme mixture. Ideals and values… there is a certain concordance between us, at least when it comes to topics concerning the coherence of ColdCell. I think what kept us together is a strong vision for ColdCell, where the individual steps back automatically. It’s about art and its message, not about the creator(s).
AN: The new album has seen you join the ranks of French label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre, a mark of quality as far as their roster is concerned in my books. How did this come about, did you approach them or them you and what has it meant for you in a band and furthering things for the future?
S: That story of how we applied (we simply had sent them our album and it clicked) is not as exciting as being a part of Les Acteurs de l’Ombre! For us, LADLO is the perfect choice, excellent communication, complete artistic freedom, top PR campaign, delicious roster and finally our first vinyl record.
AN: Once this mess is all over, I expect you are busting to play live again. I just wondered how active you had been on this front before and whether you have played much outside Switzerland in the past. Is it difficult sharing a drummer with Schammasch who are quite active on this front?
aW: We have not been that active on the live front in the past; it’s not that easy for a band on the level of ColdCell to get lots of attractive stage opportunities. I hope this is going to change with “The Greater Evil”, because that album deserves a wider spreading than happening in the past. As you mention: It was and is always a big challenge to play in Schammasch besides ColdCell (or the other way around). I have a personal life as well. For that and several other reasons, we came to the decision – as a collective – that I’m going to leave ColdCell after the release of the new record. No bad blood, just the way things go. So, you have the incredible honour to receive my answers for the very last interview I am going to do for ColdCell, haha.
AN: What are your plans for the future, that is of course if we have one! Have you thought about further recorded work, normally by the time an album is actually released ideas have gestated? It is even possible to get together right now to practice and start formulating plans for recording?
S: My uneducated guess is that mankind will make it a few more years and there is still some prolific energy left in us so we will definitely continue working on new ideas to tear us and the world apart.
w4: Following up “the Greater Evil” with live performances is the current priority. aW will join us in a release show later this year. We are in discussion with potential replacements for further batterie duties, but filling his shoes won´t be easy!
AN: The world is ending, there is absolutely no scope for survival, that meteorite is going to hit and wipe us out, think Melancholia perhaps… You have 24 hours left; how would you spend it?
aW: There’s only one option: Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Excess ‘til the very end.
S: Rejoice! And hoping to spend some good last hours – some quality time either alone or with friends.
w4: Watching Pink Floyd live in Pompeii one last time.
AN: Thanks for answering my questions, should you ever get the opportunity to play London which hardly looks likely right now what with the double whammy of Covid and Brexit I will be there without a doubt.
S: Thank you for having us, cheers!
(Interview Pete Woods)
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