EVOKED DOOM interview
with Sherron done by me in February 2007
1. When and why had Evoked Doom originally started? What were your influences and faves at that period of time? What inspired you to start with Evoked Doom?
As far as I remember, we were all Metal Kids in our school and we always wanted to start a Band. That was around 84 or 85. The Mantas Demo was certainly a big influence. I remember, we named our first "Band" PAIN, and I was drawing a Logo on my schooltable which looked like the DEATH logo back then (with the Spider and 666). Noone could really play an instrument and we were just making noise without any sense. I haven't heard that ED rehearsal tape, but I guess that must be something from that period. Later on we changed the name into Evoked Doom. Can't remember who came up with that name. I was listening to a lot of Metal with Satanic lyrics back then. There was no term like Black Metal and the Bands sounded way different than these days. Mainly we were into Hellhammer, Death/Mantas, Venom, Bathory, Mayhem NYC (before they turned into a Straight Edge Hardcoreband), Mercyful Fate. Everyone back then made some noise and we had all those sort of "Bands" like H'ELHAMER, SWÄLLÖH & SDÖF, COMMANDO, EGGCUTTER ... whatever ... sitting at home and use the taperecorder for our weird noise. Hammering on Boxes and shredding guitars.
2. Is the band name influenced by Hellhammer song “Evoked Damnation”? Were you Necromantic Union member (Hellhammer fanclub)? No, we weren't in that Hellhammer fanclub. But we were all obsessed with Hellhammer back then. Like I said, I can't remember who came up with the name and where it came from. Could be, that we took it from that Hellhammer song.
3. Did you have many contacts in underground back in 80s? I have seen you featured in magazines like Decibel Of Death and Blackthorn etc. Did you send demos out to many magazines? How was the feedback back then? Mostly positive or negative? For example Metal Forces magazine used Evoked Doom name as “bad example” in Death interview in 1987. Did you get letters from Eastern block countries?
Oh yeah, I had massive contacts all over the world in the early and mid 80's. I remember writing letters since 82 or 83. I ordered Demos from everywhere. People like Rock'n'Rolf (RUNNING WILD), Gerre (TANKARD), Tommy (ex-DESTRUCTION) sent me their demos before they ever released anything on Vinyl. I was in touch with Killjoy (NECROPHAGIA) or Euronymous (MAYHEM Norway) ... back then the Scene wasn't that big, and everyone knew each other.
I sent out some copies of our Demo just for the fun of it. Looking back it's ridiculous, but at that time we were kind of serious with it. And certainly we mostly got really bad reviews in the zines, but some people also digged it – God, or better Satan, knows why haha ...
Yeah, I found that Metal Forces Interview with Death allready on the Internet. It's somehow funny ... I totaly understand it ...
I'm not sure if we got letters from the Eastern Block. In the early 80's it was kind of hard to get in touch with Eastern States.
4. Can you name Evoked Doom discography? (demos, rehearsals)
Like I said, I haven't heard that rehearsal some people talk about. We never practised with Evoked Doom and we only recorded one Demo tape with those 2 Songs and 3 intros. Actually, that was done in one evening.
5. Your 1986 demo is the most well-known for underground thrashers. What was the response at that time? Frank Krynojewski from Warhammer drew logo and demo cover is the fact that not many know.
It's funny, I saw those Warhammer CDs and read the name Frank Krynojewski ... that was a total Flashback, as I certainly remember him doing the Artwork for our Demo. I wasn't in touch with him back then. Zombie did write with him. Now I am in a loose contact with Frank. Unfortunatly Warhammer split up a few years ago. They did reform last year, but without Frank. I saw them on a Festival in November, and I totaly enjoyed it. I wished Frank would still be a part of it, but things change I guess. I meet Frank once in a year at the Rock Hard Festival. He works now for a Merchandising Company and is still a total Hellhammer Freak! And still looks like Martin Ain haha ...
anyway, back to the Demo ... the response in the Mags were horrible (for a good reason) but I got in touch with many thrashers around the world who really liked it.
6. Did you send your demo to any labels? Did you dream about record deal at all?
No, I never thought about a record deal. Even we were kinda serious with it, we knew that it's too bad to get it to a wider audience. But that was okay ... we had our fun and we met new people. This is still the main reason I make music these days. I love meeting new people!
7. Did you play live?
No, we never practised and we never played live ... it's like Bathory haha ... but at least we are all still alive!
8. Did you give many interviews to magazines? Do you remember in which magazines you were featured? Did you have somekinda “newsletter” promoting the band?
Actually I would have say no to the newsletter, but you sent me a scan of it, so it must be true haha ... I really can't remember about this. I think we gave 1 – 2 interviews. One was for a zine in Belgium ... hm, can't remember the name at the moment. I have to check my old zine box ...
9. I have seen 3 different Evoked Doom logos. Please comment it :)
I know about 2 Logos. The Demo Logo was drawn by Frank. Before that we had a different one which was made by myself. There is also a design with a skull, cross and pentagram ... that was made by myself too. To tell the truth, the Skull was "stolen" from an Italian Metal Band called ASTAROTH and I was adding the little spikes as I was allready into Hardcore like CORROSION OF CONFORMITY (remember their skull?).
10. What was the situation with band members? I mean two original members were called Sherron and Zombie. The other musicians changed quite often. I read somewhere that at certain point of time you had even 7 members in the band? Do you know what other band members are doing nowadays?
The main Evoked Doom members were Zombie and myself. Okay, so here I open the Top Secret of those days haha ... the guitarists on the Demo are my brother and a friend from back then. My brother played in a Metal Band called AGENT ORANGE (not to be confused with the Skate Punk Band from US). These days he has his Judas Priest Tribute Band called JUST PRIEST. He is still very active. Don't know what the other guitarist is doing these days. He was working at a Music Shop. And the drummer was – like everyone should hear – a Drumcomputer. The other members are somehow gone and I don't know where ... one Member Arre has his own Band called ARE and is playing Biker Rock. But I can't remember, if he was in E.D. or only in PAIN. Zombie doesn't do anything as far as I know. I haven't seen him for the last 20 years. I heard he was practising with some friends lately.
And for myself ... after E.D. layed to rest, I took some other friends back then and formed a noisey Hardcore Band called FURIOUS RANKNESS. I started to play drums, and after we saw NAPALM DEATH in 1987, we tried to get that fast too ... unfortunatly I'm really bad in playing fast haha ... but we recorded a Demo and we even played a couple of Shows around 1988 ... we split up 1989 and the guitarist and myself formed DECONTROL who turned into CLUSTER BOMB UNIT a few months later. I still play in CBU and we are doing pretty good these days. Had releases and tours all over the world ...
11. What was your relation with the Deathfuck people? You were from the same town? Is there Evoked Doom band picture on backcover of Deathfuck magazine?
They were from Reutlingen, which is about 30 minutes from where we lived. We were hanging out quite often with them. Stefan Straush was a really good drawing artist and he made all the layouts for the Deathfuck zine. The picture on the Backcover isn't Evoked Doom, that's POISON from Ulm. Another legendary Noiseband from that time. We met them a couple of times on Shows and we stayed in touch. But haven't heard from them since the mid 80's.
10. What was the situation with band members? I mean two original members were called Sherron and Zombie. The other musicians changed quite often. I read somewhere that at certain point of time you had even 7 members in the band? Do you know what other band members are doing nowadays?
The main Evoked Doom members were Zombie and myself. Okay, so here I open the Top Secret of those days haha ... the guitarists on the Demo are my brother and a friend from back then. My brother played in a Metal Band called AGENT ORANGE (not to be confused with the Skate Punk Band from US). These days he has his Judas Priest Tribute Band called JUST PRIEST. He is still very active. Don't know what the other guitarist is doing these days. He was working at a Music Shop. And the drummer was – like everyone should hear – a Drumcomputer. The other members are somehow gone and I don't know where ... one Member Arre has his own Band called ARE and is playing Biker Rock. But I can't remember, if he was in E.D. or only in PAIN. Zombie doesn't do anything as far as I know. I haven't seen him for the last 20 years. I heard he was practising with some friends lately.
And for myself ... after E.D. layed to rest, I took some other friends back then and formed a noisey Hardcore Band called FURIOUS RANKNESS. I started to play drums, and after we saw NAPALM DEATH in 1987, we tried to get that fast too ... unfortunatly I'm really bad in playing fast haha ... but we recorded a Demo and we even played a couple of Shows around 1988 ... we split up 1989 and the guitarist and myself formed DECONTROL who turned into CLUSTER BOMB UNIT a few months later. I still play in CBU and we are doing pretty good these days. Had releases and tours all over the world ...
11. What was your relation with the Deathfuck people? You were from the same town? Is there Evoked Doom band picture on backcover of Deathfuck magazine?
They were from Reutlingen, which is about 30 minutes from where we lived. We were hanging out quite often with them. Stefan Straush was a really good drawing artist and he made all the layouts for the Deathfuck zine. The picture on the Backcover isn't Evoked Doom, that's POISON from Ulm. Another legendary Noiseband from that time. We met them a couple of times on Shows and we stayed in touch. But haven't heard from them since the mid 80's.
12. Was the South-West part of Germany some kind of death metal centre in Germany back in 1985/86?
I think there were some crazy metalheads in
Reutlingen, Burladingen, Pforzheim area. Many deathmags and extreme bands came
from this part of Germany (Devils Poison, Deathfuck, Evoked Doom, Outrage etc).
I think the Ruhrpott area was quite bigger at that time, but comparing to the size of cities like Dortmund or Essen, we were also very big here, as we all lived in tiny villages on the country side. The next big city is Stuttgart and that's an hour from here. So we were all good organized and met each other on shows. I'm still sometimes in touch with Chris Münch of Devils Poison. I meet him from time to time on Metal Shows in our area. It's good to see some of the old school people are still around and are still the same like 25 years ago haha ...
13. What did you think of extreme Metal in the late 80s? How did you see the death metal trend in the beginning of 90s and black metal revival few years later?
If it comes to extreme Metal or even Black Metal, I pretty much only dig the early Bands. I don't like what Death did after their demos, and I don't like all those 90's Black Metal Bands. There are a few "new ones" which I like to hear, but that's very rare. One of the outstanding Black Metal Bands for me these days are NAGLFAR. Or I'm also into Viking stuff like AMON AMARTH – they are good friends and a nice bunch of folks! Death Metal generally became too technical and I like the early Florida style like OBITUARY, MORBID ANGEL or MASSACRE. I don't really dig all those Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal Bands. I still like basic Black or Death Metal.
I think the Ruhrpott area was quite bigger at that time, but comparing to the size of cities like Dortmund or Essen, we were also very big here, as we all lived in tiny villages on the country side. The next big city is Stuttgart and that's an hour from here. So we were all good organized and met each other on shows. I'm still sometimes in touch with Chris Münch of Devils Poison. I meet him from time to time on Metal Shows in our area. It's good to see some of the old school people are still around and are still the same like 25 years ago haha ...
13. What did you think of extreme Metal in the late 80s? How did you see the death metal trend in the beginning of 90s and black metal revival few years later?
If it comes to extreme Metal or even Black Metal, I pretty much only dig the early Bands. I don't like what Death did after their demos, and I don't like all those 90's Black Metal Bands. There are a few "new ones" which I like to hear, but that's very rare. One of the outstanding Black Metal Bands for me these days are NAGLFAR. Or I'm also into Viking stuff like AMON AMARTH – they are good friends and a nice bunch of folks! Death Metal generally became too technical and I like the early Florida style like OBITUARY, MORBID ANGEL or MASSACRE. I don't really dig all those Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal Bands. I still like basic Black or Death Metal.
14. I think many death-heads turned into
hardcore in years 1987-88. At least I have got such impression. Why Evoked Doom
disbanded all of sudden?
Yep, that's totaly true. Pretty much everyone I know from back then got into Hardcore. To tell the truth I was allready into Punk / Hardcore when we recorded the E.D. Demo. The first track on the Demo was misspelled and should be called "Suicidal Tendencies" ... in the Tapetrading Days I got loads of good Hardcore stuff like Siege, Heresy, Extreme Noise Terror, Inferno, Outo and certainly Suicidal Tendencies. Metal became too lame and wasn't extreme enough anymore. Even stuff like Slayer, Exodus, Hirax, Tormentor, Possessed, Living Death etc. wasn't enough to fullfill our needs for extreme music. In 1987 Napalm Death did their first Tour in Germany. The audience were mainly Metal Heads, and we ALL got blown away about their speed and madness they brought on stage. This was the turning point for pretty much everyone I know who got from Metal into Hardcore.
I think E.D. disbanded, because we got out of school and lost the contact to each other. I was getting too much into the Punk / Hardcore thing and wanted to make a new Band with real musicians.
And the last words:
Yep, that's totaly true. Pretty much everyone I know from back then got into Hardcore. To tell the truth I was allready into Punk / Hardcore when we recorded the E.D. Demo. The first track on the Demo was misspelled and should be called "Suicidal Tendencies" ... in the Tapetrading Days I got loads of good Hardcore stuff like Siege, Heresy, Extreme Noise Terror, Inferno, Outo and certainly Suicidal Tendencies. Metal became too lame and wasn't extreme enough anymore. Even stuff like Slayer, Exodus, Hirax, Tormentor, Possessed, Living Death etc. wasn't enough to fullfill our needs for extreme music. In 1987 Napalm Death did their first Tour in Germany. The audience were mainly Metal Heads, and we ALL got blown away about their speed and madness they brought on stage. This was the turning point for pretty much everyone I know who got from Metal into Hardcore.
I think E.D. disbanded, because we got out of school and lost the contact to each other. I was getting too much into the Punk / Hardcore thing and wanted to make a new Band with real musicians.
And the last words:
that H'EL'HAM'ER project was me and
Chris Roth ... I can't even remember the year haha ...
Shit! But what a piece of an interview I happen to find here! And it's not for less! With the very little information one can find about such a rarely seen act such as Evoked Doom. When are you releaseing the second part? It's something mandatory(please), since it all was left in the same part in which the project Hel'Ham'er is first mentioned!!!
ReplyDeleteActually there is no 2nd part of this interview... thats all I asked from them. That Hel`ham`er thing was some bedroom noise project, just like he described in 1. answer.
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