Dimitris Kontogeorgakos from Metal Temple recently conducted an interview with long-time gothic metallers CREMATORY. Markus Jullich and Matthias Hechler discussed the new album and the reasons for the recent split up. Some excerpts can be found below. The entire interview can be found here.

Metal Temple: Do you have in mind the musical direction of the album before you enter the studio?

Jullich: "Actually this is my job as the manager of the band. I think about what can we do with the album and make the master plan. Then we all sit together and discuss about it. Actually, in this album we want to try something new; the headline for the new album -we always use headlines - is gothic thrash metal."

Metal Temple: Can we expect more guitars?

Jullich: "Yes."

Metal Temple: ...less keyboards and electronics?

Jullich: "No electronic stuff. We will only use the Dark keyboard sounds like we did in the Pray album. We will have guitar oriented songs with Thrash Metal sound."

Metal Temple: (addressing to Matthias) Can this be difficult on stage when you want to play this thrash oriented songs? Taking also into account that you are the only guitarist.

Hechler: "No it won’t. Actually this is a good question for the sound technician; you can have a very good sound with one guitar if you split it using a delay you can make it ’wide open.’ It is just a question of mixing. Of course, we also have the keyboards and distorted bass guitar so it sounds great. If we had another guitarist I would earn less money (loud laughs)..."

Jullich: "Well, I have to think about it...."

Hechler: "No way! So, if we had another guitarist it would be too much. Just like another band I know (points to my IRON MAIDEN t-shirt) who have three guitarists and you cannot listen to all of them!"

Metal Temple: Yeah, especially one of them is not actually playing....

Jullich: "Matthias is one of the best guitarists in Europe. There are a lot of bands that want him in their line-up. He is normally a Thrash Metal guitarist. When I asked with to join Crematory back in 1997 I told him: 'You can play with Crematory but play the half that you can. If you don’t do that I will break your arms!'"

(addressing to Matthias) "Did he actually say that?"

Hechler: "Yeah! I just needed one week to learn all the songs for the tour that followed. The previous guitar player [Lothar (Lotte) Forst] -who was also very good- did not play any complicated riffs. He was a gothic metal guitar player and gothic metal just goes dan dan dan. There is nothing in between. But I also learn more for playing less!"

Jullich: "Less is more! We did one step forward in every album and now we think it is time to do the best for everyone. So, I said Matthias to play the best he can!"

Hechler: "I’ve recorded some riffs in my old eight-track -that works very well- and gave them to Markus and he said 'that’s all?' and I said 'that’s more than enough.'"

Jullich: "And I said 'More!'"

Metal Temple: Have you ever been the manager for other bands?

Jullich: "Yes. I also had a publishing and a record company. I was the manager for fifteen bands in the middle of the 90s until 2000. But I do not want to it anymore; it is too much work."

Hechler: "Yeah, it is too much for him especially now with his two children. And this is a new life style!"

Metal Temple: The change of life style was the reason for Crematory to stop existing?

Jullich: "No. We existed since 1991 and at the end of the 90s and the beginning of 2000 there were financial problems. We were living by the music and by that time the illegal downloading hit us hard. At that time we were selling 30% less. Actually now we are selling 50% less and it is not just Crematory; many bands have the same problems."

Hechler: "I think that all this downloading and myspace stuff are good for all the new bands. They can promote themselves without cost but for the professional bands it is a big problem."

Metal Temple: This means that you cannot make money by playing music.

Jullich: "No, not really."

Hechler: "No, we all have regular jobs to make a living."

Jullich: "Now we have Crematory as a professional hobby. We play live only in weekends and continue our ’normal’ lives. When you don’t have money to pay the rent then you have to think how to move on. And this was the reason why we were thinking of quitting Crematory.

On the recent concert in Athens, Greece on March 7th of Crematory performed the following setlist:

'Intro - "Mit Direktem Ubergang'

'Remember'

'Fly'

'Tick Tack'

'Greed'

'Intro - "Klagebilder'

'Pray'

'Hollenbrand'

'Tears Of Time'

'Revolution'

'Intro - "Resurrection'

'Left The Ground'

'Kein Liebeslied'

'Intro - "Shining'

'I Never Die'

'Temple Of Love'

'Perils Of The Wind'