Death metal has been around for a few decades now but when Polish band Decapitated came onto the scene, they became innovators on some level and helped steer technical death metal into the foray. Despite some tragedies in the band’s career including the death of founding member and brother of Vogg, Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka, the band continued on and in May they come to Australia with American death metal stalwarts Suffocation in what will be the heaviest metal package of the year. We caught up with Vogg to discuss the tour and their latest album “Blood Mantra”.
Andrew: So the big news for Australian fans is that you guys will be coming to Australia for a great metal package tour with Suffocation. What can we expect on this tour?
Vogg: Well I have to say I’m so excited about touring together with Suffocation and those guys are amazing! I love those guys, we toured a couple times before so we are friends and I’m sure this package with Decapitated and Suffocation is an amazing combination, an amazing lineup and every show on the tour will be great. Especially since Decapitated haven’t played in Australia in over 4 years, since 2010 and Suffocation I know the last time they played in Australia was 2011 so I think it looks very promising. I have this feeling that this tour will be amazing.
Andrew: Yeah I think you will be absolutely right. For death metal fans this is just about the ultimate tour. Whose idea was it to get both bands together on this tour?
Vogg: To be honest I’m not sure. We got this offer from someone but I don’t work with management too much but our management gave us the offer to join Suffocation on the tour in Australia and I was like ‘Sounds like a good idea!’The proposition came one day and I said yeah let’s do it, it’s a great opportunity to tour Australia. We were looking to do a headlining tour too in Australia but we decided to split with Suffocation and I think it makes it even stronger to have those two bands together and I’m sure for the fans they can see both bands in one night so it’s even better.
Andrew: Yeah definitely, as far as extreme metal goes Suffocation and Decapitated are 2 of some of the best bands on the planet. Obviously one American and one European and in death metal there’s quite a bit of a difference. For you personally which do you think is better, European or American as far as death metal is concerned?
Vogg: To be honest I don’t want to say that European or American is better, I think it’s just different. Every death metal school from Europe and America can offer something really cool, something interesting. Of course the U.S. death metal scene especially in Florida together with New York influenced many bands, European bands and also my band. I was influenced by Florida death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide or Death. There’s just so much. But I was also inspired by Polish bands like Vader which represent the European death metal scene. So I think both scenes are great, both work well together and it’s good that you pay attention about Decapitated being European and Suffocation from U.S. splitting forces together. Right now in the U.S. there is a tour with Cannibal Corpse and Behemoth together and what I can see from the facebook page from Behemoth is they have lot’s of sold out shows and many people came to see them play. They represent a different scene, different style but still it fits together perfect. I think with Decapitated and Suffocation it’s the kind of lineup that fits together perfectly. But yeah I think both scenes are great.
Andrew: You are touring on the back of your latest album “Blood Mantra” and it’s been a few months since it’s release. How has the reaction from the fans been on tour and what are your feelings on the album now since it’s release?
Vogg: Yes “Blood Mantra” has been out on the market for 4 months now and it’s still fresh. From what I have seen on tour and we have done tours in the UK, the US and with Behemoth and Gwar and right now we are up to 20 shows in Poland and I have to say the new songs are doing really good. My feeling is it’s the best sounding material from Decapitated ever. Those songs are just sounding killer live and that’s why we love to play new stuff. Even though I know as a fan when I go to see my favorite band I like to see the old songs but we decided to play 5 or 6 new songs every night and I can see that people love this stuff. I can see that they know the songs and that some of them even know the lyrics and the reaction to the new stuff is amazing! Of course if we talk about the reaction from the album, it’s always the same that some people like it and some people are disappointed too. Because on every album we change the style, we find something different and looking for new direction, we make some experiment with the music. It’s always like that, you can’t satisfy 100% of all the fans but anyway the album is doing really well and it’s selling better than the previous album “Carnival Is Forever” and I can truly tell that the reaction for the new album and everything that is going on around the band looks really promising.
Andrew: That’s good to hear. Like you were saying before, it is hard to please all the fans so obviously it’s not something that you keep in mind when you write and record new material?
Vogg: Of course I do think about that but at the same time I try to be out of that kind of stress that I try not to think too much about that I make music that many people…to be honest we are not Motley Crue, we are not AC/DC and Metallica. We are an underground band, a kind of small band but still I know that many people are waiting for our albums so to know that people are waiting for our music, it makes you kind of stressed when you start to compose new material. I think about it when I create the songs but it’s not possiuble to not think about it but at the same time I’m trying to be out of that stress, to just concentrate on what I want to play. The main idea when creating new music is that is has to be music that I want to create, I can’t listen to people and what they want to hear. Of course I play music for people so I want them to be satisfied, I want to make them happy and when they come to a show I want to give them energy. But it has to be done democratically, that I have to be satisfied and people have to be satisfied so it’s a kind of compromise. But people still complain about ‘Oh I had different expectations for this new album from Decapitated’ so it’s all good. I’m OK with people having different opinions about all that. My personal thing about it is I’m really happy about our last album and I so much want to play these songs live and I see that many people really love our last album and that’s all good, that’s enough for me. That’s a motivation in doing this that when I see people coming to the show, that’s a huge motivation that keeps me doing what I am doing and this interview and other interviews and touring Australia with Suffocation. All those things together keeps me alive and kicks my ass in going forward and think about a new album already.
Andrew: Yes and I was going to ask that because in the past you have had some horrible tragedies, what keeps you motivated to keep going and like you said, it’s the fans and making new music and all that. It must be tough to get past all that and still be motivated to keep making new music.
Vogg: Yeah for sure. I think every musician, every rock band, every metal band, every band in the world sooner or later they have this situation where something goes wrong, some accident happens or someone can die. There is a lot of bad moments in their lives that can happen and they can break your life and break your band and destroy your career. What is giving me motivation is for example after the accident where my brother passed away, I was crushed and I didn’t want to play anymore with new people and I take some newspaper or some metal magazine, I open it and see an interview with Meshuggah who while answering the questions, someone asks them about some good new metal bands and they say they like Decapitated and are impressed by the music or something like that. When I see people like that who are respectful for our music, when I see that this music has a fan for the people, when I see an email from a fan and they say thank you for the music it makes my life better, or something like that – that is the motivation. And I have to say that music is my life, touring and playing shows, making music and playing guitar. It’s everything that I have in my life, it’s my passion and it’s good to have a passion in life. I’m really lucky that a long time ago I picked guitar and had this feeling that it’s the best thing in my life. I had this pressure to take the instrument and play and it gives me so much power. That’s a motivation too in keep on going. I’m addicted to playing guitar, I’m addicted to playing shows and being on tour so it would be kind of hard to stop it. It would be not that easy.
Andrew: Yeah because it is your life and it’s what you do. Obviously it would be hard to stop something that has become your main interest. And so you have a new album out and you got a new drummer as well so things seem to be going really good for you guys right now. Is that a feeling within the band that things are better now than ever before?
Vogg: Yes you are definitely right! It looks like because we have done so much work and done all these shows that everything is going in the right direction right now with the lineup. We have a great lineup, I have people around me where we really understand each other and talk about everything and there’s no bullshit between us. That is the most important thing, to feel great with the people you work with and play with and tour with. We have a great sound guy, a great crew and a pretty good album just released. The future looks very promising right now. I mean I don’t look too much into the future but for right now in this moment I have to say Decapitated is going really well and that’s what makes me feel great.
Andrew: That is awesome to hear. You guys are really great and one of the innovators in death metal and we are looking forward to seeing you come to Australia with Suffocation in May. So it’s been a pleasure talking to you and we will see you in a few months!
Vogg: Alright thank you so much man!
