Casket is back in action.
Five years after their comeback EP, the German trio led by Schorsch (guitar/vocals), Susi Z (bass), and Marinko (drums)—supported by Neckbreaker Records—presents its fifth album, In The Long Run We Are All Dead.
The Will To Comply kicks off at a brisk pace, letting Old School riffs and cavernous growls do their work and immediately making us want to bang our heads before spitting out its slower, almost haunting, sticky groove. The track is fairly simple but truly formidable, leading up to a stunning final that finally propels us into Highest Thrones, where the rhythm section takes off at full speed, offering catchy staccato patterns and plenty of shrill harmonics. There are some pretty heavy Brutal Death influences on this track before we get a breather with Mirrors, a sort of disturbing interlude where an alarm bell rings before giving way to Seeds Of Desolation, which sets about assaulting us in turn. The rhythm section is as powerful as ever, placing oppressive Death/Doom touches here and there in the slower moments, while eruptions of violence rain down without warning, just like the abrupt final that leaves us with Hammer, Knife, Spade and its dissonant introduction that turns into a wave of crushing heaviness. The riffs follow one another with the only moment of respite being this mysterious break that quickly gets things going again, then Skull Bunker takes over and offers up some light, lively thrash roots to continue the massacre in proper fashion. The vocals remain fairly consistent, ensuring continuity in the unhealthy tones before giving way to a new break called Necrowaves, which is still in a disturbing register, then Mainstream Mutilation takes over and pours out its heady blast at various speeds to continue the violence. The track leaves no room for mercy and remains very consistent until Fundamental Rot takes its place, first with an anguished intro, then with slow riffs that eventually accelerate to adopt a fairly sustained and catchy cruising rhythm, sometimes punctuated by a few more shrill sounds, such as the deafening finale. We move on to Strangulation Culture, which offers an almost playful tone conducive to catchy riffs, but the leads become more airy towards the end, giving way to the stirring Graveyard Stomper, a perfect composition for live performances that is sure to generate furious headbanging and other crowd movements to energize a set and bring the album to a beautiful close.
Death Metal has taken hold of Casket, allowing the trio to deliver powerful riffs throughout this new batch of compositions. In The Long Run We Are All Dead will be responsible for many sore muscles at the start of this year.
85/100
Hello Schorsch and first of all, thank you very much for your time! How would you describe Casket’s music without using the words “Death Metal” or any kind of subgenre?
Schorsch (guitar/vocals): Bonjour & merci for having me in. I’d describe our sound as an attempt to play Metal in a way that we want to get brutal without taking everything too serious when it comes to the question, which genre drawer may be served.
“Casket” of course perfectly fits a band playing Death Metal, but do you remember how you came up with this name, and how do you link it to the music you play?
Schorsch: I know the reviews are sometimes mentioning that the bandname is present in the Metal scene 50+ times – but I doubt that. But there are one or two dozen maybe, hahaha. And I swear I did not know about any of them beeing present in 1990 when that bandname came into our minds. And it’s a plain grab from Death’s anthem Open Casket of course.
Casket will soon release its new album In The Long Run We Are All Dead, how do you feel about it? Do you already have any feedback?
Schorsch: The feedback of the people around have been positive from the beginning – there is no real negative feedback, of course our stuff is not everyone’s cup of tea as it never was meant to be. The reviews I read so far mirror that, at the moment I may tend to say the new album gets a warm welcome in the scene. The same is true for the response we already got performing the new tunes live on different occasions.
How would you sum In The Long Run We Are All Dead’s identity up in only three words?
Schorsch: Hammer, Knife, Spade
Casket is already running for more than 35 years now, and the three of you always sticked to the band, so how is the secret of Casket’s longevity? Did you notice some changes between now and the first demos back in the 90s?
Schorsch: I heard we all must have changed nearly the entire set of cellular mass around 5 times in that time – so I think we all notice “some change” in any aspect. I won’t talk musically, like above I don’t think we put too much effort in thinking about how our sound evolves. But of course the band is a unique bond with highs and lows like in any relation. The most noticeable change though is, that in the 90s we’ve been hanging around with beer cans at the local gas station whereas today I feel most of the time is spent doing “normal life stuff”, but every era has its clichés, hahaha.
Casket’s sound has been anchored in Death Metal and straightforward patterns, but which bands would you quote as your main influences? What did shape the band’s sound through time?
Schorsch: Of course the main anchor is Death Metal because the band evolved in a time when we all switched from listening to bands like Slayer, Metallica or Anthrax to guys only some years older we were (which I didn’t realize at that time) like Entombed, Grave, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse etc.. But then as well as now we’ve listened to different genres of Heavy, Thrash Speed, Rock or Punk.
What is your personal favorite song on In The Long Run We Are All Dead, or maybe the hardest one to achieve?
Schorsch: I have a handful of songs I like to play from the new album. Our Hammer, Knife, Spade tune seems to be liked by a lot of people and I like it very much, too. I also like Skull Bunker because it was finished last-minute and we really need some very good monitoring sound to play it live …
Where do you find your inspiration to create music and lyrics? Is there a concept on In The Long Run We Are All Dead?
Schorsch: No, it’s just sitting down – mostly in the evening or weekends, maybe holidays with some free time in mind and the guitar packed in. Look up the “normal life” keyword above, hahaha. What In The Long Run presents musically is maybe just the result of what came out of our minds riff-wise after Urn about five years ago – accompanied by some shit going on here and there, like in everybody’s daily grind.
Do you think you improved yourself as a musician and with this new record?
Schorsch: I don’t think we improved that much, technically, but the songs tend to stick together better than on the last full album Unearthed and they are fun to play live, too. So it seems we definitely managed to not let things get worse.
In The Long Run We Are All Dead is the second release by Neckbreaker Records, how is this partnership going for now? How did you get in touch with the label’s team?
Schorsch: The contact has been arranged by a good friend of mine and I liked the labels approach to focus on releasing maybe not that well known but brutal and technically distinguished bands. I like the dedication which is put into the CD as well as vinyl formats, everything hand numbered and delivered in top-notch quality – perfect. The new album as well as it’s predecessor Mini LP Urn have been supplied by loads of merch in form of different shirt prints and longsleeves for the cold days.
According to the internet (aka social media and the website setlist.fm), the band played a few live shows recently, how were they? Would you like to play more, like big tours?
Schorsch: Yes, we had arranged some shows in Bosnia in early as well as in Croatia in late 25. Three shows on each visit with loads of fun and a mix of holiday and metal party going on – 50+ style of course. Mentioning that – I personally would not prefer doing “big tours” – but we all love to play live and try to grab any occasion offered 24/7/365 as long as it sounds reasonable.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity to see Casket on stage. How do you live a live show from your point of view? Maybe you have some preshow or post-show habit, or some kind of warmup?
Schorsch: The preshow habit is trying to watch other bands playing most of the time and getting the gear ready to be thrown on stage. During the gig there’s not much more going on as trying to celebrate that current song in the particular circumstances. After the gigs it’s packing gear, getting rid of the soaked shirt, grab a beer and let the evening roll on or out, it depends then.
What will come next for Casket? About music, live, maybe other projects on the way?
Schorsch: The next thing is trying to further promote our new release, get some more live gigs and – for me as a nerd in that sector – the vinyl release done in spring hopefully. And there are plans and projects ahead, but nothing sure enough to talk about – but it has to do with gigs and another kind of release I hope.
Do you remember how you discovered Metal, and especially Death Metal back in time?
Schorsch: I discovered metal after getting in touch with some German Punk band (my first concert was a local Die Ärzte gig, don’t laugh!) and the bootleg selling friend of my friend’s brother spreading Iron Maiden as well as Metallica or Slayer live recordings. 1988 was my first show (Metallica’s And Justice For All just came out – and we’ve all been into the band a while and banged on all the classics). Just beforeI bought Maiden’s Killers, my mom boosted the purchase with some Jimi Hendrix and Scorpions vinyls. Then a guy I knew who already wrote for a magazine got me in touch with Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains… and then the “Old School Death Metal” wave crushed in (see above), things went their way…
Bass player Susi Z has been part of Casket since the beginning, and Death Metal has always been a scene with very few women on stage, and even if it tends to change a bit, did you notice some evolution, as a band with a woman in the lineup? Whether it is as a concert goer or musician.
Schorsch: There has been some increase in female Metal musicians of course the last nearly 40 years – but it’s still a subject to riddle, write or talk about because it’s still viewed as “special” because society seems to interpret Metal as male, I don’t know. So yes, there is some evolution – but it’s a slow and grinding one.
Have you ever heard of the French Metal scene? Are there any bands you know and like?
Schorsch: To be honest I don’t hear that much of your scene in my bubble and I know friends who would give me a slap not naming more french bands. But I truly love to play some old Massacra for sure ! And there is this doomier band Hangman’s Chair which I admire from their first record on (though I heard they called it quits, not sure though). And I really like the Grind of Blockheads.
Are there any bands you would love to play with? I let you create your dream poster with Casket and three other bands, even unrealistic answers are accepted.
Schorsch: Hm – we luckily managed to play with some of our heroes already. But of course there’s still a gig to be done with for example Cannibal Corpse, Disharmonic Orchestra and Anthrax (first lineup with Neil Turbin of course).
Last and funny question: which dish would you compare Casket’s music with?
Schorsch: Serbian Bean Soup.
That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music, last words are yours!
Schorsch: Thank you very much for the interesting questions and support of Casket – I hope to we get to come around in France celebrating with some good wine/ beer combination.