God Dethroned Interview

Interview
Henri Sattler
God Dethroned

Henri Sattler of God Dethroned (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

Windy City Invitational
IEMF
Metro
10/1/05
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale
Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

Lineup:
Isaac Delahaye – guitars
Henri Sattler – vocals / guitars
Henk “Henke” Zinger – bass
Ariën Van Weesenbeek – drums

" I don't know why we're not bigger than we are but it's time to change that!"

For a band that's been around for fifteen years, I too cannot understand how Holland's God Dethroned have remained underground for as long as they have. I could not agree with Mr. Henri Sattler, frontman and guitarist for the band more; it is high time this band's name will be plastered all over hell's half acre. Sattler conversed with me after their amazing set at the Windy City Invitational, a part of the International Extreme Metal Fest here at the legendary Metro as we discussed the ups and downs of their current tour, the band's latest release entitled Lair of the White Worm, and his sacrifices. Read on.

Karma: But did you think when you started God Dethroned fifteen years ago that you'd still be around?

Henri: Fifteen years ago? Oh no, but I'm glad I'm here. I like it here! [We both laugh]

Karma: What do attribute as the secret of your success for being a mainstay in the Industry for as long as you have?

Henri: Well it's not a secret it's just that I think it's called consistence…consistency?

Henri: We just go on, and go on, and go on. It's the only way to build up a name. It's the only way to make sure…you've got to go on! It's like you know, in fifteen years good things and bad things happen. If you quit because of bad things, it's the end. [Smiles] So we just go on no matter what until I don't like it anymore. I don't know when that will be so…

Karma: What advice do you have for younger bands that would like to obtain the same amount of longevity in the Industry?

Henri: Try to play as much as you can, try to be as professional as you can… that's the only way!

Henri: One day is better than the other. [Shifts gears] This tour hasn't been promoted at all! Not at all!! So the people who are there are there to see us because they know about us through Metal Blade and because of our reputation. Some people have seen us before like on festivals or [when we were] on tour with Cannibal Corpse. Because of them, we have a good time every day! If they wouldn't be there, it would be useless!

Henri: Yeah, that's how bad it is! On the other hand, that's how good it is. People are here to us!

Karma: Well it is good to hear that you are making the best out of the situation and like you said, your fans are there to see you perform.

Henri: Oh, there are many, there aren't just one. All of the songs that we are playing at the shows in America [are] hit songs off every album! It's not like one song that's most popular but if I had to name one song which is "Villa Vampiria" from the Ravenous album.

Henri: I think in Long Beach, California, that's been the best so far. It was a great show, nice people.

Henri: Yeah! See it shows just how good the tour was promoted or how the tour was not promoted.

Karma: Due to the influx in lineup changes, etc. has it made you stronger thereby adding to the evolution of your sound?

Henri: Yes, it has made me stronger, it's made the band stronger. The lineup that we have is the best we ever had. I know this for sure! We have had some lineup changes but it's not as bad as people think. But when people aren't into the band anymore they just have to go because I want to go on and they have to stick with me. The lineup we have right is the best so far it's like a really great lineup.

Karma: I understand you had a lot of pressure surrounding the making of Lair of the White Worm, but it almost sounds like the pressure carried over from your previous releases…

Henri: …well it's what you call the Def Leppard syndrome, you sell a good amount of albums…you want to do a new one, and you're so scared that it won’t do as good as the one before. So yeah, we had that problem. Besides that we didn’t have a band anymore; it was just the drummer [Ariën Van Weesenbeek] and me when we wrote the new album and of course the other guys just joined right before the recording. Still I think it worked out pretty well. [Smiles] I think that this is the best one so far in like sales wise…so we're doing good! We had a lot of pressure, yes.

It was a very spontaneously written album but that's something we always do. We always write an album in a couple of weeks. We load ourselves up until we feel ready for composing our album and then it's done in six weeks! We work nonstop!

Henri: Oh no, it’s just that I have to be ready in my head. Like when I feel like I'm going to write a new album, I sit down on the couch with my guitar and write a new album. It's really weird but I don't need a lot of time to write; I just need to get into a certain state of mind to write a new album.

Karma: Musically speaking, which is your favorite song off Lair of the White Worm?

Henri: I think its "Nihilism". I think that's opinion of most of the people [in the band].

Henri: The song has got everything [in it]. It's very aggressive and brutal but it's got this melodic middle part and end part. The song builds up, it's like aggressive in the beginning, there's a melodic middle part that everybody likes and then it goes up like… PFFFT! More and more extreme and then it's the end part again. It's just a great song.

Henri: Its more than one guy; first of all it's Guy Kooymans from Golden Earring.

Henri: Yeah! [Laughs] But you know he sings and plays the guitar just like I do, a BC Rich and I just fell in love with their songs when I was like thirteen/fourteen years old. When I grew up I listened to Death. Chuck Schuldiner played a BC Rich, also a singer and guitar player. I loved his songs. Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, he played a BC Rich and was singing then later on he played a Jackson. But those guys were a big inspiration for me, they are like my heroes of all time.

Karma: Jacek Wisniewski [artist] did a good job tying in the cover with the title of the album. Was he left up to his own devices or was it primarily spawned from your own idea?

Henri: Yeah, he did do a good job but it was my idea. I told him what it should look like and he came up with this picture. I loved it, everybody loves it! The white cover stands out between all of the other black covers of most of the metal bands. The title track of the album deals with a story, it's from a book from Bram Stoker. He wrote…

Karma: I knew a movie existed by the same name but I had no idea he wrote that book.

Henri: Nobody knows! The story is about a woman who appears to be a snake at night so we wanted on the album cover [an image], which was a half woman, half snake. And that's what he did! It was amazing!! He did it in like two days.

Henri: Yeah, the guy is a real professional. Usually he does Vader artwork and some other bands [Grave, Krisiun, Decapitated] but he's really incredible.

Karma: So then “Lady Arabella” is really the name of the half woman, half snake creature. God Dethroned Promo

Karma: As far as the layout of the CD is concerned, what is up with you, Isaac, and the guns?

Henri: [Laughs] I don't know, we wanted something different other than the normal band pictures so we took the guns… It doesn't represent anything special, we just wanted something different this time.

Karma: And that it is, it definitely stands out. [We both laugh] With a name like God Dethroned and with songs like “Sigma Enigma” and “Rusty Nails” you are not raising the banner for Christianity…

Henri: That's not true, we're not fans of religion in general, it doesn't [make a difference] which religion it is. Because religion causes all of the wars on this planet, religion causes people ending up at the stakes, and people ended up getting killed because of religion. If someone believes in the God or something else, fine because it's a personal thing. But religion tells you what you can and cannot do and that's wrong! The religions that are against each other have caused so much trouble on this planet for years and years and years.

Karma: Was there one defining moment that lead you to view things this way which opened your eyes to make you say to hell with organized religion or is it something that you have always believed?

Henri: It's something that I've always believed. When I founded the band, I was like nineteen, twenty years old I just wanted to have that as the main theme for the band. The first album was very brutal when it comes to lyrics against Christianity or religion in general. Over the years when you grow mature and get older, we took different topics and more well thoughts lyrics and stuff. So it's no that black and white anymore. [Smiles] It's more like, I want people to think about it but we're not preaching anything. Because everybody can make up his own mind and I don't have to do that! Right now I see it as purely entertainment, there's a story behind it but the story's very old. Sometimes we still write lyrics about it but not all the time anymore.

Henri: I think when you die you end up under the ground or you'll be burned, whatever and that's it. Then on the other hand, maybe there is some higher power but I think that people who have lived a life, a human life, they deserve something good afterwards. The people who have been bad people, they will not end up in Heaven [just] because they are going to church every Sunday.

Henri: Yeah, I think everybody goes where he or she belongs in the long run. They will end up in the place they belong. If it's in this life or the afterlife, whatever. I think everyone gets what he deserves!

Karma: Completely! Shifting gears a bit, if you could commission a band to do a God Dethroned cover, which song would it be and which band would do the cover?

Henri: That's a good question! [Smiles] I would ask Dave Mustaine to do… "The Art of Immolation" from The Grand Grimoire album or Slayer to do "Boiling Blood" [from Bloody Blasphemy].

Karma: What is your guilty pleasure song/CD/artist or most embarrassing recording you own?

Henri: I don't have any embarrassing CD's. I listen to Moby to Golden Earring to Pink Floyd. I listen to Live to Smashing Pumpkins…

Karma: …pretty much you are all over the board. Sounds like you listen to a wide range of music then.

Henri: Pretty much, so I am not embarrassed to listen to the things I am listening to because I like music in general and I still play death metal for the fans because I love it. [Smiles]

Karma: Now for those that may not know what the initials “TSK” stand for, please explain.

Henri: The Serpent King. "The Serpent King" was a song we wrote for the Bloody Blasphemy album. When we were in the studio recording the Grand Grimoire, Christhunt, Bloody Blasphemy, and Ravenous, is owned by a friend of mine [Bertus Westerhuis]. He used to call me The Serpent King and by the time we recorded that song, since that day, he called me The Serpent King.

Henri: Because he loved it. He just loved the whole idea behind it. He likes our band a lot. You know, when we recorded Grand Grimoire, we didn't have a record deal at all. We didn't have any money and he said, "We'll record the album and we'll see what happens later on!" He's one of my biggest friends, he's my best friend! He believes in the band! So now this guy's out so much money and trusts in us, and of course we got picked up by Metal Blade and Metal Blade paid the bill to him. So he's safe, [smiles] but he's called me The Serpent King ever since. He does it everyday. Normally when I'm home, he calls me at least five days a week and he calls me The Serpent King every time so that's my nickname. [Laughs]

Henri: The same band sound as everybody would hear God Dethroned but like with more melodic tunes. People like…we're known as a fast band…

Henri: …[drops voice] but people love us because we are melodic, so that's what we are going to do on the new album.

Henri: Not yet but I think we are gonna record it in January I think. We already wrote a song on the tour and we're gonna write more when we come back home. By the end of December, we sh0uld have finished the new album. And then we're gonna record it January and go on the road in February.

Henri: We'll be back in March. With a bigger Metal Blade band. I don't know who yet, but it will be with a bigger band. [Smiles]

Karma: What’s one thing that you’d like your fans to know about you that they may not have known previously?

Henri: I really don’t know. People think that I'm an angry young man, forever, like always. [Smiles] But I'm not at all. I'm an easygoing person; I'm an easygoing guy. I look angry on stage…

Henri: But I'm very serious when it comes down to the band so I can be really angry sometimes but I'm actually a nice guy.

Henri: March 15^th, 1971. I'm thirty four but I don't mind. The crowd still stays young which is good but I'm getting older and older. [Laughs] You know, it seems like the metal fans are between thirteen and twenty three, twenty four.

I've lost so many relationships because of the band because of all of the things I have sacrificed for the band, which means I'm single at the time. I don't like that feeling that much but I have to go on.

Karma: Whomever you find, she should be into it anyway. She should support you in your endeavors no matter how hard it is and should support your dreams and vision.

Henri: I know but til now, no one has managed to do that unfortunately. It seems like there's no girl in this world that can be with a guy that's always away from home. Always busy with the band and they think they are not number one but number thirty on the list, which is not true. But they have to understand that the band is my life.

Karma: Are there any are new & up and coming bands to watch out for that you like?

Henri: There is a band that's not so new and up and coming anymore but it's a band from Holland called The Wounded. They play a mix between Anathema, Katatonia, and The Cure. They are awesome!

Henri: No, they had a little bit on the first album but not anymore; its just clean vocals. There's so much emotions in that music, it's unbelievable! And that's a band I love. They are from my neighborhood and have released three albums.

When people have the chance to, they should check them out. It's a trip through emotions. I guess it's hard to take for a lot of people because it will make you cry. The Wounded!

Karma: Well, I will be on the look out for them. Here's a silly piece of trivia for you. You have a song called “Arch Enemy of Spain” and Arch Enemy has a song called “Ravenous” like your album of the same name. Henri Sattler of God Dethroned (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

Henri: I didn't know! Oh cool! I didn't know. Now "Arch Enemy Spain" is just a history song about the Dutch War with Spain for 80 years, back in the day. And we won the battle, they were so big, we were so small but we won the battle! [Smiles]

Karma: There you go! How soon do you think the entire world will be underneath God Dethroned’s domination?

Henri: The sooner the better! [We all laugh] I've done this for fifteen years, ups and downs and in the States people love us but we haven’t been here often enough. With a bit of luck, we'll come back a lot of times next year. At least two or three times. We're gonna tour Europe like a couple of times next year, South America, Australia, Japan.

Henri: No, not yet. We've done Japan before. The rest is new to us. Australia is very difficult to play because it's so expensive; it's a very small scene. To do five shows you have to buy a work permit, buy tickets…

Karma: …sounds much worse than it would be here as far as the all of the red tape, etc.

Henri: America is a big country with a big scene. Australia is a big country, far away with a small scene. So it's really difficult, but we're gonna make it somehow.

Karma: That was good! Gotta love Dave! [Laughter ensues] Any final words?

Henri: Everybody who reads this, come and check us out because I think we're amazing. I think we're highly skilled. I don't know why we're not bigger than we are but it's time to change that!

I'd like to thank Michelle Ferraro at Metal Blade for setting the interview up, to the band's tour manager, Lloyd Freeze for being so wonderful and of course to "The Serpent King" himself, Henri Sattler. Best of fortune in all of your endeavors as I know you shall be successful in obtaining all set goals you have set!