God Dethroned

In a talent pool that includes such death metal dignitaries as Asphyx, Sinister, Gorefest and Pestilence, God Dethroned has proved one of the most enduring and consistent bands in the Dutch DM scene. Starting as a typical gore-laced death metal act in the early nineties, God Dethroned found a winning formula with its Metal Blade debut, “The Grand Grimoire.” This formula was a potent blend of old school death metal, grind, black metal and thrash. Like their neighbors to the north, the Swedes, God Dethroned also mixed aggression with melody. “The Grand Grimoire” was a classic extreme metal album, as was their next recording “Bloody Blasphemy.” These recordings cemented their relationship with Metal Blade, earning them a spot on the MB roster they claim to this day.

Although subsequent recordings showed the band strip away much of their atmosphere and melody, God Dethroned still maintained an identifiable sound. With their newest release “Passiondale,” God Dethroned has returned to the sound that made those first two MB recordings such classics. “Passiondale” saw the return of two members, Roel Sanders and Danny Servaes, from the “Bloody Blasphemy” and “The Grand Grimoire” days, which along with a couple of clean vocal passages, really revived the sound from those two recordings.

Vocalist, guitarist Henri Sattler spoke on the phone with Metal Mayhem about this monumental new album. He spoke about how the story of WWI’s Passendale village inspired the concept of his new album. We also spoke about the band’s upcoming tour plans. Read ahead and learn more about this brilliant metal mind.

Metal Mayhem: You recently released “Passiondale.” You recorded this album as a three piece due to guitarist, Isaac Delahaye leaving the band. How did this change your normal recording process?
Henri Sattler: It didn’t because I knew he was going to leave, so I wrote all the songs by myself. I was prepared to do what I had to do. In the past, I basically recorded the entire guitar myself, anyway. Isaac played a lot of guitar on “The Toxic Touch,” but normally I record the majority of the guitar parts. This time I had to record all the guitar parts, so that was not a big change. I had written all the songs myself…it was kind of easy, actually.

MM: “Passiondale” also marks the return of keyboardist, Danny Servaes, who played on “The Grand Grimoire” and “Bloody Blasphemies.” Do you feel Servaes helped elicit a return to the sound from those early recordings?
HS: Yes, also he had this typical way of playing that adds a certain atmosphere that fits well to our music. I just wanted to have that atmosphere back, those keyboard parts. He wished to join again, so that is what we did. Of course, there is the return of our drummer, Roel [Sanders]. He also played on “Bloody Blasphemy” and “Grand Grimoire.” He also added to the old sound. His way of drumming still refers to the “Bloody Blasphemy” time. The new album sounds like a follow up the “Bloody Blasphemy” album. The response has been great.
Many people think this is our best album. I think it has to do with the fact that we brought some old influences back—the drumming and the keyboards—but we also composed the songs to sound a bit more old school. I had the energy again to go for it. We had a very busy tour schedule the last couple of years, until we released “The Toxic Touch,” which was a very different album. It was different because of the guitar player, Isaac, and the drummer Ariän [Van Weesenbeek ]. They were much more technical, and they wanted to play death metal in the way that we played it on that album, but it’s not your typical God Dethroned album. At the same time, my father was very ill and he died, so I had to stay home and take care of my family for a while. At that time, I recharged my batteries. When I finally found the energy to write a new album, I had more time to find the sound that I was really looking for. That also helped to get the old sound back. “The Toxic Touch” was written in a few days, in between tours.
We went straight into the studio right after our tour, so there was less time to rethink the ideas that we had. That’s also why the new album sounds a lot better.

MM: What inspired you to write an album about the concept Passendale?
HS: Isaac lives in a town called Ypres in Belgium. It was the center of war activities during World War One (WWI). I visited him a lot there. The whole city is breathing WWI—the war memorials, the cemeteries. A lot of English people are there on the weekend visiting their relatives who died during the war. That made a really big impression on me. I wanted to know more about this war, so went to a museum and started reading a lot. Since we had done historical topics on previous albums, I thought it would be cool to do an album with one historical topic, WWI, and write a concept album about it. That’s how I got that idea. Later on, I realized we were the first death metal band to do a concept album about WWI. It’s pretty common for a band to write an album about World War Two (WWII), but WWI has never been done before, which made it extra special.

MM: You picked an interesting topic, WWI, for “Passiondale.” People forget about WWI, but there is never a shortage of coverage on WWII. Why do you think WWI is becoming a forgotten war?
HS: First of all, because it was very long ago. In Europe, it’s cool that they teach you about World War II. It’s very common to know a lot about that war. For some reason, WWI is skipped all the time. In Holland, actually, they don’t teach you anything about WWI because we were officially a neutral country during that war. In other countries in Europe, WWI is almost a forgotten war. WWII started because of WWI, and many people don’t know anything about it, so I thought it was a good topic to write an album about.