INTERVIEW: Cruel Force

Germany’s CRUEL FORCE put their mission best, “Bringing the Power Back into the Metal”. This cult act have been around since 2008 and blend traditional Heavy Metal with the best of Black and Thrash too. After a decade of slumbering in their stony crypts, these titans returned with a killer new single and a clear mission to bring Heavy Metal to the world. So without further ado, let’s cross the styx and find out more!

A new second part of my interview with Cruel Force, which covers the third and fourth albums, is now online here!

1. Please do the honours and introduce yourselves, unfortunately you gotta do the boring stuff before we can properly rage!

HELL AWAITS! We’re Cruel Force, an underground band that is located in the South of Germany that’ll deafen your ears with some fierce speed/thrash metal mayhem.

2. CRUEL FORCE was active from 2008-2012, what caused this musical entity to be born and why did you initially break up for a decade? 

When we formed the band, we were just hungry teenagers who desperately wanted to play the music we had been worshipping all day and night. Hungry to write some songs of our own and recreate what our heroes of the old days did like 20 years before. If you’re that deep into listening to music, I mean really studying the whole thing of Heavy Metal, there is no other way than burning to play the sound yourself. I mean, if you listen to Melissa for the first time and hear what Michael Denner and Hank Shermann were doing, how can you not completely lose your mind and crave to learn to play the guitar or any other instrument. In our case this is what happened and that’s why we were looking for like-minded people with the same attitude and that’s how we got together. After some personal disputes in the band, Carnivore did leave the band. We finished the gigs that were booked with a guest singer. Also, we had to deal with some other stuff like moving apart which made rehearsals more complicated and therefore we decided to bury the band for good.

3. And with this, in 2022, a decade after the breakup; you decided to forge forward on your quest for glory. Is this because you decided the world needed CRUEL FORCE, or because you guys needed to do it?

We’d been talking about this on and off through the years but never managed to actually get it done. Finding a rehearsal room and all that which needs to be done before playing a single note was always something we pushed away from us. Especially after I stopped playing the guitar for about 3 years. Someday though, I felt like taking the guitar up once again and was struck with heavy inspiration! Very rusty but with some of the best riffs I had written. At this moment I knew the timing was right and immediately reached out to the others.

4. Let’s talk a little bit about your discography. First was a raw but promising demo called “Into the Crypts…”. I assume this one was pretty DIY, but perhaps you can shed a little insight into how this first step was stamped into stone.

This was all DIY indeed. At that time none of us had any experience with recording music at all. If memory serves me right, our friends of Witching Hour borrowed us their 4-track tape recorder and this was the first time any of us ever recorded anything. After we figured out how to operate this machine just enough to capture the sound of our rehearsal room, we recorded with just 2 microphones and played everything live. No overdubs, no editing, no mixing. As raw as it gets. What you hear is what we played. At this time, we didn’t know any artists that drew fitting cover artworks and therefore we ended up with the cover it has ever since. An old copper plate evil thing which suited the sound perfectly. We felt super proud about our demo tape as it really sounded the way we love our metal. Raw and honest. It did suit the songs perfectly in our opinion.

5. Next up, “The Rise of Satanic Might”, many peoples favourite cut of evil, Black-Thrashing Heavy Metal mania. Featuring a ton of killer tracks and a cover of the mighty BATHORY in the middle. What was the inspiration behind this? Which bands were blasting in your ears at the time, how did you and Velios Art come up with this epic cover and what does the release mean to the bands history with the power of hindsight?

The album seems to have gotten some “cult-status” in this little scene which we absolutely did not expect at all! We never even thought that our demo will put us on an international map of underground metal bands at all. This was certainly unexpected! After the demo recordings, I went straight into the songwriting process and I still clearly remember the feeling of when we were rehearsing stuff like Leather and Metal or Satanic Might for the first couple of times. We were super excited as we played the sound we loved. Rehearsing, drinking beers, banging our heads and full of Heavy Metal pride! At that time there weren’t as many bands playing our style of music as it is now again. It has been an up-and-coming thing, a revival of the old-style. Many new bands have risen at a similar time being influenced by the few existing bands that sold their soul to the old style of Black/Thrash/Speed Metal like: Nocturnal, Old, Witchburner, Hellish Crossfire and Desaster. Some of the few younger bands following the path of beforementioned bands at that time were Witching Hour, Ketzer and Division Speed. Some other Black/Death bands have been there as well sharing the same background but the music we wanted to play was still kind of rare. The album came together easily, and we booked some studio time to record all of this.

Not knowing what to expect, with the greatest fear being, that the sound of the recording in a proper studio could become too polished or clean as none of us still had any clue about the process of recording. We found out about Toxomusic Studio in Koblenz, whose owner is Wally, the front man of the famous German 1^st day punk band Toxoplasma. We got in contact with him and discussed our idea on how the album should sound. I showed him some records of bands I wanted him to know, so he knew the direction. I remember playing him songs from albums such as Morbid Visions, Apocalyptic Raids, Hymn to Abramelin, Endless Pain and others. By that he got an idea as he was not familiar with that style of Metal at all. Our friend Stef of Heavy Forces Records got us on his newly found label and introduced us to Velio Josto who did the cover artwork.

The album was supposed to be called Victim of Hellfire at first and after we had gotten some sketches from Velio, which obviously contained hell and fire, we weren’t too sure about the idea anymore. Thinking of why the idea about hell couldn’t be in a freezing mountain landscape and all that, we decided on the actual cover and title for the album.  Which was the right decision in hindsight. Obviously, we’d been listening to Bathory a lot at that time and still today, but we’d also been blasting a lot of other stuff like Maiden, Priest, Purple, Sabbath, Rainbow and all the faster stuff like Razor, Exciter, Venom. Also, heavily into the NWoBHM and US Metal stuff. We played a lot of covers in the early days, but for the album we wanted to do it like Sodom on Persectuion Mania with the Motörhead cover. So, we were thinking of covering something cool that wasn’t the obvious choice but also that suited our style and would fit into the record. We found out that Necromansy had never been covered (at least not to our knowledge) and then we went for it.

6. Then we get another album (well a single and HOLOCAUST cover in between). “Under the Sign of the Moon” continues in the high-speed vein of evil chaos. As before, can you tell us what went into this album coming into existence? It feels thematically and aesthetically like a follow up, additionally it also features a BATHORY cover. Do you see it as a sort of sequel to the debut?

After TROSM we went straight back to rehearse again and directly into the songwriting process. Some songs were left over which didn’t find their way on the first album, but we wanted to start from scratch. This time, some songs turned out to be more influenced by the old-style black metal and speed metal rather than Thrash and the production pushed it even further in that direction, which I’m not too happy about anymore as it wasn’t originally planned that way, as you could maybe tell from the sound of the previous released Ancient Black Spirit 7”. But then again, we still didn’t have any idea of recordings and how to push the sounds more in the direction we wanted.

This album was once again recorded in Koblenz at the Toxomusic Studio by Wally and we had a wild time doing so. Once again, I showed Wally some reference sounds which this time was more stuff like Worship Him/Blood Ritual, Heavy Metal Maniac, Executioner’s Song and Under the Sign of the Black Mark – which people still believe was where we have gotten our title’s inspiration from, which is wrong! To clarify this, the title Under the Sign of the Moon was inspired by the song Evil by the mighty Mercyful Fate. As for the Bathory cover we just wanted to continue the theme, but the song has only been on the first pressings of the records. The re-releases have it excluded as far as I know.

7. Now we are up to date. You have a relatively new single called “Across the Styx” which seems to be incorporating even more traditional / epic Heavy Metal elements into your sound than ever, even if they were always there in some form. I assume this is building towards a 3rd album. If so, can you give us some insight to what we can expect and the direction you will head toward?

Across the Styx was our first sign of life after death and one of the first songs we rehearsed after we got back together. Personally, I was always most inspired by the classical Rock/Metal bands when it comes to my guitar playing approach. Maiden, Priest, Rainbow, Scorpions and the likes. This was what I always wanted to have shine through in our band’s style and riffs. The album will surprise most people as they now think we go into a more Heavy Metal direction which we certainly don’t! This is easily the fastest, most speed metallic thrashing album we have done so far! With influences of all kinds of real-style metal. Some songs sound a little more like it’s influenced by early Seven Churches death metal, some more epic like we’d play Rainbow on 45rpm as its heard on Across the Styx and some things are just straight German styled thrash metal like early Kreator. It definitely is more into the direction of The Rise of Satanic Might rather than Under the Sign of the Moon.

We still listen to the same stuff we listened to 10 years ago, still have the same values and are still as intolerant as ever when it comes to the sound we love. We’re not any hipsters coming and going with what might be the trend right now, so people can be sure that our 3^rd album will be nothing but pure metallic mayhem! Those who now are concerned that we slowed down will be proven better with an iron fist! The album is for the people who are still craving for the old-style metal such as Deathrow (GER), Violent Force, Possessed, Razor, Exodus in the year 2023.

In the near future we will spread news such as title, cover art, track list and most importantly new songs. The dawn is near..

8. In the last question I noted this more traditional element of Heavy Metal. All along there has definitely been classic Thrash and first wave Black Metal as key elements but also CRUEL FORCE felt in touch with the old Heavy Metal of yesteryear. Which legendary bands have inspired you guys that you hold in the highest regard? I guess BATHORY, HOLOCAUST and PILEDRIVER of course. 

Absolutely! When you think of the early Black Metal bands such as Bathory or Sodom, I reckon they have always been influenced by the early Heavy Rock and Metal bands. For us that is a key element to all this! Still to me Black Sabbath sounds heavier than most of the nowadays technical super-fast Death Metal bands with drums that sound like shit. The eternal inspiration I gather from Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Accept, early Riot, Rush, and all the early Noise Records, Metal Blade, Roadrunner, Neat records, Banzai stuff etc. Too much to mention.

9. Okay, so we know the legends you worship. But which younger / newer bands do you think deserve to be flying the flag for the gods of steel? 

I can’t really keep up with most newer bands but every now and then there is one album/band that hits me! One of the best records of the last decade has got to be Hellions of Fire by Black Viper (Nor). This is the ultimate in Speed metal the US Metal way. Great compositions, fitting production and performed with high intensity! The new album of the German Black/Thrash kings OLD will be absolutely killer as well! I’ve been listening to it and they’re back with a vengeance! Also, that s/t album by the Swedish band Mystik is really great!

10. Right, so I think we have some useful information to read here. Last words are yours, feel free to advertise upcoming conquests or any new material, thank any maniacs or warn any posers, or do whatever you want really.

Be forewarned, we’re coming after you!