LH: Greetings! How are things in the Powerwolf camp as your new album “Lupus Dei” has just been released?

MG: Great. We’re happy to see that both fans and media seem to love Lupus dei. We just played the first few shows after the release and the new songs are great in the live situation!

LH: First of all, I was hoping to talk about the concept for your new album “Lupus Dei”. From what I’ve gathered, the album has a biblical theme which is linked to the idea that metal is a kind of religion. Could you elaborate on the concept, and also tell us where the inspiration came from for the album?

MG: Well, just look at all the great metal fans all over the world! They live their music, it´s a lifestyle, it IS religion for them – and for us it´s the same. I remember that in my youth my favourite albums were like the bible for me. Realizing that we had the idea to combine this with a certain biblic approach. We all are spiritual people and it was a matter of time for us to integrate this side of our personalities in Powerwolf, and this time it just worked.

LH: How do you feel your sound has progressed since the release of “Return to Bloodred”?

MG: I think Lupus dei is much more heavy than Return in Bloodred, more metal, and more catchy. We focused on writing really catchy tunes this time. A great metal song doesn´t need 20 riffs, 3 intros and a hundred breaks – all it needs is a great feeling and a catchy melody. This is why we started an experiment this time: we always started working on a song by writing the chorus line first. Then we didn´t play this chorus line for two weeks – and if after these two weeks each single one of us wolves could still sing this chorus line, then – and only then – it was catchy enough, and we continued writing the rest of the song… I think this way some of the best wolftunes have been written…

LH: One thing that really stood out for me on the album was the organ, as it is not such a commonly used instrument in metal. Falk Maria has played the keyboard in other bands, so I was wondering how different it is to play the organ as opposed to playing the keyboard, and also what made you incorporate this into the Powerwolf sound?

MG: Using an organ instead of typical cheesy keyboard sounds was part of the Powerwolf concept from the beginning on. On Return in bloodred we used a lot of hammond stuff, quite Deep purple influenced… this time we had the idea of using a church organ as it would fit perfectly to the feeling of the album. We tried to, and it was that great that we finally used the church organ on almost all of the songs. I think a church organ is a really mighty instrument. Sometimes heavier than any distorted guitar could ever be…

By the way, it was Falk Maria´s idea to focus on organ sounds in Powerwolf as he was sick and tired of always using these typical keyboard sounds most metal bands work with…

LH: You recorded some of the choir parts in a 12th century chapel. First of all, I’m curious to know what spurred on the decision to record in the chapel. Was this an idea that you have been considering for a while?

MG: A good fried of us heard about the lyrical concept we were working on and asked us if it wouldn´t be a good idea to record this in an acient chapel? We loved the idea, he made the contact, and after some long and careful phonecalls trying to convince the rigth people of the fact that a metal band seldomly burns down the place they´re recording their album at, we finally had the ok to be allowed to use that church for recordings. It´s a chapel placed right at the German/French border in the middle of nowhere, belonging to a village that doesn´t exist anymore.

LH: Was it quite a challenge for you to record the choir in the chapel, as opposed to in a regular studio situation? What was the whole experience like?

MG: Well, recording in a studio always feels quite boring after a while. I mean, studios are nice and comfortable, but it´s not really inspiring sitting in front of a mixing desk tracking your stuff. In that old church we felt like being a part of history, haha… it was really atmospheric and inspiring for this album. It was a lot of work to get all the recording equipment there, but it was worth it.

I can hear quite a strong classic metal influence embedded in your sound, as in my review of the album I likened parts of your music to Dio and Maiden. Would you say you draw a lot of influence from the classic bands and are there any more recent bands that have impacted your sound?

MG: It’s indeed these classics that influenced us most. For me personally it’s Iron maiden and Black Sabbath who have inspired me to learn playing guitar and starting to write own songs, and still I think these influences show through in Powerwolf. We anyway like a lot of actual bands as well, but they don´t really influence us. I like the ideas a band like System of a Down has, but of course this is not the background I have when writing songs… and it´s completely different for our singer Attila as he doesn’t know many metal bands at all, as since a few years ago he wasn’t into rock and metal music at all….

LH: You are playing once again at the Summerbreeze open air fest. Are you planning any more festival appearances or tours for 2007?

MG: We just got some more shows confirmed together with Grave Digger, but these will only cover Germany. We´re but in negotiations about several touring options for autumn and I´m quite confident the wolves will hit the road for a full European tour this year!

LH: Looking at the live photos on your website, it looks as though you put a lot of effort into the visual side of your performance. How important is this to you and what can be expected from the live show?

MG: The visual aspect has always been an integral part of Powerwolf. It’s not as important as the music of course, but important still. We don´t do this to catch more attention, we do it basically because we like it and for us it belongs to heavy metal. We want to give the fans the best possible entertainment, and this also contains the visual side for us. If you look at legendary metal bands, they all had a big visual impact.

LH: You have some live bonus DVD tracks on the special edition of “Lupus Dei”. Do you intend to do any promo videos for the Lupus Dei album?

MG: I don’t think so. We´re perfectionists, and thus it would be really expensive to realize a video clip we´d like. We rather spend this money on stage productions to present a good liveshow.

LH: I’m interested to hear about Attila’s background. He has sung in operas and musicals, has he been in any metal bands previously? Some would probably say there is a big difference between doing musicals/opera to singing in a metal band, was this something that always appealed to Attila?

MG: He’s never sung in a metal band before Powerwolf, but that´s one of his biggest advantages if you might say so… as a musician who´s around in the scene for years you are trapped in a certain way of thinking, comparing and relating what you do. Attila doens´t, as he doesn´t know many metal bands or unwritten scene rules or whatever – he just sings whatever he has in mind, and that´s really refreshing! He always says that there´s not so much difference between doing musical stuff and singing in Powerwolf – exept of the fact that in Powerwolf he sings his own melodies. He brought a lot of theatre attitude with him into the band, as he was used to dressing up for stage and acting like an actor…

LH: The band was already together when you found vocalist Attila and approached him to join Powerwolf. You met whilst holidaying in his home country Romania, although I was wondering how you actually “discovered” him and approached him to join the band.

MG: We didn’t. He was the one who had the idea to join us to make music together. We met him in a pub and started talking about this and that – after a while also about music, and we told him we were about to form a metal band. He wanted to have our phone number “just in case he´d be in Germany” as we could jam together then… well, and when we came back home from holidays we have his message on our answering machine telling us he´d come the week after. Well, the rest is powerwolf-history…

LH: How do you go about the songwriting process and who writes the majority of the songs? Does the geographical distance between Attila and the other band members cause any problems with writing songs?

MG: There’s no distance anymore since Attila lives in Germany since a while. Romania has joined the EU, so there was no problem anymore and Attila doesn´t have to care about all the visa stuff as in the past anymore…

About the songwriting: we can only write songs when all five wolves are gathered in one room and we can share our passion for metal. We´re quite a spontaneous band, we never plan anything. I think a good song has to “happen” – you can´t really write it. If there’s a certain magic things are flowing. Most of the songs we finally record for an album are songs we´ve written in quite a short time.

LH: I understand that the “wolf” theme stems from Attila’s interest in Romanian history. I was wondering what the significance of wolves is to Romanians, and if many people in the country also share this annoyance at the way wolves are depicted in other countries.

MG: I don’t know. For Attila wolves are symbols for nature, for pride and for independence. To be honest I can´t relate on that too much as I´m a West European. Attila takes this for very serious, but we can´t always understand his moods and feelings. He´s a strange guy sometimes, haha….

LH: I’d just like to finish by saying thanks for doing this interview for MTUK. Feel free to leave any final message for our readers.

MG: You’re welcome!

Powerwolf’s latest album Lupus Dei is available now via Metal Blade Records.

You can visit Powerwolf on the web at www.powerwolf.net

Interviewed by Luci Herbert
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