MH: Hi, this Martin from Metal Team UK thanks for doing this interview. Hope you are all doing fine. Can you give a brief history of the band so far?

Tobi: Hey Martin! This Tobi, bassplayer, answering the questions. Sure! The Sorrow are Mätze on the vocals and guitar, Andi on the guitar as well, Dominik on the drums and i am playing the bass. The Sorrow was formed about three years ago out of several previous bands, Andi and Mätze played in a band together before and me and Dominik as well. By the time things led to each other and we formed The Sorrow. So when we recorded our first demo, we already were band experienced and knew what´s important in the studio. Our demo got voted „Demo of the month“ in german Metal Hammer magazine and through that we got our record deal with Drakkar.

MH: Congratulations on the new album, it is a fine piece of modern melodic metal. You must be very pleased and excited with it. What has the response to it been like?

Tobi: Thank you very much, indeed, we´re really happy with the result of our hard work. The response until now is really positive from listeners and critics, so it feels really good to have another strong album recorded. What´s really positive in comparison to our old record is the fact, that people aren´t comparing us with the bigger bands such as KsE anymore. I think we found our way for the future.

MH: How would you say it compares to your debut and what improvements do you think you have made?

Tobi: The main difference in our opinion is, that the songwriting has become much more mature. You can´t describe the new record simply as metalcore, there are much more influences than on the old record. There isn´t that obligatory moshpart in every song like on „B.f.a.b.s.“, we just did what´s best for the songs. The production is better of course because we wanted to avoid the mistakes we made on our debut, and I guess we succeeded.

MH: What aspects of the album are you most pleased with?

Tobi: I´m really satisified, that the album is more varied, it´s not as accessible when listening to it the first time, but it opens up later on. This time it´s really an album, the last time it was some kind of a mixture of songs we had written throughout band history. What else pleases me, is that the heaviness and the catchiness of the songs go hand in hand, in a way we intended it to be. I love it when a plan comes together.

MH: I have to ask about the clean vocals on the album as there are so many bands using them now. I personally enjoyed them in your songs what do you feel they add to your music? Do you think you are at risk of being labeled as only a metalcore outfit when your music is very different from that scene overall? Also many say that this clean vocal style is a sell out to attract a younger audience, do you agree?

Tobi: We use them, because we are aware of the fact, that our singer can actually sing, in the studio, but especially live. The clean vocals are a tool to make our songs more epic and bigger in general. I don´t think that we are risking being labelled in a way, if people want to put a stamp on you, they´ll do it anyway. We don´t have clean vocals in our songs to attract a certain kind of audience, it´s just the way we write our songs, if people like them, we´re happy. If not, then sorry it´s not for them…

MH: When I read that the band is from Austria I was surprised. How is your band being received in your home country and mainland Europe, because I think the band would be extremely popular if you were in the UK based on the current metal scene trends?

Tobi: In Austria we´re probably the most popular Metal-band besides extreme acts such as Belphegor or Hollenthon. In Germany we are also quite popular, we sell most of our records there. In the rest of mainland europe, we´re doin fine and we are well received, but we still have to work hard to reach as many people as possible. What would be if we would hail from the US or the UK is just speculation, so we can just strife as hard as we can to get the band bigger and more known in the rest of the world. But that´s really hard since we don´t even have a distribution deal in the states, that really sucks.

MH: The album has a plenty of leads and harmony, was this deliberate focus for the album?

Tobi: It was definitely. We knew we wanted to make the album more metal, but also, that this shouldn´t happen in a blunt way. We all love the sweden styled death metal and classical stuff like Maiden and Priest, so we tried to focus on those influences, when it came down to write the leads and harmonies.

MH: The production is very rich and well balanced. Where was it recorded and who handled the production? Did you have an idea of the sound you wanted before entering the studio? How long were you in the studio for?

Tobi: Again, we recorded our record in the Principal Studios in Münster, Germany, with our good friend Toni Meloni, who´s austrian as well. He works there and so the deal was settled. We didn´t want to change our sound to much, we just wanted some nuances changed in comparison to our debut. And in the end we´re really happy with the result. All in all we spent 4 weeks in the studio and had a great time.

MH: What do you feel the album has that makes it different to other albums of a similar nature?

Tobi: First of all we have singer that is really able to sing. We really have a good understanding of how to write songs. But what the really special thing in The Sorrow is, you have to ask someone else.

MH: I enjoyed the balance between aggression and harmony a lot on songs like “Raising The Devil” and “Scars”, did the band intentionally create this or was it just a natural route of the songs when written? I thought “My Immortal Guardian” started like Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” song by the way.

Tobi: The balance between Heavyness and catchiness was intended, because we all got different tatses in music, so we tried to bring all our favourite styles together. And it worked out really well. But it has also to do with the maturity we gained through the last years. A lot of people tell us that it starts like “Painkiller” and we knew that when we wrote the song. But the clue is that it´s not only Judas Priest. It could also be the beginning from Motörheads “Overkill” or Sodom´s “Ausgebombt”! it´s just the ultimate beginning of a metal song!

MH: There are some very atmospheric and emotional songs like “Eyes Of Darkness” and the excellent “Anchor In The Storm” which are slightly different to the others, were these songs deliberately made to catch the listener out?

Tobi: “Anchor in the storm” was intended to show the listeners a completely other side of us. “Eyes of darkness” never seemed that different to us, but now that the record is out, people tend to say that this song really stands out in some way, and that´s a good thing actually.

MH: Have you any intention of releasing a single or promo video to get some air play at all?

Tobi: We already shot a video for “Where is the sun?”, look it up on youtube or our myspace. We also have a video on for “Knights of doom”, a song from our debut.

MH: Who is/are the main songwriters and what do the lyrics of the songs deal with?

Tobi: The music is mainly written by our two guitar players Andi and Mätze, in the practising room we all work on the details later on. The lyrics are mainly written by me, don´t ask me why, it´s just the way it is? concerning the lyrics on our new album: Some songs deal with the same issues as on the old album, with the downbringing of our planet, etc… But “Origin of the storm” stands for a loose concept, that deals with more interpersonal issues. The songs are about people that disappointed us in a very bad way, friends that passed and children who were abandoned by their parents. Those critical times are the storm, and the song anchor in the storm is for all the people that stood beside us in times of distress.

MH: Who would you say are the main influences on the bands sound and song structures? Any particular bands you are listening to that you like at the moment?

Tobi: There are so many bands, that influenced us, so i can´t mention them all. There are the classical Heavy Metal bands such as Judas Priest or Iron Maiden as well as the swedish Death Metal bands, for example In Flames, Soilwork or At the gates. But the newer generation of heavy bands like Killswitch Engage or Unearth had a big input on our music as well. And the bands we alway love to listen to are Machine head and Pantera. At the moment I love to listen to my old Scorpions records or the new Kreator album. As long as the music is good I love it all…

MH: Both of your albums are on Drakkar do you intend to stay with this label or are you looking for something bigger for your next album?

Tobi: We always try to get bigger with every album, what really makes us sad at the moment is the fact, that we don´t have a distribution deal in the states or in Japan. If there will be an offer for the next record, who knows what´s going to happen. But still we are satisfied with Drakkar, they are trying their best, but we want to take the step out of Germany and conquer the world.

MH: I noticed you are on tour supporting Sepultura. How did that come about and how is it going or has gone? Are the Sep fans accepting of your bands sound and vocal style? As a matter of interest what do you think of Sepultura’s new album “A-Lex” now that the Cavalera brothers are no longer in the band?

Tobi: A previous tourmanager who was on the tour with Devil driver recommended us to the Sepultura management and that´s how the contact was built. The tour was really, really funny, everyone was treating us really good and we had a great time. There were absolutely no difficulties with the Sepultura fans, I think we gained a lot of new fans on this tour. “A-lex” is a good album, no doubt. It just doesn´t represent Sepultura anymore the way people want them to be. Jean, their new drummer is probably one of the best drummers i´ve ever seen, so all the respect belongs to Sepultura for going on and still being a major force in Metal after 25 years.

MH: What other touring plans have got for the future? Are chances you’ll be coming to the UK at all as I think if you got a decent support slot you would be very popular here?

Tobi: A full european tour is planned for autumn, and we hope there will be some dates in the uk as well. We enjoyed our last time over there a lot, so can´t wait to get back. But there are already some promising things happening.

MH: What would you ideally like to see happening in the future for The Sorrow? Do you have a predetermined strategy for world domination at all?

Tobi: That´s really difficult, we always managed it to do it step by step. And I guess we will handle it that way in the future. There is no strategy at all, but if we´ll get the chance to grab after world domination, we´ll definitely take our shot at it…

MH: Do you have any last thoughts or messages you want to add?

Tobi: Thank you very much for reading this one. Give our newest on “origin of the storm” a chance, you might not regret it! Horns up…

MH: Thanks for interview and best wishes for the new album this year.

For more on the band check out http://www.myspace.com/thesorrowmetal
http://www.drakkar.de/en/

Interviewed by Martin Harris

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