The Horror Family about the scene: Slaughter Lamb & Demon Machine

SLAUGHTER LAMB & DEMON MACHINE
Hellgreaser

https://www.facebook.com/Hellgreaser

"[Horrorpunk] carrys a message beyond the created Horror atmosphere. This is inspired by people like Edgar Allan Poe and George A. Romero who also carry a political subtext in their works."

Graveyard Greaser Gang: „horrorpunk is not a genre, it's a scene"! what does this mean to you?

Demon Machine: First of all it means musically spoken a mix of different styles which unite in a small, familiar scene. It characterises itself with a lot of people who are Fans of Horror in all its facets. The cool thing about such about a small scene is that everyone knows each other pretty well and that we have a lot of fun together. Also the fans are very close to the bands and we often meet fans after the shows a nice chat some beers.

Slaughter Lamb: I like gigs a lot where we play with a lot of other Horrorpunk bands because it can turn out to be kind of a family meeting.

GGG:   how would you describe horrorpunk to people who are not familiar with the music/ scene?

SL: A lot of people think Horrorpunk would sound like f.e. Death or Black Metal or like something similar. But it sounds totally different. We like to have a lot of melodic parts and lyrics with a certain message. Musically spoken we play a kind of mid-tempo punkrock with a lot of hooklines and melodys. And also in our lyrics you can find besides the classical Horror topics a lot of punk mentality. So it carrys a message beyond the created Horror atmosphere. This is inspired by people like Edgar Allan Poe and George A. Romero who also carry a political subtext in their works.

GGG: what was your first contact with horror punk?

SL: In my case it was the classical way to get in contact with the music - the Misfits. 

DM: Before Hellgreaser I played in a Rock n Roll Band. Once we played as a Blitzkid support act and I was totally fascinated through their whole appearence. They created an atmosphere which was totally new to myself and in addition I became a fan of their musical style immediately. By the way I adapted my stage-name from a Blitzkid Song. 

GGG: why did you start a horrorpunk band (not a regular punkband for example)?

SL: The ways to transport messages through a horror based Scenario are more versatile and more lyrical. There are more possibilities to embellish the lyrics. In a regular

punkband lyrics are too straightforward. And I love to play with words, examples and stuff like that. I like to wrap a punk message into a fictional Story because you can have a better perspective on this from the outside. But of course the lyrics are addressed to certain people, too.

DM: Because I like the musical and lyrical possibilities and styles. 

GGG: what does horror in general means to you?

SL: Daily Life. Because the real horror can be found in the reality. 

DM: It’s pretty tough to give a more precise answer than Slaughter … hahaha. But of course we also like all the Movies, Series, walking acts, photographs and all the damn cool stuff you can find everywhere in the scene.

GGG: there are millions of horror fans in the world (movies etc). in your opinion, why do barely people know about horrorpunk?

SL: Probably the music is so capturing that people who listen to it can’t get out of it again … hahaha. But seriously i have no idea.

DM: Maybe there wasn’t an initial spark yet to bring it to the next step. But I’m sure it will come for all of you one day … hahaha. But one thing is very cool - we have fans and requests for cds from all around the world. And we are grateful for that. 

GGG: most horrorpunk bands say that it's difficult to get booked for a show. in your opinion, why is it like that?

DM: First of all for smaller Bands it’s never easy to get decent bookings. And there are a lot of small bands in the scene. But I have to say that we make different experiences. It’s all a matter of marketing and communication as it always is in the whole music business.

SL: In addition it’s still a small scene. So you can’t book a 5000 people holding venue. This is because the horrorpunk scene is not commercialised. But this is what we also like about it. 

GGG: how did the horrorpunk scene develop/change since you are part of it?

DM: Well, we are just another band in the scene. But we like to get in contact with the whole scene which includes the fans and the bands. And of course we try to push as much as possible.

GGG:- what's your favorite memory when it comes to horrorpunk?

SL: We always enjoy the horrorpunk family meetings. But it was also a great moment when we played a festival with Bonfire, Accept, JBO and so on. We played in front of a big audience which is unusual for us and it was awesome to watch peoples faces and see how they react to our style.

DM: The best experience was, when the crowd sang our song „Go Hellgreaser go“ after we ended the show for so long that we started to play along with them again.

GGG: what are your three favorite horrorpunk bands?

SL: The Misfits with Graves, the Misfits with Danzig and the Misfits without Jerry Only … hahaha.

DM: Slaughters answer is pretty damn good and in addition I would like to mention Blitzkid, Nim Vind and The Other.

GGG: what are your three favorite non-horrorpunk bands?

SL: Paradise Lost, Social Distortion, the Generators

DM: Dream Theater, Judas Priest (since 2014 - believe it or not!), Tito and Tarantula 

GGG: if you'd have to describe your current band with five words, which words would that be?

DM/SL: creepy, melodic, sociocritical, misfit and a lot of beers 

GGG: what are your next plans with your band?

SL: We are currently working on the songwriting for our second album. Also we plan to play more gigs than last year.

GGG: thanks for your time. anything you wanna add?

DM/ SL: Thank you for the interview request and your support for the scene. Let’s spread the horror together. We want to say a heavy fucking THANK YOU to all of our fans all around the world.