necrometal - Miasma (AUSTRIA)

Guitarist Günter Kostistansky asked drummer Gregor Schmidt, bassist Johannes Attems and singer Gerhard Siedl (all four original members) to join forces again as he wanted to do something suggestive in his spare-time back in autumn of 2004.

How are things going on since the bands reformation?

After drafting a second guitarist the band made progress in spring 2005, but lost bass player Johannes Attems soon due to lack of time. A bit later also the new guitarist left and Gregor Schmidt concentrated on his main band THE FLOW again, which he was running for several years. After THE FLOW’s sudden demise Gregor Schmidt came back again and was lucky finding a bass player (Mike Fischer) and a guitarist (Johnny Patrascu) around Christmas-time 2006. During the last year we practiced the “changes” songs and wrote several new songs.

Originally, all band members used onstage names and these days "Gorehead" appears the only one to be still using this. Is he the only original band member left or did the rest of the members just not want to use pseudonyms anymore?

No. As you could read above Günter Kostistansky (alias “Ares Cancer”) and Gregor Schmidt (alias “Capral Adorator”) are also original members. We decided not to use the pseudonyms anymore, because to many other bands in this genre do that nowadays, it got boring a little.

Back in the early 92 the band had gained a good name for itself from the first release, “Changes” . The “Love Songs” EP rather took the sound on a more technical approach with longer compositions and then, no more was heard. What happened behind the scenes?

We guess you don’t know that our “Changes” album was self-financed and our contract with “Lethal Records” was very loose in that we just got the promise to get back the money from the recording and part of the sales, but this never did happen. Because of this rip-off and due to personal conflicts the band split in summer of 1993, but all wasn’t lost as Gregor Schmidt, Peter Prochazka and Johannes Attems continued with a change of style to progressive metal. Finally finding a singer in summer 1995, we recorded a new demo in album-length, played a few club gigs and called it a day one year later.

Miasma was primarily recognized as a Satanic Death metal band by many even if the imagery appeared to be influenced by Venom. Was this the case?

We’d say that any band with this kind of imaginary was influenced by VENOM, no matter if you call them SLAYER, CELTIC FROST, VOIVOD, BATHORY, NASTY SAVAGE, DESTRUCTION and SODOM or DARKTHRONE, DIMMU BORGIR, IMMORTAL and MARDUK.

I recently watched the live video the band posted on its MS page. Why the desire to no longer wear the traditional leather and spikes?

The leather & spikes-image has worn out heavily since thousands of copyists saw the light of day. We guess that hiding behind pseudonyms, extreme clothing and corpse paint was getting more and more important over the years, maybe even more important than the music. Nowadays the black-metal scene has sold out itself, with too many bands looking and playing the same.

The logo has also changed quite a bit and its not longer using a pentagram . What was the concept behind the logo change?

Same answer again. This image has sold out! We indeed were and are no longer practicing Satanists and used the pentagram and the inverted cross to shock. We hope you don’t believe that all these black-metal bands are Satanists, as their outfit and lyrics are simply too ridiculous to be believed.

The one thing that made Miasma stand out was that your sound was original and not like someone else’s. To tell you the truth, I was more into paying “Changes” over and over than to play most stuff coming out of Sweden which sounded all the same to me.
Do you think that these was an active Death Metal scene in Austria during the early years? The most common names then were you guys, Pungent Stench, and Disastrous Murmur. What were those times like for you?

There was, is and never will be any death-metal scene in Austria. O.k.,there are a lot more bands than there were in the past, but it’s not comparable with the bay-area thrash- or the Florida death-metal scene. The “scene” is not as homogeneous as it should be. In those early days there were just four bands in exist: DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and DISASTROUS MURMUR from Klagenfurt (Carinthia), PUNGENT STENCH and MIASMA from Vienna.

Everyone has their own opinion of what Death Metal was, could be or will be. What is your take?

In our opinion death-metal is the most brutal stuff, if you think of metal and marked the end of a development in getting more and more brutal over the eighties. Bands tried to be more extreme. In general this was not possible, so the bands just turned out to be more extreme in lyrics and clothing, but in musical terms black-metal and metal-core (or anything else) is by no means as brutal as death-metal bands like DEICIDE or CANNIBAL CORPSE. Just compare NAPALM DEATH’s and DIMMU BORGIR’s output.

Is the term “old school” something that should be even used? Many publications like Terrorizer mag from the UK just love to use that word. I think that it hasn’t really been that long that it should be coined as such.

For us, “old school” is the right term, if you think of new bands with members aged 16 to 18 years and the start of the scene ten years before their birth.

What is the main thing you would say Miasma is known for?

It makes us wonder that MIASMA is known at all after such a long period!
We think, that MIASMA is known for a special kind of Death Metal, and of course, the outstanding voice of Gorehead.

Would you say Miasma will continue to use the same formulas in its return to the Death Metal scene or is it looking for a foothold after being absent for so long a period of time?

There’s just one thing with MIASMA, for which we were popular: Our music was quite different to the usual stuff then. That was, because nobody of us had any kind of concept for how the music should sound like, as we came together. Of course we had our favorites in death-metal, but were listening to other forms of music also. Today we are three out of five of the original punch, means: Surely the music will change a little bit, but we have no plans to go to different realms like gothic-pop or something else.

Was the band a bit discouraged with the way Lethal Recs. Handled the way advertisement was done for the 2 releases out on it?

It’s interesting to read about this, we wonder from where you know that there was trouble? Did it make such a big impact on the scene then? (Many people I traded with had no idea what happened to you, actually. Even some in Europe had no idea A.L.)But again: We never got one cent for anything to do with the recording and the sales (actually I spoke with Jarno Koskinen from Finnish band Belial concerning this about 10 years ago. He had similar feelings about how LR did them wrong).

There is newer one man Black Metal project out there which uses the name Miasma as well. Any comments on that?

We heard about different MIASMAs all over the globe. The only thing we know of is that we were the first, the original MIASMA!

Martin from Pungent Stench had a helping had with the first album. Will he have anything to do with the band again?

We think yes. We are still in contact and were talking about recording our new demo at his studio in Vienna. He was always very helpful to the band and was really pleased to hear that the band was coming together again.

Tell me about the new compositions such as “Black Sun Halo” and the rest of the 2007 demo.
“Black Sun Halo” was written by Michael Fischer, our new bass player. As you can hear it does sound a bit more tuneful compared to old songs. However, we like it very much. It’s a more straight forward, powerful affair – fantastic! There are also a couple of other new songs, which are close to the old ones. But as you could read a few lines above, there are just plans for recording a demo at the moment.

How has the reception from a live crowd been to these new songs?

On the 18th of January we played a gig in front of 150 people at Viper Room Vienna, who liked both. Some guys in the crowd were screaming for some old titles like “Baphomet” or “Schizophrenia?”. So it seems that there are still a few guys out there, who know our name – you rule!

Are you guys thinking of selling this demo and some new shirts or is this just on a stage where the band is putting the demo out there to get live shows?

Of course there will be MIASMA-shirts, MIASMA-caps, MIASMA-patches, MIASMA-posters, MIASMA-canned beer, …, but for the moment we are looking forward to record the demo and play as many gigs as possible. Believe me: This is hard work, when you live in Austria!

Is Napalm records thinking of offering you some sort of deal? I understand they handle the re-release of a 2 in one CD that included the 1st Cd and EP together.

You’re right. “Napalm Records” bought the rights of our recordings from the former “Lethal Records”-boss without our knowledge in 2001. The funny thing is that, as there is no written contract with us, he didn’t have any rights to offer.

What kind of outlet is the band to you guys? Is it something to do in your spare time from other activities are you looking towards battling it out back in the scene?

‘Till now it’s just a spare-time affair, but I must say making music is much more important to me than going to work, as I started 25 years ago and will continue, no matter what it will take. To be out on tour again would be really nice!

Is the track “Morbid Knocking” still a crowd favorite? Many people I knew always mentioned how killer the song was on a live setting.

And again I wonder from where do you know that this song was a favorite, as told by your friends? Are you Vienna-born? How can someone out there know so many details? (it all began with tape trading man! A.L.)

The band , as far as I know always recorded using the English language. Have you experimented using German lyrics?

There were and are no plans to use German lyrics, as they sound so strange, when used in death-metal. We like English the best (or maybe Latin?). (Hell, you arent going to find out till you'll try :) )

Were there any recent classic “Spinal Tap” sort of moments happening for the band?
We are not sure what you mean with “Spinal Tap” moments. (Dude, read the email reply I sent you! You are gonna love that movie A.L.)

I understand that you guys will be playing a Metal Hammer sponsored show on January 18 this year. What did that come together?

“Hellfest” are periodical shows at Vienna Viper Room. Probably the whole series is presented by Metal Hammer. We were invited by the organizers to play the show on the 18th.

A lot of bands who played in a “Satanic” vein sometimes came under the verbal attack of Christian groups. Was that the case for Miasma?

I think, there are no “real” Christian groups in Austria, as there are in the USA. And if there are a few fanatics, I’m sure they even don’t know this music at all.

Are there any plans to do a full webpage for the band with a history, discography, and all that goodness?

Yes, there are plans to do so. Gregor just wrote a bands history for our website, but discography? –“Changes”, “Love Songs” – that’s all, folks!

At this time, what can be expected next?

World domination within the next two years ;) . No, seriously, we are working on our next (demo) album and checking out gig-opportunities, to bring the band back into the scene. We are in contact with Disharmonic Orchestra and Disastrous Murmur and perhaps we can arrange some gigs together this year.

-Abysmal Lord

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