HEADS FOR THE DEAD CHAT TO THE RITUAL ABOUT THEIR NEW ALBUM ‘INTO THE RED’

It was been 2 years since the debut release by the international death metal band ‘Heads For The Dead’ however, they now return with a new lineup and a new album that is arguably their best work to date. Nate from The Ritual here on TotalRock caught up exclusively with Ralf and Ed about ‘Into The Red’, as well as the experience of creating a record in a global pandemic.

Nate – Hello and thank you for taking the time to talk to me here on TotalRock.

Ralf: Hey Nate! Glad to be here in your webtomb with HEADS FOR THE DEAD! The mission is clear: Let’s ROCK!!!

Nate – You have just released your 2nd full-length release with ‘Into The Red’. One of the first things that struck me about the new record is how evil and sinister it sounds, even compared to your debut release. What was the writing process for this album and was it to consciously make it sound more sinister than the first?

Ralf: Everything came really naturally in the development! We simply took the spirit of “Serpent’s curse” and took it on the next level! Like a sequel of a good horror movie, you take the basics from the first one, but you get more possessed by your ideas and intention and your raise the level of madness. Actually, we already started with the writing process of “Into the red” in late 2018 and finished the recording process with Ed’s drum contribution in summer 2019. Jonny is the main composer behind the music and he draws as well a lot of influences from movie soundtracks, like for example the Carpenter stuff. It was more about getting that vibe and evolving the extreme Metal influences. Vocal wise I tried to evolve as well into a more extreme and varified direction. I see HEADS FOR THE DEAD as a lot more than the typical Death Metal band since our whole formula is much more about the freedom to create, the freedom to experiment and the freedom not to fit in the box. We have the Death Metal roots, of which we are proud of, but there is a lot more creeping and crawling inside our music, lyrics and the visuals of the album!

Nate – The band’s line-up has changed with this release and you now have the incredible Ed Warbie on drums. How has this change influenced the record and enabled the band to expand on the last release?

Ed: The songs were mostly done already when I came on board but I was able to add my own style and ideas to the drum arrangements. I’m an old-fashioned, hard-hitting drummer with a lot of groove so I tried to apply that to the songs, make them as heavy as possible. And I guess we all love a good D-beat!

Nate – The song titles on this record all seem horror-related with tracks such as ‘The Coffin Scratcher’ and ‘Multi Morbid Maniac’ along with the excellent artwork. Is there a story behind the tracks and artwork that you chose?

Ralf: Of course, each track has it’s own chapter rooted in the realms of horror! The title “Into the red” comes since 3 tracks are totally in the “Blood is life” concept, which you have in Horror dealing with the vampirism and Blood Sucking Freaks 🙂 “At the dead of night” is inspired for example by Kinski’s “Phantom of the Night” and “Into the red” has a huge influence of the classical historical and horror figure E. Bathory.

“The coffin scratcher” refers to a certain scene from “The nun”. A 2018 movie from “The conjuring” universum. The main actor gets buried alive and I wanted to get that vibe of anxiety, claustrophobia and adrenalin overkill. “Multi morbid maniac” is simply a tribute to Killjoy (R.I.P) of might NECROPHAGIA, a band which did a crucial job in expanding the horror in extreme Metal to a new degree of extremities.

The artwork itself is done again by BRANCA Studio from Catalonia. Pol, the artist, comes more from the Doom/Stoner background. He has a certain kind of retro vibe in his work, which gives the artwork a massive vintage horror vibe. The artwork is a logical progression from “Serpent’s curse” – let me say more blood, nudity and rock’n’roll in a dark way 🙂

Nate – For me, this is personally one of my favourite records of 2020. How difficult has it been as a band that is internationally based, to write an album during a global pandemic, and quite frankly makes it sound so good?
Ralf: As long as you follow a vision and you have a connecting vibe everything can work. Forget about your romantic view of a band standing and composing in a rehearsal room. The album was done on file-sharing work and through network communication. So shortly said; Ed recorded his drums in The Netherland, I did my vocals down in the South of Germany and Jonny has his Studio UNBOUND being located in the UK. Furthermore, we have a solo guitar guest contribution from US-based and Swedish guitarists. It may sound tricky, but we have a good common spirit, it’s an enormous creative vibe at the moment, too. I think it helps a lot if you respect the input of each other and give each one the freedom he needs to be creative & productive.

Jonny did the mixing and mastering of the album as well. His experience in productions has grown within the recent years, but overall we wanted a sound that has still a sort of headroom. Nothing stretched to the limit. Of course, you have keyboards, samples etc. in HEADS FOR THE DEAD, but the drums are kept naturally, the guitars still have a vibe of dirt and overall it’s a product that grows in its magic when you raise the volume level. I personally do not like total in the face sounds anymore. The sound needs to grow and that helps you to get more in trance with the music!

Nate – This is now your 2nd release with Transcending Obscurity Records – what is it like to have such a great label behind you when releasing new music?

Ralf: We stick to Kunal cause of loyalty and we are truly thankful to what he does for our band. TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY comes from a land that is still a no-name in the map of Metal, so Kunal has to work harder to convince than probably some Euro or US ones, but he did such a good job. Take a look at those boxsets and limited editions. It needs guts to do this. We have good communication and overall you have to remain with your feet on the ground. This is a tough business and the market is shit loaded with releases each month. You need quality, you need a certain risk and you need the mix of luck and Metal magic to get attention. Everything is connected with hard work!

Nate – Now without looking for a crystal ball what does 2021 look like for the band and, are there are plans to tour or maybe live-stream some music for your fans?

Ralf: At the moment our goal is to entangle the horror freaks with more shocking music. Logistically it’s gonna be hard to bring HEADS FOR THE DEAD to a stage, but say never – never! This pandemic is still a serious problem and we are strongly convinced that creativity and delivering new music is a good way to express emotions instead of expecting developments that are our of our hand. During the summer and autumn time, we have recorded a completely new MLP, which will be home to our fave slasher movies and the songs are more rooted in the Punk, Rock, Crust and Extreme way. Still HEADS, but with a new angle to it! Stay tuned!

Nate – If people out there have not listened to ‘Heads For The Dead’ before, how would you describe to them the music you make?

Ralf: A massive rampage of your fave horror movie creatures all ready to rock and thirsty for a ghouls night out! Of course, with no happy end and the good guys will die of course! Excited? Take a listen at https://headsforthedead.bandcamp.com

Nate – Thank you for taking the time to speak to me here on TotalRock.

Ralf: Thank you Nate! Our pleasure!

Ralf: “There is no more room in hell when the dead will walk the earth” – so better get your copy of “Into the red” – NOW!!!

You can now pick up the latest album by ‘Heads For The Read’ here