Ok, before we start talking about DISSENTER we obviously have to go back in time a little more… In January ’89 you originally started out as BLOODLUST. Tell us a bit more about those early days – who was in the line-up at the time, what have you all done previously, who inspired you musically at the time and so on
"From our present line-up only Garbaty was involved in Bloodlust. The band used to be a big inspiration for many bands, that were popular back then."

How long did it take you until you had enough material finished to play at the "Metal Madness" show in Wroclaw with VADER, SLASHING DEATH and ACID DRINKERS? How did you actually get the opportunity to play that show? How did you get the message out that there’s a band called BLOODLUST? As far as I know you didn’t have any releases out at the time, so
"As soon as the first material was written BLOODLUST started to play shows. That’s how the name got out and that’s also how they ended up playing the "Metal Madness" show."

In 1991 you even did a full tour in Poland and two gigs in Moscow. How did you manage to do that? Did you book shows on your own at the time or did you already have a management helping you out? What kind of experiences and memories do you have on those shows, in particular the Moscow show, which must have been your first gig outside of Poland
"The small tour in Poland came together bascially through the help of some friends. A band from Russia then invited BLOODLUST to play those shows in Moscow, where they played in front of thousands of sweating maniacs."

In the same year you entered the Zaza Studio in Rumia to record your demo “Holocaust". Tell us a bit more about it, what kind of experiences you made in the studio, which songs appeared on the tape, what kind of musical style you played at the time and the response you were generally getting on it.
"It was the first time that the band entered a studio which definitely gained them some experiences for the future. "Holocaust" featured the following tracks: ‘Gates Of Hell’, ‘Expect No Mercy’, ‘Holocaust’, ‘Hungry For Blood’, ‘Black Death’, ‘Killed By Death’, ‘Night Of The Zombie’, ‘Riders Of Apocalypse’ and ‘The Abyss’.”

On the “Holocaust” release was also a song entitled ‘Killed By Death’ – was that a MOTÖRHEAD cover or just a song of your own with a similar title? Did you play any cover tunes at all?
"No, that wasn’t a cover – that was a song of our own. At that time we didn’t play any covers."

In 1992 Heter joined you on guitars – what lead to this decision and would you say it improved the overall quality of the band? What has Heter been doing before he joined BLOODLUST?
"He didn’t play in any bands before. It was through Garbaty that he ended up in the band. He turned out to be a very productive person with many new ideas and also became a quite good friend."

In August of ’92 you went back into the studio to record "Hideous". What can you tell us about this release? Was that another demo? Why didn’t you record in Zaza Studio again, but this time in Modern Sound Studio in Gdynia?
"Hideous" featured six tracks… We chose Modern Sound because it offered a better equipment."

The release was picked up by Loud Out Records, who took over the distribution of it, right? How did this co-operation come about and did it help you to get to the next level of popularity?
"The cassettes were accessible in shops all over Poland which helped us to reach a lot of maniacs. That definitely increased the band’s popularity."

It even got distributed by Nuclear Blast Records outside of Poland – how did you manage to get them involved?
"Hideous" was sent to some labels, Nuclear Blast seemed to like it and started to distribute it."

In 1993 you and Sivy joined the band as the new drummer and guitarist respectively. What lead to this line-up change and what have you and Sivy been up to previously?
"We both already played Death Metal in local groups… When Sivy left his old band Amorphus, he got replaced by Spider (who’s now in Esquarial)."

You even appeared on the Nuclear Blast compilation “Nuclear Blast 100” with the ‘Devoted To The Dark’… So, have they been interested in signing BLOODLUST for an album release as well maybe?
"Yes, Nuclear Blast was interested in releasing a Bloodlust album, but we didn’t wait on the recording contracts."

When exactly did Bart join the band as the new vocalist and for what reasons? Maybe you can also tell us what he had been doing previously?
"Bart (who’s my brother) joined us in ’94, when we wrote the material for our debut "You’ll Die". He previously played in a band with me, which was our first band."

In January ’95 you went into Spaart Studio in Rzeszow in order to finally record your debut album, which was supposed to be entitled "You’ll Die". But the album never saw the light of day due to technical problems in the studio… Tell us a bit more about this. Did you actually pay the recordings on your own or was it Loud Out Records that were backing you up financially?
"During the session we unfortunately became problems with the equipment and were sent home while they were trying to fix it. Loud Out were about to pay for that recordings , but fucked things up, so that we couldn’t continue."

In April of ’95 you played at the “Metalmania” show with Death, Samael and Unleashed. How did you get the opportunity to play there and how did it work out for you? Did you get along with the other, more popular bands or did they treat you like shit or something?
"Thanks to Loud Out we got the opportunity to play Metalmania. The relations between the bands were great. We could talk, drink beer and make some photos…"

What kind of problems actually lead to the demise of BLOODLUST shortly after? There was talk about serious problems with Loud Out Records, so please tell us a bit more about this.
"We already had problems with Loud Out from time to time. As you know the recordings of our debut couldn’t be finished. He promised us a lot and all of a sudden he disappeared…"

But at the end of ’96 you decided to give it another try after all. What caused this new motivation and why didn’t you use the BLOODLUST moniker anymore, but called yourselves DISSENTER from now own? Was it the same line-up again that you used to have in BLOODLUST at the time of the split-up?
"Our old name started to bore us. There were also some other bands using this name (for example from the US). The line-up stayed the same though."

Have you ever had problems or were mixed up with the Chicago based band DISINTER, that have a rather similar sounding name?
"No, it never caused any problems, and I really hope that we will play together some time and have some beers."

In 1997 you already recorded your first demo tape "Moral Insanity". Tell us all necessary details about that.
"We wanted to show our possibilities at the time and leave a mark in the underground."

Shortly after the demo was done you changed vocalists… What happened and where did you find your new front man?
"On our first demo all vocals were recorded by a friend of ours, as we didn’t have of solid vocalist yet. He introduced us to Maniac who already had been playing with Sivy together in his first band."

In your bio there’s also two tracks mentioned (‘Moral Insanity’ and ‘The End’), but I’m not quite sure what they were all about. Did you release them as another demo or something?
"These songs became our second demo, "Dissenter II" which was already recorded with Maniac on vocals."

In early 1999 Novum Vox Mortis released the split CD "Disco’s Out, Slaughter’s In". Tell us a bit more about that as you have been involved in that project, haven’t you? Who was the other band on there and how well was the release received from fans and the media at the time?
"Disco’s Out Slaughter’s In" was a split release with Lost Soul, Reinless and Night Gallery. The response was very positive, and copies of it even ended up in Cuba. But the published did a little mistake as he signed us as Disinter which caused a little bit of confusion…"

In the summer of ‘99 you finally recorded your debut album "Bloodlust & Blasphemy", but you were still without a label at the time, weren’t you?
"Yes, we were without a label, yet we decided not to wait any longer and entered the studio to record our debut at last. It features the folowing eight tracks: ‘With And Crown Of Thorns He Temple’, ‘Moral Insanity’, ‘Desire’, ‘In The Empire Of Damnation’, ‘For Kill My Pain’, ‘Strange To Heaven’, ‘Ruling Of Conscience’ and ‘The end’."

As far as I know Novum Vox Mortis originally wanted to release the album, but that didn’t work out in the end, so what went wrong there?
"Novum Vox Mortis were interested in our debut, but they had financial problems and stopped to exist."

I was kind of surprised that you didn’t re-record any old BLOODLUST songs for it. What was the reason for that? Was it your aim to separate both bands completely from each other or was it just that you weren’t satisfied with those old songs any longer?
"The last songs we wrote in Bloodlust were definitely our best yet. But after the name change we decided not to use them any longer and created new material."

The album also includes a video clip for ‘For Kill My Pain’ – tell us a bit more about the concept behind that video and when and where you did it.
"Garbaty wrote the script for it and I took care of the production. We used a camera man, who had never been doing something similar before. It took us some days and parts were filmed in a studio in Slawek. The rest on a castle in Zagorze Silesian and on quarries in Strzegom."

I noticed that there’s two vocalists in that video – have both been full time members of the band at the time?
"Yes, both were in our line-up at the time, on our first album Sivy was partly singing as well."

The album ended up being released by your manager and not by an established underground label. What lead to this decision and did you ever regret it ever since?
"We had offers from some labels but they were not too interesting. We didn’t wanna waste our material so we decided to give it to our manager to release it."

You also got the opportunity to play at the second "Obscene Extreme" festival in Trutnov (Czech Republic) – tell us more about that and your experiences there.
"This was a very cool festival. A lot of extreme bands are playing there, unfortunately the weather wasn’t too good that particular year and it rained the whole night and also on the second day. But I still remember this fest very well."

According to your bio you mainly used the year 2001 to promote "Bloodlust & Blasphemy" and to work on new material. What exactly did you do in order to push the album’s popularity?
"We did promotion for "Bloodlust & Blasphemy" and concentrated on gigs, which I adore to play he,he…"

At the end of the year you went into Hertz Studio in Bialystok to record the follow up album "Apocalypse Of The Damned", which was released by Cold Blood Industries recently. How did you get together with this Dutch company and where do you see the main differences between "Bloodlust & Blasphemy" and "Apocalypse Of The Damned"?
"Apocalypse Of The Damned" is for sure our best recording so far, we introduced new solutions to our works somewhat. We signed the contract with Cold Blood thanks to the help of Mariusz Kmiolek (Empire Records), who occupies us in Poland."

It seems that your line-up had changed once more as there’s only three members featured on that album opposed to the five on "Bloodlust & Blasphemy"…So, what happened to the old members?
"Before the recordings of "Apocalypse…" we decided to part company with Sivy and Maniac because they didn’t seem to be dedicated enough any longer. I think, this was a necessary move. We have a new guitarist by now, who assimilates our material best."

What kind of plans do you have to promote the new album? Is there a tour in the making maybe?
"We will hopefully leave for a tour in Europe soon and for sure will play on the Thrash ‘Em All Fest in Poland in autumn."

Anything else we should know about DISSENTER and your upcoming activities?
"Thanks for the interview, check out "Apocalypse…" and I hope to see you all at our gigs. Visit our website www.dissenter.prv.pl. You can also write to us at this email address: dissenter7@poczta.onet.pl"

Frank Stöver