Let’s look back to that moment when “Fallout” had just been released, surprised listeners, and suddenly became an insider-tip, which was passed around the scene. How did you experience this development at the time, and how did it affect you? Both in the moment and in the longer term…Leif: “Actually, “Fallout“ felt really good for us, but we had no real idea how it would ultimately be received, because it was a strange time overall back then. But we were totally happy to hear that many people became aware of the band through “Fallout” and took a closer look at it.”
Ulf: “I think we ourselves were most surprised, how well “Fallout“ was received. When I joined the band, the album was already finished. Which put me in a position to enjoy the songs both from a fan’s perspective and as a musician in the run-up to the release and during rehearsals, which is why I was absolutely convinced of the album – as we all were. No one of us expected such positive feedback. I think the success has also inspired us. Although success in this segment is, of course, to be understood in a rather down-to-earth way. We are five friends who enjoy spending time together and love making music together. That’s the main thing. People like what we do, they go wild at the shows, and the first new songs in the set are very well received. We’re really happy about that, and it confirms that we’re on the right track.”
Don’t such circumstances create pressure? Or rather… an expectation of yourself to definitely want to go one better than your debut?
Philipp: “I can only speak for myself… I actually don’t feel any pressure. I still think “Fallout” is awesome – it was a strong debut. When I write songs, I don’t approach it with the intention of always having to improve everything. I don’t have the musical talent for that, but Arne has. He recorded all my songs, supplemented them with the others, and also arranged some of them slightly. For me, it’s very simple: I write a song, and if everyone does like it, it gets recorded.”Ulf: “I didn’t feel any pressure either. Sure, you don’t want to offer up half-baked rubbish, but somehow everything fits together so organically with us those such thoughts don’t even occur to us. The initial situation was more of an encouragement, but in a very free and playful way, I would say.“
Am I mistaken, or did you place importance on the sound on “Time And Tide“ being as close as possible to that on the “Fallout“ record?
Ulf: “We wanted our sound to be in-your-face again and as transparent and warm as possible. Jörg Uken is the right man for the job, and I’m absolutely thrilled with what he’s achieved. To my ears, “Time And Tide” has even more power, reveals new nuances, and yet you immediately recognize which band is rocking out. The similarity in sound that you mention also comes from the way we play.”
Leif: “On our part, nothing was consciously based on “Fallout“ in terms of sound. However, we had a basic framework from the previous PHANTOM CORPORATION sessions at Soundlodge studios and then wanted to take the next logical step forward for “Time And Tide.“ We are very happy with the result, and Jörg has once again surpassed himself. Overall, it was a great collaboration and a wonderful time together. I think the production fits the material well, and you can really hear the PHANTOM CORPORATION in it, can’t you?“
The new album is different, yet somehow remains true to its predecessor. I imagine there are more melodies than before, the bass is more audible… It seems as if you allow yourselves more quiet moments, which further emphasizes the aggressive, brutal moments. Intentional?Philipp: “I don’t think that was intentional. There are three songwriters on the album, as Ulf is now also represented with ‘Pound Of Flesh’ and ‘Crisis’. I think our variety comes from the fact that three people write songs in slightly different ways.“
Ulf: “My songs may bring in some certain crusty Black Metal note, without actually being Black Metal, while the bass sounds different, because I play differently than Basti, the former bass-player. But it’s interesting that you hear more quiet moments. I really think “Time And Tide” is much more aggressive than anything we’ve done so far.”
“Time And Tide”. The lyrics read like a self-reflection or even self-accusation of a person who has to realize that they have gone around in circles. And failed again? How much of the words are autobiographical?
Philipp: “Hard to say. Parts of the song and the lyrics are quite old. I rewrote the lyrics for the album and made them less personal. It’s about failing at certain points in life and simply not being able to get it right even after many more attempts. It’s a very bad feeling that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The title is meant to express that there are good times and bad times – but time itself doesn’t stop for anyone.”
I find, the writing style in which many of your lyrics are written is interesting. In the one hand, they leave so much open for interpretations, but on the other hand, they seem to offer small, razor-sharp glimpses into the author’s mind.Philipp: “As far as the words I have written are concerned, that might partly be true. The title- track and ‘Crushed’ are more personal in nature. ‘Western Apocalypse’ is more general, a look at the decline of the Western world. I am no prophet, but it’s very worrying how arrogantly or even blindly our Western world often look at others. It’s as if the way many of us live becomes the measurement of all things. I think that is dangerous to view those who think differently as misguided or even hostile. This is not only pretentious… but, in my experience, usually simply wrong. ‘Dead Of Night’, on the other hand, is just simple Metal lyrics with ghosts, graves and hauntings. It fits the song, but it’s not a literary masterpiece. ‘Sorcerer’, which I think is really well written, is about the film of the same name by William Friedking starring Roy Scheider. It is a remake of the French classic “The Wages Of Fear“ starring Yves Montand. A film well worth watching if you’re, like me, into dirty, hard hitting action films from the sixties and seventies.“
Ulf: “Partly the lyrics I wrote respond to the state of the world. But I love to play and work with metaphors. ‘Pound Of Flesh’ is about weapon-trade, and ‘Frantic Disruption’ and ‘To The Hilt’ are also more social-critical lyrics, while ‘Crisis’ deals with the feeling of disillusionment in an abstract way, exploring the power that can lie within it. The most personal words are probably ‘For All The Wrong Reasons’, which is about remorse.“
‘Time And Tide’ or ‘For All The Wrong Reasons’ are songs that enable this perspective we just mentioned. ‘Krokodil’ seems more like a string of words that sound nasty, itchy and crisp and wonderfully fit into a Punk song… But: Does the song have a specific message?
Philipp: “Actually, yes. It is about this poor people’s drug named ‘Krokodil’. You can look it up on the internet. But I recommend not clicking on image search. Musically, this song mostly is inspired by TERRORIZER. I think these very short songs suit us quite well. We already had a few of them with a playing time of only around two minutes with ‘Border Wars’, ‘Insurgents’, ‘The Abyss’ and ‘Alongside Hell’. Sometimes, everything has simply been said.”
By the way, ‘Krokodil’ is a cool song title and the word would also make a good band name.Philipp: “Thanks. I like the title too.“
Leif: “I like it too. But I wouldn’t want to name a band that…“
Snake. Spider. The egg timer with entrance and exit, bones tied together, the eye enclosed by a chain… Of course, you could just say, “make up your own mind about our artwork“, but you could also say a few words or share a few thoughts about it…
Philipp: “The sleeve comes from Skurktur, who have already done artwork, posters and merch for bands like DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, ELDER, AGRICULTURE and others. What can I say? We are all super happy. I gave Emil from Skurktur the album title and told him about some ideas. But they were all rather standard symbolism for “time and tides“, like clocks, waves, the sea… He incorporated own ideas then, which contain other elements that can be associated with the concept of time in a broader sense. Time that ends is symbolized by the bones. Time that has come to a standstill is symbolized by the spider, in whose web you can get caught… Time that continues to run is symbolized by a river, and the time that follows no rules is symbolized by the snake. I think the end result is extremely coherent and also appears to be really beautiful. And it is maybe a bit unusual for a Metal or Death Metal band with Crust influences, as the artwork definitely gives off some Black Metal vibes.”
It is interesting that Phillip is responsible for lyrics and studio recordings, but doesn’t appear live. Why is that?
Philipp: “I’m actually just a songwriter and lyricist. Since I live in Berlin and generally have little studio experience, Arne recorded everything and polished it up a bit.“
Leif: “This has been established for PHANTOM CORPORATION for several years now and works very well. Fortunately, we can call on various friends for live guitar. It’s also a great opportunity to share our music and the time we spend on it with our extended circle of musician friends. However, Philipp has full decision-making power in the band and is strongly involved in all our creative processes. Fortunately, he was able to drop by in the studio this time around, so you can hear him on “Time And Tide“ doing the gang shouts in ‘Dead Of Night’ and playing acoustic guitar on ‘Western Apocalypse’.“Philipp and Ulf write the lyrics, but Leif has to sing or shout them. How would you describe the creative process until a lyric fits a particular song perfectly?
Ulf: “Apart from my own songs, for which I also write the music, I usually create vocal lines for the other songs I’ve written lyrics for, and then work with Leif to polish everything, so that it’s easy to sing. Leif simply has the most experience in this area. His judgment about what works and what doesn’t is always spot on.“
Leif: “This time, I contributed less to “Time And Tide“, but it is a good thing. I always think it is great when songwriters come up with some kind of concept for vocals or even lyrics which fit the atmosphere and composition. This often results in a well-rounded overall picture for the song. Singing the other guys’ lyrics to me always feels very natural. That’s why I’m very happy with the overall result on “Time And Tide“ and in retrospect I don’t examine exactly who wrote what. That’s not meant to sound disparaging, it just illustrates that it doesn’t matter so much to me who wrote which riffs or words, as long as it’s fun to listen to the song and then play it together with everyone else.“
Let’s stay around your process of creating music. Somehow PHANTOM CORPORATION give the impression, you prefer meeting in the rehearsal room, working on your songs there. How does that work when some of the members live quite far away?
Ulf: “Everyone writes songs on their own. Usually, three of us meet in our rehearsal room here in Bremen. Arne, Marc and I and then work on the arrangements there. Sometimes we change things around a bit, but most of the time we record the songs as we originally wrote them. As often as we can, we also rehearse with Leif, so that he can take care of his vocals from the beginning and the songs just come together perfectly. This work process works very well and has proven itself despite all the logistical challenges.”
Leif: “Yes, the final touches in the rehearsal room are very important. This time, for the “Time And Tide“ session, which even includes a handful of songs that didn’t make it onto the album, we had a fantastic situation that everyone was able to play through all the songs in their final version, with vocals and lyrics, before the recordings, which gave us a very good feeling going into the studio!“
In the live sector, you sometimes perform with substitute musicians instead of canceling gigs. Does this have anything to do with the fact that the creative music scene between Bremen and the German Coast-line, especially East Frisia, is so well connected and a “musicians’ collective“ has formed over time – even if you probably can’t call it that… I hope you know what I mean?Ulf: “The scene in the northwest of Germany is indeed phenomenal and the number of all the outstanding musicians is enormous. But of the guitarists who have supported us live on stage so far, only Jens Finger from SLAUGHTERDAY and TEMPLE OF DREAD is from here. But yes! It’s not that unusual here for there to be personnel overlaps between different bands from time to time. Personally, I love that.“
Leif: “Well, the “Corporation“ addition to the band name is probably not entirely coincidental, haha!“
The album title is something you can start philosophizing about while listening to the record. The last track, ‘Western Apocalypse’, always forms this type of image of the tides in my mind – but connected with the assumption that the more material flood there is, the more mental ebb there seems to be as well…
Philipp: “Might be true, as you mention material floods: I think this excess, overconsumption, and the idea that material things have some kind of real, high value lead to a social decline in which everyone is closest to themselves and no longer cares about others. I still know that differently from my grandparents’ generation, the post-war generation. Back then, everybody pitched in together and in the end somehow everyone was equally well off. I think that’s something which is increasingly lacking today. I don’t want to sound too preachy, but I think it’s clear to everyone that we could all perhaps go through life with a little more caution and consideration.“
The record, this last song ends with the repeated word “apocalypse“. Like some kind of final truth, with nothing more to come after it… Can we make the leap from the idea of the end of the world as we know it to something positive, at least to end this interview?
Philipp: “Absolutely. You always have to stay positive, even if it’s difficult at the moment due to the very tense world situation. “Time And Tide“ is a dark record. It sounds dark and harsh, and well, so are the lyrics. Extreme music and extreme lyrics are usually an outlet for coping without despairing.“
Leif: “Oh no, not today on my part!“
Get a copy of the album and try to catch them live if you can!
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Live pics: Frank Stöver
Interview: Wedekind Gisbertson