Out of Germany comes Noiz. This death metal quartet released their debut album Seeds Of The Living years ago. It's been a while ago since this band was in the news so you might start wondering if they are still together. The following article proves they are still alive and well. Here are the results of a message-board interview prior to the band's appearance at the Fear Dark Festival in The Netherlands on March 2nd 2002.

mpomusic: As an introduction for everyone, how would you like to describe the phenomenon Noiz?

Torben: We're a Christian death metal band from Germany. Two of us live in Wolfsburg, one in Berlin and the other one near Cuxhaven. We play deathmetal but how exactly you have to find out yourself! Some people think that we sound like early Mortification or early Deicide. Our style is fast and brutal. We have many influences so you can't compare us exactly with another band.

Shamgar: Why you call yourself Noiz. Is it because you only make noise or does Noiz stand for something?

Thomas: We tried to find the right name for our band, over ten years ago. At that time we thought it was cool to have a name that you can read backwards too. Noiz backwards is Zion, the hill where the house of God was standing for a long time. Besides, Noiz is the name for the thing we make!

mpomusic: What are your favorite bands? And which ones are an inspiration when you are writing your songs? Do you listen to songs specifically to learn something new?

Torben: Yes, that's a very good question. My favorites are: Extol, Absurd², Crimson Thorn, Santifica, Mortification, Goredeath. Some times I listen to black metal. One of my favorites is Antidemon. I love that voice! With this band I try to practise my singing. But I have some other favorites too. These are non Christian bands: Static X, Fear Factory, System Of A Down and Slipknot. My biggest all time favorite is the master of humor: Helge Schneider!

Stefan: Extol!!!!! Crimson Thorn, Mortification (Scrolls era), Sanctifica, Lengsel, etc.

Thomas: I cannot say that they really inspire me, but I like the old classic, melodic, power and what-else-it-is-called-metal, like Stryper, Barren Cross, Bloodgood, Whitecross, Recon, Sacred warrior. I also like bands of the harder regions like the old Tourniquet, Mortification, Believer, Deliverance, Anaemia, Living Sacrifice, Schaliach, Betrayal and so on. But I like listening to music that is made by Christians, because I think if you would have a girlfriend she wouldn't like you hearing music with lyrics that tell you to hate your girlfriend. How much more must God be sad about his children who sing along with songs that don't like or hate him.

Elling: My faves are Cannibal Corpse, they're kicking ass!! I also like Slipknot, Absurd², Sacrificium, older Tourniquet, Fleshcrawl. Everything that's hard enough to bang your head away..!!! The most of my time I'm listening to high speed bands. I don't like slow metal like Paramęcium.

mpomusic: Noiz has been described as the German Mortification. Coincidence?

Torben: I don't think so! In the early years but now we have an other style!

Stefan: I must say, in our first years we sounded a lot like Mortification. But more recently, since Torben joined the band, it's more like a black death grindcore style. That's my opinion.

mpomusic: All members of the band play at least one instrument. What made you wanna play that instrument?

Torben: Noiz made me play guitar! First I played bass but I knew some guitar chords. Not much though. And I learned playing guitar through Noiz.

Thomas: Every band member learned his instrument for Noiz, I think. I played piano and keyboard before. When we decided to play death metal about 10 years ago somebody had to play drums. So I had to...At first my drum playing (also Stefans bass playing and Ellings and Torbs guitar playing) was REALLY bad. But all of us had to learn and practise, and after a few years it became better and better.

Stefan: Yeah, that's right. But I think everyone of us loves his instrument. At least I do.
Bass is the best!

Elling: I learned guitar for Noiz too. I started with a 14 day practising at a music school, but they taught me things that I learned by myself in four weeks, so I quit the music school and started to learn with Stefan and Tom and also myself. I've listened to some radio songs and I played them again and again and again. I knew that someone who plays guitar for 5 minutes can play better than me but I think it's enough to damage your ears.... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!

Daffie K: You're from Germany...How is your music received over there?

Thomas: In the area where we live (Northern Germany) it is not easy to get gigs because there is not much interest in metal anyway. Most concerts we have had have been 1.) the gigs we organized ourselves 2.) gigs in Southern Germany 3.) gigs e.g. in Holland (Flevo Festival ...).

mpomusic: Well, considering that Noiz is already existing on and off over ten years, have you reached the point that being a band becomes different then what it used to be like first? I mean, when you started it was either just for fun or because you were full of ideals or whatever... Has that changed?

Stefan: I don't really remember why we started the band. I think it was just for fun. Short time later we wanted to be a Christian Death Metal band. But it was not long time until we considered the band as a job that we did for God. Our first gig in a youth centre was a real campaign for Jesus, and it was really a hard battle. Today I think we make music not only for non-Christians, but also for Christian metalheads, because now we know that Jesus wants us to have fun, although we are Christians! :-)

Oliver: I know that Stefan has some very nice tattoos. What's your opinion on Christians getting inked?

Stefan: Okay, now comes my sermon about tattoos and living with Jesus...Often Christians talk about tattoo inhibition in the Bible, and they mean Leviticus 19:28 and Deuteronomy 14:1. But if you study it you'll see that it's something about a pagan death ritual. You should ask my brother about the theological thing. But what it says to me is that you should not scarify yourself so that you can't feel your inner scars. Many people do this with drugs, other people scarify themselves, also today. God wants to heal our inner hurts.

Torben: I got my fist tattoo on Saturday February 9th! I love it and it won't be the last!

Oliver: How do people (Christians and non Christians) react when they actually see them?

Torben: On the Depth Of Winter festival some people talked about "someone who has Jesus tattooed over the belly". They couldn't believe it!

Stefan: People don't talk about my tattoos very much (at least as I know).

mpomusic: As I understand it, the band consists of two brothers and two brothers? Does this mean that you were all in Wolfsburg at one point but that two members moved to other places? If yes, what does that mean for the future of the band?

Torben: Yes the other two brothers moved away! Elling (guitars) and me, Torben (guitars) are brothers and Stefan (bass/vocals) and Thomas (drums) are brothers.
Elling and me live in Wolfsburg, Stefan is going to become teacher and Thomas will become preacher! I think that we will survive this time! We can practise only one time per month but it's the only way we can go. And we ask God every time we play, practise or whatever if he wants us as a band and I think that he wants us as a band. We can feel his presence at concerts and he is with us and saves us in all situations.

xRTx: I must admit that I am not to impressed by your first album. However, Noiz is a great live band. So, when can we expect your first live-album to be released?

Torben: I think that Noiz became more brutal, faster and technically better! In the summer of 2000 I joined this band as the second guitar player and some months ago the others of the band wrote new and very brutal songs. Since I joined this band we wrote technically complex songs and some very fast ones. If we could make a second CD you would see that we've become faster and more brutal!

Exhead Nl: Are you going to do new material?

Thomas: We really hope to! We have got enough songs so that we could. What we lack most is money! Maybe we decide to pay without money which means some of the band members pay first and cancel all their holiday plans, eat one meal less the day and live on the street :-).

Elling: I would also love to do another record, but we cannot afford it. I don't know why there are so much labels with millions of bucks but they give it all away for some stupid bands which will exist only for one or two records. We also don't want to earn money by selling our CD's, so the labels have "nearly" no costs at all. Just give some money and you'll get it back. It's a dumb thing. But let's see what God will do with us!

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