{"id":6820,"date":"1987-04-01T00:00:07","date_gmt":"1987-04-01T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6820"},"modified":"2012-10-06T19:59:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T19:59:31","slug":"feature-exumer-mf23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-exumer-mf23\/","title":{"rendered":"EXUMER – Burnt Offerings (MF23, 1987) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXUMER – Burnt Offerings<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nMike Exley<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 23 (1987)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Exumer (l-r): Syke Bornetto, Ray Mensh, Bernie Siedler and Paul Arakaki<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nGermany is one of the hot beds of activity for new and upcoming bands in Europe. In fact, you could say it was \u201cpossessed by fire\u201d, which is quite an appropriate way of introducing you to Germany\u2019s latest success, Exumer.<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to witness the band live in Belgium, I sat down with new bassist \/ vocalist Paul Arakaki and drummer Syke Bornetto to examine some of the ideas behind the powerful catchy riffs that were a vital ingredient in the sudden success of the band\u2019s debut album, Possessed By Fire<\/em>, released in December 1986 by Disaster Records. This involved quite a lot of hilarity because of the language problem and translation differences, but in the end Syke managed to get his points across.<\/p>\n

So guys, let\u2019s talk about the formation of the band. Syke: \u201cThe band was formed by Mem von Stein, our previous bass player, and our lead guitarist Ray Mensh in 1985. Paul was over from America at the time, living here, and he joined the band as a guitarist.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Paul does have a previous connection with the band after all? Paul: \u201cYes, I played guitar with the band for quite a while but then, unfortunately, I was forced to leave because of personal problems. I was very sad to go, but it was necessary at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, before the album came out I knew very little about the band, but I believe you did release a demo, A Mortal In Black<\/em>? Syke: \u201cYes, that\u2019s right, but I\u2019m afraid it was never widely available because we got screwed up. The demo was called A Mortal In Black<\/em> because that was one of our strongest songs. The early limited response to it was very good but it never got circulated because almost nobody received a tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly happened? Syke: \u201cWell, as the message on the back of the album says, our old manager Ralf Ludwig cheated everybody. We got a lot of orders for the tape but he took all the money and never sent any tapes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you sign to Disaster Records? Syke: \u201cThat was the result of a live show we did. Our current manager, Matthias Prill, knew Tommy Ziegler, the head of Disaster, so he invited the guy to the show. We brought Warfare over from England and we really played our hearts out; the offer came from that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you receive offers from rival German companies like SPV or Noise? Syke: \u201cYes, we did receive some other offers, but I won\u2019t say from who. We thought Disaster was better for us because we could be more individual if we were on a different label to all those bands who were getting signed by the two labels you mentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Syke is very diplomatic at this point isn\u2019t he? Coming from Frankfurt have you noticed any problems of being outside the general metal scene which seems to be centering on the Dusseldorf \/ Essen area? Paul: \u201cThe scene is really big there, but I think being out of that area has helped us, especially with getting gig. We hear people from those places saying \u2018When are Exumer coming?\u2019. We\u2019re an \u2018out of town\u2019 band and it has really helped us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s your view of the scene around you? Syke: “The scene is very good in that it\u2019s very active, but I think there are too many bad bands around and these don\u2019t help the good ones at all. It\u2019s easy for bands to get a deal for one album these days, I think any band can do it, but there are too many one album bands around instead of good bands who make enough impact to record two or three albums. That is dangerous. There are too many dumbos around who think they can just pick up a guitar and record an album. These bands soon get dropped because they don\u2019t sell anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

You recently had a personal change as we\u2019ve mentioned, but what actually caused Mem to leave? Syke: \u201cUs! We caused him to leave! Mem was not professional. He thought that he ran the band and that everybody would do what he wanted. He wanted to use only his own ideas and he wasn\u2019t that good a musician. We really hated his attitude, so we kicked him out!\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe you had some problems with his replacement before Paul joined up again? Paul: \u201cThey had a lot of problems, because obviously Mem was not only the singer but also the bassist. There are few people in Germany who can do this well, so I jumped at the chance when I heard that Mem had left. Even while I was out of the band I\u2019d always kept in touch with all the guys. When Mem left it was the perfect opportunity for me, because I had not been playing in a band since I left the group.\u201d
\nI had heard that an American was rumoured to be linked with the band. Has it caused any problems having an American fronting a German band? Paul: \u201cIt hasn\u2019t caused too many problems because I already knew all the guys, but I think some of our fans are a little bit surprised when I speak. I think this has done a lot of good for the band because it\u2019s made us more of an international band, not just \u2018another German thrash band\u2019. It\u2019s like the fans really take more interest in us because we\u2019re different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Mem\u2019s departure give you any problems on the writing side? Syke: \u201cNo, not really. We\u2019re finding that we\u2019re playing a little bit differently and writing a bit differently now, but that is because now we can all use our own ideas. Mem didn\u2019t really listen to other people\u2019s ideas on the album and we had to compromise to his decisions to finish it, but now we\u2019re finding that we write a lot better. We only have one named completed song so far (\u2018Winds Of Death\u2019), but it\u2019s a lot better even than any of the material on the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has your style changed at all? Syke: \u201cNo, not really. The new songs are harder and more aggressive which is how we intend to progress on our future material, but it\u2019s still the same basic style of rhythm and lead with Paul playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

How far off is new material? Syke: \u201cAs I said, we only have one named song at the moment and another one without a title, so I can\u2019t really say, but we should be ready to record and release our second album (Rising From The Sea<\/em>) at the end of the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has the reaction been like to Possessed By Fire<\/em>? Paul: \u201cIt\u2019s been really good. Our manager has files full of letters from all over the place: Brazil, Chile and the USA. He\u2019s one busy guy!\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point manager Matthias Prill points out that he has received almost no letters from Holland. Syke: \u201cThat seems very strange to us. I think we received one or two letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come on Holland, get your act together. Is the album likely to be released outside Europe? Syke: \u201cWe hope so sometime. Matthias, our manager, was in America a while ago trying to get a distribution deal, but none was really suitable. I don\u2019t want to mention any names but hopefully we can get it released over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Exumer 1986 (l-r): Paul Arakaki, Ray Mensh, Syke Bornetto and Bernie Siedler<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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As a new band, how did you get Harris Johns to produce your album? Syke: \u201cHarris and Tommy Ziegler worked together for many years when they used to bring out punk music on Disaster. They are very good friends and Tommy knows Matthias, so he suggested Harris to us. We\u2019re pleased with the production because it\u2019s really good for our style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you agree he gave you something of a US sound? Syke: \u201cYes, I think so. A lot of German bands aren\u2019t really raunchy enough, and we told Harris that we wanted a dirty guitar sound. This is also part of the US sound that the band likes listening to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, some people have put your musical style close to Exodus, maybe too close in some circumstances, so how would you react? Paul: \u201cIt\u2019s not just Exodus they talk about you know, it\u2019s Nasty Savage, Slayer<\/a> etc, etc. How would I react? Well, it\u2019s not like a copycat thing; you can\u2019t say that we put on a record and say \u2018we\u2019ll change this around and play it like this\u2019. I think a lot of people overdo this charge of bands copying other bands. We listen to a lot of stuff and I can guarantee that on any album you could say \u2018that sounds a bit like Slayer or Metallica or Exodus\u2019. Maybe a few of our riffs are written in the same style as Exodus, but it doesn\u2019t mean to say Exodus wrote them and we played them does it. Ray loves Exodus, especially Bonded By Blood<\/em><\/a> (1985), but that doesn\u2019t mean Exumer are Exodus. We are trying to do what we want just like anybody else, and I hope everyone understands that!\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly a very valid point, but I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t stop all the criticism. Exumer certainly don\u2019t let it affect them on record. Their style has made them a very rapid success, and live it\u2019s just starting to have an effect. Although the sound at the Metalysee show was poor, they played a really excellent set. I had the feeling that some of the crowd were bewildered by Paul\u2019s raps, but the slamming continued unabated. Now and again we see a band that really launches its career with a tremendous start \u2013 Death Row comes to mind \u2013 but I think Exumer have a little bit more class than Death Row, so I wish them luck. What made me laugh was that comment about Holland. Very strange, I thought they were partial to a bit of thrashing over there?! <\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 23 (1987)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXUMER – Burnt Offerings Mike Exley Metal Forces, Issue 23 (1987) Exumer (l-r): Syke Bornetto, Ray Mensh, Bernie Siedler and Paul Arakaki Germany is one of the hot beds of activity for new and upcoming bands in Europe. In fact, you could say it was \u201cpossessed by fire\u201d, which is quite an appropriate way of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exumer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6820"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6831,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820\/revisions\/6831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}