DEICIDE's Cover Of 'Black Night' Shot Down By DEEP PURPLE Management

Denmark's Antenna webzine recently conducted an interview with DEICIDE drummer Steve Asheim. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Antenna: With "The Stench of Redemption" is sounds like you've re-vitalized yourself. I assume the addition of Jack [Owen] and Ralph [Santolla] has played a large part in this?

Asheim: "It's a growing part. I mean the addition of two very talented guitarists, like those guys, was invaluable to the new DEICIDE even happening and definitely to what 'The Stench of Redemption' sounds like, as far as the heavy emphasis on melody and leads and guitarwork. You know the other stuff, everyone was kind of used to already the brutal drums, the brutal vocals, the hard riffing, but yeah the melody and the depth to which they can make the guitarwork feel is definitely all due to them being the new guys in, definitely. That would not have been possible with the old line-up. I mean you heard where the old line-up was going, so…"

Antenna: A lot of people keep saying this is not the real DEICIDE and so forth. Do you think the new album will make those people shut up?

Asheim: "Well, you know, people are into what they are going to say, and I understand how the Hoffmanns have their hardcore fans out there, and that's fine. I think once people hear the record, they may change their minds. Yeah, it may not be the old DEICIDE. It's definitely a new DEICIDE, and I think the album is so promising that people going in and expecting it to suck and execting not to like it because of two new guys will be liking it at the end of the day. So yeah, I think it will turn them around, definitely. People looking down on us lately will be able to see that we're back and give us a second chance."

Antenna: I can't recall having heard a DEICIDE album with so many leads and epic stuff on before. I think it bears certain similarities with VITAL REMAINS.

Asheim: "Well, I think that is a coincidence only in the way that when you have great guitarists working on records, great guitar stuff is going to happen."

Antenna: How much input has Jack and Ralph had on the songwriting?

Asheim: "Well, the songwriting they didn't really have much impact on it. I mean, I write the songs, I write the riffs. Me and Jack put them together. Ralph actually wasn't even there for the writing of the second half of the record, but he was sure there in the studio. A guy like Ralph doesn't really need to be there because the way he works… you got to understand the way people works and sometimes it's just not the way they work, but the way he works is he has the skills and he has the knowledge and he has a sense of music. He can hear something and immediately burst out an idea for it, so it's kind of how he worked on the record. It was very spontaneous, and it kind of sounds that way and that's how it got that fresh feel that the album has. It's because a lot of the stuff was spawned in the moment and spontaneously done."

Antenna: How did the DEEP PURPLE cover "Black Night" come about?

Asheim: "It came about because Glen had been toying around with the idea for three years about doing a cover song, but no one was into it. The Hoffmanns weren't into it, I wasn't really into it either, but when Ralph and Jack came into the picture, he mentioned it to them, and they were both into it. I at the point said: 'Well, since I'm the only one who's not into it I'll just go along and do it because these guys want to.' So the song itself Glen picked it and kind of worked it the original way and for me that just wouldn't work out. The slowness of it — what kind of drove me into playing extreme drums in the first place was not having to play slow stuff like that, but the idea of still doing a cover was cool. We played around with it a bit and what we did was that we turned it into a DEICIDE song. We turned it into a death metal song and changed up a few things, the speed and the time signature and just went nuts with it and to kind of further that story we have not had permission to put it out in Europe because word came down directly from DEEP PURPLE's management who heard the song and said it's just too far out, and we don't want you to put it out, but in the U.S. they somehow found a way around that so it will make it out somehow. People will end up hearing it in Europe somehow eventually."

Antenna: You released a DVD earlier this year. Was it important to get it out and show that there still was a DEICIDE after the Hoffmann brothers got the boot?

Asheim: "Yeah, it's definitely important to make people [know] that you're not broken up, because most people had probably thought that, and we had plans to make a DVD with the Hoffmann brothers, but they were just not going [along] with it. I mean they signed the contract, then they started threatening to beat up the cameramen if they showed up and stupid shit like that. It's like: 'Why are you even in the band if you don't want to put stuff out?' [It was] only because they left [that] we were able to put out a DVD in the first place."

Antenna: Do you or Glen have had any contact with the Hoffmans?

Asheim: "I do, but Glen didn't really have much contact with the Hoffmanns when they were in the band. I haven't talked to Brian in years. I haven't really talked to Eric lately. I talked to him once or so, and he just… I don't want to say too much and come out and bash him, but he went on the Internet and bashed the hell out of me, that's for sure, so if I [say] the guy is out there doing nothing and probably won't be doing anything, it ain't a lie. I'm sure you haven't heard about them doing anything because he's not doing anything."

Antenna: Yeah I was wondering because they've been pretty much silent since the departure!

Asheim: "Yeah, besides getting on the Internet and making an idiot out of himself he's been pretty silent, and that is probably going to continue because that I know of he's not getting another band together and doesn't plan on it. I don't even think he has a guitar to practice on. I don't know what his deal is. He calls me ever once in a while and it's just pathetic, let me say that so…"

Read the entire interview at www.antenna.nu.