Hi, first off I just want to congratulate you on your new album. To new fans could your please fill us in on the history behind it all?
Darkseed - Thank you! Well, Darkseed exists since 1992 and can be seen as alternative to the common trend of female fronted gothic metal acts. We present a sort of "male mix" between hard music and gothic melodies/atmospheres. We have released 6 albums, three of them on Nuclear Blast, and the latest one, "Ultimate Darkness", on Massacre Records was January 24^th, 2005.

How has your new album been received by the media?
Darkseed - I am very surprised that especially the smaller magazines (mainly online magazines) gave us high ratings, even if our music can easily be seen as "commercial" or "not true enough", because we don’t work with typical gothic clichés. That’s a fact, which made me really happy, because it shows me, that magazines don’t always need Swedish/Finnish black metal bands to be convinced by the music.

I know artists are not happy to categorize their music, but how would you describe your music to an outsider?
Darkseed - I have no problems with categories. You can define it as hard gothic metal music with a direct, personal message.

Where does your inspiration come from, both musically and lyrically?
Darkseed - My lyrical inspiration comes from my own every-day-life experiences, as well as from our fans, who often tell me about their problems, which I then reflect on in my lyrics.

What topics do you deal with in your lyrics and why?
Darkseed - Our album is called "Ultimate Darkness", because our album "talks" about all kinds of darkness, that could occur in your own life. Lack of orientation, aggressions, loss of values, our bad behaviour towards nature/animals, disappointments in human relationships etc. Well, we talk about this topics because making music should make sense, and not only fulfil clichés/aesthetics. We want to talk about real problems, want to help our listeners to feel understood etc.

Who has produced and mixed the album, and are you pleased with the end result?
Darkseed - Since "Diving Into Darkness" (2000), we have been recording our albums in our own studio, lead by guitarist Tommy Herrmann. He invested much energy into the production. We are very pleased with the result. After the production we spent one day in one of Germany ’s most famous mastering studios (MSM Munich) and also they did a great job optimizing the EQs.

Who has done the artwork? And how important do you feel it is to have a great cover?
Darkseed - The artwork was done by a German game developer for whom we made a soundtrack (for example song "The Fall" of our latest album "Ultimate Darkness"). Of course cover artwork is very important, because it must fulfil two demands: fitting the album content AND looking good. I think our cover does both, so we are very satisfied. But it was not easy to find a cover for the topic "Ultimate Darkness".

Do you have any touring plans?
Darkseed - We will play several single concerts/festivals in Germany between March and May, unfortunately no international concerts planned so far. But our website www.darkseed.com will have all up-to-date info once they are available!

How do you feel about the co-operation with your label, and are you satisfied?
Darkseed - I think the album sales will show, he he. Seriously, from what I can say, the promotion work runs very fine; we have many interviews and therefore seem to get good support.

The internet is a very important source for many music fans - how do you use the internet and how important is it for you and other bands?
Darkseed - Well, all in all internet makes everything worse, due to file sharing possibilities. Of course internet offers a very personal relationship to the fans, due to websites etc., but all in all it’s more negative for the artist since the time of internet. The sales decrease drastically, therefore also the album budgets. Being artist in our day’s means "being the clown entertaining music fans without getting any money for it". More and more bands lose motivation to continue making music, and in the end it will harm the fans, because they get less quality music.

How do you see the progressive rock/progressive metal scene at the moment?
Darkseed - Oh, I have no idea about progressive rock/metal music, but our bass player Martin Motnik is a big fan of this kind of music, even if it seemed to have it’s zenith in the 80's. Progressive rock music is a very high quality music, done by people with many skills.

To finish things off - could you pls. make a all-time Top 5 or sort of the 5 most important albums in your opinion?
Darkseed - Uff, difficult question.

I just can name you some alltime-fave bands I like, for example Dead Can Dance, Paradise Lost (older albums) or ethnic music/soundtracks.

Album out on Massacre Records.

Click on the album cover to see more info on Darkseed.