Breaking The Chains with Blizzen

Breaking The Chains with Blizzen

The almighty Blizzen has arrived, presenting their own kickass brand of absolutely intensive heavy metal.  Based out of Gießen in Germany, Blizzen is about to unleash World In Chains, their latest slab of sonic devastation through the Pure Steel Records compound.  In addition to the thrasing musicianship found within, World In Chains was mixed by the one and only Max Maxheim of Evil Invaders infamy.  Highwire Daze recently checked in with guitarist Andi Heindl on the dawning of the World In Chains invasion to find out a whole lot more about Blizzen, Evil Invaders, German beer, and other raging topics…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Blizzen, and how long the band has been together.
Hey everyone! I’m Andi and I am one of the two guitarists of Blizzen. Our band exists now for approximately six years. We’ve already released an EP Time Machine\ in 2015 and an Album Genesis Reversed in 2016. Now we are prepared to release our next record World in Chains on 24th of April this year!

Where is the band based out of and what is the local metal scene like there?
We’re from Gießen, which is basically the geographical center of Germany. There are some Metal people and Bands, but mostly people like Crust and Punk, as well as 70s stuff here. However, the next city of Marburg, which is ca 25 km away, has a very active Metal scene with people organizing many concerts, where we also attend and sometimes play. Furthermore, since we live in the center of Germany, no city is really far and we can easily go to play shows all over Germany and even neighboring coutries.

How did you wind up signing with Pure Steel Records?
The label that released our first two records, High Roller Records, is quite busy with releases and the album would have been released quite long after the recordings. So, we looked for new partners, that could speed up the process and offered same conditions, and that’s how we came up to sign at PSR!

Is there any overall story or concept behind the World In Chains album title?
It is not a concept album, but the title track is about how humanity destroys its little habitat, our planet. The world is enchained by humans that kind of torture it.

Select two songs from World In Chains and what inspired the lyrics.
Since I am not the lyrics writer, I will just select those where I really know what Daniel wanted to express or got input from the others. The first one is Gravity Remains, the music is mostly written by Gereon (dr). It is an epic mid-tempo heavy metal song, and the lyrics are about a star at the end of its lifetime, when it burned all its nuclear fusion fuel. If the stars mass is large enough, which is a couple of times more than the mass of our sun, it explodes in a supernova, leaving a black hole. This dance of death has inspired the lyrics, and after the supernova, only gravity, in its most extreme nature of singularity, remains. I have to admit that Daniel and me are a little nerdy, and we really like space, physics and such stuff. The next example is Paradise Awaits, which is written from the eyes of someone that kills for his faith. Since, in our eyes, religion is not more than nice little stories told from the mighty to control the masses, and was used to explain complex phenomena in nature, that people could not explain rationally in past times, it is really ridiculous to exclude, fear, hate and in the end kill others, that do not share or believe in your little stories.

Who did the cover art for World In Chains and how much input did you have on it?
The artwork was painted by Paolo Tassinari, and we gave him the idea of the enchained planet. He then started drawing a concept art, and we immediately liked it. Then he just finished it. I mean, I am not a painter, I think this was really a lot of work to finish then!

How did Max Maxheim of Evil Invaders become involved with Blizzen?
Europe is quite small, and we know the Evil Invaders guys really from the complete beginning. Daniel and my former band already shared a stage with them when they were 16- and we 18-years old kids, and we met each other quite often back then in Belgium or at our place. However, Max was not in the band then, I think the only one from that time left is Mastermind Joe. I think Marvin knew Max even before he joined Evil Invaders… Whatever. We know each other already for some time, and Max got into the mixing thing some time ago and mixed, for example, the death metal band Eraserhead from our hometown. During songwriting, when Max visited us in Gießen to party, we talked about sound and such things, and he offered to try mixing it, because he knows how that stuff supposed to sound. After the studio, I sent him the tracks and he started mixing. We were all satisfied in the end and you can hear the result on the final record when it’s out!

How does World In Chains compare to your previous Genesis Reversed album?
I think it’s rawer, in-your-face-like. The production is, deliberately, a little edgier than the previous stuff.

What could one expect from a live Blizzen show?
A 100% energetic heavy metal live show!

If Blizzen could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
I think we are of the same opinion! Judas Priest! You ask why? Isn’t that obvious? They defined, invented and represent Heavy Metal in perfection.

Has Blizzen ever played here in the States or plan to do so in the future? If so, how did the shows go?
No, not yet. If there is an opportunity, we of course would like to do that.

Germany is famous for their BEER!!! What is your favorite beer of choice and why?
It changes from time to time, because there is so many good ones. And we are glad that we have a very well sorted “Getränkemarkt” (drinks-only supermarket) a few meters next to our rehearsal room, that allows us to taste lots of traditionally and well-made beers from all over Germany. I really must admit that the Bavarians make some good ones, their typical brews are called Hell (“bright” in german). It’s a little less hoppier than the most widely spread beer Pils, and some are quite sweet. I personally like the spicier, hoppier “Helle”, like Weißenoher Glocken-Hell, Bayreuther Hell or the standard Pils brew type Bosch Pils, which comes from quite close to us. All these beers are not made on industrial scale, which is important for real, good beer. Anyhow, it is not that hipster-craft-beer stuff, which has nothing to do with beer anymore in my opinion. Beer is beer and made for killing your thirst, and not for fancy meetings drinking little sips of ginger-garlic-whatever stuff added “beer” in stupid wine glasses. Its beer. Simply the best drink ever. Furthermore, the German industrial beer is drinkable, but not comparable to beers of the smaller, traditional breweries.

What’s up next for Blizzen?
We will play lots of great shows to promote the new album in spring and summer!

Any final words of wisdom?
Are we expected to spread any wisdom? Hahaha! Stay Heavy and check out our new album!

LINE-UP:
Stecki – vocals, bass
Marvin Kiefer – guitars, vocals
Andi Heindl – guitars
Gereon Nicolay – drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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