After getting my ass kicked by The Monolith Deathcult's stunning 2008 album Trivmvirate , I got the chance to pose a few questions to mainman Michiel Dekker. Here's what he had to say about the band, Saddam's Ba'ath party, the scene in Holland and more....

I know you guys have been around since the start of the decade pretty much, how did the current incarnation of TMDC get together?

We are The Monolith Deathcult, formed in 2002 and we are hailing from Holland. We released in winter 2002 a 4 track kvlt promo “Obliteration of the Despised”. One month later we got a record deal with Cold Blood Industries and we released our debut “The Apotheosis”. In 2003 we did 2 European tours with The Crown. After that I guess we got bored with writing the same old Brutal Death songs. It's not like we made a conscious effort to change our style, but the 'modern' influences already crept in on our second Album The White Crematorium which was released in march 2005 by Karmageddon Media. After the release Carsten (synth) became a fully fledged member and is no longer the guy who fills up the songs with samples, he is now fully involved with the song writing process. You probably know that Cold Blood Industries and Karmageddon Media both got bankrupted because of our special relationship with record labels. TMDC could be compared with a swarm of locusts. We choose a label, eat away all their money, joy and happiness and leave them with nothing but an overwhelming sense of loss. The Twilight-Vertieb label has a total disdain for catastrophe and disaster and released Trivmvirate in 2008.

You guys were initially called Monolith on your demo and then the name change happened to The Monolith Deathcult. Why and how did this come about?

We chose The Monolith Deathcult because we weren't at all into names like "decapitated liquid baby entrails" and stuff like that, we wanted a name that was clear, sterile, and yet impressive, strong and in your face. For example something like Rammstein. First it was only ‘Monolith’ but there were too many bands with that name and the main goal of TMDC was to distinguish from all (death) metal clichés. I remembered that time that British rockers The Cult called themselves in the early days The Southern Deathcult so inspired by that we add Deathcult to the band name. However, try to squeeze that into a logo for a CD cover AND make it legible... so we often use TMDC, just short for The Monolith Deathcult.

What were your song writing influences when you started out? Does it still play any part in your song writing?

Listen to both Trivmvirate and Dusk and her Embrace and your question is answered.

Does Trivmvirate have a concept that ties the songs together? Where did the name for the album come from?

Not on purpose, but Carsten noticed that almost all topics, except MMFD have something with strange religions or ideas which are in opposition to established views. For example Aliens posing as gods, Saddams’ Ba’ath Party, the Nazi’s, orthodox Christianity and the everlasting failure of socialism.  Robin came up with the name ‘Trivmvirate’. The term Trivmvirate is a term used by some historians to refer to the unofficial Roman political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Trivmvirate in first place refers to our third album. Trivmvirate is also a cool and massive-sounding album title.

Wrath of the Baath is my favourite song on the album but what’s it all about?

The lyrics are a ironic juxtaposition of the Ba’ath party slogan ‘Wahda, Hurriya, Ishtirikiya’ (Freedom, Unity, Socialism) and ‘Halabja’, which is one of the better known sites that Saddam Hussein attacked with nerve gas in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war. In retrospect, I should’ve placed a colon between the two to link them, with Halabja being the result of Saddam’s so-called freedom, unity and socialism. The episode described in the song is mostly Iraq’s most recent history with a historic link to biblical Mesopotamia. The fundament of the track is based on the Bible book Daniel about the mysterious writing on the wall of the Babylonian King Belshazzar.

According to Daniel 5:1–31: “And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

In his megalomania Saddam often claimed being a descendant of the Babylonian kings. I linked those episodes because Saddam’s reign ended, just as the kingdom of King Belshazzar, by the invasion of a foreign superpower.

Do you think there’s place for humor in death metal? For some reason Wrath of the Baath always puts a big smile on my face. Especially that chanting part with no backing music.

Hmm... the victims of the Halabja-gassing will have another opinion on that, I guess. About humor in metal, of  course there is place and if it wasn’t there we would have create some! Metal is a music style including tons of testosterone and image building. It is the perfect subject to parody, in the first place because the scene it taking itself to serious.
We love to add jokes in our songs; every song had its own identity and joke. I like bands like Cradle of Filth and Strapping Young Lad of course because of their music, but the jokes added in their songs made them much cooler than 99% of their colleagues.

What are your touring plans to promote the album? Do you get to play a lot of shows?

We do not have any plans for a full tour. Martijn and I are working at schools so we can’t easily getting days off. It must be a very cool tour will we risk our jobs. We have a new booker now, so we’ll see. We do some festivals in Belgium and Germany and in fall 2009 maybe do a cool club tour fuelled by Jägermeister.

Last month we played at the Zwarte Cross Festival in Holland. Check out Deus ex Machina: (youtube link)

Also, is it hard to reproduce your studio sound live (with all the electronic stuff and the layers of different stuff happening)?

It was hard, but now we have a professional and very expensive sound engineer who gives us every show a wall of sound. For Den Ensomme Nordens Dronning and Kindertodeslied our drummer plays with a click track. That because Carsten(synths) has only 2 hands and 2 feet.

Check out Carsten’s equipment and nasty soundcheck: (youtube link)

This one for the guitar geeks. What sort of equipment do you use? Your setup and guitar tunings that you use.

We use live with both guitars the same setup. We split the signal from our wireless-system into a signal to a Peavey 5150 and the other signal goes into a Pod Pro 19”. Our guitars are cheap-ass Korean BC Rich built by 3rd world sweatshop kids, we ripped out the pick-ups and terrible Floyd Rose tremolo’s and replaced it by EMG pickups and Kalher tremelo’s. We play in tuning B. For the album we used 3 amps left and right both recorded with 2 mics. We used the majestic peavey 5150, a Diezel amp and an ENGL Powerball.

Who writes the songs? How does the songwriting process work within the band and do you think a democracy actually works in the context of a band?

Democracy isn’t working in a band. People who said such things simply lied. Someone must take the decisions. I write 90% of the music/lyrics and the remaining 10% is stolen from other bands. TMDC  is a dictatorship. I am a total control freak and I do not tolerate contradiction. Resistance means death.

Who would you consider as ideal touring partners? I can’t really think of any band right now that sounds like you guys.

I like to be on tour with Sebastian Bach and Devin Townsend.

What’s the metal scene like in Holland?

Too big, too many bands, too many home-made releases, too less talent.

Clichéd question, but I like to use the Internet (p2p) to download and check out bands. I off course then buy the album if I like it and when I can. Are we doing ok or are we ripping you guys off?

I made music for my own satisfaction, for me it is very comfortable to know that there are people worldwide who like what I do. I don’t care about downloading, people who like TMDC will buy the album. The internet is a blessing for the musicians and a disaster for the record companies. That’s good because BEFORE the internet decreased record sales albums were already too expensive.

I download a lot of albums and when I like it I buy it on vinyl.

Clichéd question #2: If you were stranded on an uninhabited island but had access to a stereo (and electricity) what 5 CDs would you wish to have with you?

That depends on my mood, at this moment it will be:
- Slave to the Grind-Skid Row
- A Line of Deathless Kings- My Dying Bride
- All Hope is Gone-Slipknot
- Trivmvirate-The Monolith Deathcult
- Bloody Kisses- Type O Negative

If you could play with one classic death metal band, which one would it be and why?

Morbid Angel, because they are one of the few death metal bands who have a strange mystical atmosphere behind their music and image.

Finally, thanks a lot for your time and feel free to say anything else to the people who’ll read this.

I hope this interview will give your readers a good view on our thoughts and drive behind TMDC. We hope to see you soon at a show and check out our merchandise here.

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