CREMATORY Drummer Talks To UNITED ROCK NATIONS About 'Antiserum' Album (Audio)

Carmziofa of the United Rock Nations webzine recently conducted an interview with drummer Markus Jüllich of Southern German gothic metallers CREMATORY. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

CREMATORY will release its new album, "Antiserum", on March 4 in North America and February 24 in Europe via Steamhammer/SPV.

The video for the song "Kommt Näher" from the forthcoming CD can be seen below. The clip was directed by Dirk Weiler.

"Our fans can look forward to 'Antiserum', on which we have gone one step further than we did on our comeback album, 'Revolution', in terms of electronic influences," drummer Markus Jüllich explains.

"In collaboration with Elmar Schmidt of Hamburg EBM act CENTHRON, we have come up with a haunting mix of metal riffs and EBM keyboards. That's why I'd refer to 'Antiserum''s musical direction as 'EBM metal.'"

As homogeneous as the final product may sound, a great deal of effort was invested throughout to produce the desired result. Jüllich confesses: "In the beginning, it was more difficult than we'd thought. The sounds and samples that Elmar brought us had no really song structures, that's why we didn't have a central theme to start off with. It took us two or three songs to get into the groove, but from that point on, it was an extremely exciting process to work on the new material."

The CREMATORY drummer is referring to tracks such as "Virus", with its pulsating EBM flair, "Inside Your Eyes", which consistently and unashamedly professes the desired EBM elements, and the first single, "Shadowmaker", a veritable anthem which continues the long-standing CREMATORY tradition of including at least one real hit on each album. Jüllich says: "Even before the whole record was finalized, we knew that 'Shadowmaker' had absolute hit potential. We never had a moment's doubt that we had come up with the new CREMATORY anthem."

Along with this purposely experimental direction, "Antiserum" also features a number of tracks which see CREMATORY rely on their traditional strengths and familiar characteristics. The title song is a perfect example of typical CREMATORY ingredients, just like "Back From The Dead" and "If You Believe", which could also have been featured on either of the two most recent albums, "Pray" (2008) and "Infinity" (2010).

"We were even bolder this time than we were in 2004," Jüllich says. "We played even more with different sounds and have — in my opinion — cleverly combined real drum parts with electronic patterns. For me as the band's drummer, it will be really exciting to see how we are going to translate this in a live context. But since it works so well on 'Antiserum', I'm confident that it will be a really good mix live, too."

"Antiserum" will be released as a deluxe box set (including a flag, patch, poster, sticker, postcard),digipak (including two bonus tracks),2LP gatefold colored vinyl version (including two bonus tracks),standard version and download.

"Antiserum" jewel case CD:

01. Apocalyptic Vision
02. Until The End
03. Shadowmaker
04. If You Believe
05. Inside Your Eyes
06. Kommt Näher
07. Irony Of Fate
08. Virus
09. Back From The Dead
10. Welcome
11. Antiserum

"Antiserum" digipak version:

01. Apocalyptic Vision
02. Until The End
03. Shadowmaker
04. If You Believe
05. Inside Your Eyes
06. Kommt Näher
07. Irony Of Fate
08. Virus
09. Back From The Dead
10. Welcome
11. Antiserum
12. Shadowmaker - Elektro Mix (bonus track)
13. Shadowmaker - Centhron Mix (bonus track)

"Antiserum" 2 LP Version:

LP1 Side 1

01. Apocalyptic Vision
02. Until The End
03. Shadowmaker
04. If You Believe

LP 1 Side 2

01. Inside Your Eyes
02. Kommt Näher
03. Irony Of Fate

LP 2 Side 1

01. Virus
02. Back From The Dead
03. Welcome

LP 2 Side 2

01. Antiserum
02. Shadowmaker – Elektro Mix (bonus track)
03. Shadowmaker – Centhron Mix (bonus track)