Interview with Witchhammer of Witchtrap 2012

By Bradley Smith

Your newest album Vengeance Is My Name is finally out.  Can you tell me a bit about its creation?  It seems like you approached the songwriting in much the same manner as the original thrash acts by channeling traditional metal and NWOBHM through a thrash perspective. 

W/ Well, almost the whole album of “Vengeance” was composed a long time ago around the time we recorded the “Sorceress Bitch” album, we had many songs ready to be recorded right then, but we were fixing our home studio, to  make a good quality sound production with all the time we needed, and the first Witchtrap recordings were hurried because of time and money in the studios we did it(you know each hour at the studio is fucking expensive), now after 6 years to save money and we fixed the home studio, we start to work hard on our band, to record a lot of our stuff we have ready too.
About similar way to old vintage Thrash metal sound we have, is simple to explain, we have been influenced by only Heavy Metal bands like 80's thrash bands did, bands such as Raven, Venom, Tank, Exciter, Running Wild, between many others have given our feeling like old 80's thrash bands, this is the big difference between Witchtrap and nowadays thrash metal bands that are influenced by 80's Thrash bands not Heavy Metal bands as we are.

So with the new album why was there such a long layoff between No Anesthesia and Vengeance Is My Name?  What were you guys up to between recording sessions?  Tell me about the EP and two splits you guys recorded between albums.  What bands were involved and how did you get involved with those projects? 

W/ As I told you above it took 6 years because we were fixing our home studio, we were making some home recordings, learning how to do a good production and good sound quality and about that we did a couple recordings with our other band “Nightmare” 2^nd full length, we recorded another local friend band call “Savage Aggression” their 1st full length and we recorded the three 80's German Heavy Metal cover songs that appears in our EP vinyl “Nightmares Of The Dead” through Hells Headbangers Records. The two splits we did were contacted as always, from the labels, they get in touch with us through emails and were interested in talking to us about some splits ideas, and we were ready for this after some conversations, we love to be on splits because it helps us to be more spread to other metal scenes, you know.

Witchtrap has some great metal anthems!  And on Vengeance is My Name the one in particular is METAL.  So tell me why metal is so important to you and what is essential to include in the lyrics for a metal anthem?

W/ METAL, I wrote that song inspired by all those 80's times in my hometown Medellín's scene we started a special name to heavy metal, we call it “ULTRA METAL” that was the name we used in those times, and the lyrics are about how we live our social environment to grow up as Metalheads in here, as well it is about how when we went to metal gigs because we found on the way to the venue a lot of black dressed people with long hair and spikes and boots and in the venue was easy to find it because of the black evil spot in the side block and on the street. Those were good times for sure, and it has to be reminded in any Metal song lyrics by all those good times we lived and we are grateful  from the bottom of our hearts.

Since we are on the topic of lyrics, I read in a separate interview that you view the following as Morals for life that you value; Loyalty, honesty, friendship and love.  Do you see that as a bit of a Contradiction with Witchtrap’s lyrics?  I mean, those moral values are all positive and the lyrics for Witchtrap are pretty negative.

W/ Man, when I discovered Metal I realized we are different than crowd, so crowd is false, ignorant, fake, stupid, disloyal, no respect, no love, only absurd comical taste you know, and a lot of those bad qualifying adjectives, so Metal is the opposite situation to me, after I discovered Metal, I focused on being a right person and Witchtrap lyrics are about those bad qualifying aspects that crowd people don't want to hear in music. I mean Metal is nasty, noisy, and aggressive to the crowd, why can’t the lyrics be as well? Those kinds of lyrics are the things they don't want to hear about.

Your band’s name is somewhat based on the old horror movie, Witchtrap.  Why that movie?  What other underrated horror movies should everyone take notice of?  And what do you  look for in a horror movie?  I mean what makes a horror movie interesting to you?

W/ when we(Ripper and I) watched that movie we were surprised, I think that was one of our early terror movies we watched, anyway its logo seems similar to a Metal band logo, and the name sounds very original and great for a Metal band, and nobody had used it like a Metal band name in the early 90's, so that's why we took it for our band.

In a terror/horror movie I love to find witchcraft, bewitchments and this kind of stuff, blood and gore are welcome too, but I prefer to see evil in the scenes.

A lot has been made lately of vintage or REAL metal sound.  How do you define this?  I mean when you hear real metal sound, how do YOU know it is real? 

W/ it's simple, when I heard Metal the very first time with no other musical trends out side of Rock'n'Roll and Metal roots.

But for example when I heard metal with some mixtures, mmmmm: let's see; I can't understand Metal sound with Pop, Folk, Techno, Punk, Industrial, Goth or something like that in their compositions or songwritting feeling, I mean metal has to be pure, just like Metal was in 80's with no mixtures of other musical trends, that's why I got hooked into the Metal realm.

I noticed that your views on some classic bands is different than a lot of the “normal” views on them.  For instance Bathory to you is Death metal.  I may not necessarily agree about that particular band but I have noticed a lot of revisionist history when it comes to old metal.  I mean back in the 80s and early 90s we all thought Kreator and Sodom were thrash and I read a few years back that those bands and others from that era were being called black metal.  I say NO WAY!!!  Why do you think this is and what bands have you noticed that people are calling music styles nowadays that they weren’t considered back in the early days?

W/ As I told you above in Colombia specially, we only have a name for Heavy Metal we used to called it “ULTRA METAL” such as Kreator, Venom, Slayer, etc, obviously Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest between others are Heavy Metal as a genre, but bands like Possessed, Bathory, Death, Onslaught, Messiah, Parabellum, Reencarnación, Astaroth, Sepultura and Sarcofago we change that name instead of Death Metal, because they have this name in the inserts, or lyrics, or song names, and of course their Heavy sound and song writting was the heaviest. Any way I agree with you who cares about genre, we only need Metal pure from the roots and stuff, but I can't endure to hear those young nowadays Metalheads in Colombia saying Metallica is Thrash Metal or Bathory is Black Metal, because when these bands started to play, these genres didn't exist, that's why I say that, so sorry about them, but to me Metallica(old) is only Metal (has no genre) and Bathory is Death Metal , it's my reality and my way, hehehehehe!!!

Do you think punk and crossover metal killed true thrash back in the 80s?  And why do you think this occurred?  Any particular bands that you think are responsible?

W/ this a North American Metal culture specially, but I think Metal and Punk don't fit together, Punk is cool but not mixed with Metal and viceversa. That was because in those days young people wanted another change in metal sound, so this was the very first mixture in Metal Roots.
I hate bands such as: Suicidal Tencendences, S.O.D., Anthrax (after the Fistful of Metal album), Excel, Nuclear Assault, D.R.I, Exodus (after the Bonded By Blood), Assassin (after the Upcoming Terror), etc.

Have you been able to get a job and keep it despite the prejudices in Colombia against the traditional metal head styles of long hair?  Is it more ordinary to see a metal head in Columbia compared to when you first started or are you still pretty much on your own?

W/ two things:

1. I'm a fucking Metalhead to the core.
2.at my 39 years of age, I haven't gotten a normal job, I have had to work by my self as gold crafter and silver crafter from when I was teenager. That's shitty. But it works and I live fucking awesome with all time for me and Metal. I have the control, even if sometimes it's hard to earn a buck.

You have a pretty extensive Record collection.  How big is it?  When did you start collecting and about how many records a year do you get?   What are your favorite albums that you have in your collection?

W/ well, to earn a buck in Colombia it's really hard, so almost all Metal stuff comes from outside of Colombia, and the labels and metal stores sell them very expensively, but after some years I have together with my brother almost 200 lps and same for Cds, I'm not a big Collector, I only buy the stuff I like a lot, not for collecting and of course the difficulties getting them here make this hard as well.

Do you believe that our governments should institute some sort of Population control programs, perhaps like the Chinese did with their one child one family program?  Do you see over population as a problem there in Columbia?  What about the rest of the world?  What do you see as the end result of overpopulation?

W/ The world is filled as hell, all people have to think about this and stop fucking without responsibility, less people will make all of us have a better quality of life and earn more money to have a happy stay on earth.

But goverments don't think about people, they only want to cover taxes to all people and make their pockets bigger and they don't care about the rest of the people that give them their place in the state power

I saw some pics of you in Columbia and it looks like there are some very beautiful sites to visit.  So in that spirit, if you had a metal friend from another country come to visit what are the 3 places in Columbia you would take him and why? 

W/  I think all places in Colombia are beautiful, but 3 places to name could be:
1. Tairona Park.
2. Rio Claro, Cavernas del Nus and Piedra del Peñol
3. San Agustin Park and Tierra Adentro.

So what other plans do you have for Witchtrap?  Any other recorded material or concerts we should prepare for?  Will you be reestablishing Pablo Escobar’s empire in METAL?

W/ Witchtrap is working right now to record 3 songs from the age of Dark Millennium from when we were about 20 years old playing Metal with our very first band, in addition we're going to record 3 cover songs of local metal bands from nowadays to make an EP.
Hahaha, I don't think so, we respect any way of thinking of any metalhead, even if I disagree with many metalheads as well, but in our city,Medellín, almost all of the real metal scene is trying to keep the real feeling and real metal roots to the bones.

Thanks again Hugo for taking the time to answer this and for thrashing extremely hard!  I’ll leave any final words to you before you TAKE MY HEAD!!! 

W/ Hey Brad and Nocturnal Cult Zine followers, thanks for letting us spread some noise about Witchtrap and I hope we share some beers and some Metal tunes on tour ASAP.
We hope you shall be attacked by some nightmares, In which some awful fiends will involve you in the arts of sin, to receiving as payment, all kind of riches in this earthly life.

Dealing with Satan in black masses and rituals for giving you the power to destroy any bound to follow the sign that leads through the path to win!!!

TO THE FOLLOWERS OF SATAN'S FORCE:
666TH THANKS FOR ALL YOUR MIGHTY SUPPORT!!!