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The frozen bodies
Of the dead
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If you thought Dutch destroyers SAMMATH would have a hard time topping their fucking annihilating sixth album Across The Rhine Is Only Death, you wouldn’t have been alone in that presumption. In our review we scored it a rare 5/5, and we weren’t the only ones either. Surely, after creating “the ultimate war album” as we called it, the only way to go from there is down…
…well, proving that theory wrong with a big fuck-off middle finger to the face, arrives the seventh Sammath opus of devastation: Grebbeberg. Taking the obliterating punishment of their recent work and infusing it with the melodic dynamics of their early days, Sammath don’t just drop us in the middle of a brutal bloodbath – there’s a different vibe on these songs. Whereas Across the Rhine was total open battlefield, daytime warfare in the mud and guts, running screaming at the enemy across the field or being rained on with artillery fire, on Grebbeberg you’ll also feel the fear. The suspense. The pure terror of being entrenched in freezing forests at nighttime, never sure where the enemy is in the mists or where the bullet that rips through your skull and brain tissue might come from. Your life could end at any second… and you can’t even see a single fucking thing.
Subtle changes with a huge impact; it’s incredible how different they’ve made this album from the last while still doing what they do best. Each record transports you to a different scene, but is still blatantly and unmistakably SAMMATH… and both are utter fucking triumphs. We’ll have more in-depth coverage coming soon when further audio is available (for the moment you can sample a teaser of ‘Reichswald’ below), but to whet your appetite we reached out to the inimitable Jan Kruitwagen for a chat – because not only is it a killer album, there’s a personal story behind it that needs to be told.
Read on.
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Hails Jan! Cheers once again for speaking to us today. Your seventh album Grebbeberg is about to be unleashed, and it’s an absolute fucking belter. How’s the feedback been so far from those who have heard it, and more importantly, what’s YOUR opinion of it?
JAN: Hails. Thanks man.
I sent it out to about 20 journalists a week before the rest got it. The reactions are pretty much overwhelming to be honest. We somehow managed to combine 30 years of Sammath and take this to a totally new level in all ways. Songwriting, bass and guitar playing and an all out slaughter of brilliant drums.
Grebbeberg is the pinnacle of our 30 years. I spend a lot of time writing riffs and even more on tremolo driven tracks. I really wanted to write an album with pure violence perfectly blended with more melody. Can’t even explain how proud I am of this one.
From the title it sounds like it’s about the Battle of the Grebbeberg. What exactly was this battle, and what was its significance to WWII?
JAN: This was a small dot in World War Two, but for the Dutch an important battle. In the end it was a crazy but proud attempt to try to slow down or stop the German war machine from crossing the defence line running through the country. Protecting the west where the government resides and most of the population live. The Dutch army wasn’t weak as people think; the leadership and tactics were simply poor.
After three days it was over. And they did more than could be asked of them. Four hundred and seventeen soldiers lay dead, amongst them my great-uncle.
I was going to ask about that. As is evidenced by the tombstone on the back cover artwork that carries the name Kruitwagen, there’s a more personal story behind the themes chosen for this record. Could you tell us a little about this?
JAN: It’s my great-uncle’s gravestone. Where I got my second name from. He died there alongside four hundred and sixteen other soldiers. No chance in hell really, but he stood his ground. He was shot, probably by a sniper and died at the age of twenty five. His last minutes were written down by eye witness accounts. The title track lyrics are the word for word copied diary of his last moments. Putting the gravestone on the back of the vinyl was really important for me. Lots of my family members, who have never really understood anything of what I am doing with my music before, are really proud of this. They still don’t get the music, which is good. Extreme music like this should only always be for the few rather than for the masses.
Crazy thing is, we discovered later that Wim’s great uncle also died in the war as a soldier. His gravestone is also in the booklet.
Fuck, that’s immense. So would you consider this a concept album? Do the tracks follow any sort of narrative order?
JAN: Not really. Only two tracks speak of Wim Kruitwagen. The title track ‘Grebbeberg’ describes his last breath and ‘Tot de laatste granaat’ (“until the last grenade”) is also a tale of holding out against all odds at that dreadful place. The other tracks are about other battles near my area. ‘Reichswald’, the first single, describes the real life horror story of entering Germany and fighting them on their own soil for the first time in Feb 1945. Relentless bloody war that was, a total slaughter house.
This first attack was in a huge dense dark forest called the Reichswald, It must have been terrifying to say the least. Heading into a well defended dark forest with murderous artillery raining constantly. Other tracks are also based on different battles or moments a soldier experiences in the horror of war in the Rhineland.
While listening to the album, it almost sounds to me like you’ve taken influence from yourselves – like you’ve taken a step back towards your early albums in the ’90s. Was this something you were aiming for? What were your intentions during the writing process this time around, as opposed to how you attacked your previous record Across The Rhine Is Only Death?
JAN: I was somewhat stuck after Rhine was released. That album pounded from start to finish. I knew I wanted to return to a more tremolo based guitar driven way of songwriting; we needed more depth in our songwriting to make another step forwards. I never have intentions usually, I simply write. I also spend a lot of time working on the guitar sound. I didn’t want reamping. What you hear on the album is two mics in front of the cabinet. Careful placing and testing over a month before I found the sound I wanted. This time however, I had a picture of what I wanted. Wim’s final arrangements of the music was spot on. Rhine was a full on onslaught, this one combines Rhine with a better thought out version of our older albums. And best of all, a step into a more varied way of writing.
There’s a drum solo in the track ‘Murderous Artillery’ which is, in fact, accompanied by the soothing sounds of murderous artillery. Knowing your attention to detail and accuracy when it comes to this sort of thing, I have two questions: what inspired the inclusion of the drum solo (there should be more of them in black metal!), and what sort of artillery are we hearing in the samples on this album?
JAN: I thought of the idea for a drum solo and Wim jumped on this idea immediately. When listening to the album one must not forget that every drum track is recorded in one take. All that you hear is a naturally recorded drum kit with 12 mics, no cutting and pasting. Wim stands on this. During the recordings of ‘Murderous Artillery’ I thought he was going to pass out at some stage. I think he nailed this one on take 7 or so. The samples you hear are Nebelwerfer, german machine guns and a Stuka dive bomber. The machine guns in the 2nd part of the solo go together with the bass drums. How Wim did that is beyond me. This track will surprise many.
One thing I’ve always loved about Sammath is the honesty and authenticity in your attack. It sounds like you’ve really gone out and walked the places where these battles happened, drank it all in and felt immersed in it all yourself. Which I believe is something you actually do, more or less. Can you tell us a bit about this? When did you start doing it, and what sort of things have you discovered? Any great stories to tell?
JAN: Visiting those places inspires me greatly. As all the battles the lyrics deal with are within a 40 minutes drive from me, I frequently visit those places. Last year whilst digging in Germany (metal detecting the trenches with a mate) we found the remains of a German soldier. He was identified later by the German authorities. That was a day never to forget. We have been doing this for ten years. The Germans have no regard for the places of battle from World War Two. They bulldoze them into golf courses or even worse, if that’s at all possible. In the Sammath rehearsal place it looks more like a dark museum these days. Helmets, bullet belts, weapons. Gas masks and much more.
Speaking of which, the CD box set of Across The Rhine Is Only Death is probably my favourite that I own, not least of all because it includes a spent German 7.92mm calibre casing. Is there anything like that in the works for Grebbeberg?
JAN: Thanks! We dug those 100 casings up ourselves. That box is perfect, we were glad Hammerheart took the risk to make 100 expensive limited editions. They were all sold out before the release.
No special edition this time. We really couldn’t come up with anything as fucking good as that previous box. So we decided not to do one at all. The artwork on this album is brilliant, a black and white shadow art (taken from a larger piece of art) shows Dutch soldiers on the Grebbeberg. With black and white and shadows only. A Dutch bayonet design featuring the S of the Sammath logo made by Luka Djordjevic looks brilliant as well, and makes this album’s art one of our best.
It does look fucking ace; I’ll be grabbing that shirt. Now, I find myself looking forward to each Sammath album because I know that war themed records that will truly rip off my head and shit down my neck are few and far between lately – at the time of writing only the new Minenwerfer springs to mind this year, and I’ve just chucked on Niden Div.187‘s Impergium as I type for some past reference. It seems this purely hateful, savage approach might not be taken as often these days. Do you agree? And if so, why do you think that is? What is your opinion of the current state of the black metal scene, versus what it was in the ’90s?
JAN: Thanks. Humbling words really. I haven’t heard many albums as savage as our previous three albums at all in the last few years. The ’90s metal scene and the start of black metal was a totally different scene and produced more in this style.
These days lots of the people online are exactly that… online and nothing else. If you see their Facebook pages you wouldn’t even know they listen to black metal. Neat clothes, normal people promoting hipster crap with no riffs. They try to water down black metal so it fits their neat little world. They don’t see shows and if they do they stand arms folded in the back drinking milk.
Music wise, lots of the new stuff is good. Now that the album is done I have a lot of catching up to what came out the last two years.
Yeah, people definitely aren’t living it as much anymore. Got any recommendations of newer bands for us that you’ve been particularly enjoying?
JAN: Not many totally new bands I’ve picked up on the last year due to writing music myself. Check out Dutch sickos Wrok. The new Salacious Gods album should also be amazing from what I hear.
Dutch dude Floris from Schavot has some amazing 90s worship. Australian Vahrzaw is a killer. Lots of good stuff is coming out. And lots of shit too, but that’s the way it’s always been.
And finally, now that you’ve created your magnum opus – what the fuck are you gonna do now? What’s on the horizon for the mighty Sammath?
JAN: We are rehearsing for this winter’s live campaign. Kicking off in Hoogeveen in the Netherlands. We played two new tracks at our shows winter 22/23, and these new tracks require a lot of practice. Last winter we only did shows in the Netherlands and Germany due to our bass player becoming a father for the first time. Rightfully so, he wanted to stay nearby.
Music wise the album will be out 16th of June. I’ve spent a good part of two years working on this daily. I’m pretty much empty music wise. Learning to perform these tracks exactly like on the album is a huge task.
I bet. Sincerest thanks for the chat once again mate, you’re a legend. Any last words or wisdom for us all?
JAN: Thanks for the great interview.
Last words of wisdom. Support your local record dealer! The 7th of April the first audio will be online!
Grebbeberg releases June 16th via Hammerheart Records.
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Pre-order/pre-save Grebbeberg on a variety of formats and platforms HERE.
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