{"id":179509,"date":"2023-05-07T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.angrymetalguy.com\/?p=179509"},"modified":"2023-05-07T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T14:36:12","slug":"interview-with-noise-of-kanonenfieber-leitha-and-non-est-deus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.angrymetalguy.com\/interview-with-noise-of-kanonenfieber-leitha-and-non-est-deus\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with: Noise of Kanonenfieber, Lei\u00fea and Non Est Deus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One gloomy evening in early April, I sat down for a Zoom call with German black metal machine, Noise, the mysterious creative mind behind Kanonenfieber<\/strong>, Lei\u00fea<\/strong> and Non Est Deus<\/strong>. As something of a fanboy\u2014Kanonenfieber<\/strong>\u2019s outstanding<\/a><\/em> Menschenm\u00fchle was my 2021 Album of the Year<\/a> and this year\u2019s Lei\u00fea<\/strong> scored ROTM for January<\/a>\u2014it would be fair to say I was excited. <\/em><\/p>\n

And what, you ask, did I learn from an hour or so chatting with Noise? Well, certainly not his real name. I did confirm that he is, indeed, German and originally from Bamberg, though no longer lives there. Where he lives now \u2026 no idea. I still don\u2019t know what he looks like as I was, of course, greeted on Zoom by a black screen that stayed resolutely blank throughout our chat. I know he used to have a day job (as what, I couldn\u2019t tell you) but now he doesn\u2019t and makes music full time. When he plays live as Kanonenfieber<\/strong>, he has a band, obviously, and he has known some of them a long time, some for a shorter time but I don\u2019t know who they are. I learned that he in fact released at least five albums before he adopted the \u201cNoise\u201d moniker for Non Est Deus<\/strong>\u2019 2018 debut,<\/em> The Last Supper, but I can\u2019t tell you anything about those earlier records (other than Noise\u2019s summary, that they\u2019re \u201cnot that bad\u201d), nor where you might be able to listen to them. Seriously, this guy really\u2014I mean, really\u2014values his privacy.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

But he has his reasons, which we discussed. We also talked about the pressure Noise feels writing the next Kanonenfieber<\/strong>, coming off the success of the incredible <\/em>Menschenm\u00fchle, as well his collaboration with the late, great Trevor Strnad. We talked about Nazis, sexual abuse committed by the Church, as well as the new Non Est Deus<\/strong>\u2014<\/em>Legacy<\/a> is out on May 12th on Noisebringer Records\u2014and what would have happened if you stripped the Holy Spirit out of the Old Testament. I learned that we can expect a new Kanonenfieber <\/strong>EP and live album this year but will have to wait until 2024 for the next LP. We also talked about the recent Noisebringer Fest and whether we\u2019ll see other bands on Noisebringer Records any time soon, as well as about producing your own records and whether Noise gives a shit about reviews. Oh, and I got a few record recs.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, here is my conversation with Noise.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"“The Nameless Soldier”<\/h2>\n

Greeted by that unflinchingly black Zoom screen, I start by asking why Noise places such a high value on his anonymity. For him, it\u2019s the \u201cnameless soldier thing, you know? I want to create that because I don\u2019t want to give the music a face. It\u2019s like Cannibal Corpse<\/strong>, you listen to Cannibal Corpse<\/strong> and you always have in mind an image of Corpsegrinder screaming into his mic.\u201d Noise wants people to see the music, not have a mental image of his face as they hear him scream.<\/p>\n

Hailing from the small Bavarian town of Bamberg\u2014much better known as the home of the delicious smoked beer Schlenkerla<\/a>1<\/a><\/sup> than as a hotbed of metal\u2014Noise was 11 or so when he set out on the path to becoming, well, Noise. An older friend, who he \u201cwas a little scared of at first,\u201d introduced him to the likes of Cradle of Filth<\/strong>, Dimmu Borgir<\/strong> and Finntroll<\/strong>, and the rest, as they say, is history. For Baby Noise, it was \u201cstraight into black metal, the underground brutal shit from the local scene\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for actually playing metal, although his mother offered him the chance for piano lessons when he was about 4, Noise points first to his uncle, who bought him a drum kit aged 14 or so. \u201cThat was when it all started,” he says, “I built the kit in my room and played drums all day, dawn till dusk\u201d. When a band at school needed a bassist, adolescent Noise bought himself a bass and learned to play that too. Scroll forward another six months, and it was time to buy a guitar, \u201ca flying-V, Alexi Laiho-style, cheap metal guitar\u201d. After that, all he did \u201cfor the next three or four years was play drums, bass and guitar every freaking day \u2026 for hours, that was all I did outside of school.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that first band, was it a precursor to his projects today, I ask. \u201cNo, it was Rammstein<\/strong> covers band,\u201d he says wryly. A guilty pleasure for me, as I have disclosed in my AMG bio<\/a>, Noise agrees: \u201ccome on, everyone likes Rammstein<\/strong> in some way, just no one wants to say it out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how did we go from Rammstein<\/strong> covers to where we are today? I had been laboring under the impression that 2018\u2019s The Last Supper<\/em> by Non Est Deus<\/strong> was the first album Noise released, so I am surprised to learn that The Last Supper<\/em> was simply the first LP he released anonymously, as Noise. There were five albums that he put out in the years before that. When I ask if anyone can actually get hold of those earlier albums, Noise replies rather cryptically, \u201cwell, I mean, they are out there.\u201d I expect him to tell me he wants to keep it that way because they were not up to his current standards but instead he says, \u201cthey\u2019re not that bad to be honest. I mean, I don\u2019t like listening to my own music but my first real output a few years back, when I released like three albums, it was OK \u2026 if they were anonymous, I would put them out on Noisebringer<\/a> because I\u2019m still kinda proud of them.\u201d That said, \u201crecording those records today, it would be a totally different approach to writing them but they\u2019re a part of me, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"“The trenches just terrified me”<\/h2>\n

Turning to his current projects, I want to understand what inspired Noise to write about the Great War for Kanonenfieber<\/strong>: \u201cLiving in Germany, World War II is everywhere and the Great War is totally forgotten. History class at school doesn\u2019t talk about it\u201d but, for Noise, \u201cthe idea of World War I is way more terrifying. Being trapped in the trenches, living in the mud, the sickness and \u2026 you know, World War II was awful for the mass murder but the trenches just terrified me.\u201d Originally, in 2016, he envisaged it sounding something like Dying Fetus<\/strong> but the idea was soon forgotten amid his other projects and only resurfaced years later, sitting with a friend called Dani B., who\u2019s written about the Great War and was into old school death metal, the likes of Kreator<\/strong>, Morbid Angel<\/strong> and Hail of Bullets<\/strong>. Together, they plotted what would become Kanonenfieber <\/strong>because, when it comes to the topics those other bands write about, Noise says, \u201cwe always felt they somehow glorified this stuff, you know? You look at, like, Marduk<\/strong>, Endstille<\/strong> or even Sabaton<\/strong>, war is presented as something majestic and glorious \u2026 almost celebrating the topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Noise and Dani sat there, they envisaged something different, \u201csomething authentic, showing the horrific side of war, teaching about the terror and sadness of real war.\u201d So they drew on original source materials for the lyrics, using \u201cletters from the front, those deep, sad letters back home from men crying and yearning for their children and their families, their homes, as they died in the mud.\u201d<\/p>\n