It says Passendale on the street sign. The little village with its huge Tyne Cot cemetery and memorial centre.
I passed it many times on the way to Isaac (Delahaye, our former guitar player) for another of our notorious drinking sessions in Ypres not far from the French border.
I got really impressed by how this town breathes World War I. The numerous cemeteries, the Menin Gate with its daily last post ceremony since 1929 with the exception of just one day during a bombardment in World War II, the buildings that have been rebuilt in their original state and definitely all the English, Irish and Scottish people that visit Ypres every weekend, probably because one of their relatives died there during the war.
During the night at the bars & pubs they tended to get really drunk and sang louder than the barman could crank up the stereo set !
It’s during these times that I got inspired by the Great War and decided to write a concept album about it.
Ypres and Passendale were the center of war activities during the war with around 900,000 casualties compared to 9 million worldwide. I realized how harsh it must have been there during those 4 years.
Passchendaele was the official name of the little village during the war, but since the English speaking armies couldn’t pronounce that, they nicknamed it to: Passiondale
GOD DETHRONED was formed by mainman Henri Sattler in 1990. After one demo they released their debut album “The Christhunt” in 1992 on a tiny German label. Due to problems with the other band members and the record company, Henri decided to split the band. He then formed Ministry Of Terror, a Thrash Metal band and released the “Fall Of Life” album with them in 1994. After a European tour Henri left the band and re-formed GOD DETHRONED. With new band members and better songs in his back, Henri and the new GOD DETHRONED recorded “The Grand Grimoire” and inked a deal with Metal Blade. Many successful tours followed in Europe, the U.S. and Japan with great Death and Black Metal acts like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Immortal, and Marduk, just to name a few.
In the meantime most of the renowned festivals were played: Dynamo Open Air, Wacken, Graspop and Summer Breeze. However, not everything went smoothly. Drummer Roel Sanders left the band after the US tour promoting “Bloody Blasphemy”. Nile’s Tony Laureano played on the “Ravenous” album, but couldn’t stay for obvious reasons. Janne from The Crown played on the tour and finally new drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek came in, whose first recording experience with the band was “Into the Lungs of Hell”. This album was received very well by the press around the globe and again the band toured Europe and played more festivals like Party San and Summer Breeze.
The time following the release of “Into the Lungs of Hell” was one of the most difficult periods in the band’s history. The band had been together for so long that the individual band members had developed new views on life and the band. Somehow the challenge was gone. At a certain point Beef and Jens decided to leave. The remaining band members Henri and Arien wrote a new album, “The Lair of the White Worm”, based on a novel by Bram Stoker. New band members Isaac Delahaye and Henk Zinger joined the band right before the recordings. After the release the band played numerous shows and festivals like the Summer Breeze and With Full Force, headlining tours in Europe and the U.S. as well as support slots for bands such as The Haunted and Bolt Thrower.
In between tours GOD DETHRONED worked on a new album and went straight into the studio after the European tour with Bolt Thrower. Two months later “The Toxic Touch” was a fact. After the release of the album the band toured Europe as main support for Vader. Then the band played a number of festivals like Earthshaker and New England Metal & Hardcore fest a.o. and a number of headliner shows across Europe. Family issues kept Henri at home for a long time until he started working on “Passiondale – (Passchendaele)” mid 2008.
During mid October the band went to Soundlodge studio’s in Leer, Germany, to work with Jörg Uken again. The production of “The Toxic Touch” turned out so well that the band decided to go there again. In contrast to the previous album the new one is a lot more extreme and furious also because of the return of Roel Sanders on drums, but still with the typical melodic parts which make the band sound unique among the competition.
Roel played on “Grand Grimoire” and “Bloody Blasphemy” as well. Albums that were dominated by blast beats, brutal riffing but also many hymnic parts. It seemed the most logical thing to do, to go back to the early sound, so Danny Servaes, who played keyboards on aforementioned albums, participated again and added that touch of mystique which made the songs even more special.
The grimness of the war is reflected in the songs and the atmosphere creates a feeling of listening to the soundtrack of a war movie.
“Passiondale” was recorded as a three-piece because guitar player Isaac Delahaye decided to go into another direction. He did however contribute to the album by doing a lot of additional research for the lyrics Henri wrote.
The lyrics are about World War I without taking a particular point of view or speaking about a specific country since GOD DETHRONED’s band members don’t want to deal with politics.
After the recordings we held auditions and found in Susan Gerl our new guitar player.
A new album, a new world tour. A European tour is scheduled for October and we have already been confirmed for a South American tour this September alongside a number of summer festivals like Summerbreeze a.o.
GOD DETHRONED - Poison Fog - official video
GOD DETHRONED - live @ Summer Breeze (D), 12 August 2009
GOD DETHRONED - live @ InMusic festival, Zagreb 20 June 2009
Your new album, Passiondale, is truly one of the best death-metal albums I own. Its fantastic. Keep it up guys, I'm so bummed I missed you when you came to Los Angeles. I hope to catch you next time!
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