>Even if you already released one first album before 'Thrash You!', french thrashers may not well know Abandoned. Could you present us your band with a kind of history ?
Hi, this is Kalli, singer and guitarist from Abandoned. Holger (guit) and me started Abandoned in 1999, because we wanted to have an old-school thrash band in the means of the bay-area thrash bands. Soon we found Konrad (drums) and Guent (bass) in 2000 and recorded our first “real” demo-cd “Misanthrope” in 2003. In 2005, we were fortunate enough to win the SimEvil contest by german Rock Hard magazine and had the chance to play the Rock Hard festival. Our record company Dockyard1 saw us there and were blown away just like we were by thereaction of the headbanging, moshing crowd. They offered us a record deal and in late 2005, we recorded our first cd “Thrash Notes”. We played some more festivals and gigs with Manowar, Nevermore, Morgana Lefay or Destruction and ended up in the studio in january 2007 to record “Thrash You!”. And now we are waiting for the reactions on this little thrash-metal highlight, haha!

>Did you ever play in other bands before joining Abandoned ?
Yeah, we all played and still do play in several other bands. I play guitar for about 20 years now and joined my first “real” band in 1989. When we founded Abandoned it was more like having some beers and playing the music we grew up with than heading for a record deal. But the more shows we played and the more demo cds we sold, the more people listened up and showed interest in an old-school thrash outfit like ourselves, so we kept thrashing and somehow our other bands became less important for us, because we concentrated more and more on Abandoned.

>Your music is more influenced by bay-area 80's thrash-metal than bands like Kreator, Destruction & Sodom. It is a little bit strange, why did you choose to play US sounding thrash instead of a more traditional german sound ?
Because this is the sound we were totally blown away from when we grew up. I mean, we are also into the great german thrash bands, especially Holger is a huge Destruction fan, but our main influences come from bay-area bands like Testament, Exodus or Metallica just to name a few. They managed to play hard and fast but also brought a technical aspect and a sense of virtuosity into the music they played while the german bands were more straight forward. This is what we liked and still like, so it’s obvious that the bay-area thrash movement has a major impac

t on our songwriting.

>Let's talk about your 2nd album titled 'Thrash You!'. Where/when did you record it ? Who did you choose as a producer ? Personally i found the drum sound a little bit too synthetic. Are you 100% satisfied with it ?
Yes, we are ! Looking back to “Thrash Notes”, we wanted to avoid the errors of the past like noisy guitars, not well equalized mix etc. So we went into the Kohlekeller studios in early 2007 because we knew that Kohle (the owner) had done some extreme metal productions in the past and we wanted to be sure to work with a producer that understands what we want. In my opinion, the sound is straight in your face and still we are very happy about it.

>How do you compose generally inside the band ? Is it a common process ? Do you build your music & think about its efficiency on stage ?
Usually, Holger or I come with the basic riffs for a song and we work it out together like arrangements and tonality. We write what comes to our minds and we don’t think about such things like you mentioned. When a song is done, there can be parts forcing the audience to mosh or bang or whatever, but this is a thing we discover when playing the song live for the first time. You never know what happens, haha!

>How many times a week can you rehearse all together ? Does a new song need a long time before being ready ?
Thursday is rehearsal day. When a record is done, Konrad and I meet one more additional day to rehearse the harmony vocal stuff. When writing new songs, it depends on how well the basics are worked out. If there was only one riff, you need a little longer to finish the song compared to songs that are basically written except for lead and vocal stuff. I would say, it takes 4-6 weeks to finish a song musically. After that lyrics have to be written which could last another couple of weeks, depending on the structure of the song and if there is a goddamn idea for lyrics, haha!

>Let's talk about your lyrics. Who does write them ? What topics do you deal with ?
Usually, it’s my turn to come up with lyrical concepts. In the past, the other guys wrote some lyrics, too, but I found that it’s much easier for me to sing them when I write the words, because I know best what’s gonna work with my rhythm guitar play. There are no special topics. I mean, I write about fictious stories that come up to my mind, or things that annoy me, that I need to let out. “Visions of Death” for example

is about a person that sees other people’s death but who is unable to interfere. “Die In Dignity” deals with the question if it’s ok to end someone’s life because of humanity. Classical thrash themes, huh?

>Will you tour europe to promote this 2nd album ? What bands would you like to play with ?
Touring Europe would be a dream for us, but in the end, we’ll play some festival shows and club gigs here in Germany. It’s always expensive going on tour and since we are a small band and have a small label, and we all have day jobs we can’t effort more than a couple of days touring. Although there were some offers playing with Destruction or Morgana Lefay, we had to reject them because we use most of our holidays for recording sessions. But one day we’ll be around, I promise!

>You already participated to festivals after 'Thrash Notes'. What about next summer ? Do you like this kind of big events ?
Yeah, we are a live band and love festivals. We like playing the big ones because we can reach a maximum of fans by playing one show. Due to the fact that we played all German majors in the last three years, we now have to concentrate on the smaller ones, haha! But we plan being back on the bigger events in the next two years. Unfortunately, we do not get outside Germany that often, but we would love to! Maybe there are some french festivals fitting our style of metal?!

>Do you play cover-songs on stage ? Which ones ?
No, we don’t. In the past, we played “Creeping Death” or “Hate Song”, but as we have more and more killer songs of our own, we merely play them instead of covers, haha!

>What are the bands you really appreciated recently ? Do you follow new bands, or are you stuck in the 80s ?
Well, you could say that we’re stuck somehow concerning the influences for our songwriting. But there are some good recent bands I like, for example Arch Enemy, Wolf, Lipid (or danish brothers in metal), The Order. They all have an approach similar to us : They know where they come from and write excellent songs influenced by bands from the past.

>Thanx for your time, maybe you want to add last words to french thrashers...
Hell yeah! Thanks for lending us an ear/an eye and prepare to wreck your neck with “Thrash You!” Maybe we’ll meet in the near future. Thrash or be thrashed! www.gebolze.de www.myspace.com/abandonedthrash www.dockyard1.com