It sounds like a fairy-tale. Five noble knights, all dressed  in 100% heavy metal  are lining up to steel the horde`s trousers. And it is true my friend. They are really doing it. "Millenium Metal-Chaper One", hot first work of steel from the glowing, hot smithy of the lords Basse/Caffery/Lange/Ratz/Terrana, bores itself like butter into regions where the sun never shines - and that `s just as well.  True Metal or not, this album kicks ass! But whom I`m telling that. "Millenium Metal Chaper One"is not only  a must for  your collection, also your asses belong there where the power reigns. Time for bassist Lars Ratz to go into the detail.
 

"Which track do you like most? Metamorphosis? Ah, the" ballad!", Lars starts.

Nothing of the kind ballad, the song is still very heavy and moreover, it sprayes the same vibes as Crimson Glory´s "Lost Reflections" at that time.

"Of course it is a ballad, as the song starts with a piano sound."  Very interesting defenition...

But what is totally hidden, are the circumstances how the as "All Stars" presented band got together.

"I dont`like the word "All Stars", with which  our record company also peddles with, anyways. First of all, that always reminds me of some Blues-fossils, who are meeting each other once again shortly before their death, and secondly, the single names alone don`t help you much at all if the album is crap. At the outside there´s only the advantage, that the fans are more willing to take the album and give it a chance. But when the contents doesn`t hold what the package promised, you go under merciless. In this case they are upset with you, that you gave your good name for some trash. Henning, Michael and I  were  thinking  about setting a thing on foot together for two or three years already.  As we all kinda belong to the scene in Hamburg, we are also friends for quite a long time. So the idea for the whole thing was born, there was just no right time to start it. And that one came more or less coincidentally.  I have a management and booking company in Hamburg ,called Monster Productions, and through this I promoted the American Rock Live Tour.  That was originally just a fun-project of Chris Caffery, Mike Terrana and John West, for which never an album was planned. Chris was very inspired by the drumming of Mike, and as both also became very good friends they decided, while they were on the road, to produce a really heavy album together. Both approached me and asked if i would know a really awesome metal-shouter, and Henning spontanious came to my mind."

Already the next day, the three Germans sat together with the Two Americans, drank some beer and hold a council of war - and Metalium was born.

"We recognized from the beginning that we were on the same wave line with Chris 1000 percent. So we made a Rough demo in just two days, with three of the faster songs we composed. In addition, I was asked for a track for the upcoming Accept Tribute Sampler by Nuclear Blast. Due to that we fastly recorded Burning, put it also onto the demo and sent it to a handful of record companies. Two weeks later we had the deal with Massacre Records. "

Is it more interesting for the long time musician Lars Ratz (Ex Zed Yago, Velver Viper) to work with profis or  was it simply just easier as to hire real greenhorns?

"That`s hard to say. The thing with us really wasn`t planned before. Of course it is a pleasure to work with an
experienced musician like Chris, from whom you still can learn sth in the end. The band had a big profit of
him,whether at the songwriting or at the recordings. That was a funny thing anyways, as we produced double
tracked. The Impuls Studios in Hamburg are separated, that means while I recorded the singing in the one studio,
Chris took care off the guitars in the other studio. We didn`t know how the final result would sound. We didn`t
put both together until the mix, and we got thrilled by it!"

In my opinion, the songwriting shouldn`t become to easy in the future.

" I don`t see any problems with that. New York isn`t so far away as it used to be! OK, seriously now, for the
songwriting to "Millenium Metal-Chaper One", I `d rent a huge apartment nearby the Danielstraße, with view to
the Reeperbahn - the musicians were as happy a never. There we really had lived door to door for two weeks,
wrote songs and rehearsed. And I think that you can hear it in the music, as the songs sound really fresh. We kept
the point where the motivation was the most.

What really makes you wonder about "old hands" like Metalium is the fact. that a lot of "strange hands" were
involved in the production proccess, as normally a musician doesn`t lay this baby into those.

" Yeah, that´s right, but it would be presumptuous to think that you can keep the total control all alone - you
simply need a smuch support as you can get. I had, in my work as the captain of the ship, told Tommy Hansen
to do the premastering, because he is working with very old equipment of the pitch technic, which create a very
warm sound. For this, I headed up to Denmark to him. Of course, this was a hard time for me, as I`ve always
tried to look over the shoulders of my combatants and, if neccessary, to sit in their neck. As I heard the
final result from Tommy, I was excited yes, but it wasn`t satiated enough for a modern production. So I  laid the material into Alex Krull`s hands. He manages as no other to get the best out of his digital equipment. "

Will the line up stay like this in the future?

"Metalium was a real band from the beginning, and so every earned penny is divided through five persons. The
album is out just for a short while, and we are already TOP 100, respectively position 19 of the dealer charts. We
never thought that, in the first place because we started the whole thing very relaxed. Mike was mostly surprised
of our attitude or method of working, because he was the only one who never was a full bandmember
somewhere before; he just appeared as a paid musician so far.  Due to that, his first question always was:"How
do you like me to play?" That slogan bowled me totally. I told him to play how he feels - an absolutely new 
experience for Mike. As he listened to the album in the end he was speechless and said he never had such a good drumming on earlier recordings.
Nevertheless, there were some differerences with Mike Terrana in the recent past, which finally made him leave the band. All had it´s climax with that stir at the With Full Force Festival, as we nearly had to cancel our show because of him."Mike called me after he came back home from his South America Tour with Roland Grapow and told me that he was totally exhausted - physicallay and mentally. After all, he`s already 40 and his
powerdrumming really goes into the bones; but in addition, Mike is a very labile type, who sometimes has to fight with bad physical problems, which have its roots in his privat life. So I asked myself if he was able to play the four shows in july, but he answered that that´s beside the point.  The third gig was in Belgium. We has absolved it without problems and were on our way to Leipzig with three cars. We waited until 30 minutes before our gig, but Mike wasn`t there. I told Chris that that we only would have two possibilities. First, to cancel the gig and to make ourselves to the idiots of the whole festival or second, to find a new drummer in just five minutes time. Fortunately, some friends of Chris came over from the U.S.A. to party with us the first Metalium shows. Also Dr. Butcher drummer John Osbourne was with them.   He already had some beer, but agreed spontanious to step in. He grabbed a discman and after 20 minutes of airdrumming he was ready to beware ourselves from a desaster. Nevertheless, we were pissed off by Mike Terrana`s  unprofessionalty. It would have been no problem to cancel the show before, we could have been arranged ourselves with that - but he left us in the lurch without early warning. On principle, we had no other choice than giving him his walking papers. I´m really sorry about that, as he is a very nice guy, but we really want to step on the gas with Metalium and so I have to be able to trust my combatants 100 percent. I wish Mike all the best and that he can play successfully drums for  many years more, and that will get the knack of his problems. In any case we were so enthusiastic about Osbourne that we asked him he if would like to play for Metalium in the future. Since that time he is sitting over there in the States, reahearsing for a killer-gig at the Wacken Open Air.!"
 

interview by  Michael Schweitzer published on "The Metal Merchant" issue "Herbst 1999"

A very special THANK YOU to Annette Foerster for the translation into English... if it wasn't for you...! :)