Altar – “The value to have the Altar demo is for the fans of the first hour, I think.”

The year 2000, as we have transformed from a xeroxed zine into a webzine and we have more possibilities, we’re going to do things a bit differently with interviews. Besides the normal underground “in-depth”-interviews we are also going to ask some questions to more well known bands who just released something. We only asking about the new release, so no history questions and such. Marcel of Altar is the first one to talk about their new release; ‘Until Heaven Forbids’.

Hello! How are you?
Fine!!

Almost 42 minutes worth of Altar I have in my hands here at a price of a MCD. There are many releases with the duration of 30 minutes (and some even less) and are sold as a full-length, with the price of a full-length. What is your opinion? Have you received positive reactions about this?
I have got great reactions on this, this is a true ode to our fans and we are proud in doing this!

The new song ‘I am your provider’;  reading the lyrics it’s like it’s about a demonic creature that will haunt while you are asleep. But I can also be described as talking about the evil aspect of the internet,  especially using the phrase “The highest score”. Am I right or…?
No, you are right, it is a story about calling the evil through internet, I like the story a lot!

You have included your ‘And God Created Satan to Blame for His Mistakes” demo as a bonus on this compilation. According to your explanation, many were looking for this. It’s nice to release it for your fans, but originally the demo got lots of notice through tape-trading. Would it cross your mind to say something like “hey, there are a lot out there who got it, maybe try tape-trading again and maybe you will meet a lot of interesting people….”?
No, why? And listen to a tape which is played over and over again while you can get a quality of CD? Tape trading to meet a lot of interesting people? There must be other ways….

Fortunately you didn’t put it on the web as mp3 or even worse, only on mp3. Did you consider this? Do you also think the value to have the Altar demo in the collection will be less, because of that?
We had thoughts about it, but there will be people who`ll put in on the net anyway, the value to have the Altar demo is for the fans of the first hour I think.

Edwin Kelder made the front cover, right? Does he paint a lot? Are there any people who said to you; “it’s nice, but after the S.O.D.’s paraody on ‘Number of the Beast’, it’s not that special anymore.”?
Yes, Edwin paints a lot and if you have noticed any other cd`s of ours he did every artwork on them. We did not have any reaction of metalheads (only you, hahaha) which compared our cdcover with SOD, SOD does a parody on Iron Maiden, we honour Iron Maiden.

How about the new full-length? Have you recorded some more tracks? Same style? By the way, Spitzenburg Records….who are they and are there more bands connected with them?
We are rehearsing songs for our new CD which will be recorded in October. Spitzenburg records is a label of Zomba. They are dealing with some other bands.

Thanx for your time….any last words?
I hope everyone stays healthy in this fucked up world and keep listening (any kind of) music!