is one of the most independent formations of the Death 'n' Thrash Metal underground. Their latest album Demons is a clear demonstration of this, but first things first: Antagonist was founded in 1990, at a time when bands like Kreator, Morgoth, Death und Entombed were still the nonplusultra of all musical evil. Stemming from this inspiration, the boys transformed their initial noise into a more original direction. Obviously, this needed some time, but right from the start there were two major influences for Antagonist: first of all Michael you will hardly find a second singer who comes anywhere close to his way of screaming (no typing error). His roar is a zillion miles above the standard grunting and screaming and absolutely unique.
Secondly, it is the way they play the guitars: despite being violently brute and its snotty, but straight power, the riffs are still extremely diverse and technically very advanced. Now, how does that work ? The arrangements are composed with various layers, offer great diversity in terms of rhythm as well as harmony and combine aggression, hectic and power interspersed with atmospheric and melodic elements. No coarse slamming, no blast parts technique is applied sensibly so as to support the basic rage in its musical effect. So much for that.
Antagonist
go down well. Thats the common view of the metal underground as well as the
press. The 1995 demo Mosaik sold app. 1,000 copie and got praised by the fan
press without the slightest panning. The same is true for the longplayer
Perfect Human Comprehension which was published in 1999: no griping, solely
acclaim (also refer to press echo below) and constantly good sales. And
following a longer creative phase a new piece of work: reduced to the max, the
self-made album Demons offers eight intoxicating mid and high speed songs with
a total playing time of 30 minutes. Consciously, all redundant stuff was left
out in order to bring the real power of the music into the center of attention:
the distinctive scream-singing, the firm riffs, suprising breaks and the
impressive combination of melodic and brutal parts. And most fascinatingly: all
these apparent contradictions are united in the music of Antagonist and thats
just the way its supposed to be one cannot exist without the other. Full
stop.
If you would like to get an idea about the sound of Demons should visit www.antagonist.info (oh, and by the was, you can also find the previous releases as freebies there).
Antagonist
are not only known by the scene for their CDs: more than 10 years of experience
are reflected in their music of the quintett and there is also their stage
presence. All hell breaks lose when they play live gigs, wild rampage and
banging blast across the scene, while the songs are performed with brilliant
technical control of the instruments. Whoever has been to an Antagonist concert
will confirm that the boys are quite spontaneous and enjoy playing. Thats real
power you can feel. No show effects the band itself is the effect.
In 2003, Antagonist proved that point at WACKEN, the most important and biggest metal festival in Germany: they managed to get the demanding crowd go crazy a band with a contract or a a lot of money in the background ! Antogonists thrash better
Antagonist are:
Michael Simon (Vocals), Stefan Berenthal (Guitars), Thomas Kattwinkel (Bass),
André Gertjejanßen (Drums)
Antagonist can be praised (always), be invited to a beer (more often than not), be bought (with pleasure), be rented (with even bigger pleasure) and be aufspielen ??? (with the biggest pleasure) via:
www.antagonist.info
Press echo for Perfect Human Comprehension:
Rock Hard 6/2000:
If Antogonist came from Scandinavia or were one of the (mostly useless) side projects of established musicians, they would have been bombarded with contract offers. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Heavy oder was ?! Nr. 52:
The professional sound quality and the unbelievable make-up of the self-production, let the scale tilt to the side of Antagonist ultimately.
Eternity:
Bitchy, like dogs off the leash, they storm through a concoction of Thrash/Death far away from any retro bullshit its more aggressiveness paired with a hint of freshness.