Was it based on personal experience or simply passive observation?

What happened in the recording studio or on stage to make one song sound different from the rest?

These are just some of the question bands and musicians attempt to answer in Line 'em Up - the newest page of The Power Of Metal.Dk.

This is where your favourite bands comment on their albums, track by track, because as someone once said, “Ideas are the building blocks of ideas”.

Enjoy!

Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album “Kingdom”.

But could you please start off by introducing the readers to Watch Me Bleed?

Markus: First of all: WMB is a band, no project as many assume. We play a mixture of black metal , thrash metal and rock'n'roll. It's kick ass metal from hell and we don't care about any rules. We're strong, brutal with tons of groove. That's how we would describe our music.

Chris: WMB is Markus Pohl on guitar, Steffen Theurer banging the drums, Mark Knaus on bass-guitar and Chris Rodens & Alex Gindu screaming and growling like angry demons. We founded this band in the spring of 2007 and had our first show a couple of weeks after the first rehearsal. In 2009 we released our Debut-album 'Souldrinker....and after a lot of shows...we're here with our second album 'Kingdom'.

And now onto “Kingdom”… track-by-track, what inspired you, what topics are you dealing with, what do what to express with this song etc.

01. The Rising Tide (Intro)

Watch Me Bleed – That's the introduction to destruction, so to speak...

02. The Worlds Stops Moving

Markus: The opener! It was written while I kept in mind that we need a song especially written to be the first full song on the album. It's a little bit of all we do in the album. The song starts and it imagine you are safe right before the storm raises. It includes metal riffs, blues and rock chord parts and a guitar solo which introduces the listener to our world.

Chris: The lyrics are just pure emotion...I was very pissed about a lot of things in my life, when Markus cam up with that song. So I just channeled my hate and agression in words...

03. Here Comes the Red

Markus: Our battlehymn. A little bit influenced from powermetal, especially in the fast part. Some very sick parts between just to break the very easy listening riffs a little bit. And last but not least a rock'n'roll chorus which brings all together. I think one of the best ideas in this song is the fact that we wrote a middle part in which we include the chorus vocals and after this we keep the chorus vocals just play different parts. I've never done this before and it kicks my ass every time I listen to.

Chris: Here we go with the main 'concept' of the album...one of big passions besides music is the table-top-game Warhammer 40.000. It's about a dark future with nothing but war. This song is about some of the superhuman soldiers in this game. If you knew the game, then you will surley find out, what and who I mean. On the other hand it fits perfectly with the mood in our band. Like Markus said...it's our personal battle hymn.

04. War Calls Us

Markus: One day we rehearsed for a show and I told Steffen that I miss one kind of song on our new album. It should be raw, heavy with a groove from hell. It should smash down the listener not because of his sickness or velocity, it should hit him with one strike like a thousand ton hammer. I showed him in which direction I want to get a riff... and played the War calls us riff. It was spontaneous and I decided to work on it. And, believe it or not, it happened a second time with the part in the second verse as well, 4 weeks later. Never got ideas like this before but it felt fantastically.

I think it's our most rock'n'roll based song and for my part I support this with a solo based on blues and rock. I'm not into the classic music and love the blues based music which you can hear on the whole album.

Chris: Like I mentioned before, most songs are about Warhammer 40.000 and this is about a company of 'Ultramarines' fighting an alien race called the 'Necrons' on the planet of Damnos.

05. Blackest of the Black (Interlude)

Chris: The calm before the storm...

06. Kingdom

Markus: This was one of the first songs we did on the new album and it was the first song we wrote together with our second singer Alex. The first riff is based on easy bendings which will ruin my third fret while playing live. The mean riff is more rock than metal and I wasn't sure that we can play this shit. But after we put it in the middle of the song and played some blast beats on it I was shure that we're on the right way hahahaha

The groove Steffen plays during the riff in the beginning is not from this earth. It fits totally. I knew that I wanted something like this and wrote a similar groove. Steffen was near to rip my head of and post it on Facebook just to warn other musicians not to pretend grooves like this hahahahaha. Last but not least he agreed and brought this ass kicking groove.

For me Kingdom is one of the two really epic songs we have. The refrain is full of power and might. I prevented playing a real solo inside, it would remove the power of the song. So I decided to find some riffs in the middle instead of playing a solo. It shows more strength and brutality while taking the listener on a journey through our sick minded riffs.

Chris: It's about resistance, about fighting for your personal freedom when some wants to tell you what to do or wants to take away what's yours...never give up..fight for your rights, fight on your own terms.

07. Rack the Slide

Markus: It was one of our last songs we wrote for the album and it was the only song Eike did not change anything at all. Until today I don't know what I drunk to get the ideas of all the riffs. For me it was a surprise that we can do this. Not only because of our skills. More because of the ending of the song.

I wanted to write some parts for the middle of the song and return to the fast and thrashy riffs from the beginning. But while writing and trying I felt that this is not necessary. I was in the mood like writing on a complete different song. The beginning wasn't in my mind any more and I avoided listening the song from the beginning. After finishing I closed it and listened to some days later and it was surprised. And I hoped that all the other members will like that as I do. They did... Steffen did a hell-job on this track, his fills are insane and show how underrated he is. Chris and Alex put the big Watch Me Bleed chor on the last slow parts. Still get goose skin while listening.

Chris: When I heard that song, I had that imagination from that band of misfits, a bunch of outlaws who just don't care about rules and the law. And they just spread their attitude across the land...and take everbody on a unforgettable ride. Uh...did I mention it's about us...hahaha!!!

08. Death and Pain

Markus: Death and Pain was more a jamming thing. My way to get new riffs and ideas is to go in the rehearsal room, plug in as much amps and cabinets I can find, turn everything on level 667 and play just for fun. All the time my notebook is running and records all the shit. At home I listen to the recordings and find some stuff to work on. Death and pain was a little bit like listening and putting together. Very raw and dirty. And one of the rare moments in which Chris brings some tonal information to our music. It shows how many voices he can do and how sick he is in mind to get all this ideas. Well done, bro...

Chris: This about the mighty order of the 'Salamanders'...superhuman soldiers in Warhammer 40K

09. A Question of Honor (Interlude)

Chris: Is honor more important than life?

10. Judgement

Markus: This is the most epic song. We play the same riff in verse and chorus, just the parts between are different. It was important that the feeling of all the other parts is complete different to the main part. So I played some off beat riffs and in the verses and some black metal melodic riffs in the middle. That's it.

Chris: It's a discussion between two very different persons. A soldier and an inquisitor argue if they should destroy a planet completely to safe a whole solar-system from aliens...or if they should stay and fight for this people on the planet. Warhammer 40k, by the way...

11. The Sons of Fenris

Markus: The sons of Fenris was the very first song we wrote for this album. It was more than one year old when we listened to it. The album was almost ready and it could not reach the level of the other songs. So we decided to cut it totally and write something based on the old one. At the end we kept most of it just rearranged all of the parts.

Chris: Well...Warhammer again... a song about the order of the 'Space Wolves' and their death-planet 'Fenris'.

12. From Down Below

Markus: Our ballad. I love this one though. I think I wrote more than 10 versions of this song. After showing Eike he brought a version which was the only song we could not except at all. I had something specially in mind and wanted to have this on the album.

Chris send me back all versions telling me that all this is shit and he cannot do vocals on it. After every finished song I tried to plant him a new version of this song. Finally we got one and I so proud of it. It shows the full potential of Chris and Alex and brings a little bit rest and variety in our album. On the other hand, the ending is very WMB like.

Chris: Evil and dark thoughts grow underneath the surface...and if you're not strong enough, they will take over.

13. Let Them Try

Markus: This is a very easy going song, not to much riffs, everything straight ahead and a black metal based verse riff. This was important for me. I wanted to bring more black metal into our music than we had on Souldrinker. Perhaps this is one of the most black metal orientated songs we have.

Chris: The lyrics where written by Mario Hirzinger from the Austrian symphonic-metal-band Serenity. It's about one of his favourite books called 'A fire upon the deep'.

14. Will You Stand With Me (Outro)

Chris: We're a band of brothers...we can't give you fame or fortune...but we can give you our music, our souls...so will you stand with us?

Tell us a bit about the artwork – who made it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?

Chris: The artwork was made by Matthias Bäuerle from Season Zero. As we told him the title, he came up with this kind of a flag, a naval ensign for the band. It fits perfect with what we wanted to say with the title of the album...this is our personal kingdom.

A good artwork is very important...that's the first thing people see when they discover the CD...it's like a good poster to a great movie....haha

Any last words you want to round this interview off with?

Chris: Thanks for the interview...listen to our album...play it loud...fuck the mainstream and never forget: Here come the red.

Kenn Jensen, June 2012