DESTRUCTION’s SCHMIER Says Heavy Metal Bands Using Backing Tracks In Concert Are ‘Lying’ To Fans

On making of DESTRUCTION’s new album, “Under Attack”:

Schmier: “It’s the biggest time off that we had between albums — four years — so we had enough time to write, which I think was much better than finally starting to write again after a few years. I think this was a good step that we took. We also chose a procedure of how to record. We left a bigger gap between this album and the last album, because before that, for 17 years now, we’ve been writing an album every two years or so. We’ve been very productive, but this time it was just important to do a good album, and so we took some more time.”

On the “brickwalling” phenomenon:

Schmier: “When your song is on some kind of a compilation, you want your music to have a certain volume to be kind of comparable to the rest. When you put your CD into the CD player and your music is much lower, it just leaves a weak impression. That’s what’s in people’s heads — that they have to be louder. The American recording industry inspired this some years ago. In the beginning of the 2000s, it was getting to the stage where all of the American productions and masters had such a loud volume, and everybody was following it. Over the years, it became normal that all albums were sounding fucking compressed to death. I remember the METALLICA album — the latest one (‘Death Magnetic’, September 2008) — where it had like cracks. It was so compressed, and it was starting to crack through the speakers. That’s definitely not the way to go, so I’m glad that we have the control to move back to where we want. That’s why we didn’t choose to work with a big producer this time, because even if you tell them not to compress it so hard, they still do it.”