Interview: Thunder And Lightning

On December 9, German heavy metal band Thunder And Lightning released their new album The Ages Will Turn. DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen interviewed guitarist/producer Marc Wüstenhagen, read it below!

Hey guys, how’s life?

Life is good, 2016 seemed shorter than expected to me, wish there was a little more left in the old year.

Your music sounds like a really nice mix of different metal-styles. How would you describe your music?

First and foremost we are a heavy metal band. But with some modern influences. We are also a little bit thrash influenced.

Which musicians do you see as your influences?

Angus Young from AC/DC, Kai Hansen from Gamma Ray or Helloween earlier, Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth.

You recently released your fifth full-length album, The Ages Will Turn, what are the reactions so far?

They have been very positive. We are glad that many people like our new songs. Gives you kind of a validation you made the right decisions when writing the songs. We wanted to keep it as hookline focused as possible. The vocals are the thing even a non-metal listener would recognize first.

What is the story behind the album title?

The album title has two origins, on one had the song by the same name, which is about the never changing atrocity that is war on this earth. Kind of a theme I picked up when playing the videogames Fallout 3 and 4. “War never changes” even when many ages are passing by. Also there were always some kind of myths and stories that people would come up with, which evolve in some kind of urban fairytale in some way. Stories that are too far out there to be true, but thousands of people claimed really are true. Many songs are about these urban myths, so the title seemed kind of fitting.

The artwork for The Ages Will Turn is made by Luis Figueiredo. What made you decide he was the right one for this job? And are you happy with his creation?

Very happy. I was very impressed even by his sketches he has on his Facebook page. I purposefully looked for someone who doesn’t do metal album artworks mostly. Because many artists try to imitate the likes of Derek Riggs and people like that. It all starts to look too similar, we wanted something fresh.

On The Ages Will Turn you have two guest musicians, Máté Bodor (of Alestorm and Wisdom) with an guitar solo on One Blood and Der Schulz (of Unzucht) doing guest vocals on Mary Celeste. How was working with them?

I met both of them when working with them in the studio I run with a colleague of mine. I co-produced the last Unzucht album and when Schulz was in the studio to record for his band I just asked if he would sing a couple of lines for our song, which he loved to do. I met Máté when we were recording drums for his new project All But One with Heaven Shall Burn drummer Christian Bass in our studio in Berlin. I was talking to him on facebook months later when we were doing our album and send him the song and asked if he would be up for a solo. He recorded the whole thing himself in Hungary, and sent it back. I didn’t change anything. Just put it in, checked the volume, done. He is a very talented guitarplayer. Much better than myself, super easy to work with.

Can you tell us something about your inspiration for lyrics?

Like I said, mostly urban myths like the Slender Man in Silent Watcher, Darkside of the moon on Welcome To The Darkside.

You also just had the releaseparty of The Ages Will Turn in Cassiopeia, Berlin, how did it go?

Very well, we will release a live clip this week from the show actually.

Speaking of gigs, any chance for a tour supporting The Ages Will Turn?

It’s always a financial struggle. We cannot do a buy-on for a big tour, we don’t have ten grand lying around to do that. And sadly that is how most tours work these days, when you are not the headliner. We will do shows in 2017 in Germany, but spread out in smaller bursts.

Any other plans for the future of Thunder And Lightning?

We are working on more songs, and plan to do more shows now that the album is out. We are also working on some special things for the diehard fans to sink their teeth in, so stay tuned.

Thanks for the interview! Is there something you want to say to our readers?

If you want to help small bands like us, the best thing you can do is tell everybody and their mother about them. It’s the best way to spread the word.

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