A while ago I posted the review for Six Reasons To Kill’s new album online. Since I was pleasantly surprised by it I took the time to send them some questions. Fortunately the band took their time to answer the questions in a very honest way. Here’s what they had to say.

Hi, how’s life at the moment?

‘Awesome. There’s a lot to do answering all the interviews and reading all the reviews for our new album. But it is kinda positive stress. Furthermore we’re getting ready for our releaseshow and the summerfestivals. So life couldn’t be better at the moment.’

Could you please introduce your band to the ones unfamiliar with it?

‘We’re a German fivepiece just playing some hard music. Six Reasons To Kill was founded in 1999 and since then the lineup changed several times. Marco and Patrick started playing in the well-known german metalcore band called Caliban and Stefan left for playing in Deadsoil. In 2006 our long year vocalist left the band for some personal issues. So the lineup is completly changed since the beginning but it is the strongest we ever had. Another Horizon is our fifth release and our 3rd full length. We also recorded two split-CDs. One with Absidia and one with our friends in Deadlock. And now we hope to gain some attention for some good music.’

Between your previous album and your soon to-be-released new full-length you switched vocalists. What was the reason for that?

‘Christian left for some personal issues. He always gave everything for the band. But there was a day he just realized that there are some other goals to achieve in life and so he told us he’d leave the band. We never had discussions about that. Sometimes life forces decisions and this is what Chris had to face. There is no bad blood between Chris and the rest of the band.’

How do you feel about Thorsten being in the band right now and what is the biggest difference between having him or having Chris in the band?

‘When Christian left the band we all felt very bad because he had represented the band for a long time. But Thorsten is a good shouter with a lot of charisma. He offered us to do the job and we all thought this could be a good decision. Thorsten has a wide range of vocals to offer and this is something that opens some doors for the band. I think the result of the new album is the best proof of his work.’

You’re about to release your new album, Another Horizon, upon us. How do you feel about the whole process from writing it to recording the effort?

‘It took some years but the effort is great. Please notice that we changed the vocalist and this was a reason everything took so long. Thorsten offers so many styles and this was a motivation for us to open up for some new stuff, like clean vocals. It is like a feedback between band and vocals: Songs were written several months before but when we heard Thorstens vocals on it, we started improving the songs again. The result is just what happened with the band and we’re all happy with it.’

What’s the meaning of the title Another Horizon for you?

‘This is a result of the lyrics. Thorsten evolved some lyrics that are really positive. He wrote about personal issues and his main achievement is to tell people that life is worth living it. To be confident and honest is a profit to make things better. Reaching “Another Horizon” means to stay conscious and honest to yourself and share this feeling to others.’

On the cover of the album there are numerous different things going on. How did this cover come to be and what does the castle on the person’s head stand for exactly?

‘In my interpretation the castle are church towers. A closer look on it shows a visible horizon on the artwork. And there is a certain hint on “Dantes inferno” as there are some circles that lead to the middle of hell. So there is a antithesis between the divine (symbolized by the towers on the head) and something diabolic (the hint on Dante). And this is the point where we can draw a parallel between the music, lyrics and the artwork. All components feature these grotesque contradictions: Harmony versus disharmony in the music, tragedy versus confidence in the lyrics and divine versus diabolic in the artwork.’

In the song ‘On This Battlefield’ all of a sudden a power metal scream appears, how on earth did Thorsten come up with that? (I like it though! Keeps things a little more surprising!)

‘That was just a funny moment in the practise-room when Thorsten did this scream and everybody laughed out loud. Then we decided to do it on the album. It’s a kind of hommage to the good old metalbands we all like: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and stuff like that. Thorsten is some kind of a real hardcorekid and he started singing along the solos of our guitarist Loc because he never really had the experience with a band playing solos. It’s something coming out of a funny mood and we tried to preserve this. As I mentioned before, confidence is also a part of our concept.’

You used to play a more metalcore kind of music than you do at this moment, what do you think made the band evolve this way?

‘We all thought that it was time to do a good Metal album. And so we started writing songs. We love to do some varying stuff and so we wrote songs in styles between deathmetal, thrashmetal and of course hardcore. On the other hand the album shows hardcore-elements nobody expected.’

Some bands choose not to evolve too much over the years, others like to change their musical path constantly. What kind of band is Six Reasons To Kill?

‘I think we’re assigned to the last group you mentioned above. Our destination is to evolve our musical style within the years. I think our last albums show this process of evolvement descriptively. Our first album Kiss The Demon is a mid-tempo Death Metal bastard. Reborn comes over with a more elaborated style with some melodies and rhythmic diversity. Another Horizon is another step in this direction but on another level. In so far you can interpret the albums titel programmatically: For reaching a new level of music.’

And what kind of band is 6R2K when it comes to writing albums? Do you write on the road, in the studio, at home?

‘Most of the songs are written at home. The normal process is that Loc does some riffs on his guitar at home. Then he records it in his homestudio and sends out a mp3 to us. We’re all living in different districts in Germany and so we have to work this way. In the practise room we start to work on these ideas and there is the place we evolve our music. Everybody in the band has equal rights to place some ideas.’

Please tell us something more about your touring plans?

‘There is nothing fixed at the moment but we would love to tour in support for a bigger act. In the upcoming summer we’re going to play some festivals and shows and of course our releaseshow on June 6th in Koblenz. Then we will plan how to tour for the album. We’ll hit the road in October/November probably. Let’s see how things come up for us.’

What are the six most important reasons for you to kill? (In a nicer way, what things make you most furious?)

‘Fortunately nobody in the band has a reason to kill. Something that makes me really angry are shit-talking people or people that try to mess around with you. A lot of stupid stuff in the bright-polished media think that they can show you what is right and what is wrong. They’re just selling cheap ideas and there are a lot of people following them like lemmings do. When you read the lyrics of Another Horizon you will find some that point the finger in this way and call on you to keep yourself normal. To stay honest and real to yourself and others, is what they try to tell you.’

There’s this DVD called: “Metal: A Headbangers Journey”. It’s a documentary I think every metalfan should check out at least once. The question the documentary is based on is: “Why is metal music consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned?” Why do you think it is that way?

‘I do not know the documentary. Seems interesting and I would like to know what the answer is. Metal is still a kind of subculture. It’s really large but it’s still not mainstream. This might be because it offers something extreme. Some symbols Metal plays which may leave people shocked (think about the “Jesus Is A Cunt”-Shirt of Cradle of Filth...) and scared. Maybe some people pick up a few extreme examples and adjudge a complete scene. Think about our pope Ratzinger who tried to forbid metal music because it’s some kind of satanic. But on the other hand there will always be some people staying ignorant and seeing no reason to occupy oneself with metal music. The taste of music will always diversify the people.’

Any recent discoveries (of bands) you think the world should know of?

‘Yeah, there are some great bands you should check out. Our shouter Thorsten is also singer in a HC-Punk-band called Bubonix. Furthermore you should check out our split-partners Deadlock and our Swedish labelmates Enemy Is Us. Last but not least I have my own little project in my hometown called Norne with some old Since The Day and Obscenity-musicians. But we have to record some songs first to get an idea what we’re doing, hehe.’

That was my final question. Have you got anything to add to this interview? Please do so now!

‘Thank you so much for taking the time for Six Reasons To Kill. We really appreciate that. Check out our new album Another Horizon. I think it’s worth doing so. We also have a homepage (www.6r2k.de) and a MySpace (www.myspace.com/sixreasonstokill). Go there, add us to friends and enjoy. See you on one of our live shows!’

Thank you very much for your time and good luck in the future!

‘Thank you!’