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It says Passendale on the street sign in the little village with its huge Tyne Cot cemetery and memorial centre. I’ve passed it many times on the way to Isaac’s (Delahaye, our former guitar player) for our notorious drinking sessions in Ypres, not far from the French border.
I was really impressed by how this town breathes World War I. The numerous cemeteries, the Menin Gate with its daily last post ceremony happening daily since 1929, with the exception of just one day during a bombardment in World War II. The buildings have been restored to their original state and are definitely inhabited by English, Irish and Scottish people that visit Ypres every weekend, probably because one of their relatives died there during the war.
During the night at the bars & pubs, they tend to get really drunk and sing louder than the bartender can crank up the stereo! It’s during these times that I was inspired by the Great War and decided to write a concept album about it.
Ypres and Passendale were the center of war activities with around 900,000 casualties compared to 9 million worldwide. I realized how harsh it must have been there during those 4 years. Passchendaele was the official name of the little village during the war, but since the English speaking armies couldn’t pronounce that, they nicknamed it to: Passiondale - Henri Sattler
God Dethroned was formed by Henri Sattler in 1990. After recording one demo, they released their debut album, The Christhunt, in 1992 on a small German label. Due to problems with the other band members and the record company, Henri decided to end the band. He then formed Ministry Of Terror, a thrash metal band, and released the Fall Of Life album with them in 1994. After a European tour, Henri left the band and re-formed God Dethroned. With new band members and better songs ready to go, Henri and the new God Dethroned recorded The Grand Grimoire and inked a deal with Metal Blade. Many successful tours followed in Europe, the U.S. and Japan with great death and black Metal acts including: Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Immortal, and Marduk, just to name a few.
Most of the renowned metal festivals were also played: Dynamo Open Air, Wacken, Graspop and Summer Breeze. However, not everything went smoothly. Drummer Roel Sanders left the band after the US tour promoting Bloody Blasphemy. Nile’s Tony Laureano played on the Ravenous album, but couldn’t stay due to his other obligations. Janne from The Crown played on a tour and finally new drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek joined. His first recording experience with the band was Into the Lungs of Hell. This album was received very well by press around the globe and again the band toured across Europe and played more festivals - Party San, Summer Breeze, etc.
The time following the release of Into the Lungs of Hell was one of the most difficult periods in the band’s history. God Dethroned been together so long that the individual band members had developed new views on life and the band. Somehow the challenge was gone. At a certain point Beef and Jens decided to leave. The remaining band members Henri and Ariën wrote a new album, The Lair of the White Worm, based on a novel by Bram Stoker. New band members Isaac Delahaye and Henk Zinger joined up right before the recording process. After the release, the band played numerous shows and festivals including the Summer Breeze and With Full Force festivals, headlining tours in Europe and the U.S. as well as support slots for The Haunted and Bolt Thrower.
In between tours, God Dethroned worked on a new album and went straight into the studio after the European tour with Bolt Thrower. Two months later, The Toxic Touch was a finished. After the release of the album, the band toured Europe as main support for Vader. Then the band played more festivals: Earthshaker and the famed New England Metal & Hardcore festival in Worcester, MA as well as a number of headlining shows across Europe. Family issues then kept Henri at home for a long time until he started working on Passiondale – (Passchendaele)” in mid 2008.
During October, the band went to Soundlodge studio’s in Leer, Germany, to once again work with Jörg Uken. The production of The Toxic Touch turned out so well that the band decided to go there again. In coontrast to the previous album, Passiondale is a lot more extreme and furious, in no small part due to the return of Roel Sanders on drums.
The band concluded that the most logical thing to do was to go back to elements of their early sound, which also included Danny Servaes, who played keyboards on the Grand Grimoire and Bloody Blasphemy albums. His involvement added a touch of mystique to their sound that made these songs even more special. The grimness of the Great War is exemplified in the songs and the atmosphere creates a feeling of listening to the soundtrack to an epic war movie.
The album was recorded as a three piece because guitar player Isaac Delahaye decided to leave and take his guitar playing in another direction. He did, however, contribute to the album by doing a lot of additional research for the lyrics Henri wrote. The lyrics deal with World War I without taking a particular point of view or speaking about a specific country. God Dethroned’s band members don’t want to deal with politics and do not consider themselves a political band. Once the album was completed, auditions were held and Susan Gerl was selected as the new guitar player.
Currently, European tour is in the works and God Dethroned is already confirmed for a tour in South America along with an appearance at the Summerbreeze festival.
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