Interview: Terrordome

It’s time to enjoy and blow your mind with the last opus of Terrordome – “Machete Justice, a Polish band that plays a fast and brutal Crossover Thrash Metal in the spirit of the 80’s.

They released their newest LP “Machete Justice” in May this year. A brutal and fast-paced album with aggressive vocals. In just over 30 minutes and 11+ tracks, you’ll get punched in your face. No time to rest. It reminds me the music I was listening end of 80’s. It was mostly Punk, albums were short, upfront, intense, genuine.

The current line-up (as of 2016) is composed of Uappa Terror [vocals & guitars], Paua Siffredi [guitars], De Kapitzator [bass & vocals] and Mekong [drums].

They tour Poland and Europe since 2005 and shared gigs with Anthrax, Suicidal Angels, Accuser, Caliban, Blunt Force Trauma, Ramming Speed, Andralls, SSS, Ratos De Porao, Frontside, Uganga and many more.

We Shoot Music: Hi, thanks for taking a moment with We Shoot Music to answers few questions. First let’s introduce yourself. Tell us about Terrordome. How did you start? What made you want to play this kind of music? Who are playing in the band?
Terrordome: Terrordome was founded in 2005 by Uappa Terror and Mekong Minetaur. The idea behind the band was to play as hard as you can and at the same time connect Metal, Punk and Hardcore stages together, as at that time there was a lot of bands in each of these genres, but there was nothing that would link one to another. TRDM was to become a band that’s the roughest it can get and I think that after this decade it worked out pretty well! So, after all this time, TRDM backbone are still Uappa – who’s doing vocals and is mutilating his 6-string – and Mekong (doing the artillery). Since 2010, Paua Siffredi is also responsible for the guitars and the last man on-board is De Kapitzator, who could afford only 4 strings. You can hear this lineup in action on the latest CD or live shows.

WSM: I saw that you had a lot of changes on your band. Members were in and out? Why that?
TRDM: Playing extreme music requires serious commitments and can sometimes extremely affect your life. Terrordome tries to stay very active as a band so it makes it all even more difficult. For the past 10 years, there were 3 stable lineups, which isn’t that much of a change. The toughest part was always clarifying and stabilizing the squad by finding the right people, but once that happened, it wouldn’t change for a long time. Eventually, when it changed, the reason was always more or less connected to the way the band operates and how much dedication it required.

WSM: Your new album was just released in May this year. You first LP was released in 2011. When did you start to write for “Machete Justice”? Was it a long process or rather straightforward?
TRDM: I would divide it into two phases. First one is when album backbone has been created – the ideas, the riffs, the direction that TRDM wanted to go. I dare to say that this process has started even as early as after the Bitch was born. It was long, rather not condensed, but everything needed to mature. The second phase would be the time that started about 6-9 months before we entered the studio, where all the ideas had to be refined through hard work and turned into actual material, that would be good, well thought-through from start until the end and go well together on the CD. This was the period when we were locked up in the rehearsal room, working on the songs over and over again, actually verifying what we came up with earlier.

WSM: Who did the artwork of your new album? It’s striking.
TRDM: Well thank you, we are also awed by it! Marcin ‘Biały’ Białkowski is the guy who’s behind it and he did a fantastic job. Biały also did the cover arts for our other releases, namely “We’ll Show You Bosch, Mitch!” and “Bestial Castigation“. This time, we had a very strict and demanding vision, which had to closely go together with the title. The effect has definitely exceeded our expectations. The cover perfectly fits the title theme and goes together with the title song on the record.

WSM: Can you explain the title of your new album? Are you writing songs with a message or they are just for fun?
TRDM: All the songs we do are supposed to convey something. Even if we are doing something that is supposed to be fun, we still try to keep a certain amount of depth to it. “Machete Justice” speaks about phenomena that’s been present on Kraków streets for a while now, that is sorting out your shady business using a machete. Justice is often subjective and the good guys are not the only ones convinced they are serving it. The title track looks deeper into this and describes it as it is from the neutral Kraków folk perspective. The cover is a little bit more symbolic about it.

WSM: What bands both here and abroad have your attention right now?
TRDM: Well, there’s a bunch of great thrash metal squads in Poland! This encouraged us to release a series (2 vols. up to now) of compilations entitled “Thrashing Damnation“, where you can find the jet set of our underground scene. I would strongly recommend such hordes as Fortress, Psychopath, Traktor, Driller, The No-Mads, R.O.D., Tester Gier among others. We’re not much into Black/Death Metal music, which is predominant here in Poland, that’s why we focus rather on the underground scene than on the mainstream, but I could say that the last Vader’s album kicks major ass! As for the foreign bands I think Violator, Dekapited, Toxic Holocaust, Chaos Synopsis, Lich King are doing great job. They come to my mind in the first place, I could list many more of them, but it would take a lot of time and space. There are plenty of good bands, the newer ones and the old ones of course!

WSM: When you’re not playing or touring, what do you do? Do you have a 9 to 5 job, or something more artistic? Something related to music?
TRDM: All of us got regular jobs beside music. We work pretty much in corporations – smaller or bigger, but still corporations. After all we live in outsourcing capital of Europe, hooray… The biggest advantage of this line of work is that it is not difficult to cope with the band at the same time. After work, each one of us spends their spare time on music related activities (beside me – I spend it on chasing women), but no matter how much time that would be or how much hard work we put in it, music stays within the “hobby” zone for each and one of us.

WSM: What are your plans for the future, next year? Any tours planed in Europe?
TRDM: Plans for 2016 are still clearing up. TRDM received some interesting offers and since the release of “Machete Justice” we noticed an increased interest in our touring plans. We don’t have anything set in stone at this point, but there are already some negotiations underway and we still hope for some more offers. We will definitely tour next year, but we still need to decide when and where. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit more than the Old Continent!

WSM: Thank you very much to have spent some time to answer to these few questions. Any final thoughts?
TRDM: Thanks for the interview! Our latest CD is now available on YouTube, so make sure to visit our webpage for more details. From this position I wanted to remind all of our female fans that we offer free sightseeing tours around and inside of our bus in the company of a qualified guide, any time, any place!

Buy their new album on Bandcamp
Their FB page
Their Official website

Pictures by Marcin Pawłowski