Teufelnacht stands with one foot in the ashes of punk and the other deep in the shadows of Black Metal. Their music is blunt, ferocious, and devoid of reverence for rules or expectations. Not escapism, but confrontation — with power, with emptiness, with everything that festers. We spoke with Teufelnacht about anger, autonomy, and why uncompromising intent remains necessary.
You’ve just released your latest record Folterplanet. How have the reactions been so far?
Better than expected. But compared to other bands in our surroundings, we pretty much lurk in the shadows. We don’t really do “commercial work” except music videos, to entertain ourselves. So every new listener is always a surprise!
Your music is a mix of Punk and Black Metal. How important are these two genres to you, and where do you feel they overlap?
I personally grew up with both genres at once. When I started listening to Black Metal, there was no Metal-scene at all in the small town, I lived in. But the weird Hardcore Punk kids saw similarities (I already listened to stuff like GG Allin, Negative Approach, local Punk) and took me under their wing, if you will. Bringing the weird kid with the Dissection Backpatch to Hardcore Punk Shows etc. Around that time Darkthrone released their “The cult is alive” record and everything made so much sense to me…
The Black Metal I grew up with, came from Punk. Darkthrone even returned to punk somehow. This is my DNA, I couldn’t change it, if I wanted to. Graf Leichenstein also grew up with Black Metal, but ended up in a Hardcore Band after his first solo projects. So it’s nothing we hopped onto, because it was a trend or anything. It is where we come from.
It seems that humor plays a role in your music. Is that true, or are we completely off? And do you think there should be more humor in Black Metal?
I wouldn’t say, we are homurous on purpose. To quote Martin Eric Ain of the Mighty Celtic Frost, I think we have a “healthy ironic distance” to the genre. Similar more to approaches of Type O Negative (“Black No. 1” dealing with clichés of the Goth Scene, like our “Black Metal ist tot” deals with clichés of the Black Metal scene), maybe. Also I don’t view Teufelnacht as a Black Metal Band. Like I discribed, we grew up with the music, but without any Black Metal scene really. And we don’t feel connected to any Black Metal scene also.
We call our music “Teufelrock” – “Devilrock”, not because we need a fancy Gimmick, but because we feel the Black Metal term gets used way to often these days. “Black Metal ist tot” was a reaction to people “putting” us in whatever Black Metal scene. And our songs can lean more towards Black Metal, but also Punk and especially Goth. So I don’t think it would “help” Black Metal purists to label our music as such and I don’t think it would help us either so… We just exist in this Netherrealm I guess. People don’t really know what we are. We are the weird bystanders and that is very much okay by today’s scene standards I guess.
We use sarcastic remarks to break the picture of an “easy Black Metal Band”, if you know what I mean… It’s easy to paint a picture with Blastbeats and Horrorthemes and therefore have a clear format, for everybody to understand. But I always thought, bands that were able to break with certain formats expected from them, but still stay authentic, are the really interesting ones. We want to keep it creative and therefore unpredictable. Not be edgy, but to have a certain freedom in what we do. This seems especially hard for the German scene, that liked our first, more one dimensional demo. And most of the people, that were interested in us back then, were irritated by the offside lyrics we put on the first record (mostly decadent themes, therefore covering Gary Glitter, reflecting on the life of Helmut Berger, etc.). If people see that as being humorous, so be it. But alot of people think, we wanted to somehow make fun of Black Metal, which is bullshit. It’s our first love and everything we do runs through this filter.
Your artwork is very distinctive with every release. Is this a form of self-expression, and also a kick against the endless black-and-white photocopy aesthetics?
Thank you! I think our artwork comes together rather naturally. Mostly I think of stuff over the time of the recording process, that could fit. And I think our Album covers pretty much presented, what the Teufelnacht ingredients were from the beginning: Offside Art and films, weird underground culture filtered through a blasphemic view and occult Ideas. From the first, to the latest record I feel we were able the channel these ingredients fittingly. On the second record especially due to the help of Jan Buckard of Valborg. Who was able to make our fotography look very much like a 70s horror/exploitation film poster.
The name Teufelnacht immediately evokes darkness and confrontation. What does the name mean to you, and does it still reflect who you are today?
We wanted a simple but effective name and as far as I remember, we were drunk around 3 in the morning in a bar, when we came up with the name so… It was more fate than plan I guess haha. We kept it, cause it fits. Teufelnacht could be anything from the outside. One dimensional Black Metal, sloppy Punk or cheesy Goth… The name would fit to all genres I think. Lucky enough, we combine all these genres.
How do you view nostalgia within extreme music? Is looking back at the past a source of strength, or more a form of laziness?
We wouldn’t make music without nostalgia. Most of what we do comes from nostalgic feelings, especially to Black Metal. But due to a certain respect for the genres history, we don’t just want to copy a certain style. I think, what we “learned” from the Black Metal, we grew up with is, that you have to have your individual approach if it really means something to you. And it doesn’t matter, how it turns out, as long, as you stay authentic. I think, that is why so many Black Metal bands shifted genre walls. Because it was more about an authentic expression, rather than a strict formula.
What are the lyrics on Folterplanet about thematically? Personal anger, social critique, or pure fiction?
Folterplanet was the most spontaneous release, we did so far. We just continued writing after our second record “Finstere Teufelrock Rituale”, because the ideas kept coming. The loose plan was an EP, because of the movie “Assignment Terror”, which screenplay was build around a culminating fight between the 4 horror/fantastic archetypes Dracula, the Mummy, the Werewolf and Frankenstein and his Monster. Like always taking inspiration in media, but putting it through a spiritual filter, I ended up with ideas of the process church of the final judgment. Which Laveyan Satanist Ideas could be viewed critical, but it also had a culmination of archetypes.
Basically categorizing their members through different tests in the religious archetypes Lucifer, Jehovah, Satan, Christ. I think this parable works best in Frankenstein. Seeing the process as a Frankenstein-Religion, put together with different parts. The song itself not dealing with Frankenstein or his monster, but with a spiritual journey through the woods and valleys of consciousness.
How important is provocation to you: a goal in itself, or simply a natural result of being honest?
The later. I would have absolutely no problem, just being happy with everyday antichristian lyrics and corpsepaint. Getting applause from a typical Black Metal crowd, that feels “their genre” represented, as they understand it. Maybe that would be nice, easy and satisfying? But, we can’t really do that I guess. We grew up with Black Metal, that was off-putting, irritating, weird, unpredictable and I think we internalized these approaches so much, that we have to punch a hole into our concepts from time to time.
Like on Folterplanet for example, that was basically a concept EP, but “Black Metal raus aus Deutschland” just came about in the last minute and felt fitting, although having nothing to do with the concept of the other songs. Then again, this might be something like our concept. Just put something in there, that irritates. People might feel, this devalues our other approaches or music, I feel it elevates them like sugar in Tomato Sauce or salt in a Cake.
How do you experience the German Punk and Black Metal scenes at the moment? Do they exist separately, or is there more crossover happening?
Hmm I really don’t know. It all seems very desoriented , especially with younger bands in both genres. Thankfully though, we lately got involved with older Black Metal Bands and musicians, that were already around in the 90s. It feels way more relaxed and creative. Funny enough most of these people also have a Punk Bankround somehow most of the time, which almost makes it kind of crossover archetypically, if that makes any sense haha.
How important is DIY to you today, now that everything is digital and more accessible than ever?
Teufelnacht had to be DIY from the beginning. No one wanted to release our first record. People didn’t really know, what to do with us at all. So we released it ourselves, but I was working at a record store around that time, that also carried a 100 pieces. What we do is still more like a family hobby though. Holger from Crawling Chaos Records and Alex from Bleeding Heart Nihilist are more friends, that carry our vision and help out, than labels. We don’t work together with booking agency’s or glossy magazines. Underground metal is not a business model for us, but freedom of expression. With what we do, we have no choice, but to put our designs and artworks together by ourselves.
What are your plans after Folterplanet? Will you push this sound even further, or deliberately sabotage it?
Great question! I think we will just do both, as always!
Finally: what should we never expect from Teufelnacht?
A lengthy tour! Seriously how do bands do that?! I don’t feel, I have given the audience my all, as long as my voice is not completely gone. I could never do that for more than 1 or 2 dates after another, let alone 1 or 2 weeks on tour… Can’t even stand myself everyday, spending this much time with bandmembers is insane to me.
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