Dear Lee Wollenschlaeger, how are you doing? Hey, man. Im doing very well thank you Please tell us something about Bloemfontein? Bloemfontein is a small city in the centre of South Africa. The population is around 200 000 people. It’s ok I guess. There are no stores to buy metal merch or cd’s which sucks. I have to order everything I want. It’s not a bad place. I just don’t see myself dying here though haha.. How is the Death Metal scène in your area? The scene in South Africa is growing again. In the 90’s it was really big. Then it died out completely with us local bands playing to 60 people if we were lucky. It seems to have grown a lot again. Some local gigs pull around 200 people so it’s getting better. Nowhere near the 90’s. But I suppose it’s the same everywhere compared to the 90’s Did you know Brett Hoffman, personally? the former vocalist of Malevolent Creation? He died much to early (July, 2018) I unfortunately never met Bret. He was supposed to do some backing vocals on our new album, but as we all know, he didn’t make it. It is such a loss to the death metal scene as a whole as he was one of a kind. No-one on this planet sounds like Bret. I have heard so many great stories of him. He sounded like the greatest guy. I really wish I could have met him How did you get involved to be the new vocalist of the band? I saw that Phil was putting a new line-up together and sent him some of my tunes. He loved my direction and sound straight away. He took me under his wing straight away. That day changed my life as being a life-long fan of the band. If someone told me 25 years ago that I would one day be in Malevolent Creation, I would ask “What are you smoking?”. How was it to record the new album; The 13th Beast? The recording process started a bit rocky due to an incompetent engineer. As soon as Josh (Bassist) took over engineering, everything went as smooth as it could ever be. How was it to work with the other new bandmembers and Phil? Was there a direct connection between you all? I would say definitely. We were all on the same page as to where this album must go and how it must sound. We all worked very well together. Phil handpicked each of us to make sure that it’s a well oiled machine from day one. Where you happy with the results of the recordings? Yes very much. After Dan Swano mixed the album we were all in a state of shock as to how brutal he made the final mix sound. How was the album received by press and fans? It has gone down very well. We hit the German charts for the first time in Malevolent Creation’s history. So that’s got to say something. The reviews have been more than we could have expected. We are very proud of this album and it shows in the reviews Who is responsible for the lay-out/album cover of the new album? His name is German Latorres. He is a tattoo artist friend of Phil. He designed Dead Man’s Path cover too. Any plans to Tour Europe after the release of the new album? Most definitely. We are working on a whole bunch of tours as we speak. We have a Latin America tour in August/September, then hopefully we will have a European tour some time after that. But nothing for Europe is confirmed yet When did you start with singing? I started vocalling at around the age of 13. Death Metal vocals came very natural to me. What are some of your favorite bands/artists? At the moment I am listening to a lot of old Cryptopsy, Wolfheart, Emperor. My all-time favorite bands have to be Malevolent Creation, Deicide, Death, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Internal Bleeding…. Too many to say… Please tell us something about; Beyond the Flesh Tattoo Shop? I have a private studio. Its small but its mine. I am the head tattoo artist and my wife is the permanent Make-Up artist and body Piercer. I have had the business for around 7 years. Its going really well Do you have a last word or something that’s in your heart you want to share with the readers? Thank you to everyone that spent their hard earned money on the new album. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did creating it. See you on the road soon!
