💿 Hi, it’s a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal MATTHIAS WEINER of POWERGAME! Welcome!!

Thank you very much, my pleasure! It’s an honor to ask your questions. My name is Matty, I’m the singer and one of the guitar players of POWERGAME.

💿 Can you tell us somethin’about your early days of your career? When is this all begun? Which bands have influenced you?

The band was founded in 2012. I play in a Thrash-band called Lost World Order for 24 years now, and I wanted to do something different in addition. I love classic Heavy Metal, and I always wanted to play music in the style of the NWOBHM, with all the raw vibes, great melodies and twin guitars.

So I started the band, wrote some songs, and after a 3-track-demo-CD called “Raw Heavy Metal” we recorded our first full-length “Beast On The Attack” in 2015.

I still like the album, but it sounds more raw than our newest effort, and the songs don’t really come to the point in my opinion.

💿 Your new full-length “MASQUERADE” is hot’n’ready and it will be available next January. Can you tell us about its composition process? We have the pleasure to listening to it in preview and we’re very impressed!

Thank you very much, I’m glad you like it. Actually, in 2016 the whole band broke up. We’ve had several line-up-changes, and I wasn’t happy with the allover-situation.

So I decided to write a new album myself and reform the band at the same time.

That means except for two or three songs that had already been finished I wrote everything alone in my mancave. The songs were recorded by two different drummers, KG and Jörg, and by now we already have a new drummer called Stefan.

We got some serious Spinal Tap going on here, hahaha.

💿 The real “news” in music industry is the return of vinyl; What’s your feeling about this classic format and the current music “business”?

The music business is not the same as it used to be, that’s for sure. But that’s just because the world has changed in many ways with the internet, so it is easy to download music everywhere. Great parts of the business haven’t really recognized the trends before it was too late.

The possibilities of e-marketing are endless, but in the music business, everything is still a little vintage. For the underground this is not that important, but it is very hard to survive as a label nowadays, no matter if independent or major. Well, vinyl is a passion of mine since 1991 when I started listening to Metal and collecting music. I was lucky enough to start collecting in the 90ies , when literally everybody wanted to get rid of used vinyls, so I managed to gather main parts of my classic collection for little money.

I still collect vinyl, but the prices have been raised in a manner that can be called perverted.

In my opinion, vinyl is not a new trend, it has never been away.

I think vinyl will last longer than CDs at the end of the day. I’m happy to announce that “Masquerade” will be released on vinyl via Fucking Kill! Records, a small independent label. Only 200 pieces will be made, one half in black and the other half in red vinyl. And they will be available at a fair price.

💿 “MASQUERADE” will be out via IRON SHIELD RECORDS. Can you tell us somethin ‘ about the birth of relationships with them?

That was really a classic thing. We put a promo-CD in an envelope and sent it out.

They got in touch with us because they liked what they had heard. The rest is history, haha.

💿 What do you think about the renewed interest for NWOBHM and Traditional HM? Love for vintage or a new golden era?

A little bit of both I’d suppose. Of course there are many older Metalheads (like myself) who still love the classic style, but there are lots of new fans and a whole new generation.

That’s a great thing, and it’s a natural thing. I can never imagine having grown up without the possibility to visit concerts of Motörhead, Dio and many more. But I also never had the opportunity to see Rainbow or Queen.

So, the new generation will see Skull Fist instead of Iron Maiden, Sulphur Aeon instead of Morbid Angel and Sacral Rage instead of Nevermore on stage.

That means the Metal scene is alive and well, but it slowly returns to the underground.

I think that’s a good development although it is very sad that the classic bands have already gone or will leave in the next years .

💿 Can you tell us somethin’about your next live projects?

Yes, there are already 5 gigs confirmed, all of them in Germany and 2 of them in our hometown Bielefeld:

08.12.18: Bielefeld, with Metalmind and Torian 15.12.18: Villingen-Schwenning, with Excruciation, Blackslash, Bitterness, Matterhorn and Kriegszittern 18.01.19: Bielefeld with Space Chaser and Charger (our Release-party) 03.05.19: Osnabrück 25.05.19: Wuppertal

💿 We love the cover of your new album. Can you tell us somerhin’about?

Great to hear that! The cover shows our mascot “El Demonio Negro” a Mexican wrestler.

He was already on the “Beast On The Attack”-Cover and will appear in the future as well.

I always wanted to have an own version of Eddie, Vic Rattlehead or the Snaggletooth, and El Demonio Negro is the result. The cover was drawn by Timon Kokott, a great artist who has done lots of great artworks. The cover will be available on T-shirts.s

💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal!

I have to thank you for the interview! It was a pleasure to answer on your questions.

Hope you all like our record, please get in touch for gigs or feedback, everybody is welcome.

You want it, you need it – POWERGAME!

#POWERGAME