Doomed Confessionary: Rosh, Thomas, Matze & Phil (Coldspine)
Coldspine is a four-piece doom/sludge metal band from Trier, Germany. Founded in 2020, Coldspine consists of Rosh on vocals, Thomas on guitar, Matze on bass and Phil on drums. In their short band history, Coldspine already shared the stage with bands like Crowbar, Primitive Man, Full Of Hell or Integrity and gained some reputation.
Coldspine adapt various elements in their music. This differs from main influences in the doom/sludge territory to death metal and also some traditional approaches ala Celtic Frost. The most important element for their song writing approach has always been heavy, catchy slow riffs as the foundation of their music. The combination with powerful vocals and meaningful lyrics, hinting at topics like misery, death and dispair create the style of music Coldspine is playing.
Coldspine will release their debut album »Nullpunkt« on December 13th, 2024 in cooperation with Santa Diabla (Germany), Fucking Kill Records (Germany), 7Degrees Records (Germany) and Violence In The Veins (Spain).
Can you say a few words about your band?
Hey Bojan, thank your for having us, we’re happy to get featured in your magazine! Some informations about us: Coldspine is a four piece doom/sludge band from Trier (Germany) that was founded in 2020. We released our first EP »Desolation« in 2021 with the help of the labels Santa Diabla, Black Omega Recordings and Fatalism. Since then we were busy to write our first full length album – which is now just around the corner. Our debut full length »Nullpunkt« will be released on 13th of December in cooperation with the labels Violence In The Veins, Fucking Kill Records, 7 Degrees Records and Santa Diabla. Our main influences are the bands with the heaviest riffs 😉
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
In general, most of our songwriting process still happens in the rehearsal room. Therefore, the pandemic and all the restrictions during that time were really challenging for us. There were times, where you were not allowed to spend time with more than one person at the same time in the same room. So we had to split up our rehearsals and do separate songwriting sessions. Crazy times, but in the end we had some really good creative output.
What can you be most proud of so far?
That would be our upcoming album »Nullpunkt«, which contains 9 songs and a playtime of 46 minutes. We spent a lot of time for the creative process, tone chasing, recording and organising the whole release. We are really happy how everything turned out from the production to the involved labels and the artwork!
What was your biggest regret?
There is no big regret we have as band, maybe some smaller disappointments like cancelled shows because of illness, missed opportunities because of this or delays during the production process. But no big thing!
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
We were really happy and honoured to play as direct support for Crowbar in August 2023 in Cologne. That was the biggest venue we played to this point and sharing the stage with one of our favorite bands was a big moment. We also had the opportunity to play as a local support for bands like Primitive Man, Full Of Hell, Integrity or Nightmarer in our hometown Trier. Pretty special was also one of our first shows, which was at the Rotten Stones festival in Luxemburg, where the stage is located in a real cave. Definitely worth to check out and an absolutely unique place!
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
About the general devolopment of the metal scene probably the fact that releasing music in an album format becomes less and less relevant – which is sad in our opinion.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Let’s answer this question separetely for every band member.
Matze: Blood Incantation – Absulte Elsewhere, Sumac – The Healer and a lot of Iron Maiden.
Thomas: Coffins – Sinister Oath, Thou – Umbilical, Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean- Sisyphean Cruelty and a lot of Incantation.
Rosh: Sperling, 8 Kids and some grindcore lately.
Phil: Acid Bath, Celtic Frost – Monotheist, Earthbong – Proceed As One, Xibalba.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
We think it’s really important to treat every band and musician with equal respect, no matter if the band is famous or plays their first show. Two of us also play in grindcore bands, where mutual respect between bands is on a different level than in some subgenres of the metal scene. In the Grindcore scene members of headlining acts often stand right next to you in the crowd before their set.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Also a good opportunity to take seperate picks 😀
Matze: Ratt, Mötley Crüe.
Thomas: Wrestling and Fast Food.
Rosh: Comedy Central and Nougat Pillows.
Phil: Elton John, Lana Del Ray and Wolfgang Petry.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Trier?
Sure! The subculture in our city Trier is still suffering from the closing of our most important venue in 2019: The famous Exhaus, which hosted legendary concerts especially in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The Exhaus is a place where we all got socialized and connected with people while also having our first opportunities to play shows ourselves. Since the shutdown of the venue, different organisations try to close the gap that the Exhaus left while looking to find new venue-opportunities or host shows in different places. There are some promising developments here and there and motivated people that are trying to give heavy music a new home in Trier. We have made the experience, that a lot of cities have the same problems and local music scenes are losing more and more of their “homes”. It’s also disappointing to see how there’s always enough financial ressources to build fancy new public buildings but not enough commitment in politics for local subculture.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
For this year, we still have one more show in Germany left (we just played in Gießen on 15th November). The show on 14th December in Saarbrücken will be the record release show for our new album! For next year, the first plans are made, but nothing to officially announce yet!
What are your plans for the future as a band?
At first we hope that the promotion of our new album will go well so that we can gain some new fans and get in touch with more people. In the next months we also want to work on new material, always with the goal to sound as heavy as possible 😀 Furthermore, we definitely want to play more shows, especially festivals. In the doom/sludge scene, there are a lot of awesome festivals in Europe which we’d love to be a part of.
Next year, we are also starting a new concert/festival concept by the name “Sonic Excess Fest”. We’ll try to organise this festival once a year in our hometown Trier. “Sonic Excess Fest” will be focused on doom/sludge metal but will also have bands from other genres. First edition will be on 14th March 2025 at TUFA Trier with 5 bands!
Do you have any special plans for New Year’s Eve?
Probably watching wrestling while wearing corpse paint and eating junk food. You know, the same procedure as every year.
How can people best support your band?
Check out our new album »Nullpunkt« and the singles we already dropped. If you like our music, consider to order our merch, share our music, put us in playlists and come to our shows! We are thankful for every kind of support!
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Of course! Keep supporting underground music and bands, go to your local shows and support the promoters and venues!
Cheers!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well