Brainstorm
Surrounded by Rats

23.02.2025

German power metallers Brainstorm have always kept their output on a very high level, and their later-day releases are no exception. However, “Plague Of Rats”, their upcoming full-length and their first one on Reigning Phoenix Music, is going to be a nice surprise for many of their fans, because the band are bringing back a lot of the Indian flavor that was prominent in the music and lyrics on such classic records as “Ambiguity” (2000) and “Soul Temptation” (2003). We got in contact with guitarist Torsten Ihlenfeld to discuss these welcome changes and other interesting developments in the Brainstorm camp.

Your previous album “Wall of Skulls” (2021) went to number 12 in the German charts, which is the highest entry in the history of the band. Do you think this success was a game-changer for the band? Did it open any new opportunities for you?

Oh yes, for sure it did. “Wall Of Skulls” has been our most successful album to date, and we were very lucky with number 12. Unfortunately we had the pandemic which stopped everything a little bit and delayed everything for one year, but we’re here with “Plague Of Rats”, and we’re here with the aim to top that chart entry.

Was the pandemic the only reason why it took you 3.5 years to come up with “Plague Of Rats”? Or were there changes in the songwriting process, or other changes within the band?

It was at least one of the reasons for this 3.5-year wait for “Plague Of Rats”. But we played so many shows for “Wall Of Skulls” that it didn’t feel like 3.5 years. When we got back from the second summer festival run, it was like, “Oh, we should start writing new songs!” (everybody laughs) It didn’t feel that long, but it’s definitely time now for the new album.

Why did you decide to bring back Indian elements into your music and lyrics? You haven’t had so many of them since “Soul Temptation”, which came out more than 20 years ago…

Absolutely! But everything has its time. We always have a little bit of those Indian harmonies in the songs, almost on every album. But it’s not in focus that much as it was on “Soul Temptation”. This time we had the album cover at a very early stage of the songwriting process, and when Andy (Franck, singer) worked on the cover with Gyula (Havancsak), our cover designer, he presented me the first ideas for the cover. For me it was like a kickoff when I started to write music for “Plague Of Rats” – I looked at the cover, and 15 minutes later I had the guitar riff for “Garuda” already. The album cover was a huge inspiration for the songwriting. And Andy, of course - everybody knows his fascination for cultures, especially for India or ancient Egypt. We sat together and talked - which we do very often, especially during the songwriting – and we decided that it was definitely time to bring that in focus again, especially in combination with the album cover and the lyrical ideas that Andy had. I think it’s a great big picture with the album cover and at least two or three songs having those Indian harmonies and sounds in focus.

It’s a question we’ve always wondered - how do you record the Indian sounds and instruments? Are they live, or are they samples? And who handles them?

For those sounds, especially keyboards and piano and different instruments, we always work together with Miro Rodenberg, who’s also playing keyboards in Avantasia. He’s an amazing musician. Whenever we bring him something and say, “Can you imagine doing it this way with that kind of instruments?”, Miro is always the perfect choice for this. We’re lucky to have him, I think, almost since our first album as a guide in doing this kind of things.

Can you comment on the album title - what does “Plague Of Rats” mean?

It has two meanings, at least for us. Rats are an important thing almost in every culture, sometimes they bring bad omens, or they are just part of the culture, and especially when it comes to India and the album cover, we thought they fit perfectly. On the other hand, there’s a more recent meaning behind this: especially nowadays you often wake up and you think, “Well, I’m surrounded by rats!” (everybody laughs) It doesn’t matter if it’s your daily life or it’s what happens in the world… Yeah, we think it fits perfectly.

You’ve done two official videos in support of the new album so far, and they are quite different from each other – “The Shepherd Girl” has a lot of Indian footage, and “Garuda”, next to none. How do you work on the videos? Who comes up with the concepts? What is the creative process, so to say?

We put them together with Mirko Witzki, he’s a very well-known video producer. We tell him our ideas, and then we search together for locations and possible decorations. This time we looked for something that refers to India, of course, and we found a very old house in the very eastern part of Germany, with no heating and very strange rooms. They supply theaters with all that Indian and eastern culture stuff. It was very cool to stay there for a weekend, and we actually filmed both videos, for “Garuda” and for “The Shepherd Girl”, there. They have at least 12 different rooms that are completely furniture, with different themes – one is India, another one is desert, another one is… I don’t known… a medieval witch’s room… a haunted house room… It felt cool and it felt strange, I don’t know how to say it exactly… We even spent two nights there, we didn’t use a hotel, and it was very inspiring – walking there at night through all the rooms. I think the videos turned out great, so it was worth the journey.

What do you think of this recent trend of using artificial intelligence for making music videos? Have you considered using it for Brainstorm?

Not yet. We prefer to do it the traditional way, but of course, AI opens a lot of possibilities. It is dangerous on the one hand, and it can be a big chance for many things, especially for health, research and whatever, but for music and art in general, I think it’s very dangerous. People should find a way to make it at least a duty that everything that is AI-generated gets some kind of remarkable definition so that everybody sees: OK, this is AI, and this is real.

You have two guest singers on the album - Alex Krull and Elina Siirala from Leaves’ Eyes. How did they get involved in the recording?

That was definitely Andy’s idea. Andy and Alex have known each other for 30+ years. They live in the same area, they went to the same clubs when they were young, so this was a very short and easy way to go – picking up the phone and asking Alex if he wants to be part of a song on our new album. Luckily, he agreed. He’s one of the best growlers, in my opinion, and he did a great job on “From Hell”. And Elina – we all love Elina’s voice. I think that “Your Soul That Lingers In Me” is not her typical way of singing that she uses, for example, in Leaves’ Eyes, but it shows another side of how great Elina can use her voice. Every time I listen to the song, I get goosebumps when she starts singing. It’s such a big level up for both songs thanks to the guests that we have this time,

Could you say a few words about your new bass player Jim Ramses? How did you find him, and why did you choose this particular person?

After both Tony (Ieva) and Andreas (Ambruster), the former bass players, had to step back because of family and work, it was important for us to have somebody that is coming from not very far away. We want to rehearse regularly, and we want to have a guy in the band that we also know on a personal level, Although Jim is originally from Athens, Greece, he moved to Germany two years ago, and he lives exactly in our hometown. (laughs) That was by coincidence, but we gave him a call because we knew he was a great bass player, and we knew that he wasn’t in a band at that time. We met in the rehearsal room, did some auditions and some rehearsals - he’s a talented bass player and a cool guy, that’s why he’s in the band. We’re lucky to have him.

The Metal-Archives.com website mentions Jim’s prior involvement in Greek band On Thorns I Lay, but he parted ways with that band back in 1996, and he wasn’t mentioned in any later bands or projects. When you announced his addition, we checked his background and we were thinking, “Hmm, where did he spent nearly 30 years?”

(laughs) I know he played in different bands, even as a session bass player, he played several tours. For sure he had something to do in Athens to earn his living, he’s a talented guy, and he’s doing recordings for some other bands.

Four members of the band have been together for more than 25 years, and only bass players change from time to time. How do you manage to stay together for so long? Do you ever disagree or fight?

Very often! We spend very much time in discussion! Especially Andy and me, we have creative discussions for hour, when we are working on songs. We can discuss for hours, even if it’s just one chord progression that we want to have different than it already is. We always say that we still love and respect each other even though we know each other so well. I think that’s one of the main reasons why we’ve been together for that long. If doesn’t matter if you have discussions or if you have good times, we respect each other as persons and musicians. As to bassists, I think the bass part in Brainstorm is our kind of Spinal Tap moment. (everybody laughs)

At least no one is injured in a bizarre gardening accident so far…

Yes, luckily!

Could you say a few words about the bonus track on the new album? You don’t do cover songs that often, so why did you choose a Rick Springfield song this time?

It’s because we all love that song! We cannot say it too loud, but we’re all children of the 80s, we’re all 50+, and we love all that 80s movie soundtracks. Especially for Andy, “Celebrated Youth” was a song that inspired him very much when he was younger. So we decided to give it a try, and as you said, we don’t do that very often, but I think it turned out great. You hear that it’s “Celebrated Youth”, but you also hear that it’s Brainstorm.

Your three previous albums had limited editions with bonus DVDs or Blu-rays. What is going to be on the limited edition of “Plague of Rats”? We heard that there is going to be an earbook edition but have no idea what is on it.

The earbook is beautiful. It has 36 pages with amazing additional artwork, and it has a bonus DVD, which is a kind of “making-of” on “Plague Of Rats”. It includes behind-the-scenes footage from video shoots, photo sessions, rehearsals, so it’s very worthwhile – it’s fun to look at, and you get a lot of behind-the-scenes information. And it’s an actual book, so you get 36 pages with a feature on every musician as a full page, all the lyrics, all the information you usually have in a CD booklet, some liner notes, and a lot of additional artwork done by our designer Gyula. It’s definitely worth picking up.

On the limited edition of “Wall Of Skulls”, there was a Blu-ray with a lockdown livestream. Could you share your memories about that livestream? How did you like filming it?

It was very strange. The feeling was very strange, but we were lucky to get an offer and have the chance to do that. It was a big hall where usually all the big tours do their pre-productions. It had eight cameras and a huge stage with a light and sound setup. We went there in the morning, everybody had to do the tests because of the pandemic, we prepared everything, and then we went on stage – and you have nobody in the front screaming or applauding. That was very strange, but also very interesting, because you had to be almost more concentrated than at a usual show. It was only you in the hall, but you also had to bear in mind the people who would be watching this at a later point when the bonus DVD would come out - you had to present them an enjoyable show like it was a real live show, just without the people. Many musicians had to do strange things during the pandemic because nobody was allowed to play live. We were lucky to be part of a big streaming show with amazing lights and sound, so that was cool.

Overall, how did the band survive the corona times? Was it very challenging, or did you find anything positive in it?

It was very strange. Of course, nobody was in that situation before. It’s like, you’re always in your routine – doing an album, doing a tour, doing festivals, and then all over again, starting the songwriting for the next album. But this time the album came out in September 2021, and three months later nobody was allowed to do anything. Of course, you’re sitting at home, and you start thinking what to do and how long it will last. On the one hand, it was cool to have more time. On the other hand, everything was so uncertain. “When will we be able to play live again?” “When will we be able to do the tour that we needed to postpone in the fall of 2021 because no shows were allowed?” “How would things develop?” That was a very strange situation for all of the musicians, I would say. It was like, “How do I feed my family without having any shows?” Luckily, after 1.5 we were able to go on, even though we postponed the tour on which we joined forces with Rage for more than a year, we could only do it in October and November 2022. It was very hard, and it’s still very strange when you go back in time and think about that.

Usually when bands switch to a different record label, everybody’s asking, “Why have you parted ways with your previous record company?” But this time we have to ask this question in a slightly different way: why are all bands parting ways with AFM Records? What’s happening with the label?

(laughs) Many things have been changing at AFM and the company behind AFM. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, you need to talk and find solutions. We had 15 great years with AFM, we have known people working there for very long. We asked for setting up a call, and we talked about the possibilities we had and how the changes would affect especially our new release, because the new release would be happening while all these changes would be happening. We had a good conversation, and we decided to part ways, because in our opinion, it is better to start with a new record company than to see how things would eventually happen with AFM. But there are no bad feelings, we reached a good agreement, and we are lucky to be on Reigning Phoenix. We have all known the people there for a very long time, at least some of the AFM people switched over to Reigning Phoenix, so it’s like a new name and new label, but many familiar faces working there. It’s metal people working at a metal label doing good work for a metal band. This sounds good, I think.

Do you happen to know whether AFM will continue, or are they about to close doors?

No-no, they will definitely continue in some form, but the big company behind it (Believe Digital - ed.) has to decide in what form it will be. There are a few labels that are under that banner – Massacre, Drakkar, AFM and Nuclear Blast. We’ll see what happens in the future. I think it will concentrate on one or two of the brands, and the others will disappear, but I don’t know.  

You have your own label, El Puerto Records. Why aren’t Brainstorm on El Puerto?

We decided to keep that different. Not to involve too much business in making music with your bandmates. This often causes conflicts. So it was very clear when I started the label back in 2014 that we would definitely keep it separate.

What do you think about the situation in the music industry in the post-pandemic times? Overall, is it fun to be in a metal band like Brainstorm, or is it more like a struggle these days?

It’s a little bit of both sides. It’s still so much fun, and we still love it so much to make music and to be able to go on tour. But it’s definitely hard for a band to make a living from only making music. Because of all the streaming musicians don’t get that much, especially rock musicians, they don’t have as many streams as big pop artists do. We’re lucky that we still have a good and very loyal following that allows us to continue doing that. Not many bands can afford making music, which is already a strange sentence in itself. (laughs) A musician has to afford making music for making a living out of doing this.

About ten years ago, you had the children of the band members involved in the recording of the song “We Are” on the “Scary Creatures” album. Has any of them done anything else musically since then?

I think nearly all of our children do something music-wise. Not everybody is in bands, but Andy’s oldest son has a band of his own, Escape From Wonderland, where he’s doing growls, a very cool band. Our children play guitar or piano, but they are doing it on their own. The son of Milan (Loncaric, second guiarist) is a well-known producer, but in the pop industry.  

On the “Midnight Ghost” album (2018) you had a song called “Jeanne Boulet” about a famous French werewolf. How did you react when Powerwolf did a song about the same events (“The Beast of Gevaudan”)?

(laughs) Nobody has an exclusive right to write about a historical event or a historical creature. It definitely fits Powerwolf very well. Our approach was more… once again, Andy is very much interested in the historical stuff, and he was in France a few months before we wrote “Jeanne Boulet”. That was for sure a different approach. But I think both songs are great.

We’ve looked at your touring schedule in the post-pandemic years and at your future plans, and we see that you are doing shows all over Europe. Have you considered expanding to other markets? South America seems to be an emerging market for metal these days, and Turkey is another place where many bands play…

Yes, definitely! We are ready for whoever gives us a call. At least we’ve been to North America and Mexico, but it has to make some sense going over there so that we do not lose tons of money. Our main market is Germany and Europe, but we are always ready if somebody invites us to do a show overseas in the Middle East or wherever.

How do you see the way forward for Brainstorm? Are there any so called mountain tops that you would still like to climb with the band?

Oh yes, for sure. As you said, there are so many countries where we haven’t played yet, which we would love to play. There are even many festivals that we haven’t visited yet. Musically-wise every new album is kind of new baby for us, and as long as we still love writing and making music so much, there is not a single thought about how we will go on. We will go on as long as it is that much fun and as long as we love it that much. We will go on and on and on. (laughs)

Brainstorm on the Internet: https://www.brainstorm-web.net/

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Photos by Alex Kuehr (courtesy of Soyuz Muisc)
February 17, 2025
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