Darkness
Undetermined Destiny

29.09.2025

Back in the days when I first got into thrash metal, 30-something years ago, Germany’s Darkness were considered “long gone”. Having released three cult albums in the late 80s, the band disappeared without a trace with the overall decline in the interest in the genre, and chances of its resurgence were slim, to say the least. However, life moves in mysterious ways, and with the dawn of the new millennium Darkness resurfaced, first as Eure Erben, spending almost a decade trying to break through with German lyrics, and then returning to its original name about 10 years ago. Nowadays Darkness are stronger than ever, with three solid new-era albums under their belts, but for those like me, who missed their reckless and legendary first phase, they are now releasing a collection of remakes called “Death Squad Chronicles”, with some old stuff, some new stuff, and some stuff that is in between, all packed in a contemporary sound, but keeping the early aggression. Our webzine had not interviewed the band since their Eure Erben days, so we figured it was high time to get in contact with guitarist Arnd Klink again and ask him about everything that’s been going on in the Darkness camp.

First of all, congratulations on the 40th anniversary of Darkness! It’s a really fantastic anniversary, a milestone, I would say…

Thank you very much!

However, if you look at Metal-Archives.com, they say that the band was formed in 1984, so if this is correct, Darkness is already 41 years old. What do you regard as the starting point of the band? When is the right day or month to celebrate the band’s birthday?

The right date of birth would be December 1, 1984. This is what Lacky (drums) would tell you, that’s a famous legend he’s always telling everybody - he was at a concert of Destruction and Kreator, which were called Tormentor at that time, and he told Uwe (Christoffers, aka Damager, aka Ahathoor), a guy he knew, our first guitar player who died a year ago or something, “Hey, let’s make a band, let’s call it blah-blah-blah”, and it became Darkness. So the actual birthday is December 1, 1984, but everything that made Darkness a serious band happened after that. So this year is not that bad to celebrate. 

Who came up with the idea to re-record old songs for the anniversary? How did you put the tracklist together?

The idea was born in the band. We said, “Let’s give something back to the people, the fans”. I mean, 40 years is a long long time, there are bands that don’t even last one year, and we made it 40 years. That’s an honor to us, we appreciate it, and we’re really thankful to the people. So we said, “Let’s give something back to them, let’s recall some of the old times”. Then everybody suggested some songs, and we agreed on the special list. Every song that was taken has a certain reason why it is recorded, and why it is put on that album.  

Among the songs of “Death Squad Chronicles”, there is a very early song called “Victims”, which comes from the very first demo (“The Evil Curse”, 1985), but never appeared on full-length albums before. Why did you decide to resurrect it?

That’s the reason! We decided that we would record songs from the time before 2015, when Lee (vocals) joined the band, so we recorded only the songs by the so-called “old Darkness”, and the demo songs are “old Darkness”. “Victims” is one of the first songs I personally heard from Darkness. I think it was Lacky who said, “Let’s take ‘Victims’, it’s a song that is getting into your ears”, that was the idea. We decided that we would pick songs from each album and some demo material, so we chose “Victims”.

What about the Eure Erben song “Terror For Terror”? You were asked about re-recording something by Eure Erben in an earlier interview, and back then you said that some of your fellow bandmembers are against it. What made them change their minds?

Lacky and me were the guys who played in Eure Erben. We said, “This is somehow a part of Darkness’ history too”. I personally think this album we recorded with Eure Erben, “Terror 2.0”, was a good album, we really like the song “Terror For Terror”, and it fits with the mind of Darkness’ songs. That’s why we suggested playing it. We talked about it, and we said, “OK, let’s just play it. If it works, perfect; if it doesn’t work, we’ll just forget it”. And it worked perfectly, so the other guys said, “OK, let’s record it”. 

I’m glad that you did it, because it’s a cool song but the original album is not that familiar to many thrash metal fans…

To be honest, it was a mistake back then to try to establish a new band with German lyrics. The thrash metal scene is somehow a very conservative scene. They like English lyrics, they are familiar with English lyrics, and this attempt to do it with German lyrics seems nowadays not a good idea. But I think the songs are good songs, and “Terror For Terror” is one of my favorites from that album, so I’m glad we decided to record it.

And what about the new songs? Are they outtakes that you never used before, or are they totally new?

They are totally new. If you listen to the lyrics or read the lyrics, they are not about social criticism or politics or whatever we do usually, they are about the past times. “Proud Pariah” is a kind of anthem for the people who stay metal for years and years and keep the spirit. We decided that we would like to record new songs in a new shape but with the old spirit. That’s the reason why we put them on this album. It’s not a harbinger of what is coming, it’s just we tried to sound modern, but keep the old spirit.

What about the cover artwork? It is a very clear “remake”, so to say, of the original “Death Squad” cover, but the band are now humans, not zombies. Is there any deeper meaning that you wanted this cover to convey?

No. “Death Squad” was our debut, and as far as I see, we are known for “Death Squad”, and many many thrashers know it. The idea was just to put the new members of the band into this old painting. That’s it, there’s no special meaning behind it.

Could you tell me about the bonus-CD on the limited edition? How did you get all these singers (from Kreator, Assassin, Warrant, Nifelheim, etc.) to sing Darkness songs? And who decided what singer should do which song?

(laughs) They decided themselves. We gave them the list and said, “What would you like to do?...” (pause) I have to start from the beginning. As you know, the metal scene is big, there are many bands, but it is somehow a family.  Bands know each other, we know singers and guitar players, everybody knows everyone, has their telephone numbers or whatever. So we asked some guys if they would like to sing Darkness songs. Some said yes, some didn’t reply or whatever, and then we said, “Just tell us what you would like to sing. We can do this and this and this song, and you just choose one”. They all chose the songs they wanted to sing.

In the new video for the “Death Squad 2025” we can see some of the ex-members of Darkness – Bruno (bass 1986-1987), Timo (bass 1988-1991), and Pierre (guitar 1986-1989). Does it mean that you are still in contact with them? What do they do nowadays?

Bruno is not playing music anymore, he’s working in some medical area, I’m not really sure. Pierre is still playing in a band, he’s doing cover music, and he’s a very good guitar player and doing very good cover music. They’re playing at parties, concerts and whatever. We still are in contact, we meet them from time to time. Other members like Meik (guitar 2013-2024), Speesy (bass 2013-2014) or Bony (guitar 1991, 2013-2014) are all in contact. They are in their bands too.

The one former member I don’t see in the video is Emma (bass 1989, 2004-2012)…

You don’t see Emma, you don’t see Hobie (guitar 2008-2012) - that’s because we lost contact. Emma, Hobie and me were playing in one of my projects…

Sankt Velten?

Yes. Three years ago we had a little struggle, we argued, and that’s why we lost contact - unfortunately, I have to say. 

What can you say about your upcoming anniversary show in Essen in the end of September? Is there anything special that you are preparing for the audience? Will there be any surprises or special guests?

Of course! We are planning some surprises, and we are going to play a lot of the stuff that we re-recorded. Songs like “Predetermined Destiny” or “Defenders Of Justice” are the songs we haven’t played live for years, and we are going to play some of them. We have a very colorful, a very mixed set of songs that we don’t usually play, and we have some surprises, but they’re not going to be real surprises if I tell you what happens. (laughs) 

Darkness have a long discography, but I have only found one official live album (“Bocholt Live Squad”) in it, and it was recorded as far back as 1987. Have you considered recording a live album with the current band, or maybe a live DVD?

We were talking about this; it’s an idea, but I cannot say for sure that we will do it. I think that’s something that should happen, because recording is one thing, it’s nice, but I think - I say it because I’m on stage and I can’t judge myself - I think live we are very different to the recordings. I think live it’s like a tank rolling over you, while recording is very with-your-head, concentrated and stuff. There’s one live track on “Over And Out”, an EP we released five years ago. It’s a live recording from Japan where people devastated the hall, and that’s a good example of how we sound live. 

More about re-recordings – on “Over And Out” you did a very cool acoustic version of “Fated Pictures”. Have you considered doing more acoustic songs?

Ah, that’s difficult. “Faded Pictures” is a song that is very melodic. If you have a look at the chords, it is as if it’s written to be played on the acoustic guitar. Even though it’s very brutal and fast, it’s full of harmonies. This song was perfect for recording it unplugged. I really had to convince Lee - I don’t want to talk bad about Lee, he’s a really nice guy, but he said, “No way, I’m not doing unplugged versions”. I had to convince him, I talked my tongue bleeding, and then he said, “OK, let’s just give it a try”. We did it, and I think he did it very well. You can’t play that live at a thrash concert, but I think it’s a very good song which brings the sadness of the lyrics to you when you listen to it. That’s the reason why we decided to record “Faded Pictures”. But I can’t imagine playing another song in an unplugged version.   

Apart from Darkness, you play in a band called Sankt Velten, which you have already mentioned before. This band is very different from Darkness in terms of style. Can you say a few words about how this band came together?

First of all, when I began, and I have to say “I began”, because I did it on my own… I have a lot of ideas in addition to thrash metal, and it doesn’t make sense if you play in a thrash metal band and you say, “I do a side project, and it’s again thrash metal”. It’s stupid. You can just stay in your thrash metal band. I had the idea for Sankt Velten, and “Sankt Velten” is a very very old German word for “devil”. The idea behind the lyrics is seeing the world, talking about the world and all the shit that happens in the world from the perspective of the devil. That’s one thing, and the other thing is that I wanted to play more, let’s, “normal” heavy metal with a bit of thrash in it, more melodic stuff. The first album, “The Discreet Charm Of Evil” (2019), was recorded on my own except for the drums and the backing vocals, which were sung by a good friend of mine. Then I decided to play live, but it is very difficult to find people for it. The drummer, Eldar “Piper” Ibrahimovic, is still playing in Sankt Velten, we’re still together, but it was difficult to find another guitar player and a bass player. The bad thing is that the album was released right before COVID started - it was released in November 2019, and three months later, during the most important period for concerts, for promotion, we headed straight into COVID, so we were off, and that’s why the album is not very well-known, that’s why it did not get the success that I would like it to get. Then I had to find new people for it, and I have found a guy who is playing bass, Thomas Becker, he was the bass player on the second Darkness album, “Defenders Of Justice” (1988). Piper is still playing drums, and we’re trying to do some new songs, but it was a bit difficult to find the guys to play with.

As far as I understand, there’s going to be another Sankt Velten album… 

Yeah, we’re working on this. I can’t tell you when or on what label it will be released, but we’re working on this, and the plan is to have an EP by the end of this year. Some songs are already recorded.

You are singing in Sankt Velten, and you sang in Eure Erben. No disrespect to Lee, I think he is a great fit for Darkness, but when you came back as Darkness, why did you decide to get a standalone frontman and not continue singing yourself? 

I have to be honest - that was the decision that was not made by me. Nothing against Lee - as you said, he’s a good frontman, a good shouter, a nice guy, we’re friends, and everything is perfect. But at that time there was something like a struggle between bandmembers. Some said, “We need a new singer, we need to have the five-people line-up: a frontman, two axe players and everything”, and I said, “It’s not necessary”. It was a situation where we didn’t know how to go on, what to do, and eventually we decided to get Lee into the band just to give it a try. At it worked - as you see, it worked. 

Coming back to Darkness – the credits for your latest albums such as “Blood On Canvas” (2024) do not have detailed information on songwriters, I mean, who wrote which song. Can you say a few words about the songwriting process in the band these days? 

On “Blood On Canvas” most of the songs were written by me. I don’t want to show off, please don’t get me wrong, but I can say that I’m doing most of the stuff, then I come up with demos, and then we make them Darkness. I program the drums so that Lacky knows this is fast, this is triples, this is groovy, and then we go to the rehearsal room to make the stuff Darkness together. Sometimes things get changed, it’s not that what I write is taken one to one, often we change things, we develop things, but especially on “Blood On Canvas” most of the things were originated by me.

Would you agree that a lot of the lyrics that Darkness and Eure Erben wrote many decades ago are still relevant these days? To me a lot of the stuff on “Death Squad Chronicles” could have been written a year ago or something…

Yes, absolutely. The world is getting worse, it’s not getting better. We all think human beings are intelligent, they should develop, they should come together, they should leave behind all these things like -isms or this religious shit and be peaceful, be free. But the situation is that the world is getting divided more and more. The lyrics we wrote back in the 80s could be taken one-to-one to the present time, and the other way round. The good thing is that we are never running out of ideas (laughs), out of inspiration, but I’d really appreciate if one day I’m inspired to write fucking love songs because things have gotten better in this world. Anyway, you’re right, sometimes Lee says at concerts, “This song was written in the 80s, but it’s like it’s written nowadays, because shit stays the same”. 

On a lighter note - you obviously know German metal band Brainstorm. There is a band from Latvia which is also called Brainstorm, and that band plays pop rock. There was once a situation when organizers of a festival confused the two bands, and booked the wrong Brainstorm for a metal festival. Just out of curiosity – has your band ever been confused with British hard rockers The Darkness?

(laughs) Yes, of course, very very often. Sometimes we see comments on Youtube, where people write, “I expected this to be The Darkness. I didn’t know about this noise I see here”. (everybody laughs) But unfortunately bookers don’t confuse us. I wish they would mistake us for The Darkness and pay a bigger fee! (laughs) But there is confusion sometimes, yes.

Speaking about the status of the band – I get an impression that Darkness nowadays are a more popular and established band than you were in the 80s. Would you agree with me, and if yes, why do you think it happens?

Back in the 80s we were very rude guys. We were angry, and we didn’t give a shit about business purposes and things related to business. Unfortunately 95 percent of making music is taking care of business - you need promotion, you need bookers, you need whatever beside music, which is more important. Nowadays if you want to be promoted on the internet, you need guys who know TikTok, who know Facebook, who know Youtube and all the other shit, you need guys who promote you through magazines and whatever. Back in the 80s we didn’t give a shit about anything, we just wanted to play, we just wanted to party. Nowadays we have developed, we know it’s important to give interviews, it’s important to talk to bookers, it’s important to play concerts, it’s important to be nice to people, not angry. I think that’s the biggest difference. To be honest, we made many mistakes. I compare Darkness very often to the other bands from our area, which are Kreator and Sodom, who made it, without doubt. We started almost at the same time, and until today we are friends, we are colleagues. Sometimes I compare what they did and how they developed over the years with what we did, and I realize that we made a lot of mistakes in business. I think that’s the reason why we didn’t start as strong as they did, and why we didn’t get this big success. Nowadays we are taking more care about these things.

You and Lacky have played together for nearly 40 years. Not many musicians last that long, and even marriages don’t always last that long. Do you agree on everything between the two of you, or do you sometimes quarrel? 

(laughs) We often quarrel. Our producer Corny Rambadt often says, “Oh, the old couple is coming!” When we are together, Lacky and me, we are like a couple. We love each other, and we hate each other, and that’s crazy. Perhaps that’s the glue that has kept us together for 40 years. To be honest, my father died when I was 27, so I knew my father for 27 years, and I’ve known Lacky for 40 years, you see what I mean. We are big friends, I could say he’s my only friend over the years, he’s a bit like a brother to me, and perhaps that’s the reason why we often argue, and why we often have fun together. (laughs) 

What are your future plans with Darkness? When can we expect a totally new album? 

I would like to start working on it by the end of the year. We do all the shows in the end of this year, I don’t know why this has happened, but we’re going to play eight or 10 shows, and we have this anniversary show, which is a very special one, so we’re working on this. When this is finished in November, I would like to start with new songs. We’ve got Dominik (Rothe), a great guy, a good guitar player, he’s younger than me, and he’s got fresh ideas, so we could combine it with my old ideas, I mean, my oldtimer stuff with his younger stuff. I think this is going to be a good combination. I would really love to write new songs and do a new album, that’s my idea for the future, and I could imagine this will happen.

Darkness on the Internet: http://www.darkness-thrash.de/

Special thanks to Barbara Francone (Neecee Agency) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman Patrashov
Photos used courtesy of Neecee Agency
September 11, 2025
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