Wolf Spider Interview

Polish proggy thrash legends Wolf Spider are back after twenty years of slumber. They are back with brand a new member, brand new vision and an upcoming wave of progressive thrash . Guitarist Piotr "Mankover" Mańkowski answers the questions.

LR-At the start of the band, what what you want to play metal?

Metal gives me power, energy. Metal gives me the opportunity to show  instrumental skills.

Metal has been my life since early eighties.What else can I say?

LR-What were the key influences in the band, and what made you develop
your sound?

We grew up listening to Judas Priest, Accept, Helloween, but in the next years our favourite bands were Anthrax, Metallica or Mekong Delta. We wanted our music to be dynamic, powerful and filled with numerous difficult guitar and drums patterns.

LR-You guys come from Poland, but Poland never really had a huge
thrash scene. What are your thoughts on the Polish scene backthen and
the scene today?

These days when we were on top in Poland there were some really good thrash bands.

Unfortunately they were not known outside our country because of political reasons.

The today thrash scene is more underground. There is no label which would be useful and helpful

for all thrash bands. There are lots of bands and there lots of thrash fans too.

LR-You have released a total of 4 albums in your career. What do you
think separated these albums soundwise?

When you know our albums you can hear clearly how we developed our thinking of music, about what we want to say. The first album is under influence of speed and thrash metal. The second album „Hue of Evil” is 100% thrash, but third and fourth albums are totaly progressive thrash music.

LR-How did you come up with the name ''Wolf Spider''?                                 

Once I found accidentaly a picture of a nice looking spider in the desert animals album. The interesting thing was that it didn't make webs, but hunted the victim like a wolf instead. As a kin of spider those days, I came up with an idea that Wolf Spider was a great name for our band.

LR-After releasing your fourth album, you disbanded. Why did that happen?

There begun very hard times for playing metal in Poland. We had a few gigs a year, despite having a quite powerful management. The stagnation was so big that we decided to suspend playing for some time, but we never came back together....until last year.

 
LR-And what are your perspectives on the thrash scene today?

We have just set up with a new management, and we are looking forward to really productive partnersip including worldwide shows.

LR-Do you have any favourites from the retro thrash scene?

There are a few really good bands, with powerful music and good musicians, but I don't have any favourites.

LR-Now that the band has reformed, you have a new drummer. Do you think
this will affect the band's sound?

Well, our new drummer – as a matter of fact she–drummer, brought us a very good energy. She plays all our difficult patterns easily, has a very good sound from the instrument and if you look at it from this side – yes it affects the bands sound. But from the other hand we want to play our songs as close as possible to their original versions and therefore we stick hardly to all we played.

 
LR-And which musical direction are you taking now? What bands are
influencing you the most?

We want to keep on making progressive thrash. After 20 years we have a good view on what we did in the past...what was good and what was wrong. We find some songs and albums better that the other ones, so the direction is aimed by what we liked the most in our music. And for now we don't feel influenced too much by any of group on the thrash scene. We want to play Wolf Spider but with a new, modern face.

LR-Are you planning on releasing a new record or demo? If so what
label are you going to stick with?

Yes, we are preparing some new material and thinking about releasing it soon, but we're not stuck to any label yet.

LR-And are you palnning on touring or doing some shows?

Yes. We have some shows scheduled and we are working on a tour.

LR-Besides thrash bands, were you influenced by any other bands?

We are quite open-minded people and we listen to different styles of music. This gives us a possibility to be much more creative in according to our progressive thrash.

LR-What is your favourite Wolf Spider song?(Each band member will
answer his own.)

Jeff (guitar) – Black'n'Whites and Zemsta Mściciela

Marian (bas) – Desert and Memento Mori

Beata (drums) – Desert and Manifestants

Jacky (voc) – Freedom and Survive

me Mankover (guitar) – Desert and  Sickened Nation

LR-Any last words for your fans?

Greetings from Poznań, Poland. Keep on thrashing and hope to see you some day on our shows.