A good live act needs a few things. At first it's important that the band is able to play the stuff from the record live as well. There the problems start for many, because in the studio they need so much technical shit and 20 guitars so that it sounds simply poor when they now play the stuff live. With all this modern High Tech Studios are you able to record every sound in every speed you want and no matter how bad the musicians are, in the end of you can get a perfect sounding product. I know that there are more than just one band that betray with the double-bass, speed of the tape or work with 20 guitar tracks. This is a shame and absolutely false, but let these bands come on stage... and then we'll see. So you'll understand now when I say that I wanted honesty. I don't care if the sound isn't perfect but I want to see musicians who make the best of it and give everything. Musicians don't want that the audience is just standing around, so they must also bang their heads and move, not just standing the whole time at the same place and trying to play as perfect as possible. That's not over all important, they have to built up a special realtion, a special magic between them and the audience. If I see that a band gives 100%, I'll always support them. The whole thing is nearly perfect when the band is a unity on stage.
- Okkulto / Desaster interview, Tales of the Macabre #5, 1998
A few months after the release of their debut, the great A Touch of Medieval Darkness - DESASTER, live in Holland on this day in 1996.
Yes, we made a lot of gigs and I think this has given us strength and made us a unity on stage. All these single gigs have helped us becoming a good live act. I cannot name all the bands we played with, but some were Behemoth, Ancient Rites, Sabbat, Dark Funeral, Mayhemic Truth, Impending Doom, Atanatos, Marduk, Enslaved, Occult, Krisiun, Tha-Norr, Inquisitor, and many more. Ha, ridiculous is of course the rockstar behaviour of some bands and the way how the act just because they sell a few records. Also that what some people call a stage is ridiculous. I remember the fuckin' "Schreinerei" in Scheinfurt (yeah, the beds looked like being old hospital beds from World War II, very dirty and pissed... -ed.) or the "Between" in Cologne where the backstage room is nothing but a potatoe -cellar. Always cool and extreme are the drinking sessions after the show. Great nights we had with Ancient Rites ("mir egal"), Impending Doom ("Muuuuse") or Occult ("Wen interessiert's?"). What I like personally is that there are some great people, no matter if you meet them the first time, you feel like ever being in brotherhood with them.
- Okkulto / Desaster interview, Tales of the Macabre #5, 1998
The other band playing that was CRADLE OF FILTH who would release their second LP in August.