Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Axel: Our drummer Andreas, his brother Michael and our longtime guitarist Björn played together in a hardcore band called Bloodstring. But when they  felt, that they were more and more into Death Metal like it was played by scandinavian bands, BATTLESWORD was founded in order to give them the chance to play that kind of music, they really wanted to play. That was back in 1999. When the line-up for the new band was completed, they recorded the first Demo „Crusade Of Steel“ in 2001. That demo was quickly followed by the first full-length „Failing In Triumph“. BATTLESWORD was lucky to find a label for its release and presented their music live a lot. But as often, the band  had to face several line-up changes, when they were close to start the work on a new album. That forced them to make a pause with the band. In 2008 me, Ben and Ralf joined and completed the band. We thought, that we have found a new stable line-up again and so we released our next demo „The 13th Black Crusade“ and began touring again. But in 2009 the next and not the last change within our line-up happend, as we had to replace our guitarist Ralf, who left Battlesword. We were glad to find a new guitarist within a short time. But then we had to wait with the songwriting for the next album, due to a lot different personal issues. In the meantime we only released the two songs „Enemy Divine“ and „Where Demons Awake“ in digital form for online promotion and to show the world that we are still alive. But finally we had enough good material for a new full-length and released „Banners Of Destruction“ in April 2016. Since then we tried to play live as often as possible to promote the album. But at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 our both guitarists left BATTLESWORD and we had to find new members again. That went faster than expected, but we first had to prepare the live-set for the shows, that were already booked. We recently started the songwriting for a new album and the first songs are close to be finished.

So this is the actual line-up 2017/2018:
Axel (vocals), Béla (guitars), Christian (guitars), Ben (bass), Andreas (drums)

How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music? 
Axel: We in principal play melodic death metal and combine it with traces of other metal styles. So you can find a lot of traditional heavy metal vibes on our latest album for example. There´s no certain or primal influence. We just focus on ideas that sound good and heavy in our ears. Normally we work out special ideas from our guitarists together in our rehearsal room. They come up with single riffs or nearly complete songs. 
Every one of us has a wide range of music he likes. We are not limited and also listen to other music styles. But the common denominator is melodic death metal as it is played by Scandinavian bands.
For the lyrics I´m inspired in different ways. Sometimes it´s based on literature or a cool film, sometimes on personal experiences. To me it´s important to tell short self-contained stories that can be interpreted by everybody in his own way.

Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
Axel: I honestly think that we really have our own style and trademarks. Although we don´t reinvent the wheel with our music, you may quickly identify a BATTLESWORD song when you hear it. Our music is authentic and not chasing any trends. It comes from our hearts and our love for metal and it´s still enrooted in the underground. 

What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media? 
Axel:  We released our first demo „Crusade Of Steel“  in 2001. It was received amazingly well by the public and the media. That made it possible to find a label (Black Attakk / Soulfood) for the release of our first full-length album “Failing In Triumph” in  2003. As I described before, the band had to pause for a while, so that the next demo “The 13th Black Crusade” was released only in 2008. Again it became a bit more calm around the band in the following years and we only released the two songs „Enemy Divine“ and „Where Demons Awake“ in digital form for online promotion. They were, as well as the song “There Will Be Blood”, re-recorded and released as bonus tracks in 2016 on our latest release “Banners Of Destruction”, which again is a full-length album. 
We can proudly state, that all of our releases, no matter if self-released or by a label, demo or full-length, gained a lot of recognition worldwide. Each single release was awarded with a lot of good high and full score reviews by many national and international magazines/fanzines/webzines. 

Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
Axel: I think, this is why we all are part of this band and this scene. To play live is what we want most and we try to do it as often as possible. You can see  and feel it, when you attend one of our shows, because it´s full speed from the first to the last note. So far we mostly played in Germany, but sometimes we are guests in other countries as well. We play club shows and festivals, wherever you want us to play. Currently we are looking for a booker to get us on stage more often.

What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
Axel: That´s a really good question. We always were a band that doesn´t care about trends and that only plays the music that we like ourselves, this is what you can feel listening to our music. For us, the focus is always on the music and not on a certain image. We just want to be honest and authentic. That´s what the fans should see and feel. We are still only some metalheads that want to play metal and have a good time on stage, as well as we are also still fans that bang their heads in front row to their favourite bands´songs. We are burning for our music and want to share it with as many metalheads as possible.

What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Axel: We have already started the songwriting for a new album and the first songs are close to be finished. We hope to meet the expectations of our fans and for sure our own. But at this point I can say that we are confident to release another killer album with all our trademarks. We hope to find an interested and motivated label  for our next release. In the meantime we will continue playing handpicked shows and festivals like Metaldays Open Air in Slovenia. Maybe it will be possible to extend touring a bit across Europe, like I explained before.

Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Axel: If you want to know more about our band and to get future information, you can like us at Facebook , check our homepage or subscribe to our youtube channel. You will find the links below. In the nearer future we want to create our own bandcamp site, what will be communicated via the existing channels, when ready. But if you now want to buy our music on CD and merchandise you can check us out at the following links and drop us a message with your order. Our songs can also be bought in digital form at Amazon, Deezer, Spotify, etc. as well.
www.facebook.com/battleswordofficial
www.battlesword.de
www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLXqmcJi1_8N575O98UhRQ

December 2017