Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing MAGEFA, the rising death metal band from Frankfurt. Known for their brutal sound and relentless energy, MAGEFA has been making waves in the death metal scene with their raw, unfiltered approach to music.
Hey Kai! Thanks for your time to answer these questions ASAP. In a few sentences, tell us about MAGEFA. In Hebrew, it means plague. How did you come up with that name?
Kai: Our Band was formed 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, as 3 individuals who wanted to have some fun and create some new metal music together. We started with a different name and only in 2015 we made a decision to go with ‘MA-GE-FA’ (Pronounced with hard ‘G’) which as mentioned, means Plague in Hebrew (the Israeli language), same as bands like ‘BEHEMOTH’, ‘MESHUGGAH’, etc. We also like Israel very much and support it all the way.
Even though you are active for almost ten years, you still don’t have full-length album. Is that something you chose to just be focused on gigs or you can’t find record company to release your album or something else? 🙂
Kai: Although we are an underground Band, it was always very important to us that our released music is in the highest studio quality, same as professional bands. So it took us some time (hard work and money) until we had released our first EP ‘New Era Of Darkness’ in 2019 with 6 songs. It was our decision at the time to release EP instead of full album with 10 songs, as we wanted to put our music out there for everyone. After that, we saw the music industry changes and going from the album format to singles release combined into EP or album and decided again to release our next EP ‘Exenteration’ and not wait for more songs. The next singles we released during Covid time and through some lineup issues in our band. We are going to combine all the latest singles with some of our best songs into a new album that marks our 10th anniversary and it will be also available (first time) as vinyl limited edition.
Lately, you have toured extensively. Have the conditions changed since the period before infamous coronavirus? Do you think that now is easier to book a gig or not? Also, what is your opinion about often venue “blackmail”, taking percentage of band’s merch? Did you have this kind of issue already?
Kai: The conditions did change after the Covid time and Venues / Producers wants to guarantee their income from events, which makes sense. It is not easy to book a gig, as all promoters/booking agents having full hands and no place for new underground bands in their roster. Venues are fully booked 1 year in advance, and asking a lot of money for renting the place for gig, which makes it harder to get next gig. As we’re still playing in relative smaller venues, we haven’t seen it yet that the venue is taking percentage of merch, but it is happening big time on the large venues, which goes directly to the end customers (Metal fans). Unfortunately, that’s how the business works nowadays, and supporting the bands is important!
Death metal, and extreme music genres in general, are often associated with provocative artwork. How important is visual art to your music?
Kai: The visual art plays a very important role in every release nowadays. With most of the attention coming from Social Media and Youtube, we must get the attention of new metal fans, while telling the story of the song/album. We’ve been experimenting over the years with different artists and styles to our releases.
Inspirations and influences that shaped your sound?
Kai: We have been described many things during the last years. I think that unlike bands that only writes their music with same formula, we create our songs with veraiety of metal influences and not sticking to specific form or genre. One can find in our songs parts from different metal genres:
Death Metal bands like: CANNIBAL CORPSE, DYING FETUS, CARCASS, BOLT THROWER, IMMOLATION.
Death Core bands like: THY ART IS MURDER, WHITECHAPEL.
Track Mood: Melodic, then Energetic & Aggressive.
First show you ever played?
Kai: This is history now ☺ : As far as I remember, our first gig as MAGEFA was in 15.10.2016 at the Moshpit, Flörsheim (one of the local Metal scene venues in Rhein-Main).
Gig you wish you played?
Kai: It would be awesome to be able to play in one or more of the big extreme metal festivals in Germany, like ‘Party-San Open Air’ or ‘Summer Breeze’. It’s on our list!
Greatest show you ever played?
Kai: We played September last year (2023) in Ladenburg(DE) in front of a great crowd of Metal Fans. Everything about that gig was good, the big stage, the technical team and sound, I had my own drums on stage, the other bands and of course the fans and support during and after the show. You can find some of the videos from that show on our FB/IG (@magefametal).
Any new bands worth mentioning?
Kai: The German underground Extreme Metal scene is full of great bands. To mention some of the bands: SCYTH BEAST, SIGN OF DEATH, BLOODJOB, FLESHSPHERE, AEON OF AWARENESS, BOKOR, ALTERATION.
Message to the fans?
Kai: This year (2024) represents the 10th year anniversary of MAGEFA. We have started it with the successful release of ‘Rotting Away’ in March, we had our first UK Tour in May and we plan to release another brutal single this year, as well a limited vinyl LP Compilation with all our best songs, towards the end of the year.
We will soon have our merch on sale online as well .
Stay tuned and follow us. We have some more gigs coming up and we hope to see you Metal Fans there!
Thanks again, Kai, looking forward seeing you live and your first LP
Links to website and social networks:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/magefa
Website: https://www.magefa.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/magefametal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Magefametal/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/magefa
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MagefaMetal
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/05dYK7RFkMy4oFyeh1cp4K?si=K2GBijzdRImbkqEPK_q_Og
Bandcamp: https://magefa.bandcamp.com/
Songkick : https://www.songkick.com/artists/10162037-magefa
Bands in town : https://www.bandsintown.com/a/12910708-magefa
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@magefametal