Freaks, murder, and creatures from the underworld are just some of the themes that the horror-punk band Dead United implement in their songs. The band has been on the scene for many years and has long been a household name in the German community. In April 2021 their new album “Fiend Nö.1” was released on the traditional label Wolverine Records which has already held up the flag for the genre in the past years.
“Fiend Nö.1” is a bloody potpourri of fun singalongs in the style of the early Misfits and oppressive, partly metal-heavy deathrock pieces. At the same time, Dead United stay true to their sound and content and dance on graves like never before! Here’s our interview with the band!

Beginnings:

Mr. Stiff: I know Buzz since school days. Buzz was that type of guy, everybody loved him because he did a lot of crazy, funny stuff. We both played in our own bands. As I saw Buzz on stage the first time, I thought – wow this is the best showman ever. We met later when we studied in Würzburg in a disco and we both told each other, that we just quit with our old bands. Buzz told me his vision of a new band, which goes on stage, with that huge chainsaw, with zombies and all in that b-movie style. This was like a half our waterfall of great ideas and crazy but funny horror stuff! I loved it, and we started that band. At that time I jammed with D.Vote, and I was sure he will like that singer, too. Even before I asked Dig van Grave.

Dig: Mr. Stiff asked me to play bass, I knew him from promoting shows. He told me, that he knows a totally crazy singer. Then Stiff told me he has found a guitar player, I already knew D. Vote from his old band. We met for our first date in D. Vote rehearsal room and did our song “Space Rape” and that was about 17 years ago.

Buzz: Yes, I’ve had the idea of a band with a crazy trashy horrorshow for a long time, because in my former band the members were a little bit shy and they didn´t want to attract attention. (laughs) It´s so great that I’ve found people who are crazy enough to start Dead United.

Behind the name:

D. Vote: In the band, we are four undead creatures. United in death – Dead United. 

Buzz: Then Charles D.Vote came up with “Dead United” and that matched. 

Mr. Stiff: Actually we are more than 4 creatures because there are some Actors, which are always on tour with us.

Inspiration:

Dig: For musical matters lot of that 90´s punk rock stuff. I had the most inspiration for the splatter show in the hardware store. (winks)

Mr. Stiff: I have more than a death, thrash background. I like Napalm Death and some other grindcore/death metal.

Buzz: Horror movies, crazy stories, and rock music, metal, punk but some other thing, too.

Inspiration behind the new album, Fiend Nö.1:

Dig: I took guitar or bass and played along. If something sounded good, I worked on it. Then I tried to find some hook lines. I did all the instrumental parts “Fuck The Fiends” for example at home and did not find the right hooks. In the rehearsal room, Mr. Stiff and Buzz had ideas about how the vocal line had to sound. 

Buzz: It´s always horror topics and crazy stuff, sometimes mixed with a little bit of provocation or critical views about something or stuff like that. But it has to be funny in a special kind of way. Green Glowing Skulls is about a student who finds a tiny gate to another dimension in the wall of his flat. He puts his balls in it and his nuts are beamed to another galaxy where little green glowing skulls are mumbling at his balls…as you can see very serious topics… (laughs)

Teamwork:

Dig: Most of the time someone has an idea, a riff, or a melody. This is then usually played in the rehearsal room (currently online) and we work together on it. Then we record it and possibly further develop it individually. Sometimes we haven’t touched songs for a while and then pulled them out again at some point. 

Mr. Stiff: Dig is doing all the show stuff. Builds tombs and Chainsaws. (smiles) I do all the recording stuff, and together with Dig, we book the shows. Buzz is doing nearly all the lyrics. I think D.Vote did most of the songs and for most songs, I add some lines for the refrain and add backgrounds. So everyone can add his ideas, and we always try to keep it as simple as possible.  

COVID-19:

Dig: For the last 23 years I have played concerts, the last 12 months were the first without one. Fuck covid. It really sucks, we totally had to stop everything. I’m so glad we can release that new album Fiend Nö.1 now. I started to do some song ideas online, so that´s what we can do… That’s it. 

Buzz: It sucks!

Online concert:

Dig: I’m analog. Sorry. We do some videos for the new stuff and hope that it will be possible to get back on stage asap.

Mr. Stiff: That’s right. We like to see our audience and interact with them. I saw Scooter on a live stream. They really kick ass live, but it was pitiful to see them without an audience in a stream-room volume. Exactly, the same with Dead United – that cannot fit. 

Buzz: Never ever!