REBEL SOULS - GERMANY

The Forces Of Darkness – 2017 – Art Gates
Dawn Of Depravity - 2022 - Blood Fire Death/Violence In The Veins

Rebel Souls image
  
 
Members
Vocals
Dead Entities’ Realm>>STEFAN HIELSCHER>>Dead Entities’ Realm

Guitar
Dead Entities’ Realm>>Thomas Plewnia>>Dead Entities’ Realm - Metalize, Evenmore>>JOSE MARIA TORNAY - Scythesys, Krypticy>>ALEX GUERRERO>>Krypticy


Bass
Dead Entities’ Realm, Krypticy>>STEFAN HEILSCHER>>Dead Entities’ Realm, Krypticy

Drum
Noctem, Agathos, Saratoga, Niu De Corbs>>ARNAU MARTI>>Noctem, Saratoga, Niu De Corbs





History & Biography
The band was founded in Germany by then 17-year old extreme metal enthusiasts Thomas Plewnia and Stefan Hielscher in 2000 and was active for three years before disbanding as Stefan moved to a different country. The inevitable reunion came in 2014 and was coupled with a move to Spain where the band worked with Art Gates Records. The two members had met in late 2013 and decided to rerecord a few self-cover versions.

Dark Forces and Estarangement.Disillusion.Frost were early demos. The Forces Of Darkness (as opposed to Dark Forces, which leant it a few songs) offered a video for the song Fourfold Wrath. James Stewart of Vader was a guest drummer. The group opened for Heaven Shall Burn. There was a tour with Noctem in 2018. There were two mini-tours respectively with Grabak in 2018 (Lykanthrop was the name of the concert drummer) and 2019. Plewina left in 2019 ("personal reasons") and Alex Warrior and Voor joined on guitar and drums respectively. The band was recording a second album. Dawn Of Depravity was released in autumn of 2022. The band had a gig with MainBrain in 2023. The band issued a demo called Leviathan in November 2024. The act was shut down and Stefan would focus on other projects.

Rebel Souls was also a Damnation album from 1996.


Reviews

REBEL SOULS - LEVIATHAN
It sounds odd to say that this four-song release sees Rebel Souls shift into a lower gear, because it is extreme death metal all the same, but that is how it feels compared to its full-length predecessor. The song Leviathan's lyrics, like the release's cover artwork, do not seem to hint at anything underwater (by the way, those Aquaman movies sucked. Stick with the comic books if you must). However, the whole thing is full of the type of death metal any fan of Krisiun, Vader or Deicide would proudly blast loudly. The vocals are deadly and often doubled up. The lead guitar is sublime and the drummer has a better sound than 80% of the twiggy drummers nowadays. Democracy, by the way, is in trouble because people vote for fascist right-wingers including in places like Germany and Spain. The Philanthropist has a few delicious licks and if the lyrics reference how our system is so broken that we have to rely on the charity of the super-rich leeches, then it gets it right. The song is better and heavier than Death's The Philosopher, but fear not; if a 'philosopher' is a must then the title track has one for you. Warmonger again has a few things to say and creates a sublime atmosphere when its warm drum sound and the soloing interact. Best for last? Cognitive Warfare may be the best track of the four. Again, the band does not skimp and multiple channels are used for the recording in general and the drums in particular. Uncharacteristically for metal, the song and the demo fade out. Leviathan is a great listen. The band may have slowed down a bit, but this will still cause miscarriages. - Ali "The Metallian"


Interviews
REBEL SOULS interview This is the end
Rebel Souls' singer and bassist Stefan Hielscher is a pragmatic character, if not downright stoic. He made the trek to the gates of Metallian Towers in order to announce himself in the name of his newest release, which is called Leviathan. Beckoned to answer questions for Metallian readers by Ali "The Metallian" subsequently, the musician provides detailed answers only to matter-of-factly let loose that the band is over and done with. It would not have come up were it not incidental. After all, asking interview subjects whether the release at hand is the band's final one is not part of the standard script. With that said, there is the new release, the clear answers by Stefan and music serious enough to be featured and echo in the venerable halls of Metallian Towers. These are several good reasons to read the feature despite the plot reveal. - 26.12.2024

METALLIAN: Stefan, thanks for your time. The band is almost 25 years old, but one fears that many are still unfamiliar with Rebel Souls.
STEFAN: Yeah, I don’t blame anyone for not knowing us, after all, we’re a small underground band. It’s true that the band was founded 25 years ago, but we haven’t been active all the time. Thomas and I went to high school together and founded the band around the (new) millennium, in our hometowns in Germany, or rather home “villages.” We’re from a very rural area in Thuringia. Thomas had introduced me to metal, we were both passionate fans by then and wanted to do something on our own. I guess this is how most bands come to be. So, we learned to play the guitar and bass respectively, recorded demos with a friend, really poorly though, as we had no idea about proper recording, mixing or mastering processes and played several local gigs. But once we finished high school and the mandatory military service we both moved to different cities, started at different universities and it became more difficult to keep the band alive. Keep in mind that this was all prior to broadband internet, WhatsApp, etcetera. So we reached a point where we decided to stop Rebel Souls. That was in 2003. Life went on, our friendship has always remained strong and ten years later, over a couple of drinks we reminisced on the old Rebel Souls days and what a pity it was that we never captured the full potential and strength of the songs on our recordings. On a drunken whim we decided to re-record one of the old songs and have them professionally mixed and mastered. The result convinced us so much that we decided to reanimate Rebel Souls in early 2014. We re-recorded our first demo, Dark Forces, with session drummer James Stewart, known from Decapitated, Obscura, ex-Vader and more, and released it as The Forces Of Darkness through Art Gates Records. We had the chance to be the opening act for Heaven Shall Burn in Málaga, went on a European tour with Noctem, had two mini-tours with Grabak, Hate Legions, Invoker, and played standalone gigs with Dead and Guilles. Unfortunately Thomas had to step down from his active role in the band in 2019, but I was able to recruit Alex, Arnau and Tornay for the recording of our next output, Dawn Of Depravity in 2022, which was mostly songs from our Estrangement.Disillusion.Frost demo, as well as new and unreleased material. Alex and Arnau play in other bands, so it was really difficult to commit to live gigs after the release of Dawn Of Depravity. We have just recently published our latest record Leviathan, which is a 4-track EP.

METALLIAN: Part of the band's story is a move away from Germany to Spain. Given your age, was this due to a relocation by your parents?
STEFAN: No, it was because of my studies. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Court Interpreting and my working languages were English and Spanish. It was part of my curriculum to study two semesters in a country of your working languages and I chose Spain. After the exchange year I decided to stay. I still live in Spain.

METALLIAN: Rebel Souls, the monicker, is the title for a Damnation album. Does Damnation mean something to you? Fundamentally, is the name a reference to Lucifer?
STEFAN: No, not at all. The name is definitely inspired by the Damnation album, as we were big fans back then, but we are not Satanists. We just liked the sound of it. It was more about being a strong-willed, critically thinking individual opposing the herd mentality of society. Much later, I read this quote by Henrik Ibsen, which I also think is very fitting: “It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life.”

METALLIAN: Isn’t being a strong-willed and critically thinking individual opposing the herd mentality the definition of Satanism?
STEFAN: In the sense of LaVey's Church Of Satan - as opposed to the supernatural Biblical one - I guess so, you're right. But again, we're not followers or members of any cult or organized religion.

METALLIAN: What about Vader or Deicide? Are they particular influences? It would be fair to say that Rebel Souls is as sublime as either of those bands, but of course it makes one smile listening to the song Three Thousand Screams and hear you growl, "suicide sacrifice." While We're here, what is this song about?
STEFAN: Thank-you for your kind words! Vader was definitely one of my main influences in the founding days of Rebel Souls. I actually think they were at their peak back then. But the “suicide, sacrifice” lyrics, and the song Three Thousand Screams, were written by Alex. I’m pretty sure that those lyrics are a deliberate pun on Deicide, but you’d have to ask him (laughs).
The lyrics are inspired by an incident in Chinese warfare in the sixth century when the Wu and Ch’u dynasty were about to initiate combat. The viscount of Wu lined up 3,000 prisoners that had been sentenced to death, facing the enemy, and ordered them to slit their own throats while screaming ferociously. When the Wu army saw that they fled in sheer terror.

METALLIAN: Good times. Given your tenure, absence and return, and our mention of history, you may be the perfect person to answer this question. The metal scene has changed over the years. Were you to compare, do you think the direction has been positive or negative?
STEFAN: With the technological advances, basically anyone can make music these days. This leads to an oversaturation of the scene. There are just too many bands out there, including I am sure great bands, but also shit bands, but you just can’t know them all. That’s a bit of a shame because it’s harder for good bands to stand out and break out. To do that you need to get picked up by the big labels and get pushed, but I have a feeling that music seems to be secondary for those labels. Most of the bands on the majors play boring and lame music in my opinion. It’s about image and marketability, and I do have to say that I am not a big fan of the commercialization of a small, niche and underground scene which is extreme metal. I’m not a big fan of the newer forms of metal either, but Iguess the same thing happened to the NWOBHM guys when death metal emerged in the late '80s (laughs). So, the short answer is that, in my opinion, I think the direction is rather negative, but that’s just my personal taste and opinion after all.

METALLIAN: Everything Stefan said is accurate. Having said that, why did the band return? Were there any overarching goals?
STEFAN: We just really wanted to give the songs the sound they deserved and release their full potential. That was, basically, the overarching goal and we achieved it. Everything else that happened in the wake of it, tours, gigs, etcetera, were welcome byproducts.

METALLIAN: Two albums on two labels and a subsequent newer release called Leviathan… We'll get to the last release momentarily. Were the two full-lengths always one-offs, with the two companies, or was the cooperation cut short due to business getting in the way of art?
STEFAN: The contracts were always for one album respectively. There is nothing bad to say about any of the companies we worked with. We just like to try out new stuff and evolve as much as we can.

METALLIAN: To get more specific, listening to your catalogue, my choice for a favourite track would be Nihil Infinitum. Could you say a few words about this track?
STEFAN: Thank you, I’m glad you like it. I composed it in 2003 or 2004 if my memory doesn’t fail me. It was, basically, right before or even during the downtime of Rebel Souls. I’m not quite sure. I know that I was listening to a lot of Morbid Angel back then, especially Blessed Are The Sick, and I think this is what mostly inspired the song. It was never recorded - just the tabs on GuitarPro - and I never wrote any lyrics for it until we recorded Dawn Of Depravity. Alex and Tornay gave the song some great finishing touches while modifying some of the riffs and adding layers of harmonies. The lyrics basically evoke the big infinite nothingness we seem to be moving towards.

METALLIAN: Leviathan is the name of Rebel Souls' newest release. Could you introduce this recording? As extreme and pure as it is, it still sounds as if you have deliberately shifted into a lower gear slightly.
STEFAN: Believe it or not, this is still old material; however, it was never released. This was all written when Rebel Souls was inactive. I wrote Warmonger during the same time as I wrote Nihil Infinitum and Thomas wrote most of the riffs for the other three songs around 2009 or 2010. You could say those were riffs that we put into shape and proper songs last year, which is when I also wrote the lyrics for the songs.

METALLIAN: It may sound like a change of subject, but we are remaining with your songs. Care to tell the readers if The Matrix, or another title, is your favourite movie?
STEFAN: Are you saying that because of the song Virulent (smiles)? I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite movie, but it's certainly one that I like. And I’ve always liked Agent Smith’s monologue towards the end, coming to the realization that human beings don't behave like a mammal, but actually like a virus.

METALLIAN: You mentioned gigs and touring earlier. Including, but not limited to those, what is next for the band?
STEFAN: Actually no (laughs)... our latest, Leviathan, is our swan song. We had a good ten-year run and achieved everything we wanted to. It's a good time to lay Rebel Souls to rest. We may play a few gigs if we get the chance, but there won't be any more outputs. We have a more proggy band Dead Entities Realm and first thing I want to do is to remix and remaster that album and then there is also some black metal stuff which we will release under a different name.

METALLIAN: That is a surprise, but one has to respect a band that knows when to quit. Metallian is the number one metal website in the world. Why do you think so?
STEFAN: Sorry guys, but The Metal Archives is still my go-to site. But hey, you never know what the future may bring!

It is through the generosity of Ali "The Metallian" and the grace of his hand gesture that the two herculean Metallian Towers' minders were held back and Stefan was unscathed. Rebel Souls, in the meantime, maintains a web page here https://rebelsouls.bandcamp.com/album/leviathan

If you enjoyed this, read Vader







Rebel Souls