A lot of ideas and smashing riffs later, they had 5 songs ready for action and recording! It was April 2012 in our counting when they entered a small cowshed – a friends “recording studio” – to record their breed. The very first demo release was ready and was properly called “Cowshed Demo”.
They got backup in no time. Raymond Weibel (bass) and Dominic Blum (lead guitar) were blown away by the raw brutality of the Cowshed Demo and joined Comaniac in Summer 2012. The four maniacs from Aarau, Switzerland were soon ready to hit the stages – just weeks after their first rehearsal. Ray comments: “We were or motivated and ready to conquer the stages! And we got better and better every rehearsal!”
In December 2012 Comaniac found themselves in the recording studio again – but this time in a professional one to record their second demo. “Tumor Troop” was released in Summer 2013 and was recognized not only in the local but also the international press. Cédric comments, “In early 2013, when we suddenly had our full line up and a decent demo, we had something in our hands! Venues and press started to give us some recognition and noticed our passion for Heavy Metal music!”
By the end of 2013, Comaniac played in several cities and gathered a lot of live experience such as a Supporting Act for Thrash legends Coroner and Toxik. But there was something quietly growing beside the shows…
In early 2014, Comaniac recorded their brand new song “Killing Tendency” and published it with a frenzy violent promotion video clip to announce their debut album. Jonas says: “We knew right from the beginning that it is essential for a band to write and release new music. We have to let people know we’re working hard on our music and are keeping to it. There was no day off from improving our song material!”
In Summer 2014 Comaniac entered the KHE Recording Studio to record “Return To The Wasteland” – their first full length album. After months of promotion and organization their 52-Minutes-Debut Album also known as “RTTW” was self-released on February 27, 2015 and distributed worldwide by underground record stores and distributors.
Soon after – in March 2015 – it was time for another release: Their first professional video clip to the Song “Secret Seed”. Doom comments: “We always wanted to use our music to get a message to the people. And with Jonas’ idea of the human tree being used and abused for his whole life we had a fitting metaphor.”
2015 was the year of live attacks! Many shows in Switzerland and their first shows abroad brought Comaniac to countries like Germany, Austria, Italy and Croatia.
Through this time two labels were contacting Comaniac for a collaboration. Soon after there were two re-issues of “Return To The Wasteland” on the market: Stormspell Records (CD) and Tridroid Records (Tape) helped Comaniac to distribute their Debut. Comaniac seemed ready for take-off…but trouble stroke…
Early 2016 the band had its first big crisis. Cédric – founder member and drummer for more than 5 years – and lead guitarist Doom couldn’t combine the ambitious plans of Comaniac with their private ones. So in April 2016 it came to the last live show in the original lineup. Still there was no such thing as burying Comaniac at any time. Jonas and Ray started checking different possibilities how to continue and finally brought Vali (lead guitar) and Stef (drums) on board – in the same month as Doom and Cédric left.
With the new lineup Comaniac could convince their audience at every show – and even the bookers of MetalDays. So it happened that Comaniac got a slot at MetalDays in summer 2016.
In autumn 2016 Comaniac found themselves in the KHE Recording Studio again. In 14 days they captured their second album “Instruction For Destruction”. “Musically it’s much more mature and original than the debut” Valentin says. And he shall be right after all.
The second album „Instruction For Destruction“ (IFD) hit the stores worldwide on April 7th, 2017, right after convincing the Record Labels SAOL (digital, Compact Disc) and METALWORLD (Vinyl, limited to 500 copies) to distribute the metal to the masses. IFD got top rates in most metal magazines which led the German magazine LEGACY to write a two-page-report about the Swiss hopefulls.
„We wanted to do everything better with our second album. We wanted to make sure that this album is gonna be in everyones face right from ist release. And what could have been better than touring our asses off with the new tunes?“ says Raymond.
Summer 2017 was the most intensive time in the history of the band yet. After an Eastern European Tour with Austrian Crossover Thrashers Insanity Alert it was supporting legendary Metal Church which pushed Comaniac to the next level. „Three weeks of pure metal rebellion! We didn’t only play historic venues like Tivoli Bremen (GER) or Dynamo Eindhoven (NED) but also joined Metal Church to Graspop Festival and Hellfest.“ says Stefan.
Right after their last show with Metal Church in the UK Comaniac announced their own European Headliner Tour called „Road Destruction Tour“ which also included international festival shows and support gigs for bands such as Overkill, Death Angel, Cavalera Conspiracy and Napalm Death and kept them on the road from July until August 2017.
„Right after our Headliner-Tour we thought that there will be silent times for Comaniac until Christmas. But then all of a sudden there came requests from bookers all over Europe who wanted us to play their venues. I guess we played shows almost every weekend from September until January in central Europe.“ says Jonas.
As 2017 slowly faded there was another big announcement: Comaniac was confirmed to be the main support on Dr. Living Deads „Infiltrating Europe“ Tour which included 17 shows in 8 countries within 18 days.
„All three Tours in Summer 2017 were great in their own way. But touring with another upcoming, young Thrash Metal band with such an intense shedule was a thing for its own for us.“ says Valentin.
How to top this intense touring with „Instruction For Destruction“?
«Well, obviously there are people out there waiting for another Comaniac record. And we ain’t done yet. So let’s see what the future brings…“ says Jonas.