Few bands can leave a trace and impact the scene since the first single. MAATKARE will release the second one in three days and I bet they will enslave you and make wait for the upcoming debut recording. The UK/Dutch three piece has managed to write some appealing Death metal songs with a bombastic sound quality, as Amie Chatterley (bassist) states in one of the questions, you can tell that they are not beginners. Mark your calendars for the upcoming offering and start making room on your metal collection shelves for this highly anticipated debut. Hails Death metal!

Have you girls had in mind to have an all-female Death metal band? “… We’ve always wanted to encourage female empowerment in metal, especially death metal and with it being such a male dominated genre, we hope having an all-female line-up will help inspire and see a rise of women and others in Death Metal…”

On May 28th, the second single will come out. Have you noticed more fans' expectations or anxiety in comparison with debut single “War Before Peace”? “… Definitely! Our first single went down really well, beyond our expectations. We didn’t want to let the fans wait too long before the next one. Based on the content we post, we can tell that the fans are very excited about this project and can’t wait for the entire album to drop. And that makes us extremely grateful…”

Are you girls recording or done recording the upcoming release? Will it be an EP or an album? “… We finished recording our debut album early this year and we are now just waiting for the last few mixes before the album is mastered. We’re planning for an album release for Autumn 2024 and we can’t wait…”

Do you mind being a spoiler and talk about the upcoming recording? “… So, the upcoming single “May The Gods Bear Witness” focuses on themes of false prophets spreading misinformation in ancient Egypt, around the time that Islam was being introduced. It’s essentially about a clash of religions spreading their own agenda and narrative. We used this historical narrative as a metaphor for the current state of the world and media. The track reflects on the manipulation of truth and the impact it has on society, drawing parallels between ancient and modern times…”

Is the band’s moniker inspired in Maatkare Hatshepsut? If so, why was this figure so influential in your work? “… Yes, it was. Hatshepsut was long thought of being the first female pharaoh (she is actually now confirmed as second one) but had a peaceful reign of roughly 20 years. She took to the throne at the age of 16, right after her husband/half-brother Tutmose II passed away and showed great strength from the start. Being a woman in Egyptian patriarchy, she decided to take on the traditional male roles and is often seen depicted as a male pharaoh. The perseverance, the strength, the wisdom are all traits of an extremely powerful woman that we shouldn’t forget about. Hatshepsut showed that women can also rule and become great at it…”

There are so many female symbols, not only in music but also in our societies. If you were to highlight some of these women’s contributions, who would you pick? “… There are so many great women in history, but we do have some notable ones: Harriet Tubman who was a social activist and abolitionist in America. Sifan Hassan who is the world record winner for the one hour run since 2020. She left Ethiopia as a refugee and moved to the Netherlands where she studied to be a nurse and became an incredible athlete…”

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What about in music, who are the metal ladies that have inspired you girls the most? “… The most obvious and cliche one is Angela Gossow, but hats do have to be tipped to Doro Pesch who has been flying the flag for an immense amount of time. Floor Jansen is also an inspiration to us. Yvette Young has to get a special mention too and of course Jo Bench from BOLT THROWER…”

What is it different when it comes to approaching the song writing or the lyric content in MAATKARE? “… Yes, from now on, everything will exclusively be about Unicorns and handbags. We jest of course, but lyric wise we hope to shift the focus to historical women in general but sound wise, we feel we’ve found our feet…”

Both singles have an incredible sound quality if you ask me and this differs a lot from other band’s first recordings. Is it something you girls have been intentionally working on? “… Although MAATKARE is a new project, this isn’t our first rodeo in the metal scene. All three of us bring a wealth of experience from our other bands so from the beginning we were very sure of how we would approach the recording process. It does help that Amie owns her own recording studio and we have a fantastic mixing engineer in Matt Jones from CapsaArx as well as our mastering engineer Simone Pietroforte from Divergent Studios…”

What are some more plans that you have in mind? State some more words for the band’s followers and our readers. “… We hope to of course conquer the stages worldwide and show an example to especially women within the metal scene that anything is possible. That you shouldn’t let yourself be halted by borders of a country or by people telling you that you can’t do it. There are some amazing female musicians out there who continuously show that the possibilities are endless. So, in a nutshell: release our album this year, play at all the amazing festivals one can dream of, and continue to inspire those who feel somewhat stuck and show them all that is possible. Finally, we have to give a huge shoutout to everyone that has supported us so far, we’re eternally grateful for the response we have had from all our new fans, and we hope to see you on the road very soon…”