From the heart of Vienna’s underground metal scene emerges Titan Killer, a five-piece heavy metal force blending classic influences with modern power and precision. Founded in 2015 through a mix of chance encounters, shared ambitions, and one well-timed joke, the band has carved out their place with pounding riffs, thought-provoking lyrics, and a tight-knit lineup that’s stayed rock-solid from the start. With their second full-length album “Slow Self-Destruction” now unleashed, we caught up with the band to talk origins, the Austrian metal scene, songwriting inspiration, and what lies ahead. Strap in—this is Titan Killer.

Interview

TheNwothm: Can you introduce Titan Killer to our readers? Where are you all from originally?

T.K: Titan Killer is a Heavy Metal Band from Vienna founded in 2015. It all started with Jan (Guitar) moving to Vienna from Prague, Czech Republic. A few years back, during a visit, he got to know Moritz (Bass) and they jokingly talked about founding a band once Jan lives in Vienna permanently. Jan was born in Prague, Flo in a small town near Vienna and the others grew up in Vienna.

TheNwothm: How did Titan Killer first come together back in 2015?

T.K: Well Jan actually did move to Vienna and called Moritz: “Yo I’m here now, what about the band?”. Moritz did not forget about that conversation and called Alex (Drums), a former bandmate of his. One thing led to another and Max (Vocals) was recruited.

After a rehearsal of another band Moritz and Flo were part of at the time they decided to grab some food and some of the other Titan Killer guys joined.

This was when Flo got to know about the band project that was to become Titan Killer and he said the famous last words: “If you need a second guitar, let me know” and that was when Flo (Guitar) was recruited to complete the line-up.

Up until then the guys had already worked on some ideas, but this evening marked the day the current line came about and there has not been a single change in that setup since then.

TheNwothm: What’s the story behind the name Titan Killer? Was it inspired by a particular theme or idea?

T.K: In the very beginning, when we were just starting out and it looked like this project would actually become a band, we started looking for names that were not taken already, had a theme that makes a recognisable brand and also had a certain ring to it. We struggled for quite a while to come up with a nice band name that met all the criteria. There were some really bad but funny ideas, a few good ones, but we were not satisfied with anything. At some point we finally landed on “Titan Killer”. The Spartan themed logo was the obvious choice based on the name, but the basic idea and first drafts actually came from Max’ girlfriend at the time.

TheNwothm: Vienna has a rich musical history. How has being based there shaped Titan Killer’s identity?

T.K: We strongly believe that classical legends like Haydn, Beethoven and Strauss would turn in their grave if somebody compared our music to theirs. When growing up in Vienna you are exposed to classical music sooner or later, if you want it or not. Moritz, being the son of a professional German flute player, and Max both played Trumpet and the Cello for a long time. Alex’ dad plays the guitar and played in bands for many years. So Vienna’s musical history did not have so much influence on us as much as our parents being musically active.

TheNwothm: Austria is known worldwide for classical music, but how would you describe the heavy metal scene there today?

T.K: Well … The Austrian Heavy Metal scene is rather small. Vienna basically has three metal bars, two of which host concerts. So people know each other, the bands know each other. What is interesting about that, though, is the fact that the different genres of Metal rarely mix. There is a Heavy Metal/Power/Thrash Metal community, Black/Death Metal, some more modern stuff. We feel like the Heavy Metal Bands in Austria know each other but have next to no touch points to other genres, unless you personally know people from other bands from outside of the metal scene.

TheNwothm: Has Austrian culture, history, or even folklore played a role in your songwriting or themes?

T.K: Jan, because he’s from the Czech Republic, wanted a song about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich — a part of Czech history. So we made it. It’s on the new album, a song is Tyrant’s Fall. Check it out!

Austrian culture not so much yet, but we have a lot of historic references and political commentary in our lyrics, a lot of mythology themes, as you know. We might do some stuff that has more connection to Austria in the future, we’ll see.

TheNwothm: Let’s go back to 2017—your debut single “Fatebringer” made a bold statement. What do you remember most about recording and releasing it?

T.K: That was our first-ever professional recording as a band. We were both excited and nervous, because this was such a big thing for us back then, but we were very happy with the process and the result. Shout-out to Norbert Leitner and his studio – he is an amazing guy with a lot of talent. Working with him was such a great experience that we’ve stuck with him for the other recordings as well. https://www.norbertleitner.com/

TheNwothm: In 2019, you released your first full-length album, “Titan Killer.” What were some of the key ideas or stories you wanted to explore with that album? Did you have a clear idea for the direction of the sound?

T.K: You could say that our first record was a finding process. Throwing together what every band member could contribute to the project at the time and to see what works. Determining our baseline to go from. Soundwise we agreed pretty fast that we wanted to be in the classic Heavy Metal realm. We tried to give our modern spin on that to not sound dusted.

TheNwothm: Which song from the record is your favourite?

T.K: Since we write our music primarily to work in a live environment. It’s “Knockout” from the first album, which is very popular amongst our fans.

For the new album we can not agree on a song that we all like best, I could not even pin one single favourite song, there are so many great songs on this album!

TheNwothm: Your 2021 single “Pulling Strings” had a slightly different energy. What inspired the direction you took with that track?

T.K: For most of the songs, Jan writes the music first, Max adds the lyrics later and everybody chimes in for polishing, final tweaks and arrangement. But in this case, it was the other way around. Max wrote the lyrics, which were very aggressive, and Jan was inspired by them and channeled that energy into the music.

TheNwothm: In 2022, you released the video for SF-1. How did the concept for that video come about, and how important are visuals to your music?

T.K: We mostly let the music speak for itself and let the listener be free in their imagination. For our first video, many things were budget-driven so our goal was to show how culture can spread with all its madness and sometimes silly outcomes with a minimalistic approach. That’s why it’s just us playing live, and leaving the rest to the listeners. We intentionally tried to overdo it with the US references while playing a critical song to achieve contrast.

In general we believe that visuals are becoming more and more important, but music also needs to work without them, visuals should just support the music and the show.

TheNwothm: If you look back at the music you have made so far, which songs are your favourite to play live?

T.K: This is a tough one. I think it’s quite different for each member, as well as for the fans, but the songs that get a good response from the audience are:  “Knockout”, “Rocking until Collapse” and “Lethal Strike”. According to streaming stats “SF-1” and “Pulling Strings” are also pretty popular. Pulling strings is definitely fun to play live, because it delivers a lot of pressure while being easy enough to project the fun that we have on stage onto the audience.

TheNwothm: What can you tell our readers about each of yourselves?

Jan: In short, I enjoy songwriting, strength training, gaming and IT. I’m a fan of ice hockey, Czech beer, history, cats, self-development, and sound/music in general.

Alex: Alex is a highly sarcastic cat person. He likes to have everything planned neat and tidy and keeps an overview of everything that’s going on.

Max: Technical chemist (not the Breaking Bad kind), metal enthusiast in many subgenres and also has 2 lovely cats. 

Moritz: I am a physical therapist, nerd about history and useless facts, gamer and generally always in for shits and giggles.

Flo: I am a deputy commander of a fire station in my day job.

TheNwothm: If you had to form a fantasy supergroup with members from other bands (past or present), who would you pick?

T.K: Victor Smolski, Jeff Waters, Wolf Hoffmann on Guitar

Steve Harris, Markus Grosskopf or Peter Iwers on Bass

Sebastian Lanser, Mike Mangini or Aquiles Priester on Drums

Michael Kiske, Marc Tornillo or Seeb Levermann on Vocals

TheNwothm: What’s something about each of you that fans might be surprised to learn?

Jan: I am fluent in 4 languages: Czech, Serbian, English and German

Alex: I am fluent in 4 languages: JavaScript, PHP, Go and Sarcasm

Max: I used to play trumpet in the european symphonic orchestra and almost studied classical trumpet

Moritz: Despite all the stupid jokes I am an on-command well of ideas (mostly garbage but occasionally good ones too).

Flo: I have a side job as a farmer and winemaker.

TheNwothm: Are you currently working on new material? Can we expect a new single, EP, or even another full-length album soon?

T.K: At the moment we finished our 2nd Album “Slow Self-Destruction” which is ready to be streamed and waits to be explored. We really love how the album turned out, so we highly recommend giving it a shot. We plan on writing new music soon, but it will take a while until new songs are polished and ready to be recorded. Until then, listen to the new album!

TheNwothm: What are your touring plans for the near future? Any international gigs in the works?

T.K: We would love to expand and play more shows outside of Austria. Some gigs are currently in the works, nothing fixed yet, though. Follow us on Bandsintown to get notified when we play near you. Also get in touch with us on our socials if you would like us to come to your city and play a show there, maybe we can make something happen!

TheNwothm: How can our readers buy your music and merch?

T.K: The best way to get our music and merchandise right now is at one of our shows and through our Bandcamp page: https://titankiller.bandcamp.com/

– if you have any questions about the items feel free to shoot us a message.