Photo: Anthony Dubois
When it comes to another pioneer in the death metal scene, French band Loudblast deserve more than a cursory glance based on their history. Hitting the scene in 1985, they were able to record their second album Disincarnate at Morrisound Studios with famed producer Scott Burns in 1991 – setting themselves up for a productive career. Their latest album Altering Fates and Destinies comes on the heels of celebrating forty years together as a group – proving that the creative juices still flow freely. We got the chance to speak to guitarist/vocalist Stephane Buriez via Zoom as he was drinking white wine and representing a love of Saxon with his shirt – he witnessed them last at Hellfest closing out Sunday as the conversation opened. Prepare to learn the special circumstances behind the songwriting development for the new record, his move to the countryside from living deep in the heart of Paris, lots of memories around the early years of Loudblast, thoughts on the success of Gojira plus relationships with other French metal acts, and what’s on the horizon to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band.
Dead Rhetoric: Altering Fates and Destinies is the ninth and latest studio record for Loudblast. Discuss the songwriting and recording process for this effort – as it greatly differed from much of your previous efforts due to COVID-19, correct? How do you feel about the final product after the work you’ve put into this?
Stephane Buriez: That was kind of a challenge. Manifesto, our previous record, was released during this COVID era. Let’s do that, but there was no tour, nothing normal. Nothing was expected, because we had no clue of what was going to happen. Right after Manifesto was out, I was still at home here in my home studio. Am I going mad? No. So I started composing more songs without the idea of having an album at first. I didn’t know how much time we had to sit down here and be what I am, a musician – or something else, maybe. I started working on new stuff alone in the dark here. After a while, I had 15 songs composed, I composed everything from drums to guitars to arrangements. I left the bass spot to Fred because he’s an amazing musician, plus he did all the lead guitar parts. There was no other way to go ahead. I’m not this kind of guy who sits in a chair watching movies. It’s in my DNA to play music. Without being on stage, let’s compose.
There was a lot of heavier material than what I’ve composed before. At the end, it is what it is. When your back is to the wall, that is totally unexpected. Nothing like this has happened before in my life. I’ve been through a lot of shit, ups and downs during my career as a musician, but this time I am stuck at home. What can I do? I built my own studio, it took months to do this, I had my guitars, my monitor systems. I feel really lucky moving from Paris to the countryside of Paris. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in an apartment in the center of Paris, probably I would have killed someone. This album, there was no goal. It was just every day picking up my guitar, going with the ideas.
Dead Rhetoric: You recorded thirteen tracks – of which ten appear on the main edition of the record, and three bonus tracks will be on the special editions. How difficult of a process was it to pick and choose what would go where – especially understanding today’s modern scene where many times shorter attention spans are at play to consume material?
Buriez: That was a pain in the ass! (laughs). Thankfully, we have amazing people at the record label for Listenable Records. I asked them – send me an email with your four best songs of the album, from what you’ve been listening to. Hopefully that would match with my ideas. The first song I composed, I had been listening to them hundreds of times, you can’t have any real objectivity, you know? It was two years ago I started working on it. Some guys said certain songs should be on the album – in my head, it was a bonus track. I changed a lot of my ideas. All the songs, certain songs on the album, bonus included, are worthwhile. Being a bonus track, I just wanted a shorter time frame for an album because nowadays people are listening to just a single, or a part of the single, except us old people that love listening to full albums. To put the vinyl on your turntable, a lot of other people are listening to streaming music on Spotify. We needed ten songs that can be a good story to tell.
Dead Rhetoric: Thinking in that manner about singles, were the choices obvious of what songs to premiere from this record?
Buriez: We chose “From Beyond II (The Return)” for the lyric video because this was an old school vibe song. I wanted to give the people the best perspective of the album. On this album, there are a lot of different moods and energy. The first video will be “Putrid Age of Decay”, which is a more melodic track. It has this raw energy that contains a lot about what this album is about. Every song has it’s own identity.
Dead Rhetoric: Where did you want to come across with the lyrical themes this time around? Do you find it’s easier or difficult to remain original and find the right inspiration in your lyrics this deep into the band’s career?
Buriez: What I like in my band is composing. Taking my guitar, composing riffs, the drum parts. Building this kind of strange cake, that you want to be tasty sometimes, or you don’t know what’s going to happen. When it comes to the lyrics, this time I wrote half of the lyrics talking about my last years’ experiences with people. Sometimes bad moments in my life, and that I don’t want to talk about dark stuff the whole album. This is a common topic for death metal. I met a friend of mine, we talked about H.P. Lovecraft, we had just re-read some old stories of his, so we tried to work together on half of the album. Going back to the mythos that we talked about in the beginning of the band, sort of like the beginning of the band. Next year is going to be the 40th anniversary of the group, and that made sense for me. I hope it will make sense for other people.
Dead Rhetoric: After living in Paris for the past fifteen years, you chose to move to the countryside in late 2019 where you built your own recording studio. What other factors came into play regarding your move, do you believe this ignited some new energy and creative sparks for life and Loudblast?
Buriez: Yeah, I really think so. Paris, I was not born here, I was born in the northern part of France near Belgium. While I moved to Paris for the business, but Paris can eat you from the inside. It’s a big city, and you can have anything: drugs, alcohol, women, this is really Babylon. But every day, there’s a different show, and its non-stop. That was cool in the beginning. After all those years living there, it’s really expensive. I said to myself, it’s time to make a good move forward. Creatively, thinking about what I want to do, Paris was eating (at) me from the inside. Moving to the countryside, I feel like I was born there. I am in the middle of the forest, all the fields, it’s cool. Taking my bike out there to see wild animals, tending to my garden, but I’m still a metal guy. It did inspire me, I feel settled. When I wake up, I’m not awakened by the cars or the noise of the city, but the birds singing.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you consider some of the career highlights of Loudblast? Specific albums, shows, tours, festival appearances, or other activities when you knew you were making a mark with your work and developing a stronger appreciation or following?
Buriez: I think recording the album Disincarnate back in 1991 changed everything for us, definitely. Before that, we started a band when we were 16. We recorded Disincarnate, our second album, when I was 24. We were at the death metal mecca, Morrisound Studios, with Scott Burns. We recorded that in one month in the best studio in the world. Thanks to Scott also, he did a lot for the band. He introduced us to other guys, Obituary, Death, Morbid Angel. Donald Tardy would come and listen to the mix of our record to see if it was okay. That was insane. That album was successful all around the world, we did a tour with Cannibal Corpse, we did the European tour with Death in the same year. We got to play with Sepultura, we played with Iron Maiden, something is happening. This era in the 90s, that helped create a milestone for us.
A lot of good things happened after, but this album changed everything for us.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the evolution of the death metal scene from your origins to where the global appeal is currently? Does it surprise you to see a second (and now third) generation of musicians still keeping this movement alive?
Buriez: I think all of us, Carcass, we are all coming from the same underground, tape traders era. There was no internet, it was guys writing letters, sending tapes and just waiting for replies all over the world. The passion for this music, we are all connected, we have a lot of fire, vinyl, t-shirts – I still have this in my DNA. Metal is my DNA. The evolution of this music – I don’t know, I’m still in the Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Death camp and those bands changed the game. I have no other names to put on the board after those guys. There was a lot of amazing bands – but the glorious days were something, definitely. Everything was created during that time, ten years of glorious death metal, and some other bands that aren’t as well known like Ripping Corpse, their amazing album. Back in the 90s, everything was really something. I’m talking like an old man (laughs). I do like new death metal bands too – but everything was already perfect back then. When you listen to Blessed Are the Sick or Bolt Thrower, their second album Realm of Chaos – it was amazing.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you enjoy those early tape trading/ fanzine era days that Loudblast was a part of while the France scene was developing? How were your relationships with other bands like Massacra, Agressor, Mutilator / Mutilated, No Return, and others?
Buriez: I remember spending hours, me and Alex from Agressor exchanging addresses. That was the way, sending tapes, flyers, making the emblems. It worked. Euronymous from Mayhem had his label, he wanted to distribute Agressor’s album – because of the tape trading. Everything was made with passion and time. Nowadays you can take your computer, type in a name, and you can get everything. At that time, we had real contact with people. We knew the guys in Sepultura when they toured Europe for the first time with Sodom, I was in Belgium and introduced myself to the band – that was something really human.
Talking about the bands in France – Massacra were our rivals, we got into a lot of fights with them. At the end, it was a nice end as we did a sold-out tour together across France, big venues together. Mutilated too. In France, there weren’t many bands – like six bands. It was okay to fight, at a point, but then we grew up. We are old men now. We became what we wanted to be, we joined forces together.
Dead Rhetoric: Does the success of a band like Gojira surprise you? Was it a proud moment for them to play at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Paris this past summer?
Buriez: Their success didn’t surprise me at all. Those guys are different. I remember the first time I got this Godzilla demo tape. It was a CD – I played it, and I said, ‘what the fuck is that’. After a while, they opened for us, and I met the guys. They told me they were really inspired by Loudblast and our album Disincarnate. And then – those guys were always on a vision that I respect them as friends for a long time. I’m really proud of what they’ve done in their long career – it is a long career, over 25 years of existence. They are not newcomers, they worked off their asses off to be here.
When I got the information that they were going to play at the Olympics, I said, wow! I don’t really follow that, but this night I went home and let’s see what’s going to happen. It’s making history. The guys are still normal guys, considering the success they have all around the world. They are going to be one of the biggest bands of all time, one day. An amazing and big band, and they deserve everything that has happened for them.
Dead Rhetoric: What worries or concerns do you have regarding the world that we are living in today? If you had unlimited finances, resources, and energy to tackle one or two major issues, what do you think needs to be worked on for the greater good of all long-term?
Buriez: Just to be really careful for the environment. I work with Dirk from Megadeth on Savage Lands – I am a part of this organization. Reforestation, I try to help. The previous generation didn’t have a clue, they wanted to make money and profits, they destroyed everything. Maybe it’s too late for us. We won’t have much clean air. We can see a lot of things are changing for our children and grandchildren. Maybe it’s time to make good things happen. It’s not too late to keep in mind that every one of us has to have this perspective. There will be no civilization after a while.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for all things related to Loudblast and other bands you are a part of over the next year or so? As we know the 40th anniversary of Loudblast will soon arrive in 2025…
Buriez: Yes, that’s in another part of 2025, that year will be total madness. Besides the tour to support the new album. We will begin the 40-year anniversary of Loudblast in Lille, our hometown. We are going to play five shows in four days, in a small club with 666 capacities, every day. It will be a good audience too. We will play five different gigs, and we are working on 70 songs. We will play Disincarnate, the whole album, Sublime Dementia, the whole album, Fragments, the first album Sensible Treatment, covers, we will ask some friends of ours to be a part of the party. There is a tour right after, the festivals, it will be like I have to get to a spa and gym to get as healthy as I can get.
I feel lucky after these 40 years. I was 16 creating the band – the bucket list is still big. I’m not feeling like an old man, we are working on an EP, covers from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Michael Schenker, Thin Lizzy. The bucket list is way too big. We have a new album coming out for Sinsaenum next year, with Fred. I feel really lucky, still having this feeling that every day is a new day.