…at aspect has to be the biggest thing. Dead Rhetoric: I think that melancholy really comes through with the new album. The way the clean vocals are in there too. There’s some nice Projector feelings at times. Stanne: Cool, yeah maybe. This one is closer to Projector than any of our other previous albums, I don’t know. When we feel like we have the time or opportunity to dig into that [melancholy], it makes it so creatively interesting. We could do…
…r he did all the lyrics for the album. When we were beginning to write the lyrics, he had the news that he was waiting for his third child to be born, and maybe that was the spark or the idea to tell the story about this character. He should be the one answering this question, because the story is very personal. Dead Rhetoric: And how do you work out the specific songs hand in hand with the lyrical content, is it difficult sometimes to make certai…
…ound, they are entirely vicious and convincing in their execution. Merging bits of absolutely frantic speed (see “Obscurity Depths”) with some tastefully delightful melodies and mid-tempo crunchiness means that they completely understand the sound’s strong suits and waste no time delivering nothing but the good stuff. The d-beats make the faster parts seem more urgent, to the point of devolving into blastbeats while the HM-2 gives it all the bite…
…tle moment where it looked like things are getting better. But it was fake news. Globally, it’s uncertain. It’s an uncomfortable feeling. It feels like there could be some more disastrous things happening politically. There is one thing to be worried about – will we ever be able to travel across the Atlantic, or is this a little scare or everything will go back to normal? Dead Rhetoric: What is in store for Humavoid over the next twelve to eightee…
…though that sounds romantic, like I’m trying to push ahead, I just get really bored easily. As soon as I’ve done something, I feel like I don’t have the energy to do it again because I know what the outcome is going to be. Whenever I have the opportunity to do something new, I often become compelled to go in directions that I haven’t gone before. That invariably ends up being a gong show. That’s how it rolls. This ended up being another example of…
…e people a chance to put their minds into something else other than the daily bad news. Dead Rhetoric: Were there any special lyrical or musical inspirations for Feel the Burn? Heino: Musically we wanted to do something a bit different without losing one bit of our identity as a band. We were after some poppier elements rather than steering towards more heavier direction. That doesn´t mean the music lacks power, quite on the contrary. As far as th…
…with fiery speech and calls to pray to Shaitan. The album title is partially dedicated to Russian movie Leviathan, and the song “The Engraving of Gustave Dore” is my own peculiar interpretation of it’s idea, based on impression from the original gravure. I think, it has some influence of post-modern, this is the first time for us. Same thing with “Emperor in Hell,” this song’s theme is close to Russian gothic literature and narrates about the Emp…
…f despondency. There is a quiet that ends the opener and bridges effortlessly into the wholly acoustic “Det djupa havet”, a quiet that belies a sense of endless longing. While that may carry as a saccharine bit of exposition on the opening of Dikter om döden, it is written to be intentionally hyperbolic – this is an outstanding listen. As noted, the marriage of folk with black metal is nothing new – within every national (and regional) scene there…
…and I just don’t see how it’s possible to plan at the moment. But apparently Russia has a vaccine they are testing very soon, and other places don’t want their vaccine – they want to develop their own. But they reckon it will be relatively soon. So maybe it’ll change in the near future so we can hope. There’s that word again. We can maybe hope that some of those promises will come to fruition. But for the time being, this is it. https://www.youtu…
…s the tempo and speed up tenfold to where most remember SA during their early glory days – as a result making it a magnificent effort. What could be a bit of a sticking point to full on appreciation for Mysterizer would be the high-pitched warble of Vitalii. He sounds like he’s singing with a full barrel of helium in his lungs – even higher than Chris Bay of Freedom Call, the almost sinister edge has an unintended comical quality that makes songs…
…raftian deity, especially the one who spawned Cthulhu, your music better deliver the unholy goods. And Ukraine’s Nug did exactly that with Alter Ego. Post-metal, as nebulous as the term is, has gone quite stale these past few years, what with downright boring copycats like Rosetta or The Ocean Collective regurgitating ersatz Isis records. On the flipside, there’s bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna that still manage to push the envelope and send…
…lf (laughs). It’s incredible man. There are a list of things you can probably do differently, and there’s no doubt that I would say I’ve made my share of mistakes. I’ve put the work and the time in also, I’ve been able to survive in these shark infested waters, switching record companies and management, learning to do it myself. All the different interplays within the band, having a relationship to keep the band together. The one thing I’ve always…
…when it comes to phrasing and inflection – as well as the range of the early Joey Tempest/ Europe years (think Wings of Tomorrow) when listening to his work for “Let it Slide” and the shape shifting “Only to Burn”. Keeping the record tight at eight songs and under forty minutes ensures multiple, frequent playbacks – plus the versatility in tempos and musicianship-oriented sequences allows the listener to key in on specific parts and discover some…
…cs that could be a future Gotcha set favorite. Additional sound clips from news anchors filter in and out of specific tracks, adding ambiance and context to the lyrical content on display. Later the band take on the Three Dog Night cut “One Is the Loneliest Number” and add a bit of metal spin on things, Michael using more of his lower register to perfection during the emotional verses. Gotcha embrace a songwriting style and outlook where they want…
…e spectrum from the Gothenburg beginnings to more modern stuff. Unfortunately, a few things bog it down from not hitting its full potential. Listening to Stargazers, you can instantly roll out the usual influences for this type of material (Soilwork, In Flames, Insomnium) and it’s immediately apparent that Drops of Heart have done their due diligence when it comes to making the sound work. They have a modern feel, yet the ‘commerical’ sounding asp…
…t know, it’s kind of hard to say. Accepting your own fate, kind of. Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the next twelve months shaping up for Ensiferum – will there be any special promotion, video content, social media contests to help in the downtime while we await when touring can finally, safely progress again? Lindroos: The album is coming out on the 10th of July. We are shooting a new music video, and that is in the editing process. That will come…
…gs that you need to take into account. It’s no wonder that we have not really played those songs live. “Mark of the Beast” off the Wake the Dead EP, “Shifting Sands” off our last album Left to the Sharks, or this one – I hope we are able to play this one live as it’s a damn good song, and Jerome likes it too. In order to make sure your live set is as compact as possible and packs as much punch as you want it to, you have to leave the long songs ou…
…ion that pushes the envelope of what these musicians can do on all fronts, lyrically, vocally and musically. Deliberate and thoughtful with his answers, we reached out to guitarist/vocalist David Sanchez as he brings us up to speed on the latest bass player change, the game plan behind V, thoughts on how the career has unfolded and where they stand as a unit, and lots of deep thoughts regarding education, the media, and how the entertainment indus…
…icians. What do you feel you’ve learned from doing these? Erni: What I really enjoy is actually connecting with musicians. I’ve done this with four singers now. It was super nice to connect with them. Three out of the four I have never met in person, and without the Coronavirus I would not have talked to them. Maybe if we would meet at festival or something we might meet, but this was something very different. It was interesting to see how the mus…
…gs. Once we get into the studio, then it really goes from there. That usually takes only about a month, sometimes even a little bit less. I think André did all the drums in two days. The recording process goes by pretty quick because everybody is seasoned and we can nail things very fast. We’ve been recording at the same (studio) in Germany, and we have it down to science now. Dead Rhetoric: Do you end up creating and writing more material than wh…
…d on stage? Kevill: I don’t know if people would be surprised, but I’m really a silly and jolly person. The person I am on stage is an aspect – a version of me that is cynical, sarcastic, and angry about everything because the world is going to hell. What people might not expect is I like to make a stupid joke out of everything – I’ll analyze stupid little things about a piece of entertainment. The thing with figures of entertainment is they are p…
…start work on new music? Herr Morbid: I already started, but I’m in a really early stage. This new album was written in a very short amount of time and recorded straight away; I like to work under pressure because I often come up with some urgency in the sound and some good ideas, but at the same time it’s really stressful and with this new album it was a little too much. So next time I want to be ready for the studio with quite some advance so I…
…that side, the metal scene is doing really well, and people are being really supportive towards other bands. Dead Rhetoric: In a recent interview I read for the Moshville Times, you mention your thoughts on new music and ‘demo’ level artists wanting to rise quicker than ever to ‘release/album’ artists, sort of running ahead of walking when they are ready to. Do you believe that has serious long-term impact for the listeners who are afraid to seek…
…aditional heavy metal band. There is something happening in Sweden, and Italy has some really good bands like Rhapsody, and Labyrinth. I’m not sure that Germany is the center of metal anymore. We have the luxury of having this big Wacken festival here. When people think about Germany, they think of Wacken as one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in the world. Nowadays there are a lot of bands in other countries that are well-known and really go…
…ame heavier, perhaps more textured without being complicated. They’re more lively and voluminous, something we learned as we were rehearsing for the album. Dead Rhetoric: What have you enjoyed about bringing Deathwhite into the live arena? Deathwhite: We’ve done things backward: Most bands start out playing shows, then record. We recorded two EPs and a full-length before playing our first show. It was a little nerve-wracking taking the plunge into…
…encouraging me to… Andersson: Keep one foot in the darkness. Sadonis: Exactly. I fully embraced that idea where I have one foot in for this third album. Dead Rhetoric: You have album I, II, and III. Is this something that you feel is going to keep progressing with numbers for each title? Sadonis: Anything goes. It might also have an odd title, or we skip straight to number 42 [laughs]. It’s really open. Andersson: I think it’s great to have this….
…ompared to where we were, at that point it was a huge success. We were really, really happy with it. Of course if you compare it to the album we just released, it’s quite different in many ways. We developed quite a bit for the second album. Some of the songs on the first album, even though they are crowd pleasers and very heavy and straight-forward, but they aren’t as advanced, the songwriting wasn’t advanced as the songwriting we do nowadays. We…
…t album The Last Knight with a renewed sense of confidence, the band probably have delivered their most focused and potent effort to date. Including aspects of melodic/arena-oriented metal beyond their symphonic, power, and progressive metal touches – they also continue their appreciation of history with the life and reign of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I capturing the lyrical storyline. Reaching out to guitarist Christian Hermsdörfer fresh from…
…re of his lower register and the arrangement building out through a carefully crafted, meaningful lead break that more bands should inject into their material. Those who miss the spirit of say 1987-1991 in the melodic hard rock/metal community where bands like Skid Row, Dokken, Tesla, and maybe a bit of Alter Bridge or Judas Priest factor into the mix, Shakra will bring those good times back to the forefront. Mad World won’t set cash registers on…
…or many people and we always state in Fen that much of what we have to say lyrically is very much open to the listener’s own interpretation. Dead Rhetoric: Lyrically, are you at all influenced by the current (and perilous) state of the world? The Watcher: Not openly of course – we would never speak so directly of current affairs, it simply isn’t how we go about things conceptually. We would rather take a more esoteric, philosophical view of realit…
