Axamenta Interview

 

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new ep?

After lots of hard work (and patience) we were finally able to release this EP that’s been brewing for about a year or 2! Meanwhile, we did start on the process for our upcoming EP. We’re working on the story line and are trying to match the music and the instruments we’ll use to the atmosphere of the story. We got some good responses on the cinematic part of our music, so expect more of that in the future.

2.Recently you have released a new EP, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

Compared to the previous release (Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture, from 2006), it’s definitely a step up, but still along the lines of the later songs we wrote back then, like “The Omniscient” and “Ashes to Flesh”. The other songs were a little more tied to our older stuff, which was completely different from what we’re doing now. The band has always kept evolving, and we intend to keep pushing our own horizons.

3.The band was broken up for more than 10 years, what was the cause of the split and also the decision to reform?

The hiatus came at an unfortunate time, when we were doing pretty ok with our previous album, but you can’t “wing” health issues, so that was that. We did keep ourselves busy in various projects, until Covid hit and Ian summoned us with new music, asking if we were still available to pick up where we left. Impressed by the music he sent us, we unanimously agreed.

4.When the band split up 3 members went on to form 'He Came From the sun', were you more interested in going into a different direction musically when the band split up?

The band didn’t really split up, rather Peter (Vocalist) announced his departure as the strain of regular gigs took a toll on his vocal cords. We took that opportunity to change two things. First, we kind of hated the band name Axamenta at that point, it was not something we had chosen ourselves and we had the impression it didn’t fit with our style anymore. Secondly, we wanted to evolve more to prog and find a clean singer. In hindsight, we chose poorly, as both choices drove us back into anonymity. We wrote a lot of music with HCFTS but it was too proggy, very difficult to bring live and after a lot of bandmember changes we decided to quit as it just wasn’t working.  

5.The lyrics on the new ep are a concept album, can you tell us a little bit more about the story you covered with this release?

“Spires” touches on the story of our 2006 concept album “Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture” and delves into the life of Father Harold O’Callahan, a priest in 19th century London tormented by guilt over his brother Benjamin’s tragic fate. Haunted by remorse, he joins the clergy in an attempt to absolve himself.  During the apotheosis of the “Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture” story, Harold finds himself atop the spires of his church, plagued by these resulting harrowing shifts in reality. Questioning his faith and the nature of the horrors he witnesses, Harold now faces a critical choice: to seek redemption in his faith or relinquish it, along with his guilt and his life. 

6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Axamenta'?

That name goes back a long, long time; it means hymns that were sung during virgin sacrifices. The name was chosen by the “old” AxamentA, three dudes that started AxamentA in 1991 which we actually don’t even know as there was a complete different line-up between them and the EAITT line-up. Kinda crazy bandlore 

7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?

We see the priest, Father Harold O’Callahan, standing in despair in front of his church, looking at the spires and seeing the motorised moon (that is references on EAITT) and the fabric of reality unravelling before his eyes. We deliberately didn’t use an AI engine for this, because we wanted to really encapsulate the story in this piece of art. All credit goes to Darin Leach who made this artwork for us. Ian knows him from doing music for trailers as Darin mainly does cover artwork for production and trailer music albums. 

8.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Obviously the 2 performances at Graspop come to mind first. But I think we had fun at every show we did to be honest. Axamenta brought energy and as a group, we loved hanging out together at these shows, acting silly and surprising people in many sorts of ways. We opened for Cradle of Filth in Antwerp once, that was a nice one, since they’ve been a big influence in our earlier years (mainly vocally and lyrically). I also remember opening for Vader in Brussels - the backstage had the best vol-au-vent ever. Talking about food, we also played in Ieper once, where the 2 mains bands (us and Thurisaz) went for dinner in a fancy restaurant, while - I think - the other bands were provided with sandwiches. Oops, nevertheless, we ate like kings haha. Besides food memories, our CD presentation at Biebob with Aborted was one to cherish and remember too of course. 

9.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new ep?

No, unfortunately not. We even struggle to have a get together, let alone rehearse and go out to play live. Times have changed for us, I think we have 13 kids between us and some demanding job lives too. Never say never, but you won’t catch us live in the foreseeable future I’m afraid.

10.The new ep was self released but the band has worked with labels in the past. Are you open to working with another label again in the future?

Yes, very much so even. We are open to whoever can help us spread our music far and wide. 

11.On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to your newer music by fans of extreme metal?

Overall, very positive. Some older fans even awoke from their slumber because of our new EP, which was a very pleasant catch-up. We did get a lot of positive reactions to the added cinematic vibe to our music. So we’ll surely keep exploring that spectrum of our music.

12.When can we expect another full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Like mentioned earlier, we want to pull the listener into our cinematic universe, both with our music, but also the overall atmosphere, lyrics and artwork will all help to accomplish this immersive experience we want to provide. Not sure if it’ll be a full length or another EP, it will be whatever we think our story needs and whatever works best to deliver to the fans.

13.What are some of the bands or musical styles the band members are currently listening to nowadays?

A lot of us moved on to modern, djenty things, like Periphery, Haken, Tesseract and the likes. Some have stayed in the older regions of thrash, death and black metal, sidestepping the entire metal genre even for some good old classic rock legends. It doesn’t matter a lot to us what label is put onto something, it just has to grab you, or maybe even better, inspire you.

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thank you for reaching out to us, it’s highly appreciated that we can get the word out a little more by doing this interview. I hope we caught the reader’s interest and over time, their musical loyalty of course!

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