ADifferentShadeOfBlackMetalZine

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Hortus Animae 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 album?
Summer hasn’t been a very active period for the band, but still we started rehearsing for the upcoming gigs, we hope to start our live activity this coming winter 2014/2015, and these rehearsals are also important because we welcomed new members in our line-up and they look forward to playing gigs as much as we do.
We also started writing new material but I can’t tell more about it right now.

2.In March you had released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from your previous material?
“Secular Music” is contemporarily our most violent and most progressive album to date. Everything is more emphasized than on the previous albums, violence is more violence, melody is more melody and so on ahah; let’s say that we had a different songwriting approach in this record, we didn’t jam in the rehearsal room following the old school method, we individually wrote our parts and then we met a few times to put all pieces together. And it worked! Really well. In fact I think “Secular Music” is also our most focused album ever. Probably this album is a bit less symphonic or gothic than the previous ones, but still it contains these elements, let’s say they are not predominant but still are shades that make up the whole picture.

3.The band was broken up for 7 years (2006-2013), what was the cause of the split and also the decision to reform?
As a matter of fact we never decided to split-up, it just happened, each one of us got caught by personal happenings, etc. So we started rehearsing less and less till the point that it was clear we wouldn’t be doing music together, at least for a while. Then in 2012 we started meeting more often, due to the release of the “Funeral Nation MMXII” compilation album, we could feel in the air we wanted Hortus Animae to be alive again, also our drummer Grom was writing me mails telling me we should reform, the compilation was obtaining a great response from press and public, our fans were still there waiting for us and asking for our return, so shortly after we decided to start our band activities again and in 2013 we started writing the material that has then ended up on “Secular Music”.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
The inspiration comes from life itself, from everything that surrounds us. Obviously everyone (and especially) artists have always said they’re living in odd and difficult times, and I am no exception in this regard. Of course, like any other artist I filter everything through the prism of my personality, rework, and create according to my beliefs, my interests, obviously my madness and quirks. The album contains different themse related to the apocalypse, which concept is as old as the world, nothing new. But the point is this philosophy of Creation, Preservation and Destruction which focuses more on destruction in this very album, but not only. After destruction comes a rebirth. For some people the apocalypse has already arrived, they’re abandoned to themselves, alone, with only ruins around - sometimes each one of us may feel that way; there are those who are afraid of this day, let’s say in the "traditional" way, there is the anger of those who feel that we are the cause of our evil, there is a rebellion against all this... Sometimes the result is giving up, sometimes a quiet awareness, maybe some light of hope. Taking cue from all this, I indulged myself and gathered ideas from my a bit twisted imagination, perhaps, and also from ancient forgotten spiritualities, in this period reborn – speaking of that whole cycle I mentioned before. In short, it is difficult to explain where and how lyrics come from. It is a process that is all a mystery, sometimes also to myself!

5.I know that the band’s name means 'garden of the soul' in Latin, how does this name fit in with your musical sound?
Our music always has represented, both musically and lyrically, a vast spectrum of human feelings. So we see Hortus Animae, the garden of the Soul, as a place where all souls rest, in peace, torment or even both, plus all the feelings in between.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We’ve never been too active in the live front, yet we played really cool gigs in company of bands like Napalm Death, Lacuna Coil and Ancient (among others) and these three I mentioned definitely have been the best ones so far. In particular the gig with Ancient, cause we met the one who then became Hortus Animae’s drummer, Grom, that at the time was Ancient’s drummer.
We are right now working on our future shows, trying to manage something that won’t leave our audience indifferent, but as said before I can’t tell much more about it right now as everything is still a work in progress.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Not yet, but once we get ready to start we’ll start managing the more gigs we can, trying to reach the more places possible.

8.On the new album you had done a Jethro Tull cover, what was the decision behind doing your own version of one of their songs?
It is a tribute to a great band, and to our origins, even a little to our parents... You cannot start something new without looking at the roots. Then, as you know, we’ve always enjoyed doing covers. We like to take important songs for our musical growth and make them our own. It seems that so far we have always managed it well, with our bizarre and personal interpretations of Mayhem (still clamorous to this day the way we mixed them with il Balletto di Bronzo and Mike Oldfield), Queen and Dead Can Dance. "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull is no exception.

9.The new album was released on Flicknife Records, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Flicknife Records is a British label, they exist since the 80’s and they produced albums of bands like Hawkind, for example. Many have been surprised for we signed to a rock label, in fact we are their first metal band, but when the time came to choose a record company to support “Secular Music”, theirs seemed to be the best offer. So, well, it represented a challenge for both band and label, but we definitely love challenges, so here we go.

10.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your newer material by fans of extreme metal?
The feedback has been great, from both press and public, the album received and is still receiving great reviews, our fans write us enthusiastic messages for Hortus Animae’s new sound (well, it isn’t exactly a new sound, it’s an up-to-date version of what our sound has always been). Everything is proceeding really well.

11.What is going on with some of the other musical projects or bands these days that some of the band members are involved with?
Yes, we all have side projects. I am involved in my own solo project Martyr Lucifer and in the international act Space Mirrors, the first being a goth rock/metal project and the latter being devoted to a heavy-oriented space rock sound. Bless has an acoustic project called Nashville & Backbones, Hypnos has a Tarantino-inspired band called The Gangstar and Grom is the drummer of the rock band Testing Tomorrow. As you can see we all also like to experiment far from the metal fields. In our ranks we also have MG Desmadre from the brutal death metal band Crawling Chaos and Ecnerual from the black metal bands Profezia and Mourning Mist.

12.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We really cannot say. Till now we’ve always created music trying to go beyond boundaries, and it’s what we’ll keep doing also in the future. We didn't have an aim, or at least we could say the aim was to play our music free from categorization. And it looks like we succeeded somehow. So we’ll keep doing what we always did, hoping our muses stay by our side and hoping to offer the people albums they enjoy listening to, while they are surprised of what they're hearing ahah

13.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We all listen to a lot of different music, we are extremely open-minded persons. The albums I’ve been listening the most during this 2014 have been Behemoth’s “The Satanist”, Tiamat’s “The Scarred People”, Lana Del Rey’s “Ultraviolence”, Hellhammer’s “Demon Entrails”, Nagaarum’s “Rabies Lyssa”, Symptoms of Sickness’ “S/T” and Cradle of Filth’s reissue of “Total Fucking Darkness”, this says it all!
But if I have to say names of bands that inspired the music of “Secular Music”, I don’t know, really. We never think of playing something like this or that band, we just do what we are willing to do. In hindsight, I would say that you can hear a hint of King Crimson in a few songs, but in any case it’s nothing more than one of the nuances that make up the overall sound of the album.

14.How would you describe your views on Occultism?
It is a rather complex talk, but surely interesting. In general occultism was meant to be a knowledge destined to a closed circle of people. Let's say hidden from the majority. I am also interested in the Veda knowledge. And it is said there (and in fact we can see it now) that the knowledge that was for hundreds and thousands of years closed to the majority of people now is opened. It is a so cold drop of Satya Yuga inside Kali Yuga, that we are entering now. So occult (as a term) is not existing anymore. Everyone can have whatever knowledge he wants, the real question is if people (at least the majority) want it.
Instead cheap occultism is just a pentagram on the floor and a mysterious look, and it all remained in the past, with teenager times.

15.What are some of your non musical interests?
Hmmm interests are many, I enjoy horse-riding, not as a sport but just for the soul... In general I enjoy nature and being outdoors, animals - for how banal it sounds, but it is so. As each person I like a good book and an interesting movie, then the tastes are already another topic! As said before I am interested in Veda, and it includes a large amount of topics, from food till the certain lifestyle. I love travelling and experiment different food of the world (but only vegetarian). But in fact I think you can find a little of it all in my lyrics - as I think it is for every artist.

16.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We have “Secualr Music” and “Godless Years” out there, people give it a chance and you won’t regret. They contain litanies able to obsess, stalk and haunt your thoughts, your souls, your nights.

Sylvatica Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

We are a melodic death metal band, with inspirations from primarily Nordic folk music and Black metal. We started out in 2009, as more of a folk/black project, but the band has developed way beyond that, and we now try to bring many other elements into our music as well. Our upcoming CD ‘Evil Seeds’ is just around the corner, and we are blown away by the positive feedback!

2.You have a new album coming out in July, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the new album and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

It’s a journey through many of the different sounds that metal has to offer, but without giving up the Sylvatica sound. We’ve always tried to make our songs varied and interesting, but this album is way more diverse than our previous material. This is a good thing.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new album?

In our lyrics we write stories about many different things, and take inspiration from-also-many different things, such as: Heaven & Hell, Nature, Norse Mythology etc.

4.On the earlier recordings the music was written in Danish but on the new album the lyrics are written in English, what was the decision behind writing in this language for the new recording?

We felt that the Danish language had a certain, sort of, silliness to it, with the way we wrote our lyrics. And we wanted a bit more serious tone on this album, English was the better fit.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Sylvatica'?

It means ‘of the forest’. There is a lot of forest in this part of the world, and many of the themes in our lyrics also involve forests and nature. It was a great fit.

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

We’ve played a lot of great shows over the past years, the ‘Mjød and Metal Tour’ (Mead and Metal Tour) for example, had some great ones. But the credit has to go to the fans, and the people in the crowd in general. When the crowd is having a blast, we are having a blast.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

To be announced.

8.The new album is coming out on Gateway Music, can you tell us a little bit more about this record label?

Gateway Music is not really a record label. It is a distribution firm which will be helping us with physical and digital distribution. They are setting up a web-shop for us. We will post the link to the shop on our facebook page very soon.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of melodic death, black and folk metal?

The feedback on the title track from our upcoming album “Evil Seeds” has been very positive. So we are looking forward to unveiling a track more on youtube soon. Our old stuff is a tad more folk inspired than our new material, and the feedback from the folk metal fans have been great in the past. The new album is going in a more “finish melodic metal” direction, so we are looking forward to hearing what people think.

10.What is going on with the other bands or musical projects that some of the band members are involved with these days?

Horned Almighty is just about to release their 5th full-length album “World of Tombs”, and Satanic Assault Division is planning on hitting the studio soon to record their second full-length album. So things are going pretty well.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

It is hard to say. Usually we just write something we think sounds cool and then suddenly we have been going in a different direction without even noticing it. We are all very happy with the style we have right now on Evil Seeds, so let’s see what happens next time.

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Bands such as Wintersun and Kalmah have been great sources of inspiration on this album. Also more heavy bands such as Behemoth have influenced our songwriting. We are all listening to many different styles of metal and it all influences the writing process.

13.How would you describe your views on Paganism?

I don’t really have an opinion regarding that. I guess it’s okay. I like nature.

14.What are some of your non musical interests?

I like skiing but unfortunately the conditions for that is very poor here in Denmark. I also like fishing and nature in general.

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

Thank you for reading and thank you for the interview! Remember to stay tuned on our facebook-page, Evil Seeds is available on our web shop from the 1st July.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Sidious/Revealed In Profane Splendour/Kaotoxin Records/2014 CD Review

Sidious are a band from the United Kingdom that has been featured before in this zine and plays a mixture of symphonic black metal, death metal and deathcore and this is a review of their 2014 album "Revealed In Profane Splendour" which will be released in November by Kaotoxin Records.

Far sound effects start off the album along with some drums that leads to more of a heavy blackened metal sound and a few seconds later symphonic elements start to kick in along with the music adding in more fast parts, blast beats and a mixture of black metal screams and death metal growls.

You can hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts throughout the recording along with a great amount of melody which is also a strong part of the recording when solos and leads are finally added in along with some of the slower sections bringing in more of a deathcore style to the bands musical style.

As the album progresses the music gets more technical along with all of the musical instruments having a very powerful sound to them and the band also brings in a few very long and epic in length tracks which also sees the band also adding grim sounding spoken word parts and clean playing into the music briefly and a couple of the later songs sees the band adding in a small amount of melodic chants and clean singing while the main focus remains mostly on a brutal blackened death metal sound.

Sidious creates another album that takes the symphonic and melodic sides of black metal and combines it with the brutality and technical parts of death metal and deathcore to create some music that has a variety of many different extreme metal styles being mixed together, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover dark, blasphemous and occult themes.

In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Sidious and if you are a fan of this band, you should enjoy this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Sacrilegious Majesty" "Annihilation Of Abhorent Credeance" and "Paragon, Bringer Ov Light". 8 out of 10.

Twilightfall Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Twilightfall as a group first appeared in 2010. However, the history of the musical project Twilightfall as one author-Wortherax -genus before. Nokturnal Mortum after I participated in the recording of albums many famous Ukrainian groups as a session guitarist, was engaged in an arrangement, studio work on mixing and mastering. For all these years I never left the idea to record your own album. In my home studio, I still did it. I showed his work familiar to musicians, and they are advised to embody the idea of the project to a live band. And manifested Twilightfall.

2.You have a new album coming out in August, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical direction of the new recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you played with your past band?
The new album is the first album Twilightfall, this kind of experiment with different areas of the metal. However, uniquely characterize the style is impossible. The musical and textual material was coined as a whole, all the ideas were, as they say, from the depths of the soul. In fact it is Melodic Death Thrash Doom Sympho Metall. This is unlike the music Nokturnal Mortum 90s.

3.Can you update us more on what was going on in between the years you left Nokturnal Mortem and what made you decide to form another band?
As I said earlier, after I left NM, had a lot of work involved in the arrangements, records, participation in various projects, such as the creation of musicals in the rock processing. This could not impose its imprint on the musical ideas in my work. I always maintained a good relationship with NM and other famous musicians, allowing the works of many well-known groups. That, I think, first of all influenced by my desire to realize their ideas and create Twilightfall.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with your music?
I think, in any direction, there are elements of music lyrics. This reflects the mood of the author and artists. In this album, there's a lot of fragments that transmit lyrical mood. I, as a musician, was formed through the blues and hard rock, and in these areas lyricism sound particularly stressed. Doom-metal, too lyrical, and this style is reflected in our work.

5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the name 'Twilightfall' and also is it related to the Nokturnal Mortem album of the same name?
Indeed, the name of the group in some way connected with the album NM Twilightfall. I love this album, I was involved in its creation and in part I can say that the title of my project is the memory of working with NM.

6.have you been able to do any live shows with the newer band or are there any plans for any live shows in the future?
Many times we have participated in various festivals with the participation of Ukrainian groups. This is mainly on the territory of Ukraine. Last charity concert was held in Kharkov 13.07 in 2014 to support the soldiers, liberating our country from invaders. We are proud to have contributed to the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. In the future we hope to carry on touring Europe.

7.The new album will be coming out on Svarga Music, how did you get in contact with this label?
We are familiar with Svarga long time, this label has released many albums of artists, among them my friends Munruthel (ex Nokturnal Mortum) and Khors. Svarga professional approach to all matters relating to the production of discs, advertising and information promoting Ukrainian metal bands.

8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by extreme metal fans that have heard the band so far?
Only positive reviews. This is good. Music publications, students talk about some of the revolution in style. Everyone likes the presence in our album and traditions Melodic Death Metal, Doom, Thrash, Heavy, Progressive. Estesstvenno add here the roots of Blues and Hard Rock. I believe that music should not be one-sided, monotone. It tires the audience, making the overall picture of the material is not interesting.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
At the moment we are working on a new album. It will be a little different, more agile and emotional stuff. However, in many ways it is often combined with the previous one. Preparing to publish information site group planned to record a clip. All this, I hope in the near future.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have been an influence on the band and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Now you can endlessly talk about the bands and styles that have influenced the group. Each participant Twilightfall has extensive experience in musical performance, everyone has their favourite bands. I can name In Flames, Arch Enemy, Dissection, At The Gates, Children Of Bodom, Dark Tranquillity, Redemption, and many others. I think many will agree with me that these commands take a worthy place in metal music.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
I love to fish. This is a package that allows a break from the worries, the water has to be creative, calms the nerves. Still, as any musician, I love beer.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts
I am pleased that our debut album in one degree or another touched the souls of the listeners. In future we hope to continue our work and please unusual musical discoveries of our fans. From myself, I wish you peace, happiness, success in work, in life and energy in the shower!

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Bleeding Utopia 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 album?
We have been writing some new stuff and have had some auditions for a new drummer. At last we found our guy Mauro.
So the lineup will soon be complete and we can get going with the rehearsals and get out there and do some gigs and tours.
And we also have been busy with the new records label we started, Its real fun but a lot of work.

2.In April you had released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from your previous full length and ep?
It's definitely different than our previous album and it's more defined towards how we want our sound to be.
Heavier, darker, faster and more melodic with a old school yet modern sound. More death metal and less thrash metal but the thrash influences will always be there.
The Ep and the first album was written by Andreas over a few years before there even was a Bleeding Utopia.
We just had to rehearse the songs and then enter the studio to records them.
On ”Darkest Potency” we wrote most songs together and took more time in pre-production.
We tried a lot of different arrangements in both music and vocals and re-wrote a lot of the riffs just to keep it more simpler and more right to the point.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
The lyrics are mostly about death and murder, which fits in with the musical style as well as the aggressiveness of the music, and there's more individual themes or stories within each song.
All the songs have their own story. But all the songs are about death and destruction is different kinds and ways.
We like to write as i am writing a script to a short film. And when you read the lyrics and hear the music you get o ”film” inside your head. Like when you listen to an Amon Amarth song you can almost see the battle in front of you.
Maybe everyone don’t get the same film in their heads , I hope that people create their own film and feeling when listening to our songs.

4.The band was broken up for awhile, what was the cause of the split and also the decision to reform?
From the beginning (2003) it was only a project. Bleeding Utopia as a 100% band was formed in late 2009.
So this lineup (from 2009) never "broke up". Some of the guys wanted different things out of their life's so they left the band on a friendly basis. But we kept on writing and being creative all the time. So there was nervier a brake up just a reconstruction of the band in 2013.

5.The band was originally known as Operation SidEffecf then Delicous Deformed, what was the decision behind the name change and also the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Bleeding Utopia'?
It was only a side project from the beginning, and I guess that you have to name it something.
Operation Sideffect was the name when it was only Andreas writing songs as a side project in 2003.
In 2004 Andreas wanted to to some gigs and asked a few friends to join and changed the name to Delicious Deformed,
the intention was to make it a band but due the lack of time from almost every ”member” in was put on ice and almost forgotten, haha. But when Andreas band Astral Carneval called it quits in the fall of 2009 Andreas decided to take things to the next level in and do things seriously it was time for a new name…and it became BLEEDING UTOPIA.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
The best shows we played was definitely when we played on home turf during the Scandinavian Aggression Tour and everything felt really good and we had the support of our friends and family as well.
Another really funny show was in Hyvinkää, Finland, where we played in a small town at a location that had almost no sound setup or designated stage, it was more playing in one of the corners. That show really turned out awesome though and we all had a great time.
We´ve always had a high standard when we play, no matter what kind of venue. Sometimes the back line and lights has been a joke. But we always get up there and do everything we can to give you a great show.
When the band that is going up on the stage after us feels uncomfortable thanks to our show, we have succeeded.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Not at the moment, but now that we've found a drummer our future is looking very bright!
We are about to rehearse with the new line up and then hopefully get out on the road as much as possible.
So prepare your necks, hopefully our booking agent ”EAM-agentur” will book some cool shows around Europe and some cool festivals for spring and summer 2015.

8.The new album was released on Bleeding Music, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
It's a label we started ourselves in order to have more control over the music and also to try and help other bands out as well with distribution among other things. We have been in the music business a long time and felt that we wanted even more music in our lives. And there are so many great bands out there that deserve to be heard and seen so want to try to help those bands.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to the newer music by fans of extreme metal?
We've really been blown away by the awesome response that it has gotten and it's great to see so many people enjoy what we do best!
It feels like we have something good going on. People seems to like it and the reviews has been great so far.
Hopefully people will show up on our gigs and upcoming tours as well, haha.

10.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are involved with?.
Right now bleeding utopia is our only focus. It takes time to give 110%. But having our own studio always creates ”late night creativity”. We have no other band than Bleeding Utopia but if anyone of us have something to record just for fun we do that of course. But Bleeding utopia is priority number 1 for all of us.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
You never know what the future holds, but we've really found our direction with this album and we're definitely gonna continue to develop our music and sound with this reference.
We will continue on the same path. It feels like we have our sound and will keep it that way. We stand our ground and will not try to make songs for the radio.

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Can't really pin-point where the inspiration comes from but listening to a lot of music and trying to come up with stuff that you like is basically the whole process.
Joakim enjoy good music regardless of genre and that can be all from Jazz, Blues, Fusion towards Death metal, Grindcore, Power Metal among others.
For David and Andreas almost everything goes back to the 90`s death and black metal. Bands like Dissection, Amon Amarth, Entombed, At the gates etc. Nowadays we listen and gets inspiration from all kinds of music.
Where one genre is lacking, another fills the void and vice versa.

13.What are some of your non musical interests?
Joakim is really into Cycling but his main hobby outside music is definitely computer gaming.
David is hanging out with friends drinking beer, motorcycles, animals,
Andreas have a big film interest and he watches almost everything that's on history channel and discovery channel.
But in the end almost everything we do has some kind of connection to music.

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Buy Darkest Potency, bang your head, See you on the road in the near future!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Manimalism/Self Titled/2014 CD Review

Manimalism are a band from Norway that plays an avant garde form of black metal and this is a review of their self titled and self released 2014 album.

A very dark, weird and heavy sound starts off the album along with some clean singing vocals and melodic riffing and the music has a very avant garde vibe to it and after awhile female vocals can be heard in certain sections of the recording along with all of the musical instruments having a very powerful sound to them.

Most of the songs stick to a slow and heavy direction and brings back some of the 90's style of Norwegian avant garde metal that has not been done by any bands in a long time and on some of the tracks spoken words are utilized as well as a small amount of synths and drones being brought in briefly while the main focus remains mostly on a heavy guitar orientated sound and while the music is rooted in black metal none of the screams or aggressive vocals of that genre are brought into the music.

Manimalism brings back the post avant garde Norwegian black metal sound of the 90's and adds a more guitar driven approach to the genre as well as keeping the vocals melodic, the production sounds very professional for being a self released recording while the lyrics have a very dark and poetic edge to them.

In my opinion Manimalism are a very great sounding post avant garde black metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Demons In Tuxedos" "Romance" and "The Cocktail Party To End Them All". 8 out of 10.

https://www.facebook.com/manimalism

Friday, September 12, 2014

Northern Oak Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?
Truthfully, after the album was done we had a bit of a break! We’d been working very intensively on preparing for the recording and then actually getting everything recorded, so we all took some time to relax. Since then, however, we’ve been very busy organizing everything for the release- getting together all the rewards for our Kickstarter backers, preparing merch and the album artwork, as well as finding time to play some shows here and there!

2.You have a new album coming out in October, how would you describe the musical sound of the new recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Musically, I think this is our most complete album- we’ve spent a long time writing, practicing and playing these songs (some of them were written shortly before the release of our previous album, Monuments) and we’re very comfortable with them. There’s a lot more depth to this album- we added more sounds (violin, melodeon, clean vocals) and really tried to make it sound much heavier than Monuments. Having a recording wizard like Chris Fielding behind the desk really helped with that! I think Of Roots and Flesh differs from our previous material because it sounds much more focused, much richer and much more epic than anything we’ve done before.

3,This is going to be the first album to be released in 4 years, can you tell us a little bit more about the 4 year gap?
We released Monuments in December 2010, and spent most of 2011 promoting and touring the album- even getting to play at Bloodstock Festival, which is one of the UK’s biggest festivals for extreme metal. With the amount of shows we were playing, it was difficult to find time to work on new material and we each faced various difficulties in our personal lives that made it difficult to really begin working on the songs for Of Roots and Flesh. Apart from the creative barrier, we also had to figure out how we could afford the recording of the new album- Kickstarter was the best option for us, and our fans were spectacular in raising the money so that we could record this album properly.

4.Your lyrics cover nature, psychological, and philosophical themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?
The city which we hail from, Sheffield, is located right next to a huge national park called the Peak District- it’s a beautiful landscape of hills, lakes and forests which we draw a lot of inspiration from, and the power and majesty of nature is certainly something that inspires my own song-writing. The psychological and philosophical themes present in our work are because we didn’t just want to write songs about trees- we think it’s important to explore humanity’s relationship with nature and to see ourselves as part of that landscape, part of the living tapestry of the universe.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Northern Oak'?
Apart from being a fairly unsubtle nod to where we come from (the North of England) and our love of nature (exemplified in the Oak tree, which has a particularly special place in English folklore), there’s no great meaning in the band name- it was inspired by a camping trip that myself, our original vocalist, keyboardist and drummer went on in 2006, before the band had really started. We camped out on the side of a hill in the Peak District in February- there was snow on the ground and frozen puddles surrounding our tent. The beauty of our surroundings inspired us all, our keyboardist suggested the band name and it stuck.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
I think our finest moment was performing on the New Blood stage at Bloodstock Open Air 2011- we’ve been fans of the festival for many years and it was such an honour to get to perform there. I don’t remember a great deal about the performance (since I was much more nervous than I normally am) but I believe we had quite a big crowd! Another highlight was supporting Martin Walkyier’s Skyclad at his Viking Funeral Festival in Nottingham- it had been a great day and the crowd were really into it, so we got a fantastic reaction. I’d describe our performance as pretty energetic- we’ve been favourably compared to bands like Eluveitie, and do our best to put on a big, powerful show.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
We have a number of dates booked around the UK during October and November as part of an album launch tour- starting with the album launch gig in our hometown on October 4th and continuing until the 22nd of November when we’re performing at Valkyrian Festival with acts such as Cnoc an Tursa, Azylya and Ex Libris.

8.Currently you are unsigned are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
With our last two albums we’ve made the decision to self-release; we negotiated a great deal with a small internet label to get our last album on iTunes, Spotify and other similar services and didn’t feel the need to approach any of the larger labels, since it was important to us that we had total control over our music and were able to keep as much of the money that we’d all spent on making it as possible. For Of Roots and Flesh, we’ll be approaching several labels with the hope of signing a deal- we’d like help promoting the album and spreading the word, and that’s something we feel a good label would really be able to help us with.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of folk and black metal?
We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from all over the globe- I know we have at least one dedicated fan in Japan, since he ordered a tshirt and CD through our website and I sent him a personal thank you message! Beyond that, we’ve definitely had some great feedback from fans across Europe- one fan of ours from Russia actually came over to the United Kingdom on holiday this summer, and pledged enough money to our Kickstarter campaign to be given a personal tour of the Peak District by us, which was very flattering.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I consider Of Roots and Flesh to be the album where we’ve really established what our sound should be, so personally I can see us really just developing on our current approach- making bigger, heavier, more atmospheric songs, making the acoustic sections more nuanced and complex and generally just trying to improve on everything we’ve released so far. We’re very proud of this album, but I always think that we have room to improve!

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We all have very different musical tastes, which I think is a big part of what makes us sound unique. I’ve personally been influenced by bands such as Agalloch and pre-Heritage Opeth, but because I listen to a lot of diverse stuff (from Behemoth to James Brown to videogame soundtracks) and the rest of the band have their own wildly divergent tastes, our newer music is basically a big melting pot of all the things we love about music thrown together and crafted into Northern Oak songs. At the moment, I’m listening to quite a lot of black/death metal- Behemoth’s latest album 'The Satanist' is the best album to come out this year, in my opinion.

12.Does Paganism or Occultism play any role in your music?
Not directly- none of the band are practicing pagans or occultists, so we’ve tried to ensure that whenever we write a song about subject matter which is sacred or important to people who follow those traditions that we’re careful and treat it with respect. In a way, I think that English tradition and folklore blends together with paganism in a way few people realize- a lot of pagan traditions (the Green Man, well-dressing, maypoles) are an integral part of English culture and are just considered part of the cultural fabric of our nation.

13.What are some of your non musical interests?
Just as we all have very different musical tastes, we all have very different interests outside of the band- I’m a big ice hockey fan, and both play and watch the sport. I’m also an avid videogamer and comics writer, working on a couple of comics that I’ll hopefully find a publisher for soon! Our flautist Catie is really into morris dancing and motorbikes, while our bassist Rich loves football. Our non musical interests don’t really intrude on what we do in Northern Oak (apart from the musical influence I take from video game soundtracks), although Rich has tried to get us to write a song about football before...

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We’re really proud of what we’ve put together with Of Roots and Flesh- we wanted to create the best album that we possibly could, a record that would inspire and move people, and we hope that everybody who listens to it feels that way.

Thank you very much for the questions!