Tephros Interview

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

Tephros is a Venezuelan symphonic black metal band formed in 2007 by Jose M Perez, Deivis Guedez and Luis Manuel Guedez. Currently Tephros is active by the hand of Jose M. Perez (main composer and instrumentist). In "Between Angels & Demons" counted with the collaboration of Deivis Guedez (founder and first singer on the band) in the main voices and some ideas and arrangements.

2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the demo you had released in 2011?

There's a huge difference between both releases, principally due to the musical growth and maturity acquired. "Abismo" was inclined to a classic black metal with some symphonic elements, but with an already marked melodic presence. The sound of Tephros now is a mix of various genres: you can hear influences from death metal, thrash metal, gothic, even doom metal, all mixed with both classic and modern black metal immersed in a melodic and symphonic ambience. However, the two songs included in the 2011 demo were rewritten and rearranged to be included in this new album.

3.The project has been around since 2007 but so far had only released one demo and one full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the gap in between releases?

After the demo released in 2011, the band suffered many lineup changes until we finally splitted at 2014. Then, in mid-2015, I started to rewrite and rearrange all the material done before, adding new melodies and influences to the mix, which resulted in "Between Angels & Demons".

4.The lyrics on the new album have a concept to them, can you tell us a little bit more about it?

The lyrics are about the history and life of Tephros. There was an extensive research about the character, that allowed to develop the story in 8 important events that defined her life.

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

Based in the Solomon's Testament, Tephros is a half angel / half demon, daughter of the archangel Gabriel and a imperial demon called Odasalia. Tephros is represented as a female angel with a black wing and a white wing. For the band, Tephros represents an image of the aptitude of the people to be able to decide and choose, whatever the roots.

6.With this project you record mostly everything by yourself with some other person helping with the vocals, are you open to turning this project into a full time band?

Well, Tephros started as a full band in 2007 and worked about 7 years this way. The idea when I started to rearrange the songs for the new album was just to record and close this long period and see what happens, and I really enjoyed working solo with this album. At the moment, I'm busy with my other bands with recordings and tours, but I don't close the doors to that option.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

I'm looking for a label to work in matters of distribution inside and outside Venezuela. I'm starting to contact some and hope to receive feedback soon.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of symphonic black metal?

It's been awesome.! I've received satisfying comments even outside Venezuela, thanks to some friends who live in other countries and have shared the album.

9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that you are a part of?

I'm in two more bands right now: Dose (Experimental Death Metal) released its first album "Engineered Devotion" last April; and Pedobear (Slamming Gore Grind) released its first album on August 2015, we are still on tour and we have received offers to play outside Venezuela, and recently started the preproduction of new tracks for the next album.

10.Where do you see yourself heading into musically during the future?

As an artist, I'm totally focused right now with my bands and the albums to come. Last December, I started a recording studio at home called dbStudio, where I've already released 4 productions (Including Tephros), and currently there are 3 more productions in progress, so, as a producer, I have a lot of work to do.

11.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?

It's hard to say, I listen to many styles, metal and non-metal, and my influences are a mix of all of them. A lot of influence for Between Angels & Demons comes from bands like Cradle of Filth, Vesania, Behemoth, Summoning, Immortal, Dark Funeral, among many others.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

Technology and comics. I'm an Engineer and work a lot with technology everyday, and I'm also a fervant comic reader.

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

Thanks for listening to the album and take time for the review and the interview. And thanks to everyone for the support and great comments.

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Tephros/Between Angels & Demons/2016 Full Length Review

  Tephros  are  a  solo project  from  Venezuela  that  plays  a  very  melodic  and  symphonic  form  of  black  metal  and  this is  a  review  of  his  self  released  2016  album  "Between  Angels &  Demons".

  Church  bell  sounds  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  synths  a  few  seconds  later  and  they  slowly  evolve  into  more of a symphonic  and  atmospheric direction  and  after  the  intro  they  start  mixing  in  the  symphonic  style  in  with  the  heavier  side  of  the  music  and  the  riffs  also  use  a  great  amount  of  melody.

  Vocals  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  and  you  can  also  hear  a  touch  of  doom  metal  in  the  slower  sections  of  the  music  while  the  faster  parts  bring  in  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  and  the  solos and leads  also  use  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful sound  to  them  while  the  songs  also  bring  in a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

  Tephros  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  a  symphonic  and  melodic  style  of  black  metal and  mixes  it  with  death  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  his own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  cover  religion,  society  and  fantasy  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Tephros  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  death  metal  and if you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres, you  should  check  out  this  solo  project.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Unnatural  Selection"  "Great  Queen  Of  Fire  And Darkness"  "Thou  Shalt  Sacrifice".  8  out  of  10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3vSymBKDIc
 

Morthus/Over The Dying Stars/Witching Hour Productions/2016 CD Review

  Morthus  not  to  be  confused  with  the  band  from  Germany  with  the  same  name  who  I  have  also  featured  before  in  this  zine  are  a  band  from  Poland  that plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Over  The  Dying  Stars"  which  was  released  by  Witching  Hour  Productions.

  A  very  dark  and  ritualistic  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  chants  in  the  background  and  after  the  intro  the  music  starts  going  into  more  of  a  dark,  melodic  and  heavier  direction  where  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  the  leads  also  use  a  great  amount  of  melody.

  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  hear  a  great  amount  of  Swedish  influences  while  the  vocals  are  mostly  death  metal  growls  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats  can  be  heard  while  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and fast  parts  and  some  songs  also  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  black  metal  screams  while  a  couple  of  the  tracks  are  long  and  epic  in  length  and  acoustic  guitars  are  added  onto  the  last  track  along  with  some  clean  singing  vocals.

  Morthus  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  a  melodic  style  of  Swedish  influenced  black  metal  and  mixes  it  with  death  metal  to  create  a  style  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover death,  war,  occult,  mythology,  Satanism, chaos  and  cosmos  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Morthus  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Unholy  Cult  Of  The  Ancient  One"  "Gospels  For Evil  And  Chaos"  and  "Sons  Of  Black  Fire".  8  out  of  10.

 https://youtu.be/hRxfbozAyVc

 

 

Hipoxia/Si Devs Essset Occidendvs Erit -Monvmentvm ab Khaos I/American Line Productions/2016 CD Review

 Hipoxia  are  a  band  from  Spain  that  plays  a  mixture  of  drone,  doom,  sludge  and  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Si  Devs  Essset  Occidendvs  Erit -Monvmentvm  ab  Khaos  I"  which  was  released  by  American  Line  Productions.

  A  very  dark  and  distorted  drone  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  heavy  riffing  a  few  seconds  later  that  is  done  in  more  of  a  sludge  and  doom  metal  direction  and  after  a  couple  of  minutes  melodic  vocals  are  added  onto  the  recording  and  clean  playing  can  also  be  heard  in  the  music  at  times.

  All  3  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  after  awhile  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  make  their  presence  known  on  the  recording  and  the  riffs  also  bring  in  a  decent  amount  of  melodies  at  times  and  there  is  also a   brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and  when  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they are  done  in   a  very  distorted  and  melodic  fashion  and  all  of  the  songs  stick  to  either  a  slow  or  mid  paced  musical  direction  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Hipoxia  plays  a musical  style  that  takes  black  metal  and  mes  it  with  sludge,  drone  and  funeral  doom  metal  along  with  some  experimental  elements  to  create  a  musical  style  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  depressive  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Hipoxia  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  drone,  sludge,  black  and  doom  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Oblivion".  8  out  of  10. 

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Winterhymn/Blood & Shadow/Soundage Productions/2016 CD Review

  Winterhymn  are  a  band  from  Cincinnati,  Ohio  that  plays  folk  metal  and  this  is  a  review of  their  2016  album  "Blood  &  Shadow"  which  will  be  released  in  June  by  Soundage  Productions.

  A  very  heavy  and  melodic  yet  epic  sound  starts  off  the  album along  with  some  violins  and  a  few  seconds  later  clean  singing  pagan  vocals  are  added  onto  the recording  which  also  use  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  at  times  while  the  songs  also  mix  in  a  great  amount  of  folk  music  elements.

  When  the  music  speeds  up  a decent  amount  of  blast  beats  can  be  heard  and  acoustic  guitars  are  also  added  onto  some  of  the  tracks  along  with  some  flutes  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  one  track  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and  they  also  bring  in  a  traditional  folk  song  before  returning  back  to  a  heavier  direction  on  the  following  tracks  and  when  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  remain  true  to  a  melodic  style  and  a  couple  of the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic in  length.

  Winterhymn  plays  a style  of  folk  metal  that  is  very  melodic  and  epic  sounding  while  also  mixing  in  the  heaviness  of  black  and  death  metal,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  mythology,  nature,  battles  and  tales  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Winterhymn  are  a  very  great  sounding  folk  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Dream  Of  Might"  "The  Summoning"  "In  Shadow  We  Ride"  and  "The  Chosen  End".  8  out  of  10. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPAQ4el7OQk

Deathillusion/Sitra Ahra/2016 EP Review

  Deathillusion  are  a  band  from  Spain  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2016  ep  "Sitra  Ahra".

  A  very  hard  yet  melodic  sound  starts  off  the  ep  along  with  a  small  amount of  clean  yet  distorted  playing  before  going  into  a  heavier  direction  which  also  introduces  melodic  guitar  leads  onto  the  recording  and  when t he  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats  can  be  heard  which  also  gives  the  music  more  of  a  black  metal  style.

  Vocals  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  black  metal  screams  and  death  metal  growls  while  the  riffs  also  use  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  while  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  there  is  also  a  brief  use  of  clean  singing  as  well  as  a  few  seconds  of  avant  garde  elements  and  they  also  bring  in  a  Dissection  cover  as  a  bonus  track  if  you  buy  the  download  version.

  Deathillusion  creates  another  recording  that  remains  true  to  the  melodic  black  and  death  metal  of  previous  material,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  cover  Anticosmic  Satanism/Luciferianism,  Temple  Of  The  Black  Light,  Liber  Azerate,  and  Liber  Falxifer  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Deathillusion  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  melodic  black  and  death  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  ep.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Invocation  of  Qalmana".  8  out  of  10.

https://deathillusion.bandcamp.com/

 

Malevolentia Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?

JcReiss: After the departure of lots of members for various personal reason, rest Spleen on vocals and Dies, Principle composer , orchestration and guitar, the band is reformed with three new members, Raido on guitar ,Robin (basse) and me at the drums. We worked on our new album “République” since 4 years about. It was a hard work to compose, and especially very long, but we are rather happy with the result.


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

JcReiss: We like to call our music Extreme Metal Orchestral, because of the relatively permanent presence of orchestration. I can say that the old albums had a little less of orchestrations than “République”. We wanted something more symphonic, but keeping the spirit of the band. Also some will call our music “Black\Death metal” or simply “Black metal symphonic”.



3.The new recording is a concept album, can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrics?

JcReiss: “République” is a criticism of the french deep politics, from fondation of the republic to the actually. We talk about reasons, in our sense, which started like an idea of peace by the people, gradually switched to an oligarchy of banks and powerful, like in many states. Through the text, we trying to address, identify the actors, causes and consequences of these that we feel do not serve the people and the state, and destroying all democratic protocol. The songs of the albums are successive, starting with analyzes of ancient civilizations to the current chaos, this totalitarian and capitalist oligarchy, which destroy all the peoples.


4.The band has been around for 13 years but so far has only released 3 albums and a demo, can you tell us a little bit more about the gaps in between releases?

JcReiss: Malevolentia is a band exacting with himself and I think we like take the time . Lot of time is required for composition, lyrics and even more for orchestrations. The band changed several times of musicians too.


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

Dies: "Malevolentia" summed up perfectly the perspective of the group has its beginnings. It's meaning "malice, jealousy, hatred." There are several possible translations and i like to play with the polysemic side of our name.



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?

Dies: Malevolentia has not done much concerts together. Already for reasons of unstable line up, but also because it is quite complicated to implement as much orchestrations on stage . Obviously these are sampled and not a real orchestra. But this requires a perfect synchronization with the sample and to have well-prepared musicians. the frequent change of line up were not allowed to play on stage as much as we would

have liked.




7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?

JcReiss: For now, we haven’t scheduled release tour. The album took longer than expected, and so we have not prepared performances. But probably within a year...

Dies: We'll start with a break of a few months since Spleen expecting a happy event for this fall. We will see that later in 2017.




8.The new album came out on Epictural production, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?

Dies: Originally Epictural was not a label but a grouping of musicians / composers of epic music (hence the name). I used this structure already to produce Ex Oblivion and negotiating distribution agreements. Over time this are added other groups like Einsicht, and soon Heimsgard Karne and an other band . In a few days we will also propose a distribution catalog that will be in by the time this interview is published online on www.epictural.fr






9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of symphonic black metal?

JcReiss: I have the impression that we are rather well welcomed by fans of the genre, even if the symphonic black is not a new style today. Fans of "true black" don't necessarily like our music but I think we can touch another public too.. Also, Symphonic Black band are not many in the world for me, and I hope we can touch people in other country.




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

JcReiss: We all have parallels bands and project in MALEVOLENTIA.Spleen and Dies have a side project called EINSICHT. It’s a “Dark Metal” band relatively insane. Dies play bass on this one.

Raido is also guitarist of the black metal band KARNE,and he have a side project called HEIMSGARD. He composed all his new album “Ordrag”, play guitar and sing on his album. It’s a kind of “Melodic Viking Metal” with Robin on bass too.

Robin have a parallel band called DOG’N’STYLE .who play “Heavy Rock’n’Roll”, and a “Death Metal Melodic” band called OBSIDIUM, in which he play bass.

For me, I play also in a “Brutal Death Metal” band, DAWOHL and we work on a new album. I have a Black Metal band called AU DELA too and we will begin to record our first album. Otherwise, I play drums in a Black Metal band SEARING SKULL.




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

JcReiss: We want to quickly begin to compose a new album. I think the future album will keep this kind of sound, but with other thematics certainly less politic. We don't want to compose futures albums with the same theme , mybe less serious... or not. I can’t say more for the moment. For sure, orchestrations will remain.


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?

JcReiss: The first names that come to me are EMPEROR or ANOREXIA NERVOSA. I can say too original soundtrack from motion pictures . At home, I listen preferably Black Metal like Bathory , Aura Noir, Mayhem and many more or Death metal bands.



13.How would you describe your views on Occultism?

Dies: It's not really a topic adressed in Malevolentia. Each has its own spirituality but this is not an issue that we tackle in our songs. I am very critical about of the use of secularism. Really more than about christianism and religions generaly. But I'm not very religious. I find it hard to take seriously the question of occultism. Personaly I consider it more like a Newage fashion than a spirituality.



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

JcReiss: Thank you to those who follow Malevolentia . I hope you'll be interested by the lyrics and you will like "République". Bye

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