All Bands
Thanks so much to all my support bands for your efforts over years!
Thanks so much to all my support bands for your efforts over years!
Finally I reached to the 100th blog release!
I would love to give my endless thanks to the extreme metal assaults:
PARASITE INC.
LEVIATHAN
BLOODSPOT
THE LAST HANGMEN
BLOODSHOT DAWN
BLEEDING RED
SYRANIC
ÆTHER REALM
LEGACY OF VYDAR
BURDEN OF LIFE
SOULBOUND
MY DECADENCE
ALL WILL KNOW
MIDNIGHT REALM
ZERO DEGREE
MERCILESS TERROR
IN ARCANE
PROMETHEAN
DIVIDED IN SPHERES
IAMENEMY
DYING HUMANITY
SIGHT OF EMPTINESS
RISING ASPIRATION
DEAD HORIZON
DARKEST HORIZON
SERENITY IN MURDER
I also would like to express my thanks to following bands and people.
Benneth Verlay
DEALS DEATH
LAST ONE DYING
ELEONORE
SYNTHETIC WATERFALL
FALLEN MARTYR
Thanks so much for the amazing greeting card!
Keep supporting kick-ass indie extreme metal assaults! Horns up!
Greetings from Tokyo,
Kumi666
Parasite Inc. interview about the new masterpiece Time Tears Down
Hi guys. I guess the band is doing absolutely busy at the moment with a lot of promotion stuff for the upcoming album, right? Thanks for taking your time for my interview. So, what’s up?
Hi Kumi, yes we are busy as hell promoting the album. As you know we have to take care about most of the stuff by ourselves, so there is still an endless to do list that contains such things like web programming, designing, writing promotion texts and so on… and most of it happens in the background, so most guys don’t see much of all that work.
We really can’t wait to finish all that stuff and get back to the things we really love doing as a band: playing and writing new music!
I had hesitated to call your previous self-title album as 'demo' before because it’s a brilliant record, but after listening through Time Tears Down, I felt I should admit it. Congratulations for the amazing new album! How are you feeling now with the new masterpiece?
Of course, there is always something you want to change or you feel not satisfied with. For example the sound of the lead guitar on some songs could be better (e.g. unmeant outcasts) or we should have recorded some songs a bit faster maybe (e.g. hatefilled hehe) but we tried to make the best out of our possibilities, and yes, for the first time we feel totally happy with how everything sounds.
Why did you take such a long time to release the album?
We wanted to give Wintersun the chance to release their album before we release ours, haha. But frankly, we never thought, that this really would happen :D
Seriously I have no idea. First we wanted to remix the old songs and only record the new one. But then we figured out that it won't satisfy us, so we started to rerecord all the old songs as well. Anyway the recording itself didn’t took that much time. But the mix and all the other work which went into the album, took month by month, some throwbacks included: Maybe you remember that we wanted to call the album 'back for war', but we couldn’t use that title then… so all the design stuff we made so far had to be dropped and we had to start again. I also had been busy for some weeks doing some mixing stuff for a friend’s band or at another point I was sick for some weeks and we really couldn’t work on the mix.
The album was mastered by Jens Bogren and his amazing job made your awesome songs impregnable! What do you think about it?
Jens did a killer job! Actually his master doesn’t sound that much different compared to the mix, but the devil is in the detail: Jens added some smoothness, punch and clarity to the mix (especially in the low end) which we never would have reached.
I have to say that I was really impressed by Benni’s test master as well: given his mastering equipment and experience, it sounded pretty similar to Jens' mastering. But Jens' master alwas was more round and, well, simply perfect. This guy really knows what he is doing.
Let’s focus on song by song. After the heavy instrumental opener Fire The Machine, I get huge goose-bumps in my whole body every time with the real fast killer tune Back For War. That’s insane! It seems you guys just shout out your statement as the band like 'We are right back in the scene!', don’t you?
I guess with the heat in Tokyo it's good to have some goose-bumps ;-) ?
Thank you very much for that compliment. Well, that’s right: After all the throwbacks within the last years and struggles to keep the band running, this song can be seen as a statement for us and to others… bad weeds grow tall - We won't give up and go our way.
Back For War could be a new sing-along anthem in the Parasite Inc. universe, or already it is? Did you play the song at live already? If so, what kind of reactions did you get from the audience?
Oh, I am not sure. We can’t tell someone to sing along to our songs but it’s always such an honor if people shout along to our songs!
We play the song live already and the reactions are really great. We have seen people sing a long to that song even we haven't released any lyrics yet.
About the following track Time Tears Down which is a new song as well: It has some kick-ass guitar riffs and a catchy solo. Since the song also appears as the album title, it stands as the representative song on the album, right?
Yes that’s right. But it also represents the whole bands' development: It’s the latest song we have written and everybody was involved in the songwriting. Also, I think it’s the strongest song we have ever written so far and together with 'The Pulse Of The Dead' it maybe also shows in which direction our music will develop in the future…
The Pulse Of The Dead must be the most well-known new song on the album at the moment, isn’t it? The music video hit more than 20,000 views within a month, that’s awesome! How are you feeling about it?
Surprised? Stunned? I am not sure. We feel happy about the awesome response, that’s for sure! However, The Pulse Of The Dead is just another song for us and we simply want to go on, keep it metal and create our own vision of the music we love.
The next question is about one more new song In The Dark which is one of my new favorites at the moment. Can you explain about a lyrical aspect of the song?
The song is about the struggle of being trapped in an addiction: You know you should quit, but you can’t (may it be smoking or alcohol or whatever). If you are addicted to something you propably start isolating yourself from your social environment and the addiction becomes the center of your life: It's only you and the addiction. So the song captures that situation but also should be a mirror to the listener to start thinking about his own addictions and how they influence him.
The bonus track Dead Life has a bit different taste from the real album songs and it must be fun for fans! Could you tell me why you got the idea to make the nice catchy song and put it on the album as bonus track?
Well, it was the first song we have ever written, but it never worked out in rehearsals and also we once decided to drop the keyboard as a lead instrument in our songs. So the song got archived at first but I felt it could be a good song and continued working on it from time to time over the years. Finally, I re-recorded the song in 2011 and actually wanted to use it only for myself with a couple of other re-recorded and unreleased songs but somehow Benni listened to it and came around with the idea to release it as a bonus track on the album. I guess he can tell you more about it.
Yes, I definitely wanted that song on the album, because it also shows quite a bit of our band development. When we started out as a band, we were quite heavily influcenced by Children of Bodom. I wouldn't say that we copied them, but what we did clearly sounded like the COB influcenced melodic death metal you can hear quite often in that genre. But it quickly became clear, that what we really wanted was creating our own style. We don't wanted to be yet another 'Sounds like...' band. Of course, you can hear influences of the bands we love and hear a lot in all our songs, but honestly, I can't say 'We sounds like...' - well, except: PARASITE INC.
Let’s move to our familiar songs which are old but still awesome. You put whole real tracks from the self-title album to Time Tears Down and all old songs were rerecorded. They are absolutely fitting with the new songs, aren’t they? Did you take care about the order or anything else?
The sound was something we have been worried about for a long time during the mixing process: they are often really different in their basic style (some are more thrashy others tend to be more power metal or even have a rock touch). So it did cost us some nerves for sure to find the right sound for the songs xD
Every old song came back with a more powerful and thicker sound, plus I found some obvious difference between olds and renewed songs like the intro of Unmeant Outcasts. Could you explain those new old-songs one by one to new listeners?
Oh, this is going to be a long explanation, but I'll try to write it compact haha :D.
Well, the first old song on the album is 'Chaos Inside':
A mid-tempo track which is one of the early songs we have written. It’s about personal struggles and is still one of my personal favorites.
Then we have 'Function Or Perish':
An up-tempo-viking-thrash-death-punk-whatever song and yes, the opening riff is our revere to the founders of the melodic death metal genre: AT THE GATES. The song has some socialcritical lyrics.
And then there is 'Armageddon in 16 to 9':
A fast power metal influenced song with some fast guitar licks and a catchy punk chorus. It’s a fun song about an 'end of the world' party.
Somehow 'The Scapegoat' could also be a hard rock song after the opening riff but of course with screams instead of clean vocals. The song is about some revenge and wrath stuff.
'Unmeant Outcasts' is a statement to all the people who don't accept others as they are. It's a statement about being strong and going your own way.
With 'Hatefilled' we pushed the gas pedal for the first time and at the time I wrote this song, I was really depressed and angry with the world around me. The lyrics are truly not a masterpiece but overall the song is fast and angry metal for sure hehe.
The last old song that also ends the album is 'The End Of Illusions': A slow and heavy one with a totally reduced and simple riffing but with a lot of atmospheric keyboards in the background. It’s about the moment when you recognize that you have lost everything in your life and you feel like an empty shell, actually not knowing anymore, how to go on but you still continue to do so somehow.
Since I love Hatefilled and The End Of Illusions as best in the olds, I’m feeling happy to find them again in the last of the new album. Do you think is there any options to put another song to the end of the album?
Actually, we can't imagine to end the album with any other song. 'The End Of Illusions' feels perfect as the final song on the album.
I also would like you to tell me about Parasite Red. How did you get an idea to make it real?
We already have been in the recordings of the album, when Timo joined us to perform 'Function Or Perish' and … I seriously can’t remember how it happened finally. We always have been so stoked by his powerful voice and asked him, if he would like to perform parts of the song as a guest singer.
Actually the idea was to split the vocals in the song, but when we wanted to mix it, it didn’t work out well. Anyway, we definitely wanted his voice in that song, so we made an additional special version with only his vocals!
Timo is a wonderful vocalist for sure and Function Or Perish with his vocals made me realize how different voices you guys have. Timo is the right man for Bleeding Red and your brutal low-vocal style fits perfectly to Parasite Inc.. So, I can use the saying 'the right man in the right place.' What do you think about it?
That’s totally right. Timo has a really unique and powerful voice. I can’t imagine a lot of other songs from us with Timos voice but also couldn’t imagine my voice in songs from Bleeding Red. But with 'Function Or Perish' it just seems to fit perfectly - actually both, the vocals and our thoughts about the statement the songs makes. However, I still would love to do a 'live revenge' singing one of their songs. I really love the music of the guys. For those who read this, if you don’t know Bleeding Red, check them out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoGsIwm5ffY
Could you tell me your upcoming live schedule, by the way?
We are still busy promoting and releasing the album, so we didn’t have much time yet to take care about gigs, but have a few coming up: 20th July we will have our release party at our local town Aalen, later this year we will have a gig in Prague and a gig in Swiss is already in work.
I’ve heard you are going to have a show with Burden Of Life and Soulbound. Is that true? If so, it’s going to be killer!
Oh yes, we also have a gig with those guys in Regensburg. We seriously can’t wait to meet with the guys there. It will be in September so check out our websites for announcements and updates.
Please leave some message to your fans.
We REALLY want to thank all people out there for their response to the album and for their support. Stay heavy and keep it metal!
Thank you so much!!! You guys are the best!
Thank you so much too for the interview and keep up your awesome work! You’re the best!
Official facebook: www.facebook.com/ParasiteInc
Official web site: www.parasiteinc.de
Official online store (pre-order now!): www.parasiteinc.bigcartel.com/
Parasite Inc. - Time Tears Down (Track by Track) [German Melodic Death Metal]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoDwAM2yAhE
Parasite Inc. - Function or Perish [German Melodic Death Metal]
Parasite Inc. - The Pulse of the Dead [German Melodic Death Metal]
LEGACY OF VYDAR short interview on June
I’m absolutely psyched to know that you guys are working for another epic mythology! I suppose the new record will be called “Damned” as an EP, right?
You're damn right! :D
Well, I found something in your recording-related photo. Are you going to use clean vocals on the new record? I love the epic non-clean style of A Hundred Miles though.
Yes, there are going to be clean vocals on "Damned", mainly sung by Daniel. But don't worry, the shouting of Dodo will remain the dominant form of lyrics. We rather use the clean vocals simultaneously to the shouting on some occasions to create some variety. Anyway, there will be very, very few little parts where the clean vocals stand alone. Beside clean vocals there will be backing shouts and gang shouts to spice the whole thing up.
The Lyrics of the new songs are dealing with the similar theme as the past releases like the North Myth based style?
Yes and no. I think that all the tales of North Mythology have been already told by a lot of bands. So we decided to not do it again. Yet, as we still are fans of the North Mythology (maybe we can add some pictures of Dodo's tattoos someday) we are using metaphors and allusions to it in order to tell our stories about for example hope, despair, choice and death - kind of the big things in life which I think the Vikings had a great mentality to.
When I think about A Hundred Miles, I can’t ignore the great sound production (mixing & mastering) for the brilliant songs. Do you already have an obvious plan about it for the new record?
I'm glad that you like the sound on "A Hundred Miles", because we don't plan to change our sound engineers. After we finish the recordings, Hendrik of Syranic will do the mixing and I hope that we can also win Benni of Parasite Inc for the mastering again.
Still, the sound will change a bit. Looking back we all agree that the drums have been a bit too dominant on "A Hundred Miles". Since we're playing with 3 guitars, we want to give them a little bit more space in the in the whole production.
Do you have any plans for another full-length by the way?
I don't know, yet. Maybe we will record another EP after "Damned", maybe a full-length album. It depends on how much time we have to write new songs and how fast after "Damned" we can stand the madness of another recording session. :D
The following question would be just for fun. As far as I know, you guys often wear matching outfits on stage, one day with formal suits with bow ties, and the other day with kinda exercise cloths, right? What are you aiming for, haha? (Sorry but I’m curious!) I guess most of your fans prefer you to wear Viking-soldier-style outfits or so, huh?
Oh haha, we just try to do something different and funny in the grim and evil metal community. Let's see if metal heads can actually laugh. :D
But seriously, I'm glad you asked this. The thing I really dislike about metal is that a lot of people are like: "You need to look like this...", "You need to like this...", "You need to drink this...". For me, that's bullshit. You need to love the music, that's all.
Be strong now ... there are no Vikings anymore. :D
Could you tell me your upcoming plans as the band?
We wanna release "Damned" as soon and as good as possible and then play as many and as good gigs as possible. So I guess, we got the standard plans. Ah, wait... next weekend we're going to play on the Celtic Rock Open Air together with Eluveitie. It's gonna be wild.
Thank you so much for your time for the interview. I’m really looking forward to your new record! Love you damned Vydar guys!
We love you, too. :D
LEGACY OF VYDAR facebook: www.facebook.com/legacyofvydar
In Arcane interview on May 2013
Hi there. This is my very first interview with In Arcane even most you guys are very familiar to me.
Thomas: Hey Kumi, it’s always a pleasure doing interviews with you! Thank you for your interest ;-)
Fabian: Glad to be doing this! Hello Kumi!
Well, how is the recording stuff going?
Thomas: The recording process is going perfectly well! Max Widdra just finished the Bass, so we are almost done. There are only very few additions and sugar sprinkles on top to do. The whole package sounds awesome already, which is pretty promising ;-)
Fabian: We all had a lot of time for songwriting and rethinking every song over and over again. So when we hit the studio in early spring this year, we all kinda knew what was coming up and what had to be done. We had a very intense, but also refreshing time in the recording process, because all the songs that we had played live so often, finally really worked out as total pieces.
Which type of the record are you exactly making, EP or full - length album?
Thomas: It is going to be an EP.
Could you leak me the details of the new record so far as much as possible?
Thomas: The fact that we’re producing an EP is not because we don’t have enough songs, the following two EP’s are already written. In Arcane is a “Multi Artist Project” with a special goal: we want to take the concept album to a whole new level. We will traverse our musical debut in form of a multi-parted concept album. Together with author and blogger Marcel Krueger we have developed the concept for three acts of a dark science-fiction story: fifteen chapters and fifteen songs on three EP's, telling the story of a cyberpunk-revolt some-when in the near future. We provide songs and lyrics, Marcel the overall narrative and stories for each EP. But this is not enough: with Jörn Zimmermann we also have an excellent illustrator on board who brings the characters and the settings to life. We are even planning to collaborate with more artists for the project to add more dimensions to our work.
Please introduce the current members of In Arcane.
In Arcane are:
Marcel Krueger - Pen
Jörn Zimmermann - Brush
Max Sonntag - Drums
Philipp Heynen - Guitar
Fabian Horn - Guitar
Max Widdra - Bass
Thomas Fischer - Vocals
As far as I can see, the band need much more “Like” on the facebook page: www.facebook.com/inarcane.
So, could you describe your musical style for the people who are interested in your music?
Thomas: At least I can try ;-) It’s always hard to describe the music you write as a band, because you always think it’s fresh and unique, but in the end it’s not. We were sick of constantly trying to be inventors of new genres or new sounds, so we returned to just creating songs. We do not want to sound like the next big thing, we want to sound exactly like the mixture of people that we are. Every single one of us has his own influences and this is the key to our music. You like metal, without being stuck in any subgenre? Check out our Bandcamp page to listen to our preproduction for the upcoming EP.
How about your upcoming live schedule?
Thomas: We are going to hit the stage again when the EP is ready. No dates for now, this baby needs all our attention ;-)
Fabian: After finishing the first EP we will be looking for live dates, but might return to the studio soon, since there is enough material to continue on. But before that, we all are very thrilled to give birth to our first EP and we hope that we can share this one with as much people as possible.
Thanks a lot and good luck for the new record!
Thomas: Thank YOU Kumi!
Fabian: Thank you for all the great support!
PARASITE INC. – The Pulse Of The Dead lyrics
For metalheads who would love to shout out -The Pulse Of The Dead-, here’s the official lyrics of it. Check it out with the energetic epic live-atmospheric music video for every headbanger in the world!
The Pulse Of The Dead
Verse:
Heartbeat - can you be faking?
Dead inside - I'm waking
Beat me! I feel a little sick!
Where is the trick?Your lies are on to kill me…
kill the pulse inside me...
Can't you show me a bit more?
… cut me a soreRefrain:
Slightly mad, slightly dead…
Where is the beat for survive?
Drive me sad, drive deadVerse:
Fuck it - I stop complaining
No more beats remaining
Tired - coz lies can tell no trick
… so sickFuck you - I live that hellride
with the pulse of dead
… inside
there is nothing to show
… it's empty lifeRefrain:
And I was never alive!
… slightly mad, slightly dead
There was no way for survive
… drive me sad, drive dead
And there is nothing alive!
All I have… all I had:
Is just the pulse of the deadbequeathed: The pulse of the dead
Parasite Inc. Official facebook: www.facebook.com/parasiteinc
Parasite Inc. Official Web Site: www.parasiteinc.de
Burden Of Life interview about The Vanity Syndrome
Congratulations for your wonderful new album The Vanity Syndrome!
My very first impression about the album was it’s a really brilliant concept album. It’s just like a movie which contains full of catchy melodies beyond my expectations. I felt the album broke the wall of Melodic Death Metal genre. How would you describe the latest Burden Of Life’s music style with the new album?
Kötty: First of all: thank you very much, we appreciate it! You are totally right with both your assumptions. „The Vanity Syndrome “ is indeed a concept album which tells a complete story from start to finish. And we ourselves neither consider it a pure „Melo-Death“ release. All in all we do not care too much about genres or categorizing music. It may make it easier for some listeners to find music you like but for me as a composer and for us as a band it is nothing but limiting. There are so many different ideas and styles intertwined within the album's music, as I am not only a fan of Heavy Metal music but a music enthusiast in general. My tastes range from acoustic to electric music and there are only a few genres which I absolutely cannot stand. And as far as I know all of our band members are open to many different styles of music. So I will not invent a new fancy genre to describe our music. After all it is Heavy Metal music spiced up with everything we think could fit our songs.
As I mentioned above, everybody can easy to find out The Vanity Syndrome as a huge concept album, and I feel like it’s a kind of “Inner struggling drama” which guide to the scary ending. Can you tell me the outline of the concept?
Kötty: You are right again! Beneath the main plot, which is a nice little love story gone bad with a few fantasy elements added into the mix, lies a very personal story about a man's inner struggle with himself and also his environment. The “obvious story” concerns a man who is unhappy with his love life as he feels he is nothing but being hurt again and again. So he decides to quit loving and caring for people. He achieves this with the help of a demon and soon he is as cold inside as he wished to be. After some time however he realizes how unfulfilling this way of life is and goes insane. He then tries to become a normal person again and asks the demon for help once more. Well I do not want to give anything away, but as you already said, the ending is not really a happy one. The “story between the lines” is something I don't want to give away for it is very personal and I think it ruins the opportunity to interpret the story any way you like. Everyone should find their own solution to this puzzle.
Why did you decide to make a concept album?
Kötty: It is something I always wanted to do because I think the idea of repeating certain melodies or lyrical fragments within different songs really tightens the album's flow. I am still a defender of albums as opposed to releasing single songs or this whole download craze that's going on, where people pick their two or three favorite songs from a record and delete or do not even listen to the rest. It might also stem from my love for movie soundtracks where character themes and repeated sections are a must to establish the protagonists, feelings etc. There also was a long story I wanted to tell and instead of cramming it all into one song and butchering it, I decided to make it a whole album.
The songs in the album are absolutely sync each other via the lyrics, dramatic effects and melodic links between the songs with some same refrains in the different tracks. Well, can you explain each of the songs one by one?
Kötty: Thanks again! Sure I can, but if it's ok with you I will concentrate on the music because examining the story as well would just take a little too long.
Vanity's Overture: This little introduction sets the mood for the album which, after all, is about an unjustified conflict between two people.
Delusive Egomania: In contrast to “Veracity” on our first album we decided to kick off the album with a classical fast-paced tune in the vein of “Your Ruin, My Relief”. This mostly works well I think and we did not want to scare people away with one of the more complicated songs which are to follow, especially in the album's second half. It's a good song to get comfortable with the album's overall sound and feel. It was also the last song finished for the album.
Cardiac Catharsis: The album's running order and concept called for another rather straight-forward song in this spot so I came up with two or three riffs which weren't too complicated or anything and just had this feel somewhere between uplifting and creepy. The way the vocals are sung in the chorus are a little different than usual to suit the story and the character here and the song's ending is one of our most “doom metal” moments ever.
Praise The Loss: This one is by far the oldest song on the album. We played it live as early as summer 2011 and for a long time it was our only indicator what was to come concerning musical ideas and conceptualization. Looking back it served us pretty well as a blueprint for our future musical adventures as it is by far more progressive than anything we did up to 2010's “In The Wake Of My Demise” EP. The songs outro also marks the first appearance of the “Heartchor”, a real-life choir which we used on a few of the album's songs, something I always dreamt of doing.
Dead Inside: This is the most thrashing song we did yet and also the shortest full song we ever recorded clocking in at a mere 3:12 min. Nevertheless it fits the album perfectly I think and it has some cool innovations like the first blastbeats we ever used and a cool “Slayer-Breakdown” in the middle of the song. The subtitle “The Severance Cantata Pt.I” indicates that this song and the next one belong together, because lyrics-wise they tell the same story through different eyes.
Our Union's Eulogy: Definitely one of my favorites! As you may have guessed this is a very special one as it features a guest vocalist (Jennifer Kothe, a wonderful singer from Berlin) and not one line sung by me. Musically it is a fairly simple “power ballad” type of song but features one of our best guitar solos ever (played by my Guitar bro Michael). As the Cantata's second part it features the female lead character's view as opposed to the guy's perspective in the first part. This experiment was a big success and it strengthened my will to try out new things again and again.
Dissolutio Vanitatis: This little interlude serves as an introduction to the album's second half as well as the following song. This is an a capella song which features only the “Heartchor” and lyrics in Latin which fit the baroque feel of the music perfectly I think. Again, an interesting experiment which turned out perfect.
Enslaved By Liberty: In the second half the album gets fairly more progressive and “Enslaved By Liberty” is only the first step. After the rather slow ballad and the floating interlude this swaying song gets the album back into motion again. Musically and Lyrically there are some parallels to “Praise The Loss”, as both songs deal with the protagonist's new-found coldness and how he feels about it at different stages of his life.
Beyond The Breaking Point: Without a doubt the most insane song we ever did. It may seem a little random after the first listen but I think after a few times you can really get into the song. It also contains a little jazz part in the middle with a real trumpet. We decided to do this relatively last minute during one of our last rehearsals before entering the studio. Apart from that we have some more female guest vocals, blastbeats, odd-time-meters, key changes, gunshots, marching drums and some really kickass riffs.
Rightful Salvation: Clocking in at nearly 10 minutes, this is by far the longest song we ever did. It contains many references to some of the earlier songs and, obviously, it is also the story's climax. The song also contains a little bass solo, which I thought was a nice touch as many bass players are often overlooked in modern metal bands nowadays. Furthermore “Rightful Salvation” serves as the middle-piece of the album's final suite which also includes the songs before and after this one. We liked the idea of connecting these songs to form a grand finale and thought it would really fit a concept album.
Vanity's Crown: The epic, massive closing track. I mostly like it when the last song of an album gives you something to think about and has a melancholic touch to it and I think “Vanity's Crown” does a good job at that. Not only with its lyrics but already with the music itself. The second half of the song's guitar solo is a medley composed of all the other song's main melodies while the accompanying lyrics summarize the album's events which was a nice touch to wrap up the whole story.
I hope this gives you a little insight into the song's workings. For more information you can also check the album's accompanying booklet which features more detailed liner notes to all of the songs.
I remember you told me in my previous interview that you’d keep using clean vocals in the future. So, was it natural for you that there are more clean vocals in The Vanity Syndrome than past releases?
Kötty: Yes it absolutely was! After we got a great response for the clean vocals on “Breathing The Soil” I felt reassured to keep on using them. I am more comfortable with my singing voice than I was a few years ago and I also felt that using different vocal styles adds much more depth to the music. It gives me more artistic freedom to express myself and get different emotions across to people and it would feel limiting to only growl and scream all the time. Apart from that I am a huge fan of good singing so I also wanted to take a shot at it.
Basically, I get bored for long-length songs but I really like Rightful Salvation in the album with much dramatic processions. Why did you make such an extra-long song?
Kötty: Thank you very much! Well, when we started to think about the idea of a concept album I immediately though that it should have a huge epic longtrack as the story's climax because then you can really dive into the storytelling aspect of a song, have many different sections, many different riffs; a real rollercoaster ride so to say. Still it was quite a challenge to keep this song coherent and we went through a lot of drafts before we settled on the final version. Listening back to it now I am really happy with the way it turned out. Maybe next time there'll be an even longer one? Or only 4-minute-pop-metal songs? Who knows … ;)
Who did make the awesome cover art?
Kötty: A young and very talented artist from our home country Germany called Jennifer Wüstling is responsible for this amazing and stunning piece of art. She also designed the artwork for “Executing Empires”, the latest album from our buddies “The Last Hangmen”. When they presented their album cover I showed it to the rest of the guys and said: “We found her! Let's ask this girl if she can draw us something equally amazing!” So we did exactly that and it turned out to be a really smart decision. We told her roughly what we wanted to be in the picture and she turned it into this great painting. Visit her homepage (https://www.izaskun.de/) for a lot more cool stuff! (I am a huge fan of the flying turtle picture!)
Did you sign with the record label for the album lately right? Did you feel your situation/environment change with it?
Kötty: Yes we signed with Firefield Records for this album. Up until now the album's only been out for less than 4 weeks so it is hard to say how big the effect of a label backing us really is or will be. Also we are still waiting for reviews and opinions regarding the album so we will see what comes up next. However we are very excited to finally be working with a record label. It took us a long time to get there but now never having given up pays off.
Can you tell me your upcoming activities this year? Are there a lot of concerts coming up?
Kötty: Well compared to our past years as a band there already have been a lot of shows this spring which was really awesome. We have also a few other really cool things planned but it is a little too early to spread the news so stay tuned and check our home- or facebookpage from time to time.
I can tell you there’s Burden Of Life fans in Japan as well :) So, Please give some message to them.
Kötty: Hey to all of you Burden Of Life enthusiasts way over there in Japan! Thank you very much for listening to our music, we appreciate it! If it is ever possible we would love to come to Japan and play some shows there. So let's hope for the best and keep on rocking! All the best Japan! And special thanks goes to you Kumi for your endless support and sacrifice for us and all the other bands! You ROCK!
BURDEN OF LIFE Official facebook: www.facebook.com/burdenoflife
BURDEN OF LIFE Official Web Site: https://www.burdenoflife.de
BURDEN OF LIFE Official Online-store: https://shop.burdenoflife.de/
Check the brilliant song Delusive Egomania from The Vanity Syndrome!!!
BLOODSPOT IS BACK! – Short interview
It has been a long time since we had an interview last time. How have you been?
Howdie: For sure we went through the usual ups and downs you have to deal with when you are in a band. Different opinions on different topics, some absolutely awesome live-shows, some very chaotic live-shows and of course good old everyday insanity. But all in all we have been very good. We are very excited about our upcoming release and the touring afterwards. We can't wait to get back on the road again!
You guys announced the new front-man Pete some months ago. Is everything going well with him so far? Could you introduce him?
Howdie: With Pete everything is going great! Right from the beginning he operated with full capacity! He didn't need much time to fit into the bands' working-habits. He actually brought a lot of fresh creativity into the songwriting. Not to mention his absolutely powerful voice. Apart from that he did a new logo-design and the whole artwork for the upcoming album. In my personal opinion the band is getting a real individual "image" for the first time, like something that makes you sure about "yeah man, THIS is Bloodspot". Last but not least Pete is just a very kind person and I love to hang out with him. His character also fits perfectly into the band. So, as you can see, I'm really in love with this guy. Maybe I should tell some bad things about him, so he doesn't become airborne. But at the moment there's just nothing one could seriously complain about. Pete is definitely the right man in the right place!
I am curious about the future release. You guys have been writing new songs for the upcoming album, right? How is your plan for the new album?
Howdie: Yeah, we wrote some new killer-tracks for you guys and girls. Right now we are working on details until we are absolutely satisfied with every song. In June we will hit the studio for recordings. The release is planned for November. We are currently into communication with a label, so it maybe depends on the results when the album will be released exactly. But apart from that, a new video clip and some other stuff are already in progress. And most important: We will promote the new record with a lot of live shows at the end of the year! So you really have some reasons to be curious! We are as well!
Do you think the new release will have the same direction as Embrace The End?
Howdie: No, I don't think so. There will definitely be a lot of similarities, because we did not change our style completely or something like that. But all in all, the new material will be quite different to what we did on Embrace The End. For sure one big reason for this is the fact that we got a new man at the vocals. He sounds different, his connection to music is different, he is just a different person. The other very important aspect is, that the songs on Embrace The End represent the whole band history from the first song we ever wrote to the latest song we wrote before the release of the album. This period of time is about 5 years. 5 years which I would call in some way the identification process of Bloodspot. In my opinion, we weren't really sure about in which direction we wanted to go during this time. So we just tried out some different things. I think this was a very important process for us. But through the last 2 years, especially with the songwriting for the new album and the fresh influences from Pete, we were getting more focused on what we really want to do. This process is still in full motion. At present there is a whole lot of energy and creativity growing within the band and it doesn't seem to stop. To sum it up: The new songs will be a bunch of shameless brutal motherfuckers, so go fucking prepare yourself!
You guys are a totally live-band, aren’t you? Could you tell me the upcoming live schedule?
Howdie: Yeah, we absolutely love to play live an it is very important for us! As I mentioned before, we will be on the road at the end of the year to promote the new album. In the meanwhile we will play some smaller festivals like "Metallergrillen" or "Kalkwerkfestival". You will find the final dates of all shows for the rest of the year soon on our website and on our facebook-page. Thanks a lot for the interview and for your incredible support! You are just awesome Kumi!
BLOODSPOT facebook: www.facebook.com/bloodspotmusic
BLOODSPOT Online-store: www.facebook.com/bloodspotmusic/app_150178545006427
PARASITE INC. – Official music video The Pulse Of The Dead is out now!
Parasite Inc. Official facebook: www.facebook.com/ParasiteInc
Parasite Inc. Official Web Site: www.parasiteinc.de
Check the latest Parasite Inc. interview about the music video: www.kumi666.com/archives/4921
LEVIATHAN interview about The Aeons Torn
“Actually the whole material of "The Aeons Torn" was written as one song. We wrote all the music in one line and also recorded the songs as one.”
As far as I know, the new masterpiece “The Aeons Torn ~ Beyond The Gates Of Imagination pt.2” is held high in the media’s estimation so far. So, congratulations! Did you get a lot of positive feedbacks about the album from your fans as well?
Tobi: Well the media's reviews were luckily overall very good, even though we also got a few rather bad reviews. But that was something that we expected from the very beginning when we started to record the new album. It's probably also just natural with all the influences that we have used on this record that some might be unusual to people, but we wanted to take this risk in order to full-fill the musical vision that we had for the album.
As far as the fans the reactions have been very good so far. We have never had such an amount of preorders even long before the record was actually released.
From the aspects of both lyrical side and musical side, I feel “The Aeons Torn” is more focused to inner adventures than the previous “part I” for its image. I mean the lyrical side in “part I” was a kind of metaphor of some negative sides of the real world, right? Can you explain the global concept of “The Aeons Torn” and each of the songs?
Tobi: That is absolutely right. "Part 1" was a lot more about our current problems in the world, "Part 2" now actually takes a look to where our decisions are actually based. And that clearly are our emotions, they are what drives us and what makes us take the road that we are on.
And therefore we took a set of 19 emotions or rather human motives that make up the whole themes of the songs. The lyrics are even little riddles describing the emotion that is currently reflected in the music. As far as the single songs, we just split up the emotions and put together what we thought would fit together.
The Crescent Moon: This song actually deals with uprising human motives like "Hope" and "Courage".
The Rising Darkness: As the title hints we have gathered all the emotions in this part that lead towards a dark path. Like "Hate" or "Loneliness". That is also very much reflected in the dark und rough music of this song.
The Sacred Fire: For this song we took all the emotions that drive us or to make the connection to the metaphor in the title that keep our inner fire burning. These for us where motives like "Love", "Pain" and "Reason".
The Restless Wind: In this song we deal with some motives that endanger the connection to other humans. For example "Discover" or "Diremption". We are today discovering new dimensions especially in case of technology, but this also bears a lot of danger to distract us from what actually means being human. So rather have contact to other humans instead of spending your time in front of a computer.
Elysium: As the title suggest, this song describes the final goal that probably everybody of us has. A state of "Freedom", "Peace" and "Harmony". That is also something we tried to reflect in the very gentle music of this song.
It was a nice surprise to hear some major-code tunes in the album –“The Sacred Fire” and “The Restless Wind” in a row. It sounds like one song as a large-scale of work. Why did you divide them in two?
Tobi: Actually the whole material of "The Aeons Torn" was written as one song. We wrote all the music in one line and also recorded the songs as one. In the end we decided that we wanted to give the people the chance to skip to a certain passage of the song, instead of having to listen to 20 minutes until you reach the part you were looking for. That's the main reason why we divided the album into five songs. But it was very important to us that you have this connection between all the songs when you listen to the album start to finish, rather than feeling like you're listening to 5 different songs.
I feel you expanded a folkish / acoustic elements plus clean vocals on the album. Was it a natural evolution for the band?
Tobi: It's mainly not the natural development of the band and I would also not say that it's the direction that the next album will go for. It just came along with the conceptual approach of the album. If you're trying to create the fitting musical feeling or atmosphere for an motive like "Peace" or "Freedom" you just can't accomplish that with Death Metal, so it just felt natural to go into the direction that the concept took us. As far as the next record, we are currently working on the basic ideas for the concept and as it looks right now the next album will be a lot darker and heavier again.
There’s no doubt that every Leviathan fan feel happy to find all songs from the past fabulous EP “From The Desolate Inside” in the new album as re-mastered versions! How did you get the idea to put those songs in the album?
Tobi: We have been playing with the idea of remixing and re-mastering the "From The Desolate Inside" EP for a long time. Back in 2010 when we recorded it we didn't have the experience or the budget to record the EP in the way we wanted it to be. But the songs still are all very dear to us and a fixed piece of our live-setlist. Originally we had the idea to re-release the EP seperately from "The Aeons Torn", but at that point our past distributor Twilight went into insolvency and gave us a very hard time especially in a financial sense. For a long time it was even a question if we would be able to release the new album, so in the end we had to merge both releases into one in order to be able to put both releases out.
The whole album artworks are brilliant! You guys managed it entirely by yourself again, right? What does the cover art represent?
Tobi: Yes, the artwork was again done by our incredible bass-player Tom, who did all the editing and drawing for the album. As far as the cover-art we wanted it to represent the story of the lyrics. The pentagram is a symbol for the five songs that "The Aeons Torn" consists of and inside the circle around the pentagram there is a symbol for each an every of the 19 emotions or human motives that the lyrics deal with. In the end we decided to put a human figure into the center of the circle and the pentagram as a metaphor for how we are all influenced by our emotions and motives. So basically the cover-art fully represents the lyrical content of the album.
Can you explain those artworks inside the booklet as well?
Tobi: For the illustrations inside the booklet we though well we have five songs and we have five band members, so why not let every member represent one of the songs. And that is exactly what we did, for each member we tried to capture the mood and the atmosphere of the song that he represents and designed the illustration according to that. Even the symbols that you can see on the cover for each of the motives are also placed in the pictures. So actually the whole artwork is very closely connected to the conceptual background of the album.
Well, I guess it’s not so easy to keep going as a band, I mean you didn’t lose any piece of the current members since you released the first EP. What is the secret of your success as a united team?
Tobi: That is a part of our history in which we have been very very lucky. But I guess it is because alongside the band also our friendship developed a lot more with each live-show or each week we spent in the recording studio together. On the other hand I think that a main reason for the stability in our line-up is the fact that everybody is able to bring it's creativity into the band. Be it Jonas as the main songwriter or Tom as the creator of the artwork, each member can give his input into the songs and identify with the music. I think that is a really important part.
Can you tell me your upcoming plans about gigs and so on?
Tobi: Well first of all we plan on touring as much as possible with the new album. Another thing on our agenda is the release of the second single of the current album which will be out very soon. And after that our view slowly moves towards the next record. We already have collected some musical ideas and in addition we have the main points of the concept figured out, so sooner or later we will start working on the new material more intensively.
I would love you to leave some message to Japanese fans, please.
Tobi: First of all we'd like to thank each and every Japanese Fan for the support we have been receiving in the past month. We haven't had such an amount of orders from any other country. In a way Japan still is a last stand for real music-fans, who support the bands by buying their albums instead of rather downloading it. And we'd like to thank you Kumi for all your support for us in the past 4 years, you've been around for us since our very first release and that is something that we are immensely thankful for!
Check LEVIATHAN on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeviathanMDM
Official Online Store: https://www.freewebstore.org/leviathan-official-shop/
Leviathan - The Aeons Torn - Beyond The Gates Of Imagination Pt. 2 - Teaser
Leviathan - When Only Despair Remains (Remixed & Remastered)
ÆTHER REALM interview on April 2013
“…we’re just a bunch of dudes that want to play our music for as many people as we can.”
I’m still stoked so much and totally into the amazing album “One Chosen By The Gods” you released on this January. Such a great band you are! When did you start ÆTHER REALM? Could you tell me about the history of the band?
Jake: Well it’s not as exciting a story as many people hope for. Heinrich and I used to be in a band together, and we started Æther Realm as a side project in early 2010. Tyler joined the band on drums, and we had our friends George and Robbie on guitar and keyboards. They both left after about a year, and Jack joined at the beginning of summer 2011. We played our first big show shortly afterwards, opening for Finntroll and Ensiferum, and then went into the studio with Jamie King to record our first demo, Odin Will Provide, later that summer. It came out in September 2011.
After we had some positive response from that, we went back to the studio as soon as we could, and recorded One Chosen by the Gods in January and February of 2012. We decided not to release it as soon as it was ready, and looked to get picked up by a record label. We toured the USA’s east coast that summer, and continued to play shows and negotiate with labels the remainder of that year.
The negotiations moved too slowly for us, so we decided to go ahead and release the album in January. The response on this has been far beyond what we were expecting (I mean shit, we’re still a little local band from Greenville, NC).
I was absolutely amused at your own description “We are not from Finland” when I checked your facebook page at the first time, haha. Yes your music sounds pureblooded Finnish metal. So, which bands have you been influenced for the formation of the band?
Jake: Definitely the obvious choices (Wintersun, Turisas, Ensiferum, Kalmah) make up a great deal of the metal I find myself listening to. However, we’re also influenced by several straight forward melodic death metal bands (In Flames, Soilwork, The Black Dahlia Murder). I personally am also very influenced by several artists outside of the metal realm altogether (Beirut, La Roux, Metric, and I’m actually a big fan of Ke$ha if you believe me).
Such a fabulous band name “ÆTHER REALM” with solemn and sublime images. What is
“ÆTHER REALM” for you?
Jake: Well Æther means a few different things, it can be a substance or a place. The translation from Greek means "realm of the sky". When we started the band, I hadn't looked too much into it though. I was just an impulsive 17 year old that wanted a "cool" band name. The result is that our band name is actually redundant it translates literally to "realm of the sky realm". Oops.
The album “One Chosen By The Gods” deals with North mythology, right? Could you tell me about its concept?
Jake: Well when I first started writing the songs, I intended to have them all deal with Scandinavian mythology. However, the more I wrote, the more I found I enjoyed just writing the fantasies and epic tales from my own mind. The result is kind of a mix of stories that are partially based in ancient myths, and partially from my own mind.
Could you describe each of the songs in the album shortly?
Jake: Sure!
Journey of Discovery is the intro of the album, and contains some melodies from Hourglass and Oak, the first and last songs on the album I guess kind of an overture of sorts.
Hourglass, the first real song, is about the fleeting nature of time, and how one should do the most that they can with the time they have.
Æther Realm is the tale of band of warriors on their journey to return home, and is the first song that I wrote on the album.
Swampwitch is about what you would expect a swamp witch! After years of having her land intruded upon by the residents of a nearby town, she lays it to waste.
One Chosen by the Gods is a story about a soldier that runs from an impending battle. He’s visited by a shadowy figure, who convinces him to turn back and return to the battle. However it’s too late his brothers in arms have all been killed. The shadowy figure returns to him in his despair, and imbues him with the strength he needs to carry out his revenge. He single handedly slaughters the remaining soldiers of the opposing army, before succumbing to death himself.
Ravensong was written when I was back in college, a reflects a lot of the feelings I had back then. I felt very restrained during that time, and wanted very much to devote much more of my time to music. The song is literally about a man who feels restrained in his human body, and carries out an ancient magic ritual to allow him to fly with the ravens. It appeared on our first demo, Odin Will Provide.
Winter’s Grasp is pretty simple just about a massive blizzard!
Odin Will Provide is the other song from our first demo. It starts out with a high speed chase on horse-back, and ends with a vicious one on one fight to the death.
Oak is another song that reflects real life. Like Ravensong, it takes me back to my shortlived college years. I struggled a lot with depression during that time, and thought a lot about suicide. It was a very unhappy time for me, but ultimately I realized that I wasn’t bound to my situation, and decided to leave school to focus on music. This song is essentially about those feelings struggling with and ultimately making it out of depression. I decided to draw themes from one of my favorite short stories, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and just make the material a little more grim, haha.
What happened between tracks “One Chosen By The Gods” and “Ravensong”? My copy has a physically different order from the track list then.
Jake: Haha, oh yea, that. Well as we're a young, unknown band, we have to do all of our stuff ourselves, even creating the CD packaging and assembling them all by hand. The first 200 or so CDs that we sent out contain an error with the track-listing on the back. We've fixed it since then, and hopefully we're a bit more careful on future releases.
(all live photos by Aaron Taylor Pace)
You had played a gig with Turisas, right? How was the show with them? They have many enthusiastic fans in Japan as well, paint its own face like the band and shout out fanatic “battle metal!” at them live, by the way.
Jake: We've played two shows with them, and they've totally blown us away both times. While we're still honing our skills and trying to figure out how exactly we want, they've totally perfected their craft and always deliver a great show. I hope we can make it to that level someday.
As you know, the album is selling well in Japan. What do you think about it?
Jake: Well we certainly didn't expect it, that's for sure! I’m still not sure I even can really get my head around it. We’re seriously a totally unknown band we’re not signed, we don’t have like a booking agency or a manager, we’re just a bunch of dudes that want to play our music for as many people as we can. I don’t know how soon we’ll be able to make to Japan to play shows, or whether we’ll be able to at all, but I know is that I’ll definitely do my best to make it out there as soon as possible.
Could you tell me about your upcoming plans for concerts and other stuff?
Jake: Well we’re announcing an American summer tour any day now, so watch out for that. Mainly we’re playing headlining shows in our state here and there, and the occasional opening gig for the larger folk metal bands that come through. Aside from actual shows, I’ve been busy programming the band’s light show as well as learning how to use the new audio software I have. We’ve just started demoing stuff for the new album too, so hopefully we’ll be back in the studio this year to record album number two.
Please leave some message to ÆTHER REALM fans in Japan.
Jake: どうもありがとうございます！私たちは、近い将来には、あなたにプレイするために日本に来たいです！
facebook: www.facebook.com/AetherRealm
official online store: www.aetherrealm.storefrontier.com/
Parasite Inc. interview about the first official music video “Pulse Of The Dead”
How was the very first music video shooting of “Pulse Of The Dead” after the long hard work for the upcoming full-length “Time Tears Down”?
Kai: I can tell you, it was a lot of work to do within a very short time but it also was quite a lot of fun. A while ago Kevin came along with the idea to shoot a video on a theater stage and after we finished the album recordings we finally had the opportunity to realize exactly that idea. As you know we don’t have a big budget at our hands so the theater location gave us a lot of possibilities to realize a great metal video even on that low-budget level. Also we didn't have much experience with video production, so it has been an exciting week for us.
As far as I know, the lighting effects are fabulous, and you guys used some actor for the music video, right? Can you tell me about the visual story of that?
Kai: Yes, we had access to the professional lighting equipment of the theater that supported the song during the filming. Btw. the whole film crew consisted only of the band, one camera man and one actor (which is a friend of mine). At the moment we are in the post-production with the video and it already looks powerful and quite impressive.
Actually, I don’t like metal videos that only concentrate on a story and don’t even show any band action at all. I want to see some f'ing shredding and of course I want to see some serious head-banging, haha! However, it’s our first video and the song gave us some ideas to visualize a tiny “story” as well. So we recorded that part, but we are not sure if it finally will make it in the video yet. As long as we are not sure about that, I can’t tell you much about the “story”.
Do you have any funny episode behind the scene?
Kai: Hell yeah, we have a lot of funny moments. But it’s hard to pick something out and describe it with words because mainly it were some messed up stage actions. But they’re caught on tape and we will make a making of video for sure ;)
You guys have a wonderful new bass player – Stefan Krämer in the video, by the way. Can you introduce him to Parasite Inc. fans?
Kai: Well, Stefan, who actually is called 'Krämer' and barely responds if you call him Stefan, has been around the band for quite a while now and is also good friend of us. Actually he’s also the drummer of the thrash metal band “Torment Tool”, so he really knows how the rhythm section should work together!
Anyway, after Basti left the band we first had no idea for a replacement but somehow he offered to help us out. During the rehearsals we quickly figured out that he fits really well with the band and the decision to make him the new bass player and an official member wasn't hard at all! Btw, his first gig with us was pretty much the best gig we've played so far! So if that isn't a good start...
Well, the new album is getting mastered now, right? How’s it going?
Kai: That’s right. It’s going great so far. The mastering is done at Fascination Street Studios by Jens Bogren who already produced bands like Kreator, Soilwork, Amon Amarth, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth and many more well-known metal bands… All bands we are fans of and listen to! We've got a test master already and hell, it sounds epic.
Oh, that’s really cool! I’m looking forward to watching the video, listening to the new album and having a full-length interview with you again. Good luck.
Kai: Thank you. We are looking forward to it as well. Have a great time, stay tuned and see you again very soon.
Check more on www,facebook.com/parasiteinc
BURDEN OF LIFE – Another new song has been revealed!
Check “Praise The Loss” from their upcoming new album “The Vanity Syndrome” !
official: https://www.burdenoflife.de
facebook: www.facebook.com/burdenoflife