Syranic interview about the new record – “The Coriolis Delusion”

- First of all, welcome back to the scene! How have you been during the long hiatus?

 Hendrik: Thank you! A lot has changed in the last couple of years. Everyone in the band has been really busy concerning things outside the band. Regarding myself, I’m actually living a drastically different life right now than I have been during the production of and touring with ‘The Windscale Inception’. I used to be a full time musician and audio engineer back then, playing gigs and producing the debut EP of my bands Syranic and Killtribe and doing other productions like Legacy of Vydar and Eleonore to make money. On an artistic level that time was really rewarding and I have great memories of it, but I had to realize with this lifestyle I just couldn’t survive financially. So I had to rethink what to do with my life and because of several people I talked to I realized I was interested in another completely different field. Long story short, I became an EMT right after our winter tour of 2010 and am now studying medicine. All this information seems really personal, but combined with the fact that our former singer Julian Parusel left the band it is certainly the biggest reason for our hiatus, since I do most of the songwriting and am involved with everything regarding audio.

- There was some member-change in the band these past years. So, could you tell us about your current lineup?

Hendrik: Our band has been going through a ton of changes on every position since the beginning. Within our short career we’ve been having 4 different guys on bass alone. In the end I had to pick it up myself to record our new EP. I actually recorded only a few lead guitars by myself, almost all of the rhythm guitars have been played by our new guitarist Paul Langer while some lead guitars were done by Rajeev Ramesh. Geerd Jacobs is still doing drums and after Julian left the band we quickly found an ‘indefinite stand-in’ shouter with Thomas Fischer (In Arcane, ex-Killtribe). But even though being a clean singer himself our guitarist Kamil Albrecht wasn’t too keen on doing the whole vocal routine for every gig on top of playing the guitar and eventually left the band too. Searching for a new clean vocalist turned out to be the toughest part. We tried quite a few guys and even considered someone female at some point. All of that ended when I wrote and recorded a new instrumental track at the end of 2013.

I don’t even remember how he got hold of it, but Kamil heard it and spontaneously recorded a full chorus for it and sent that to me without me expecting any of it. It completely blew everything anyone else ever tried for the songs out of the water. I needed to have him back on board and he agreed, that song is now called ‘Dysfunction’ and has become the opener of our new EP.

- Did you already play any show with the latest members?

 Hendrik: Kamil would only do the recording for the new EP and did not want to invest the time to play live. Because of my whole situation I didn’t even know how I would ever be able to invest that much time myself, so we had a discussion about it and we had to realize that basically we could only decide between just letting Syranic die or making it a studio-only project. So that’s what we agreed upon. I can’t say we’re definitely never going to play a show again, but the chances are really low right now. This might seem sad, but to me it’s a great way to still be able to make music with Syranic at all, and I’m really proud of the new stuff we created.

- The new EP The Coriolis Delusion has many differences from the prior release The Windscale Inception and the progressive aspect is more emphasized in the new record. Was it the natural progress for the band?

 Hendrik: The songs are definitely different, which is caused by not having Julian involved in the songwriting anymore on the one hand, but also me being influenced by different bands now on the other hand. The whole Progressive Metal and Djent scene was always a big part of it, but the songs on the old EP ‘The Windscale Inception’ were also heavily influenced by bands like Chimaira, Dagoba, Killswitch Engage or even In Flames. Now on ‘The Coriolis Delusion’ the progressive elements just shine through a lot more as I’ve been listening to bands like Periphery, Textures and Monuments more than before. One thing that holds true to this day though is that I think Killswitch Engage wrote some of the best metal choruses of all time, so mine will always have that imprinted on them.

- The sound production seems different as well. The prior EP has an overwhelming punchy sound, it blasts as hell. The new one got mixed by Hendrik (metalmixer.de) again but it sounds smarter as it is. Why did you give the production to The Coriolis Delusion like that way?

Hendrik: ‘The Windscale Inception’ is by far the loudest record I ever produced and I even only know a few records at all that come close to it. That’s kind of cool, and it fits the whole insanity theme we got going on with that one. But it’s also kind of fucked up. And it leads to our old EP sounding pretty distorted on some small stereos, so I didn’t want to do this again. Of course the new EP ‘The Coriolis Delusion’ does not sound as massive if you compare them both at the same volume, but if you correct for that, the sound is still pretty damn big. It’s definitely cleaner than the old one, but that is fully intended. I would even go as far as to say I did not make any obvious mistakes with this production, whereas I’d say I did with the old one.

 - As an enthusiastic listener for your music, comparing those 2 records sensuously, The Windscale Inception has an instantaneous effect and The Coriolis Delusion is a slowly-soak-in type in my opinion. How do you explain the comparison between those releases?

 Hendrik: The songs are definitely more complex now and also just longer than the old ones due to the bigger influence of progressive music. It’s a lot to take in at first, but I think generally the songs that you need time to get into are the ones that stick with you the longest.

 

- Yalda was once available as free streaming song in the past. So it’s the oldest song on the new EP, isn’t it? The new version sounds fabulous as well anyway. I still love the song so much! What does “Yalda” mean?

 Hendrik: Yes, it’s the oldest one. It is the 6th song we have ever written and it almost made it onto the old EP. We released the online demo right after the ‘The Windscale Inception’ came out.

For that song Julian and I picked up a riff I wrote in 2006 and created the complete song structure in one afternoon. He also wrote all of the lyrics for it. It’s a really cool move of him to let us use all of it. To honor that, the last words on the record are still from the original studio recording with him. The concept behind the lyrics is pretty amazing too. I can’t go too much into depth here so I will just quote Julian: »’Yalda’ is a song which stands for the greatness of life and the connection between all beings who exist today and who have ever existed.« The name refers to the Iranian festival celebrated on the longest and darkest night of the year where it is custom to ignite a big fire representing light and hope.

- Every track name of your music is always impressive. They are witty and audacious. The record title The Coriolis Delusion as well. It sounds scientific ( because of “Coriolis” of course) and like word-game at the same time. Why did you give the name like that?

 Hendrik: The whole concept behind that name was created with our graphic designer Max Widdra, who also created the artwork for our previous record. In short it’s about what’s driving the world, figuratively in the sense of the Earth’s rotation but quite literally in the power of gold and oil. The ‘delusion’ part of it is about the arrogance of thinking you could ever change anything about that.

 - Your former singer Julian was concerning himself in lyrics for The Windscale Inception. Who managed the lyrics for The Coriolis Delusion?

 Hendrik:Except for Yalda, the lyrics for all songs have been written by Thomas and Kamil.

- So, could you tell us the track by track story of the lyrics and the musical behind-hind-the-scene in the new record?

 Thomas: Dysfunction is an attempt to get access to the systematic nature of the radicalization of people for religious reasons. I just tried to get into the mind of a tortured soul living in a world that has not much to offer for it. I guess it is a rather simple attempt, but for me it was a pretty revealing thought experiment, because it works for a lot of individual cases.

Fallen King deals with the last days of Muammar al-Gaddafi. He was one of very few dictators who was popular among his people, at least for some time. In 2008 over 200 African kings and tribal leaders proclaimed him King of Kings. In the end he was killed by people who once loved him.

It’s not like I am a Gaddafi sympathizer, but I think he had a pretty interesting life and in many ways a good influence on the region. I used to never understand why he had to fall like this. Today we all do!

Control Hunter is all about the western way of optimizing efficiency through dehumanization of mankind. We try to control everything, emotions, speed, working hours, quality time, sleep, nothing is safe. We don’t just live, we organize our life and some of us even organize the life of others. This is wrong! At least in this extent!

 Wave-Breaker is a call for individual decisions even if they break rules of social conventions. Don’t just go with the flow, that makes you part of a system that does not care for your individual needs. It’s all about profit. Lateral thinkers and troublemakers have always been the people who generated progress in knowledge of everything that matters!

 Yalda is the only song that has been written by Julian Parusel. I have not been able to talk to him lately, but if I remember it right, he saw a TV report about the “Yalda night”, which is an Iranian festivity celebrated in the longest night of the year. Yalda goes way back to the zoroastrianism, the praeislamic religion of the Iranian people. Julian was so deeply moved by the report, that he felt the need to write these lyrics. We did not change them a bit and it feels just right to perform them the way he wanted them to be!

Here’s a link to Wikipedia if you’d like to get into it: Yalda on Wiki

Hendrik: Each of the songs has its own underlying musical theme that gets referenced a lot throughout the different parts. Dysfunction is probably the best example. Every single riff is a progression or variation of the riff before it, instead of separately written parts that have just been glued together. Even the chorus is a variation of the verse riff. I wrote the song one morning within about 4 hours and haven’t changed anything about it since then. The writing was obviously heavily influenced by Djent bands like Meshuggah and Periphery but there are also further influences that I can name pretty distinctly now. I’d like to think that the 16th part is due to the fair share of DevilDriver songs getting played in local metal discos here. The breakdown right after that probably wouldn’t exist if I never discovered Betraying The Martyrs. And yes, I’ve heard of the band Monuments before.

 Fallen King starts with a Periphery-esque riff that is actually a variation of a “counting part” our drummer Geerd and I always jammed in the rehearsal room back in 2008. We called it “Feuerwehr” [fire department] then as a reference to the emergency phone number in the EU [112] since it goes like 1-1-2-1-3-1-1-2-1-3… Both verses were written in admiration of Glasscloud’s absolutely destroying heaviness. The prechorus is an homage to Monuments while the chorus is to Killswitch Engage and TesseracT. Textures and Dead Letter Circus were probably the biggest influences to the long interlude part after the second chorus. The outro is practically made of the stuff Justin Lowe wrote for every After The Burial song once you hit the 3 minute mark. I love the outros this guy wrote, damn.

 Control Hunter is basically me trying to write riffs like Bring Me The Horizon did during the ‘Suicide Season’ era. Architects influenced me on this one, too. Much like dysfunction there is a basic theme that just gets varied a lot through the song, from beginning to end.

Wave-Breaker is the oldest song on the record right after Yalda. That’s why it’s overall faster and more ‘metalcorey’. The intro and verse riffs are influenced by a really cool one man project by Darren Cruickshank called Bleeding Skies. He writes some amazing riffs, you should definitely check him out if you’re into djenty stuff! At least part of the chorus was created with Sikth in mind. The closest thing to being an influence on the breakdown right after the second chorus might actually be Emmure though. The outro itself was written by Rajeev and me and partly derives from me mixing the latest Under The Pledge of Secrecy album. They always write crazy dissonant stuff with sick time signature changes and their album might just be the heaviest thing I have ever heard.

As I said earlier, Yalda was written by both Julian Parusel and me and is based on a riff I wrote back in 2006. I can’t really name all of the influences anymore, but there is probably some Dagoba and Chimaira in there. The chorus and instrumental interlude are hard evidence of my strong love for Textures though. The ending is a mix of Textures and TesseracT influences. It is the fastest song on the record, though there is a pretty funny thing that happened during one of our biggest gigs, where Geerd’s click just got totally fucked and was playing back way to slow. Geerd was so perplexed by it that he continued that tempo all throughout the intro and even parts of the first verse. For a minute of our career Syranic was a Doom Metal band.

- Why did you release the new record as EP again?

Hendrik: I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage a full-length production including songwriting, recording and mixing in a reasonable timeframe alongside studies and the other audio productions I do and most of the other guys wouldn’t either. So a 5 track EP was just the most realistic goal to set. And that still took us about two years, which is way longer than I expected. There were only very certain and tight periods where I could focus on the production and it sometimes didn’t sync up quite well with some of the others’ free time. In the end I’m glad we didn’t even do a 6 track, which we thought about too.

- Do you have any plan for a full-length in the near future?

 Hendrik: My personal situation might change a bit in the future, so that I get to have more control over when to have free time. It also might become even worse. In any case we will almost certainly stick to smaller releases. If we produce songs at a faster rate in the future, we will just make those releases more frequently.

- I’ve been waiting for your first music video for a long time! Do you have any plan for the shooting?

Hendrik: There are actually plans to do that this year, but of course I can’t promise anything. We really want this, but unfortunately our drummer Geerd Jacobs, who is also our photo and video guy, is even more busy than I am.

- Since you had a long time hiatus (at least for your fans), could you give some message for your fans and new listeners in the world?

 Hendrik: Thanks so much to everyone who stayed with us during this rough patch! Thank you for your patience and for believing in us. To everyone who checked out our new record, old fan or new listener, please let us know what you think. We’re not making any actual money with this, but we basically live off your reactions, so please share them with us!

Check Syranic on Facebook!

Get The Coriolis Delusion via Syranic Bandcamp !!!

 All about Syranic on Kumi666com

 

The Windscale Inception – behind the scene pt.2

The interview with Syranic about their incredible EP “The Windscale Inception” pt.2

Q: I would love to hear about the rest of the songs from the EP "Windscale Inception". Could you introduce each song of them for the metalheads in the world who are interested in your music and want to listen to the whole EP?

Julian:　 Phew Kumi… you know me, the songs always have a deeper meaning - this will take time but I'll do my very best ;)

1.Endless Open End
I guess I explained that quite well in your first question ;)

2.Trans[c]ience
Transcience is a song which was inspired by mainly 4 bands: Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah, Gorgoroth and our friends from Under the Pledge of Secrecy. The Chorus is something special, I dreamed it exactly in the way as you can hear it on our EP… the groove, the vocallines and so on. The Lyrics are inspired by Markus Bischof from Heaven Shall Burn, I listened a lot to Heaven Shall Burn during writing this song and I wanted to do something similar. In first case I wanted to sound as brutal as him (don't know whether I made it) and I wanted to get the same deeper meaning of social conflicts and aspects of religion in the lyrics.
The Lyrics are about bigotry, false moral, vanity, compliance, dogmatism and many more bad aspects of humankind. Aspects which lead to mostly all problems we have in our world, violence, rape, war, pollution, murdering of humans and animals - all bad aspects of humanity. I believe that all these behaviours are caused mainly by the fear to die and this leads to the point of being afraid to be meaningless. Power and force are the tools to go down into history and mostly all people we know since more than thousands of years are known for their unlimited use of violence and ruthlessness. Moral and ethics are just a weapon to hide what we really are, a mental menace, a threat to everything surrounding us hiding behind a mask of imagined characteristics which let us look like something better which we're truly not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just look at all monotheistic religions we have nowadays and you will get the point, made up to do good but they brought unbelievable violence, terror and destruction. Transcience is the science about transience and the deepest questions we have: Why is the world the way it is?

3.Nemesis
Well this is a much more simple one :D. The song is about the destruction of nature and our mother earth, which is mainly caused by a simple fact. There are just too much people on this spaceship called earth and we eat it all. I love this planet and I think it is the best thing which happened in the whole universe, that is why I am often angry about the things we do and about the disrespect we have for this planet. It is not just a piece of rock with some freaking trees, birds and mammals, it is a miracle which is worth fighting for - more than for my fucking iPhone… you don't think so? Okay let's fight motherfucker!

 

 4. The Mindscale Inception

This song is about the horrible feeling to be depressed and the rage you feel when you see no way out. Always a good thing to write about and really personal - open your heart and let hope reign despair! Get into it and think for yourself if you don't want to headbang and need some chilling times with your headphones.

5. Death Facility One
Our freakiest song with a lot of complicated rhythms. It is about the Lake Karatschai in Russia, the most polluted place on earth. The russians wanted the nuclear bomb so badly that they just put all their nuclear garbage of a Plutonium Facility for Nuclear warheads straight into the next river which ends in this lake. They lead the river directly through the core and back into the river - they really didn't cared at all! Today you definitely die if you stand more than 30 Minutes close to this lake and moreover it is connected to a riversystem which leads north to the polarsea. Scientists believe that it is possible that this connection might end in a nuclear pollution of the whole polar sea - an unbelievable disaster and all just caused by the addiction to the ultimate Overkill. "Damn the USA got the bomb, hurry we need to catch up" What a bunch of idiots! The sample you can hear in the beginning is combined of a documentary about Chernobyl, the first real SuperGau and something I still remember, it was horrible!

 

Q: The whole EP is absolutely incredible, I mean it's not only about the great songs but also about the awesome sound production with overwhelming instruments and vocals. I think many indie bands present themselves with a flimsy sound, but yor music is totally different from that. How did you dedicate your massive effort for the sound production as a producer and as an engineer for making such an amazing EP?

Hendrik:　 Personally I think that a good production is one key element of metal and rock as important as any instrument could ever be. And the importance of that element goes beyond genres. For instance if your band is playing some really sophisticated stuff you need some good mixing to bring out all the details. But maybe even more importantly if your style is all about rhythm and unisono massiveness like ours you really need a massive sound to go with it. The riffs and chords themselves alone won't ever tell you the idea behind songs like that.
For »The Windscale Inception« I took that approach to the extreme. I would say my influences for this production were mainly Gojira and Periphery, but in the end it all made for some insane Strapping Young Lad-like apocalpyse sound. And I think that nothing else could have fit better to the meaning of those songs. Also I put a shitload of ear-candy everywhere. There are just so many subtle additional guitars, choirs, strings and synthesizers you wouldn't even know were there, but you would still miss if they were gone.

Hendrik:　 As a producer I do keep my trademark effects and sounds throughout all my productions, but still I always strive to give every album the one single sound it needs. None two of my productions ever sound the same. Of course when it comes to multiple releases for one band I will keep the new sound in the same category as the old one, but I sort of dislike the way many metal producers have their one and only sound for everyone. I always want every one of my bands to have a distinct sonic identity.

Visit metalmixier.de on Myspace and check their great job!
https://www.myspace.com/metalmixerde
Also they are active on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/metalmixerde/130011947013399

Q: Could you give some message to your music listeners in Japan?

The Band： Life, Love and all the best for your future. We all heard about the horrible Tsnunami and Fukushima and we're still shocked! Much love and respect to Japan, you are all in our hearts and we are with you! The Metal brotherhood never let you down!

2010 － The EP at disk union in Tokyo

Syranic Spain tour 2010: Video of Syranic tour 2010 on Youtube

Syranic winter tour 2010 Video of Syranic winter tour 2010 on Youtube

TASTE OF EXTREME METAL – “Endless Open End” by Syranic

I’m extremely happy and proudly presents my favorite band Syranic’s amazing kick-ass tune “Endless Open End” on my blog. I also had another interview with Hendrik and Julian of the band lately, so I’ll divide it in two and show you as “The Windscale Inception - behind the scene”. Okay here we go.

“Endless Open End” - SYRANIC
If you want to listen to the song with more greater sound, click the link below and play the audio file Click the audio file "Endless Open End" by Syranic EP

Endless Open End

I opened my mind, found a beast inside
I tripped out to hell and I died in the
Inner space of mine! I’ve only fucked the truth
Buried my lost soul - buried it in filth

So you hate it
Though you loved it
Though you loved it, ahh
Though you loved it, ahh

Stoked the fears with fear, lost myself in tears
Fought but lost the war, all I felt within
My skull oh it burned, (the) fucking trip it turned
(into) an endless open end, endless open end!

Help me like always
Come into my world
Oh come to my world

No one ever knew how trapped I have been
Darkness killed the kid, killed the rest of sense
I freaked out on hate - paralized by shades

I still bleed inside, hedonism it kills
Ahh, hedonism kills, hedonism
Ahh, hedonism kills, hedonism kills

Help me like always
Come into my world
An endless open end

We adore it, the killing, reprogramming
Of our mind fucked up souls
It is dying, the bleeding
Of the perception making us go-o-o-ods

So you loved it, though you hate it
So you hate it, though you loved it
Though you loved it, ahh

Help me like always
Come into my world

“The Windscale Inception” behind the scene pt.I

Q: "Endless Open End" is a totally killer tune as starting kick-ass intro. Could you tell us about the sound and the lyrics of the song? Do you have any special episode about the song?

Julian:　The lyrics of Endless Open End are about the destructive feelings you have inside if you are deeply down. I wrote this song as a hateful statement after some really bad experiences and gave it a philosophical touch.

Julian:　I believe that destructive feelings kill the child in everyone of us, you become a freak and totally disrespect everything you were and what you might become. You can hear that in one special part of the lyrics: "We adore it, the killing, reprogramming our mind fucked up souls it is dying, the bleeding of the perception making us gods".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julian:　I believe that the party societies of our time formed a mankind that adores self-destruction as a kind of modern "pursuit of happiness". The victim is our real consci- ousness, our perception, which makes us what we really are - a mixture of animals and godlike creatures with the reward to reflect and realize what we really are. Hate destroys this ability and brings us closer to the inner abyss. Call it heaven, call it hell… it is all just the same description of 0 and 1, good and bad. To say in Master Yodas words: "Fear is the way to the dark side".

Julian:　The funny aspect of "Endless Open End " is that some parts are inspired by blues legend Tom Waits. I wanted to do that and Hendrik just gave me a megaphone and said "Go ahead you ugly Bastard". I did that with every single inch of my body - blues rules and Tom is legendary!

SYRANIC complete interview with EAT magazine

It’s about a year and a half ago, I was absolutely hyper with their amazing songs from “The Windscale Inception”, couldn’t sit still anymore and worked really hard for spreading the word about the EP, here’s one of the results of my passion , hell yeah! The interview is an old one for their history and I really love it. Actually, SYRANIC are still my number one! So, I’m proudly show you how they answered to their first time Japanese metal mag interview. *grin*

SYRANIC interview with Japanese metal mag EAT magazine issue 94 (May 2010)

SHIT MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE! THIS IS THE WORST
MUSIC MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD – EAT magazine

～Opening Statements by EAT magazine～
"Metal is one of the best ways to canalize your emotions and to free something inside you.” By Julian Parusel

Hendrik Kröger (g) from KILLTRIBE that we run their interview on the previous issue founded SYRANIC before he join the tribe. They finished their 1st EP “The Windscale Inception”. The impression of their thrashing and edged extreme metal sound with stubborn-like is as same vector as ARKANGEL, HEAVEN SHALL BURN and others, but SYRANIC made it more emphasize their lyrical melodies like step into a kind of the works of human. The balance and the contract of those elements made their sound more intensely. Now, the amplification and the evolution of German Extreme Forces has been speeding up with raising a cloud of dust, it reminds a fierce attack by German soccer team at World Cup 2010. SYRANIC is just standing in the forefront among those forces. We had an interview with Hendrik and Julian by e-mail.

(by EAT magazine May 2010)

SYRANIC - Hendrik Kröger and Julian Parusel
The interview with EAT magazine Japan on May 2010

Q. You seem to be few playing shows from this fall to winter, but what will you be doing as Syranic until then? I guess you will be playing as Killtribe during that period as well right?

Julian: We will be playing a tour in Spain this summer and we also got some festivals coming up. We are really busy with everything concerning Syranic and prepare for our tour through Germany which will be played this autumn and winter. Moreover we are starting a campaign to get as much reactions as possible in the rock and metal press in Germany and Europe. Our EP is going to be released this month and we are going to use it to get label contacts, we got a lot of stuff to do as you can see.

Hendrik: There literally isn't a single day nothing happens in this band. We always have something going on and I love it!

Q. When exactly did you start playing Syranic? Did both Killtribe and Syranic start around the same time?

Hendrik: I wasn't a founding member of Killtribe so I don't know when this band started. But I created Syranic before I became a member of Killtribe. It all began in 2008, with me and our old drummer Geerd playing around after the breakup of our last band. At that time our song "Endless Open End" has been written. We always used to record the whole rehearsal session, then checking out the best ideas at home and continue writing on them until we're at a point where we have to take it to the rehearsal room again. That was and still is a very productive way of songwriting.

 

Q. Please introduce us the other members. How did the four of you get together?

Hendrik: We had quite some changes in our line-up since the beginning. At the time Geerd and I created "Endless Open End", Geerd suggested to send a demo to Julian, who didn't know me back then. He had a break from music for 2 years during this time after his last band called "Mahout Operator" and actually didn't wanted to be active again. He only did some singer/songwriter and jazz stuff, but he liked "Endless Open End" so much that he came all the way from his home - which at that time was 500 km away from our studio - to record the vocals for the preproduction with us. At least he broke up his studies and moved to cologne to be part of Syranic.

The first line up change appeared in 2009, due to different problems Geerd and the both of us had to go separate ways. Fortunately Stefan Klebingat, drummer from the insane technical metal band "Under The Pledge of Secrecy" helped us out on the EP, so we still were able to start the production in time. Also Helge Jansen from the former metal band "10 Fold B-Low" played bass on it. We weren't able to find permanent members for the band for a long time, so we figured: Let's give them a reason by producing the best songs we can and thus make them an offer they can't refuse, haha.

Fortunately this worked out really well and a number of good people became interested in playing for this band. The guys ending up on stage with us in the end were Kamil Albrecht on guitars and additional vocals and Jan Plücken on bass - who both are also playing with our good friends from Eleonore - and Daniel Schneider on drums. We found some insanely talented people there and I am really glad to have them on our team.

Q. I guess the common musical background for both bands is extreme music, especially heavy metal. How do you try to differentiate the sound and the concept between both bands?

Hendrik: We have a strong concept for the music we want to create with Syranic. We want the heavy parts to be as brutal and mind-fucking as anything there is and the soft parts to be extremely beautiful and catchy, too. Of course in the end you will end up doing the music you like to listen to yourself, but that only helps the concept in this case, because everyone in this band not only likes extreme metal genres but also we are all big fans of soft and melodic stuff like Karnivool or Dead Letter Circus.

Julian: That is absolutely right! We had the idea to transform the classical metalcore and modern metal formula of brutal songs with clean choruses into something special by exaggerating the whole classical concept. I think we already have done quite a good job on our first EP and we will stay on this path for sure. Something which also should be mentioned is that we are not only metalheads. We had and have a strong impact from pop and other genres. I am listening a lot to swing like Django Rheinhardt or bigbands and I also worship artists like Dredge, Muse, Faith no More, Prince and so on. My dream is to create a death metal album with swing influences one day, but I am sure I will never get the other guys to write such songs - hahaha!

Hendrik: Yeah, I don't know, hahahaha!

Q. You told me that all the members are involved in songwriting for Killtribe, but who is the main songwriter for Syranic?

Hendrik: We evolved a lot of different techniques for songwriting over the years. The old songs were all written the way I described earlier, creating riffs in the rehearsal room and continue working on them at home and for some songs I create the riffs for myself and Julian then starts working on the vocals. But for the last songs Julian already had some riffs and vocal ideas in his head and so the two of us would meet in the studio or at home and work on those ideas for sometimes two days straight, having a completely finished song in the end. For example the song "Trans[c]ience" from our EP was created this way.

Julian: Yes, the songwriting for "Trans[c]ience" was different but it worked out really well. We wrote the whole song in one day, the craziest part was the chorus. At first we wanted to write a song without any catchy melodies but Hendrik still wanted a chorus in it. So I took the guitar and said: "Hey man I dreamed this part a few days ago - check this out" and played the chorus with the riff as it is in the song today. I am not kidding I dreamed exactly about this son of a bitch. I think you can say that Hendrik and me are the main songwriters but the other guys already have a big impact.

Hendrik: Yeah I'm a real popbitch and need my melodies, haha. But with Julian as the counterpart there's nothing easier than writing a great chorus. This guy is unbelievably creative and I'll eat my hat if he hasn't already stashed enough ideas for choruses to put on at least the next three records!

Q. How do you feel about the outcome of this new EP “The Windscale Inception”?

Hendrik: I was completely responsible for the recording and production of this record and that was so much work, literally hundreds of hours and I currently can't imagine doing this again for the next record, but I'm glad I did for this one time. We really have a good product in our hands now, and that gives us loads of opportunities. There were moments I thought I was going insane, but getting all those reactions from our fans now gives me the feeling it was all worth it.

Julian: Hendrik has done a hell of a job on the EP! It was a hard time but it was more than worth doing it, the fanbase is already really strong and we got so much preorders from all over the world - I think it is the greatest reward we can get for our work. Thank you to everyone who supports us - we appreciate it!

Q. I assume you guys will work on a full length after this. What will be your basic idea or an image of the upcoming album be like?

Hendrik: Yes, we already began writing some songs for a full length record and I feel really good about them. They do the job of fitting the style we are going for even better. I love the technical parts already and those choruses will be huge! We are on a great way of enhancing our typical sound.

Julian: Something I can already say about this is that the full length album is going to be more spiritual than "The Windscale Inception". The lyrics on our first EP are mostly dealing with social circumstances and humanity faling to solve its problems. I think the longplayer is going to be way different, we already have written a real beast called "Yalda" and the Lyrics are absolutely not comparable to "The Windscale Inception".

The idea is to write the lyrics like a conceptalbum and "Yalda" is going to be the final song, which already stands for the whole idea of our upcoming album. "Yalda" is a song which stands for the greatness of life and the connection between all beings who exist today and who have ever existed. Sounds like I got too much drugs in my veins hm? I should better switch to beer and whiskey again that is more metal! Haha, no I mean it and it is a great image for a longplayer.

Q. What does the title “The Windscale Inception” mean?

Julian: That is a good question. It is not quite easy to explain - I'll do my very best. The lyrics on "The Windscale Inception" are mostly dealing with humanity failing to solve their problems. In the beginning the vocals have been simply facts about disasters of our modern time like the lake Karatschai in Russia, the most polluted place on Earth. I used this theme for the lyrics of "Death Facility One". This disaster took place in a nuclear facility in the Ural where plutonium for nuclear warheads was produced. The Soviet scientists just lead the river which ends in the Karatschai lake through the core of the reactor to cool it and back into the river again - they really didn't give a fuck! Therefore you die if you spend 60 minutes close to this lake.

Nemesis is also one of these songs. it is about the irony that humankind is the first species which is able to realize that its limited resources are overcultivated but still is trapped in the principles. We are so convinced that we can solve our problems with technique that we can not see our real role in life in a modest way. We are still the same monkey which is just living in a technical world and we can't see how overstrained we are actually in this modern world. Relating to the themes of these first lyrics we were looking for a metaphor and found it in the town Windscale in Great Britain. The first nuclear disaster, which has been the most serious worst-case scenario with a reactor before chernobyl, happened exactly in this town and the british government just changed the name into Sellafield to keep it secret. The facility is still in use today and is polluting the Northern seas just as "La Haque" in France with radioactive garbage. The lyrics are all about the human hubris to rule and the failing of every single one of us. This sounds really depressed and dark but actually "The Windscale Inception" is a really positive piece of music even if it is hate-filled. I believe that we are all aware of our responsibility and know the difference between good and bad. It is the main conclusion of the EP: "Things are going bad but we can face and change them, if we become aware of our own role in this big game called life."

We called the EP "The Windscale Inception" because it is the beginning of our creative work as a group of musicians and because "Windscale" is a metaphor for the human hubris that technology is the solution for all our problems. I believe it is not! Technology is developing way too fast for us and we can't cope with the speed of changes in our environment. All that technology does in my opinion is accelerating the growth rate of our societies and this is just causing bigger problems, not solutions. Humanity is at a turning point and it is in our hands to deal with our problems in a responsible way or not. There will be just loosers or just winners, it depends on us! This is one globe, one nature and one humankind - we will swim or sink together. So "The Windscale Inception" is a metaphor for both: the beginning of our work as musicians and the beginning of a time which will change the human history once and for all.

 

Q. Have Killtribe and Syranic ever played together in the past?

Hendrik: Not yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to happen some time in the future. There is no intention to do that, but I'm positive the bands will come across on a metal festival or something like that.

Q. I think Syranic has more melodic sound compared to Killtribe. What kind of a message or an idea do you try to get across to the listeners with Syranic?

Julian: Metal is not just music - it is straight into your face, brutal, intense but always two things: honest and passionate. Metal is one of the best ways to canalize your emotions and to free something inside you. You get up and fight for the things you believe in, I feel it in the moments in which I am on stage and every time I write a song. It is this feeling which is meant for the person who listens to your songs or who is moshing on your gig. You share a moment and this is what I always want the listener to feel. It is a journey we do with our music - come with us!

Q. You told me previously that you have a big influence from Adam of Killswith Engage. What are some of the points that you admire about him as a guitarist?

Hendrik: Yeah, Killswitch Engage influenced my style a lot. I like the way they write compact and catchy songs. And they always have great choruses. It's quite obvious that our song "The Mindscale Inception" has been influenced a lot by Killswitch Engage. Also "Nemesis" isn't completely free of that. Yet with the new songs that influence is almost completely gone, though I'll always admire the compactness of their songs.

Q. Like you, Adam also does a lot of sound for different bands. Is this also some of the points that inspire you about him? How do you think about his sound producing works?

Hendrik: Well, I guess we chose a quite similar career, but it's not something I did for that purpose. Though I think he produced some of the best sounding metal albums of all time, most notably "The Awakening" by German metallers Caliban. I love the sound of that album, it's incredible.

Q. What is your favorite Killswith Engage song?

Hendrik: I don't listen to them that much these days, but I still think that almost every song on "The End Of Heartache" is a hit. Though the best song ever by them may be "Fixation On The Darkness" from their first record. I'm pretty sure there is no song I've played on my guitar more often than this one, haha.

Q. How do you think about the current metal / extreme music scene in Germany?

Julian: I think there are a lot of passionate musicians in Germany and the current metal and extreme music scene is really big. We got bands like Caliban and Heaven Shall Burn which where founding members of the metalcore scene and we got some great melodeath, metalcore and modern metal bands around here. The scene in Aachen and Cologne is really good for example, there are so many amazing bands out of this area like Eleonore, trickORtreat, Under the Pledge of Secrecy or Last One Dying. Moreover there is a huge Beatdown and Metalcore scene in Eastern Germany. You can say that there are not many well known bands but the underground is absolutely alive.

Hendrik: Hell yes, I love the underground bands from our region. We really have a high density of great bands here and I'm not just saying this. Also on a national scale there are a lot of bands who have some reputation all across the world as Julian already mentioned. It's kinda funny when you read about "German Metal" as a genre, but I get it - we do have a common style here.

Q. Who would you say is the all time greatest band of Germany?

Julian: My girlfriend Julia while she is playing guitar and my balls when I let them slide over a piano… Oh we are talking about metal right? Well that is hard to say - my favorite band in Germany is "Heaven Shall burn" right now, but my all time favorite German band are the noise-rockers "Harmful" from Frankfurt. Great songs, great live-band - awesome! I've seen them with "Faith no More" the last time and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. One thing you got to know about them is that Faith No More bass-guitar player Billy Gould also played for "Harmful".

Hendrik: Rammstein! An incredible and unique band! I'm not a fan of their latest stuff but their 2001 release "Mutter" is in my opinion one of the greatest metal albums ever. And to date it is one of the best sounding! Also my style of writing has been influenced by that album for a long time.

Julian: Ah yes Rammstein. That fits with my balls on the piano - "I hurt you and you are mourning silently" I love them!

Hendrik: Bück dich!

Q. Who named the band Syranic?

Julian: It was me. At first the band was called "Spinal Shock" but we have never been really happy with this name. Hendrik gave me the task to find a name which starts with S and ends with C and it should be one word. This task took me weeks I guess and I worked on it for a really long time. At last I ended up with "Syranic" and the greatest thing was that this name had a real meaning already.

Hendrik: That is the task I gave you? Holy shit, do I suck. But I guess in the end it worked out pretty well, haha.

Q. What is the meaning behind the name Syranic?

Julian: It is a description for our sound which is personated by a figure of the Greek mythology. This is Syranis, demigod of cruelty and mercy, the son of Eros and Hamysh-Git, a creature of Chaos from the outter void. The manic character of our songs is perfectly described by this demigod. We destroy everything you are and lift you up again when you are down. Syranic is heaven and hell in every song, we ARE Syranic!

Q. The environment of music and the relationship between artists and listeners have been changing drastically with the spread of internet. As a musician, how would you want to keep playing music in the future?

Hendrik: Of course with the introduction of MP3 and thus the possibility to get all the music you like for free the internet has a big downside to the music industry.
But we as Syranic use the internet to our full advantage. I can not imagine how we would ever have gotten the possibilities of playing shows and getting fans in these dimensions if it wasn't for the internet. Hell, we wouldn't even be doing this interview right now. Also the very convenient ways of talking to your fans and giving them the opportunity to talk to you are great. You can create a very personal relationship with your fans nowadays.

Q. How do you see the general rock scene of the first ten years of this millennium?

Hendrik: I must say I love the music that has been coming out this last decade. The Nu Metal genre in the beginning was fun and I also like all those modern polyrhythmic bands that came up during the years. And even when it comes to popular music, I love the stuff that has been coming out this decade! You would be shocked about what music from the top artists of the years I listen to. Nothing compared to the 90s, I really don't like the sound of that decade.

Julian: I have nothing more to say and agree in all points - it was a lot of fun and a lot of great music was released! Keep it going guys!

Q. What is your favorite metal album that came out in these ten years?

Hendrik: Holy shit, that is a tough one! The problem with that question is I have something you could call band ADD. I can really adore a band for maybe one year and then I go like: God, they suck. I'm kind of extreme about that, haha. But the albums I loved the most were "Silhouettes" by Textures from 2008, "Ascendancy" by Trivium from 2005, "The End Of Heartache" by Killswitch Engage from 2004, "Deliverance" by Opeth from 2002, "Toxicity" by System Of A Down from 2001 and as I said earlier "Mutter" bei Rammstein from 2001.

Julian: Wow Hendrik is right, this IS a tough one but I can answer it. My favorites are: "The Audio Injected Soul" by Mnemic from 2004, "Alien" by Strapping Young Lad from 2005, "The New Black" by Strapping Young Lad from 2006, "Stabbing the Drama" by Soilwork from 2005, "Figure Number Five" by Soilwork from 2003, "Stone Sour" by Stone Sour from 2002 and "Deaf To Our Prayers" by Heaven Shall Burn from 2006.

Q. What is the goal for Syranic?

Julian: To fuck your mind!

May 2010 EAT magazine issue 94

SYRANIC “The Windscale Inception” EP review by EAT magazine issue 94
The debut EP of SYRANIC formed Hendrik from KILLTRIBE, Kamil Albrecht from the vox of ELEONORE and others. With thrashin’ riffs have relevance to FEAR FACTORY, conclusive melodies have the backbone of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and hysterical screaming vox like Devin Townsend, they created very sharp spirals with full of various eras right-on music sense. SYRANIC placed their sound with a lot of extreme metal icons, and also they show us some part of a traditional metal and heaviness mood from end of 90’s (they rejected that era as “dislike” though ). This is a really good EP that you can take their passion of their obsession as a German metal band with knife-edged sound images from the start to the end!

EAT magazine

SYRANIC 
THE WINDSCALE INCEPTION

1. Endless Open End
2. Trans[c]ience
3. Nemesis
4. The Mindscale Inception
5. Death Facility One

 

 

At this moment, they are having a long break and I am waiting for, oh wait! we all SYRANIC fans in the universe are waiting for their come back to the scene.

We love your real-hell-fucking-kick-ass-metal!!!

2nd Oct. 2011 - Kumi666