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]