Interviews

Gordon and Michael of Never to Arise

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I recently shot over some interview questions to Gordon Denhart and Michael Kilborn of Never to Arise. They got the answers back pretty quick. Here’s what they had to say about Never to Arise, and while you’re reading, be sure to check out their full album streaming courtesy of their Bandcamp account! It can be found at the bottom of the page. And, if you like what you hear, you can head on over to nevertoarise.bandcamp.com and order their recently released debut full-length!

First of all, Never to Arise is a two-piece Death Metal band. Why is it that you guys kept it that way since you formed in 2009, and has the prospect of adding another member to handle the drums crossed your mind?

Gordon:
Actually the band formed back in 2007 after initially being a solo project of mine. As far as staying a two piece band, it’s sometimes hard enough for the two of us to agree on things never mind bringing other members in. In fact,there was a period of almost a year that Michael and I didn’t even speak to each other! There is no room here for a third ego.

Michael:
Also in adding to Gordon’s answer, the facilities we have for recording right now are not exemplary in recording drums properly. And I have had enough issues in the past dealing with squirrelly drummers.

Do you think that Hacked to Perfection using a drum machine helped out at all? Or do you think that it actually wound up hurting it?

Michael:
I think in having programmed drums, there was not a worry of performance in a drummer. Also it helped expedite the recording process.

Gordon:
Well my opinion may be biased since I composed all the drum parts, but It certainly helped define our style. I didn’t want to be too technical with the drums.We are a guitar band. The drums are the backbone of the music…they propel the music forward.

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Sebastian Weißgerber of Zero Degree

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Zero Degree
Recently I reviewed the debut Zero Degree full-length album Surreal World thanks to a review copy from Massacre Records. Shortly after doing so, I shot over some interview questions for the group to answer. It didn’t take long for Sebastian Weißgerber, the group’s guitarist, to get back with some answers!

Thank you for taking some time to answer a few questions. Zero Degree issued a demo back in 2007, and then for 2010 recorded
Surreal World yourselves. Why did you take this on in an independent fashion? Was this planned out already, or was the label interest just there or not enticing enough?

Sebastian:
Hey Jason! Back these days we didn’t think about the possibility of getting signed by a record company. We produced the album on our own and we really enjoyed the freedom of doing what we wanted and when we wanted. After the release of the album in late 2010 we came to the point where we accepted that it is really hard to get in touch with fans, critics and people in the business on our own. So we took the possibility and sent our album to different labels. MASSACRE RECORDS offered the best option and now we are partners and we are really happy with it.

Surreal World really seems to encompass what the nineties Melodic Death Metal style was all about. Was that the most influential style in your life, or are you actually more fond of another approach, such as Thrash or perhaps Black Metal? If so, why?

Sebastian:
Yes, it was our goal to go on with the style most bands of that genre don’t play anymore. We liked the melodic leads merged with the harshness of death metal, so you’re right it is the most influential metal style to us. But we are also into thrash and black metal. I started playing guitar because of Metallica and the other “bay area” bands. It definitely has got a huge impact on my style of playing. Our guitarist Maik and our drummer Tobias are also very dedicated to black metal. So other styles definitely have an influence on our music as well.

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An Interview with Aaron Miller

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Aaron Miller
Aaron Miller, member of Hexagram, and VFX for the Xbox Live Arcade title Bloodforge, took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down and answer a few questions on both projects he is involved with via e-mail.

How did it come about that you wound up working on the soundtrack for Bloodforge?

Aaaron:
I work for Climax as a VFX artist normally, but music is something I’ve been doing all my life. When I heard they needed music I jumped on it, I already had some ideas of what I thought would be cool for it, they liked what I did for the early tests of the game. So I got the job to do the whole thing.

Was it established at the start of the project that they wanted a more orchestral score to the album than a stricter Metal one?

Aaaron:
Yes definitely, it just so happened that what they wanted, and what I brought to the table, were the same thing, a metal score would have been the obvious thing to do, or a metal/orchestra mix, the game is full on a lot of the time. But I didn’t want it to just be another metal orchestra mix soundtrack, it really needed an ethnic edge to it, I think the metal side to it would have been distracting from the rest of it. I was asked to keep it tribal, ethnic drums. That’s why I went for a very large set of percussion instruments and then added the Horn section. Actually in the initial mock ups, I just wrote a big tribal drum track, that was cool, but it needed something else if we were going to have different themes in the game.

An Interview with Yagiz

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I had a chance to shoot over some questions via e-mail to Chopstick Suicide thanks to Clawhammer PR. The following are the responses from Yagiz.

Chopstick Suicide

Prior to your upcoming album, you issued two EPs and a previous full-length. Do you feel that “Lost Fathers and Sons” shows a great deal of growth in the group compared to those previous outings?

Yagiz:
Of course, with every recording our lives, feelings, life stories, lyrics, music and it’s structure has changed. Also our exprience and technicality with our instruments got developed over the years.

After sampling some of the previous release, Loserville, it sounds like Lost Fathers and Sons is a little more restrained and less Avant-Garde from the more technical and Mathcore aspect. Was this a goal for this album, or do you not see it that way?

Yagiz:
I like Loserville very much. Not the production but the songs. Our first album was more like a “technical show-off”. With Lost Fathers and Sons we kinda balanced the “technical shit, odd timing, different playing styles blabla” and “having fun with people when you play live”.

An Interview with Nicholas Soulat

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Nicholas Soulat of Outcast took some time to answer a few questions I sent his way via e-mail. It didn’t take long for him to write back with the following answers.

Outcast logo
Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. How is everything on your end? I hope all is going well for you.

Nicolas:
Hi, Nicos Here (Guitars). Everything is going fine, we’re on this great period where everything is shaping well : new merch, tours planned, compositions etc. Everyone is fine and ready to spread the music.

Awaken the Reason clearly isn’t your first time in the studio. Prior to this you did two demos, one under another name, as well as an EP and two other full-length albums. How has the recording process changed for you over the years? Do you feel that every time you go in you end up coming off a lot stronger from your past experiences?

Nicolas:
I joined the group in 2004 and as far as I’m concerned I can say that every writing/recording process had brought a lot of changes and evolutions. The influences aren’t the same today than they were 7 years ago. Our approach of music and making metal became more and more subtle and every day spent in the studio was different. The two first albums were recorded at home and sounded very mechanical and clinical, only one of the two guitarists recorded all the guitars (except the soli), all the part were mixed and engineered by Aurelien Mauro (Skeleton Crew) with his own gear. The result was very rough and massive but we definitely missed that warm fluid which can more and more be found on our favorites influences (Textures, Protest The Hero, Converge etc.) So that idea led us in this very direction and we asked Jochem Jacobs (Textures) to be in charge of the mixing part at Split Second Sound Studio which is a actually a professional studio. This choice was the best thing that could happen to our music and allowed it to sound more organic and bigger than the last ones.