Interviews – Page 2

Kingcrow – Eidos – Track-by-Track Interview – Part 2

Courtesy of: Devilnax Photoart, Christian Nastas Photo

Welcome to Part 2 of my rather mammoth chat with Diego Cafolla, the guitarist and principal song writer with Kingcrow. I’ve said it before and I make no apology for saying it again: Kingcrow are one of the most criminally underrated bands in the progressive metal world. As such, I felt it absolutely necessary to delve as deeply into the Italian’s music as possible and hopefully gather a few new converts along the way. After all, writing about and supporting great bands is what the Blog Of Much Metal is fundamentally about.

If you’ve yet to read Part 1, you can access it here. In Part 1, Diego and I talk about the album title, the artwork and a host of other things before delving headlong into a track-by-track breakdown of ‘Eidos’, Kingcrow’s sixth full-length release.

However, onto Part 2 and it’s here that we pick up on the track-by-track synopsis, beginning with the sixth track on the album, ‘Deeper Divide’. It’s a longer track that features a hefty dose of technicality but also has some gorgeous melodies and plenty of memorable moments. I’m not the only one who likes the song, as Diego admits candidly.

Deeper Divide

“I tell you”, he begins, “this is probably my second favourite track on the record. It is a very deep song which I wrote the lyrics for. It is about someone cutting every connection with his past and going for a completely different life. I wrote it at four in the morning and the atmosphere is there. When I hear it, I can picture myself in the studio writing it at four in the morning. I feel that it is quite a lonely song, but it is quite complex. There is a part after the chorus, if you can call it a chorus, where there is an opening after a dark beginning. A friend told me that it is like a ray of light from a dark sky. I like that change in mood in the song a lot.”

On The Barren Ground

“This is probably the happiest song on the record, I guess”, Diego responds as we move onto ‘On The Barren Ground’, the seventh track on the album. “It was totally re-written because the chorus that you hear on the album was actually the verse on the initial version. It is quite heavy too.”

I agree that it is pretty heavy, but I get an 80s prog rock vibe to the song too. I reluctantly put this to Diego and, surprisingly, he doesn’t necessarily disagree.

“Someone also suggested that it has an 80s pop feel. I don’t know, I wasn’t inspired by 80s pop for the song but I can understand what you mean totally. I think it is the keyboard sounds that remind people of 80s pop. But I like the song because it’s a punchy track, quite technical and the opening riff is probably one of the heaviest parts by our band. It wasn’t deliberate, it just happened that way; it wasn’t like I thought ‘right, now I have to write something with balls’”, Diego laughs riotously before reverting back to his self-deprecating norm. “But I like the track and it is what it is.”

At The Same Pace

When I first heard ‘Eidos’, I immediately took a couple of the songs to my heart. ‘At The Same Pace’ was not one of those tracks. However, over time, it has crept into my psyche almost under the radar and it is now a firm favourite with me. I let Diego enlighten me about this rather wonderful piece of music.

“I agree that it is one of the best songs on the record”, Diego begins matter-of-factly. “The lyrics are written by Diego Marchesi and they are very personal, so I prefer not to talk about them for this song. But musically, it was easy to write and what I like about the song is that it is quite long but it feels short. It’s not like ‘ah, I’ve been listening to this song for ages’ which is nice. The only part that I changed totally that wasn’t on the original script was the atmospheric breakdown in the middle.”

Ah, the breakdown. After a few minutes of steady building, the track metaphorically jumps off a cliff face and plunges into an atmospheric and emotional abyss of rich beauty. The combination of acoustic guitars, powerful piano and soulful guitar solos gives me goose bumps every time.

“Thank you, it is a solo which I really love. But for me, there is a fantastic bass line by Francesco (D’Errico) and yeah, I dunno, it’s one of those songs that worked from the beginning. It’s a favourite song for me on the record.”

“The bass line”, Diego obliges when I ask him to elaborate on the bass work he mentions, “has this kind of funky rhythm, and Francesco is a great bass player. A lot of the beauty of the song comes from the bass work. It’s something that a lot of people don’t focus on but I can tell you that without the bass, the song loses a lot of its beauty for sure. Francesco shines more than ever on this record I believe.”

https://soundcloud.com/ken-golden-1/08-kingcrow-at-the-same-pace-1

Eidos

The penultimate track is both the longest song and the title track. It’s a genuine monster that offers a great deal of variety throughout its extended life span. As I discover, ‘Eidos’ was not a composition that easily rolled off the production line.

“That one was the hardest song to write”, Diego offers bluntly. “I spent like a month writing it because it is quite complex. It has a lot of switches between heavy and melodic and because I always want to make the songs sound smooth, I had to put a lot of extra work into it. Also the vocal melodies I like too. It is probably the hardest song to dig at first because it changes a lot. It starts quite heavy but it has this acoustic verse and builds towards the end. The end section is quite heavy too. We haven’t rehearsed it yet but I think it will be a hard song to put down live.”

Without seeking to derail the track-by-track rundown, I note to Diego that a theme has begun to develop with Kingcrow, namely the combination of heavy metal and acoustic guitars which creates a nice balance and something akin to a ‘unique selling point’ the band. Diego agrees and explains why this is.

“I have been thinking about this and I think it has become a little bit of a trademark with Kingcrow. It happens a lot and simply, I like the sound of the acoustic guitar. I like it even when they are combined with very crunchy guitars; I like that sound. It all gives you this lush feel and I think it will be there forever with Kingcrow I guess.”

If Only

Earlier in the conversation, Diego confessed his love for ‘If Only’, the closing track on ‘Eidos’. I finally offer him the floor and invite him to put his love of this composition into words.

“It is a very complex song”, he begins, “that contains polyrhythms for example. But it’s not because it is complex that I like it; it’s the emotion of the song. I have this image in my head of two people lying in the bedroom; an old couple. One of them is thinking about passing their life with this person and questioning themselves about that. I just imagined the light of the moon through the window and this was the initial image I had. When I write, I write in a very visual way. I try to make soundtracks to images and this was the image for ‘If Only’. It wasn’t very difficult to write but I just love the feeling to it. There’s what I call the chorus even if it doesn’t repeat; there’s this opening and every time I listen to it, I love it and feel that it is very good.”

One strength of ‘If Only’ that hasn’t yet been mentioned yet, is the vocals. Diego Marchesi’s voice is fantastic throughout ‘Eidos’ but is, in my opinion, outstanding within ‘If Only’. Diego is quick to agree.

Again, it was almost a first take I think. Diego started to sing and I thought ‘ok, this is perfect. No work needed here’. He just nailed it first time, it was amazing. He has a great way of channelling emotions through his voice. People tend to focus more on technical aspects or the screaming, high pitched notes. He has the ability to do this, I can assure you. But he just focuses a lot on delivering a performance that links with what the song is all about. We all just let the music go where it wants to go. It’s not our forte to show off. We can play but we’re not shredders or anything. So it is better for us to focus on other aspects of the music, like the arrangements, expressing emotion and a subtle sophistication in the playing.”

And there you have it. All ten songs explored and explained from the band’s perspective.

In my previous interview with Diego some months ago, he offered me a great soundbite, describing ‘Eidos’ as a ‘sonic adventure’. Naturally, I ask him whether he still stands by this description.

“Yeah, I stand by that”, he retorts vehemently. “There are a lot of different sounds, styles and arrangements on this record. I feel that it is a very rich record and that’s why it will probably take some time to dig some of the songs. There are a lot of things going on and it’s not like a record where once you hear the first track, it sets the tone for the whole record. There is a lot more to discover during the life of the record.”

From a personal perspective, I like the fact that the technicality never threatens to overshadow the music and at its heart, ‘Eidos’ is a beautiful record with a great smooth flow to it. The result is an album that I want to go back to again and again.

“We work in that sense and try to make everything smooth”, Diego replies appreciatively. “We constantly play in odd time signatures but if we feel that something sounds too angular, we try to prevent this. I have this joke that we make ‘prog for dummies’ because we have the sophistication to use polyrhythms and odd time signatures but we try to make everything as smooth as possible.”

I laughingly refer to my love of cricket at this point. I love the fact that I’m in a small minority who really understands the rules of the game. The same could be said for Kingcrow; it’s that thrill of being in on a secret. In my case, I understand the rules of the game, for Kingcrow, it’s knowing how technical the music is. I think the cricket analogy is lost on Diego, but he apparently concurs with what I’m trying to say.

“We are rehearsing some songs now and this material is the most technical we’ve ever written, hands down. Nothing on ‘In Crescendo’ or ‘Phlegethon’, is as complicated to play as on ‘Eidos’.

‘Yeah, a bit, yeah”, Diego laughs with real warmth when I ask if he regrets the material being so complex. “I was talking with Ivan (Nastasi) the other guitar player and he said to me ‘man, why did you do that? Nobody will recognise this, so why did you do it?’ It is extra work for everyone but it is very satisfying when you can play a song very well on stage and you, and only you, know how complex it actually is.”

With any band, the big question is whether they honestly think that the new album will be the one to propel them to the next level or beyond, garnering new fans in the process.

“I hope so”, comes the standard reply, although crucially, I get the feeling Diego really believes that this could be their moment. “I think it is a strong record and I hope that it will bring some more recognition for us. I don’t want to sound pretentious but I think that we are a good band. We work hard a lot and the hope is always there. We hope that people will stick with it and think that we are a good band.”

Realising that the interview began over an hour ago, I feel compelled to wrap things up. It’s not like I have two young children to look after or other adult responsibilities to attend to…oh, wait, yes I do. In that case, I close the interview which has felt more like two friends having a natter, by asking about future touring plans. And, seeing as I’m based in the UK, I’m specifically interested to find out whether we’ll see Kingcrow on these shores again soon.

“Yeah absolutely, we will take ‘Eidos’ onto the stage. But since it is now the summer, I think that we will do something in the fall. We don’t have anything booked yet but our management is working on it right now. I’m sure something will come up for around October or something like that. For sure we’ll do a show in Rome which will be the first one, because we always do that. I’m not sure about the States or North America, but probably Europe will be our main focus. The reaction we had in the UK was quite good, particularly because it was our first international show. It was really new for us, but we have great memories and the reaction was really good. I hope we will come back to England soon, but it depends because it is quite expensive to get there.”

‘Eidos’ is out on Sensory Records on June 23rd 2015.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 1 Triaxis Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

Maschine

Kingcrow – Eidos – Track-by-Track Interview – Part 1

I spoke with Kingcrow mainman Diego Cafolla a few months back at the time when writing had just been completed for album number six, ‘Eidos’. Fast forward several weeks and we’re now on the eve of its release on June 23rd. It stood out as one of my most anticipated album releases of 2015 and having been lucky enough to hear the whole album a little in advance, suffice to say that, to these ears, my high hopes have been met. Possibly exceeded. ‘Eidos’ is quality melodic progressive metal at its finest.

Having kept in touch with Diego since that last interview, I tapped up the friendly and affable Italian guitarist and songwriter for another chat. He agreed and what ensues represents the fruits of an hour-long conversation about all things Kingcrow, one of the most underrated progressive metal bands on the planet in my opinion.

I begin proceedings by asking Diego if he and the band are pleased with the outcome and what, in particular, is most pleasing overall.

“Well yes, I’m proud, but when I listen to every album, I tend to focus on the faults” Diego begins in typically self-deprecating and honest fashion. “I’m also the producer, so I’m constantly thinking that this should have been louder or this sound could have been better. I’m never happy about the production. For the songs though, I am really proud of them.”

“In the band”, Diego continues, “we usually talk about which is the best song on the album and it is not so easy this time. I think my favourite is ‘If Only’, the last track but not because it is a better song than the others, because I like every song on the record, but it feels very close to me.”

The new album is simply named ‘Eidos’, a title that means little to me. I feel it necessary therefore to discover more about its meaning.

“It’s a Greek word”, Diego responds correcting my horrendous anglicised pronunciation in the process. “It’s a philosophical concept that means, in a few words, the real essence of things. So, since the concept that started with ‘Phlegethon’ is about life, it seemed to fit very well. It’s a bit pretentious probably, but I liked it”, he chuckles warmly.

“There is this main theme, yes”, answers Diego when I enquire as to whether ‘Eidos’ is a concept album of sorts. “The concept began with ‘Phlegethon’ which is about childhood and the way that how you live during your childhood shapes your personality. Then we have ‘In Crescendo’ which is about the end of youth. ‘Eidos’ is a step further so it’s about a grown man looking back at his life, the choices he made and how these choices he made affected his life. It looks also at how many of these choices are made because of external factors like the society he lives in and the pressure from other people for example. The songs do not make a story as such, but they are all related to this main idea.”

It’s a deep, fascinating and striking theme I’m sure you’ll agree. Every bit as striking however, is the cover artwork that accompanies ‘Eidos’. Diego is keen to offer an insight into this.

“We started working on a cover that was totally different. If we had continued with that idea, ‘Eidos’ would have a cover very similar to the new Steven Wilson record”, Diego laughs heartily and with a sense of relief. “The cover is made by Devilnax who we’re worked with for a long time. It is inspired by the painting ‘The Lovers’ by Magritte. We were searching for inspiration and we saw this painting. We thought that it was interesting, so we just made it fit the concept. The image is very symbolic; the man standing has a teddy bear which represents his past life and childhood which connects with ‘Phlegethon’. He stands in water which represents life and he can’t see his future…”

Ah, hence the cover over his head, I rudely interject with a self-aggrandising puffing out of the chest.

“Exactly”, agrees Diego, generously. “We worked a lot on the concept of the cover and we shot it very near the studio because there is a lake there.”

Listening to Kingcrow can be a challenge but it is also, ultimately, a very rewarding experience. I ask Diego whether the band deliberately set out to make the listener work hard for their enjoyment.

“It just happens that way I guess”, Diego counters after a little consideration. “We only try to make the best music possible. But I understand because our records are very rich with a lot of variety in them. They are very layered and so it probably takes a few spins before you can fully appreciate everything on the record. On this record though, there are a few more direct songs like ‘The Moth’, ‘Adrift’ perhaps in the chorus and ‘Fading Out Pt IV’. I mean, some songs are quite short; there are three or four songs that are about four minutes long which is really very short for us. But there are other songs that are much longer and that’s just the way I write I guess.”

At this point, I’m keen to delve into the main feature of this interview, the track-by-track breakdown from the main songwriter’s point of view. Being horrendously clichéd, I kick things off by inviting Diego to talk a little about the opening track and lead single, ‘The Moth’.

The Moth

“That song was the first that I wrote for the record. Since ‘In Crescendo’ featured songs that were all long, my initial idea was to make the songs more concise. But this was a total failure”, he chuckles, “because the album is 60 minutes and contains ten songs. So the songs have an average length of six minutes. But anyway, this was very easy to write actually. It was good for the first track because it is punchy, concise and I think it has a catchy chorus. It will work well live and when we were talking about which song to choose as the first single, everyone pointed to this song, so it was the obvious choice.”

“The song is an introduction to the concept on the album”, Diego continues. “There is a metaphor in there, of the moth that’s blinded by the light and the flame. It represents someone who is so focussed on following a career or whatever that he misses everything else.”

This track has also been chosen as the first on ‘Eidos’ to get the video treatment. Diego recounts the story behind getting Gastón Viñas to create the visuals to accompany the song.

“It’s a great video to me”, he replies with typical understatement. “I found this artist because he made some videos for Radiohead. I was listening to Radiohead on YouTube and I saw the song ‘2+2=5’. I contacted him and told him that I appreciated his art. We exchanged emails and I told him I have a band, Kingcrow. He said that he knew Kingcrow, and that he was a fan. It started like that; I sent him a song, the album cover and the lyrics and he created everything himself from just that. He is a very talented guy and I love the video.”

Adrift

“It is one of my favourite songs on the record”, agrees Diego when I suggest that this has arguably the most immediate melodies within it and is a fantastically anthemic track in places. “The chorus is catchy but it is probably the most technical song on the album. I don’t think anyone will recognise this because all the technicalities are quite hidden. It’s very hard to play live, especially the guitars. It was one of the hardest songs to write because there are polyrhythms going on and it changes tonality, so we have to work on modulations quite a lot. We always try to make difficult things sound easy because for me it is all about the song. Even if a part is difficult to play, we don’t want to make it obvious because we want it to be easy to listen to. But if you dig deeper, you can hear that there are lots of things going on.”

“The final solo”, Diego closes on ‘Adrift’ is probably my favourite solo I have ever written. I worked hard on it and I like it; it’s quite bluesy and melodic because when I write solos, I write them like vocal lines.”

Slow Down

“This”, offers Diego when beginning to explain the third song, ‘Slow Down’, “is kind of the oddball on the record because it is just a strange song. I love it because it is strange, probably, and because it’s different. It has a saxophone in the middle section which sounds a bit like Zappa’s stuff, and I’m a big Zappa fan. It starts with vocals from the beginning and originally, I wrote that for a string arrangement. At the time, I was listening to the Beach Boys a lot and they have massive amounts of work on the vocals. I thought that maybe I should try to replace the strings with vocals to see what would happen. And I liked what happened. I think it will be quite fun to play because there’s a lot going on. The only part that is repeated in the song is the chorus because every other part is different.”

“The lyrics are by Diego Marchesi, the singer”, continues Diego. “The lyrics are about modern life, about someone involved with technology, that lives on his computer, misses things and being sucked in by a virtual life.”

Open Sky

To these ears, ‘Open Sky’ has a big, epic feel to it but is deceivingly only about five and a half minutes long. Before I can ask a question about it, Diego is off.

“I love this song”, he opens with barely contained enthusiasm. “When the drums kick in, I immediately had the riff in my head as it was a left-over from ‘In Crescendo’. I basically built the song around that riff. I dunno, it’s a very emotional song that I like a lot. I am the producer, so when Diego came to the studio to record the vocals, he came in and I asked to listen to how he would try to sing the song. He started singing but I stopped him. I thought it was quite good but asked him to sing the song whilst imagining being alone on a plain with snow and a grey sky. Diego said ‘you mean like this?’ It took one take. It was perfect. We have a good collaboration when we try to get the emotion just right. You can sing the same melody thousands of ways but the most difficult part is to find the right mood and emotion. Diego is great at that.

The lyrics are by Diego and there is melancholy involved but the message is not negative and there is still hope. It’s one of my favourite sets of lyrics on the album I think.

Fading Out Pt IV

Moving on to the half-way point of the record, listeners are greeted with another relatively concise track by Kingcrow standards and one whose title will ring bells with long-terms fans of the band.

“This was the second song that I wrote, that’s why it is short because I was still trying to write more concise songs at that point”, Diego chuckles again. “The opening riff was a left-over from ‘In Crescendo’ and the song was so easy to rite. Everything you hear, I wrote in two days. Everything. It is a very busy track, there are a lot of riffs for example. It is more of a classic Kingcrow track because it is connected to ‘Fading Out Pt III’ on ‘Phlegethon’ and there is a kind of flamenco, folk vibe within it.”

Having used the phrase ‘left over’, I quickly ask Diego to clarify why it was ‘left over’, hoping that it didn’t mean ‘substandard’. Mind you, given the quality of the track, I suspected from the outset that this wasn’t the case at all. Diego confirms this vehemently.

“It was only a left over because it didn’t fit on the ‘In Crescendo’ record in terms of the atmosphere. It wasn’t a bad riff, but ‘In Crescendo’ was more melancholic in feeling and if it had been included there, it would have sounded odd. I write constantly, so if I put everything I write on a record, it would be an eight-day long album and I don’t think the record label would like that.” Cue more laughter. “But you have to use ideas that feel connected. To give an extreme example, you could have a great reggae riff but you couldn’t put it on a black metal record.”

End of Part 1…

Triaxis – An Interview with ‘the metalhead’s metal band’

It’s not often a band is afforded a strapline as bold and grand as ‘the metalhead’s metal band’ but that’s exactly how South Wales-based heavy metal band Triaxis are described in certain quarters. With two albums under their belt to date, with a steadily-growing reputation and a loyal fan base, things are looking rather splendid for Triaxis. However, with album number three, ‘Zero Hour’ officially upon us as I write, I predict that things will only get better for the talented and hard-working quintet.

If you’ve yet to read my review of ‘Zero Hour’, be sure to check it out here. To briefly quote the review though, I am on record as saying that ‘Zero Hour’ is the very best that Triaxis have ever sounded and puts the Welsh band into the upper echelons of the British metal scene’. I think I might like the new album then.

In light of this, I felt it was my duty to offer the band the chance to tell the world a little more about themselves; after all, that’s what this blog is all about. I contacted lead vocalist Krissie Kirby and, happily, a few days later we got together over Skype to have a chat. It went something like this…

After a minor mix-up over the time of the interview and profuse, yet unnecessary, apologies from Krissie, I open the conversation by asking for a brief history of Triaxis for the benefit of those coming to this article blind.

“Ok”, begins a very bubbly, warm and friendly Krissie with a deep breath as if she’s about to launch into a rendition of ‘War And Peace’, “CJ (rhythm guitar) and Giles (Wilson – drums) formed Triaxis originally in around 2006 I believe. Like every band that has ever been in existence, they started by playing covers. They had a guy singer to start with, so I wasn’t the original singer. He left for family reasons and they got another girl in for about a year. They were toying with the idea of recording originals but then she went to university up Sheffield way. So an opening came up for a vocalist in Triaxis and by that time I’d known CJ for about a year and a half. I worked at the university that she studied at; she was always in my office gassing away”, Krissie laughs heartily, the first of many throughout the conversation, as it turns out.

“Everyone as they went past my office, would hear Megadeth, Skid Row, Whitesnake or Iron Maiden, I was so down with the kids.” Cue a naughty, self-deprecating chuckle from the vocalist.

“So we got talking and CJ realised that I was a singer. They asked me originally to audition for the band some time before but I was doing my masters at the time. CJ eventually wound me down and I went and auditioned. I joined and we started writing a lot more original material. ‘Key To The Kingdom’ came out in 2009, Gio (Gavin ‘Gio’ Owen – lead guitar) left, Glyn (Williams) joined, ‘Rage And Retribution’ appeared. Owen (Crawford – bass) left, Becky (Baldwin) joined and ‘Zero Hour’ is upon us. There you go, the history of Triaxis.”

Having filled in some of the blanks surrounding the creation of the band, I bring things more to the present by asking Krissie’s opinion of the ‘the metalheads’ metal band’ tag-line that has developed more recently. You can almost hear the awe and pride in her voice as Krissie replies.

“I love it, I think it’s awesome. We were chatting to someone the other day and they asked us to define ourselves. We’ve always defined ourselves as a heavy metal band. We have so many elements from so many different subgenres that we are difficult to pigeonhole. The only time that people have tried to pigeonhole us is because there’s a female at the front of the band. It doesn’t matter what your favourite style of metal is, there is something in the Triaxis sound, I hope, for everybody.”

If ever there was a truer statement, I’ve yet to find it. Given the fact that ‘Zero Hour’ is so chock full of great music with a wonderful diversity to it, it would be remiss of me not to enquire about its origins and how it all came together in the first place. Krissie happily explains.

“Glyn did the bulk of the music for the album and he really pulled on a hell of a lot of other influences that maybe we overlooked in the past or didn’t feel comfortable bringing them up. I mean we’re still growing as a band and it was one of those moments when we let Glyn loose with his imagination. A lot of the music he came up with is just so varied and different but we were hard-pressed to find anything that we thought did not fit in with the Triaxis sound.”

“You can still hear CJ and Giles’ riff element in there with the more thrashy sounds”, continues Krissie apace. “Those two are the thrash children of the band, they really are and CJ is ‘Miss Thrash’. And so, when I read your piece, I actually agreed with it because we do have a lot of thrash elements in this band. When you put us amongst other female-fronted bands, we are a lot more thrashy.”

Having been questioned by more than one person over my ‘thrash’ definition of Triaxis in a previous blog post, I’m naturally pleased to hear this from Krissie. However, rather than indulge in a smug ‘I told you so’, I instead let Krissie continue uninterrupted.

“That’s what we always try to say, that we just happen to have a female singer. I can’t do pretty, I can’t. As much as I love listening to Tarja, Within Temptation or NIghtwish, I’m too much of a tomboy and I can’t do pretty”, she chuckles. “However, I’m not saying that Floor is a symphonic singer – she can do opera stuff but her rock voice is phenomenal.”

At the risk of sounding a tad fawning, I suggest to Krissie that I personally consider her to be the female equivalent to Bruce Dickinson, principally due to the power that they both display by the bucket load.

“Woah, thank you”, Krissie replies genuinely. “We’ve had a few ways of being described and my favourite is ‘Iron Maiden fronted by Ann Wilson. I’ll take that, thank you because Bruce Dickinson is one of my absolute idols.”

“He’s not the principal song writer”, Krissie corrects me when I use this description of Glyn, “he’s the principal music writer. When we write, it’s a collaborative process in Triaxis. Because of the various things that have happened in our personal lives over the past year or so with Giles and CJ getting married, me starting my own business and things like that, Glyn started writing and we let him run wild with the music side of things.”

“Glyn would therefore share snippets of riffs with us and maybe CJ would come up with an idea off the back of it. She’d maybe write a bridge too and everything would go into a giant pot. One of us would then suggest a lyric idea, it would then be developed. Then someone else would agree with the theme but suggest a different perspective. It would basically be a huge melting pot and we’d all add to it.”

That being said, Krissie is again quick to correct me when I suggest that ‘Zero Hour’ has the feel of a album that came together thanks to a lot of jamming around with ideas in a rehearsal room.

“That’s sort of true but it’s a virtual room though. This is because we all live so far from each other and plus, with the way my work is, it is difficult for us to all get together into a room and jam. We find it a lot easier to put our ideas down electronically and throw them up into a dropbox and then work on them from there. In the old days, you’d have a band in a garage and they’d jam and create a song in maybe a day or whatever. It can take us anywhere up to five or six weeks to come up with a completely-crafted song.”

Unlike a lot of albums these days, ‘Zero Hour’ is not short of music, with a full twelve songs featuring. I ask Krissie to explain the reasoning behind creating such a big ‘value for money’ record.

“The decision”, she responds with characteristic honestly, “was very much down to ‘damn it, let’s just throw it on there’. It was a case of whether to put all twelve songs on the album or hold some back, maybe put out an EP later in the year or something like that. But then we just thought that all twelve songs were too good and they all work so well together. We just had to put them all on the record.”

“No, I don’t think so”, muses Krissie after a short pause when I ask whether she thought it was a risk to put the epic title track at the end of the disc, when those with a shorter attention span may miss out on it altogether. “We realised that we’d got a bit of a theme going on where the longest song appears as the last track. And the way it was written with the reversed intro as the outro, it was always in our minds to be the last song on the album regardless of what other songs came in between.”

The aforementioned outro was one of those genuinely eyebrow-raising moments as it sounds so different from Triaxis. So different in fact that I’m reminded of neo-prog giants Marillion as it plays. Fortunately, as Krissie reveals, I’m not the only one.

“A friend of mine commented on that and said the same thing”, she laughs. “It was just that we knew we wanted to put an outro on the song and CJ, because of the lyrical content, suggested that it might be good to do something new with the intro as the outro. Glyn suggested we just reverse it and see what happens. It sounded so cool, so we decided to go with it.”

There’s no doubting the quality of ‘Zero Hour’ in its entirety. However, I’m keen to identify what specifically Krissie is most proud of with this new album. As is her way, she tries to deflect the attention from herself initially.

“I think as a band, we’re proud of how the album has come together and we’re proud of Glyn because he headed up the entire recording process. He really worked his arse off and has infinite patience. In Triaxis, there are three girls who are all perfectionists and we get very frustrated with ourselves when we don’t get things absolutely right. He lets us get our frustrations out before saying ‘deep breath, let’s start again’. He’s wonderful and we’re proud of him for that. We’re very proud of the way our fans responded to our pledge campaign, we couldn’t believe that we hit the target within nine hours. You never know where to set the target; have we set it too low or too high, is our fanbase as big as we think it is? But it turned out that our fan base is even more huge than we thought.”

“Personally”, Krissie finally admits, “I am most proud of the ‘Lest We Forget’ track. It is inspired by an ancestor of mine and when I heard the rough copy, I had an emotional moment shall we say.”

One of the things that makes Triaxis so interesting is, arguably, the fact that more than half the band are female. In terms of the band’s output, this shouldn’t, and doesn’t, matter one iota. However, I’m interested to find out what this is like from the band’s perspective given that there are many people out there who apparently do care about such things. Krissie understands the rather ham-fisted way in which I word the question and once again chuckles before offering her considered view.

“We always get people who call us ‘femme metal’ or ‘female fronted’ but people will always try to pigeonhole you”, she states matter-of-factly. “The human species is terrible about wanting everything put into compartments. So people will do it whether I get uppity or not. So it’s a case of taking a breath, smiling and saying ‘thank you’. As long as people enjoy our music and come to our gigs, I really don’t mind.”

“It was an eye-opener a year last January”, Krissie continues, “when I decided to cut off all my hair. I had in the region of 250 comments asking why and if I’d lost my vocal powers. I was like ‘really?’ It’s just hair, it will grow back. But up until that point, it hadn’t registered with me how much people focus on the appearance of a band. I was quite shocked because I didn’t expect it in the metal world. I’d expect it in the pop and dance worlds where image is absolutely paramount, way above the music. I was disappointed to be honest but, to be fair, they got over it. And, to be honest, I think it works to our advantage having three girls in the band, but the boys are just as pretty.” Insert more raucous and friendly laughter here.

At this point, I decide to wind down the interview. Not because I want to, but because I can hear my toddler and baby instigating World War 3 downstairs. The closing topic focuses upon Triaxis’ touring plans in support of the new record.

“We were in Europe in March for a few dates that we viewed as a warm-up”, Krissie replies. “We played a couple of new songs from the album because we didn’t know when we’d get out there again after the album launch. We wanted to treat the Belgian and Holland crowds because they’ve been very good to us over the last few years. We’re hoping to get out again in the autumn and hopefully go into Germany and some of the Scandinavian countries. I think it depends where things start to go from with the album launch. But having Metal Hammer stream the album this week has helped somewhat.”

I saw that. That must have been a great moment for you as a band?

“I had the notice that it was happening from our PR lady one night when I was coming away from teaching a client. I was in the middle of Tesco when this notice came through and I may have been loud and done a happy dance down the aisle at that point”, Krissie laughs underlining the point that Triaxis are still very much ‘normal people just like you and me – they just happen to be very talented musicians as well, damn them!

“If it takes us further afield and increases our fan base, then we’ve done our job”, Krissie continues more seriously. “It is a helpful tool but you should never pin your fanbase on how many likes you get on that god-awful social media. However we’ve gone up over 300-400 likes in the last week alone which is phenomenal for us. And then there’s the pledge stuff – we’ve sent things out to Japan, Australia and America, so the Triaxis tentacles are starting to spread across the globe.”

And rightly so too. However, as a final plea from someone with two very small children who finds it tough to get out to gigs currently, I ask Krissie to bring Triaxis to East Anglia, preferably Ipswich. The reply is not a flat-out ‘no’ either. Result.

“In the UK, we’re constantly looking at getting gigs in all sorts of places. We recorded the drums up near Ipswich so we should be able to play a show up there sometime I would think. And a friend of mine owns a gym in Colchester, so I will nag him as well.”

And with that, we say our goodbyes along with a few more laughs and a bit of friendly banter. Have I ever enjoyed an interview more? If I have, I’m hard-pressed to remember it. Triaxis really are the real deal; lovely people, highly talented and very driven to succeed. And, on the strength of ‘Zero Hour’, they deserve all the success that they can get. So do yourselves a favour and acquaint yourselves with Triaxis; you’ll not be disappointed, trust me.

‘Zero Hour’ is out now on Rocksector Records.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

Maschine

Native Construct – Interview – “if this music was not considered odd, I have no idea if I’d be interested in making it”

It is rare these days that I find myself so daunted by an album or by a band. However, that’s probably the best adjective I can use to describe how I felt upon listening to Native Construct and their progressive metal debut, ‘Quiet World’ for the first time. It’s not an album that can be referred to as easy listening as there are a million-and-one things going on, seemingly all at once. It not really surprising though, given that the trio that make up Native Construct are all students of the world-renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. You have to be a seriously good musician to get into this establishment initially and, bearing in mind the likes of Dream Theater who originated from the same College, it’s likely that you come out of the other end even better and more highly skilled.

Nevertheless, having given ‘Quiet World’ plenty of time and attention, it all began to click and I eventually took the album to my heart. If you’re interested in my full and detailed review, you can check it out here.

From the moment that the music clicked, I felt compelled to find out more about this incredibly talented band and so, via the miracle of Skype, I found myself engaging in a transatlantic conversation with guitarist Myles Yang with a clarity that made it feel like we were in the same room. I begin the interview by asking Myles why he and his two partners in crime, vocalist Robert Edens and bassist Max Harchik chose progressive metal to be their musical vehicle of choice as opposed to anything else.

“To be honest”, begins a quietly spoken and incredibly articulate Myles with a very distinct, almost musical accent, “the reasons why we are partial to metal and progressive music are not consciously driven; we’re victims of circumstance just like everyone in the world is. I’m into metal because my older brother growing up was into metal and I was influenced greatly by him. I followed in his footsteps and found myself stumbling into the metal world without ever consciously deciding to enter into it. The vocalist Robert was my best friend growing up so naturally he got into it because I was into it. And then Max I think had similar experiences in driving him towards this kind of music. We’ve all been into the metal and progressive music world since we were much younger so it was the natural kind of thing for us to do for this project once we started to get more serious with things. But of course we’ve been able to add in a lot of other influences as well and moved in a slightly different direction as a result, as opposed to sticking with more traditional metal music.”

“But early on there were a lot of straight up metal influences. I got into the metal world through hardcore and emo music actually. So I started with things like My Chemical Romance and then it got progressively heavier to bands like As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage. The big turning point was when I discovered Between The Buried and Me because they bridged the gap between traditional metal and progressive music. I heard them and was blown away; I didn’t even realise that you were allowed to do things they were doing. Specifically the record ‘Colours’ –that was the first one that I heard and that opened my eyes to the progressive world. From there I got into more prog rock and progressive metal bands. Eventually, I wound up as a prog enthusiast. I believe that it was similar for the rest of the band too.”

“Later on, I got into classic prog bands like The Beatles, Queen, Pink Floyd, that kind of stuff. And then of course there’s another side of me which belongs to the classical music world, so I draw a lot of influences from composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Maurice Ravel, that sort of stuff.”

In the press release that accompanied ‘Quiet World’, the descriptive prose proudly declares that Native Construct set out to breathe new life into the metal world. Whilst I’d agree with this to a certain extent, Myles is not so sure, as he explains with good humour.

“To be honest”, he laughs, “the idea that we specifically set out to breathe new life into metal is a bit of a romanticisation. It sounds great in press releases but the honest truth is that we came to Berklee, we were all excited students so we played around and jammed with friends; this is the music that naturally resulted from that. It started as a “for fun” passion project on the side but escalated from there. All we ever set out to do was make music that we were having fun with. If somehow that ends up being something that people perceive as breathing new life into anything then so be it but that wasn’t really our goal to begin with.”

Given the Berklee connection, I have to ask Myles about Dream Theater and whether being compared to them or referred to as ‘the next Dream Theater’ is more of a help or a hindrance.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a hindrance”, Myles considers, “but I also wouldn’t say that we’re comparable to Dream Theater at all yet. But I understand the comparison and to be honest, I think it does nothing but help us. The name Dream Theater has a lot of weight behind it and when people hear things like ‘the next Dream Theater’, it gets people’s attention and makes them want to check us out. So I’m fine with it.”

“In the very beginning”, Myles begins when I enquire as to how this extremely complex and challenging music came into being, “it was a few kids new to Berklee just jamming. We started to come up with some weird stuff that we decided was fun and wanted to continue pursuing. Shortly after that, once we decided we wanted to focus on it more seriously, we quickly did away with the casual jam process and began a more focussed process where we sat down and started thoroughly composing. The initial direction was very natural but the bulk of the music was created in a very specific, meticulous manner with usually one or two people sitting down, working out all the parts and then having us all learn the parts afterwards. The kind of music we’re making doesn’t really lend itself to the jam setting because the parts are very specific. There’s a lot going on, it’s very dense and it needed to be fit together very carefully like a puzzle.”

Based on the preceding answer, I make the mistake of assuming that Native Construct is just a studio band, something that Myles corrects with a certain amount of excitement.

“Oh no, we’re definitely going to be playing on stage very soon; we’re actually in the middle of rehearsals right now so we’re going on the road as soon as possible.”

This then begs an obvious question. If Native Construct are just a trio, formed of a vocalist, bassist and guitarist, how will the music be replicated on stage?

“We take care of all that stuff ourselves on this album”, Myles states almost dismissively as if he’s referring to the act of breathing. “For live performances though, we’re working with a drummer and an additional guitarist who are not actually in the band.”

In that case, who exactly handles the other instruments on the album, particularly the drums?

“The drums are programmed, which I did.”

The incredulity in my voice makes Myles chuckle, as I struggle to believe that the drums are not organically produced. Fake drums have always been a big bugbear of mine and so to realise that I have been duped leaves me feeling rather red-faced.

“Thank you”, Myles responds warmly with another chuckle, “I worked very hard to make them sound as real as possible. There are a number of ways that programmed drums can go but if you work carefully and pay attention to dynamics and the nuances of human drumming as far as timing goes, you can make them sound pretty real these days.”

“I can’t remember ever specifically thinking that”, Myles answers honestly when I enquire as to whether there was any time when the whole thing felt like too much and the trio felt like giving up. “Although I wouldn’t consider it out of the question; it might have happened. We started working on this stuff since 2011 and we finally finished in 2013 I think. It was definitely tough, as you say, to balance school with it. So there might be times when I regretted getting into this but it turned out well in the end.”

Based on the feedback to this record on various forums, it’s probably fair to say that the reception towards ‘Quiet World’ is mixed. There are those who think it’s the best thing they’ve ever heard, whilst others simply cannot get on with it, citing it as too complex or too weird. The accusation has also been thrown about that maybe this is an album that has been created because it could, instead of because it should. I tentatively put this to Myles and to my surprise, he completely understands.

“I’m surprised that more people don’t say that to be honest. I was definitely aware of that as something that people might potentially think before we released the album. I’ve been surprised at how positive the reception has been. That’s not something we care too much about though. We made this music because we wanted to and if people think we shouldn’t have, then whatever. It’s pretty cool though that the vast majority of people so far have enjoyed it.”

“Maybe subconsciously”, Myles replies when I cheekily ask whether some of the elements on the album are there simply to show off their collective talents. “But that was never our intention; we’re just making music that we want to hear and that’s about it.”

As is the relative norm with progressive music, ‘Quiet World’ is a concept disc with a strong story running through it from start to finish. I’m keen to discover whether it was the music or the concept that emerged from the trio first.

“At the onset”, Myles states quite vehemently, “it was just music first. But very quickly the concept came into focus and so most of the music was written with the concept in mind. The music really follows the concept and the story.”

And are there any parts of the story that have been influenced by any of the band’s personal experiences?

“It was never directly intended to be representative of our lives although the process of creating music is very intimate and so it’s impossible to keep ourselves out of it. I’m sure therefore that some of our experiences seeped in, in a number of ways. But the idea itself is intended to be a work of fiction and not really directly related to us.”

There is, in my opinion, much for the chaps in Native Construct to be proud of on their debut recording. However, I enquire as to whether there are any specific aspects of the album about which Myles is especially proud.

“I’ll preface this answer”, Myles answers in his typically considered fashion, “by saying that I have been working on new material for subsequent albums recently and it’s going to be very different. But the one thing that I do really enjoy about this current album and the thing that I think will always stay with us no matter how the rest of the elements of the music end up, is our strict commitment to thematics. So, on this album, absolutely everything you hear is derived from just a handful of basic themes that make up the core of the album. There’s an infinite number of ways one can develop a single theme or motif and we really enjoy exploring that idea. And we especially enjoy exploring crazy, interesting and extreme paths of development. It’s a really enjoyable way to compose music for us and allows us to get away with some wild out-there stuff whilst still remaining coherent and focused. This is one of the most important elements of our sound and will stick with us.”

One thing that made me raise an eyebrow from the beginning was the choice of record label that the band made. Metal Blade have a reputation for signing the heavier, more uncompromising end of the metal spectrum and, with respect, I would have thought that labels like InsideOut or KScope would have been more natural homes for an out-and-out prog metal band like Native Construct. The reason, it turns out, is very simple however.

“Another oddball band on the Metal Blade roster is Between The Buried and Me. The vocalist of BTBAM, Tommy, heard our music whilst we were in the process of shopping the record out to labels. He liked the music enough that he offered to help us with that process. He actually was able to get us in contact with a few labels including Metal Blade and we started talking from there. So one oddball band helped out another oddball and now we’re both oddballs on the same label. Other labels might have been more obvious choices but Metal Blade gave us a deal we were happy with and I think it is beneficial to be an oddball band on a label like this because it helps us to stand out within the remainder of the roster.”

Myles has used the word ‘oddball’ a lot in his recent answers, so I ask him whether he wishes that the music he created was not considered to be niche or underground.

“To be honest, I have no idea what I would think if music like this was the norm; that’s an interesting question. I will say that given that progressive metal is not the norm, it is probably in our favour to be considered to be an oddball band. There’s so much noise out there these days that anything you can have to differentiate yourself and make people more interested is useful. But if this music was not odd, I have no idea if I’d be interested in making it or not.”

On a similar train of thought, I ask Myles if he worries about the fact that the music world in general appears to have a diminishing attention span and is not always open or willing to give complex music like prog a chance.

“Yes, I do worry”, Myles immediately affirms without hesitation. “It is definitely tough and this is something that we kept in mind a little bit while we were composing too. As hard as this may be to believe”, he pauses and chuckles wryly to himself, “we actually had to limit ourselves a little bit in terms of how long we could go on with certain things and how far out we could go. People are simply not swilling to listen to certain things these days; you have to keep things a little more concise. This being our first album, we were conscious of the first track on the first album being something that grabs your attention immediately because to be honest, people will listen to maybe 10-15 seconds of the first track of a new band and if they don’t like it, you’re done. There are no second chances; it’s a hard world out there.”

“That said”, Myles continues, “there’s a very strong niche market out there for this sort of stuff. It may be a very small market but these are amongst the most passionate of fans in my experience. And there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there. It’s a nice time and it’s cool to be living in this year, given that the forerunners of prog have already paved the way for us and opened up many doors. It gives us a lot more freedom as a result.”

As a closing question to what has been a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable chat, I ask Myles whether he sees Native Construct as a long-term band given that he has used the word ‘project’ throughout. The answer is exactly what I was hoping for.

“Native Construct is definitely a band for the long term. We have plans to do quite a few more albums. But right now we’re focussing on getting touring started. After we’ve supported this record on the road, we’ll be starting the cycle all over again. We would love to come to the UK and all over in the future too.”

Technical, ambitious, complex and just ever so slightly bonkers, ‘Quiet World’ is truly progressive in just about every term of the word. If this sounds like your kind of thing, be sure to check out Native Construct.

‘Quiet World’ is out now on Metal Blade Records.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

Maschine

Kingcrow – Interview – ‘The new album will be a sonic adventure’

Those familiar with the Blog Of Much Metal will know that I enjoy championing those bands that don’t tend to get the exposure that they deserve for one reason or another. That’s why today I bring you a full, in-depth interview with another band worthy of more attention: Kingcrow.

Originally hailing from Rome, Italy, Kingcrow are comprised of Diego Cafolla (guitars), Thundra Cafolla (drums), Ivan Nastasi (guitars), Diego Marchesi (lead vocals), Christian Della Polla (keyboards) and Francesco D’Errico (bass). Broadly speaking, the talented sextet are a progressive metal band but they manage to encompass many other influences within their sound. I reviewed their fourth album ‘Phlegethon’ for Powerplay Magazine and although it took some time for the magic to take full effect, perseverance paid off and it’s one of my most-played albums of recent years. Last year’s follow-up, ‘In Crescendo’ then took the number 6 spot in my 2013 Top 20 such was its overall quality and the enjoyment I derived from it.

After being teased via email for being one minute late for the interview, I turn on Skype and am greeted by the warm, friendly voice of Diego Cafolla, the co-founder, guitarist and principle song writer for Kingcrow. I begin the interview by asking Diego for some history behind Kingcrow and am rewarded by one of the longest and most detailed summaries of my career.

“I started the band with my brother Thundra in 1996. It was a long time ago and we were very young. We just started playing together, playing other band’s stuff. We were a kind of schizophrenic band because we were playing everything from the Beach Boys to Sepultura, because I was a big fan of them. We also played all the classics from the 70s and the 80s; Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, everyone really. It was weird”, he laughs warmly.

“I started to write my own songs almost immediately. I guess it was sucky stuff”, he continues self-deprecatingly, “but I just started writing. As the time passed, we began to play more of this stuff. I suppose it was weird metal stuff; kind of a mix of British heavy metal and progressive rock. This is because I discovered rock music through my Dad’s vinyl collection. ‘Made In Japan’ was a milestone in my musical growth. But the first record that I can remember that I really loved was ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ by Pink Floyd. I still love it and I love Pink Floyd – they have had a big impact on my song-writing. I would say that this is quite recognisable in Kingcrow.”

After a brief interlude where the aforementioned Pink Floyd album, as well as a number of other ‘classics’ are discussed, Diego continues with his account.

“Over time, we had thousands of line-up changes. I consider the first three records, (‘Something Unknown’ (2001), ‘Insider’ (2004) and ‘Timetropia’ (2006)) to be long demos because I was just experimenting with really different stuff as a song writer. Even if I am the main songwriter, I want the other members in the band to like the material that I write. The lead singer at that time, Mauro Gelsomini, was much more into hard rock and classic heavy metal. I was more into progressive music but I forced myself to write more in a style that pleased the singer. But at the same time, I did try to experiment a bit.”

“We then had a hiatus, a pause and I wrote ‘Phlegethon’ just for myself because I thought that the band was gone basically. We opened for Iron Maiden in Italy but after that gig, the band stopped playing. It was like the band felt that they had reached the highest point that could be hit. I kept writing though because I can’t stop; I write about one song per day.”

“I contacted the guys and told them that I have an album ready and that we should record it because I thought it was very good. We recorded the album over about 12 months. It was a very relaxed process with no deadlines. We recorded the album in our spare time, just for fun basically. At the same time, the Mauro was not sure about the material. He tried to record one song and I wasn’t happy with the result because I felt that the album needed a really good singer. A friend of mine passed me a recording of Diego Marchesi who is our singer now. The recording was of him singing in a musical because at the time, he had no background of hard rock, metal or progressive music. I loved his voice and so I called him. I told him that I had this record that was nearly finished and if he came to the studio, we could try a few songs. I immediately loved his voice and asked him if he was interested in joining the band. He was excited because he liked the music, even though it was a new style for him.”

“I sent out some extracts to management companies and record labels. I received a response almost immediately from Intromental and a deal was signed with them. After a few days with them, we signed for Scarlet Records. Right after the record was released, it was really well received from the press. We got an offer for a European tour with Redemption and then we went to America for Progpower USA. So it went from the band almost splitting, to touring and playing on an international level.”

“Two years later, we wrote and recorded ‘In Crescendo’. This was a bit of a struggle to write”, Diego offers a little surprisingly, “because for the first time, we had a kind of fan base waiting for something. This was new for me. I didn’t want to repeat ‘Phlegethon’ but at the same time, I felt the pressure of the great response to that record. I was searching for something fresh but that still sounded like us.”

“When I approach writing a new record, I write really weird stuff. It won’t go on the record, but it’s me trying to find something new and fresh. It worked out well I think because I love ‘In Crescendo’. I love the production because it is very detailed but powerful at the same time. Sometimes, if you try to create a powerful production, you lose some of the details in a wall of sound. But I like the mix between the power and the clarity. I also love the melancholic vibe of some of the songs. Following on from this record, we did our first headline European tour and toured the USA with Pain Of Salvation. It has been a busy period.”

My attempts to discuss the differences between ‘Phlegethon’ and ‘In Crescendo’ come across as a little hopeless. Fortunately, Diego is more than happy to step in and prevent further floundering on my part.

“Phlegethon’ is more classic-metal sounding than ‘In Crescendo’. Probably the heaviest stuff on ‘In Crescendo’ is heavier than on ‘Phlegethon’ but there is also more atmosphere and more space within the music on ‘In Crescendo’. On ‘In Crescendo’, the arrangements are better I think and they are more layered, more atmospheric. ‘Phlegethon’ maintains a bit of our classic metal past but ‘In Crescendo’ is the natural progression from that, I believe.”

And with that, we reach the present. I’m dying to find out more about the upcoming album that’s in the pipeline for a 2015 release on Sensory Records and waste no time in asking about the as-yet unnamed work.

“We are actually finishing our recording so I have a good idea of how it will sound”, Diego begins mischievously before qualifying this tantalising statement. “I think it is darker, but it has a bit of both ‘Phlegethon’ and ‘In Crescendo’ in it, plus a lot more. Honestly, I think it’s a big record and there’s a lot going on within the songs. Every song has a unique sonic word and it has something different about it. A friend described it as ‘new Kingcrow’ – you can recognise the band immediately, but there is something new going on.”

“Probably because I wrote most of the record at night”, Diego playfully responds when I question him in more detail about the darker vibe to the upcoming record. “But seriously, it wasn’t a struggle to write; it was a very natural process. You’ll find everything that people think is our trademark sound; the Spanish guitars, the crunchy riffs, the atmospheres. These things will always be there I think.”

“It’s a bit more proggy than ‘In Crescendo’, Diego continues. “The focus on ‘In Crescendo’ was the search for beauty. I avoided weirdness or quirkiness in the search for pure beauty as my reference point was ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. This time, we have some of the quirkiness back and to me, the new album will be a sonic adventure. You remember these words and you can tell me whether I am right or wrong. Don’t expect something impossible to listen to or really complicated because we try to make complex things sound simple to the listener and to make complexity subtle.”

On that note, I return to the topic of the song writing, asking Diego to expand upon his creative process with Kingcrow.”

“I can play a bit of every instrument and because I have a studio, I have all the instruments there. I usually write at night and it’s like you have a certain mood then. I tend to write when I feel moody and try to capture music that fits the mood that I’m feeling in the moment. I have no rules about song writing; it just has to be in tune with what I am feeling.”

On a final note, I ask Diego about the band’s plans for touring in the New Year. Whilst it’s unlikely that UK fans such as myself will see Kingcrow on these shores, many fans across mainland Europe will be treated to a live show.

“There are plans right now to go on tour in March. I don’t know exactly when we will finish the recording, so I’m not sure how much time we will get to rehearse. But we will hope to play four or five new songs in the set, including the single, ‘The Moth’.”

Trust me dear readers – if you like quality melodic progressive metal, then Kingcrow are a name with which you need to familiarise yourselves as soon as is humanly possible.

Check out my other interviews here:

Evergrey
Jonas Renkse & Bruce Soord – Wisdom Of Crowds
Maschine
Distorted Harmony

Distorted Harmony – Interview – “I hope that people will care more about the music than where we’re from”

I was so blown away by ‘Chain Reaction’, the sophomore release by Israel’s Distorted Harmony that I felt compelled to undertake an interview with the band to supplement the album review that was recently featured in Powerplay Magazine. The conversation that I undertook with keyboardist and founding member, Yoav Efron was a real pleasure and, thanks to some blunt honesty, rather illuminating.

“It first began when I was playing around with a few tunes back in 2006”, Yoav begins when I kick things off gently by asking for a bit of the history behind Distorted Harmony. “I thought about maybe making it into a project, but not a band at that point. After going through a bunch of musicians and friends, I met Yogev (Gabay – drums). We started working together and we even did a few demos in 2008-2009. That’s probably the main difference between “Utopia” and “Chain Reaction”. Most of the material was written in 2006-07 so when the band officially formed in 2010, most of the songs were already complete. So there was no input and no new material to be created to make it more album-ready. When we started working together as a band, it was for the recording of that music for ‘Utopia’.

“Since then”, Yoav continues, “the main focus has been the live show and improving our performances for live shows. When the time came to record new material, we held a band meeting and we began working on ‘Chain Reaction’. The whole thing was written in, I think, six months. Everyone had matured and our repertoire of music had grown in time, that’s why I think ‘Chain Reaction’ is very different and why I think it represents us a lot more right now. When I wrote the sketches for the songs, I left a lot of room for interpretation and for the band to give their input on the music.”

The result is a magnificent album that draws inspiration from a number of different sources but blends everything into an ambitious, yet cohesive and immensely enjoyable whole. You have to hear it to believe it, but trust me, hear it you must. Interestingly, despite the relatively short writing time, the process was very painstaking, as Yoav explains.

“I didn’t let the music flow because it was a very meticulous, specific, process. I wrote most of the material and I didn’t plan on any kind of concept because I don’t like concept albums. I just wrote about my notions of how I see the world, how I see humankind, how I see our history and what I wish we could change. It was hard but also quite easy to think of the topics that I wanted to write about. By the time I was done, I wanted to write more but I didn’t have enough songs!”

But, whilst the lyrics are important for Distorted Harmony, Yoav is adamant that the music will always remain top-dog.

“For me, the music always comes first; the musical arrangements always come first. The lyrics should have a point and a focus to them and should give you some kind of message. That’s why I like music so much because it is the greatest tool to spread ideologies and try to make changes. But no, the music itself is always the top priority.”
It seems only natural for us metal heads to try to pigeon-hole every band we hear into a neat, conformist box. Distorted Harmony is therefore best described loosely as progressive metal, thanks to intelligent compositions, clever time signatures and technical dexterity. When I put this to Yoav though, his response is interesting and ever-so slightly surprising.

“I don’t think that we’re that progressive anymore”, Yoav considers. “It has been a while since I have listened to prog metal I have to admit. I mostly listen to heavy metal, a little djent and we’ve all driven apart from progressive metal actually. You know, the Dream Theater and Symphony X style bands.”

“For instance some of the biggest influences for this album are Tool and Devin Townsend. But then again”, he qualifies, back-tracking slightly, “these are also kinds of progressive metal and this is the beauty of this genre because prog metal can be anything. The problem is that when most people hear the term ‘progressive metal’, they immediately think about Dream Theater and bands like that. So we’ve kind of grown apart from this definition of prog metal.”

“To be honest”, Yoav replies without hesitation when I ask why he has grown apart from traditional prog metal, “I can’t stand it anymore. I am bored by the general construction of that kind of music and after ten years, it was time to move on I think.”

One of the bigger influences to be heard on ‘Chain Reaction’ is that of the djent movement. I ask Yoav to enlighten me about this, something he is keen to do.

“We love periphery and TesseracT but, like just about every other metal fan, Yegev and I adore Meshuggah. We adore the playing, the sound of the riffs and we had to put it in to our music a little. But in general, I’m not sure we followed the general djent path, more the mathematical strutures of Meshuggah.”

As good as progressive and technical music can be, I must declare my love for a good old-fashioned melody as well. This is one area where Distorted Harmony seem to excel, lacing their challenging compositions with both memorable and delicate melodies, be they in the instrumentation or via Misha Soukhinin’s vocals.

“I don’t know if they are a direct influence”, Yoav initially struggles to respond clearly thinking hard, “but my favourite band is Muse. Therefore no doubt I am influenced by them – and Radiohead of course. But yes, for us, melody is important. But the other thing is that we have Misha as a vocalist. He is a great singer but he is not a growler. Sometimes I wish we had a growler because I love this. But growling is not very Distorted Harmony to be honest. That’s another difference between ‘Utopia’ and ‘Chain Reaction’ – because most of the music was written before the band was formed, the vocal range was harder for Misha. Now that I know Misha and his vocal range, it was much easier to write specifically for him; that’s why he sounds so much better on this new album.”

As previously mentioned, the musicianship is of a massively high standard. The band, rounded out by guitarist Guy Landau and bassist Iggy Cohen have an impressive relationship with their chosen instruments and it really shines through in the compositions on ‘Chain Reaction’. Naturally, as he explains, Yoav couldn’t be happier with the collective he has assembled.

“I am really grateful. It is not easy to find four guys to join a metal band. In Israel, metal is almost non-existent and progressive metal is the sideways of the sideways of mainstream music. So finding four amazing musicians to make Distorted Harmony our band, not my band, is wonderful. We are all dedicated and the other guys are amazing musicians with their instruments. I write the music but we all arrange it together and that was an amazing experience. It can be very frustrating sometimes and very hard to execute the polyrhythmic parts but at the end of the day, when we finished working on the arrangement of the songs, at least I felt that everybody filled the places that I left for them when I first wrote the sketches of the songs.”

Having referred to that elephant in the room, I feel it’s about time to confront it head-on. I therefore ask Yoav whether it is difficult being a metal band from Israel.

“It is nearly impossible”, he replied instantaneously. “But not entirely because when we did the ‘Chain Reaction’ album release concert, 250 fans came to see us. For Israeli standards, that’s a lot, particularly for a local progressive metal band.”

The Blog Of Much Metal is not a political blog in any shape or form, but given the way in which Israel is never far from the headlines, I have to ask Yoav whether the situation in the Middle East has an effect on the band.

“I’m very much afraid that this might be the case”, Yoav responds in an understandably subdued tone. “I am afraid that it might hurt us along the way. As a side note, if you listen to the lyrics, you can get a pretty good idea of my political or ideological notions.”

As it turns out though, the ideological notions of Yoav are not as simple as ‘we want peace’, although this forms the underlying bedrock to them.

“Yes, of course I want peace”, Yoav begins vehemently. “But I’m not that keen on both sides. It’s not like ‘I love you and I love you, so let’s get together and make peace’. It’s more like ‘you suck and you suck; stop this bullshit nonsense, this half-ideology, half religion. Stop it and just fucking live’. That’s a stupid Israeli way of saying this in English”, he laughs to lift the heavy mood. “Seriously, it’s actually much more complex than this and I have a lot more to say on this. But it’s my view, not the band’s necessarily, although a lot of the guys may agree with me.”

“My personal view is that there is no end to this conflict, it will never end and I can’t stand staying here where every year there are more parades of rockets on both sides. But I realised that pro-Israeli worldwide media portray it as a constant bombardment of rockets, that we’re living under stress and duress. No. In Tel Aviv there were a few sirens, which was annoying, but that’s it.”

“As a band”, Yoav continues as if a pressure release valve has been released, “we never really talked about it, but I think we’ve decided that we’re not going to get involved directly. We’re not going to give any statements or address any situation. At the release of the album, we had some responses, people asking for support or whatever. We replied ‘no thank you’. We’re not getting involved. We have our music; you can listen to the lyrics. You can hear very well that we don’t like violence.”

“That’s another topic”, Yoav chuckles when I ask him whether the band would every consider moving away from Israel. “It’s very hard because each member of the band has their own life, their own jobs. But just as an example Yegev has recently moved to the US, to study at Berkley. So, in the meantime, we will get a replacement here and Yegev will join us when we travel abroad. Given the chance, I would gladly move away and I think many of the band would too. Compared to many European countries, you make a less and it costs a lot more to live. It’s very hard to make a living and to exist here in Israel. Not to mention the fact that I hate Israeli weather. It’s always hot and I like the cold”, he laughs.

So, what of the future? Will Distorted Harmony continue? The response is very encouraging from Yoav and will no doubt please many, myself included.

“We have a plan for the future and we know what we are going to do. But the most important thing for Distorted Harmony is to get out of the country and perform outside of our comfort zone. We want to increase our fan base, create more content and to do more press. We’re doijg some of this already by recording all of our shows in Israel to be able to give people more content. Plus, in November, we’re off to the Netherlands to play three shows. We want to book a mini-tour to include Belgium and Germany as well, but this isn’t sorted yet. We’re talking with a few record labels in the US and Europe and we’re negotiating with a few companies regarding PR, booking and management. We hope to sign a contract on that very soon.”

And the final word of an entertaining chat, I leave to Yoav.

“People really like ‘Chain Reaction’ and so I’m toying with the idea of an off or mid-season EP and with it, actually book a tour, maybe around May 2015. I like to stay optimistic and so we shall see what happens. I try to stay positive and hope that people will care more about the music than where we’re from.”
Well said, Yoav.

‘Chain Reaction’ is out now: http://www.distortedharmony.com

Two Years of the Blog Of Much Metal

It has now been two years since I began this heavy metal blog following intense pressure from some circles. What started as an exercise in quieting the mob has blossomed into a labour of love and something I am very passionate about. Over the two years, I have been able to write material based on music that is very personal to me and it has also allowed me to support subjects, bands and events that I believe are worth shouting about.

Writing for Powerplay magazine is great, but I’m constricted to writing what the Editor requires of me. With this blog, there are no such constraints. No word limits, no subject is off-limits and no deadlines loom over my head. However, it also means that with a small family and a full-time job to pay the bills, I’m not as prolific as I would like to be. Sure, I could regurgitate news from the Internet here or I could post links to other sites. But I think it is more important for me to write posts that are 100% unique and exclusive to this site. As such, if you want to read my rambling posts, you have to come to the Blog Of Much Metal. Simple as that.

I must be doing something right, too. The viewing figures are not going to worry the more established on-line presences but I’m proud of the fact that I have had over 62,000 hits from readers across 125 countries. It means that my 128 posts to date average over 480 views each. It’s not bad, but I want to do better and that’s part of my motivation to continue – to engage with more and more people and to therefore better support the bands in the world of rock and heavy metal that need that support.

In due course, I hope to redesign the blog and make it ever-more inviting. However, for the time being and until time allows, I thought I would offer a round-up of my posts over the past couple of years. An easy, one-stop-shop where the majority of my articles can be accessed should you be new to my blog or an existing visitor that may have missed an article or two here and there.

The Man Of Much Metal

I began the blog with a few articles to give readers an insight into me, personally. How I got into the world of heavy metal in the beginning and the journey that I took to get to where I am today. Following on from a brief intro piece, I split my music listening life into three, exploring my early years, the University years and the post-university years. AS far as live music goes, I offer a post about my gig-going experiences, linked to which is an article about my obsession with heavy metal t-shirts, particularly those with tour-dates on the back.

In something of a brave move, I admit to a few skeletons that lurk in my musical cupboard. Plus, I also commit myself to my Top 5 Albums of all-time as well as my favourite gig of all time. I also discuss my obsession with collecting CDs, the excitement I still feel leading up to an anticipated new release and I admit to a few bands that I should like, but don’t really ‘get’. We all have them, and these are mine.

The most personal of all of my posts deals with my late brother. He was the reason I got into writing about music in the first place and six years after his tragic passing at the age of 26, he still remains a big inspiration to me. Click here if you’d be interested in reading more.

On the subject of writing, I have also written a couple of posts on this topic, outlining how I got into amateur journalism in the first place via Powerplay, a ‘behind the scenes’ look at life as a writer, a look at some of the ‘heroes’ that I have met and interviewed over the years and also a discussion over the pro’s and con’s of this hobby.

Social commentary or ranting?

I have also indulged in a few ‘social commentary’-type articles, or perhaps they can be more accurately referred to as ranting posts. Within this section, you may wish to check out my thoughts on the decline of the independent record store, the increase of heavy metal attire within modern fashion trends, dealing with living in the middle of nowhere in terms of live music and my take on that most heavy metal of things, the album intros, outros and instrumental interludes.

If you’re feeling a little feisty, you may wish to check out my thoughts on album reissues, where the same disc is re-hashed time and time again. Or, how about a full-on rant at a rare few within the music industry?

On a lighter note, I have also written about those bands that support the headline act but which have impressed me to the point that I am now a fan of their music. It is quite rare these days, but it still happens. And, to finish this section off, I also comment on the fans of this wonderful genre of music, the ‘heavy metal family’.

Exposing the important stuff that needs exposure

One of the most rewarding parts of my blog has been with regard to giving exposure to bands that I personally love but that, for one reason or another, have not had the success that they deserve. Of course, success can be measured in a number of ways and I’m not suggesting that album sales are the only marker of a band’s popularity. But there are bands that toil away, release great albums full of wonderful music and yet fail to get the same level of recognition as others. If I can, via a blog post, increase the awareness of these artists just a little bit, then the effort is worthwhile.

Top of the pile here are two in-depth, detailed appraisals of two very special bands, namely Evergrey and Haken. If you want to know more about either, hear some of their music and wonder why they are favourites of mine, check them out!

In this section under the banner of my ‘Unknown & Underrated’ series, you can read in-depth overviews of some important bands to me including Omnium Gatherum, Shadow Gallery, Redemption, Wolverine, Darkwater, Subsignal and Agalloch.

In addition, there are some smaller articles looking at other bands, which can be accessed here, but may be expanded upon in the future. Featured bands include: Bal Sagoth, Darkane, Everon and Hecate Enthroned among many others.

Away from the band specific posts, I have also offered my thoughts on the best festivals that the UK has to offer as well as throwing the spotlight on my favourite festival of all, Progpower Europe.

Then there are the posts that I have recently embarked upon, which look at some of the countries that are worthy of much kudos for the quality of music that they manage to produce. Consequently, there’s a focus on Australia as well as a whole series around the Scandinavian countries. This is currently a work in progress, although the overall introduction is complete, as is my in-depth look at the magnificent country of Iceland.

Album reviews

More recently, I have begun to write a few reviews for albums that I am not asked to cover at Powerplay. Again, word limits are not an issue and so I find that I’m able to offer more detailed analyses on the music. A list of published reviews is as follows:

James LaBrie – Impermanent Resonance
Mercenary – Through Our Darkest Days
A.C.T. – Circus Pandemonium
Xerath – III
Big Big Train – English Electric (Part 1)
Thought Chamber – Psykerion
Marcus Jidell – Pictures From A Time Traveller
H.E.A.T – Tearing Down The Walls
Vanden Plas – Chronicles Of The Immortals: Netherworld

Plus, there’s also a live review of a brilliant Haken gig to enjoy too!

Interviews

Interviews are a relatively recent addition to the blog and, given the current size of this site, have occasionally been hard to come by. Nevertheless, not one to be deterred, I have hunted a few interviews out and have had the pleasure to chat with UK prog rockers Maschine and Jonas Renkse and Bruce Soord about their project, Wisdom Of Crowds.

Most recently however, I have also interviewed Evergrey in what has turned out to be one of the best pieces that I have ever put my name to. I’m very proud of this piece and if there’s only one link you click via this article, I suggest humbly that it’s this one!

The ‘best of’ lists

Over the past two years, I have been very fond of putting together lists. It appeals to my inner geek and also helps to recommend bands, albums and genres of music to people that may be unfamiliar to them.

The biggest and most comprehensive of these lists are my ‘end of year best of’ round-ups. So far, there’s my ‘Top 20 of 2012’ and my ‘Album Of The Year 2013’ top 20, both of which feature one band per post and count down from 20, offering an album review, artwork and sample tracks. Therefore, if you want to know which albums I considered to be the best over the past two years, check them out!

2013 also saw me commenting on a few of the best live albums released during the year.

And, finally, there are those series of posts that round up the best albums that failed to make my Top 20 lists, both from 2012 and 2013.

Putting this post together makes me realise just how much I’ve managed to cram in over the past couple of years. I hope that there’s something within all this that is of interest to you. Please feel free to comment or criticise too and, if you have a topic you’d like covered, shout. I can only say no! Thanks to you all for supporting this venture of mine & here’s to the next two years. Cheers!

Evergrey – Hymns For The Broken – Interview: “It Has Surpassed All Our Expectations”

The Electronic Press Kit for ‘Hymns For The Broken’:

It is not often that I get personally invited by an artist to interview them for this little blog of mine. However, that was exactly the reality with which I was faced recently when I was contacted directly by none other than Mr Tom S Englund of Evergrey. Or, in my world, where Evergrey are the pinnacle of my musical enjoyment, a person I consider something of a hero but also a friend.

“Matt.. I’ll be in London for press next month.. so we should do an interview – right?”

Outwardly, my reply was “I think it would be rude not to wouldn’t it?”. Inwardly, I was jumping around like a mad thing.

Having organised the requisite day off work, I headed to central London from my back-end-of-nowhere home. Informed that I was first up on the day, I made sure that I was on time. So much so that I reached Russell Square just a little too early. Nevertheless, after a lazy few minutes sitting on a park bench with a coffee, I headed to the hotel whereupon I met up with Tom and bassist Johan Niemann. With warm greetings all round, and with the guys’ check-in sorted, we headed to the bar to chat about all things Evergrey and all things related to album number nine, the magnificent opus ‘Hymns For The Broken’.

The calm before the storm - sitting in Russell Square awaiting an audience with Tom & Johan of Evergrey — The calm before the storm – sitting in Russell Square awaiting an audience with Tom & Johan of Evergrey

Lounging in a couple of large leather sofas and with the much-needed real ale flowing, I begin the interview by asking how on Earth the band had considered going about breaking the news that Evergrey were no more. I hadn’t even known that it was a possibility and the fact that this option was the most likely outcome up until a few months ago really surprised me.

“There is no nice way of saying that this is it. You just have to say ‘this is it’, Tom chuckles with a lop-sided grin on his face. “But on the other hand, we basically played on the ‘Glorious Collision’ album until up to two weeks ago. It is fucking insane, being able to maintain our standards for so long. We maybe could have carried it on longer too, but it has to be fun though. And if it is not fun, you have to do something else, just like anyone else in any other job.”

Much criticism has come the way of Evergrey over the years for the apparent revolving door syndrome that has plagued them. Everybody has their own theory as to the reasons behind it, but a stoical Tom just admits that these things happen, explaining that sometimes, it is better for the band if members come and go. During the last year or so, both Hannes Van Dahl (drums) and Marcus Jidell (guitars) have headed for the exit, a factor that apparently triggered the potential folding of the band. However, out of adversity and when you least expect it, a near-disaster can turn into a blessing. That’s exactly what happened for Evergrey, as Marcus’ and Hannes’ departures effectively signalled the return of two familiar faces to the fold. Re-enter guitarist Henrik Danhage and drummer Jonas Ekdahl.

Before asking for the low-down on their return, I invite Tom to recount the reason for the departure of this duo back in 2010.

“It was actually Jari’s (Kainulainen, ex bassist) idea that we should tell the other guys to leave because they were not having fun anymore. We were staying in a five star hotel in Sao Paolo with pools, drinks and everything. They were not smiling and weren’t smiling at the shows either. That’s when we realised that they weren’t having fun anymore. Me, Rikard (Zander – keys) and Jari discussed it and Rikard said that it is not an obligation to be in Evergrey; if you’re not into it, you can leave. Jari was like ‘yeah, let’s kick them out’. We were frustrated with them not paying respect to Evergrey and so I called them when we got home and said that we needed to talk. I said that I think that it is best for you to leave so that we can stay friends because it is more important to stay friends than be musicians together. We valued that more.”

Ironically, Jari departed around the same time as well and judging by his facial expression, the irony is not lost on Tom. But now, four years later, Henrik and Jonas have re-joined. As the guys explain though, it was not a quick or easy decision for any of them.

“We didn’t have a drummer or a guitar player”, Johan begins, “so Tom decided to call Henrik and Jonas to see if they are into it, to see if they have the time or were interested. And they were, so I was like ‘yaye!’ he exclaims throwing both thumbs up into the air.

“But that was just for those two shows”, Tom quickly clarifies. “First off, we didn’t have any such ideas at all ourselves. I didn’t even think it was in the pipeline for them because they’ve just finished their album (for DeathDestruction)

How did it come about?” he muses rhetorically for a moment as the detail briefly escapes him. “Actually, that’s right, I was working out with Jonas at the same gym and I was talking with him. I told him that we had this deal with AFM and I asked him if he was interested in being a session drummer for the album. He wasn’t jumping at the offer to be honest. So I called Henrik to see if he thought I should ask him again. But at that point, what I didn’t know was that Henrik and Jonas had already spoken about being back in Evergrey. To make a very long story much shorter, I asked Jonas again and he said he would think about it. He was worried that things would clash between us again and so were we to be honest. We were extremely careful to not get back into the same position that we were in before, to not have shit happen again. Things moved on very slowly and after serious consideration, I asked whether we should do this, for real. And if we do this, I was clear that we must be fantastic and do everything at 100%. I can’t believe that we are here today, because that’s exactly how I feel about everything.”

It’s not hard to see why to be perfectly honest. I consider ‘In Search Of Truth’ to be my favourite album of all time, but the Jacob Hansen-mixed ‘Hymns For The Broken’ pushes that record very close indeed and I was right to get excited about it’s release. This is an album that contains some of the very best material of the Swedes’ career, from full-on melodic metal anthems to sensitive, introspective ballads and everything in between, all wrapped up in Evergrey’s trademark cloak of rich, dark and moody atmospherics. One minute you’ll be banging your head furiously, the next you’ll be throwing your head back and singing at the top of your lungs. Put simply, ‘Hymns For The Broken’ is a masterpiece, a bona-fide classic in waiting that hits every button and raw nerve within me, every single time I listen.

“For me, personally”, Johan agrees with Tom’s previous statement, “I haven’t been in the band that long, but this feels much more positive than before. I was worried when Hannes and Marcus left, thinking that we’d have to find new members and ‘woah, that’ll be fun.’

“That would never have happened”, Tom interjects, tellingly.

“Yeah, and then this all happened and this record came out. I can’t believe it because it has surpassed all of our expectations.”

That’s quite a comment when you bear in mind how experienced Johan is in the metal world. To the band’s credit, the news of Jonas’ and Henrik’s return has been kept impressively quiet. Mind you, as Tom confirms, this was always the plan once the decision had been made.

“The fans didn’t even know two weeks back, when we did the last show. Our plan has always been to reveal them in the video (‘King Of Errors’). So we did this show and at the end, we thanked them for helping and wished them luck for the future. The reaction to the video has been amazing, people saying that they were lying on the floor crying.”

‘King Of Errors’

This excitement is not confined to the fans either. Chatting to Tom and Johan, it is clear that there’s a tangible magic back within the band, something that they can’t wait to reignite on stage with the new material.

“We have played together, yes”, Johan affirms. “But we’ve not played this material together yet. We played a lot before we recorded it of course, but we haven’t played one song with all of the members yet. When we rehearsed, someone was always missing. So it is still very new and exciting for us.”

“The nice thing”, Tom adds “is that ‘King Of Errors’, the first single, is quite a non-complex song to play, so we will be able to make that sound really cool and I can’t wait to play it live.”

“These songs, they aren’t that difficult to play”, Johan reveals, slightly surprisingly. “There are a couple of sections here and there that need focus but a lot of it is fairly straightforward, whatever that means in Evergrey terms. The emphasis will be on playing it greatly, not so much of the fancy twiddling about. It will sound really good when we get to play it live.”

For a band that has always had the ‘prog’ tag applied to it, I’m more than a little interested by these latter comments and it leads to an interesting discussion about how the band themselves view their music and the perennial issue of labelling and pigeon-holing bands into specific genres.

“I finally understood the other day what it is with genres”, Tom responds as if he has had an earth shattering epiphany. “It is necessary for us in order to comprehend a little about the music. I mean, I wouldn’t go into the fucking woods, pick a mushroom and eat it if someone hadn’t told me that it was, I don’t know, a classic Chanterelle. Or that it might kill you.” Cue laughter all round, mainly at the posh accent that Tom affects towards the end of his sentence.

“I never call us prog metal”, Tom continues vehemently as the levity subsides. “But I’m fine with people calling it whatever they want. Because as I said, I understand that it is necessary for people to get a grasp of what the music is. What do you call it?” he glances at Johan, who pauses, thinking “…shit?” Cue even more laughter.

“I don’t know, it is difficult”, Johan finally ventures, composing himself admirably. “I wouldn’t call Evergrey a prog metal band but those influences are there sometimes. In that case”, he reconsiders, “it is prog in the same way that Queensryche are prog. But not in the way Opeth, Dream Theater, Yes or Rush are prog.”

“Don’t get us wrong”, Tom is quick to add, “these are all bands that we listen to and appreciate highly. But every time we say something like this, it is taken as offence to these bands. It’s not it at all; we just don’t know really where we belong and I think that this has worked against us for all these years. But, to be honest, I would say that Evergrey could record anything and it would sound like Evergrey.”

I can’t leave this thread without raising the track, ‘The Grand Collapse’. For my tiny, non-musical brain, it contains a thunderous riff that messes with my head every time I hear it. It’s infectious and heavy-as-hell but ruins me every time I attempt to air guitar along with it. Surely, I ask the guys wide-eyed and naively, this is performed in an odd prog time signature? The answer I get is the verbal equivalent of a brutal slap-down.

“That riff is all Jonas. But it’s four by four”, Tom retorts, looking at me oddly before turning to Johan. “Isn’t it?” he asks.

“Yeah, it’s four-four”, agrees Johan immediately, before doubt creeps in. “Or is it?…”

At this point, both Tom and Johan are tapping their knees, singing the riff to themselves, hoping to save themselves from ignominy and embarrassment. Suddenly, but only briefly as it turns out, I feel a little less foolish.

“It is four-four, but it is the notes in between that fuck you”, Tom finally confirms. “But they fuck with me too”, he smiles warmly.

“That’s the thing, again”, Johan concludes, “it might sound complicated or tricky but if you break it down, it is pretty simple.”

In an vain effort to maintain my diminishing dignity, I swiftly move the conversation on. With a brand new line-up and a strong desire to give everything in the name of a new album, I delve into the song writing regime for ‘Hymns For The Broken’. What I find is a new approach for a band that, historically, has relied on Tom himself for the vast majority of the creative input. This time around, everyone was involved and the results speak for themselves.

“That has never been the case before. It is so evident that it has had an impact on the way that we look at this album and at each other. If we had been doing albums like this from the beginning we might have been bigger than Metallica. I’m serious because in the beginning, you’re younger and you don’t have the know-how about how to tackle people and comprehend situations as well as writing music in a more mature way.”

It turns out that upon his return, Jonas brought with him around twenty songs, all complete except for vocals. Given the guy wasn’t even in the band at the time he wrote the material, it’s a staggering body of work and arguably speaks volumes for his desire to re-join Evergrey. I cheekily ask Tom how many of the songs were not up to his exacting standards. The reply is emphatic.

“I think we could write a new album next week”, he asserts immediately. “We have that much material to work with. I couldn’t and didn’t say that any of it was bad at all. There were bits and pieces here and there that we weren’t super excited about and so we exchanged them with new parts.”

“It was the matter of finding the right songs to make a coherent record”, Johan also offers, further emphasising that the material was of a high standard. “We could have taken other songs and it would have been a good album but it had to flow a certain way.”

At this point, I decide to turn our attention to the concept story behind ‘Hymns For The Broken’. Throughout their history, Evergrey seem to hit a home run whenever they release a concept album. It is no different here. What I wasn’t expecting however, was the revelation that Tom unleashes upon me. Very quietly, articulately and honestly, I am informed that he suffered from exhaustion depression, beginning on the very day that ‘Glorious Collision’ was released. Having personally battled with depression and known others in my family similarly affected, Tom’s words affect me deeply, more so because I am the first person outside of the band and his close circle of family and friends to be told this.

“It went so far that I ended up in the corner of my sofa and that was the only place that I felt safe. Every time the phone rang, I almost had a heart attack. It was the same when I had to open my computer and look at my emails where people wanted something from me. Then there are other more personal matters that I won’t go into. This is super-personal of course, but there are other things that I won’t go into. It led me to start questioning who I am. What is it that I want to do? Is this who I really am? Am I a musician? Is this really my life? What’s going on inside? Why am I feeling like this? Why am I doubting myself when I am on top of the world? Why can’t I feel appreciation for what I have accomplished? Why can’t I just be content with being whatever, wherever, whenever? That’s what ‘King Of Errors’ is all about, portraying yourself as a majestic King when maybe you’re not underneath.”

“And I guess that’s maybe why it hit 2000 times harder, because I hid it from them. My wife didn’t know. I’m considered a confident, strong, high-performing person and all of a sudden, I am not. I was this shell. I sing about this in Archaic Rage. I was this shell not wanting to do anything. Not to sleep, not to breathe, not to feel hope, nothing. It’s not important anymore. The only thing that was important was that I could pay my bills and that I could be in one room at home. As long as I had Carina and Serena with me, I didn’t care about anything else in the world. The analogy in the concept of the battlefields and the war, it is here. The barricades that I had to tear down are in here” points to head.

The strength and courage that Tom demonstrates is a credit to him and I feel an even greater respect for the guy than ever before. I joined Evergrey for a couple of days during their ‘Glorious Collision’ European tour and didn’t have the faintest idea how much Tom was suffering internally. As it turns out, neither did his bandmates at that time, as Johan admits simply.

“He hid it very well and I never knew. It was just ‘good old Tom’ as far as I was concerned.”

“I had to deal with the rise and fall, the constant battle of being confident and insecure; one second you feel like the king of the world, the next you’re drowning in the river like in the video.”

“I have only told you so far and I only decided just now to tell you. We did a Metal Hammer show before this and I wasn’t even sure at that point what I was actually going to say, if asked. I can put it in fancy words but I don’t think it would help me or anyone else. It is just a problem with having psychological problems that nobody talks about. I think we all have them. I think I will be comfortable talking about the concept and my answer will depend on the questions I am asked. This story is also coloured by everything around me; Johan’s life, Henrik’s life, Rikards like and Jonas’s life. I don’t want to paint a picture that nobody can change or alter. However, if you want to know exactly what the album is about, I will tell you exactly what it is about. But if you want to know what the concept is more roughly, I can summarise it quite easily too without answering like I have done with you.”

Happily however, this topic ends on a positive note, once again demonstrating the admirable strength of Tom’s character.

“I’m in a good way now”, he smiles broadly. “I think it will be a lifelong…I don’t want to say fight because I’m not fighting it. But I am overly cautious now and I know the signs. I have told everyone around me what I need help with.”

Any other topic of conversation feels just a little redundant after such a revelation. However, I cannot end our interview without enquiring about the future for Evergrey. Is there one? If so, what do Johan and Tom foresee?

“We’re not expecting anything”, is the initially blunt reply from Tom.” At least, I’m not expecting anything. I am super happy for each and happy comment on Facebook that compliments us for a great song or anything. I have been in this business for too long to think anything else. However, we have discussed things and we want to be prepared in case this goes close to the roof, even if it doesn’t quite go through the roof. Whatever happens, I have realised through this album something that I’ve never truly understood – what Evergrey means to people, for real. That’s cool and that’s what I’m proud of.”

An Interview with Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse – Wisdom Of Crowds

The collaboration between The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord and Katatonia’s vocalist Jonas Renkse is an intriguing one. It brings together two relatively unlikely bedfellows, one from the world of English prog rock, the other from a Swedish dark metal band. That said, the response from almost all quarters to the project known as Wisdom Of Crowds has been positive thus far. Keen to find out more, I find myself sitting opposite the duo in question, in a booth in one of the side rooms at the Highbury Garage in London ahead of their debut live show as part of the Kscope fifth anniversary celebrations.

“Wisdom Of Crowds was born about four years ago”, begins an affable and very talkative Bruce, “from a guy called Johnny (Wilks) who works at the label (Kscope) as the marketing director. We were talking about gear and studios and things like that. He told me he has some ideas and asked if I’d listen. He sent me these basic rough ideas with him singing and he asked me whether I’d be interested in producing it or at least doing something with the music. I took these ideas, stripped them down to nothing and then had some fun. There were no aspirations at that time and no-one thought it would be released. But over the years, it got a life of its own. The thing was that it never had any vocals; it was only guide vocals, so it never got finished. But that’s how it finally all came together when Jonas came on board.”

According to the press material though, the Katatonia singer had always been in mind for the project and many of the tracks had been written especially for Jonas Renkse.

“That’s probably a little bit of Kscope spin doctoring”, Bruce laughs with honesty. “I remember though that when I first joined Kscope, I nicked a copy of “The Great Cold Distance”. When I heard that, maybe in 2007, I emailed Jonas and told him how much I loved it. Jonas was always the number one but I never thought it would ever be possible, knowing how busy Jonas is with Katatonia.”

And yet here we are, proof if ever proof was needed that if you wish hard enough, magical things can happen. And, if that wasn’t enough, Jonas seems to have fit like a glove.

“I don’t know how you felt after the session”, Bruce asks of Jonas as he looks to his musical partner, “but I felt that it was so easy…”

“Yeah, I felt that as well”, Jonas agrees immediately and about as emphatically as he is able to in his laid back style. “I was a bit worried before because I really liked the music and I wasn’t sure if it would work out or if I would be good enough for it. But when we started recording, it all fell into place. Everything was so smooth and easy.”

‘Not good enough’, I mutter shaking my head. Jonas is blessed with one of the most iconic voices in metal and still he battles an undercurrent of minimal self-belief. Bruce rolls his eyes at me before smiling warmly, clearly agreeing with my slightly feigned incredulity.

“It would have been a long week though”, he offers, “if it had been like ‘take 65’ or whatever. But it was nailed within a couple of takes and we ran off a couple more just in case.”

Given his apparent concerns over his own abilities, I enquire of Jonas as to whether he had to think long and hard before agreeing to get involved with Wisdom Of Crowds.

“It was pretty much an instant yes”, is the thoughtful and quiet reply, “because I knew Bruce’s music from before and when I heard the songs I thought they were really good, really interesting.”

“I know he’s sitting here and everything, but I was really lucky”, Bruce interjects. “Katatonia had just come off a big American tour (with Devin Townsend and Paradise Lost) and were back working on the “Dethroned & Uncrowned” album. We just managed to find a week where Jonas could jump on a plane, so we were lucky and it was good timing. Also, there was no pressure in producing the album, it was always very chilled out and I think that’s why it came together so nicely. Our mind set was more like ‘ok, let’s just give this a go’.”

For an album that came together so smoothly in the final stages, it comes across as a remarkably dark record. There is a lot of warmth and accessibility within the compositions but the overriding atmosphere certainly borders on the bleak. Bruce suggests that, to a large extent, this was accidental.

“I don’t think that there was ever a point where I was thinking that it had to sound like anything”, he offers. “The bleakness is a result of how it naturally came together I think. There are some dark synths, distorted beats and lo-fi beats which help to make it sound like it does. And then I’ve always enjoyed the darker side of music both sonically and thematically.”

On the subject of the project’s chosen moniker, Bruce offers his explanation to me.

“Kscope and I were sitting there thinking ‘what the hell are we going to call this band?’ I hate coming up with band names. I mean”, he smirks, again looking over at his colleague, “I bet you’ve not had to think of a band name in years…oh, except Bloodbath of course.” Laughter ensues before Bruce continues. “I was sent a list of possible names and when I saw ‘Wisdom Of Crowds’ I thought that was perfect. It is interesting because a lot of the time, there is no wisdom in a crowd.”

“The response has been really good”, nods Jonas when I venture that the project has been received favourably for the most part. “Speaking from a Katatonia point of view, I don’t believe that they all know about this project yet. Not everyone pays attention to the news and our posts, so I think there may be more fans to come. But the fans that I have been in touch with, they have given a really good response so far.”

“I have been really surprised actually”, Bruce adds eagerly. “We have got a lot of press that we wouldn’t normally have got because of the Katatonia angle. There have been a lot more metal journalists reviewing the album and in general, they’re saying that they really like it, which is cool. If anything, people have been very open-minded to this music.”

Given the feedback and the apparent popularity of Wisdom Of Crowds, it would be a shame if this was just a one-off. Fortunately, it seems like I’m not the only one who thinks this, as Jonas confirms.

“We hope there will be more from this band, yeah. It is something that we talk about all the time when we see each other. Again, it is about finding the time to do it because we really enjoyed working together, so there’s no problem there.”

“Also”, Bruce offers, “because Jonas came quite late to the process, next time I hope that it will be much more of a true collaboration. That’s what we hope for anyway.”

And the good news is completed when it transpires via Bruce, that more live shows are definitely on the agenda too.

“We hope so. We’re meeting our agent soon to discuss this very subject. Fingers crossed we can organise some kind of tour. A lot of it depends on the album’s penetration and how far the album gets out there. It has had good press, but we need to see how the album goes down with the fans to a certain extent and gauge the demand for more shows.”

“We will see how this gig goes first too”, Jonas quietly chuckles, before allowing Bruce to continue.

“We’ve been cramming for the past two days in a little sauna of a rehearsal room. So you may have to interview us after the show as well because it might be our last ever gig!”

“We’ll keep saying that after every song: “Remember, this is our first show.” Cue more laughter from the apparently-relaxed duo before Bruce ends things on a slightly nervous note.

“That’s the worrying thing in a way because everyone keeps saying ‘it’ll be great, they’re pro’s, it’ll be great.”

And you know what? They were great. Who would have thought it eh?!

“Wisdom Of Crowds” is out now on Kscope.

Maschine – An Interview with the UK Prog Rockers

Maschine is the chosen moniker for the latest UK-based band to catch the attention of the progressive rock community. I didn’t hesitate when I was offered the opportunity to chat with band mastermind and founder Luke Machin.

It is not the greatest of starts to the interview if I’m being entirely honest. I’m playing Maschine’s debut album “Rubidium” so loudly that I don’t hear the phone ringing in the adjacent room. I like to refer to it as research, although on this occasion, the research almost proved to be my downfall. Fortunately for me though, Luke Machin is not one to give up immediately and so he rings again. This time I answer. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, I get down to business by asking the founding member, chief songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist why he chose a career in prog rock.

“Basically”, Luke offers in a quiet voice with a discernible northern twang, “I have been into progressive music for many years. My parents brought me up on bands like It Bites, Genesis, Yes and King Crimson, all those older progressive rock bands. That older prog style has always been in my life whilst I was growing up. I came down to the Brighton Institute of Modern Music and that’s how I met up with all the other guys. It took a lot of time to form the band that we have now and there were a few incarnations prior to Maschine.”

“I knew that I wanted a five-piece band where I could be the lead vocalist and lead guitarist”, Luke continues enthusiastically. “But when I write, I’m not just influenced by prog rock. Prog is a subgenre of many other genres and is influenced by many other types of music. I’m therefore influenced by what I hear and what I love to listen to. And from one day to the next, that could be jazz, rock, metal, Latin, all sorts. That’s why this album is so varied as I’m sure you’ve heard. We’re still trying to find our own sound which is quite interesting and is keeping it fresh for us. This particular album is made up of some tracks that have been with me for four or five years. Obviously I was in to other different genre back then when they were first written. So for that reason alone, the result is much more widespread and varied I think.”

“Rubidium” is indeed a very varied beast. Encompassing everything from pop to metal, jazz to Latin, it is a progressive rock album in the truest sense of the word. It is also an ambitious debut album, made all the more exciting by the fact that Maschine are clearly overflowing with ideas and are not afraid to experiment. Of course it helps if each member of the band is proficient with their chosen instrument. However, as Luke quickly explains, instrumental talent was not the only factor when recruiting band mates.

“I chose the other guys mainly because of their attitudes towards music and their professionalism”, he explains earnestly, referring to bassist Daniel Mash, keyboardist and vocalist Georgia Lewis, drummer James Stewart and guitarist Elliott Fuller. “I mean, their musicianship goes without saying and they’re all great musicians. I have been in bands previously and we’ve all had the drive but when it came down to crunch time and doing all the nitty-gritty stuff like promoting and arranging gigs, all they want to do is play. You can’t play if you haven’t done the leg work before. All the guys in Maschine know this and that’s one of the most important things. We all share the passion, drive and enthusiasm.”

When it comes to the song writing, Luke is firmly in charge. He wrote all the music for “Rubidium” but, as he is keen to point out, he’s not blinkered when it comes to taking ideas and inspiration from the others within Maschine.

“I compose all the stuff”, Luke states relatively matter-of-factly, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. “However I am massively inspired by the music that the other members are influenced by. For example, Dan the bass player, he likes funky soul grooves and he’s kind of a Motown bass player. He influences me by telling me to check things out and I incorporate some of this into the music. To fuse all this together is really cool because there might be a really neat groove going on via the bass with metal guitars alongside and some jazz phrases as well. But I want to keep it true to the Maschine sound. That’s one of the hardest things to do though, to be influenced by things but keep the finished music in line with the band’s sound and identity.”

“Songs start off in limitless ways to be honest”, Luke continues without any prompt from yours truly. “I get influenced by literally anything. Late at night I may be drifting off to sleep and I’ll hear a riff or a melody and I’ll jump up and record it as quickly as I can. I have had it before where I have heard the whole song in my head, but have woken up in the morning and forgotten everything. So I have to get things down immediately whenever possible. There are two main ways that I write. One way is that I get together a whole collection of riffs from different projects and eventually put them all together. An example of this is with “The Fallen” and you can hear that it changes direction quite a lot. The other way I write is to create a song from start to finish. The example for that is the song “Rubidium”.

“I always had it in my head of how I wanted the album to sound like”, Luke offers by way of a conclusion to this particular topic area. “And I’m really happy with the way that it has turned out. You hear people say that they could always make something better but I wouldn’t. If I tried to improve it, I think that it could lose the essence of what it is supposed to be. As an artist, an album is the documentation of a point in your life. We’ve now got that on record, so it would be a bit weird to change it.”

With every other prog album these days exploring some kind of epic lyrical concept, it is refreshing in a way to hear that, as far as Maschine are concerned, the lyrics do not try to overshadow the musical content. Luke explains.

“For me, the music always comes first if I’m honest. Lyrics are important though and I genuinely try to make them important. On this album, the lyrics are about some things that have happened to me in the past, whether that be relating to health issues or relationships with friends an leaving my friends up north to go to Brighton. But I take ideas from other people’s lives. One example is with the song “Invincible”. It is about a guy who went to the Falklands War. He was on the ship HMS Invincible but his best friend was on HMS Sheffield and he got shot down by a torpedo. I read the memoirs online and I found it very moving and emotional. When you write the music, you then get to think about the story that you want to talk about with it.”

Lyrics aside, as you might very well expect, the guitar arguably plays the most important role in the progressive rock of Maschine. In fact, some of the things that Luke does with just six strings will have your jaw hitting the floor. I try not to let my jealousy as a failed guitarist get the better of me as I enquire about Luke’s apparent love for the coolest of all the instruments.

“I am mostly self-taught”, Luke responds with a shy chuckle as I gradually turn greener and greener with envy. “I have been told that I have played the guitar since I was about three years old. There was always a guitar around the house and I would watch old VHS tapes of bands like It Bites and pick things up off them. I had a few grade lessons and passed my Grade 8 when I was 14 or something. Then obviously the music college has taught me some aspects of technical playing but it hasn’t been full-on solid teaching or anything. If you love what you’re doing and it is working, you start to enjoy it more and can begin to play around with different ideas. But I have always loved playing the guitar and I’d rather play the guitar than go out and do other things. I never get bored of it because there is infinite knowledge that you can learn from it.”

It would be a futile exercise to try to identify all the individual influences that crop up within “Rubidium”. That said, one influence is more evident than the rest, both in the rhythm guitar work and vocally. I’m relieved when Luke agrees without flinching or taking offence, not that this was my aim of course.

“Pain of Salvation have definitely been a massive influence on me, particularly in the latter stages of my musical journey. I strive for my own sound but although I have played the guitar most of my life, I have only been singing for a few years. The melodic phrasing of Francis Dunnery is an influence but I’ve been inspired for this album by Daniel Gildenlow’s aggressive vocals and even his lighter stuff. But I could never aspire to be as good as him because for me, he is one of the greatest guys out there vocally.”

After an in-depth discussion about the pros and cons of Pain Of Salvation and their particular music journey, we agree that an ever-changing and evolving sound is almost certainly the very definition of ‘progressive’. With this in mind, will Maschine be unrecognisable come album number two?

“I think”, Luke pauses thoughtfully, “that we will try different things from album to album. But with regard to the next album, it is nearly all written already. It is definitely starting to hone in on what our Maschine sound really is. “Rubiduim” is very diverse and there are several elements within the sound that we want to retain and strengthen. On the second album, we hope that many ideas from the debut will start to fit into place a lot more.”
Maschine must be doing something right because they have managed to get signed to Inside Out Music, the label that I personally consider to be the best when it comes to progressive rock and metal music. Luke agrees before explaining how Maschine and Inside Out joined forces.

“Inside Out is one of those labels that is really doing it for progressive rock at the moment. To be amongst the likes of The Flower Kings, Pain Of Salvation and those guys, you wonder how it all happened. It came about though because I was in The Tangent with Andy Tillison. Thomas (Waber) from Inside Out asked Andy a few years ago to go out and find a young English progressive rock band. I introduced Andy to my band at the time, called Concrete Lake. Andy put us in touch with Thomas and he really liked what he heard. He suggested that we’d need to lose that Pain Of Salvation connection and change the name. We did, changing it to Maschine. We used the German spelling and it’s also a play on mine and Dan’s name as well. We’ve been I contact with Thomas ever since, sending him demos and such. He’s a great guy and the whole team have been really supportive.”

In conclusion to a very interesting and enjoyable conversation, I enquire about live touring plans for Maschine in the coming months, suggesting cheekily that perhaps Maschine and Haken could organise a show in my home town of Ipswich. To his credit and my delight, Luke didn’t decline. Mind you, I think my offer of a guaranteed crowd of three men and a dog made all the difference!

“We’re going to do a few shows later in the year”, Luke replied with a laugh. “We’d like to go out on tour with some young bands and some of the older prog bands as well. But any good gigs that we can create or be a part of would be great. There are definitely going to be some live shows to put in your diary soon though.”
So there you have it. If you have yet to hear the teasers for “Rubidium, head to the band’s official website, www.maschineuk.com. If you like what you hear, the good news is that the album will be out on Inside Out Music on 29th July, so not much longer to wait.

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