Careo EdeM
INTERVIEW WITH: Symphony of Horror.
Country of origin: Kazakhstan (Almaty ).
Formed in: 2.008
Genre: Symphonic / Experimental Black Metal
Discography:
- "The March of the Damned" (2012)
- "Gekommende Aus Abaddon" (2019)
Sello: St. Shapito, GM-Production.
Social networks:
Facebook: Facebook.com/symphonyofhorrorofficial
Twitter: @symphofhorrorof
Youtube: YouTube/Canal/SoH
Bandcamp: symphonyofhorror.bandcamp.com/album/gekommende-aus-abaddon
Author of the interview: Antonio Gil.
Author of the interview: Antonio Gil.
We approach to Extreme Metal again, as we like to do as much as our tastes and time allow us to post interviews like this of our partner A. Gil, who happened by chance with this band of Central Asia that plays a melodious Black Metal loaded with orchestrations that will remember some of the greats of the genre. We bring the interview first in English and next week we will publish it in Spanish. Enjoy it.
1). To begin tell
us a little about what your origins were, how was Symphony
of Horror born?
At
the base of the project which was given the name Symphony
Of Horror stood six people.
Alexander Timchenko (guitar), Stanislav Natochiev (drums), Grigory
Bayboshkin (guitar), Artem Perekupko (bass), Philip Yashchenko
(keys), Ivan Yunev (vocals).
The
starting point of the project is the day when our first rehearsal
took place - December 28, 2008. This day has become the key to what
we have today. Before that, there were two different projects, on the
one hand, Arsenal
of the Souls with the
participation of Alexander, Gregory, and Stanislav, and on the other
hand the Enclave
with the participation of Philip and Artem. Ivan was invited
separately by Elizaveta Vituleva. By the way, Elizabeth is our
manager at the time. Thanks to her announcement on the music forum,
projects managed to establish communication and unite. At first, like
most of the young bands, we played songs of our favorite artists, but
for our debut performance, we managed to acquire a couple of our own
tracks. The main music writer in the team at the time was Philip. He
also proposed the name Symphony
of Horror, it happened on
the eve of our debut performance. By the way, by that time we already
had personnel changes in the band. Alexander Lebedev (drums) and
Alexey Napryaglo (bass) came to the places of Stanislav and Artyom.
We gathered after the rehearsal to discuss the title. The proposed
options are Agony
and Symphony
of Horror did not quite
satisfy us, but there was no time, it was necessary to have time to
prepare a poster and other moments of the event. In the end, we took
the name Symphony
of Horror and agreed that
after the debut we will change it, but this has not happened to this
day. The name is firmly stuck.
2).
The essence of Dimmu
Borgir, the most baroque Cradle
of Filth, the majesty of Emperor
and the theatricality of Behemoth.
Are these your main influences? What other bands have inspired you?
All
the teams you listed are of course on the list of influences on some
of us, but that's not all. Each participant has a wide range of
musical preferences, and they are not limited to heavy music. To
summarize the list of groups that influenced us, here are some of
them:
Death,
Theory in Practice, Sepultura, Gojira, Animals As Leaders, Devin
Townsend, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Cannabis Corpse, Necrophagist,
Finntroll, Rotting Christ, Deicide, Rammstein, Immortal, Burzum,
Summoning, Satyricon, Nattefrost, Shape Of Despair, Paysage d'Hiver,
SOAD, Korn, Arch Enemу, Opeth, Born Of
Osiris, Martriden, Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Vitalij Kuprij, Derek
Sherinian, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Stormlord, Amon Amarth, Septic
Flesh,(Legion, The); Marcus Miller, Alain Caron, Michael Manring, Bob
Katsionis, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, Haken, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov,
Scriabin.
This
list can be continued for a very long time, and it will include blues
performers, rock-n-roll, hard rock, heavy metal first wave, great
composers of classical music and so on.
3).
In 2012 you launched “The March of the Damned”. What kind of
reception did you have?
The
reception was pretty good, considering that this was our debut album,
we also published it on our own and we practically did not distribute
it. Somehow, people found us themselves, distributed to someone not
lazy, some music web portals from different countries even wrote
reviews. This is quite good for a band like us. Kind of "local
band", which knew not many people.
But
there were negative reviews, where without them. These are mainly
listeners from the CIS countries. Someone didn’t like our too
lightweight sound for the declared genre, someone immediately sent us
to the trashcan, having learned that the group was not foreign and
the lyrics were performed in Russian. There is such a stereotype in
people that they cannot do their own good and automatically hang the
label “unfit”. Therefore, more often than not, there is always
less support from one’s own people than from others, and this
psychological factor is probably inherent in any people. We
understand this, so we don’t bother much and just continue to do
what we like. Or what comes out. But in general, we received more
positive reviews than negative ones.
4).
You have taken several years to give continuity to the project. What
was the reason for that break?
Yes,
to admit, we ourselves did not expect that the work on the second
album would drag on for a long six years. During this time, two
keyboard players managed to leave us: Ilya Livshits and Ildar
Abdulvagapov, as well as drummer Vladimir Lobanov. The reasons are
valid for all, and therefore we have excellent relations with them.
Nikita Pogadaev (drums) and Ekaterina Bayboshkina (keys) took their
places. The difficulties were various, mostly domestic, financial,
some even had serious health problems. Most of the material was
written four years ago, but the events were constantly slowing down
the process. As a result, a year before the release we had to set
ourselves a hard deadline, get into some debts and donate a lot to
finally finish this album. But despite all the difficulties, we were
able to complete the work and this is the most important thing.
5).
You sing in German, but you are from Kazakstan. Is German phonetics
the best way to tell your stories?
Why
did we record the second album in German? There are three reasons for
this! The first reason is that the voice of our vocalist in Russian
does not sound the way we would like. Secondly, we wanted to make the
listener concentrate more on the music and the overall sound, without
diverting his attention to the lyrics and analyzing its meaning in
the process of listening. And thirdly, we love to experiment, we like
the sound of the German language, and we believe that it is suitable
for heavy music like no other language. By the way, it is possible
that the next album will be recorded in English. Again, this is due
to our desire to experiment.
6).
On your facebook page you explain the meaning of your lyrics,
something to be thankful for and we will talk about later. How
important are social networks to you?
Social
networks have become an integral part of our lives. If you are
disconnected from the network, then you are cut off from information,
communication with people and automatically find yourself almost in
the Stone Age. First of all, they accelerate the overall information
interaction in the world. Therefore, yes, social networks are very
important for us. Moreover, you can even say that we have long and
firmly sitting on the network needle. And in the future, this
dependence will only strengthen. If we talk about the fact that
social networks give the music world, then this has both advantages
and disadvantages. The listeners, of course, get more benefits. They
have instant access to any music resource they are interested in,
from where they can listen online or download their favorite artists
for free. If we talk about the authors and performers, then
everything is ambiguous. On the one hand, there is the possibility of
quick and wide distribution, subject to a good budget or a successful
combination of circumstances. On the other hand, the difficulty is in
quantitative competition among themselves and in obtaining dividends
for their music. This is especially true of young performers who do
not have a large audience.
There
are more of us than ever, and this amount is growing. We give the
listener a huge selection of free music, distributing it through
social networks, at the same time, we are investing large amounts of
money in it and we get practically nothing from it. If you look at
the situation in whole, then today those artists who have managed to
achieve popularity at the beginning of the two thousandth, ninetieth
and earlier periods are most successful. But whatever the situation,
social networks are the only tool for us, as is the web for the
spider.
7).
Will there be a physical disk? I have seen your profile in Pledge
Music and I have thought that you are financing it through that
system.
We
are now actively working on this issue and are considering various
ways to obtain financing in order to make circulation of physical
carriers. Pledge Music has not yet brought a cent, because
crowdfunding stocks also require financial investments in
advertising. Initially, we planned to prepare everything for the
release of the album, but unfortunately, it did not work out for
various reasons. Therefore, as soon as the financial issue is
resolved, we will surely make circulation of disks and t-shirts.
8).
You have presented as a single the title track of the album. Why that
particular one? Is it all a statement of intent?
If
you get into the essence of the lyrics of this track, you can see how
all the information revolves around the fact that someone carries
some news about important, destructive events for humanity.
And
in a sense, our title track and the album as a whole are news for our
listeners, at least for those who will hear it and will be able to
recognize the message embedded in it. Despite the fact that the
author relied on some ideas from Lovecraft, he introduced his vision
and his message when writing lyrics for this track.
9).
The keyboards are very important in your songs. Ekaterina does a
fabulous job. How do you make up the band? What is your way of
working?
Actually,
the main music writer at the moment is Alexander. First, he writes
the basis of the track, this includes all the arrangements, including
keys and primary drums programming, everything except vocals. When in
his opinion the track looks roughly ready, he throws it off for
general viewing. And from this moment begins a general refinement. We
offer him our ideas, he tries to implement them, if ideas work then
they are included in the arrangement, if it gets worse, then return
as it was. Nikita, for example, completely edits his part, he as a
drummer makes it more natural, interesting and correct. He has his
own views and feelings on how it should sound. But most of the basic
bits remain unchanged to save primary integrity of the track. Alexey
does the same with the bass guitar. Also, Nikita and Alexey look
through the arrangements for the presence of grammatical errors, they
are the only ones in the group who have a higher musical education.
They can change the chords in some places, make them more
interesting, rich, change the color of the sound. All this
constitutes, though not the main, but no less important, delicate and
painstaking work, which ultimately makes the tracks more interesting
and self-sufficient. After the instrumental part is completely ready,
Gregory joins the process. He thinks over the arrangement of the
vocal part, after which he and Alexander come to the studio and
finalize the final stage of recording. As for the writing of the
lyrics itself, this is done by a person outside the group and
unfortunately, he wished to remain incognito. The only track to which
he did not write lyrics is "Durch
Die Dunkelheit", the
text for this track was written by Ekaterina.
10).
It has helped the voices of Alexander Degtyaryov, of SHAHID.
Is he an official member of the group?
We
would very much like Alexander to be officially in our band. But he
has his main project SHAHID.
It all depends on him. If he decides that he can pull two projects at
the same time, then our doors are always open for him. So far, we are
hoping for at least sessional cooperation with Alexander, whether it
be recording new tracks or live performances.
11).
How is the new album being received by critics?
With
the second album, things are almost the same as with the first, only
now the percentage of positive reviews has become much more.
12).
What plans do you have to present it? Are there closed dates? Any
summer festival?
This
question is now at the top of our agenda. And we again return to the
financial component. We managed to finish all the studio work for the
festival season, but we do not have the means to go somewhere. That
is why we organized a crowdfunding campaign on "Indiegogo",
but so far everything is not going the best way.
13).
Let's talk about songs on the album. It opens spectacularly and
portentously with "Könisgreich
der Spiegel"
What can you tell us about the mirrors?
This
track was written the very first to this album and is a kind of
transition bridge. This is felt in the music itself, as it is more
similar to what we did in the first album. That's why we put this
track at number one. Also, the essence of the lyrics corresponds to
this position. We are immersed in some kind of fantasy, intermediate
dimension "splitter" with mirrors, where all existing
worlds are reflected, and from there you go at once to "Dunkle
Stadt (Dark City)" based on the Lovecraft universe.
14).
"Dunke Stadt"
is influenced by the writings of HP Lovecraft. It has a kinematic
air. Certain passages remind me “Down of
Victory” ´s Rhapsody album, but it is a personal
appreciation. What can you tell about it?
We
think that every person always has his own associations with
something. None of us have ever heard Rhapsody of the Down of
Victory. Perhaps this is true.
Nowadays,
it is already quite difficult to come up with something musically, so
as not to remind anyone. There are only seven notes, and millions of
songs have already been written.
15).
"Gekommende
Aus Abbadon" is the first
song we know. It is inspired by the Necronomicon, written by the
fictional character of Lovecraft Abdul Alhazred. It's funny how a
book that does not exist has given so much to horror or fiction
literature and other arts. Besides Lovecraft, what other writers has
influenced you? Poe, Borges, maybe? The Argentine has used the
mirrors in his works as a recurring symbol.
Lovecraft
is truly a unique writer. There are many different mystical rumors
around him, some even believe that the book was actually real, and
Abdul Alhazred is not a fictional character. A lost city in the ruins
of Babylon, which was discovered by Abdul himself, where the
knowledge of ancient civilization is preserved, perhaps about secret
technologies, weapons, for which the strongest of this world are now
striving, arranging wars for the right to find these technologies
first, or to destroy the remnants of the existence of this
civilization. Returning to the question, the author of the lyrics was
influenced by Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Poe, Vladimir Odoyevsky, Stephen
King, Ray Bradbury, Bentley Little, and others.
16).
The history of "Gekommende
Aus Abbadon" continues in
"Der Bote Von
Igigu". It is more dense
and darker than the previous one. Can we talk about a conceptual
album or are these songs only united?
The
album is not conceptual if we consider it as a complete story. But
all his paintings are connected by the author’s worldview and
represent one single universe.
17)."Inferno"
is the following. Do you think that hell is on earth? Is
technology also a consequence of suffering?
The
earth in its essence resembles an intermediate level between
something more negative and more favorable in human understanding;
more simply, it is between hell and heaven, if we use the usual
terms. This is the central place where the interaction of the
fundamental foundations of creation and chaos takes place. And here
they are intertwined and work as a single mechanism, reflected in
everything that we see around. All living things that are there,
constantly destroy and create at the same time. This is manifested in
the plant world, animal and human. All create offspring and absorb
others. There is a multi-level struggle for survival. And there is
some suspicion that a person here is far from the top of the food
chain, and over humanity, too, someone is more intellectually
advanced.
This someone contains us as a farm and the goals may be very different. From mining to generating bioenergy. In general, he takes from us everything that he needs, just like a man takes what he needs from animals and plants. And since we are suffering the world around us, this process is also accompanied by suffering for us. And in order to alleviate the level of this suffering for ourselves, we create technologies.
This someone contains us as a farm and the goals may be very different. From mining to generating bioenergy. In general, he takes from us everything that he needs, just like a man takes what he needs from animals and plants. And since we are suffering the world around us, this process is also accompanied by suffering for us. And in order to alleviate the level of this suffering for ourselves, we create technologies.
The last album. Pure Armageddon !
18)."Durch
Die Dunkelheit" is
thunderous. Will you play it in your live shows?
We
will definitely play all the songs from this album at concerts.
19)."Der
Tote" it's my favorite
song on the album. What story is there in your lyrics?
Incidentally,
this track was written last and is a kind of experiment for the
author. The fact is that the guitar riffs were invented in not
typical guitar tuning. And at the moment there is a desire to
continue moving in this direction, because we believe that the
experiment was successful. The lyrics of this text are based on
esoteric information from various sources. It tells of the cycle of
human nature between incarnation and death. The idea is that after
the death of the body, the spirit comes out of it, and it has the
task to get to where it came from. This is a place in the universe,
which can be defined as the house of the soul, or the source of all
entities. And this is not so easy to do, because it needs a certain
charge of energy in order to be able to complete this migration. This
charge depends on how a person lived his life. If he has acquired
high energies of sufficient power, then he manages to do this, and if
heavy energies prevail, then the gravity of our world immediately
delays
essence
back to the new incarnation. The lyrics of the track "Der
Tote" about such a soul, it
is already on Earth for many thousands of incarnations and still can
not get out of here.
Total revelry, SoF show!
20).
Can you tell us about any anecdote that happened to you during the
recording of the album?
For
six years, there were a lot of different jokes, it's hard to remember
at least one of them. But the main fun occurred when, while recording
songs, the vocalist struggled with the pronunciation of a non-native
language.
21).
How is the day to day of the group members? How do you combine your
lives with music?
Some
of us are inextricably linked with music. For example, Nikita and
Alexei teach with their musical instruments, Alexander works in a
music rehearsal studio, and Gregory and Ekaterina work in companies
that are not related to music. But still, despite the fact that three
of us are constantly in the music field, it is not every day that we
manage to devote time to our project. Basically everyone is busy
making a living.
22).
Please, say goodbye to the interview. A few words for our Metal Splinters?
Thanks
for the interview, you are doing an excellent job for metalheads. Do
not stop!
