AD PATRES - Obscure and brutal Death metal/ France

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INDEX INTERVIEWS GUESTBOOK
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1. Hello! Since the band released its first demo quite recently, a little introduction coming with a notification of death would be necessary. Don't hesitate to include your curriculum vitae as well as every useful documents so that we could calculate your contributed years for retirement... (Post mortem retirement?)

Arnaud: Hello! AD PATRES is a Death metal band from Bordeaux that was formed at the end of 2008 from the ashes of IOST with Yann (ex-Seth/Enthroned/Code/Fornication…) behind the drums and Olivier (ex-Withdrawn guitarist). We play a fast, straight and without concession Death metal with quite a lot of old school influences (Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal…), to remember Death metal was forged from intensity and power. We have released a 3 tracks promo CD at the very end of 2010, it was recorded with the help of Mathieu from GOROD and we got very good feedbacks. We did this recording to let peoples know our music, try to book gigs and find a label for our first album. This is what we are currently working on.

2. Your kind of music is a bit different from what one can currently find in France... On one hand it has no link with technical brutal death that occurs to be influenced by jazz, deathcore, or else, on the other hand you also don't play totally retro old school Death metal... Your style is closer to what we could hear in France few years ago: Both brutal and obscure Death metal influenced by MORBID ANGEL and IMMOLATION, and it falls right because I felt it was beginning to lack! So tell us about your musical influences, your goals at the level of composition, and what the music of AD PATRES should express...

Yann: I began with music in the 90's and the bands who appeared at this epoch have, in my understanding, forged Death metal. I'm only coming back to a style I was always fond of, taking my personal musical evolution in account. Old school Death metal has a lot of charm but it's not the genre to provide me the most of fun when playing, or unless I'm drunk. Concerning technical death, I simply don't belong to this school or this generation.

3. You say your band name, AD PATRES, stands for "Back to the father"... Could one see a link with the father of Christian religion (The father, the son, the holy spirit) and if it's actually the case why exactly coming back to him? I hope you don't have not very catholic intentions...

Arnaud: Hmm we do not say that! I don't know where you could have read it since it's our first interview (Thanks to you). AD PATRED stands for "Back to the fathers". It's not the father in the catholic meaning, but rather the ancestors. And so, coming back to the fathers stands for joining them in the grave. It's the also the topic of our "To the fathers" song in which we explain you can make all the efforts of the world to break away from your family, your parents, your ancestors, but you will finally finish under the same stone, with an engraved name that will "eternally" link you to those you execrate so much...

4. A couple of AD PATRES members come from the defunct Grind/ Brutal death band IOST, another member comes from WITHDRAWN, and another one played in several black metal bands... With all these members stitched together you're making something like a Mr Frankenstein of extreme metal! Isn't it too hard to help every body parts stay together during gigs when it's brutally headbanging? AhAh. To be more serious, why did you put to rest the zombie called IOST: The music genre didn't really fit your needs anymore? What lead you to play a more obscure and Death-metallizing genre? The call of catacombs? And is AD PATRES something like a parallel project or the main focus of all its musicians?

Arnaud: Yes in fact IOST was done at the end of 2008 when our drummer Steff decided to stop. The band was in a state of decomposition since a bit of time, because Gwen had stopped vocals and Alban left one year before. So when IOST shew a flat electrocardiogram we created AD PATRES with Yann. Our kind of music imposed itself naturally since it's what we separately wanted and it belongs to the tastes we have in common. We rapidly recruited Olivier for guitars to find a stable line up. Then, Julien (Who was vocalist of IOST) knew he would leave for Paris so we recruited Axel to replace him. Since we found Axel faster than expected, we had two singers for a couple of months and the demo was recorded at this epoch, thus the double vocals. Nowadays Axel is the only vocalist and AD PATRES is the main focus of all. We all have one or more parallel projects to be as varied as black metal and electro, grindcore and heavy metal, but I can only speak about the personal project of Olivier that's called UNBREATHABLE (Axel and Yann are also a part of it). It's technical death to be both groovy, heavy and aggressive. Their line up isn't complete yet, but as soon as it's the case I think you will have to count with them in the French underground.

5. Did you voluntary decide to release a first demo containing only 3 tracks to piss off the reviewers, as myself, who would like to have one or two more... I had to play it again several times in a row, until total brutallization of the cerebral cortex... It's a bit naughty, isn't it? To be more serious, how many songs do you currently have in stock? Are these in the same genre, or are there differences? (Maybe some new songs take a bit more this or that way?)

Yann: The choice is very hard. We could wait and remain in the shadows for months, or fastly release a sampler to let peoples hear us and count on the help of a label to record a better album... We have chosen this option, choosing a limited amount of tracks instead of doing an average album...

6. How do the gigs occur with you? Generally how long do you play live, and are spectators more than spectators? Do you play a few covers?

Arnaud: During gigs we play about 45 minutes of a Death metal that we try hard to make the most intense and dense possible. This duration matches about ten tracks. We play only own songs, no covers... We regularly think about working on a cover, but first we have problems to agree on a song, and then we find it to be more productive to focus on our own music.

7. AD PATRES comes from Bordeaux... At the musical level nothing comes to my mind... Are there interesting things to occur on a Death metal (Or "Metal", if you need to enlarge it) point of view . On a less musical matter: Is the red wine called "Bordeaux" macerated locally for real, or on the contrary are enormous tubs regularly imported from China for the liquid shall be colored, bottled and stickered there? (Hydrolol)

Arnaud: It's surprising nothing comes to your mind, because we are lucky to be from an area with a few good specimens. I think about Voracious Gangrene, Gorod and more recently Offending.

8. You are regularly promoting the band on Facebook. Are you satisfied with it, or if you had the possibility to come back in time, let's say to the 2002-2003 years, would you push the "GO" button without hesitation? (I find it was easier to make an efficient promo, if you moved your ass... And as the social networks develop, it paradoxically becomes harder to have an overall idea of what exists in French Death metal...

Arnaud: It's true the changes that recently occurred on Myspace made a lot of peoples to leave and use Facebook instead. It's unfortunate because FB is less adapted to musical promotion and it's rare to "accidentally" discover a band on facebook, while it could often be the case on myspace. The networks of each band are more partitioned and the bands have to build bridges between them. We have to live with it, to adapt ourselves, because it's not our matter (As bands) to tell peoples which website they should use. Most of use were "already" there in 2002-2003, doing promotion for our bands. It's true you could send a CDr to Metallian, Hard rock or Hard'n heavy and easily get a review. Now we are drowned in a quantity of webzines, as well as in a quantity of bands: It's also much easier to have a very good production while it used to be the "privilege" of few. I won't say if it's good or bad: All I can say is that today it's AD PATRES, and for this, I really wouldn't like to go back in time!

9. What do you think of:
-The kind of grindcore that plays "Everything with tremolos on one string" without power chords.

-Raspberry black metal (Or simply black metal, you choose).
Same than strawberry death metal

10. If Death metal didn't exist, which substitutes would you use to achieve injecting your dose?

11. It's the free question: You can talk about the last album you really liked, what you expect as musical releases, or something else...

Arnaud: 2011 began in a very strong manner with "Destroyers of all" by Ulcerate, and also the come back of American Gorgasm we waited for a long time. I think 2011 will be a big year concerning Death metal (Generally speaking) because we will have the releases of very big ones such as Morbid angel, Hate eternal, Decapitated, Origin or Necrophagist we also wait for a long time... At the level of France, there's the come back of Loudblast and we also wait for the Ep of your friends from Gorod. There should also be a lot of more, but I'm not running a webzine and I'm not meant to know the scene and the news!!!

12. What are the future projects of the band? And did you plan to have merchandising such as Tshirts, underwears or some luminous tampons (For those who wouldn't find the hole anymore AhAh)? If you have something to announce it's the right moment... KEEP IT MACERATING!

Arnaud: Meanwhile the tampons' patent arrives, we did a few shirts we sell at cost during gigs, but we are not making a big industry of merchandising. Our credo is to play an intense and brutal music called Death metal.
At the level of plans we have a first big one on the 15th of April with the final shot of Hellfest' launching pad that could lead to a gig at the Metal Corner. This put us under the light and helped us to reach a lot of peoples who liked our music, it's really a good tip. So we have gotten quite of lot of gigs possibilities for the second semester, in different parts of France. Also and most important, we are finalizing our first album, we hope to record this year and we are searching for a label!