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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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SATANIC
DARKENED DEATH METAL
FROM
QUEBEC
1. Hello. First of all, could you write down a short introduction to the band, for the readers who might not be familiar?
ATROCE is a
Satanic Death Cult hailing from Quebec, Canada since 2012 Anno Bastardi,
manifested via sonic black magick through the extreme metal sub-genre
called : ''Evil Death Metal''.
2. ATROCE practices a Death metal that sounds both influenced by the early 90's, a blackened style, extreme metal from early 00's, and some thrash influences... Well, your music is really located in the middle of these influences, sometimes it's old school, sometimes blackened, sometimes more extreme ( I would have a little problem to stick it to a precise genre... Perhaps it's simply an agglomeration of the genres you enjoy the most?) Should the music of ATROCE stick to a precise evil and obscure vibe, or you remain quite opened the other influences? Is it more about the energy, the brutality or the dark atmosphere?
The way you
described the band is correct, yet as you realised, we do not stick
to a single formula or style. Of course it can be heard that all
these different ''styles'' are part of our musical influences. Also
as you mentionned, we indeed stick to ''obscure and evil'' vibe
and nothing else. About the focus, quite ironically as you mentionned
once again, we incorporate equally in a very hybrid & symbiotic
way the Brutality of Death Metal, the Energy of extreme spiritual
practices and the dark atmosphere that you generally find in Black
Metal.
3. To give a little idea of your sonorities to the readers, would you say the evil music of ATROCE has more to do with old MORBID ANGEL or early HATE ETERNAL? Old DEICIDE or NILE? Mid old BEHEMOTH or BELPHEGOR? Mid old PROTECTOR or NECROPHOBIC? (Yes, I'm a big name-dropper...)
We like pretty
much all the bands you mentionned up here and as we are not into
name dropping, we will just say as we said in many past interviews
that Morbid Angel is our biggest musical influence regarding the
compositions of the band.
4. All your lyrics are in french, or Latin. There seems to be no trace of English, why? Could you develop a bit the themes usually to be found in these lyrics?
We don't write
in english because it was a personal choice at the inception of
the band. We come from Quebec, the only French speaking province
of Canada and we are deeply proud of this and love the french language,
so it was obvious for us to sing in french as there is not a lot
of extreme metal band at all screaming in french, and even less
into the Satanic Death/Black metal worldwide underground scene.
Also, we find sad that english language as kind of assimilated other
mother languages of so many bands, it’s a shortcut that too many
bands took to the detriment of a greater originality in all genres.
Our
lyrics deals heavily with Spiritual Satanism, Chaos, Black Magick,
Rituals & Murders in general. They are written primarily in
French, but there is parts of Latin, Greek, Hebrew & Sumerian.
5. Your albums, and especially the last one, are well-produced: It enhances the rendering of the guitar playing, but remains powerful. I guess it's important for you to have a well-made recording... But nowadays it's not always the case, some death metal bands have a very lo-fi cavernous or repugnant production... Do you also enjoy this aspect of Death metal? Perhaps you keep this more obscure side of ATROCE for the gigs?
Yes we know
what you are talking about. While we can assuredly enjoy this kind
of Death Metal, we want to produce albums that you can actually
hear and distinct every instruments, everything that is happening,
every elements of the storming chaos that are our albums.
As
we said we are not only about atmospheres like many bands seems
to prefer these days, we are about sheer intensity: chaotic brutality
cloaked in atmospheric subversive darkness & transcendental
spiritual emptiness. We do not try to fit to a trend or something,
we do music as we want and it’s a 100% subjective to what we are
looking for. No matter what peoples like.
6. Your recordings also come with ambient interludes that remind me of NILE, or some satanic ceremonies from older movies... I hope you are not involved in hidden freemason activities AhAh. Can you tell us more about these interludes: Who created these atmospheres, does it consist of samples taken from movies, or was it completely composed by a musician of the band?
The dark ambient
tracks have been entirely composed by our singer Neptune. They are
''spiritual gateways'', metaphysical interludes connecting the esoteric
musical ''trinities'' which constitute the whole Necromantiae Bestialis
album.
7. Your last album "Necromantiae bestialis" was now released a year and a half ago. Did you begin the composition of the following? How does it sound in comparison?
Yes, we began
the writing process of our 3rd album even before the second album
was released. We are relentless, always hungry for more and a highly
creative band in that sense. Our 3rd Opus will be a logical continuation
of Necromantiae Bestialis, which means that the new elements
that you experimented on our 2nd Opus versus our 1st Opus (In Obscuritas)
shall be reflected in a deeper way like ambient parts, longer tracks,
more ritualistic tone in the songs themselves & darker and more
occult radical lyrics than ever. The current plague we are currently
in slowed us down, as it’s way more difficult to practice with all
the measures put in place at the moment.
8. Some members of the band also play in SACCAGE, can you tell us a bit more? This outfit seems to have some followers in the french scene...
Yes, our drummer
Alexis and guitarist-main composer Charles also plays in Saccage.
As many scene I guess, the Quebec City metal scene is all about
a few musicians playing in many bands, but also with many genres
under the extreme music banner. Saccage started in 2007 and at the
time Charles and Alexis we’re barely legal (not at all) in bars.
They kind of been into the scene with bands like Saccage and as
a consequence the music that come out of them reflect that, so it
was really in an easy way that they went with Saccage when they
were ask to. Saccage as a ''straight-to-the-face" french lyrical
approach and very hybrid sound mixing Death Metal, Crust & Grind
in a very dark and aggressive way that very few bands have been
able to do up to this day and it seems to works a lot in France.
A tour is planned in Europe as soon as the pandemic will be over.
You can also check out SULFURE, a new band started by Charles and
Dhan from Saccage, with members of MONARQUE and CULTE D’EBOLA, they
play a raw lo-fi black metal with an N’ Roll touch. They just released
a demo in 2020 called NEUROTISME.
9. What do you know about french metal? Since you also speak the french language, we might imagine there could easily be connections between both scenes... At least it could be easier for you to read french metal webzines online. Then, did you already experience french bands live in Quebec? Perhaps you already found some french magazines such as Hard rock magazine or Rock Hard in bookshops?
Well, Quebec is historically, French colonials establishing themselves along with English colonials in the beginning of the 1600's. So in this context, we know of course a lot about 90's Black Metal scene in France, Les Légions Noires, etc.. and there is the Black Metal movement here in Québec of few bands playing ''Métal Noir Québécois'' which means ''Quebecois Black Metal'' since early 2000's. We don't read webzines really or very rarely, as we are much more into real physical underground fanzines like in the 90's, and certainly not into mainstream magazines like those 2 that you mentionned.
10. What can you say about the metal scene from Quebec? It was once famous for the more technical kinds of death metal (And brutal death), but is there an interesting scene for the more old school genres such as death metal, black metal, thrash metal...?
Atroce is a
very misanthropic band, but actually, the extreme underground metal
scene in Quebec is going pretty much lame compared to what it was
back in the 80's and 90's and even early 2000's according to our
opinion. A few bands, like Saccage, Outre-Tombe, Sedimentum, Monarque,
Cantique Lépreux, Délétère, Trépas, who truly maintain a flame of
strong inspiration, bands who really uplift and ignite a sense of
strong artistic meaning and who does not sit on their laurels and
fall into mediocrity & stagnant repetition of the same old clichés
in a soulless manner.
11. In the early 80's, death and black metal were quite "united", it was just a part of "extreme metal"... But then in the mid 90's both genres were strongly separated due to the elitism of the Norwegian scene or the french black legions (And also due to the fact death metal became almost mainstream at some point...). Nowadays, there are fewer separations between both genres, would you say it's because the musicians involved in these styles have grown older? Because black metal also became almost mainstream? Because the musical context is different?
Probably this
went too far, or yes, the genre matures and maybe the rivalry is
more between oldschool and new school genre that appeared with the
2000’s. But the radical & extremist mindset of the 80's and
early 90's has not completely disappeared, old rivality & elitism
is present more and more among Black Metal scene worldwide because
of socio-political youth retards trying to infest the very core
of what True Black Metal is and shall always be : Antinomian, hateful,
proud, burning with the black flame of the Devil against all currents.
The
Spirit of Opposition it is still very much alive & potent in
the most obscure underground fanatical circles, henceforth why Atroce
don't care about ''pure'' musical style or gears or sound because
for us, both Death & Black Metal is actually (not almost) mainstream
since minimum 20-25 years ago... What truly matters here is the
tenebrous war-like mindset, the dark philosophy, the way of living
of our proud combative ancestors, manifesting chaos itself in our
death-worshipping demonic magick rituals & the supreme aggressive
dark spiritual music that reflect it!
12. It's time for the playlist: Which albums, Eps or demos did you listen to the most the last months?
- Nyogthaeblisz
: Abrahamic Godhead Besieged by Adversarial Usurpation
-
Angelcorpse : The Inexorable
- Blight : Temple of Wounds
-
Genocide Shrines : Devanation Monumentemples
- U.N.C.U.L.T.
: (Ucifrtnsmael Cantvs Adramalas Ostivm : Anti-Estrutual Formulas
da Genesis do Anti-Mundo)
- Lilium Artis : Establishing
the Temple
- Frozen Winds : Necromantic Arts
-
Morbid Angel : Covenant
- Ofermod : Thaumiel
-
Hatecrowned : Newborn Serpent
- Nox Formula : Drakon.Darshan.Satan
13. What are the next projects of ATROCE? Something to announce to the readers? Thanks for the answers.
Our 3rd Opus
is on the way, as much as chaos is manifesting more violently in
this universe, people should expect nothing but pure violent spiritual
Chaos from Atroce, in due time our artistic and spiritual endeavours
shall manifest for the world to see, as always for the Greater Glory
of the Devil !
ATROCE January 13th, 2021
Web
pages:
Bandcamp:
https://atroceqc.bandcamp.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/atroceqc
