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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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DARKENED
DEATH METAL
THE
BRUTAL WAY
1. Hello. Could you make a little introduction to the band? What kind of interesting obscure things occurred in the world of MAZE OF SOTHOTH recently?
Hello everyone! I guess we can introduce ourselves through our music if you consider the band as a whole being, otherwise we can say the band is the outcome of a sharing of musical instincts and joy of composing but also a good amount of the greatest fun by means of playing what we create. That is what we always want to specify when we are asked as a band, it has born as our passion and still remains. It doesn’t really correlate to anger as one may assume from the musical feeling itself, it is more related to the actual satisfaction in creation and composing and give the possibility to someone to use our music for their emotions creation or enhancement. With regard to the recent world of Maze of Sothoth is a more and more complex place where to roam, day after day. We are trying to enjoy this new phase after our first full release one year ago to spread the shit out thanks to our gigs and trench our minds in new material.
2. Could we say your death metal is influenced by horror movies? There's something haunting hidden in some of the riffs, but I don't know if we could really speak about horror...
Surely horror influences our music, but more horror books than horror films I think. This why a book gives you the opportunity to imagine in more than a way a situation and you can explain it in its purest form because you can give the shape you want through your words.
3. Would you say your Death metal is closer to the style of MORBID ANGEL or to the style of Polish Death metal?
Probably is closer to the style of Morbid Angel, but there are a lot of great polish bands that influenced us, so we are closer to M.A but both the styles influenced us. Surely you can hear a greater influence by Morbid Angel in the first EP “Guardian of the Gate”, we used to play a death metal more similar to the old American bands like Deicide, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and of course Morbid Angel. In the full length “Soul Demise” you can probably better hear our approach to the extreme polish metal stuff.
4. Your music is often fast and brutal, but it also has moments of real heaviness, darkness and some epic riffs... So I wonder if you feel closer to the Brutal death metal scene or to the old school death metal one... These two styles can be very different, and the specialists who are really deeply involved in one genre often spit on and deny the qualities of the other genre... Perhaps those who are able to spit are those who live in very big cities, and so have access to an infinity of gigs, so they are able to stay focused on the same genre quite easily?
Well, we are in the middle ahahah. Everyone of us has his own tastes about music and when we write something we are inspired by everything we listen. To be focused only on one genre isn’ t a great thing for people who plays an instrument generally because it would be very difficult to try to create interesting stuff if the source of inspiration is the same everytime. I think that nowadays it doesn’t depend if you live in a big city or not because of internet. 20 years ago the only way to discover music was to go to the gigs, listen the radio, to buy CD’s, vinyls and tapes, maybe through some television music channels but today you can go on YouTube or Spotify and you have all the music you want at home so if you get focused only on one genre it’s because, in my opinion, you like only that stuff or maybe you don’t want to check something other.
5. Can you explain the concept hidden behind the words "Maze of Sothoth"? Where does it come from?
Of course the concept is about Lovecraft’ s stories and creatures. For us Yog-Sothoth is one of the most chaotic and shapeless creature from this universe and it’s probably the most representative of our music. The word “maze” needs to intensify this concept; usually the maze is something complex and it can hide every kind of dangerous and unknown stuff.
6. A couple of years ago, no one seemed to be conscious, or appreciate, the books of HP Lovecraft, while nowadays many peoples seem to embrace Cthulhu... Do you think it is a new volatile trend, or something happened? Perhaps a global crisis and slow world decline influenced peoples to appreciate darker subjects?
It could be both the options, but we have to consider that Lovecraft’s stories have always been used in metal lyrics. I think that the difference between some years ago and now is that more and more bands have begun to treat this kind of arguments. So, maybe it could be a volatile trend but I’m not sure at all.
7. Your first album "Soul demise" was released since more than a year ago, since liters and liters of sludgey waters have flowed since then, we might wonder how your newer compositions sound like. Will there be an evolution in style or themes?
Yes and no. On the one hand, part of our style is going to change as a natural course. I think what is great in Soul Demise is that the sound is evolving through the album as many ideas of the songs were developed along years. I wonder if it is something that a listener can catch or it is just coming from our view from inside the song composition. However, this characteristic is able to give the album a connection through the songs which maybe will be more difficult to get on a new work. Furthermore, we want to move on and create something better, different and actual to our concept of music we have currently, which could also be a factor of style changing. On the other hand, something will remain similar; knowing how we work around an album and our music in general, I expect that the one characteristic which will remain the same is the freedom from any pre-established genre, order or any “rule” which could limit our creativity. That is something we cannot sacrifice for anything, even if it could make simpler the composition of new tracks or ideas.
8. Coming back to your older releases, how did it sound compared to the album? Perhaps it was less brutal, or perhaps older sounding?
Probably both things, because these are two complementary reasons. Surely the old stuff was less brutal, but one of the reasons is the older sounding. Another important thing to say is that 6 years have passed between the ep “Guardian of the Gate” and the full length “Soul Demise”, so new music and new ideas influenced us, it’s a necessary passage for almost every band through the years. If you think to some of the greatest DM band like Morbid Angel, Immolation, Nile, Dying Fetus etc. and you compare their old works with their new stuff you can surely notice something different about the production, the songwriting and all the elements who can influence their music.
9. The Italian Death metal scene seems to be in a quite good health compared to 10 years ago... You have VALGRIND, VOIDS OF VOMIT, MORBO, HATEFUL, only to name a few underground bands... The playing level and the inspiration seem to have increased compared to the remembrance I have of the older Italian scene... Which bands would you advice to the peoples who search for some brutal and obscure or really old school death metal bands?
There are a
lot of new and young bands and of course I’m glad of it. Some of
the band you mentioned like Valgrind, Hateful and Voids of Vomit
are active since more than 15 years and it’s great that they’re
still crushing everything today. Some other bands I would advice
to people are (some are more black metal than death, and not every
band is old school but I think they are great): Mefitic, Demonomancy,
Ekpyrosis, Dominhate, Sepolcro, X-Pus, Perfidious, Assumption, Naga
(they don’t play DM, it’s more like Black/Sludge and i like a lot
their stuff), Ad Nauseam, Serpent Ritual, Hierophant, Blasphemous
Noise Torment, FuocoFatuo, Grind Zero, Profanal, Daemusinem, Antropofagus…
and I apologize for all the bands I forgot
10. If a crazy industrial DJ offered to remix your last album in an industrial manner, and release it on a quite big mainstream metal label, what would be your reaction?
It would be interesting but only because I’m really really curious about the result of an experiment like this ahahah.
11. Which albums or demos do you listen to the most? Is it mostly about newer releases, or some older classic albums also burn your turntable with infernal flames?
Well I like to listen new stuff by new and old bands and of course I love to listen the classics!
Some of the
most recent release I love and I listen periodically are:
Blood
Incantation – Starspawn, Chthe’ ilist - Le Dernier Crépuscule,
Cruciamentum – Charnel Passages (but every release
is pure gold IMO), Mefitic – Woes of Mortal
Devotion, Messa – Feast for water (it’s not DM but doom
with some really particular influences, great stuff), Disma-
towards the megalith, The Ruins of Beverast –
Exuvia and Immolation – atonement
About the old
stuff I like to listen:
Immolation – Dawn of Possession, Morbid
Angel – Altars of Madness, Demilich – Nespithe, Gorefest
– Mindloss and False, Dying Fetus – grotesque impalement, Mayhem
– Deathcrush, Timeghoul- Panramic Twilight, Atheist
– Piece of Time, Cynic- Focus and in this moment
I’m focused on a very good but underrated album which is Beautiful
by Immortal Fate.
12. Something to say to conclude?
Thanks to Nihilistic holocaust for the interview and thanks to everyone who support us in one way or another!
Web
page: https://www.facebook.com/MazeofSothothOfficial
