As they come back with a new album, the french band YYRKOON seems to want to leave their mark in France's nowadays metallica landscape.
The band offers us a mix of Black-Death-Thrash and Heavy Metal that's charming, and a little interview to know more about their new album and the history of the band is welcome.
Here's an interview done with Victo and Stéf by Gab and Jean from the IN EXTREMIS radioshow.

What does YYRKOON means? To my mind it evokes somekind of an "Heroic fantasy" or a more "folkloric" touch (I haven't found a better word, lol...) quite near of books like "The lord of the rings"...

 Yyrkoon, is the name of a sorcerer in the cycle of Elric, it was created and written by the american writter Michael Moorcock. This is an universe of Heroic fantasy, so you aren't wrong when you think about it...
This said, we've mostly choosen this name (in 1996) for its sounding that seduced all of us, but also for the fantastic side if evokes.
On the other hand, our lyrics has nothing to do with the containing or the Elric saga written by M.Moorcock.

You've just released your new album called « Dying Sun », 4 years after the first one. What has happened during all this time?

Well, after the release of "Oniric Transition", the label on which we were signed at this time (VMI) had to stop its activities; so Adipocere bought the stock of CDs we had. 3 years ago, and after he left MALEDICTION, François, joined us to fill the empty place of guitarist, and Victo took the place of Cristofer as a bassist two years ago.
In fact, the variations in the line up has slowed down a lot of things, but we didn't remain inactive. It didn't make us unable to play a bit everywhere in France and also in foreign countries (for exemple in Switzerland in Prateln at the "Z7"). We also had several opportunities to bit the floor of the studio, so we released a self released MCD called "Forgotten past" two years ago.
Last year, we met somebody who wanted to run a label, and eventually sign YYRKOON, we trusted each others; ANVIL CORP was born a few moments later and our collaboration made us able to record our second album and to do a lot of quite cool things.
Here's what happened during these 4 years.

 The cover of your album was done by Thierry Demarez.
How has happened this collaboration and how did you discover his talents, as we know he isn't really in touch with the metal scene?

 The collaboration was excellent !! We have never seen somebody being so fast! Thierry immediately saw the elements and the main idea we were looking for this cover. The result is more than satisfying! You only have to admire the deepness of this illustration. We had his contact at the right moment, and it was an hasard...
At the basis, I was in touch with the drawer John Jude Palencar (Illustrator for Lovecraft, King...) because I was really caught by one of his artworks. He was asking quite a lot of money for the use of his whole painting, and we really didn't know what to do... a morning we received a mail from T.Demarez's webmaster that was spelling the talents of the guy!! And a more point of joke, we must admit it, is the fact he lives to only 40 kilometers from our houses... the night we discovered his website, we were at his house to speak about the cover...

YYRKOON now offers a metal that's really more original than in the past, not as much in the Black metal fields. What were the reasons that lead you to change your musical main lines?

For us, there was no real change of main line; "Dying sun" is the reflection of our primal influences: thrash and "old school" heavy metal. And we've won some maturity. The tracks of this album are more direct, more efficient, we've really stormed our brains about the musical structures.
That's maybe why one may eventually speak about a change of musical orientation. But if one carefully listens to the tracks of "Oniric...", he will realize there are a lot of common points with "Dying sun".
No, sincerely speaking, we prefer to speak about evolution.

Speak a bit about your lyrics: the subjects it deal with, influences, the way it's written... Are these lyrics written idenpendently from the music in accordance with what the written track inspires you, or at the contrary do you start to write a tune from what the lyrics evoke?

The lyrics are written after the compositions of the tracks. The music inspires me for the writing, and then we adapt the tracks to give more place to the singing lines. "Dying Sun" presents a concept in its whole.
The decline of the sun linked to humans' mental. The presented concept is untemporal, and that's why the cover and the individuall included on the painting aren't based in a given place or in a given epoch. Each track and each text can be taken out from the concept. For more details... buy it!! You won't be disappointed...

You have released your 2nd album on a very new label called ANVIL Corp. Aren't you afraid of the fact they still haven't got a strong place in the scene? Maybe they haven't got the structures, the relations that could tend to a good promotion (gigs, distribution). Until now, are you satisfied with their work? Did they run Underground activities before the label?

We know the guys from the label since a good moment now, and wev'e been able to judge they were serious. Before starting this label, Anvil was a fanzine that were sold with a comp CD. The trust was present even before they ran something. At the time I'm writing these lines, YYRKOON is very satisfied with the conditions of its new label. the promo has started before the release of the album, and a bit before it was released we learnt we would get the promotions of NTS, and we're now receiving the contacts and trades that makes us able to get some interviews, some tracks on sampler CDs and some reviews (magazines, radio, web-zine...).
We can also say ANVIL PROD has found a distribution for us in Japan, it's done by King Records. Following this good new, we must go back in the studio to record a few bonus tracks for this Japanese edition.

You're coming from the scene of the "Picardie" suburb. Have you got some good contacts with your musical neighboors (and who are they)?

As a whole, we're in super good relations with the bands from our suburb. We rejoice when the idea of spending a night drinking beers or playing with bands like Decline Of Humanity, DSK, Carnival In Coal, Malédiction, Hertz & Silence takes its place. The thing we could regret, in Picardie, is there are no real structures, neither scenes, dedicated to metal. In fact, it's not enough. Despite of a few rooms and organisators like "Underground Investigation" for, as a whole, it's quite poor...

The french metal scene has never been in a so good health.
Some good bands are emerging from everywhere, and this, in every styles. What are the bands you find interesting in the whole scene?

Gojira (this shreds!), Mortuary, Disgust, Malediction (this is not really the same style but they do a good job).  After, for the french bands that "crush", we doesn't find so much ourselves in what they're doing (even if they play really well).

You've done a good amount of gigs. In front of which metal crowd and with which bands (of which styles) were the gigs the best?
What kind of metalheads were the most receptive to your music?

Ouch... this is an hard question. Our music can please at the same time a fan of Heavy metal and a fan of Death... as it may not please them... As our music is quite personal and varied, we're touching some peoples from every metal's styles, except the ones who listen to Gothic metal or Nu metal. Our musical diversity may stop some individuals. To be honest, I can sleep well with it... The important for us is before all to be totally satisfied with our music.
About the gigs, everythings depends on the state of mind of the musicians and not on the style they claim to play. As a whole we've got some great fun with the bands that plays with us. It happened one or two times some peoples showed a touch of hostility about us... but shit... we don't give a fuck about it!! It's so rare and stupid we're not going to start thinking that way.... or only in exceptionnal conditions (laughs!!) ENJOY THE BEST AND FUCK THE REST !!!!

Describe an YYRKOON gig, do you include some personal touches?

 Our gigs doesn't include any "particular spectacle"... We've been thinking about adding some juggling peoples or choregraphies with sport dancing peoples. But the only time we tried to do so, we were going to break our legs and stuffs...so we've forgotten this idea... NO! seriously speaking our gigs are quite classical. Each time we give all our energy!! We give all that we can from ourselves when we play our tracks! And this without taking care of how many peoples are watching the gig.

Which merchandising is sell the best after the gigs?

The albums, and the T-shirts. We now have got some very beautifull posters with a fullscreen of the CD cover plus our five faces that embellish or deface the thing (according to your choice...). This is a very new thing and we haven't had the opportunity to test it.

Do you still feel close to your first love: Black metal? And if so, what kind of Black metal are you listening to?

The black metal is a part of our influences, but it doesn't mean it's a part of our first musical loves. As we say in a previous answer, we started te thing with heavy metal. About what we're listening to, it's very varied.
(From Black Sabbath to Emperor, Anthrax, Annihilator, AC/DC, Death, Cannibal Corpse…etc. WE ARE NOT A BLACK METAL BAND!!! (neither an extreme metal band).

Lets speak about politic, if you want to.
What do you think about the score the National Front (The guys following Le Pen) have had during the vote for the president?

It sucks.
Does it disturbs you that for some peoples, a big link is fastly done between the fascit ideology and the extreme music?

There are fools everywhere. Sorry if we don't say too much about it (we're not unsensible about it). But we prefer to talk about music.

 Do you spend a lot of time promoting your band? (Sending CDs, trading links, sending mails to a lot of peoples), or do you leave this task to your label to focus on your music?

 To be honest, this work is divided between us. We all have and adresses' listing of which we take care. It happens that we trade contacts. For myself, I take care about the website of the band and I trade some links. The band totally deals with the gigs' thing. For the zines and radios, Anvil is getting most of the contacts.

Do you think a band can deal with the promo and its music with success? While offering some quality compositions?

Of course! This is a whole. For sure some time is needed, some help is always welcome. The best is to equilibrate the thing. You musn't hurry the tracks' writing.

Can we hope to see you soon on stage, to promote your new album?

Obviously, yes! The gigs belongs to our vision of music. All what we want is to play live. Unfortunately, for us the gigs will begin in september.
In fact, we're working on some plans. For now, nothing is certain, and so we can't say too much about it. Why not an eventual tour...?

 As musicians, did you ever try to play some other kinds of music? Maybe you even have got some parallel projects that aren't directly linked to metal... (Or maybe you've got some emtal projects!).

We haven't got some real project besides YYRKOON. We play from time to time some other kinds of music, but it remains a very personal thing (classical music, blues, flamenco...). The investment in a band takes us a lot of energy, I think it would be hard for us to succeed in another so much achieved project.  Some other members of the band tried some things (into Death metal of heavy metal bands...) but nothing really happened.

Maybe a last word for our readers?

A last word? Thanks, and if you want to know more about us, check out our website: http://www.yyrkoon.net