Atroxentis – Interview –
Interview
Hello ! What’s up ? Ready for a interview ? Before all, please do an introduction to Atroxentis and its weird sounds ?
Atroxentis is a belgian Death / Black Metal. We started this journey by the end of the year 1997, and released a first demo in 1998. Then it took several years to find a stable line-up and produce our first LP in 2004 : “Blood is my wounds” and toured all around Belgium. After a break and with anew guitar player we recorded our second LP “Verus Dominus” in 2014 and gave lots of show in Belgium and recently toured over Europe with the Polish band “Hate” and the Spanish band “Noctem”. We are currently working on our next release.
I must say I discovered Atroxentis totally by hazard What does Atroxentis stand for, and why did you choose this moniker ?
Atroxentis stands for “Atrox” and “Entis” (latin locutions) which mean the evil entity.
How do you compose your songs ? There are so many rhythms changes that it might take a very long time to set everything ! What kind of software do you use ? Maybe Fruity loops, or a module tracker ? Were the rhythms programmed one by one, or are there some options for automatic rhythm changes or something ? Or maybe there are a 100 rhythm patterns per song ?
Atroxentis is not common in its way to write songs. For our latest release, I (Yannick – guitars/vocals) brought most of the riffs to the rehearsal and we arranged the songs all together. We didn’t use any software at the time. It was really something that came out of our guts. It’s true that most of the songs have lots of rhythm changes and sometimes weird signatures, but I think that’s what make our band “special” ou at least not like all the productions from big record companies. We really pay attention to small details like drum patterns and songs structure. A song has to tell a story and obviously there has to be a lot of rebonds to keep the audience focused .
Do you need to be in a special mood to compose some good patterns for songs, or does it flow well in any moment of the day ? I guess you should be very concentrated and focused for this, since the music is quite cerebral..
We really need to be in the mood to write good music, that’s why it takes so long to write an album. Because of our respective jobs we cannot dedicate lots of time to write and even when we have time, riffs don’t come. And sometime you are in the middle of something (a business meeting, a dinner, sleeping …) and you have an incredible sound that come to your mind. And you need your guitar immediately which is not always possible. So you try to keep singing the riffs in your head waiting for the moment you’ll be able to play it or record it.
What kind of peoples could enjoy your music in your opinion ? Even if it’s not in the same spectrum of aggression, I think your songs have something in common with some brutal Thrash Metal , it’s very complex and has many many rhythm changes so the whole sounds kind of schizophrenic and fuse-blowing.
I think most of the extreme Metal fans can find something in our music but not only. We have some brutal death metal riffs with some blasting drum parts, some Black Metal influenced riffs but also some jazzy parts and some technical parts. I don’t thing we belong to a special metal gender. I usually define the band as a melodic-technical Black / Death Metal band. For some people our music is too complex, for others is too melodic, for others it is too brutal, but you can’t please everyone. We do the music we love and we hope to share it with a maximum of people.
What were the most funny feedbacks you received concerning Atroxentis ? The music is so complex many peoples should get a clue about what happens (and do not want to make a little effort either…). Maybe you read some strange reviews and odd comparisons ?
Haha, that’s true, we often get unexpected reviews or comparison. As it is a mix of lot of Metal genders, every one try to find a link to something he knows. The most common “bad” review we receive is that our music is too complex, too rich and with too many rythm changes. Which is for me the best compliment you can make . We do not want to sound like this band or this musical style. We do our music without any commercial insights. We are also often compared to the band named “Death” which is also one of the biggest influence we have.
On what kind of labels do you release your records ? Is it Do it yourself, pro pressed… Are these labels quite small, or average sized ? And is there a scene in Belgium , or in the world for the kind of music you play ? Are there many enthusiasts, webzines and paper fanzines talking about and promoting music ? Is there a real underground for that ?
So far, we produced and released our music by ourselves. Our first album was recorded in a home studio, the last one was recorded and produced by A. Malta Malczewski (Behemoth, Hate, Decapitated) in Poland. We really hope to work again with this guy and the souddivision studio in Warsaw for our next production. And why not, having the support of a record company this time ,There are lots of concerts in Belgium and in Europeso its really easy to play but it’s always really difficult to get out of the masses. I mean, there are so many bands that are playing , that it is a big challenge to see everything and people have to choose between so many events that finally most of those events are attended by few people !!
Okay , that’s almost all. This little intie is over. You can say what you want to make this interview informative, and do not forget to conclude! Good luck in the future.
Thanks for your support, we really appreciate the time dedicated by people like you to promote the underground music. And why not, to play one day in your beautiful country.
Interviewer : Speedskullcrusher
