I thought it was about time that we had a competition on here, so here we go… and, it all ties in quite nicely with our Flying the Flag for Blighty’s Metal Scene articles… I love it when things come together!
What’s the prize?
The lucky winner of our little competition will win a copy of DISCIPLES OF EXTREMITY released by UKEM Records on CD. Oh, and a badge and a sticker. We’re bloody good to you!
Info about the CD:
19 band compliation featuring some of the UK’s finest extreme metal acts including: TRIFIXION, FLAYED DISCIPLE, SEPTIC TRAUMA, LIVING WITH DISFIGUREMENT, CRYOSTORM + more!!
How do I enter?
That’s the easy part! There’s a comment box at the end of this post… All you need to do is leave us a comment with a link to your favourite UK band in. So, this could be a great opportunity to plug your mate’s band… or your own band… or, hell, just a UK band that you like!
For example:
My favourite UK band is Iron Maiden – http://www.ironmaiden.com
Obviously, we’re looking for underground bands… Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath et al are great… but we already know about them…
If we like the band/s that you’ve suggested, we’ll feature them on the site in some way.
How many times can I enter?
As many as you like 
How will you choose the winner?
All of the entries will go into a hat (quite literally, I have a selection of hats that I can use for this occasion… but I think I’ll probably go for the top hat.. or the bowler hat…) and the winner will be the name that I pick out. It’s so simple it just might work…
So, if you enter a few times, you’ll stand a good chance of winning
The winner will be contacted a few days after the competition closes.
When does the competition close?
The competition will close on Sunday 1st July 2012 at midnight GMT.
Ok, so what if I don’t win?
If you’re not our lucky winner, don’t worry – you can pick up a copy of DISCIPLES OF EXTREMITY Vol2 from the UKEM Records store.
So… What are you waiting for???
ALL bands who are mentioned by you lot will be contacted by me. They will ALL have the opportunity to be featured on Loucifer Speaks and have their tracks played on our/Metal Tavern’s official radio station – Hordes of Chaos. More info here or tune in with WinAmp here (other listening options are available).
So, seriously – let’s start naming some names!
It’s no secret that I LOVE De Profundis’ new album “The Emptiness Within” (in case you missed it, here’s my review), so when the chance to interview Roman, the band’s guitarist, arose I knew I couldn’t let it pass me by…
Photo by madhouseheaven.com
Lou: Hi! Thanks for agreeing to this interview. How’s things with you today?
Roman: Hi there! Things are very well, thank you. Currently preparing for our next gig, which a festival appearance at Rockharz Open Air in Germany, and also preparing for our first ever video shoot. Never a dull moment…
Lou: For the benefit of anyone who has yet to witness the sheer awesomeness of De Profundis, please can you tell us who is in the band? How long has the band been together?
Roman: Craig Land (vocals) and myself (guitarist) formed the band in 2005. I initially responded to his online ad, where he was trying to reform his old death metal band from South Africa. When this didn’t work out, he suggested starting a new band, which we called De Profundis. In the early days we had a lot of line-up changes – everyone else we found for the first line-up ended up leaving the band in 2006. We persevered and got in touch with Shoi Sen (guitarist). I think when he joined the band really began taking shape. Fast forward a couple of drummers, Nick Tingle (drummer) joined in 2008, just before our appearance at Bloodstock 2008. Fretless bass wizard Arran McSporran joined in 2009, just before we recorded our second album. We’ve been lucky to retain the same line-up for three years now.
Lou: How would you describe your sound?
Roman: It’s a mix of the music that we like to listen to ourselves, so some sort of a blend of death metal, black metal, progressive rock, jazz and so on. We do not constrict ourselves to any genre or any rules. Each song is totally different. We try to take the listener on a musical journey.
Photo by madhouseheaven.com
Lou: Where does the name De Profundis come from?
Roman: Craig had the idea for the name originally, and I believe he got it from a song by Abruptum. I always liked the name as it’s in Latin, meaning “from the depths”, which is quite dark but, at the same time, does not create any pre-conception in the listener’s mind as to what kind of music they might expect to hear.
Lou: Ok, now that we’ve got all of the standard bits out of the way, I’d like to talk about the new album. I’ve got to say – I was completely blown away by it. Are you happy with the end result?
Roman: Thank you! I am quite pleased with it, yes. I’m a perfectionist, so there are certainly many things I would like have to have done better, but I think it’s our best album to date and everything came together well at then. I think the other guys in the band share a similar view, we’ve all worked really hard on this record, and hopefully it shows. However, the next album will be even better.
Lou: Can you describe the writing / recording process for “The Emptiness Within”. The music sounds quite complex. Did you all work together or did each of you come to the table with your own ideas?
Roman: We write in very organic way; typically Shoi and I bring ideas that we have been working on individually and show them to the other guys. We jam out the ideas a lot, and everyone else contributes and can suggest changes to the ideas. The end result is often very different to what the initial idea was. Now we are getting very comfortable with each other’s styles and preferences, so writing is becoming quite easy. Arran and Nick contributed a lot to this album, and there’s a very tense current of bass/drum rhythms and interplay underpinning the guitars and vocals. We wrote most of the album in Shoi’s own studio, recording most sessions, so we spent a lot of time working on individual arrangements and making sure everything works together.
Lou: What were your main inspirations when it came to writing this album? What sort subjects have popped up in the lyrics?
Roman: Speaking for myself, I create music for the sake of creating music. I used to have a sort of an ethos, trying to combine and contrast ideas in a way as to accentuate the power of both, but I’ve stopped thinking along those lines some time ago. I guess the main inspiration for me was to make some good music! Craig writes the lyrics by himself, so they are his thoughts and views only. I think we all respect his lyric-writing, but it is his own space to express himself.
Photo by madhouseheaven.com
Lou: Aside from my review (where I instantly transformed into a bit of a fangirl), what feedback have you received for “The Emptiness Within”?
Roman: Feedback has been very good, if somewhat divisive. Generally either people “get” what we’re trying to do, or they don’t. Some people comment that we try to do too much with our songs, and others seem to struggle with the fact that we don’t fit into a particular style. I respect well-thought out criticism, and sometimes we even take reviewers comments on-board. However, I don’t see the attraction of, for example, being a Behemoth-clone… sometimes reviewers give the impression of wanting to hear a particular sound even before they’ve heard the album, and when they don’t get it, the album gets a negative review. Maybe this happens because there are so many bands nowadays… But then people should be more interested in those trying to break the norm and do something new, surely?
The main thing for us is to do something that we like ourselves, and to make a strong connection with people who enjoy our music. I would rather have a small number of really dedicated fans than be perceived as an enjoyable commodity by a huge number of disinterested listeners. I’m glad that you personally enjoyed our record – that means a lot.
Lou: I noticed that you seem to be selling more albums in Germany than in the UK. Is this correct? What are your thoughts on the UK metal scene? What can be done to improve it? Ok, that’s several questions in one…
Roman: Yes, sadly that’s correct. UK metal scene has a lot of bands, but also there is a very tired attitude towards music and bands in general. This goes from small venues forcing bands to do “pay to play” deals – having to buy a certain amount of tickets just to be able to play the show – all the way to UK ‘metal’ festivals preferring to book dumb comedy acts instead of quality UK metal bands with a new albums out. It’s so frustrating, but not much we can do. We have met some really great promoters and agents over the years, who are really honest and good people. We try to work with them as much as possible. We can’t change people’s attitudes, and certainly now it’s a difficult time for everyone, but that’s not a reason to try to screw each other over!
I think the best thing that people can do is go to their local gigs, support their local bands. Things like getting to the gig early enough to watch all the bands, and not leaving immediately after your mate’s band has just played. Music is something special and shouldn’t be taken for granted. When bands come from far away to play a show, make them feel welcome, at least give them a chance to impress you. If everyone puts in just a little bit of effort, it will be much better for everyone.
Enough ranting!
Lou: Ok, time for some randomness methinks… Picture the scene, you awake one morning to find that the zombie apocalypse has arrived. Are you prepared?
Roman: For sure, I have played many zombie games, so I know the theory and all the best strategies for survival. Now I just need to find a chainsaw, shotgun, armoured truck and a Rambo bandanna.
Lou: Which De Profundis track will be playing in your head (as kind of a soundtrack / personal theme song) as you fight your way through the hordes of the undead? Feel free to give reasons for your answer.
Roman: ‘Dead Inside’, because they are!
Lou: You manage to find somewhere secure to live, but there’s only a CD player there (clearly the owner of said building never bothered to join the digital revolution), which albums do you hunt down to listen to while you wait for the zombies to rot? This is the last zombie question, I swear. I clearly watch too many zombie movies…
Roman: Firstly I’d check if there are any vinyls left – I still haven’t joined the “CD revolution” – so I’m one behind. Assuming I’m out of luck (clearly the owner does not appreciate real analogue music!), I’d probably try to hunt down some rare CD releases for the sake of it… before realising that actually, what you need is some classic stuff. I’d probably end up listening to Alice Cooper and King Diamond. I guess I would be content at meeting my end whilst “Abigail” was on…
Lou: Anyway… moving on…
How does “The Emptiness Within” compare to your previous work?
Roman: It’s a faster album, more densely layered and more ‘to the point’. Songs are shorter and have more hooks, but we also push ourselves musically and experiment with mellow sections and jazz a lot more.
Lou: Are you touring at the moment? Where are you playing? I saw you a few months ago in Camden and need to see you again…
Roman: We’re working on a tour in September/October, which should take us across UK and Europe with a couple of very well-known bands. If any promoters are reading this, they can always contact us, we try to play as many gigs as we can.
Lou: How would you describe a De Profundis show?
Roman: Intense! We work very hard to put on a good show for the audience. We write our music around how well we can communicate them live. I’ve always said that we were a better band live than in the studio. Come and see us live and decide for yourself!
Lou: Which show has been the highlight of your career so far and why?
Roman: Probably our tour of India in 2010. We did 5 shows across the country, including co-headlining a festival in front of 30,000. We had to travel huge distances between every show – flights, trains, driving up into the Himalayas, and we got to see so much and met so many cool people! We also ended up doing a couple of music performance clinics / demonstrations – and we got treated with a lot of respect and courtesy throughout our trip. I think it’s fair to say that we got to live like rock stars of old for this tour!
Lou: Where can people buy your stuff from?
Roman: Our website, deprofundistheband.com, Amazon (UK and Germany), Kolony records website (kolonyrecords.com), Nuclear Blast mail-order and at gigs. Cheapest is normally at gigs as we don’t need to pay for postage and cut out the “middle man”, and we also try to offer some cheap CD/shirt deals too. Hopefully another reason to come to our gigs!
Lou: I know you’re on a couple of social networks (and I’ll be posting links to them at the end of this interview – but feel free to share them again here), but which is the best when it comes to promoting your band?
Roman: MySpace died a death, so it’s difficult to do much there anymore. We’re focusing on Facebook (facebook.com/deprofundistheband) and Last.fm (last.fm/music/De+Profundis) right now, but it’s quite tricky as there are so many bands out there. Bandcamp (deprofundis.bandcamp.com) has been great for us – people can listen to our entire back-catalogue and purchase legal downloads of any of our songs.
Lou: What’s next for De Profundis?
Roman: World domination, but we’ll take our steps one at a time. We’re working on a tour to promote our new album and there’s a music video currently in the works!
Lou: Do you have any messages for the readers of Loucifer Speaks?
Roman: Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you for supporting music. Come and see De Profundis
Lou: Thanks again!
deprofundistheband.com
facebook.com/deprofundistheband
last.fm/music/De+Profundis
deprofundis.bandcamp.com
Foscor recently celebrated 10 years of making their dark art with a DVD release. Now that the door has closed on the first decade of Foscor’s existance, it seemed like the perfect time to talk them about both the past and the future…
Lou: Greetings! It’s been quite a while since I last spoke to you and it seems like quite a bit has changed. Please could you introduce the members of the band to the readers of Loucifer Speaks?
Fiar: Greetings Louise!! If I’m not wrong, it was during “The Smile of the Sad Ones” promotional campaign the last time we shared some lines for Loucifer Speaks… perhaps it was in 2008 when we played in the Infernal Damnation Fest VI… I don’t really remember, but it’s always a pleasure to be here.
Yes… things have changed a bit since then, mostly during last year and a half, when we have suffered a deep change concerning the band’s rhythm of work and how to conceive and live the band. Something necessary that finished last summer with the split up with Wilhkiem, our guitarist since 2004. Something hard to do at first, but positive considering we just want to face the future with a renewed enthusiasm. We are so glad since A.M. (lead guitar from the mighty disappeared Vidres a la Sang ) joined the band. We have mainly worked on stage with him, but things flow in the best way. We are now working in the 4th album stuff, and for sure he will have an important role. So… FOSCOR’s lineup since mid 2011 is composed by: Falke on guitars and most of composition roles, Nechrist on drums, A.M. on guitars and me, Fiar, on bass and vocals.
Lou: How’s things in Catalunya today?
Fiar: We are living very hard days… it’s not a joke when you are conscious that there are those around you whom can’t arrive to the end of the month and pay all the bills… There are, as you can imagine, important things to take care that could affect the band, but although it is not saved of this situation, we want to make a jump ahead and bet for a new period for Foscor with the 4th album. Will be hard, economically talking and considering we will make a new label research before… but we are convinced this little unpaid job will let us live again great moments and share its with the audience. We don’t know other way to work than with passion and looking for emotional music.
Lou: You’re probably sick to death of this question, but… How do you describe your music?
Falke: Hi Lou, this is Falke, it´s a pleasure for me to share some words with you… this is not an easy question, because for me and, of course, for Fiar, our music is more than a couple of riffs and words, we try to express our emotions and feelings with all the things concerning Foscor and is difficult to reduce it to a simple style or genre. The essence of it all was born with the 90´s Norwegian black metal, adding a personal interpretation of it and with the aura British Doom Metal and Dark Ambient surround us. We always want to take a new step ahead on each album, and in the next one we want to break all our mental barriers and bring all Foscor´s concept and musical language to another level, darker, deeper, and aggressive, so expect changes but 100% Foscor essence.
Fiar: We have always related our music with Black Metal, because at least it was the main source of the landscapes our emotional palette drew… but, as Falke has commented, considering all the inspiration other styles give us constantly, we are more convinced than ever than the best way to describe our music would be Emotional Dark Metal… We play some extreme language, always looking for darkness as object and excuse… Everybody who learnt from the 90’s period how to open the mind and face Emotional Extreme Music, can understand us… We don’t bet for innovation, we don’t bet for Old School attitudes… just to advance to a deep emotional hole of pleasure.
Anyway, it will be the listener who describes our music after the 4th album… Perhaps understanding something from the past, or why not as a newborn moment.
Lou: You recently released a DVD celebrating ten years of Foscor. That’s an impressive achievement! Are there any moments from the past decade that have especially stood out for you?
Fiar: The achievement has been possible due the collaboration among the new label Darkwoods and our personal effort. I can’t deny although it is a 250 copies limited edition, it was a high cost to be assumed only for us. There weren’t other intentions than to celebrate something with the best of the weapons we could use in that moment… after some time of silence. I think many people whom have been with us during all these 10 years deserved our effort and not lose the chance to make them part of Foscor again with the Celebration. I think it’s the most valuable thing to remind from and during these first 10 years… all those moments shared with closed collaborators, people from the audience showing us how they feel what we do, bands, labels, medias… many people have turned into real friends after that, and we can proudly keep sharing the passion.
If you ask me for my own moments in the band… I really think it happened not too many months ago… the change process was difficult with losing Wilhkiem. But, it was great to look at the other at our side and learn in the way we did, after a lot of years together. Was purging process… knowing about own problems and emotional landscapes connected with the personal side of our lives. I think we are better now… for the band, but mainly to face each one situation. Leaving apart the moments of fun, to delete some occult vices we were not conscious if, but were damaging us is for sure the most memorable moment. The result was to know we still have aspirations we started with the first day.
Lou: What made you want to release the “Deu Anys Vers la Foscor” DVD? I feel I must also congratulate you on an impressive looking DVD. The filming, editing and even the packaging was absolutely perfect. Spot on!
Falke: Thanks for your words, was a really hard work completely made by ourselves. The idea appeared during the tour with our brothers “VIDRES A LA SANG”, working on a DVD with both bands’ material, and commemorate the tour and the effort done. Finally with some problems with their Live Recording and their dissolution, we though that to commemorate our 10 years from the first promo release and close the chapter the split up with Wilhkiem supposed would be the best way to use such an interesting stuff.
Fiar: Related with the problems I commented you in the first answer, before Wilhkiem’s split, the band was living a convulse period… adapting each member rhythm to the band, and it to each member… I think it was a sudden process to mature, with very few gigs and a so calmed activity. So, after Wilhkiem’s departure, the DVD came to us as the best idea to become visible again, and close this chapter we have enjoyed a lot, but we want to leave behind and look for the next step. The DVD should have to be worked in the best way that could be possible to commemorate a period very important in our lives with the band, and it was the reason trying to release it by ourselves and finally with the co-edition with Darkwoods ( the new label of a very closed friend ) as their first release. If the result of the packaging can be read with the passion we worked it… we got it!!
Lou: Does the DVD feature a whole gig, or were there parts of your set that have been omitted on this occasion? What kind of feedback have you received for the DVD so far?
Fiar: The DVD shows the whole set list we played in that show, but we decided to cut the speeches among tracks mainly cause a we suffered some technical problems with lights and sound ( we had to repeat one song, for example, during the show ), we though would be much more interesting to show just the important things. The people whom were there for sure will remember the sense and feeling of it all… it was special… The rest of the DVD content, the commemorative part just was worked to share with the audience a little part of what a band like us can live out there and during the different seasons. In some way, it was the tool we had to show how people around there have participated in the band’s path.
About the feedback… well, as we have not promoted it as the rest of albums, it has been sold mainly in Spain, during the gigs… we know without a promotional campaign an edition can’t arrive out there as a normal release under a label with economical resources. We are not as interesting and visible to the eyes of people as we would like, that’s the truth. Anyway, everybody who has got it, consider it a very interesting piece of Foscor’s history…we are so glad.
Lou: Now that you’ve closed the chapter on this incarnation of Foscor, what are your plans? I read on your website that a fourth album is on the cards. Are you able to tell us anything about it or is it too early for that?
Falke: Yes, the real intention is to start a new era and we are working on that. We have a lot of ideas to include in the new album but we want to work it slowly to find the best way to combine everything on a new language that could bring us to another musical and artistic step. So, yes, we are working really hard to make a special album.
Fiar: there are plans to work not only in the 4th album, but in a 3 Way Split CD which will be announced soon… to be released as part of the new era. Surely after summer we will be spreading some songs to search a new label to work with, and hopefully on late 2012 we will be entering the Studio again. It’s too early to speak about labels, dates, etc… because when a band have to set a new landscape of collaborators (label, design, etc…) the themes have to worked with calm and no hurry. Anyway, we have 6 songs closed, and first lyrical and concept ideas are growing with a lot of strength. We can advance that the new Foscor material will suppose a change on the language… we feel it in that way. Anyway the sense of the music I’m sure will keep near us all the people whom has enjoyed the way we have approached music to emotional darkness. All will be accompanied with a strong visual side, and for sure will mean the first door opened into a new Foscor’s period.
Lou: Will the new album follow the musical direction you took on “Groans to the Guilty” (straight-forward, traditional-ish song structures) or the more progressive direction that can be found on “The Smile of the Sad Ones”? Or will it be a mixture of the two? Or something else entirely? (Sorry, I’m excited about the prospect of a new Foscor album now… you must give me details!)
Falke: I think that the new album will be really different than the others, but with the essence of Foscor. We start with the idea of break our self-mental barriers and try to use new ways to compose, and we are finding new feelings, structures and rhythms that fit perfectly with our musical and artistic concept and feed the darkness inside of it.
Fiar: I’m agree with Falke… I think the new album can’t be described as a mixture or a continuation of any other thing we have done in the past. Dense, dynamic and emotive music is our law, and considering what we have composed ‘til now we are sure that will work out perfectly for the shows. We needed to break it all out, we are composing with a different care over each song… there are rhythms that seems to be not allowed now to enter in our music, and new ones are making it all flow. Musically is more complex, and requires more technical quality playing… but there is no nonsense innovative moments. We could resume that as a new equilibrium among our tools and resources… not as evident and direct as we feel it have been before. We still have to develop many aspects, and personally I need to go 100 steps ahead from what I’m now with vocal resources… but everything is starting to get stronger than ever. There is not much time to lose in the life with unfinished drawings, so be sure the new album will not have sweet meaning, and will not care about anything else than to create something unique.
Lou: Will you be releasing the album yourselves, or will you do it through a label?
Fiar: The idea is to look for a new label to work with in a proper way than in the past. We need support of course, concerning promotion and infrastructure… but it’s true that as the music industry is now, sometimes we feel to work all by ourselves ( or each band… ) could be the future. Anyway, considering the efforts we all have to do keeping alive the live presence, promotion, and other things that makes the band grow daily, the support of a label that could understand the product we can offer, is very important to continue advancing. We know now that apart from the 4th album, we will participate in a 3 way split special release which hopefully we will announce during the next weeks with the responsible label.
Lou: The statement on your website has also got me excited about your contribution to a tribute to Enslaved album. Are you able to tell us anything about this? Do you know which other bands have contributed to it? When will it be available to buy?
Fiar: It is so near to be released. Pictonian Records announced recently the date, closing summer’s solstice as the release day. The Tribute is an Official one, under the approval of Enslaved, and joins 20 bands to cover songs from the first to the last album. We cover “Return to Yggdrasil” from the album “Isa”. This is the track list composing the 2 Cds forthcoming edition, with cover artwork from David Thiérrée in closed collaboration with the band members:
CD 1:
01 – ODEM ARCARUM : Convoys to Nothingness (Monumension)
02 – ISLAND : A Monument part III : Floating Diversity (Monumension)
03 – BELENOS : Hordalendingen (Eld)
04 – WODENSTHRONE : Slaget i Skogen Bortenfor (Hordanes Land)
05 – FEN : Resound of Gjallahorn (Yggdrasil)
06 – WOLVES OF AVALON : Essence (Ruun)
07 – DARKENHOLD : Allfadr Odin (Hordanes Land)
08 – ANGANTYR : Eit Auga Til Mimir (Blodhemn)
09 – RIBOZYME : To the Coast (Vertebrae)
10 – AS LIGHT DIES : As fire Swept Clean the Earth (Below the Lights)
CD 2:
01 – DORDEDUH : Ruun (Ruun)
02 – KRAKOW : Center (Vertebrae)
03 – FOSCOR : Return to Yggdrasil (Isa)
04 – REVERENCE : Path to Vanir (Ruun)
05 – LUX DIVINA : Loke (Frost)
06 – STAGNANT WATERS : Større enn Tid – Tyngre enn Natt (Mardraum)
07 – VREID : Lunar Force (Isa)
08 – ASMODEE : Hollow Inside (Monumension)
09 – ANGMAR : Midgards Eldar (Vikingligr Veldi)
10 – JANVS : 793 Slaget om Lindinsgarne (Eld)
It’s just a matter of 2 weeks and it will be available from the label and each band.
Lou: Are you big Enslaved fans yourselves? Which other bands do you enjoy listening to?
Fiar: Enslaved is one of the few examples of how a pioneer during the great Norwegian 90’s days, with a so solid propose and language, can transform and reinvent their music searching for not copy themselves ‘till the market could be bored of them. They have always showed an honest music and attitude, and this is the reason to keep there on the top for 20 years with as many interesting albums. Can be easy to use a well known form of music, if it makes you get results… but, don’t you think it is the part of the reason to live nowadays an oversaturated moment of nonsense proposes? I have never bet for innovation freely, but to repeat what once was done have sense in little doses. Once you live and feel an emotion from a band, scene or period… why to copy it is what deserves the bigger attention? There are many interesting bands trying to reach new levels, which seem to don’t exist. Enslaved not only still existing… it continues being pioneer and to have the chance to take part in a Tribute of an example, just can be described as an honor.
Lou: I suppose the thing that really draws me to your music is the idea that you highlight the idea that there’s real beauty in darkness. This really hit me with “The Smile of the Sad Ones” (the album that is responsible for me discovering you), but it’s something that runs through all of your albums so far. Is this an atmosphere that you intentionally set out to create? Also, are there any other themes running through your music (be they lyrically or in terms of atmosphere)?
Fiar: How humanity conceives the Fear, how to assume the duality Life and Death… and how everything make each individual feel the beauty comes as the main source of lyrical inspiration. The emotional palette is so large to be described here… there’s no a real need to develop depressive or evil moments. Darkness is an excuse, like a filter to make all the emotions cross for. Often the most hard emotions come with doubts about the human behavior… these are dense moments for a person, trying to face difficult moments upfront or control joyful ones. I think all this density is the most important thing we try to print in our music, then after, it’s up to each one to feel it in one or another way.
Lou: Where do you get your inspiration from?
Fiar: There are moments in my life that serve to make grow an interest, and idea… a feeling… Something you know that has to be developed and explained. Musically talking it’s true that all the different music we listen, styles, ideas, resources comes to be part of our mental hard disk… and in some way our needs to be comfortable with something redirects these references into our music to compose Foscor’s each album. This music lets us learn about the motion and emotion that define us in a certain moment… then, these apparitions walking in the street, reading, talking, listening, gives concept to what just can be felt at first. Later all the artwork and lyrical process looks for the coherence with what we have inside and the music to let people understand a little part of us.
Lou: I know this is a bit like asking a parent to choose their favourite child, but I’m mean, so… Which Foscor song are you most proud of and why? My current favourite is possibly “…I Tornà De Les Cendres”, but this is likely to change depending on my mood… Oh, or “Life’s Death Code” (I told you it was likely to change!).
Falke: Is really difficult to choose one song, like you, it depends of the day, I don’t know, maybe “Searching a Seal of Pain” to listen, and “In Case the Seasons Break” to play it.
Fiar: I feel something different concerning that question. I have enjoyed a lot each album, and given the best in all of them…which now are like a resume of a specific moment of our lives… like the chapters of our book. There are songs which for some reason are very important, but has not enough presence in our daily walk. Songs like “Entrance to the Shadows’ Village” or “The Spear and the Spectre” could be perfect to learn about our evolution deeply. But… facing a new period, and knowing a bit how the new album will speak of us… I would think on which songs we will continue playing ‘till the end of our days across all the chapters as the best way to share with the audience the emotion we search, I’m sure “The Smile of the Sad Ones” and “Searching a Seal of Pain” will forever be in the list.
Lou: While I’m on the subject, are there any particular lyrics that you’re especially proud of?
Fiar: This is a question surely for me… I can’t speak about a lyric from a writing point of view. I see them always as part of the Vocal instrument, and not as the tool to explain something. It is true that I write about themes and develop ideas… but it’s the feeling that sets the order there. There are 2 songs I enjoy a lot on stage or at the rehearsals: “The Other’s Voice” from the 7” split with Necrosadist, and “Melangia”, from our last full length… first one in English and second in my tongue…
Lou: An easier question now! Are you touring at the moment? As great as it is to have Foscor playing in my living room (via the DVD, of course!) it’s much better to see you in the flesh? Do you have any plans to come to the UK?
Fiar: We have been playing mainly in Spain during last year… trying to make some dates to celebrate the 10th Anniversary. We have had the pleasure to play in the last Aurora Infernalis Fest in The Netherlands, as well as the Nihil Extreme Metal Fest in Italy, the Bloodwave Metal Fest in France or the SWR Barroselas Metal Fest XV in Portugal, but we don’t think could be possible to come again to the UK until we have new stuff on the table. As soon as a new album could be released… our main focus will be again to search for Live Dates and some Tour that could let us cross Europe. Be sure we will be there again soon or later…
Lou: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. It has been a pleasure to be bombarding you with questions! Do you have any messages for the readers of Loucifer Speaks?
Falke: Thank you for your interest and care on our work.
Fiar: Pleased to be here again Louise… you know how much we appreciate all your support. Hopefully next time we can share these words face to face. Together in Darkness…
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