Interview with black death metalovou band MALLEPHYR.
Answered Opat.
- translated by Markéta, thank you!
- translated by Markéta, thank you!
Ave
MALLEPHYR! Your last year´s album “Assailing the Holy” has been
released a while ago. There are the first review and you play those
songs live. I haven´t read or heard any negative review. (Or is
there any? If so, what does it say?) How do you feel about the record
after a while?
Hello
Deadly Storm. I have not noticed any negative responses but as I have
said before not many people directly share their negative opinions
with interprets. There are of course some negative responses and that
is how it is supposed to be. But so far all the reviews were
surprisingly positive.
Now, I
can´t imagine to record the album differently. It was created in a
certain mood and at that time it was natural result. There will be a
lot of changes on the next project, however “Assailing the Holy”
is the result of the former sentiment.
You
were born from the underground and you succeeded in something amazing
which is not ordinary in the Czech Republic. People know you and your
brand has been honestly built up. Although your band is in its
beginnings and there will be a lot of hard work, you are noticeable.
There are bands which are known only after 10 years of playing or
never. Do you have any advice for beginners?
Well,
you are not asking the right guy. Firstly, we are beginners because
we have been playing live for 2 and a half years. Secondly, I cannot
really understand how MALLEPHYR made it so far. I don´t think there
is something like an instruction what to do when you want to be
successful. You have to focus on something more than just an
immediate success but rather your own vision which you want to go.
And you as a band need to follow this vision even if you do not have
a lot of listeners. That was my philosophy when I went for MALLEPHYR:
to compose and play what I need to get out of myself, do it properly,
in my own way and constantly work on myself. The reactions were so
unexpected and I think I appreciate it even more thanks to the moment
of surprise.
You
decided to go with Mad Lion Records label which is very solid Polish
publishing. You probably have the highest sells of CDs in the Czech
Republic, however did the label help you to go with MALLEPHYR abroad?
Do you have any statistics on how your CDs are doing? And what about
digital format?
I am
not sure about abroad but at least in Poland for sure. First of all,
Przemek organize various events there and he also does promo for
MALLEPHYR. Thanks to him we have played in Poland four times already.
I have no idea how many albums have we sold already. We received some
packages with CDs from Mad lion after the releasing and we only know
how many of those have we sold. I hope that Przemek does not regret
that he decided to work with unknown band and that from time to time
there is someone who wants our CD:).
We also have the digital version which is available right now. There
was some delays but it should be OK now and available on some
e-services (like Spotify). Unfortunately, “Assailing the Holy”
will not be on Bandcamp.
I
really appreciate one particular thing on your band. It does not
matter for how many people you play, hundred or twenty, you always
play hard and do a perfect performance. There were no bored faces,
which you can find on some concerts, but you had the total commitment
and energy. How often do you play in rehearsal room and do you think
about how your shows should look like?
I am
so glad you said that. For me, it does not matter for how many people
you play you still have to do your best. Even when you have 5 fans on
a concert, the exchange of energy can be great.
The
visiting of rehearsal room is more irregular and it depends on how
much concerts do we have or if we need to work on a song. It can be
once in two weeks or in month, or even longer. When we play concerts
more weeks in a row, there is no need to be in a rehearsal room.
Our
shows are not shaped, just the basic things like the clothing we have
on the stage. But we changed it a little bit because it looks like
there is nothing else than a black hoodie in Pilsen´s shops:).
But we don´t have any choreography because during the concert we
would probably forget it because we are like in a trance.
Your
music is somewhere between death and black metal. Listeners of both
genres have often very strong preferences, they might be even
orthodox, I would say. Who does the larger response for your band?
I
think that the orthodoxy between black and death metal is not as
strong as it used to be. At least I don´t really see it. Thus, I
can´t really answer this question. I feel that we are a little bit
closer to black metal but, as I said, I don´t have any overview
about the music preferences of our fans. Sometimes, a person comes to
us after a show and says: I don´t really listen to black metal or
death metal” and yet he/she enjoyed the show. I believe that
putting fans in those “shells” has now passed. And most
importantly it does not really matter.
Your
lyrics are directed against religion. That is quite tricky thing in
today´s world. I wonder, how do you write your lyrics? Opat, where
do you find topics inspiration for your lyrics?
I
would slightly change it. There are only like two songs from
“Assailing…” which are directly anti-religious and even those
are more directed against human fanaticism and delusion than against
religion as a whole (in general, nothing like this has a space in our
music and not in response to the current political and religious
situation). For “Assailing…” the main inspiration came from
several books which I was reading at that time and also from the
whole entity of the evil around us aka humankind. This topic will be
more developed in the next album.
You
play on concerts quite often and sometimes those trips are really
long. I feel that our opinion will be the same – Nowadays, it is
important to bring the music right in front of people´s faces to
have the personal contact with fans. Yet, sometimes I wonder…hundreds
of kilometres cost some money and then you play just for a few
people. How do you manage to balance the band with school, work and
playing in other bands? Opat and Sinneral are probably really busy in
other bands, right?
It´s
not just us bringing the music to them, it works in both ways. The
fans go to see us in other cities. You are one of them:).
Moreover, in comparison with other bands, we do not travel that much.
So far we have travelled only 8 hours by car and that is it.
Sometimes
it´s difficult to balance those things, that is true. So far we have
not had many collisions. From time to time we can´t play on a
concert for various reasons or we solved it differently. The concert
activity of MALLEPHYR is increasing so it is possible that those
problems will be more frequent but let´s not jinks it. We want to
play as much as possible and we submit everything to it.
Speaking
about concerts there is one thing I have realized. There are ladies,
girls, and female on your concerts. I understand that – you smile a
lot and you are young, nice and dark at the same time:).
Once I have even heard about your fan club. Does it really exist?
Just tell me how can a black/death metal band charm soft sex?
Hahahaha,
you´ve made me laughed. Are you talking about a female fan club? I
know nothing about this. Adam (guitarist) goes to the gym a lot so if
there is something like a fan club, it must be because of him, or I
don´t know:).
In fact, I believe that ladies on concerts go to there because of the
music. They can listen to this music, why not? Additionally, I don´t
think that we have more ladies fans than other bands in this music
genre. I believe that it is only about music…I doubt that ladies go
to black or death metal concerts to see asses of sweaty maniacs on
stage:).
I
do not want to just compliment you all the time so I would like to
ask a little less cordially. I prefer your songs which are dirtier,
rougher and rusty. There is only one thing which I would criticize
and that is the sound. For the music you play I think it would be
much suitable to have more chaotic and frenetic production. I feel
that the new album is on an imaginary “crossroads”. You go either
the way of dirtiness or the way of clear and well-arranged sound. How
is it now for MALLEPHYR? Which way do you want to go?
I am
perfectly satisfied with the final production of this album. It is
true that on “Assailing…” the way we went was more on the
clearer sound. But for me that is the most suitable for those songs.
I do not believe that those songs are too inaccessible and the sound
goes hand in hand with it. So for me it is not a crossroad but it was
something most suitable and natural at that moment (just as the whole
album which I described at the beginning).
And
because songs for the next album will be different from the debut
album the production will be different also. And we will not follow
the cleaner road…
Are
you preparing any new material now? Do you compose, have a vision,
when do you want to record and publish a new album?
We
already have some material done for the next project and as I said
before it will be quite different form the debut. Yet, MALLEPHYR will
remain the black/death metal intentions. We also have an idea about
the recording dates but so far we want to leave it open. There will
be a lot of work and we have some experiences with constant delaying
a release of an album so we do not want to set any deadlines.
Have
you already set up any concerts and festivals for the spring and
summer? I would like to have a survey so the fans can really enjoy
your music.
We
played a lot of concerts on February and we also went to Austria,
Slovakia and we played two times in Poland. So after this there will
be not that many things happening. We have a concert March 18th
in Prague for the MetalGate brand before the Greek trio ROTTING
CHRIST, ACHERONTAS and HAIL SPIRIT NOIR and also with the doom band
SELF-HATRED from Pilsen. Two weeks after we will play in Tábor on a
classic and very nice event Žižkův vraždící palcát. The next
event is on April 22nd
in Jičín, etc. And now about the festivals: we confirmed one very
nice event which we have never played before on but that is all I can
say right now. Unfortunately the summer is quite empty but we have
some plans for autumn.
Thank
you so much for the interview. I wish MALLEPHYR only sold out
concerts, tons of sold CDs and merchandise and I am looking forward
to see you on your concerts. And I also wish you luck in your
personal life!
Thank
you for your interesting questions and for the support since the
beginning of our band. Good luck with your blog and everything.
Thanks!
