Interview - CONGENITAL ANOMALIES - The concept of the new album "Misconception" is based on duality and ambivalence of human personality. ~ DEADLY STORM zine

Interview with Czech brutal death metal band CONGENITAL ANOMALIES.

Answered Wajt.

Translated by Markéta, děkujeme!

Recenze/review - CONGENITAL ANOMALIES - Misconception (2017)

Ave CONGENITAL ANOMALIES! You released your second long-played album “Misconception” in March. There is another one called “Human Embryonic Mutilation” (2014). When you compare those two, are there any differences between them? I am sure that you try to develop your band, to create new riffs and upgrade the sound.

Wajt: Hi, Jakub! I see the main difference in the fact that the debut was done by Jaro-VytahFetus. I was a fresh member of the band right before the recording so I just added some harmonies and solos to finished songs. The new album was composed by the 3 of us which makes the album better. Overall, I would say that we wanted to create something more colourful than the album “Human Embryonic Mutilation” – we just wanted to put a little bit more death metal to our music.

“Misconception” has been released for a while now. Do you have any feedbacks and reviews? What about fans and critics? Do those songs work on live concerts?

Wajt: The reactions have been very positive so far but the album was released just a month ago. We think that there will be more reviews and there might be some more critical ones. There was a good feedback from our listeners and the new songs work nicely on concerts so there will be some “misconception” songs on our setlist.

What I really like on this album is the sound. It is raw and at the same time readable. It is uncompromising but the melodies and ideas do not extinguish. Where did you record? Who did the mixing and mastering?

Wajt: We have our drummer so we don´t have to deal with any expensive record studio. Today´s audio programs are magical. Personally I think that for a band like us it is enough to record clear guitar lines at home and then send it to a professional who knows how to do reamp and the overall mix. For us it was Tiago Correia – drummer from ANALEPSY (Portugal) and I think he did a really good job for nice amount of money.

How do CONGENITAL ANOMALIES compose new songs? How is the whole process going? Who is the author of your music?

Wajt: Most of our music is done by VytahFetus. Then I develop his ideas for second guitar and I play with the drums. However, I put some of my own things on the new album. But there are changes in base parts on the new album and they are done by our new member Petr (MINORITY SOUND). Unfortunately he came to us when the album was already done so you can hear my doubtful bass on the album.

Who is the author of your lyrics? What are the lyrics about? Where do you find inspiration?

Wajt: The lyrics are done by our vocalist Jaro who would do a better answer for this. I thing that the new songs, although they still fits to our genre borders, are more worked out and are not that superficial, or someone might say “more psychological”. The album´s concept is based on duality and ambivalence of human personality. It might sound like a cliché but lyrics should correspond with the content of the music. Brutal death band cannot play this kind of music and at the same time sing about lying on a sunny beach. That would seem absurd, at least.

This album was released by Czech Nice to Eat You Records. How did you become a team and are you satisfied with their work? I think that label is a very important thing these days. People can hear about you everywhere. How was the cooperation? Did Vláďa Prokoš tell you how you should sound? There might be some problem because of this between label and band.

Wajt: We have started to work with NTEY before I joined the band, in March 2014. I think that Vláďa was interested about our promo which was recorded by members of the band a few months before. I have to fully agree that having a label is very important. Vláďa helped us a lot, at least at the beginning – he organized a very nice events for us abroad where we managed to have some important contacts and also a nice amount of new fans. In case of the final product, Vláďa keeps us free. We have an absolute freedom at this. We can say that the cooperation between us is “free”.

Let´s look back again…What was the main impulse for founding a band? Why did you chose brutal death metal? That is not the kind of music which would bring you “big fame”.

Wajt: Jaro and VytahFetus founded the band just for fun. They wanted to play a genre which they liked and they had no goals in this industry. So there was no reason for thinking about “fame” or what is “in style”. For me, it was the same – I was also only interested about having fun. However, this kind of music is quite popular, at least in our western neighbours. It is a wave which is slightly passing and there will be something new in the fore, soon.

Death metal is so extreme that there is not many fans. Bands then have to go abroad to make themselves more noticeable. Do you plan any abroad concerts? Have you tried to contact any abroad label? Do you want to be more known in the international scale?

Wajt: We have played a lot abroad and there are also some concerts for this year outside the Czech Republic. I like to play in Germany and Switzerland where slam and brutal death are quite popular which is reflected in the attendance and also in the selling of our merchandise. It is good to take advantages of the possibilities we live in. There are no borders for bands so everyone can travel around the world to play their music.

You play a lot of concerts which is not a common thing for Czech bands. You are from Prague and I would like to know your point of view. I feel like there are some places where people go a lot of concerts but also places where there is almost nobody on a concert. Where do CONGENITAL ANOMALIES like to play and where is the best attendance on concerts? And also where you do not want to play again?

Wajt: For me, it´s always about organizers. There are some who always do a great events. On the other hand there are famous people who we do not want to work again with. We like to play in Brno where we have a lot of fans. But there is always good concert in Děčín or Olomouc. Prague is different. There is definitely higher potential in fans but there is an enormous competition in events. It is common that there are two or even more similarly oriented concerts in Prague in one day. And that influences the attendance of concerts. People do not have enough time nor money.

Let´s talk a little bit more about your lyrics…there is a lot of violence, pornography, sex and these kinds of issues in your lyrics. That might shock or discourage people. Have you ever experienced being abandoned from playing or someone has not wanted to sell your CDs and so on?

Wajt: Lyrics is very important in this kind of music. Many bands do not even have lyrics. They just thematically illustrate the music. And unfortunately, you can tell. But extreme needs extreme. I would like to emphasize that having lyrics about violence does not mean to adore violence. Fortunately, in the Czech Republic the situation of censorship is fine (in case of selecting promoters). The freedom of expression is quite high here and although there are some tendencies to cancel it and various excesses – for example one ROOT´s concert was cancelled in Valašsko, when you compare this situation to other countries, it is fine. For example, last year was cancelled our concert in Germany because the organizers did not like our name. They thought it was too sexist. And I am just thinking if they even know English.

Nowadays, people like to download albums online and they just use the digital form of music. How do you feel about this issue? I would like to know your point of view as a musician.

Wajt: Music is not my job and I don´t have any ambitions to ear great amount of money by playing in this band. And I understand that people who do this as a job have a different opinion. I am not a professional so my opinion is quite benevolent in case of downloading music. I know that most people who download an album would be OK with never even listen to it or buy it, ever. So this is the way how they at least listen to it and they might like it and go on a concert and buy merch or something. Of course we want to thank to the ones who buy our CDs in physical form and they support us by this. The interest is actually quite nice. Our debut has been sold out for a while.

What kind of music do you listen as a band? Are there any albums which have caught your attention recently and not only in the Czech Republic?

Wajt: I do not listen to that much slam. I like technical death metal and I am quite interested in black metal currently. In case of the Czech Republic I would like to point out – EP LIQUIED SPACE 9 but I have been listening for the past two years the last album by HEAVING EARTH which is for me the best death metal album eve published in the Czech Republic.

What are CONGENITAL ANOMALIES´s plans for the next few months?

Wajt: There is a lot of concerts – Frankfurt Deathfest or Ranger Rock Festival in Germany. We are also happy with people suggesting other possibilities and festivals/concerts but also some suggestions for a drummer. We would love to have a great drummer in our band.