Translated by Duzl, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Ave ESKHATON! Greetings on the other side of the globe to Australia. I admit that I heard about your band for the first time thanks to the Czech label Lavadome. How did it all happen that you got together? If I can ask you to present your band to Czech readers.
Hails from the underworld, ESKHATON is psychotic bestial Death Metal of absolute chaos and total fucking death. Lavadome has been in contact with us since the debut ‘Nihilgoety' and has been a big supporter of the band and shares with us the values of madness darkness and savagery.
You play totally nihilistic death metal. This is exactly the kind of inferno that listeners really mess up their nerve and auditory canal. How did you get to this style? Did you pass as musicians other styles of music? Did you play in other bands? Who actually influenced you at the beginning?
We will always become more intense more insane we are possessed by the spirit of total death and chaos has no limits, we always played savage and the demons fire within is released. We have many early influences MORBID ANGEL, BESTIAL WARLUST / CORPSE MOLESTATION, SADISTIK EXEKUTION, IMPALED NAZARENE – Tol Crompt Norz Norz Norz, POSSESSED – Seven Churches, early SEPULTURA, and many more.
Let's go to your novel "Omegalitheos". It is 52 minutes of total annihilation. I admit that I did not finish the album for the first listening. It seemed too wild and non-absorbable. To be able to write a review, I had to come back several times and really listen to it. It's a very complicated and inaccessible music. Do you have any feedback from listeners, fans? The length of the album is really killer!
We have received a lot of positive feedback and greater reach with ‘Omegalitheos’.
The first thing that hit me literally is the great cover from Daemorph (Andriy Tkalenko). I cannot find much about him on the Internet except he plays bass in the Russian band GROND. Please introduce him to us. How did you get together, why did you choose his work? Did you choose from his already created works or did Daemorph paint the cover directly for you? Did he hear your album for inspiration?
We chose to use Daemorph for the cover art because his work is amazing and evil, we looked through his previous works and knew he could draw, yes he did draw this artwork, like a maniac possessed and he used digital work for his colour work. Daemorph’s cover matches the brutality of ‘Omegalitheos' and his detail is impressive, Daemorph created for us exactly what we wanted, I gave him the concept for the cover with the key details needed and a rough version of the lyrics to the album. He had already listened to our previous work and welcomed the change of always being asked by Brutal Death Metal bands, and to get more darker work done.
"Omegalitheos" has a very good, very dark sound, Adam Calaitzis is signed under this album, why did you choose him? how was the recording process with Adam?
We have recorded with Adam at Toyland for every release so far. We did things a bit different with this album and we recorded in Analog which gave Adam more to do and that was all transferred into his computer. The recording process is always experimental or every release will sound the same. We aim to ‘out heavy’ our previous work.
How long have you been preparing songs for "Omegalitheos"? Between „Worship Death“ and the last album have gone four years. This is not so long, but it is said that the band should release the album after two years, because then it "is not out of the eye" (at least that's what the big labels say). How do you create a new material like a band?
Writing tracks for ‘Omegalitheos’ began in 2013, and was mostly written by 2015 in a rough form. Hammerkill left the band and Militiarkh joined on drums with the intent to increase the intensity of previous work he immediately fit the role and we finished writing the album and began recording December 2016. By the time all artwork for the album was complete (there is a lot of artwork from 3 different artists, Daemorph, Alex Tartsus and Nether Temple Design) was just before 2018 and some promotion was then needed pushing the release to mid 2018. Either a riff is written and shown to the band or riffs are made at rehearsal, mainly riffs are written and shown to the band and sometimes then altered by the band with suggestions. We all know what we are creating so when ideas are made they are normally used, if not they are used for another riff.
As I mentioned, the new album is a total inferno burned onto a music medium. This is a real extreme for death metal. What I watch your scene is not an exception. For example IGNIVOMOUS, PORTAL, IMPETOUS RITUAL. All bands in your country play on the edge of "tolerability". You are trying to move the style into even greater darkness and evil. There is no accumulation of so many crazy bands in any other country. How do you explain that? I wonder how the Australian underground works? From what roots did you grow up?
The Aussie underground has had many extreme heavy bands that are raw and uncompromising and that is part of an Aussie attitude in metal, savage heavy intense extreme and raw. Cunts go to shows, cunts form bands. There is a good amount of heavy crazy bands as you say here but there is a lot of pussy bands too, it might be more focussed here on the insane death bands but we still have wimp metal here like anywhere else in the world. Only those with the fire within will make psychotic madness, Its not like some melodic metal band from Australia will or even want to make a savage and dark album. It all comes from the artists will.
And what about concerts, festivals? Do you have anything in Australia at all? Now I do not mean a commercial event, but a good underground.
There are a few underground small fests & many local shows to attend and also the international acts that come here is a big deal for Aussies as they are bands you can’t see very often or never again.
How much people go to your shows? How do they perceive your music? Nothing against you, but somehow I cannot imagine a crowd of girls fans who will not let you go out of the stage. For that kind of music going more gourmands who can appreciate all the complexity, brutality and chaos.
Cunts get into it live, as long as they bang their heads! The woman love it they scream so loud you can’t hear the music just screams and moaning as they masturbate and cry uncontrollably when we leave.
This year you played at the BRUTAL ASSAULT festival. How did you enjoy the performance? Have you been to Europe for the first time? What about some bigger tour?
BRUTAL ASSAULT FEST was the best festival we have ever attended let alone played. We had a few minor issues that occurred with our sound but other than that it all killed! We also played the BRUTAL ASSAULT AFTER PARTY show which ran without issue. It was our first journey to Europe and we will return 2019. A bigger tour will eventually occur.
What about plans of ESKHATON to the upcoming months? Can we look forward to seeing you at some concert in Czech Republic?
We are returning for some more Europe shows, at least one in Czech 2019. In the next month’s we are writing new material for a split album to be released by Lavadome 2019. Once we have written the split material we will continue writing and begin the next album.
Thank you for the interview and wish you a good sales of your records, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of good ideas.
Total fucking Death.
