Interview with technical death metal band GODLESS TRUTH.
Answered Švany, Bizzaro, Adam, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Ave GODLESS TRUTH! Greetings to Olomouc. It would be appropriate to welcome you back at the beginning. Although you have released a split, an EP and a CD single since 2004, it’s this year you’re coming back with a full-length album. Please refresh our memories, why did ti take you so long? And why did you slow down your activities?
Švany: Hi Kubo, greetings to all Deadly Storm Zine fans and readers.
It’s easy. Internal differences in the band, both personal and musical issues, it all meant that we could no longer create or work together. The break was more than necessary. We had no idea where it would lead and for how long.
GODLESS TRUTH are a completely different band today. The only original member is Petr (Švancara - guitars). Has the way you approach composing changed? As for me, I feel the old spirit in the new album, but it’s been such a long time that many people will not even remember those times. Nevertheless, I find GT lighter, fresher, more melodic. Was that a purpose?
Švany: Nothing has changed. You know, it’s more about wanting to make music with people you get along with in a band. We wrote the songs the way we felt. It actually went pretty fast on its own.
Our return started with my work in Dissolution and a chance meeting with Petr Mikeš (drums). We agreed on a rehearsal together to see if the so-called chemistry between us would work. And it just went brilliant. We added Jakub (Grunt-bass), who actually was the last GT bass player. The problem was with the cast of the second guitar. We tried about 3 guitarists, but in the end I approached a talented young man from Dissolution, Ondřej (Černobila-guitars). The former singer refused to participate in new GT. So I asked my longtime friend Adam (B. Sychrow-vocals), a singer from Hazydecay, if he would sing a single for us. He named it "Fortune Time” later on. It turned out great and according to our ideas. So I offered him a permanent position as a GT frontman, and he accepted.
And precisely because we are a bunch of different musicians with a similar feeling, and still under my leadership, it is still GT! I would say with the years of experience, this is a return to our roots with fresh ideas.
You started and you remember the time all the game was different. There was no internet, no social networks, metal music was more in, so to speak. We can remember nostalgically, but we have to accept that everything has changed a lot. Did you approach composing, creating a new record differently? We have new technologies, recording studios are equipped differently, etc. How do you perceive these changes as a musician?
Švany: You're right, everything used to be handled by post or landline. Arranging concerts, contact with bands, promoters, zines, etc. took longer. It's better today, more agile and faster. And this also applies to studio recording. The equipment is at a higher level. There are many possibilities. You record drums in a studio here, guitars there and everywhere, and vocals at home, or another way. You still have the opportunity to intervene in the recording until the last moment. We used to spend 7-10 days together in the studio, for example, and everything had to be done, including mixing and mastering. Currently, you take the recording home in digital format and send it for mixing over the Internet anywhere abroad.
Let's get to the new album. I personally like it a lot. I appreciate that you are technical and progressive, but you have also kept the animalism, if you know what I mean. For example, sometimes I’m kind of scared by the current trend of some bands to play as quickly as possible, complicating the most complicated. I stand before the stage and I don't understand what they are playing. I'm bored, it doesn't have that drive I want, the balls. They also have plastic production. You avoided all these things. I give a lot to the great sound, created by Joe Haley from Psycroptic. Why him? And what demands did you address him with?
Švany: We are glad that you like the album. We think it is accessible for more listeners, there was no need to fly on the sleepers. But as I said, it went out from us this way.
After listening to Psycroptic's album "As The Kingdom Drowns", we agreed that production by their guitarist Joe Haley (and his Crawlspace Productions) could throw the sound of GT in the right direction, the way we wanted to go with the "new" GT. When Joey sent us the first idea, the two-way regular communication began and after a few (or rather more) adjustments, the result can be heard on the album.
I like bands that don't underestimate anything, that they want to give their fans a comprehensive work. The cover art by Nauseaimage (MMiller) is powerful in one word! Why him and what is the motive to represent exactly?
Švany: In fact, the original cover art was supposed to be different. But Kunal (head of Transcending Obscurity Records - album publisher) convinced us of the need to change it. We were given a choice of a few visual artists, and we liked the work of really amazing Marcos Miller (Nauseaimage). Singer Adam highlighted the main motifs in the lyrics on which the theme of the cover was to be based, and we went for it. You can see the result for yourself, and when you read the lyrics, it's all in that picture.
Bizzaro: I would add that we will definitely use the original art made by Dahlien, as we’re using the design on our live show stage banner, and that the final one from Marcos Miller was not created right away, because the first sketches displayed our thoughts a little differently than we wanted. But when he came up with the final form of a humanity-enslaving god / entity, as you can see on the album art, we just had to sit down to breathe it out.
In most bands, though it’s not the rule, the singer writes the lyrics. What about you? Did Adam write them? And what are they about? Where did he get his inspiration for?
Adam: Oh, I'm so glad you're asking. Sometimes I get the impression that the lyrics in this musical style are a bit sideways. Yes, I wrote the lyrics. Writing for a band like GT, I couldn't even imagine interpreting someone else's lyrics. There are many emotions to express, too many thoughts to scream going in my mind. And lyrics for songs are the way I love to get rid of them.
When I wrote "Fortune Time" as a single, I didn't know I would continue writing songs of GT, and not at all where I would head with other lyrics. We didn't write the songs to create a concept album, but in the end all the songs are connected by the idea of deep hatred, pain, philosophy of life and death, fear and contempt. Life itself inspired me, there's never a shortage of inspiration in real life. And when I finally put it together, I realized that I had just written kind of a mythology book of hatred for myself.
The last time I saw you it was in Prague in 2019, when you were supporting MONSTROSITY. I must admit, I'm a little skeptical of returns like yours, but you literally wiped my eyes. It was a massacre! I'd like to see you again, but there are not so many shows you give?
Bizzaro: The praise is starting to accumulate here :) Thank you. I’m also glad that you enjoy the record and that GT live got you. This line-up pretty much reflects how the band works.
We also enjoyed the concert with Monstrosity, and in fact it wasn't even the first one in common, just a pity for those "bought" backing bands for the tour, the package didn't make sense.
Godless Truth no longer play gigs as it used to be. There are several reasons, and we don’t take the two-year Covid period now. You know, we are older and we don't have to play everywhere every weekend, some of us are fathers already. We value time, also we live in about three cities (Olomouc, Ostrava, Znojmo - and don't count with me, I’m not on the stage with the band anymore, haha) and we're also rebuilding contacts we've lost. But the main thing is to reconsider the priorities, so we choose those events according to line-ups or places to make more sense for us.
Why? We want a tour! I know it won't be like the old days with PSYCROPTIC, but still, aren't you going to travel a little more?
Bizzaro: Oh yeah, just because the record we've really been waiting for in the Covid will finally come out and we'd like to promote it a lot. We would like to put some smaller tour together and it had been even planned, but ‘cause of Covid it all stopped three times. So now we stand again before nothing. In addition, now the bands will tour like crazy, it will be harder to put it together, so we will focus more on the promotion of the album and writing new stuff. But we definitely plan to tour, so hopefully there will be another opportunity to show you the best of us.
GODLESS TRUTH belongs to bands with a rich history. But as I mentioned, times are different. Where are you heading with the band? What is your goal, the goal you want to go to? Some "old groups" just release a record here and there, sometimes they perform somewhere. And some get into it with everything that comes with it. What about you?
Švany: The goal? Have fun with that music in particular. There is nothing to prove. We want to play and we play because we enjoy it. Of course, we want to give concerts and release records. As long as we keep the instruments and we're able to talk and party in the band, we'll keep doing that.
You have a lot of interesting guests on the new album "Godless Truth". Who are they and why them?
Švany: They are all our friends or people we love and admire their art.
Joe Haley (Psycroptic) does a great job on solo guitar in "The Eyechain" and Rafael Trujillo (Obsidious, ex-Obscura) has a blast in "The Decision".
For the first time we used a piano on our record, the hands and ideas of the great pianist and composer Peter Gábor played an important role in "RIP Cage".
Finally, we have two mages on the vocals - Petr Angelo Čuka (Emmett Brown, ex-Dissolution) is in "Fortune Time" and Matt Delirious (Silent Generation, ex-Soul Decoder & Liquid Space 9) in "Wake Up to Obey" .
I guess we’re on the same page. We love death metal. How did you get into this style, why death metal and what fascinates you about it, what does it give you? Feel free to reminisce for us about your beginnings, your first steps with GODLESS TRUTH.
Švany: I started with listening to Europe :) It took me a few years before I got to death metal. At 16 I started listening to Death, Carcass, etc. It was love at first listening :) It's all there. Brutality, melodies, speed, moods and even clever lyrics.
I bought the guitar at 15, but I tried to play themes that I liked and songs from Megadeth, Judas Priest and Kreator. The fact that I was going to play harder music came naturally after that with playing and practicing.
A necessary question at the end. What are you planning to do with the band in the next few months? What can fans look forward to? Or, is there anything you want to tell them? You have space.
Bizzaro: The answer is obvious with the new record. Mainly promoting the record, communicating with the fans and then, of course, laying the groundwork for the aforementioned tour. We also have some merchandise out there (now it’s new caps and hats). And hopefully we can get some gigs.
I liked you guys a lot in the nineties and it's still true today. Thank you so much for the interview and for the new album! It's awesome! I'm going to listen to it again. I wish you a lot of good ideas, devoted fans and good luck in your private life! I hope to meet you at a concert somewhere soon!
Svany: We thank you too. Thanks for coming to the concerts. Enjoy our record.
about GODLESS TRUTH on DEADLY STORM ZINE:
Official Bandcamp
Transcending Obscurity Site
Transcending Obscurity Facebook
Transcending Obscurity Instagram
Godless Truth Facebook
Official YouTube Channel
Label US Indiemerch Store
Label Europe Store
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