Interview with death metal band from Poland - ATROPINE.
Answered Matej (guitar) and Skiborg (vocal), thank you!
Recenze/review - ATROPINE - Sanity Desecration (2023):
Ave ATROPINE! Greetings to the Polish underground. I hope everything is fine with you. It should be because this year you have released a second full-length album in your band's career. I have to admit it has literally blown my mind. It is dark, energic and as if it cuts by the sharp edge of the knife. I can hear from the record you did a really good job and you added a big portion of the talent, too. How do you perceive the new album in comparison to the previous one? Where did you want to move and in what are these two records different?
[Skiborg -voc.] Hi Jakub, everything is going quite well, thanks, and I must admit that it is also thanks to the second album "Sanity Desecration" released in September. I'm glad you like it and thanks for appreciating it. We spent a lot of time on its final shape and, as we can see from the first opinions, people like what they hear. What differs Death is Coming the most from Sanity Desecration is certainly the fact that on the second album I replaced the previous vocalist and it is clearly audible in the vocal track, and as I did not participate in the creation of the first album, maybe someone else will have more to add.
[Matej – guit.] we didn't want to move with our music to any specific direction, I guess, since - at least for me - Atropine's music is and always was influenced by what we all like in death metal. Which is overall chaos and no bounderies in amount of gore melodies we are bringing in to the pot.
“Sanity Desecration“ includes all attributes of good death metal. For me personally, it represents the record, which I really like to listen to. How did you produce it? How look the writing process of new material in the case of ATROPINE?
[Skiborg] Heh, Thanks again for good words. It usually goes like this: Śmigło brings riffs to rehearsals and together with Lukas (drums) they create the basis of the songs. Our second guitarist, Matej, lives a few hundred kilometers from the rest of the band, so I record the previously created material during rehearsal and send it to Matej, who overdubs his own track. In the meantime, the vocals are created by me and Chomik puts down his bass line. Everyone adds their two cents as they wish. There are no pre-set guidelines by anyone and I think that works great. When everyone has made their own tracks, we meet at a rehearsal and put everything together, and at this stage there are any corrections and discussions about what can be changed to improve the song. Sometimes ideas for corrections come up even after we have final shape of the song and several dozen rehearsals have been played, so the creative process is ongoing all the time.
I found out that Paweł Leniart is signed under the mix and mastering of the new record. I have to confirm that the sound is literally killing. It still makes me add volume to the player. Pawel has created a sound that is cruel, raw and at the same time dark and organic. How went the work with him and why did you choose him? In which studio did you record it? How did the recording process look like?
[Skiborg] Paweł is our good friend and has his own recording studio - Dźwiękonarium Studio here in Rzeszów. Each of us has more or less experience in other bands, and basically all of us have recorded with Paweł at some point. Moreover, Paweł is also into heavy music. He participated in several projects ranging from death/black to folk metal, so he feels this atmosphere in the guts. However, I won't lie - we spent a lot, lot, lot of time creating the final sound of this album. All guitar parts were home recorded by Matej and sent to the studio, where Pawel took a good care of the tracks with further production, while drums were recorded in our rehearsal room under Paweł's watchful ear. Bass and wokals were made at his studio. What's more, process of creating songs and the recording intself took place during the pandemic times, so maybe it has an impact on everyone somehow.
An important part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is the physical CD. You released the new album at CD through Via Nocturna, and it has a dark cover art. Who is the author? Do I explain well the picture when I would think it is a entering the beyond? How did you choose the motif and how does it relate to the music at the record?
[Skiborg] Whole Sanity Desecration graphics (except the Atropine's logo) was my idea and I created the layout. Well, that wasn't exact intention of the cover art, but if that's what you see, then good, there can be many interpretations and in fact, I'm often curious how others perceive it. But the main idea is humanity's blind, sheep-like rush after something they do not understand. They don't ask questions nor questioning the status quo. In this rush, it is very easy to lose common sense and the ability to self-determine, they simply cannot stop and think. They take things for granted, which in the end turn out to be something completely different. Hence the cover is filled with certain symbolism: a cross in the sky, and pentagram on the gate. Behind the gate there is "heaven" and in the windows there is bloody hell red. And lest anyone misunderstand me, the symbolism used does not matter here. This is just a visualization of the gist of the matter, which is easier to understand. I don't believe in heaven and hell.
I wonder what the lyrics on the new album “Sanity Desecration” are about. Who is the author and where is his inspiration?
[SKIBORG] All the lyrics were written by me. When I joined Atropine before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, half of the songs were already instrumentally ready and had their working names. For the purposes of playing concerts, it was necessary to write not only the lyrics for the new songs, but also to re-write the lyrics for several songs from the first album. The rest of the guys gave me a free hand, so I didn't learn the lyrics written by the previous singer, I just wrote them from scratch. The titles, of course, had to remain, so the themes were sort of predetermined. For example, when writing the lyrics to The mother of Chaos from the first album, I was wondering what the song might be about and I came to the conclusion that the title would perfectly reflect the outbreak of the epidemic. By coincidence, about a month or two later, news of a new disease broke out into the world. The whole album, was not a concept album, I approached each text individually but when all the texts were written, it turned out that most of them deal, more or less, with the weaknesses of society today and, at the same time, the use of this fact by individuals with power, money or people with psychopathic tendencies. Society is slowly being degraded and the world is slowly heading towards destruction, towards division into unaware slaves and their masters. Taking all this together, this is how the title of the entire album was created - "Sanity desecration".
I have been wandering the underground for over thirty years and I still go to Poland for music with certainty. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I monitor your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, because we only have a few death metal bands that are worth it. How do you explain that black and death metal are doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
[SKIBORG] I would like to know where it comes from, hehe. Perhaps from our difficult and recent history. The generation of our fathers and grandfathers still remembered the difficult times of the war and what happened after it. Our generation, brought up on such history, perhaps has a bit of anger in it, which is vented by extreme music. I think that this is also influenced by the context of our strongly Catholic culture. Looking at what is currently happening in the catholic church, a knife opens in your pocket. Or we just have talented musicians, haha. Regarding the whole metal scene, I would say it's not what it used to be. Currently, it is visible that the metal society is divided. Some people spit and hate on each other on the Internet. Significantly fewer people go to concerts, everything can be found on the Internet. I think that most people who used to go to concerts have now or in the last few or a dozen years started bands and try to play for the few young or so-called old-timers who still want to get off their asses to a concert. Nowadays, if you're not a world-famous band, it's very difficult for you to attract people to your concert. A similar situation exists with publishers. If you don't have a shitload of YouTube views or followers on facebook, you have little chance of getting a good contract and promotion.
You play devastating death metal influenced by, among other things, the American school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I would like to know how the idea to start Atropine was born, who was and is your metal idol? Where do you want to move your band? Are you attracted to large foreign festivals, for example, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
[MATEJ] I was sucked into the band (literally couldn't resist) after hearing first florida-death-metal-scene influenced tracks written by Śmigło. It is death I always loved and I simply found a spot here for some lead guitar work.
[SKIBORG] I wasn't in the band from the beginning, so I'll limit myself to answering the second part of the question. Personally, I don't have any idols. I can take something I like from every genre of music. Of course, I have favorite bands, but there are too many to mention. I can only say that I listened to a lot of hard core music as a kid. I thought I wouldn't hear anything better until I heard bands like Samael, Moonspell, Dimmu Borgir, Vader. The first tape with metal music I ever bought was Deicide - Legion. When it comes to large festivals - yes, as much as our free time allows, and if a famous band would like to take us on tour - we are of course open and willing. The presence of a wider audience will certainly have a positive impact on Atropine's development, but most of all we are playing because we love it and metal runs through our veins.
When I started my website six years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that are not so much popular, or they are lost in underground. To let the world knows about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the responses. How do you approach the promotion of your music? Do you rely upon the label or do you send the CDs for various reviews by yourself? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. What about you? Are you also fans who often support your colleagues? Do you go to concerts?
[SKIBORG] And thank you for that. Nowadays it's very hard to get ahead. Most publishers count on easy profit and everyone would like to have under their wings bands that already mean something on the metal scene. Those who play good music but do not have thousands of followers (e.g. due to poor self-promotion or lack of contacts with the right people) are rather ignored. In fact, we're starting to promote ourselves now, after the release of our second album. We decided to use the promotional services of the Solid Rock PR agency, we established cooperation with the Via Nocturna Records label, but we also actively try to promote ourselves. Whether on radio stations or taking part in charts. Two weeks ago, our single "Fallen" won the title of "single of the week" among the Polish Alternative Music community, and thus qualified for voting for the single of autumn 2023. Previously, this area was quite neglected in our team. We also hope that over time we will become more and more popular and more people will hear our music. And yes, we like going to our friends' concerts and drink a few beers with them and listen to good music. We like this atmosphere, hehe.
On the one hand, today the new band has a lot of opportunities to make themselves more known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of groups and the fans are getting lost in this big metal sea. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of to visit the concert they prefer to spit poisonous saliva on Facebook. How do modern technologies affect you as ATROPINE? What do you think about downloading music, google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
[SKIBORG] hmmm, it seems to me that most of that question have already been answered. I miss the days when clubs were packed with people even for unknown or local bands. But these are the times we have. Adapt or die. Social media helps you reach more people, but at the same time, anyone can do it. So everything gets blurred in the sea of hundreds of metal bands you mentioned. You can't take it all in. I think, we also In small steps will try to be present in the wide waters of social media and the Internet.
I like to ask the musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, whether it is more the philosophy and lifestyle thing for them or "just" relaxation? What does it mean for you? How do you perceive and experience it?
[MATEJ] It's just a music. I love creating and listening to music and death metal is one of the many forms of it. It might be a lifestyle considering how many hours you are giving to it, but as long as I feel complete and sincere with myself doing so -philosophy doesn't matter.
[SKIBORG] Death metal is certainly not a deeper philosophy for me. I love extreme music and I like making it also. I like its atmosphere and everything associated with it. But I don't make a life philosophy out of it. As in everything, you need to know the golden mean and approach it with common sense. Metal, beer, whiskey, and having fun listening to and making the music you love. Yes, I guess it's a lifestyle, haha.
Finally, a classic but important question. What is ATROPINE planning in the upcoming months?Where can we see you at the stage and when will you visit the Czech and Slovak Republics again?
[SKIBORG] After releasing the album "Sanity Desecration" we want to focus on promoting it and playing concerts. We are currently sending entries to various festivals in Poland. In the meantime, we'll probably play a few smaller concerts. As for the Czech Republic or Slovakia, we will be happy to visit you if there is such an opportunity. We don't have any specific news in this direction yet. For sure, we will start creating new material for the album before the new year.
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish a lot of success to the new album and let the number of your fans expand as much as possible. I will look forward to seeing you somewhere live again. I wish you a lot of success both musically and personally. I'm going to "Sanity Desecration" into my head again!
[SKIBORG] Thank you very much for the conversation and promotion and we wish you the same. I hope to see you and our fans at concerts in the near future. Thanks to all who supports us.
Recenze/review - ATROPINE - Sanity Desecration (2023):
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