Interview with technical death metal band from Poland - SUPREME VOID.
Answered Exile (guitars, vocals), thank you!
Recenze/review - SUPREME VOID - Towards Oblivion (2025):
1.Ave SUPREME VOID! I couldn't find any interview with you in Czech anywhere. So I'll ask you first to introduce the band to the readers who don't know you yet. You can start from the beginning and take us through the whole history of SUPREME VOID.
Exile: Hails! Thanks for the interview.
Our journey started a long time ago, approximately 8 years ago under the name „Depravity“. As I was busy with different bands, it was to be a solo project, under which I would release new music from time to time. Time passed and many people reached to me and asked to form a full band, which eventually happened. We played some shows, then took a long break. After around 2 years of hiatus I have decided to release the EP „End Of Games“, which we still play live. It was the starter of what’s to come on our upcoming album „Towards Oblivion“.
2.This year you are releasing a new album "Towards Oblivion". Once again it is dark, gritty, technical, dissonant and honest death metal. Did you approach the recording differently than with the last EP "End of Games" or did you go with tried and tested methods?
Exile: It was mostly tried and tested methods, especially with the purely recording aspect, however there were changes. First and foremost, this album contains live drums. „End Of Games“ was basically my solo record, it had programmed drums. Even though I wrote the compositions more or less alone, I was doing a lot of feedback sessions with Cyklon, our drummer.
3. I find the new record to be an order of magnitude more complicated, perhaps less accessible at first, but at the same time incredibly dark and evil. Was that the intention? How was the album actually created and how did you compose the music?
Exile: First of all, I knew how I want the band to sound like, which involved not only the tones of each instrument, but the mood we want to get to, and more importantly – how to achieve that. In our case, the music is clearly guitar-driven, so special attention was paid to the guitar riffs, arrangements, what goes after what, etc. Nothing was done in isolation – there was always an idea how the drums would be played, along with bass guitar. Vocals were planned out after all songs were written.
I was recording every riff at home. Basically the whole album was constructed in studio mode – recording in DAW, sharing the files with band members, creating click tracks.
During that time I also wanted to pre-plan every possible scenario on recording this album and realized that the most critical part to be recorded are the drums. It is the most acoustic instruments of them all, and the sound will vary from studio to studio. Unique sound in metal music is not really possible anymore, but in terms of distinguishable sound – drums are the key.
4. I have "Towards Oblivion" in my MP3 player and I have to say that I am literally consumed by it. It's not just the great ideas, but also the sound, which is in a word devastating. For example, I'm sitting on the tram and suddenly I find myself tapping my foot. I feel like partying. If I wasn't a gentleman of my years, I'd probably do it. Where did you record the album and who is the mastering engineer?
Exile: I’m glad you feel that way, especially that „Towards Oblivion“ was not designed to be an easy listen.
For drums, we were very lucky to be invited to Hertz Studio to re-record one of the songs from our EP. We concluded that this studio is perfect to capture the drum performance, so we went along. We came back there. Scott Elliott led the drum recording session with Karol Andres (sound engineer for band UKĆ).
Guitars and bass were as usual recorded at home by myself. Guitars took around 2 months, because it was daily grind 4-5h after work (also during festival season, so there were days off), because they were quad tracked (each song was basically recorded 4 times). Bass guitar took around 7 days, and was way more chill than guitars. Direct input was captured and sent to Scott Elliott for re-amping purposes.
Vocals were done once again with Blood Run Lodge with Arkadiusz Zieliński (Godbite), the session was very professional and the vibe was as always, fantastic. All vocals were double-tracked.
Everything was put together, mixed and mastered by Scott Elliott from Chernobyl Audio.
Overall, the team which was working with us on the album was highly professional and kept a very high standard.
5. Who wrote the lyrics on "Towards Oblivion"? And what are they about? Where do you get inspiration for the themes?
I wrote all lyrics for the record. It’s mostly my thoughts about how we, as human beings, create the most issues for ourselves and how we are responsible for our failures. It is described from many different motives such as revenge, success, low self-esteem, deceit, lack of common sense… it all crashes down and it’s all our fault.
Inspiration… as cliche as it sounds, it’s just life, however I wanted to share the mentioned topics, because not only I wanted to somehow get them out of my head, but also they fit the music. I observe and figure out a lot of different behaviours and situations. I also am a big fan of certain Star Wars characters, mostly dark side users – Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Starkiller. Their revenge or depressive motives were inspiration for some of the songs as well.
6. Who signed the cover art for "Towards Oblivion"? I like his work a lot. How did you choose the theme for the cover?
I chose Michał „Xaay“ Loranc for the creation of our artwork – it was always my dream to work with him. He works with the greatest bands out there (Behemoth, Nile, Pestilence…) but also he is a member of band Redemptor, which is one of our biggest inspirations. This way I knew that the vision would be not only perfectly understood, but also I could give a lot of freedom for him, as he thinks further than me. It’s really important to give competent people a freedom of thought, this way the combined effort is way stronger.
7. If we go back to the beginning... What was the first impulse to put the band together? And why technical death metal? It's not exactly a style that would get you a lot of "fame".
Exile: At the beginning I had some of my class mates play in a band. I saw their show, and I was like „hell yeah, I want the same!“. The more I played, the more I realized that death metal is the best genre ever. Some people were telling me to „listen to everything“, but after a long time I realized it’s not necessarily true. I didn’t want to force myself to do anything, as music should be fun in the first place. Later I also noticed that death metal is a very inclusive genre! There are death metal bands created with purpose of mixing the genre with jazz, blues, cinematic music or even rap/hip-hop. I never heard of any artist wanting to play jazz, blues with intention of mixing it with metal, especially extreme metal.
I do not do it for fame, I do it because I want to do it. This kind of extreme metal resonates with me in 100%. This guarantees honesty, fun for the creator and great results for the listener. If it gets or doesn’t get attention, that’s fine. I am very grateful for what is currently happening around the album though, I just wanted to release music and contribute.
8 .You come from Poland and play extreme death metal. Our readers would be interested to know how the death metal scene works in Poland. To tell you the truth, I've been hearing nothing but great stuff from you lately. Does it mean that the scene is very strong in your country at the moment? What about gigs, how many people come?
Exile: Your question has reminded me of my first European tour with American/British bands, where I was the only Polish person on board. Everyone was screaming names Behemoth, Mgła, Vader, Hate, and so on. But I guess you already know the big names, I’d like to mention some maybe less known bands, which do not have as much publicity: Redemptor, Dormant Ordeal (their new album kicks major ASS!), Godslut, Varmia, Trauma, Symbolical, Infernal Flame, Hellspawn, MorD, Obsidian Mantra, Everything Is Fire, Blind Salvation.
Show attendance… big bands obviously attract attention, so we’ll go to smaller bands. In Poland there is basically no point to play outside of Friday/Saturday. Once you do play on weekend, you should have people on your show, given you and booker did promote the show well (which I consider a basic thing to do). If you book and that’s it – nothing can help you. Proactiveness is the key.
9. I can't help but ask. You live in Poland, which is considered a strongly Catholic country. Do you have any problems with that? Do you get space on TV, in the newspapers? How is life in your country influenced by Christianity at all?
Exile: Honestly, I skip main media at all. There is are talent shows on TV and stuff like that, but not many metal bands are there. Personally, I wouldn’t even try to get there. It’s a waste of time, it is not our target group. Given that Supreme Void releases are intended to be difficult, thought-provoking listens, it would be counter-productive to force our way to environments which do not appreciate such work. Same with main newspapers. There are media dedicated to metal music and it’s great – everyone has their space.
Christianity, as all other religions are, is a point of view. Being limited to only one point of view doesn’t work – doesn’t matter which God you worship. It can get you somewhere, but one needs to embrace a larger view in order to be excellent. Christianity somehow is a part of Polish culture, whether we want it or not – historically and politically. Sometimes it can be difficult to break from, depending in what kind of family you are born in – fortunately, I don’t come from purely Christian family, so I didn’t experience this issue. My path is my own.
10. From your music you can feel that you are influenced by the American death metal school as well as old European bands. How are you as fans? Do you prefer the original death metal of the 90's or do you draw inspiration from new records as well? If so, I would be interested to know which bands had/have the biggest influence on SUPREME VOID.
Exile: I’ll answer in reverse order: the biggest influences for Supreme Void are: Ulcerate, Gorguts, Redemptor, Ad Nauseam, Hate, Dormant Ordeal, and many other bands in the genre. I have to strictly mention Beyond Creation for the album „Earthborn Evolution“, because their approach to 8-string guitars motivated me to start exploring this instrument, creating our sound, blending very low tuned guitar with completely different riffs.
Personally, and I think it mostly applied to other band members as well – I draw mostly from new bands. I look forward for new releases, as we are trying to push ourselves further. It wouldn’t happen with old bands by definition – it’s something already done, repetitive. I want something new, fresh, ambitious, but at the same time no forced originality – just good’ol riffs. I like the old bands, don’t get me wrong, but I listen to them only for entertainment. I started from bands such as Behemoth (Demigod era), Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel. I love them, but later on discovered that new bands have much more to offer in the long run. Old bands have 2 things – great music and sentiment. While it’s great value, I simply want more.
11. What about you and concerts in general? Are you a band that goes to as many shows as possible or do you pick and choose a lot? Do you have a dream, like a band you'd like to tour with or a festival, city you'd like to perform in?
Exile: There are many ways to book a show – DIY, pay to play, getting invites from contacts, and so on. Since we all work, we have to book everything in advance, also the time slots are limited – as mentioned, only weekends in Poland are viable to play. So far we are mixing DIY approach with networking with other friendly bands. This approach seems to be the best combination of quality show and sustainability for the band.
12. What does death metal and music in general mean to you? Is it your hobby or lifestyle? Feel free to get philosophical.
It is definitely a lifestyle. I was fortunate enough to pay attention to what I want to do with my life from young age, and I decided to pursue this lifestyle. I travel for a lot of shows, I was 10 times on Brutal Assault festival. Of course, I work for this like everyone else, I do not make a living from music. However, I did think this through a long time ago and decided to not pursue some other certain things, in order to be able to be in music as deep as I am.
13. What are SUPREME VOID planning in the coming months? What about some tour, will there be? If you have something to say to fans, labels or promoters, here's the space...
Exile: Currently we have some shows booked in Poland. Already we have a weekend in May, including Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses eliminations. The rest shows are not yet announced, so let’s wait for those ones. We also book some shows on our own with friendly bands. Of course, we aspire higher to tour not only in Poland, so if you’re a promoter/booker and want us to play in your city – please reach to us.
We will see how it will go with the album promotion cycle, but so far it looks promising!
14. I'm going to give your new album "Towards Oblivion" another listen. I have to say that for me personally, it's pretty much the perfect death metal masterpiece. A total inferno. I wish the record to do well, to reach as many fans as possible. It deserves it. Thank you for the interview and I'm looking forward to seeing you live sometime!
Exile: Thank you so much for the interview and kind words! I will make sure to play in Czechia, as I really rezonate with your culture – I just returned from holiday in Prague (and enjoyed a good Pilsner Urquell from the tank), I hope to come back with the rest of the pack. Make sure to blast „Towards Oblivion“ as loud as you can!
Recenze/review - SUPREME VOID - Towards Oblivion (2025):
https://doloremrecords.bandcamp.com/album/towards-oblivion
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