Interview with death thrash metal legendary band SOLSTICE from USA.
Answered Dennis Munoz, thank you!
Translated Duzl, thank you!
Recenze/review - SOLSTICE - Casting The Die (2021):
Ave SOLSTICE! Greetings to Florida. I hope everything is fine with you. I have to say straight away that I wasn't looking forward to any album as much as I was looking forward to your new album "Casting the Die". I had the record a long time in advance for review and I was very annoyed that I couldn't share my joy with my friends. It is excellent. Death and thrash metal exactly the form I like best. How did the album was created and how did you feel about going to the studio?
- Hello, Dennis Munoz here. Thank you so much, we feel our new album is quality work and we’re very pleased with it. We were very much ready to record this album after touring Europe, the US and south and central America at the end of 2016. We were as tight as we’ve ever been as a band and were very prepared. It took just a few jams to put together the majority of the songs to be ready to record.
What was it like to start creating new material again? You haven't released a full-length album for 12 years. This is a very long time. Everything has changed. Technology, we have the internet, everything is faster, more brutal. In extreme metal especially. Then you come and chop me up with a total old school! Has the approach you take have changed in any way? How did SOLSTICE create new material?
- Yes a lot of things have certainly changed but our last album was aided by the internet and couldn't have been completed without it. I would say the approach is the same for us, someone has an idea and we work on it to see if it develops. Sometimes it doesn't and sometimes you have awesomeness.
You've always had that mouldy, dusty sound that won't leave anyone calm. How and where did you record the album? The record looks old, mouldy, it's probably not analogy or is it? Who is signed under mix and mastering?
- We began recording at my studio in Miami Florida and completed everything in a few weeks. At the end of 2017 I moved to Texas and opened another studio where I mixed and mastered it. It was all recorded in digital but without time alignment or any kind of digital trickery. Only the kicks were sampled and replaced for consistency. There are a few mistakes throughout the recording here and there that were left in, because why not.
Without the cover, the album would not be complete. The one for the new album "Casting the Die" is as cut from the nineties of the last century. I really like it. I ordered a T-shirt immediately. Who is its author and how did you choose the motif?
- The artist is Dean Piekara, he is a friend and tattoo artist from Florida. We gave him the lyrics from the title track and a basic idea and he came back with the art.
I have to ask - why didn't you actually record anything between 2009 and 2021? It occurs to me that no one has ever heard of you. I'm the kind of fan who follow the band, looks for information, is interested, but it's like you disappear. Why actually?
- In 2011 we did a few live shows with the To Dust line up and then we parted ways. In 2013 we started talking about putting everything together again and we found Ryan Taylor and began rehearsing for a tour of the US and then Europe. We wanted to play live and go to places that we’ve had requested we visit through the years. The plan was to do that first and then worry about writing and recording a new album. So we were very much active in between the majority of the time in between albums.
There are only two left from the original line-up, Dennis and Alex. If I'm not mistaken, Ryan joined you at the microphone in 2013. How hard was it to find a new singer to fit into the band? Haven't you even asked Rob Barret any more? I know he is a part of CANNIBAL CORPSE, but still.
- It happened by chance, we weren’t actively looking for a singer. Ryan was in a thrash band that he started with friends and Alex saw them at one of their gigs and was impressed and told me about him. Yes it had come up numerous times about Rob recording something with us and we were finally able to make it happen when he recorded a few vocal lines for our new album. We also planned on him doing a guitar solo but that didn't work out. His schedule is centered around what Cannibal is doing so if we miss a window of opportunity, the opportunity is gone.
Let's go back to the good old days, please. The "Solstice" cassette once came to me in the 1990s. I have to admit that I immediately included you in bands like OBITUARY, PESTILENCE, MORGOTH, in short, among my favourites. Unfortunately, I've never seen you live. I always got something into it. But a friend saw you and praised the concert very much. How do you remember that time? Is there anything you would like to return, change? How did SOLSTICE actually reunited? Please remember for us.
- There are a lot of great memories of that time, playing the local clubs, hanging out in Tampa with our friends, visiting Scott at Morrisound. I would not want to change anything. I would want the whole recording studio experience to be as it was back then. I can’t really say that we ‘reunited’, we just decided to pick it back up again because the time was right and we had writing ideas. There was never a conscious effort to have it be a reunion.
In the underground, your old albums are literally iconic. Or so I perceive them that way. As I mentioned, times have changed a lot. We have the internet, everyone downloads music, everything is different. Did you have to change your approach as a band? As musicians, you have a lot of new possibilities.
- Well today it’s easier to promote anything you're doing because of the internet and its power to reach many people with minimal effort. I don’t believe this required a change in approach as a band.
For me, Florida as a place is one of my unfulfilled dreams. I wonder how the death metal scene works for you? Lots of great bands come from you. When I did an interview with DIABOLIC, they praised Florida a lot. Do you have active scene, clubs, fans? Is it still alive as in your beginnings? Has the fans' attitude changed somehow, for example?
- The metal scene in South Florida was thriving before everything had to shut down. There is a huge amount of young bands that want to be heard and are competing for a spot. There is a lot of amazing talent everywhere you look.
I still firmly believe that I will see you live. Aren't you planning a tour for a new album? When the flu pandemic is over, I can quite imagine you, along with MALEVOLENT CREATION on a tour around Europe. Please don't forget Prague! We have a good beer and nice girls, be sure to come!
- We’ve starting to talk about doing a European run in 2022 and we would love to visit Prague. Our last European tour was amazing, great people, great clubs and excellent food and drink. We can’t wait to return.
What are SOLSTICE planning in the near future? What can we look forward to? I hope that the next album will not be again in 12 years!
- We want to visit as many places as possible in support of this new album. We will definitely not take as long to record and release another album.
Thank you so much for the interview. It means a lot to me. I'm an old fan of the band and I wish not only success to the new album, but also sold-out concerts and all the best in private lives! SOLSTICE rules!
- A big thank you to you as well for this opportunity and great questions.
Recenze/review - SOLSTICE - Casting The Die (2021):
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