When
Sydney (New South Wales, Australia) based outfit The Amenta released their debut
full-length effort 'Occasus' in 2004 (The follow-up to their debut EP 'Mictlan'
from 2002), they not only managed to set a new benchmark within the Australian
metal scene, but helped forge a bold new direction for forward thinking death
metal on the global scene.
Four years on, and The Amenta (who
currently comprise of vocalist Jarrod Krafczyk, guitarist Erik Miehs, bassist
Dale Harrison, sampler/programmer Timothy Pope and drummer Robin Stone) have finally
returned with their sophomore effort 'n0n', an album that successfully takes the
blueprint laid down by their debut into bold new extremes by blurring the lines
between death metal, industrial influenced soundscapes and sheer brutality.
Having
just returned from a tour of Europe, and currently on the road across Australia,
I caught up with sampler/programmer Timothy Pope to talk about the band's challenging
new release 'n0n', and the problems of getting the album completed after a lengthy
four years of hard work.
"Both 'Occasus' and 'n0n' were
difficult recordings to make, but in very different ways. 'Occasus' was written
over a five year period, and we were constantly refining it in that time. So we
really knew those songs back to front by the time we went into the studio. But
when we recorded the album, we were under a lot of pressure from Listenable Records.
We wanted to make the best album we possibly could, but we also had this heavy
external pressure upon us. 'n0n' on the other hand was something that we wrote
quite quickly. I think all the songs came together in around six months. Recording
that album was a lot harder though, just because of the amount of technology involved.
As you've probably read, we had over one hundred tracks on each song. So a lot
of the equipment that we had access to and we were using couldn't play back all
of those tracks at once! (Laughs) So as you can imagine, we made a lot of compromised
mixes so that we could get an idea of what worked and what didn't. It was very
hard. We also saw some line-up changes during the making of the album. We were
basically working with a vocalist from the U.K. for some time (following the departure
of Cessium 137 in 2006), and that fell through for various reasons. So we didn't
have a vocalist there for a while. In the meantime, we kept writing the album.
And then it wasn't until about halfway through the recording of the album that
we found our current vocalist Krafczyk. He was virtually just around the corner
from us. So there were a lot of big problems for us while making this album. It
was hard work. But I'm glad that we put in what we did because I think you can
hear it in the album."
Aside from pushing the levels of
extremities, 'n0n' is notable for amazing sound, with the depth and sparseness
of sound mixed on the album something not commonly associated with your typical
extreme album.
"There's so much detail in the album, with
some songs having upward to one hundred and sixty tracks at the one time. A lot
of it is keyboard stuff. Sometimes a track will have a five second noise piece
that is really layered to give off an effect. A lot of it is soft synth's, and
that's something we use a lot of effects with. It's basically about having a whole
track with a few distortions and delays to get that sound to work. So it's not
one hundred tracks running simultaneously, but each song definitely has that much
detail running in it. Unfortunately, that was kind of my job to create those sounds
for the album! (Laughs) It took me about four months of programming stuff to get
that detail in there. 'n0n' was a hard album to mix as well. It was ridiculous
trying to get that detail audible. But we used Lachlan Mitchell again (Who also
mixed 'Occasus'), and he was able to find a place for everything, which was good.
With 'Occasus', we compromised a little on the sound due to our ignorance to the
mixing process. This time around, we were very definite about what we wanted,
and that came about due to more experience and training in the studio. So when
it came time to mix 'n0n', we were a lot more hands on, which I'm sure was very
frustrating for Mitchell at times! (Laughs) Basically it meant that we were willing
to spend as much money we had to get it sounding right. It was a really hard thing
to mix, and I was really worried at one point that we would kind of get a typical
death metal mix of really high guitars and drums, and missing out on the electronics.
There were a lot of electronics that didn't make it onto the mix on 'Occasus'.
Perhaps not quite as much as on 'n0n', but they were mixed down just the same.
But this time around, we knew a lot more about mixing, and spent sixteen hours
a day to make sure that we got 'n0n' to sound exactly how we heard it in our heads.
Thankfully, we were able to finish the album in the time that we had booked at
the studio, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out."
While
'Occasus' may have had The Amenta sounding like an extreme metal act with electronic
influences, the same can be said for 'n0n'. The band's sound on 'n0n' has come
a long way from their debut, so much so that the band no longer sounds like a
death metal album with electronic influences, or an industrial album with death
metal influences. Instead, 'n0n' is a truly unique hybrid mix of an album, and
one that's not easy to describe in words.
"I really don't
see us as an industrial band at all. And I've stopped seeing us as a death metal
or extreme metal band as well. Our aim is to try and find a new language for music.
Within heavy metal, it's very easy to fall back on the old language with guitar
riffs and quite obvious drum beats. We forged this new language, and because of
our interests, what we've grown up doing and our talents, our sound tends to head
towards the uglier end of the spectrum, which happens to encompass a lot of industrial
like sounds. Our aim wasn't necessarily to be an industrial/death metal band;
only to create an extreme music, with what I guess you could say includes those
influences. But we definitely didn't want to be one of those death metal bands
that suddenly breaks into a little industrial bit, and then goes back into a metalcore
breakdown. It needed to sound like us, and it needed to sound honest. And that
has to be everything going through a blender, and coming out as The Amenta. 'n0n'
is not a guitar based album or a riff based album. It's more about the interplay
between the electronics and the guitars, and I think this album captures that
really well."
Of course, with anything new, there's bound
to be some differing opinions. And 'n0n' is no exception, with both the band's
label (Independent French label Listenable Records) and the public offering both
praise and criticisms of The Amenta's latest release.
"Listenable
Records' reaction to 'n0n' was probably similar to a lot of reaction around the
world to the album. They were a bit confused and didn't know what to make of it
at first. But as they listened to it a bit more, they started getting into it.
We actually met up with them face to face for the first time in Belgium about
two weeks ago, and they were over the moon and excited about the album. I think
it's one of those albums with so much detail, that the first time you listen to
it you either think it's this weird death metal thing that doesn't gel, or you
totally understand it. It isn't until you give it time that you start picking
up the language and you start to understand what we're trying to do. All the albums
that I really love are the ones that polarise people. If I read two reviews, and
one gave it an eight or a nine out of ten, and the next gave it a two out of ten,
I would pick that up because I think that's pretty damn interesting. I definitely
think its one of those albums that's really hard to put into words. Even I have
trouble doing that, and I wrote the damn album! (Laughs) It seems to me that the
people who are into it, are really into it couldn't necessarily tell you why they
do. I think they get it on a very primal level, which is a very good thing. I
think it's one of those albums."
Another bone of contention
amongst some fans is the lack of melody within 'n0n'. But as Pope points out,
while the album is a challenging listen, the melodies will present themselves
through the persistence of time.
"I guess from my point
of view, I have been living with the album for so long that I no longer understand
the initial listen any more. I was there to build it from the ground up. But I
can understand that people that hear it for the first time can get the feeling
that they're being pushed out because of the level of complexity of the actual
sonic palette, rather than the musicianship and density of what they're actually
hearing. They initially think this is a blast beat-fest wall of extreme noise.
For me, I can hear the songs in there. We wrote them like pop songs, and there
are some defined structures in there. We always made sure that there were choruses,
there's a middle eight, a hook and parts where the songs almost drop down to nothing.
Take a song like 'Junky' for instance. It starts off with blast beats, but then
features a big open chorus. I think it's quite catchy, but I guess I've been spending
a long time learning the language of the album. And then you have a song like
'Vermin', which has quite a pronounced groove, which has that off-time tom thing.
Having just played that song live a million times over the last few weeks, you
can see people picking up on it a lot more. It comes across in the live setting
I guess because of the way the live shows are mixed, which helps reveal a bit
more of the nuts and bolts of the song's construction. I really think it's a varied
album. 'Skin' is almost a trip-hop song. I really don't see how people can see
the album as monochromatic. I think it's a very in-depth and detailed album. We
spent a long time on the structure of the songs, and spent close to two days figuring
out the order of the songs on the album so that it would flow. I think it's an
album that if you spend enough time with, you'll start hearing the things you
mentioned, like the hooks underneath and the overall melodies. The melodies are
there, they're just not your conventional melodies of Iron Maiden solos and Queen
sung melodies. It's all hidden in this new language we're trying to create."
One
of the strangest and most melodic moments on the album appears in 'Dirt', which
bears a striking resemblance to some of Devin Townsend work outside Strapping
Young Lad.
"We're always experimenting with sounds, and
if something sounds exciting, we'll generally go with it. Even if it scares us
a little, we'll go for it because it challenges us. When we wrote this album,
it was very dark and ugly. But then in amongst all that darkness, this little
section pops up. It's all major key, which is something I don't think we've really
done before. We had discussions as to whether we would use it or not, and it was
only because we were discussing it so much that we realised that it had to go
in. We figured that it was pushing our boundaries as much as it would eventually
push our audience. The Devin Townsend influence thing was certainly not intentional.
I'm not really familiar with a lot of his stuff. I have 'City' (Strapping Young
Lad's album from 1997), and I think that's an excellent album. But I haven't heard
much of his solo stuff. I couldn't say he was an influence as such, but quite
a few people have mentioned that to me. So that seems to be a common thought from
most people when they hear that small section of the song. Things like that make
the album interesting. I think there are a lot of them in there. Within the same
song, there's this big block of noise that I think is quite melodic, and almost
symphonic. The way its structured is the guitars and keyboards melding together
into this big wall of noise is I guess our version of melodic black metal. There
are parts throughout the entire album that are like that. For me, that's what
makes the album interesting."
Despite the negative feedback
from some fans, Pope seems to remain positive about the feedback of 'n0n' so far.
"To
an extent I'm happy with the way the album's been received. I always knew that
this album was going to get a mixed response, and I was prepared to brush the
negatives aside. But when you get the first bad review, you have visions of jumping
on a plane to Bum-Fuck in the middle of Idaho, or wherever they are and beating
their head in! (Laughs) It's never nice hearing someone stag off something that
you spent so much time on, but it was inevitable. It's silly of me to resent them
too much, because that was something I was expecting. I'm just happy that it's
polarising people and generating a bit of talk."
As mentioned
earlier, The Amenta has just returned from a European tour alongside Deicide,
Samael, Vader, Devian and Zonaria.
"We had a great time.
We played a lot of Europe, but we didn't get to play in central Europe unfortunately.
We did fourteen shows all up, and it was awesome. We got to see a band like Vader
play live every night, and that was really inspirational. Here is this one guy
(vocalist/guitarist Piotr 'Peter' Wiwczarek), who has built up this band around
himself, and he just kind of whipped them into shape night after night. They were
just jaw dropping. And Samael had one of the best light shows of the tour. So
it was really inspiring to see just what those guys could do. I think for us as
a band, it really put us under the microscope performance wise. We've always prided
ourselves on our live shows, but then you go over there and see what the standard
is and you realise that you have to lift your game a little! (Laughs) So I really
think that tour really put a lot of pressure on us, but we came back in the best
live shape we've ever been. Apparently we held our own on that stage. We had a
lot of people who came specifically to see us, and were apparently blown away.
So it was really good."
Giving themselves a week to recover,
The Amenta soon packed up their gear once again to take part in a month long co-headlining
tour alongside industrial death/grind act The Berzerker under the banner of 'The
Australian Corruption Tour'.
"We toured with The Berzerker
on the 'Festival Of The Dead' festival back in October 2007, so I think we're
very suited musically. I think it will be a lot of fun for us, as well as the
audience. And the good thing is that we're playing a lot of regional areas that
we've never played before. So we're really looking forward to playing those kinds
of places. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what sort of crowd turns up
and all that kind of stuff. We've already completed the New South Wales leg of
the tour, and the shows went really well. Newcastle and Canberra were real stand
outs. They were places that we've only placed once before, and that was some time
ago. So we weren't really sure what to expect, but we were blown away by the turn
out and the response from the fans toward the new material that we hadn't played
here in Australia before. That went down really well, and was quite exciting for
us."
Whilst playing Sydney, the band took the opportunity
to film their performance for a potential DVD release.
"The
guys from Moshcam, who have filmed us before, were there for The Berzerker as
well. They're really professional, and really good at what they do. I'm not a
big fan of hometown shows. For some reason, something always goes wrong for me.
But this time everything went really swimmingly. It was a really good show. I
think we played really well, and we had a huge crowd. So I think it'll look really
good on camera. I'm not entirely sure what we'll do with the DVD yet, but it'll
probably make its way onto a release as some kind of bonus footage. It may very
well be released on it own, but that's something we'll decide at a later date.
In the meantime, we'll keep ourselves busy until the tail end of March with this
tour, and then jump straight into writing again for our third album. Obviously
with four years between albums, we want to cut that down by at least six months.
We'll try and have a new release out within two years if possible, so that way
Listenable Records don't have a heart attack like they did prior to giving them
the last two albums! (Laughs) Apart from that, we simply want to capitalise on
the release of 'n0n' with some more overseas touring. We're in talks at the moment
with various people, but nothing is confirmed. You have to strike while the iron's
hot as they say, and that's something that we definitely want to do."
I
would like to thank Timothy Pope for his generous time, and Erik Miehs for making
the interview possible.
For more information on The Amenta,
check out - http://www.myspace.com/theamenta
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
