Agathodaimon (VO)

interview Agathodaimon

Founded in 95, Agathodaimon quickly became one of the leading acts in european metal scene. Albums like "Blacken the Angel" and "Higher Art of Rebellion" have contributed to break all boundaries between all kinds of metal, redefining their own genre. Today, Agathodaimon releases its 4th and brand new opus titled "Serpent’s Embrace" and like these lovely reptiles, it will slowly take you by the throat. Bitten and envenomed, you will instantaneously become an addict. Guitarist-vocalist Sathonys answered my few questions in june 2004.

 

>Hi guys ! Your new album will be released in june. Can you present us this new opus ? Are you satisfied with it ?
Yes, we’re very satisfied with it. It does feature 10 songs, which are very different from each other. A wide range from death, black, thrash and heavy metal is covered, along with some rather unusual influences. The production is awesome, and also the artwork turned out to be really cool. If you’re into metal, you should have a listen, haha!

 

>Where did you record it ? Do you appreciate to work in studio ?
We recorded it again at the Kohlekeller studio, as the producer Kristian Kohlmannslehner is very capable producer who knows how to get the best results out of his equipment and what’s more important, out of the participating musicians. I don’t really like working in studio, as I prefer playing live on stage, but it’s always fascinating to see how a song which you know from rehearsal room or demo recordings slowly turns into a final version…

 

>Even if it doesn’t sound really different from "3", your previous album, did you try to improve in a particular way ?
Ha! I hope you don’t mind if I state you there in other interviews, hehe. So far, some people even said that the new album would be totally different, that we even changed our style. I’d say it’s somewhere in the middle, we used all ingredients from our past work, and tried to add some fresh elements here and there. And yes, we did improve in all aspects. The clean vocals are lots better this time, the production is nearly perfect, the songs are well-balanced… There’s not much left that I would criticise, and usually I’m not easy to convince..

 

>I’d describe your style as a kind of mix between black-metal and gothik. How would you define your music to someone who never listen to it ? Are there some cult bands you consider as being infuential on Agathodaimon’s soun

interview Agathodaimond ?
Damn gothic. Nobody listens to gothic in Agathodaimon, but I understand that it sounds partly gothic to you ;) More clean vocals this time, a dark athmosphere, keyboards… But we’re rather influenced by bands such as Slayer, Samael, Iron Maiden, old black and death-metal. Some of my other personal influences would be Autopsy, Celtic Frost, King Diamond and Queensryche.

 

>Tell us about the 5th tracks "Solitude" with this superb female voice.
Well, it’s Ophelia, who also sung on the 2nd demo and “Blacken The Angel” on “Near Dark”. Then we had a new version of “Sacred Divinity” from “Chapter III” which was released on “Beauty In Darkness Vol.6”, with only her on vocals. This song will also be on the bonus cd for the limited Nuclear Blast mailorder edition, that does feature the 2nd demo plus lots of demo/pre-production songs. This new version made us try working on another ballad featuring her voice. This time we wanted a minimalistic version, with no guitars and just some electronic drum samples and keyboards. It differs from the rest of the material, but we had a ballad on every album now since “Higher Art Of Rebellion” and I think we’ll continue with this tradition.

 

>Which topics do your new texts deal with ? Where do you take inspiration from (litterature, dreams, personnel thoughts, everyday life…) ?
Yes, it’s mostly daily life, but literature is also an important aspect. We had some guest writers this time, Julio Angel Olivares Merino contributed 2 lyrics, and also our old vocalist Vlad did contribute some. Besides, I did write several lyrics and our new bass player and Frank “Akaias” Nordmann as well. So, therefore a wide range of styles and topics are covered. Some are rather bizarre, while others are inspired by daily life, but of course written in a rather poetical way. In general, we rather try to focus on writing lyrics that enhance the music, lyrics that add atmosphere to the songs instead of trying to tell a real story, which isn’t easy to do in 4-5 minutes anyway…

 

>How do you compose together inside the band ? Is there a leader who dominate or is it a common process of writing who includes every member ?
Well, it’s maybe me who decides something in case there’s a discussion where we don’t come to an agreement, but in general, everybody is free to deliver his input, write songs or lyrics… As long as the ideas are cool, we’ll take them

interview Agathodaimon ;) We usually create songs at home, and bring the final structures into the rehearsal room, where everybody can do their part, that’s why we also do a pre-production, to see how the songs sound in the end. So, everybody is involved into the song writing.

 

>I read on your website about a limited edition with a bonus cd. What will be the material included?
The 1997 Demo “Near Dark” plus several pre-production/demo versions of older songs, as well as the rare version of “Sacred Divinity” featuring Ophelia on vocals, which so far was only featured on “Beauty In Darkness Vol. 6”. This bonus cd is limited to 1000 copies only and will be available through the Nuclear Blast mailorder and our website.

 

>It seems you also recorded a song for a movie soundtrack. Is cinema something you’re interested in ?
Well, yes. Actually we still don’t know if they’ll use that song for the soundtrack, but we hope so of course. I was a big fan of the game “Alone In The Dark”, especially the second part which was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, one of my favourite writers. I tend to go to the movies very often and collect a lot of movies, dvds etc… I’m a little cineast, hehe.

 

>Your albums covers are all drowned in this same dark esthetic. Who did draw the new one ? It reminds me some of HR Giger past works.
Yes, it’s probably very Giger-inspired, as the artist and me are big Giger-fans. But it’s NOT drawn. Everything is photographed and composed on the computer, no airbrush etc, so the technique was completely different. I wanted to have something different this time, not another building or statue. It was done by Katja Piolka, who also did the band photos. Concerning cover artwork, she did work for Atrocity and Leaves Eyes so far, but I’m sure she’ll do a lot more in the future.

 

>Will you tour to promote your brand new album ?
We will try it at least, hehe. The only problem is that we have to find a time when every member is able to go on tour, as some are either studying, having a job etc... But we’ll surely have some gigs in France somehow. The last gigs there with Enthroned, Seth and Destinity have been a really cool experience.

 

>A last word for your french fans ?
Thanks to those who supported us so far, it was great to play in France last year, and we’ll hope to be there soon again! Check out our new album, it will have lots of nice songs to discover!

Interview done by DJ In Extremis

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