Good afternoon , how everything Nitra ? , Thank you very much for agreeing to answer these questions .
Hey Fran, thanks for your interest. We are working on new material and having some concerts around in the next time. Except for that nothing exceptional going on over here. Nitra is a midsized Slovak town and a sleepy hollow.
1. Empyrion is created upon dissociation of Corrupted Melody and retains most of the members of this band . Tell us a bit why you decided to put an end to Corrupted Melody and how was the process of formation of Empyrion ?
Corrupted Melody was a band that managed to bringt out an album in Germany and that was about it. Every now and then personal changes slowed down any progress of the band. None of the two female vocalists attended rehearsals and later also the founder of Corrupted Melody stopped showing up because of a new family, a demanding job and university studies. As the rest of us was eager to move forward and do a different, more aggresive and straight forward music, we simply voted for dissolving the band and forming a new one.
2. " Mindshifter " is the first work published by you under the name Empyrion , how the process of writing and recording of " Mindshifter ?" What major differences can be found between the music and Corrupted Melody Empyrion ?
Writing Mindshifter was quite a short process. First off we all knew each other well, the new vocalist fitted in perfectly. In the last years of Corrupted Melody’s agony a strong creative pressure began to form within a part of the band. A need to find a new way to express ourselves. After the burial of CM and creation of Empyrion we took a second deep breath and were finally free to move on without any further delays or complications or obligations. Musically Empyrion is darker, more brutal, with less melancholia and with higher voltage. Overall Empyrion is surely faster with up to solid 260 bpm blasts in the first track of the Mindshifter album. The actual music is less complex in the means of composition and more like a punch in the face.
3. What bands are your main influence when composing for Empyrion ? Are you in contact with other Slovak band scene?
The sometimes bad but mostly good thing about Empyrion is that everybody in the band listens to something else. Reviewers compared our music to many bands but very rarely they mentioned two identical band names. I personally enjoy every kind of music I consider good and it doesn’t matter if it is a symphony, opera, rock ballad, pop song, oldie, if it’s hard rock, death metal, prog, djent, jazz, rap or anything else. The contacts with other Slovak bands are good. We are all sharing the same heaven and hell of the Slovak metal underground and we do seek and emphasize friendships with other underground musicians and bands.
4. How would you describe the sound of Empyrion ? Are you satisfied with the result obtained by the album " Mindshifter "?
The studio producer of this album was Roland Grapow (the mastermind of the band Masterplan and ex-Helloween guitar player and songwriter). We opted for him simply because it was the best we could get in Slovakia (he is a German who chose to live in Slovakia and runs a studio over here. At least two Spanish bands recorded in his studio in Slovakia). Though recording a blackened death metal band was new to him Roland is a professional who knows what he does. A challenge was to get a good final mix because the music of Empyrion is very dense – many instruments mostly playing many tones at the same time and sometimes even more parallel melodies. And we wanted the tiniest detail to be noticeable. I think we achieved this. We keep getting feedbacks from our fans that even after several listens our music doesn’t get boring. That is because one always finds something new, something he or she did not realise during previous listening. I think of the sound like a big wall with a very fine mosaic on it. Maybe not the most modern sound one can get but that was not the goal anyway. The interesting thing is that the whole recording took including mixing less than a week since we did not have the money to pay for a longer studio session. In this regard I think the sound is more than good.
5. Lyrics to " Mindshifter " have a degree of pessimism and social critic, who wrote the lyrics and themes considered important to treat them?
The author of all of our lyrics is my brother, the other guitar player Juro. The lyrics are about the humanity and all the steps that it takes to self-destruction. Mankind is sadly not able to learn from its mistakes, not able to rise to a new state of mind, tolerant, free and responsible, not blinded by religion and superstition, the lyrics are also about weakness, affects, violence in the name of deformed ideals and other severe matters.
6. What equipment do you use live?"
Over the years every one of us has fairly good equipment. Nothing special but it works and sounds fine. So the rest is up to the sound engineer. Many of them experience problems finding quickly a proper mixing for vocals, two guitars, bass, drums, keys and samples but at this moment we simply can’t afford paying our own sound engineer. Thus we have to rely on the one we get. We noticed that the bigger the event the lesser the issue :-)
7. You've been in the world of metal but I'm wrong about twenty years , what are your memories of when you started playing in a group How did you get started and why you decided to be a musician ?
I’ve started playing guitar when I was 16 and that was 17 years ago but the first time I joined a band was not that long ago – for a long time I just played and practised at home for myself. The one most important influence for me was Tommy Vetterli alias Tommy T. Baron from Coroner. It was his unmatched soloing that made me want to learn to play the guitar, especially his arpeggios. And of course I knew that playing guitar was a good thing to be cool and to get the hot chicks :-). Since then I was under many influences but none so strong than Coroner. Regarding metal in older times I’ve been listening a lot to Faith No More, Destruction, Mekong Delta but also to classic stuff like Carcass, Death, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Slayer or Metallica.
8. " Mindshifter " was edited by Gothoom Productions , Slovak stamp , how the opportunity arose to work with them ? Are you satisfied with the work done by the label , in the future you 'll still attached to it ?
We had talks with an American, an Austrian and an UK label but the offered conditions were not satisfactory. Thus we decided to go with Gothoom Productions which is a young and growing Slovak label. If you want fair promotion in the homeland and the Czech republic Gothoom Productions is surely the best choice the label’s capabilities to push a band abroad are however somewhat limited. We have no idea what the future will bring but as most other bands we too hope for some promotion from an international label.
9. Who designed the cover of " Mindshifter " and how it relates to the contents of the disc ?
The artificially created word Mindshifter is to express our hope that our music can move minds, alter them, leave a trace or imprint, a steady impression. The visual was created by a friend of ours.
10. What do you hope to fans of Empyrion in the near future regarding upcoming releases , concerts, etc. .. ?
This year was Empyrion’s first festival season and we managed to play at two big and two smaller festivals which is a huge success for a band formed two years ago. For next summer we are confirmed for the Basin Fire Fest and I hope we get to play on more such festivals. Maybe next year will be the release year of our second album but that’s a guess, no statement. I hope we get to make one or more music clips, I hope we will get new fans and I hope the old remain loyal.
11. Thank you very much for taking the time to Black Metal Spirit , if you want to add something for the followers of Empyrion , this is the place . I hope the questions are to your liking .
Thank you, I hope my answers weren’t too long or boring. Best greetings to all fans of dark music out there in wonderful Spain. Stay true to metal and everything else will be fine :-) . And if you like, visit us on our Facebook profile facebook.com/empyrion.band and leave a comment or like our band to get updates.
Rado Glovňa https://www.facebook.com/rado.vanempyrion / Empyrion
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