Post by markwj on May 8, 2010 15:13:46 GMT
coming down on a summer day trip from the hotbed of underground extremity that is Leeds (and i'm not talking 7/7 connections ) to bring their considerable blasting power to assist in the Destruction of Colwyn Bay III gig will be Diascorium. I put some questions to Paul (bass), Bond (guitar) and Bernard (vocals) but not Gareth (drums) to try and establish if they were actually mentally unbalanced in looking forward to a trip to the Bay...
the band was a side project of old, is it the main focus for all now?
Paul:- Yeah, the name came up as a possible band name years back, but never really progressed passed a few demo guitar and bass tracks and had different folks involved, but after the comatose situation that Reth found itself in I started thinking about resurrecting it with members that were up for doing lots of gigs and getting going quite quick, then since Reth's death, it's now become the main concern, for me anyway, other members have all got other bands going on, but we're all serious about getting lots of gigs, recordings and stuff out there.
Bond: Diascorium was initially a side project for me, something different to Morkret. But after some lineup issues and resulting tour cancellations, Diascorium became priority #1 and the aforementioned entered hibernation..
you've raised a lot of attention already, how do you feel progress is going?
Paul:- The original intention upon getting the finalised line up together was to try be ready for gigs by the end of May / start of June, and to have the first set of songs out in March, with an EP ready to dish out for free downloads in April, and our first gig is with Desecration and other mint bands on the 22nd May in Leeds, so all going to plan so far. The response from friends, other bands and generally has been top so far, and we're all happy with how things are sounding and progressing.
Bond: Within a mere 6 months of the band’s birth we will have released our first demo recording, played gigs with some prolific extreme metal artists, and appeared in the UK’s best selling extreme metal magazine, so yeah it’s progressing well!
Paul:- Between us all, we've played in a lot of bands, played a lot of gigs, played on plenty of recordings, so we've a wealth of experience in our ranks. I think this has helped a little to get things started, plus by this point, we all know what we're doing for getting our name around, getting on gigs, getting people to take notice, pretty happy with the way we've managed to worm our way into an extreme metal scene that is well saturated (which is of course a good thing!).
there's a whole range of extreme genres bundled up in your sound, is it a struggle to balance bringing variety with delivering "catchy tunes" ?
Paul:- To be honest, it's not been too difficult, I've always felt I've written in that style anyway, and it was especially great writing and learning stuff with Reth, as that was the 'thing' they were trying to do with every song they wrote and put into their set well before I was involved, so by the time I was writing songs with them in their style, it was pretty much ingrained. Writing stuff with Bond, who comes from a bit more of a melodic death / technical theory background, it has helped with that as well. I'm not particularly up to speed on the theory side, I just know how to write riffs and construct intricate, weird, different sounding songs, so we seem to meet somewhere in the middle as far as that is concerned.
Bernard:- All our taste is so varied when Pablo first started chatting to me about this band I knew it'd be a beast with many heads. I think there are a lot of catchy bits in the songs so far. Overall I reckon it's more about being interesting at all times. Keeping people's attention.
Bond: Having studied / played everything from technical metal to classical, jazz and blues, I am no stranger to the concept of genre transition. Therefore I don’t feel limited by stylistic constraints when I compose; music is merely my method of expression. The compositional process with Paul has always been so natural and organic, that there has never been a struggle of balance. If it works artistically we will use it, it’s as simple as that.
you've certainly created atmospheric sections to these tunes, is there a particular vibe you're aiming for?
Paul:- It's still early days I guess, we've only been writing for a few months, it'll probably take a couple or three lots of releases (be them demos, EPs or an album) and an initial stack of gigs before we're starting to really know the direction we're hoping to achieve, but, for now, how the first few songs are going is what we're aiming for, something a bit more black metal than I've personally done before, but still getting in the technical, extreme, deathly, dark, intense edges to everything as well. We're definitely after trying to add in something pretty unsettling though to the catchiness, which I think, so far, we've been pretty successful at. After listening back to the recordings quite a lot since we finished them, and now being able to listen to them a little bit detached from the fact that we wrote them, being able to judge them impartially, there are some fair intense parts kicking about! It makes me smile anyway! We're hoping to try and get a few releases out there pretty quickly, no time wasting here.
Bond: Yeah as Paul said, it’s early days, so we are still developing our sound. But the current material is certainly leaner closer to Black Metal than anything I’ve been involved in before. It was never a conscious decision, it really just evolved naturally. It has been our aim to defy expectation all along, keep the listener guessing.
do you aim towards any of your influences with your sound / mix?
Bond: We all have our influences, and they will always be a part of what we do, but we don’t base our sound around any particular artists. I believe that if you’re not doing something new, then you can’t justify the need for your art. People who know us from our past bands may have expected us to sound like a mixture of those styles, but I’d like to think that this is not the case.
Paul:- Not really. as with everything I've been involved with, I always try and show some of the influences, but moreso, show all and none of the influences at the same time. I always want things to have a bit of a refreshing slant to them. Something not heard or tried before, whether it's putting two styles of riffs together that shouldn't really work, like cold black metal into brutal slam death metal, or a crust riff followed by something ultra technical then into doom, whatever it is, there's always a way of making it flow coherently.
Bernard:- My favourite comment about it so far was that it's unlike anything they'd heard before. I figured that was a compliment.
can you explain your lyrical themes (jellyfish!)?
Paul:- Bernard's a freak! Lyrics have been written by both myself and Bernard, mine are more introspective, shrouded, probably nonsensical but prophetic sounding, and his are...
Bernard:- ...Stream of thought developed around themes that interest me. In the case of "Cnidaria" I saw these weird old diaramas of different types of jellyfish and it made me think about how alien they must have seemed when science first began examining them. Such strange, mysterious, deadly creatures. I related it back to human beings as a species. Also the work of H.P. Lovecraft is never far from my mind so the crawling chaos tends to cast a spectre over most of what I do.
there's a fair "blackened" element to your sound, do you feel any compulsion / concern to meet any TRVE/GRYM/KVLT standards of the genre and its philosophies?
Paul:- Heh, I'm not too bothered about that to be honest. Am expecting a split in the reactions from black metal fans, I can imagine some really hating what we're doing as a whole, but maybe liking a few of the riffs. I've always been a person who primarily just loves the riff, and so I think the music will reflect that, we don't have to be 100% anything, as long as all the riffs are good we're happy. Some of the ideals of the scene are atrocious, and, politically, we won't be getting involved in anything to do with that, but in the way that the style presents the mood of songs, the claustrophobic and depressing side of things, or the raucous, in your face, sharp sounding edge to things, we're all into that sort of thing anyway and want that to be a major part of the sound.
Bond: Well we thought about wearing corpsepaint and burning a few religious buildings down, but we’re all too lazy! Nah, I don’t feel any urge to meet the standards of KVLT nonsense; we’re focussed on the music alone.
Bernard:- TRVE/GRYM/KVLT is frequently just used as label to try to disguise something that is SHYT. Obviously the best bands endure and atmosphere is a hugely desireable thing but I feel no compulsion to impress some bedroom dwelling, badgerfaced racist. Bands shouldn't compromise on their own vision. If other people get it and like it then fair enough. If they don't then that's fine too. I'm enjoying myself.
knowing you have long been and still are very active in the underground music scene, do you feel it's healthy at the moment?
Paul:- For the most part yes, it's still got some work to be done, but I think a lot of people are getting sick of the apathy, the poor attitudes of some of the bands, promoters and the audience out there is killing smaller pockets of the underground, but then there are a hell of a lot of positive, forward thinking, energetic people who are starting to emerge. I'm still proud to be involved with it all, and have definitely seen some pretty intense ups and downs.
Bond: I personally think the UK underground is strong, but stuck in an artistic rut. The scene is dominated by bands who define themselves through one genre, and cannot think outside of the stylistic box. Being from Sweden originally, I have much more faith in the Scandinavian underground which seems to have transcended the restrictions and demands of ‘metal’.
Bernard:- Most of the best gigs I've been too are entirely made up of unsigned / DIY / underground bands. There are plenty of decent bands out there for people who can be bothered to look. You can get into most of these gigs for the price of a pint. Just have to make the effort.
how would you judge success for the band, and can you see the band and / or you personally playing indefinitely?
Paul:- The goal, or general aims, for me anyway, is to be playing 3 or 4 gigs a month, a couple of mini / tours a year, and get on a few european festivals. Reth had just played Obscene Extreme, done a mini Irish tour, played the UK Deathfest, and had some mint supports in the last year and a bit of being together, went out on a high when headlining a quality line up in Bradford, am hoping we can continue on in a similar vein really, regular gigs, decent supports and generally having a mint laugh as well! On the down side, for me, personally, this does feel like it will be my last gigging band, after playing for 16 years, priorities in life changing, and generally getting older, I have to think realistically, and I don't imagine I'll be doing this still in 20 years, unfortunately, but there's still plenty left in me just yet even just for one last flurry of music outpourings. Still far too many riffs left to get out there.
Bond: I think any artist who is able to create something unique has a place in the future of music, but success is a subjective term. As for myself, a musician is who I am, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon!
Bernard:- A house in Beverly Hills with a guitar shaped swimming pool. Mo' money dawg.
for more info and to hear the band check out
www.myspace.com/diascorium
www.diascorium.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/pages/DIASCORIUM/368092331130
The Destruction of Colwyn Bay III alldayer will be at The Royal in Colwyn Bay on Saturday 17th July, from 4pm, £5 on door and will also feature This is Turin, Impaled Existence, Aura Distorter, Apollyon, Extreme O.D., Merciless Savage and Prototype of Hatred.
the band was a side project of old, is it the main focus for all now?
Paul:- Yeah, the name came up as a possible band name years back, but never really progressed passed a few demo guitar and bass tracks and had different folks involved, but after the comatose situation that Reth found itself in I started thinking about resurrecting it with members that were up for doing lots of gigs and getting going quite quick, then since Reth's death, it's now become the main concern, for me anyway, other members have all got other bands going on, but we're all serious about getting lots of gigs, recordings and stuff out there.
Bond: Diascorium was initially a side project for me, something different to Morkret. But after some lineup issues and resulting tour cancellations, Diascorium became priority #1 and the aforementioned entered hibernation..
you've raised a lot of attention already, how do you feel progress is going?
Paul:- The original intention upon getting the finalised line up together was to try be ready for gigs by the end of May / start of June, and to have the first set of songs out in March, with an EP ready to dish out for free downloads in April, and our first gig is with Desecration and other mint bands on the 22nd May in Leeds, so all going to plan so far. The response from friends, other bands and generally has been top so far, and we're all happy with how things are sounding and progressing.
Bond: Within a mere 6 months of the band’s birth we will have released our first demo recording, played gigs with some prolific extreme metal artists, and appeared in the UK’s best selling extreme metal magazine, so yeah it’s progressing well!
Paul:- Between us all, we've played in a lot of bands, played a lot of gigs, played on plenty of recordings, so we've a wealth of experience in our ranks. I think this has helped a little to get things started, plus by this point, we all know what we're doing for getting our name around, getting on gigs, getting people to take notice, pretty happy with the way we've managed to worm our way into an extreme metal scene that is well saturated (which is of course a good thing!).
there's a whole range of extreme genres bundled up in your sound, is it a struggle to balance bringing variety with delivering "catchy tunes" ?
Paul:- To be honest, it's not been too difficult, I've always felt I've written in that style anyway, and it was especially great writing and learning stuff with Reth, as that was the 'thing' they were trying to do with every song they wrote and put into their set well before I was involved, so by the time I was writing songs with them in their style, it was pretty much ingrained. Writing stuff with Bond, who comes from a bit more of a melodic death / technical theory background, it has helped with that as well. I'm not particularly up to speed on the theory side, I just know how to write riffs and construct intricate, weird, different sounding songs, so we seem to meet somewhere in the middle as far as that is concerned.
Bernard:- All our taste is so varied when Pablo first started chatting to me about this band I knew it'd be a beast with many heads. I think there are a lot of catchy bits in the songs so far. Overall I reckon it's more about being interesting at all times. Keeping people's attention.
Bond: Having studied / played everything from technical metal to classical, jazz and blues, I am no stranger to the concept of genre transition. Therefore I don’t feel limited by stylistic constraints when I compose; music is merely my method of expression. The compositional process with Paul has always been so natural and organic, that there has never been a struggle of balance. If it works artistically we will use it, it’s as simple as that.
you've certainly created atmospheric sections to these tunes, is there a particular vibe you're aiming for?
Paul:- It's still early days I guess, we've only been writing for a few months, it'll probably take a couple or three lots of releases (be them demos, EPs or an album) and an initial stack of gigs before we're starting to really know the direction we're hoping to achieve, but, for now, how the first few songs are going is what we're aiming for, something a bit more black metal than I've personally done before, but still getting in the technical, extreme, deathly, dark, intense edges to everything as well. We're definitely after trying to add in something pretty unsettling though to the catchiness, which I think, so far, we've been pretty successful at. After listening back to the recordings quite a lot since we finished them, and now being able to listen to them a little bit detached from the fact that we wrote them, being able to judge them impartially, there are some fair intense parts kicking about! It makes me smile anyway! We're hoping to try and get a few releases out there pretty quickly, no time wasting here.
Bond: Yeah as Paul said, it’s early days, so we are still developing our sound. But the current material is certainly leaner closer to Black Metal than anything I’ve been involved in before. It was never a conscious decision, it really just evolved naturally. It has been our aim to defy expectation all along, keep the listener guessing.
do you aim towards any of your influences with your sound / mix?
Bond: We all have our influences, and they will always be a part of what we do, but we don’t base our sound around any particular artists. I believe that if you’re not doing something new, then you can’t justify the need for your art. People who know us from our past bands may have expected us to sound like a mixture of those styles, but I’d like to think that this is not the case.
Paul:- Not really. as with everything I've been involved with, I always try and show some of the influences, but moreso, show all and none of the influences at the same time. I always want things to have a bit of a refreshing slant to them. Something not heard or tried before, whether it's putting two styles of riffs together that shouldn't really work, like cold black metal into brutal slam death metal, or a crust riff followed by something ultra technical then into doom, whatever it is, there's always a way of making it flow coherently.
Bernard:- My favourite comment about it so far was that it's unlike anything they'd heard before. I figured that was a compliment.
can you explain your lyrical themes (jellyfish!)?
Paul:- Bernard's a freak! Lyrics have been written by both myself and Bernard, mine are more introspective, shrouded, probably nonsensical but prophetic sounding, and his are...
Bernard:- ...Stream of thought developed around themes that interest me. In the case of "Cnidaria" I saw these weird old diaramas of different types of jellyfish and it made me think about how alien they must have seemed when science first began examining them. Such strange, mysterious, deadly creatures. I related it back to human beings as a species. Also the work of H.P. Lovecraft is never far from my mind so the crawling chaos tends to cast a spectre over most of what I do.
there's a fair "blackened" element to your sound, do you feel any compulsion / concern to meet any TRVE/GRYM/KVLT standards of the genre and its philosophies?
Paul:- Heh, I'm not too bothered about that to be honest. Am expecting a split in the reactions from black metal fans, I can imagine some really hating what we're doing as a whole, but maybe liking a few of the riffs. I've always been a person who primarily just loves the riff, and so I think the music will reflect that, we don't have to be 100% anything, as long as all the riffs are good we're happy. Some of the ideals of the scene are atrocious, and, politically, we won't be getting involved in anything to do with that, but in the way that the style presents the mood of songs, the claustrophobic and depressing side of things, or the raucous, in your face, sharp sounding edge to things, we're all into that sort of thing anyway and want that to be a major part of the sound.
Bond: Well we thought about wearing corpsepaint and burning a few religious buildings down, but we’re all too lazy! Nah, I don’t feel any urge to meet the standards of KVLT nonsense; we’re focussed on the music alone.
Bernard:- TRVE/GRYM/KVLT is frequently just used as label to try to disguise something that is SHYT. Obviously the best bands endure and atmosphere is a hugely desireable thing but I feel no compulsion to impress some bedroom dwelling, badgerfaced racist. Bands shouldn't compromise on their own vision. If other people get it and like it then fair enough. If they don't then that's fine too. I'm enjoying myself.
knowing you have long been and still are very active in the underground music scene, do you feel it's healthy at the moment?
Paul:- For the most part yes, it's still got some work to be done, but I think a lot of people are getting sick of the apathy, the poor attitudes of some of the bands, promoters and the audience out there is killing smaller pockets of the underground, but then there are a hell of a lot of positive, forward thinking, energetic people who are starting to emerge. I'm still proud to be involved with it all, and have definitely seen some pretty intense ups and downs.
Bond: I personally think the UK underground is strong, but stuck in an artistic rut. The scene is dominated by bands who define themselves through one genre, and cannot think outside of the stylistic box. Being from Sweden originally, I have much more faith in the Scandinavian underground which seems to have transcended the restrictions and demands of ‘metal’.
Bernard:- Most of the best gigs I've been too are entirely made up of unsigned / DIY / underground bands. There are plenty of decent bands out there for people who can be bothered to look. You can get into most of these gigs for the price of a pint. Just have to make the effort.
how would you judge success for the band, and can you see the band and / or you personally playing indefinitely?
Paul:- The goal, or general aims, for me anyway, is to be playing 3 or 4 gigs a month, a couple of mini / tours a year, and get on a few european festivals. Reth had just played Obscene Extreme, done a mini Irish tour, played the UK Deathfest, and had some mint supports in the last year and a bit of being together, went out on a high when headlining a quality line up in Bradford, am hoping we can continue on in a similar vein really, regular gigs, decent supports and generally having a mint laugh as well! On the down side, for me, personally, this does feel like it will be my last gigging band, after playing for 16 years, priorities in life changing, and generally getting older, I have to think realistically, and I don't imagine I'll be doing this still in 20 years, unfortunately, but there's still plenty left in me just yet even just for one last flurry of music outpourings. Still far too many riffs left to get out there.
Bond: I think any artist who is able to create something unique has a place in the future of music, but success is a subjective term. As for myself, a musician is who I am, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon!
Bernard:- A house in Beverly Hills with a guitar shaped swimming pool. Mo' money dawg.
for more info and to hear the band check out
www.myspace.com/diascorium
www.diascorium.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/pages/DIASCORIUM/368092331130
The Destruction of Colwyn Bay III alldayer will be at The Royal in Colwyn Bay on Saturday 17th July, from 4pm, £5 on door and will also feature This is Turin, Impaled Existence, Aura Distorter, Apollyon, Extreme O.D., Merciless Savage and Prototype of Hatred.