There are really few bands which can combine various musical kinds. Darzamat is one of them and has been doing it since the moment it appeared on the musical stage, so already for as long as 14 years. The musical source of the band lies in symphonic metal. However, with every new record Darzamat has interlaced various new elements, creating this way the style characteristic for itself. Joining different stylistics and sorts of metal, the band has not forgotten, however, about the atmosphere of dusk being very close to the band. The band owes its name to the Slavonic mythology where Darzamat is a deity protecting and guarding gardens and forests. This very symbolism is permanently present in band's compositions and melts into their musical creation on the textual, musical as well as visual level. Their new album that will be released tomorrow made a big impression on me, so time for the Power of Metal to ask all about it. Powerofmetal.dk: Congratulations with your new record. Before I am going to ask you some questions about the new album, could you please introduce the band to us, in case the readers don’t know you. Flauros: Thank you very much! Darzamat was created in the latter half of the 90's. back then we recorded two things: the full-length album 'In The Flames of Black Art' and MCD 'In the Opium of Black Veil'. then, after a long break we released an album which was a signal for me to start thinking of changes in the band. 'The Oniriad' album, which is what I mean here, was a huge compromise between musicians who naturally steered in opposite directions.In 2003 we had a revolution in the ranks and the result was simple: of all the pre-2003 era musicians practically only I remain. This resulted in a serious change - in musical direction, in style, in image. I wanted to refresh Darzamat, which basically meant putting a new band together. Before, it had been really hard for me to find a compromise with the original founding member, Simon. Our visions as to what the band should sound and look like had been completely different; our priorities had differed. back in 2003 I even thought I should start a totally new project, but many people made it a point to convince me to continue with Darzamat. That is why the history of the Darzamat-as-we-know-it-now really dates back to 2003. This fresh line-up has been responsable for 'Semidevilish', 'Transkarpatia' and 'Solfernus' Path', as well as the DVD 'Live Profanity'. We began playing live, which we hadn't done before, in the 90's. That has been solely a studio effort. This is already your fifth record in 14 years, personally I don’t know any one of the earlier ones (yes I should be ashamed I know), could you tell us what has changed on the new album compared to the others? Flauros: As I said before, the last three albums are much more coherent musically. They constitute a well thought-out direction which we have been following for some years now, and as such they are quite seperate from the three earlier releases. Basically this is a new band. Back in 2003 I was briefly entertaining the thought to start a totally new project, but many people were trying to convince me to go along with Darzamat. Today I am much more comfortable speaking of the last three albums, which are decidely closer to the way I want to create my music. When it comes to differences between these releases, I don't think there are any drastic changes from one to another. We've been evolving, slowly but surely, adding more and more new elements to out style. I think that we are consistent in making Darzamat reach for the more modern domains of metal music. At the same time we are careful not to lose our specific spirit. We try to evolve rather than mutate and lose our character. It is precious to have fans take our new album and know instanly it's Darzamat. The band uses many different styles in their music, the biggest part however is black-metal, but also gothic. What bands are your biggest influences? Flauros: Our musical inspirations constitute quite a vast array of elements. Naturally, most of them fall into the category of 'heavy', be it metal or rock. But there is also a place for classical music and ambient music. It would really take a long time to list bands and styles we are fascinated by. On the first records Kate did the female vocals, why did she quit and was it difficult to find new singer Nera? Flauros: It was some years ago that Kate moved to the USA, where she chose to live on a permanent basis. She met someone there, got married and had a child. At this stage our cooperation turned out to be impossible, which is why we decided to find another female vocalist. That wa in 2003. Frankly I must say we were really lucky - we heard Nera's previous band on Rock Radio and, after a couple of conversations it turned out that we could try to work something out together. And that is how Nera joined our ranks. On the internet I listened to some songs of the first albums, and I have to say that Nera is a lot better than Kate, do you agree on that? Flauros: Nera definitely changed the face of the band. Her characteristic voice is one of the most important features recognizable as Darzamat's own. The timbre of Nera's voice is much more devilish than Kate's. Added the charisma, which she has tons of, the whole persona ideally fits the new direction in which Darzamat started to go when she joined us. This personal change was a shot of adrenalin for the band, and it gave us a strong push forward. In the info sheet I read that Andy La Rocque has signed again for the production, but I read also that Jonas Kjellgren did it, what is the truth? Flauros: This is some sort of a misunderstanding which surfaced only lately, so I make haste to correct it: the production of the 'Solfernus path' album was handled by Jonas Kjellgren. It was the Scar Symmetry axeman who mixed our new album. We were well acquainted with Jonas's previous work: Katatonia, Sonic Syndicate, Centinex and Steel Attack, to name but a few. But it was our friend Marek Dobrowolski, drummer for One Man Army and the Undead Quartet, who recommended Jonas to us, as he had worked with him before and knows his skills and abilities first-hand. The preliminary talks with Jonas made us feel very optimistic. Jonas Mixed one song of ours and the effect was staggering. It only reinforced the idea that it had to be him. The cooperation was smooth; Jonas is very patient and listens carefully to any sort of suggestions from the band. In my view, he is presently one of the best young generation producers, in Europe anyway. As for Andy La Rocque, he did make his appearance on the album, but in a different role. He played a guitar solo in our song, "King of the Burning Anthems". Andy is not only an excellent guitar player and a producer, but also a great personality. Yes, we did meet during the sessions for our previous album. We've been in touch ever since, and when another occasion for cooperation arose, we didn't hesitate for a second. Him playing a solo on a Darzamat album was a dream come true; it was really supernatural that he agreed to participate in the sessions. This is the most important album in the history of the band, and it took us a lot of work. We poured loads of energy and emotions into it, and the presence of La Rocque on this album is the crown jewel in the whole structure. I take enormous pride in the fact that he is there, because so far all the records he has appeared on as a guest performer are special. Who is responsible for most of the songwriting? Flauros: This time everything began with creating the concept and writing the lyrics. Only when I was done with that did we begin writing the actual music. The burden was mainly to be carried by Chris, our guitar player and Spectre, the keyboard man, but I kept a vigilant eye and ear on what was going on at the moment. I worked with them to make sure they would reflect the story of the Solfernus Path in the best way they could. Later, together with Nera, we began arranging the pieces, then we introduced corrections to what we'd done so far - finally - we worked with Spectre to come up with atmospheric intros to round off the whole project. I described your music as a very original mix of Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Epica and Nightwish, can you agree on that? Flauros: Perhaps certain musical elements characteristic for the music as created by these bands can be found in our music too, but still I think such an opinion is oversimplified. Especially in the case of Nightwish or Epica - we really have little in common with their style. On the other hand, comparisons to these great bands do not make me uncomfortable - for me they only confirm that the path we are on leads in the right direction. In my view, Darzamat's music has very specific atmosphere and this atmosphere is not to be found in any of the aforementioned bands. And this is our main strength. Your new album Solfernus' Path is a concept album. Can you tell us something about it? Flauros: Yeah, for the first time in our history we decided to create a concept album. The idea was a novelty, but to be honest we had been thinking of such a move for quite some time. Since the days of my youth I've been fascinated with concept albums, such as released by, say King Diamond. So that move was simply unavoidable, it was just a question of time. A coherent story to be told by lyrics and music alike is much more a challenge than fashioning ten new songs in the same stylistic vein. As the story unfolds, so does the music and both elements have to go hand in hand. it is, in a way, like a movie script, created to pull the audience in. The story told on the album takes place in a mystic scenery as provided by Countess Josephine von Küchmeister's manor, the inspiration for which we derived from two truly fantastic places in Silesia, namely the Willa Caro in Gliwice and the palace in Plawniowice. The tale itself is set in the beginning of the 20th Century. Our main hero is a young medical student who undergoes a spiritual transformation - he experiences the existence of the incorporeal world and perceives the other side. The whole story is permeated by a fairy tale-like atmosphere, full of occult key concepts. Nothing is obvious, nothin is predictable. Naturally, the eponymous Solfernus is not the main hero, he's just a gray eminence. This character is respectfully lifted from a work entitled Playing with the Devil, written by Czech dramatist Jan Drda. Still, this is just inspiration, an impulse which does not mean we take Drda's story as-is. In fact, his play is grotesque and rather humorous. Our story, on the other - left! hand (hahaha) has a totally different character, closer to horror stories of a Polish classic Stefan Grabinski than the work of the Czech playwright. You come from Poland, how is the metal scene there? Of course we know Vader, but are there a lot more bands? Flauros: Metal in Poland has been growing stronger and stronger. The numbers of recently created bands say that; the brilliance o many of them says that as well. The musical quality of our native bands rose to a new level; the scene of extreme metal is symply unbeatable. It's enough to mention Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated (recently rising from the ashes) and Hate, lately picking up popularity and speed. We also boast a great underground black metal scene, where you can find tons of good bands. To top that, there is the whole atmospheric music scene, where - apart from Riverside, the unquestionable leader - we have quite a few very good and interesting young bands. That said, the originizational level of the metal scene here shoots large holes in the pride we may feel. We still lack a real - and I mean REAL - summer festival. We don't have too many music magazines and record labels interested in promoting this music either. Is the band going on tour to promote the new album and what countries will you be playing? Flauros: Naturally we will want to play as many gigs as possible to promote our new album. At this moment we are in the process of looking for the right concert agency which would lay their support foe us. I hope that in a couple of weeks we will be able to disclose what our choice in this matter is. Still we want to get some action before that is settled, so we started booking the dates ourselves and this year we are playing three festivals: in Poland, Belgium and Ukraine. Also, in February 2010 we are scheduled tp dp a 10 gig tour in Poland. We're looking forward to some serious touring around Europe in a good company, and we are especially eager to play in Germany. Our past experiences with the German leg of our live endeavours were truly fantastic, so we are as enthusiastic as can be to return. Which five albums can’t you live without? Flauros: Black Sabbath - Paranoid, King Diamond - Abigail, Slayer - Reign in Blood, Bathory - Blood Fire Death and Dark Throne - a Blaze in the Northern Sky. I could go on like this forever, but you asked for only five. These ones have left the most distinct marks on me in certain moments of my life. Anything else you want to tell our readers? Flauros: I also must add that next year we plan to release our side project albums. Our singer, with a little help from our axe man Chris, is preparing a debut album for something called Neranature. Nera lends her name to this project, which will be closer to alternative rock, as it evokes the spirit of The Gathering or Katatonia rather than the true metal roar. There will be loads of great harmonies and melodies, so watch out for that. As for me, I'm in for a little exhumation session as I'm planning to 'reload' my forgotten old band, Mastiphal. We already got together with the guys for a couple of rehearsals and we filled them with dirty old black'n roll, so you can expect tough and non-compromising music coming your way. Thank you for your questions and support.
Interviewed by Reinier de Vries |
