Power of
Metal.dk – ‘Heretic Rapture’ is your debut album, what kind of expectations do
you have for it?
Witchbreed – To write and produce “Heretic
Rapture” was a very demanding task but the final cut is a great personal and
collective achievement so I’m totally confident about the results and value of
our music. Concerning sales and “grand success” I really think that’s not our
main priority right now because we have to scope down our true dimension and
weight in the current scene, we still have a lot to prove as a band and we also
have to take our music to a lot more people. Of course we all wish and trust
“Heretic Rapture” will be a good seller, especially considering the huge effort
done by Mr. Lee Barrett & Ascendance Records and all the sacrifices we had to go
through just to make it happen, but that final word doesn’t depend on the band,
we’ve done our part the best we could which is to write and record the strongest
material we could have come up with, now it’s up for the business people to take
it to the next level and we all know that’s the tricky part nowadays.
Power of
Metal.dk – If you had to chose one song you feel represents Witchbreed today,
which song would you choose and why? Personally I would have chosen either
‘Symphony of the Fallen’ or ‘Eden’s End’.
Witchbreed – Both Symphony for the Fallen
and Eden’s End are challenging and inspiring songs that portray Witchbreed’s
most extreme and bold moments, so I guess they are good examples to represent
our actual sound. Nevertheless, songs like Thy Eclipse and even the mystic and
unorthodox Heretica are perfect examples of our full dimension; they carry our
roots and are often regarded as an open door for future paths.
Power of Metal.dk – I use the term progressive darkened metal to
describe your style, do you feel that covers it, and what would you tell
someone, who haven’t heard your music before?
Witchbreed – I don’t mind about getting
labelled as Progressive or anything else, but definitely our music is not an
upper. We move comfortably in the nostalgic and obscure atmospheric side of
music and as we try to implement some worked out riffs and structures I think
it’s natural to tag us as progressive. We all love bands like Nevermore and
Celtic Frost so we drink our influences from that sort of bands. I would say we
are a Heavy sounding Metal band with melody and atmospheric moments; whatever
people call us doesn’t really matter as long as they appreciate our hard work
and commitment to the music.
Power of Metal.dk – How did you come up with the title for the
album?
Witchbreed – I wanted a title that could
portray the spirit of the music and lyrical content of all the 13 songs we
recorded for our debut. It’s not a religious title but it does use religious
terminology to express the duality of thought we are into. Rapture is often
related to the religious state of ecstasy achieved by all the righteous
believers upon the return of their messiah, it’s a sort of ambiguous feeling
where salvation comes through pleasure. In Christian mythology it’s probably
one of the few times, if not the only one, where pain is not the key word as a
reward for devotion. Heretic Rapture tries to get into the duality of concepts
we deal with and it’s philosophical challenging, it blends the opposite sides of
the same world. It makes you think of religion at first but it also leads to
interrogation and it doesn’t take much to take you to possible different
meanings.
Power of
Metal.dk - Who has produced and mixed the album? How does the final result
compare to the idea you had going into the studio?
Witchbreed – Heretic Rapture was produced
by us and Waldemar Sorychta. We called in Waldemar and pre-produced the whole
thing in Portugal with him. Then we did all the recordings by ourselves and
sent it to Waldemar to be mixed and mastered by him in Germany. The way I see
it is that the recording of an album is always a developing process, what really
makes me excited about it is you can work during a long period of time with
riffs words and all sorts of ideas for a song but it’s not until you definitely
nail it the recording that you will see it as it really is. To turn all little
details noticeable and show off some of the hidden chords or whatever is what
really makes the whole thing so rewarding and thrilling. We try to dig as deep
as possible with our own ideas, getting to their hiding meanings revealing its
most bare naked emotions so often we end up with a big surprise when it comes to
final results. We embrace it as part of our own nature and working method,
maybe we are controlled experimentalists...
Power of
Metal.dk - Tell us a bit about artwork…
Witchbreed – Pleasure and devotion, the
front cover tries to capture the core of the meaning Heretic Rapture and the
ambiguity of human behaviour. What you see is not what your mind perceives as
pre-conceived; all senses come into play when our brain battles with
contradiction. The making of the cover was a very fun and creative process, I
discussed the idea with our photographer Carlos Diqvercia and got all the
necessary people into a photo studio to make it real, I certainly didn’t want a
100% photoshop front image. We spent all day doing different shots and angles
with Jael, the model in the cover, and in the end it all came out perfectly.
Power of
Metal.dk - Witchbreed – any special story behind your name?
Witchbreed – I’m a long time Marvel comic’s
aficionado and when Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 come out the whole universe of the
novel really caught my attention. The Witchbreed are people looked upon as
different, feared by some and hated by others the Witchbreed are outcasts and
stigmatized for their different features. And that’s what we feel as a band; we
work very hard and make a lot of sacrifices to get this record done, to keep
five different people motivated and the band united it’s a daily battle
considering the difficulties and barriers we have to face as a new band.
Power of Metal.dk – Any touring plans – any festivals booked?
Witchbreed
– Yes, we have some festivals and gigs booked in Portugal and will be
concentrating in our own territory for the rest of the year to promote Heretic
Rapture. Next 28th of August will be playing in Festival do Ermal in
the beautiful island of Ermal precisely with Pestilence, Sepultura, BLIND
GUARDIAN, OBITUARY, ANGRA, KORPIKLAANI, FIREWIND. Hopefully we will be able to
tour all over Europe next year, we have a strong live performance and I truly
believe we people out there deserve and appreciate a show like ours.
Power of
Metal.dk – Name the five musical pieces that you want to bring with you when we
send you to hell or heaven!
Witchbreed – Bathory - Hammerheart,
Celtic Frost – Monotheist, Type O Negative – October Rust, Watain - Sworn to the
Dark and The Prodigy – Fat of the Land.
Power of
Metal.dk - Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last
rants for our readers?
Witchbreed – I would like everyone reading
this to feel free to listen our songs by whatever means you find suitable,
illegal downloading included since there’s nothing we can do about it and in
case you like our music please go and get the record. Keep your mp3 files and
support us and our label by buying the record, that’s the best we all can do to
support our scene.
