Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 02:23 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Welcome to Metal Invader guys, how are you doing? Please tell us some things about the band.
Thanks for the invite! We’re a five piece death metal band from Jyväskylä, Finland. We have been working together as a band since 2009 and we’ve released two recordings known as “Ravens” (2012) and “Aberration of Mind” (2013). Our music stands between extreme and fast death metal with blackened tune to it.
“Aberration of Mind” is your EP and someone can listen to influences from whole metal music, so what are your influences?
It would be stupid to suggest that anyone could create something totally new in this flood of information that we live next to. We are not trying to imitate any acts around, but of course people have their influences. Those can be subconscious or conscious, but considering us, it’s totally subconscious. We are not trying to invent anything new by force, and you can hear if someone is trying to be something that clearly they are not. We are trying to make our music alive by putting as much of ourselves as we can into it. If it breaths, then we have matched our goal.
What are the lyrical themes behind the music of Apocryfal?
On “Ravens” MCD, lyrics revolved more around death and those who have been part of it. It’s a furious celebration of a certain doom, which we are all bound to. PV does our lyrics and his main inspirations for the lyrics are religious texts. Non-fictional books have a big role in the process as well. Subjects are chewed through and gullible interpretations of subjects are avoided. Lyrics on Aberration of Mind EP’s revolve around subjects of beliefs. Themes considered religion and problems around them. The album starts with a verse from Book of Lamentations sung in Finnish. Contra tells you a war story, which is justified by peoples trust in their own Truth. Mother of All revolves around Lilith based on Judeo-Christian scriptures. Some apocryphal texts suggest that Lilith was also a wife of Adam, hence the name – Mother of All. We didn’t want to make a traditional text about worshiping the demon. We rather wanted to implant the frenzy of a fanatic believer into the text. The title track tells you a story about a man, who really wants to believe but cannot find the Truth, even that he knows what he is supposed to search. It’s a tale of growth in a sense, and you can also see this as a story about a man whose faith is fading. The last track, A Theist, sums the album up and it’s a very essential part of the album lyric-wise.
I’ve seen that your EP is currently sold out! How do you feel about that, and what is the feedback of people out there in your scene?
It’s great to know that people are interested of our musical expression and it gives even more inspiration to work on new material. “Aberration of Mind” had a very good reception from most of the reviewers. We opened Saturday of the sold-out Steelfest Open Air 2014 and that was a big thing for us. There were over 1000 people there on both days and there were some pretty big acts including INQUISITION (USA), NIFELHEIM (SWE), VADER (POL) etc. We got to play there by participating their Demoni-contest and we won it with our EP’s title track. Easily, as the organizer expressed it.
What are the future plans of the band? Any live shows programmed?
We are currently writing new material for the next release and promoting Aberration of Mind. There are some upcoming live shows which are under discussion and the dates will be released soon.
And then, are you working on new material in order to write a full length album in the future?
As said above, we’re currently writing new songs for the upcoming full-length album, and we will inform you more when we have some facts to give.
Are there any difficulties for bands like you out there in Finland? Let’s say promotion, live booking..?
I would say that the live booking is the hardest thing in Finland. If you want to play live shows you need to have connections all over the country. Without them you have to send couple of e-mails and call several times just to get an answer from the venue. Often they don’t even bother to answer. Fortunately, we won that Steelfest 2014 contest and got some reputation because of it and it helps with these kinds of problems.
What can you tell us about the local death metal scene in Finland? Is it powerful? Finnish Death Metal-scene has lots of smaller underground bands, but just handful of them is taking it seriously and you can hear the difference between them. Some of them form a band and release one demo just to see if they can succeed with their music. If nothing happens, they break up and start a new project with a different name, but almost with the same group and do the same thing again. They don’t believe in their music and don’t deserve any kind of attention. Finnish scene has also bands who build their careers on steady ground and they are proud of their cause. They’re the ones that make the Finnish Death Metal scene as powerful as it currently is.
Anything else you would like to say?
You can get digital releases from both “Ravens” MCD and “Aberration Of Mind” EP for free at our Bandcamp. You can as well pay a few bucks from the digital editions. All the money goes into our full-length release.
Closing, the conclusion is yours…
Thank you for the interview, keep the underground flame burning!
www.facebook.com/Apocryfal
www.youtube.com/user/ApocryfalBand
https://apocryfal.bandcamp.com/
http://apocryfal.bigcartel.com/
