SOLACE OF REQUIEM (Eng.)

1- Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What are you guys currently up to?

Well right now we’re pretty much done with all the launch preparations for the new album, so we’re basically just waiting for all the proverbial shit to hit the fan. We’re really excited about the release of our videos and promotional efforts for this album. As well as the album’s release itself. We really believe in the new music we have created and we know deep down that people will want to hear this album. We know this because we want to hear this album. This is what we’ve wanted to hear from extreme music for decades, so we’re sure that others have been waiting for something like this too. Being original doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good, but it sure doesn’t hurt! So it’s a very exciting time for us right now and we’re just trying to enjoy the calm before the storm.

2- First off, could you make some history of the band?

I started this band in 2001, from the ashes of a band (Sarcophagus) I was in that had the same members in the early nineties. We started out just practicing our asses off several times a week, with no real intention of ever making a “real” album. All that changed eventually, once we realized we needed to record the material to at least save it for posterity. So we all put our money together and had our music recorded at a local studio in Virginia. After we had the product in hand, we decided to shop it to a few labels. After all, we were very proud of that album and wanted to see if others liked it as much as we did. Turns out, they didn’t. HaHaHaHa But we did manage to have a few suitors that found some promising things in our first album. Enough so to land us a record deal in Germany and fund a new album (Utopia reborn) which we went on to release in 2006. We toured a lot for that album and although we didn’t have a large following, we really grew a lot in those next few years, both musically and personally. Those were the years that we really built our contacts up and started to get to know a lot of people in the industry. One of the contacts we made was with Andy Classen in Germany. We eventually went to Andy to record our album The Great Awakening, which was ultimately released in 2010, after a long (losing) battle to have the album signed to a label a bit larger and with more resources than the one we were on at that time. After getting jerked around by labels and eventually having to release that album ourselves, we decided to try to get our shit together a little better before we attempted to walk that road again. So “getting our shit together” is exactly what we did! We started that process by writing an album unlike what any other band had even attempted before. We started studying different sounds, writing styles and especially ourselves. Trying to discover what our band was all about and trying to be painfully honest with ourselves about our prior work. This whole process was key to what we have become today. We changed our whole approach to music and like with martial arts, we decided to accentuate our positive points and try to use our weaknesses to our advantage. By the time it was all said and done, we had created an album that was so different and so unique, that we knew if we did a good job of recording and shopping the material we’d find ourselves in a very good position within the industry. So we contacted countless studios, to gauge which one would be best for our new sound and Mana Studios in Florida was our unanimous choice. We couldn’t have picked a better studio and engineer to work with! The experience was awesome and in the end we had created one hell of an album that was never compromised on any level. Shortly after, we created a press kit and started shopping the album to any and all labels and managers that we felt could genuinely help us. Many people responded to our press kit mailing, but two companies stood out to us more than the rest. We contacted those two entities and came to terms with both of them for a record deal and a management contract. That brings us full circle to where we are today. Proudly signed to ViciSolum Production and managed by a living legend (Jon Knight) at The Flaming Arts Agency.

3- How could you describe your sound?

This is by far the hardest part of any interview I ever do! I can imagine it’s pretty common to have bands say they are original, innovative and that their sound is hard to put a finger on, but I really don’t know a proper way to describe how we sound. Of course one could say we are “blackened Death Metal” and we play a form of that genre that is extremely technical (so we get “technical Death Metal” a lot too), but that would be ignoring the one thing that sets us apart from other bands! Our opinion of what we sound like is all based on how we write our songs. I think one of the descriptions we have online says it best. To paraphrase that statement, it basically says that when you hard-pan your speakers (left and/or right) you will hear two entirely different songs. Then, when the speakers are center balanced, the two separate songs create an illusion of a third (main) song. This statement by no means explains our sound, but it does make you aware of the complexity. However, that’s not the end of the magic! We go many steps further by taking great pride in coordinating our songs. Weaving together a tapestry of seemingly nonsensical and chaotic noise, to create a landscape of atmospheres that are perfectly blended in such a way that the music sounds «normal» (for lack of a better word). I do realize that this too does not explain our sound in any great detail. However, at the risk of being cliché, Solace Of Requiem is just one of those bands that you have to hear in order to understand what it sounds like. No matter what you decide after hearing us, you won’t be able to say you’ve heard anything like it before.

4- What are the band’s main musical influences?

This answer would differ from member to member. But, I’d say we all have a similar taste in music. That is to say, we all have a very diverse background in music, but we are all attracted to the same thing within music. We’re all attracted talent! Any band or musician that is extremely talented will be well received by us. This includes Rock, Metal, Pop and even Rap. We’re musicians and we love to hear talented musicians perform. I suppose that is one of the things that allows us to produce such a unique sound and style. We’re not influenced by any specific band or genre. We simply enjoy talent and that makes us unsusceptible to influence from trends or the music others are putting out within our own genre.

5- How is the feedback for your new album being?

Very well! We’ve had several reviews of the album, as well as input from friends and family members and all of the responses we’ve had have been very

positive! There were only two album reviews we’ve had so far that seemed to not like our music. Both from the same country, which I will not name 😉 However, out of the many reviews we’ve had so far (and with the exception of the two mentioned above), the lowest score we’ve had has been an eight out of ten. There was one seven in the bunch, but we’re convinced the reviewer meant to give us a nine but was dyslexic and slightly confused. HaHaHaHa

6- And are your personally satisfied with the final outcome?

Absolutely. We’ve been very fortunate from jump. We had arguably one of the best producers in the business create our album, a no nonsense kind of manager that works his ass off for us, as well as a label that actually cares about us and wasn’t/isn’t afraid to put their money where their mouth is. We couldn’t possibly ask for a better situation!

7- How could you describe this opus in just 3 words?

This is the easiest question you’ve asked so far! 🙂 EPIC FUCKING BRUTALITY!

8- How has the production process for your new release been?

Mana Studios was the best thing that could have ever happened to us. We’ve worked with many producers and studios over the years, but we can say without a doubt that Mana Studios, Erik Rutan and Brian Elliot, have forgotten more about engineering an album than most people will ever know! They are perfectionists and for the music we were recording, we really needed it to be recorded by perfectionists. So many times in the past we had discovered that studios and their engineers were only concerned about making a good product to spread the word about their studio and prices. There was none of that at Mana! They cared about the MUSIC! This was vital to us, considering our music is so precise. Producing our album at Mana was a very fortunate thing for us to do and we’ll never go to another studio as long as they’ll have us back. I assume they would have us back, as we didn’t throw feces on the walls nor break any equipment while we were there. But hey, there’s always next time! LOL

9- And how do you use to work on the songwriting?

Our songwriting is our trade secret and so we can’t divulge too much information about how we go about writing our brand of controlled chaos. However, I can say this…. A large amount of marijuana was incinerated during the writing process of our newest work. 😉

10- Finally, what are you near-future plans?

TOUR! We want to tour as much as possible for this album and that’s exactly what we plan on doing! We have several things in the works, as well as a confirmed tour with Ulcerate and Wormed in Europe this November. But there will be more touring than only with Ulcerate through Europe! Only time will tell what comes to fruition, but we’re damn sure excited to see how it all pans out.

11- That’s all from our side, thanks again for taking your time to answer our questions. If you now want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Well thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you and your audience! As for a closing statement, I can only say this: Be careful what you teach your children! One day this world will be theirs and we need them to be smart, productive members of the human race. As long as the parents of the world are teaching their children hate and intolerance toward others, we will never break the mold of having a world filled with people bent on destroying our planet’s resources and its inhabitants for gains of power and profit. There is no man in the sky that is going to save you from death. It is an inevitable part of life. Teaching children to believe in such nonsense will not only continue to create the kind of bloodshed we see in the world today, but it will also convince them that their actions are somehow warranted and ultimately forgiven. And more tragically, it will stymie science, which is the only true measure of the world we find ourselves in. We know so little about our realty and no man on this planet has ever discovered how or why this reality exists. Making up answers to the greatest question ever asked is not only ridiculous, but it is also irresponsible. If we’re ever going to find a way off of this rock and become the lords of our own destiny, it will surely begin with science. Thank you for your time and please don’t forget to watch our new video and take a listen to our new album. We assure everyone that they will not be wasting their time! Links are below to our websites. HAIL SCIENCE!

HOMEPAGE: http://www.solreq.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/solaceofrequiem

YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/solreq

REVERBNATION: http://www.reverbnation.com/solaceofrequiem

GOOGLE PLUS: https://plus.google.com/+Solreq

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/solaceofrequiem

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/solreq