DIRE OMEN (Eng.)

1) What are you guys currently up to?

We are planning to do a series of shows in support of the new album, “Wresting the Revelation of Futility,” which may coalesce into a tour. In addition, we are continuing to write new material and, which will likely take the form of EPs. The writing process is seeing some experimentation, so we’ll see where our sound goes as a result of this newer process.

2) History of the band?

The band was founded in 2009 by Roldy and other members who are no longer around. Kevin joined on drums shortly thereafter, and I joined on bass in 2010. The three of us have such a strong, coherent vision that we all seem to agree very well on, which was evident almost as soon as the three of us began writing music. “Severing Soul From Flesh” was a huge landmark for us – it generated great feedback, especially from bands and people we very much admire. This led, eventually, to our signing to Dark Descent and the full-length that is soon to be released.

3) Describe your sound?

Our music tries to create a unique take on underground black/death metal, primarily by incorporating old-school death metal with atmospheric black metal. Lately, we’ve focused on writing more chaotic music – not entirely departing from repetition of riffs, but having less traditional compositions, and the creation of very dense music through the use of sustains, unconventional riffing, and so on. Most of the songs on the album that can be described as such are the most recently written songs.

4) Band’s main musical influences?

Just in the metal genre, they range from Incantation, Immolation, and Leviathan, to Arkhon Infaustus, Revenge, and Portal. All of our songwriting influences come from very honest, vicious music. The diversity of influences creates a dynamic to our songs that is unique, and I think that our sound is definitely telling of where our inspiration comes from, but is also a departure from them.

5) Feedback for the new album?

The people whose opinions matter most to us – that is, bands in our genre that we respect – have given us across the board highly positive feedback. The reviews that we’ve read so far have also been quite positive, which is good to see.

6) Personally satisfied with the final outcome of the album?

Yes, it is an important statement for us, and we are satisfied. However, there were many frustrations and obstacles that had to be overcome, and the imperfections are ones that, we feel, did not hinder in any way the point we wanted to make with this piece. I think we left our best on the album in terms of the music itself, and our performances were blood and sweat put to tape. It was a very cathartic experience, finally having it released.

7) Production process for the new release? How has it been?

We recorded the album at Sonic Dungeon Studios, the same place where we did our EP, “Severing Soul From Flesh.” It was quite a long series of small sessions, but Tyson is a great guy to work with, and the tension and frustrations of the recording process were kept to a minimum as a result. The stress definitely boiled over, at times. The mixing and mastering was executed by VK Studios. VK understood our vision and the sound we wanted to go for and we were quite happy with the final product.

8 ) How do you use to work on songwriting?

The songwriting process is, at the end of the day, very collaborative, and a sum greater than its parts is the result. I would say that, as a rule, the songs are written individually and then arranged and edited collaboratively.

9) Near future plans?

A few shows, and possibly a tour, in support of the album. Nothing is set in stone, but we are already working towards that. New material is being written right now, but it won’t be recorded/released until we feel like this album has had enough circulation.