CENTURIAN (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with CENTURIAN?
“Things are going very well. We are very excited about our new release. After many years we finally managed to get the band going again and some hard work is paying off.”
– You will soon release «Contra Rationem», which is your first album in none less than 12 years. What have you been up to during this time? I guess the different musical projects the band’s members are involved in may have had something to do with this but, will we have to wait so much time until your next opus?
“After Centurian split up in 2001 Rob (guitarist and main songwriter) concentrated his new band “Nox”, together with me and Patrick. That band didn’t make it either, so Rob basically just started writing for himself again. When I heard those tracks I got pretty excited about them and started playing for Rob as a drummer instead of doing vocals. We got Niels and Patrick involved again and started first as Nox, but the songs we made just had more of a Centurian feeling to them. That’s why we decided to rename the band to Centurian again.”
– This also makes me wonder how was the songwriting process for this new album. With so many years of silence in between, were you collecting riffs and ideas since your previous «Liber Zar Zax» came out?
“Rob can only write for one band and has a very unique style. He has been writing and collecting material all these years and of course released a lot of it with Nox. The songwriting for this album went really well, me and Rob know eachother for years and we both had a very clear idea of how this record should sound.”
– And this being said; how has the band changed/evolved since that album was unleashed?
“I think we all have lots of experience and we got older as well. So not only have we become a much tighter band, I think we also improved as songwriters. Most important is that we are all on the same level in this line-up.”
– This has been your first opus with CENTURIAN as the band’s drummer so, how has this transition been?
“I think it works out very well. The only awkward thing was playing the old songs after so many years. I’ve never played those on drums before, but knew every second of em cause I’ve been singing them many times. Me and Rob were actually suprised we managed to play about 7 songs in a week or 2.”
– Your replacement on vocals is Neils Adams; how has he fitted in? And how/why did you choose him?
“Niels was already my replacement in Nox and I think he’s one of the sickest singers I know. Niels is capable of doing lots of stuff with his voice and we need that in Centurian. Also he’s a killer frontman. I still make all the vocalpatterns, but Niels is a very easy guy to work with and comes up with killer ideas himself. All together he’s just a great guy to work with!”
– After giving the album some spins I would dare say this is your most diverse record so far but, was this something you were striving for?
“We want each song to tell it’s own story and we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We’ve always had that approach so for me it’s hard to say what record is more diverse. I just think this one has the strongest songs.”
– Beside the overall straight-forward approach the CD also has certain technical touch shown into a well-cared songwriting and elaborated structures (in fact in general this is a really dynamic opus). Due to this, could you please tell us how was the songwriting process like?
“Rob usually comes up with a skeleton for a complete song. He programms some really basic bassdrums and snares on them, just to give me an idea. After that all we do is work out details. Some songs needed half a year for us to realise a certain riff was too long or too short, that kind of stuff, so it’s a lot of reviewing your own material, and me and Rob talking for hours about certain tracks, just so we both think and feel the same about a song.”
– I have also noticed there is some kind of a pretty interesting sense of disharmony, and we can already hear that on tunes like the opener, «Thou Shallt Bleed for the Lord Thy God», with pretty personal guitars by the way. Could you say you are still shaping your own identity and looking for some stamps to make your sound recognizable?
“It’s not written just to be different. Rob just writes different, but it definitely makes the sound recognizable. In the end it’s everything together that shapes the identity.”
– Anyway speed and aggresiveness are also important features of CENTURIAN so, how important is to have dynamic songs and how important is to unleash this wrath into your songs? How important is to mix both opposite sides of your creation?
“The message we bring to people ask for more than just one emotion to express it. Some parts can be fast, some slow, some depressive, some weird and wicked. It depends on what the song is all about. We like variety and we also want to show every side possible of this band.”
– Despite all this, you have managed to provide a really honest and organic sound, in fact I have read you recorded the album pretty fast. Would you mind to elaborate a bit on this? And what kind of production did you go for?
“With all the modern techniques we have in recording I think a lot of bands are losing identity. Not all, but many bands go for the “perfect” production, and end up sampling everything and playing the stuff note for note. Lots of these bands dramatically fail when they have to play live, but also all sound the same on cd. We took the oldschool approach, so no clicktrack, real drums, real guitars and complete takes. Some songs were actually nailed in one take.”
– This being said, what could you say you are bringing new or different to the Death Metal scene?
“Hell no, this has been done before and more bands are doing it. People are done with everything sounding the same. It was only a matter of time before people realized the perfect production does not exist. The perfect production should be different for every band.”
– All this about «Contra Rationem» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
“Centurian is back!”
– As I said earlier, all of you are playing in different bands, for instance you have just released an album with the Spanish «one-man band» INFECTED FLESH but, what do each band you are in provide you the other can’t? And is it easy to organize the schedules of all of them?
“Infected Flesh is something completely different than Centurian, it relates more to the older Severe Torture albums, but still it brings something new to the table for me. Me and Roger (IF) also had a very clear idea about how the record should sound, so I made this with a different mindset than everything else I do. That’s way I can get the most out of myself. It’s not hard to schedule this cause I don’t practise or do many liveshows with Infected Flesh.”
– Being that active may take you a lot of time and effort, so I guess the hard work may be gratifying. Due to this I would like you to tell us why all this work is worth it, what have these years of musical experience taught you.
“Why it’s worth my time is very simple, cause I enjoy playing death metal. After all these years I’ve learned that hard work will pay off. That doesn’t automatically mean you will sell much records, but you have to be satisfied yourself with what you created. The rest is a bonus.”
– And finally; what are your near-future plans?
“The album will be released januari 28th via Listenable records, so I hope we can hit the road after that and play some cities around the globe. Also, Rob already started writing new material, so we have plenty of stuff to do in 2013!”
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
“Thanx for this interview! Thanx to everyone for supporting Centurian over the years, hope to see you soon!!! Believe nothing, dare all!!! …Seth 333”
