DISTANT SUN (Eng.)

1- Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What are you guys currently up to?
Hey mates! It’s Alexey Markov from DISTANT SUN, Russia. We’re kind of promoting the new album! It’ll be out in a few days, in May 2015, and we’re really looking forward to getting the CDs in our hands! Everything is now set and I can’t wait!

2- First off, could you make some history of the band?
It started as a one-man project when I recorded the 5-song EP called SUNLESS CITADEL in 2011. It was self-released, but in about a year a small Russian label called SUBLIMITY RECORDS re-released it as a limited edition cd. For the debut album DARK MATTER I recruited my fellow bandmates from the Russian thrash metal band SHADOW HOST – Artem Molodtsov (bass), who took a great part in songwriting, and ERLAND SIVOLAPOV (also CONQUEST), one of the best Ukrainian drummers out there. Not wishing to take a step back, we recorded 10 all-new songs and our debut album DARK MATTER is finally ready.

 
3- How could you describe your sound?
It’s heavy, fast, heavy, melodic. And heavy. Maybe too heavy for a power metal band, but we like it. Down-tuned guitars (C# is our main tuning, but we have songs in B and even A – yes, low A), a lot of bass drums. We’re somewhere inbetween ICED EARTH and BLIND GUARDIAN, but you’ll hear Hetfield’s style vocals as well. It’s a mixture between European melodies and American powerful rhythms.

 
4- What are the band’s main musical influences?
It’s mostly speed metal. ANNIHILATOR, BLIND GUARDIAN, RAGE, OVERKILL, ICED EARTH. But also melodic stuff like ANGRA and GAMMA RAY.

5- How is the feedback for your new album being?
It’s good, but not bombastic, but we’ve only just started. We need to get to work J The second one should be even better, so we really gotta try hard and write a lot of marvelous material. And we will.

 
6- And are your personally satisfied with the final outcome?
Yes, very. It’s just what we wished for. It’s amazing. We love it. And you will, too. We did spend some time to correct some minor things but now we don’t regret anything. The songs are great, the tracklist is perfect, the musicianship is solid, and the production is the best we could afford.

 
7- How could you describe this opus in just 3 words?
I love this question. It makes me think. Heavy, fast, adventurous.

 
8- How has the production process for your new release been?
We started recording in September 2014. It took us about 5 days to do the rhythm guitars, 4 days to record the drums, a few weeks for vocals and bass. The mixing began in April – our sound engineer sent us the files and we send our feedback. He then corrected everything we needed (for some songs it was, like, on the spot, while some were difficult and required several updates).

 
9- And how do you use to work on the songwriting?
We composed 5 songs together – sitting in our home studio, then recorded a demo and started polishing them. As for other 5, they were written independently – first, a guitar with computer drums, then vocal parts with lyrics. We usually had some pieces, like a verse, a chorus, a bridge, or just a weird guitar riff, and then tried to combine them in several possible ways. It’s harder than it sounds. Then we recorded everything and send to our drummer so that he can play the songs the way he wants. Then we record the rest, vocals and guitar solos being the latest parts.

 
10 – Finally, what are you near-future plans?
Now we need to learn how to play the songs we recorded J We never played them live, so we have to learn them by heart. Some are really tough to play and sing at the same time, and some are very fast and require a lot of stamina. So that’s the main task for today. We want to shoot a video or two. And and want to start writing a second full-length. Why wait?

 
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.
Thanks for asking. Thanks for reading this! We love you. Stay metal and rock on!

 
OUR LINKS:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/distantsunband
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFxZn4QLE7cHKkpbo64k7ig
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Distant+Sun

Previous EP «Sunless Citadel»:
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sunless-citadel-ep/id957593733
Google.Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Distant_Sun_Sunless_Citadel_EP?id=Bon7gq3kijuys5bjn3dvf3nnsja