TREPALIUM (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What’s currently going on into the TREPALIUM’s camp?
Harun Demiraslan (guitar) : The pleasure is mine. Well, we have just released our 4th album and we have already done many shows and many interviews to promote it. For that summer, in addition to some festivals, we are working on a video clip for the song Heic Noenum Pax. We’ll also have a co-headlining tour with Klone and Hacride all around france in october and we plan to do a european tour right after that.
– First of all, could you please make some history of the band?
Trepalium is an french extreme groovy-metal band from Bressuire formed in 2001. The band is composed of Cédric Punda aka «KK» on vocals, Ludovic Chauveau on bass, Sylvain Bouvier on drums, Nicolas Amossé and me on guitars. We have released 4 studio albums. We have signed with Holy records right after we recorded our first album Through The Absurd at Gojira’s studio in 2004. Joseph Duplantier from the band Gojira co-produced this album with Laurentx Etxemendi and appeared as a guest vocalist on the song «Savage». Later, in 2006, we released our second studio album, Alchemik Clockwork Of Disorder. In this album, we added new elements to our music, including stylistic variations and jazz parts. It received positive reviews and gives us opportunities to support bands such as . Gojira, Entombed, Behemoth etc…The same year, we published a music video for the song «Sick Boogie Murder», which was produced and written by Benoit Decaillon and Les films de la lymphe. We’ve also performed in various festivals, including Tatoo the mind festival, Fury Festival 2006, Brutal assault 2007 or else Hellfest 2006 and 2009. Afterwards, we returned to the studio to record our third studio album, XIII, with Sylvain Biguet producing and mixing them for a first time. This one was released on February 2009 in France, Germany and Benelux via Season of mist. We were featured on Gojira’ s French tour in February 2009 for the first tour in support of the album. And now, we have just released our 4th one named H.N.P ourselves, it’s an autoproduction. We have already started to give some shows and we have played at the Hellfest festival for the 4th time!
– And why did you pick “Trepalium” as the band’s name?
Because of the meaning. It’s a three-staked instrument of torture and so we needed a name to fit our music and lyrics.
– In your music you have always mixed elements from different musical styles as Death Metal or Blues among other so, what are the band’s main musical influences?
Many artists bands and genres have influenced us in many different ways but the main artists are Pantera, Meshuggah, Morbid Angel, Gojira or even non-metal bands like King Crimson, Herbie Hancock.
– Your new “H.N.P.” came out just a few days ago; how is its feedback being so far? Are you satisfied with the final result?
Yes! We’re very proud of that one. Compositions, way of playing, production, art-work…all that fits to us and most of Trepalium’s fans understand H.N.P even if some people and media prefer XIII or ACOD.
– At the end of the album you have included a cover for PANTERA’s “I’m Broken”. How did you come up with this idea? And what changes have you done to the song?
This band is one of our main influence so it cames naturally. With Pantera being one of our favourite bands we couldn’t have though for a better finish to this album i think. It’s pretty close to the original. We just apply our sound to the song and i have started with the basis of the solo for finally performed it in my way.
– After giving the album some listening I could say Jazz elements are more subtle compared to your previous “XIII”, was this a conscious choice?
It’s a conscious choice. Like for each album we try to improve our way of playing and composing. We love experimenting with music, pushing it in different ways. That one is the result of that state of mind. We wanted to obtain a more subtle and clear musical speech for that one.
– In fact is way more straight-forward; is this a direction you will follow on future releases?
Actually, it’s to early to talk about this but one thing is sure, i like this more straightforward approach of our songs.
– As always, “H.N.P.” is full of groove, which I think is something makes you stand out among other bands in your style. How important could you say is the groove for any TREPALIUM’s creation?
Actually, i started music listening Funk and jazz music but also bands like Pantera, Infectious Groove, Meshuggah…so groove became naturally a fundamental element in Trepalium’s composition.
– All this being said; how could you describe this new record in just 3 words?
Here (‘s) No Peace!
– Leaving the new album aside, you have always had the same line-up. Do you think this affects in a positive way the final result of your albums or maybe sometimes can make things harder?
I think in our case, as we are friends, this affects the band in a positive way cause it strengthen the cohesion of the group and permits to work in a discerning way.
– And finally, what are the near-future plans for TREPALIUM?
We plan to shoot a clip or two and we have already started to give some shows. The last one was at the Hellfest, it was great!! We will play at many festivals in France this summer like Motocultor fest, Festival des Arts Bourrins, Metal Rumble Fest IV…We will also go on co-headlining tour with Klone and Hacride for the 10 years of Klonosphere in october through France and our booking agency is working on possibilities of doing a tour support for europe at the end of the year.
– That has been everything from my side, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add some final words, feel free to do it.
Thanks to you and Queen Of Steel for this interview! For all fans and listeners Keep checking back with us, we’ll have many shows coming up over the next 6 months!!
