SOUL REMNANTS (Eng.)

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

We’ve mostly been jamming a bunch of new songs, playing some local shows, and listening to all the great death metal albums that have come out this year . We’re pretty honoured to be playing with Obituary when they stop by Massachusetts on Oct 13 and then were going to be releasing ‘Black and Blood’ on Halloween (Oct 31).

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

Tom our guitarist started it off back around the turn of the century, writing some tributes to the grim Scandinavian black metal and old school Death and thrash metal he loved more than life. Around that time I was looking for a positive outlet to my obsession with destroying mosh pits and screaming along to my favourite songs, so I looked around to find some similar minds. There were many years of practices going into the darkness of early morning, miscreant debauchery and ultimately arriving at a sound and band members that had a raw discipline, a relentless drive to achieve an evil sound. Along the way we put out a couple demos , the full length Plague of the Universe, and started playing a bunch of shows all over the state.

3- How could you describe your sound?

Old school (early 90’s) death metal, with lots of thrash and black metal elements.

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

Death, Cannibal Corpse, Gorguts, Slayer, Dissection, Decapitated, Suffocation, Hypocrisy to name a few. We are all inspired by the larger metal genre as well, Maiden, Priest, Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, the bands that started it and never strayed from the path.

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

So far a lot of people like it, it has been great to hear a positive response from all the bands we’ve grown up with around here, but at the same time not many people have heard the final mix because it’s not actually out yet, so we look forward to seeing what happens.

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

Yea definitely. I’ve been doing vocals in the band for almost a decade now, and the solos that our (relatively) new guitarist Chad lays down are pretty incredible, and Colin Conway joined a couple years ago and the layers and tightness his drumming adds to our sound goes a long way. He also wrote one of my favourite songs on the new album, Incinerator.

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

Hallucinogenic self destruction

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

We worked with Pete Rutcho again, an incredible musician and producer who always pushes us to new levels. He set us up and we went off. He brought his vocal mics and left them down in our basement, giving us unlimited time for vocals, so we took the opportunity to put everything we had into it, which ended up being gruelling and epic. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, it should hurt.

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

We haven’t really worked out a formula, but generally Tom or Chad bring in most of a song, and Colin and Ryan go off on it. Sometimes it’s the other way around though. My process is to listen to the music, and most riffs that need vocals tend to talk to me in a strange way, I hear stuff in them and it just seems like certain vocal patterns have to go there. I like to keep it abstract as long as possible, listening to what sounds good and making raw vocal sounds that go with the music. Then I fit the words to the patterns, sometimes its lyrics Tom wrote, and sometimes its words that come out of the abstract sound that fit there, and sometimes I have stuff already written.

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

Well, we’re hoping to get out and do some regional tours, and get ‘Black and Blood’ in as many ears as possible. We already have most of a third album written, so we just have to refine it and hopefully will be in the studio again sometime next year.

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 listening and keeping the brutal and grim music alive. We hope you guys get into the new album, and hopefully we will stop by your part of the globe soon!