Impious
Impious is a band that
made a sensation and created a fuss around their name with their debut
album and throughout the years they proved that they are not another shooting
star, but they are here to stay. If you don't believe my words, then read
the interview below, check out their new album "Holy Murder Masquerade"
and see for yourselves!
1. CONGRATULATIONS ON “HOLY MURDER MASQUERADE”!
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
Thank you very much! I must say we’re pretty
proud of the album, but of course there are some things we wish we would
have done different. But hey, we’ll just do it better on the next one.
2. GIVE US IN BRIEF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF THE BAND’S LIFE AND PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE UP.
We formed in 1994 and in 1998 we released
our first album through Black Sun Records. We did two albums for them.
Then for our third album we signed with Hammerheart Records (now Karmageddon
Media). We did a tour with Necrophobic for this album and basically one
of the shows gave us a deal with Metal Blade Records. We released our fourth
album Hellucinate and this is where things really started happening. We
toured with Amon Amarth two times in Europe and then we did two trips to
Japan. And now we’re up in the spotlight with our new album “Holy Murder
Masquerade”. The line is Martin Åkesson on vocals, Robin Sörqvist
on lead guitar, Erik Peterson on bass, Mikael Norén on drums and
myself on guitar.
3. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU WERE ASKED BY YOUR
LABEL TO PRESENT YOUR ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
4. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF
YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU?
The best part is that we have finally learned
to master the skills to write a catchy song, and we do it with honesty
and passion. We’ve learned that we don’t need to put 20 riffs into each
song! The worst part is that we play live too rarely.
5. WHY DO YOU THINK THE METALHEADS SHOULD CHECK
YOU OUT? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE SCENE? IS THERE SOMETHING YOU
FEEL THAT SETS YOU APART?
Simply because it’s qualitative metal and
we do it with honesty. The thing that sets us apart from other bands is
that we don’t really care about what elements we bring into our music.
We like to mix them all, and if it’s good, then it’s good. Another thing
that is really special about our new album is the whole concept thing.
We did a concept album and took it a few steps further than any other band
has ever done.
6. WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN “HOLY MURDER MASQUERADE” AND YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASE “HELLUCINATE”?
I think the attitude is quite similar. The
difference is that the new album is more memorable and easier for the crowd
to sing along to during concerts.
7. ALTHOUGH YOU COME FROM SWEDEN YOUR SOUND ISN’T
THE TYPICAL MODERN MELODIC DEATH METAL, BUT IT HAS MANY ELEMENTS FROM THE
AMERICAN SCENE AS WELL. ACTUALLY I THINK YOU ARE CLOSER TO THE FIRST ERA
OF SWEDISH DEATH METAL BANDS. DO YOU AGREE? HOW DID THIS INCLINATION OF
YOURS COME FORTH?
I think it’s because we don’t really have
any borders or frames that we have to stay into. We also have no image
that we need to live up to. We just try to play what we like and we try
to do it as good as possible. Mixing all the different sounds is just interesting
and challenging for us.
8. WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES AND WHO ARE
THOSE MUSICIANS THAT MADE YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE KIND OF MUSIC YOU LOVE
AND WANT TO FOLLOW?
I would say my main influences are bands like
Metallica, Slayer and Testament. The thing that got me into this type of
harder music were bands like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Morbid Angel and
Entombed.
9. YOUR LYRICS DEAL WITH ANTI-CHRISTIAN, PAIN
AND DEATH ISSUES. WHICH ARE THOSE THINGS THAT ATTRACT YOU TO SUCH TOPICS?
We’re all nice and sympathetic people in the
band. We play the music because we love it, not because we have some big
“message” to our listener. And we are not political either. We’re just
against “the free mind”. We believe in that every human should be able
to think for himself. Too many people suffer and starve around the world
today because of religion. That’s wrong.
10. YOUR ALBUM IS A CONCEPT STORY SOMETHING THAT
IS OBVIOUS EVEN FROM THE ALBUM’S TITLE, HOWEVER, I’D LIKE YOU TO UNDERLINE
IN SHORT ITS MAIN ESSENCE.
The story is about this guy, Trent, who is
a true servant of God. At least according to his own sick mind. He’s soon
to complete his work and the listener/reader gets to follow him as he arrives
at his final destination. There are a lot of deaths, violence, blood, etc,
etc... It’s a brutal story indeed.
11. I LIKED THE OVERALL ARTWORK AND I THINK IT’S
ONE OF THE BEST WORKS I’VE EVER SEEN. HOW DID IT COME UP AND WHOSE IDEA
WAS IT? PLEASE DESCRIBE IT FOR OUR READERS.
We hired this Italian guy called Andrea Cavaletto
who does horror comics for a living. He did the whole booklet like a comic
book with the lyrics inserted in those speech balloons. Just like in an
ordinary comic book. I think it turned out really cool. The basic idea
to do the booklet as a comic book was my idea, but then we all decided
what should be in it.
12. IF YOU HAD A BIG BUDGET TO SHOOT A VIDEO CLIP,
WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
We’re actually going to shoot a video for
the song “Bloodcraft”, hopefully in a few days. We’ll try do bring in an
actor and bring the comics to life. So what happens in the booklet of those
songs will happen in the video. But it’s too soon to say right now.
13. HOW DO YOU PLAN TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? HAVE
YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS OR EVEN FOR A TOUR?
Actually we turned down a tour recently because
the package didn’t really fit us. So at the moment we’re just waiting for
the right tour to come up so that we can hit the road again. We love playing
live and that’s what we do best.
14. IS THERE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO BE ASKED
AND NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU SO FAR?
Yes! No one has ever asked me to bring the
band and play in Greece!
15. WHAT’S THE STRANGEST OR FUNNIEST INCIDENT
THAT HAS OCCURRED TO THE BAND?
The funniest was on our last trip to Japan.
We just had soooo much fun in general and the people there are just extremely
nice. The show we did in Tokyo was my personal favorite so far!
16. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE EMOTIONS, WHAT WOULD THEY
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Wow, this was a hard question. It would be
a friendly aggressive feeling, that would just make you want to party!
Haha! And if our music was a painting, it would be a painting of a tank
shooting beer instead of missiles!
17. THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE
TO MENTION? LEAVE A MESSAGE TO YOUR FANS…
Thank you very much for this interview, I
had a good time answering it. All metal heads in Greece should definitely
check out our album. If you like it, then buy it or steal it! Hope to see
you on tour one day! Cheers!
Christine Parastatidou
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