Little
Dead Bertha
Little Dead Bertha is one
of the oldest and best known, in the underground extreme metal scene, Russian
bands and a while ago they released their new album titled "Way Of Blind".
A really complex work with a lot of depth, so why don't we hear what Sergey,
the band's guitarist, has to tell us about the band and their musical direction?
1. HELLO! PLEASE FIRST OF ALL GIVE US A SHORT
BAND BIO AND INTRODUCE THE CURRENT LINE UP TO THE READERS.
Hi! LITTLE DEAD BERTHA was founded in 1994
in Voronezh (Russia). Up to now we have recorded four albums and have done
many live shows in different cities. The current line-up is: Dmitry Zamaruev
- vocals, Sergey Galushko - guitars, Yury Svveshnikov - bass, Svetlana Galushko
- vocals (she is my wife) and also Vika Sysooeva - keyboards and Evgeny
Pluzhnikov - drums (they joined the band after the "Way Of Blind" recording).
Also Vika Beliaeva (violin) took part in the recordings.
2. YOU ARE ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST RESPECTED
EXTREME METAL BANDS OF RUSSIA. SO HAVE YOU REALIZED YOUR DREAMS OR ARE
THERE STILL THINGS YOU WANT TO DO? WHICH ARE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS
UP TO NOW?
Indeed we are one of the oldest Russian bands,
however I can not say that we are one of the most respected. This
is too subjective, don’t you think? In Russia there are many good band
now. However I think that LDB is more known in the European underground
scene than some Russian bands, which have big popularity in our country.
Also I can say that we have not yet completely realized our dreams, this
is still to be seen in the future. We have many plans for this year for
instance.
3. FILL US IN ON YOUR RELEASES SO FAR AND POINT
OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES AMONG THEM.
OK. After forming we have recorded several
demos. They were quite not in our style so we have nearly forgotten about
them presently. The first official release was "In Memorium Premortis"
(1998). This is a doom/death album. It was released on MC, however much
time passed and we have plans to re-release it in 2006. The following release
- "Two Sides..." (2000) - is a doom/gothic aalbum. It’s more melodic and
mature for us, and we are no more compared to MDB after this album. There
more guitar melodic parts, we also use the violin and have appeared the
keys and female vocals. It was also released on MC and was re-released
in 2004 by Stygian Crypt prod. After it, we had problems with our line-up
so the new CD was out in 2003. This is the "Light & Shadows" album.
This album has a non-aggressive sound. I can not say what’s its style,
however in some review it was named gothic metal. This was little strange
music for us so we have changed the band name on the shorter name "Bertha"
and the CD came out under this name. However we considered that style to
be too “light” for us and we have written for the following CD more aggressive
and speed songs. The new CD’s name is "Way Of Blind" and this is a great
album for us. There are melodic death tracks, doom tracks and some black
metal parts.
4. “WAY OF BLIND” IS AN EXCELLENT ALBUM THAT MAINLY
DWELLS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN MELODIC DEATH AND BLACK METAL. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE
YOUR MUSIC? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT HASN’T EVER LISTENED TO
YOUR MUSIC?
It is difficult to describe our music for
me. In many reviews our style is defined differently. I think it is really
melodic death, with black and doom elements. So, if you like such bands
as Amorphis, Children Of Bodom, In Flames (the early albums) and Cradle
Of Filth, that I think, you must like "Way Of Blind".
5. YOU HAVE DUAL MALE AND FEMALE VOCALS. WHAT
DO YOU THINK YOU ACHIEVE WITH THEM? DO DMITRY AND SVETLANA INTERPRET SPECIFIC
ROLES? IF YES, BE MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT THEM…
I do not like much the metal bands with female
vocals only. I think that they are not aggressive enough. So the main role
in LDB is performed by the male vocals. The female voice serves the decoration
and variety of our music. Using two vocals, we have more possibility for
making the contrast between different musical parts. However on "Way Of
Blind" there wasn’t a specific role in our lyrics for each vocal type.
Presently we work on songs for the following album. There will be more
female parts and the lyrics of our new songs are written under male or
female vocal specialty.
6. WHAT’S, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHAT’S
THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? ARE THERE ANY ELEMENTS YOU’D LIKE TO EXPERIMENT
WITH OR ADD ON YOUR NEXT ALBUM?
I think the best part of our music is it’s
melody in combination with the speed. The worst I do not know… You better
ask our listeners about it. A defect, which I see is the fact that there
isn’t a second guitarist in our band so in the rehearsals and live shows
some songs do not have the sound we want them to have. I want to add in
the following album more black metal elements. Also the new album will
be more symphonic and as I already have said more miscellaneous vocal parts.
7. WHAT I REALLY LIKED IN YOUR MUSIC IS THE FACT
THAT YOU ENRICH YOUR SOUND WITH BEAUTIFUL VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD THEMES THAT
OFFER MORE ATMOSPHERE TO YOUR MUSIC AND CREATE A VASTNESS OF EMOTIONS.
WAS THIS YOUR INTENTION IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHAT DO THE VIOLIN PARTS EXPRESS
IN YOUR MUSIC?
Really, each instrument contributes something
new in the general sound. Certainly the guitars are the main instrument
for a metal band, however, I think, this is not enough. The keyboards are
necessary for our music, they do sound softer and atmospheric and many
musical parts, which sound well with keyboards, can’t be well performed
on the guitar. So the keyboards are a regular instrument for LDB. The use
of the violin was an experiment, since our music already differs from doom
metal, which we played earlier so we were interested in trying its sound
n our music. Additionally, many old fans were distressed that on our previous
CD there were no violin parts and wanted to hear it once again. Regrettably,
I can not say that we are 100% satisfied with the final result, because
Vika was a session musician and did not participate in the song writing.
So we shall use the keyboards further, but I do not know about the
violin.
8. WHICH ARE THE TOPICS YOU LIKE TO DEAL WITH
LYRIC-WISE? WHICH ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
Dmitry Zamaruev: Our lyrics are more philosophical
and rather melancholic. They are about life and death, emotions and feelings,
enormous internal human conflicts. The dreams, longings, disillusionments,
pain, awe, quietness, fury… I can’t tell about all. Additionally you need
to perceive our lyrics only in combination with our music, since some emotions
are impossible to verbalize, but this combination creates the harmonious
composition, in which one completes the other.
9. PLEASE DESCRIBE THE COVER ARTWORK AND POINT
OUT ITS CONNECTION WITH THE LYRICS.
We did not do cover for CD, it was done by
the label. Besides we didn’t have any cpncrete thoughts about it, about
how it must be. So we liked and agreed with this cover.
10. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR LITTLE DEAD
BERTHA? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO IN ORDER TO PROMOTE YOUR ALBUM AND THE
BAND IN GENERAL?
We really do our best to promote the album,
as well as our label. We have received many reviews from Russian and European
zines and gave many interviews. Also we played many live shows last year
and we have already confirmed several shows in 2006. We also have many
hopes on the following album, to record it somewhere in the mid 2006. Our
level as musicians and composers is really increasing lately since we rehearse
and play show a lot now so I hope that the next album will be great. Also
we should like to visit Europe, since till now we only play in Russia.
11. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? WHAT
SHOULD THE FANS EXPECT TO SEE IN A LITTLE DEAD BERTHA LIVE SHOW?
As I already said, we have plans on some shows
at the beginning of the year. In January we shall take part in a festival
in Kiev (Ukraine). In February we will play several local shows in miscellaneous
cities, but in March we are going to tour the Siberian part of Russia (this
is far and we haven’t been there earlier). On our shows we usually
play the songs from all our CDs, so it’s rather varied and consists both
of doom songs and melodic death/black songs. Additionally we are very energetic
on scene.
12. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD
IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
This is a hard question. I think, the emotion
must be very different for different people. For me it’s probably sadness
and the feeling of solitude. Since we always were a doom band, our music
can not be so cheerful. If this was a picture, then it would be in such
a colour palette, like the CD's cover, since we wanted these colours on
the cover from the very beginning and this was our desire.
13. IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO SHOOT AN EXPENSIVE
VIDEO CLIP, WHICH SONG FO YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE
IT TO BE?
Probably, the song would be "I Don't Believe"
since that song is more typical for LDB today. It is difficult to describe
the contents for this video because its lyrics are not a concrete history
about something, but simply some cogitations. However this video has to
be rather expressive and dynamic. Possibly, this could be a live clip with
a show.
14. BY THE WAY YOU HAVE A QUITE STRANGE BAND NAME.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
This name is already many years with us. We
all got accustomed to it and do not think that it’s strange. However it’s
not usual for metal bands and I have to answer this question very often.
Really it was a song from our first demo. In this song the lyrics were
very gothic about a little girl and about her death. We chose it as our
band name, since we were to play our first show, but the band still hadn’t
had any name. So it remained.
15. THANK YOU! THESE LINES ARE YOURS. LEAVE YOUR
MESSAGE…
OK!. Very best regards to all BEHIND
THE VEIL readers. Stay brutal, of course. Listen to good music, visit
our website http://bertha-music.narod.ru.
See you soon on a live show, I hope.
Sergey from LITTLE DEAD BERTHA
Christine Parastatidou
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