Ra's
Dawn
"Scales Of Judgement" was
a bit of a surprise for me. This album has quality, variety and I am sure
that it can satisfy even the most demanding fans of power metal music.
I also have to admit that Marek Schoppa impressed me with his answers
that are very realistic and "down to earth". I believe that with such an
attitude, Ra's Dawn first of all prove that they are true metal fans and
that the future belongs to them... Check this band out!!!
1. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? SINCE THIS IS OUR FIRST
INTERVIEW, CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INFO REGARDING THE BAND, BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE
MIGHT NOT KNOW YOU HERE IN GREECE. ALSO PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE-UP…
Hi Nikos, I’m fine. Thank you! We are RA'S
DAWN, a German Heavy-Metal Band consisting of six individuals between the
age of 23 and 36. We all have quite different musical influences and backgrounds.
Olaf (vox) and John (git) are heavily into this old-school stuff, 80ies
Metal and so on. Martin (bass) listens to a lot of Rush and Triumph, Marco
(dr) likes the more modern sounds like InFlames, Killswitch, Dream Theater,
Phil (keys) prefers stuff like Bal-Sagoth and I have a very broad musicals
taste; from ProgMetal to Death, instrumental music, Heavy Rock and so one.
I hope that’s enough to give a first, rough insight into RA’S DAWN.
2. BEFORE YOU FORMED RA’S DAWN, HAD YOU PLAYED
IN OTHER BANDS? IF YES HAVE YOU RELEASED ANYTHING WITH THEM?
Well, we all played in several local bands
and of course released some self-financed demos, but none of us has ever
reached the status that we gained with RA’S DAWN until now.
3. BEFORE “SCALES OF JUDGEMENT”, YOU HAVE RELEASED
A SELF-FINANCED ALBUM ENTITLED “UNVEILING THE GROTESQUE”. DO YOU CONSIDER
IT AS AN OFFICIAL RELEASE OR AS A PROMO? WHICH WAS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM
THAT YOU HAD TO OVERCOME IN ORDER TO RELEASE A SELF – FINANCED ALBUM?
Actually we released two albums before "Scales",
“Solar Force” and “Unveiling the Grotesque”, which was the second one.
Both of them were considered as promos or demos. The biggest problem for
a young band is of course the financial thing, but due to both records
were intended to end up as demos, the recording prices could be kept pleasantly
low. Retrospectively, the recordings of “Unveiling” were not that hard
and there weren’t any big problems actually. Well, in remembrance it was
a very positive experience, 'cause it introduced all of us to a rather
professional way of recording and I guess it prepared us in a way to what
had to come.
4. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT BOTH YOUR RELEASES, I WOULD
LIKE YOU TO COMPARE THEM AND TELL US WHICH THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THEM
ARE AND WHICH THE NEW ELEMENTS THAT YOU HAVE ADDED IN YOUR NEW ALBUM ARE.
Ok, but then I'll start with our first record
“Solar Force”: It’s a three-track piece, but with an overall running time
of 39 minutes. The first song “Forlorn Dream” even turned out to become
some kind of a RA’S DAWN classic. Very doomy, slow track. People love this
one and we love to play it for them live. And then there’s this giant 25
minutes track called “The Dawn Of Ra” with its Egyptian scales, epic and
progressive parts telling a broad story of the sungod. This one unites
everything that Ra’s Dawn is about. “In Memory” the third one is one of
the oldest songs we still play, very, very prog but with nice melodies.
After “Solar Force” we decided to leave the
mythological thing aside and present a different side of the band on “Unveiling
The Grotesque”. A lot of the lyrics deal with stories by Edgar A. Poe.
The music is less epic, sometimes straight, sometimes a little progressive.
Not one oriental scale on this one. :)
And now, “Scales Of Judgement” nicely combines
the musical themes from both of the demos. There’s a lot of Egyptian-style
stuff, straight songs and even two re-recordings from “Unveiling”. It’s
definitively no record that might be put into a certain metal-category.
It’s very diverse.
5. ALTHOUGH YOU ARE A GERMAN METAL BAND, I HAVE
TO ADMIT THAT YOUR SOUND IS MORE ORIENTED TOWARDS THE U.S. POWER/PROGRESSIVE
METAL. WHY IS THAT? HAS THIS MUSICAL PATH YOU FOLLOW GOT ANYTHING
TO DO WITH THE MUSIC THAT YOU LIKE TO LISTEN?
Actually we never intended to sound very American.
The only aspect that we put strict emphasis on is that the guitar riffs
shall sound interesting and detailed. It should be fun to play them. And
I guess that’s exactly the point with many U.S. bands, they try to keep
the songwriting unique probably. People often tend to say that Olaf’s voice
reminds them of Matthew Barlow. Maybe that’s why you consider us as being
U.S. influenced.
6. I WILL NAME SOME BANDS AND I WOULD LIKE YOU
TO TELL ME, HOW INFLUENTIAL YOU THINK THEY ARE FOR YOUR SOUND. HERE WE
GO: CRIMSON GLORY, FATES WARNING, QUEENSRYCHE, DREAM THEATRE AND RA PARIAH…
Crimson Glory: Uhh… great old school stuff.
Olaf and John (who is the most creative part in the band by the way) both
are very into those old school bands. Fates Warning and Queensryche, these
are bands who inspired a lot of bands. But it’s quite hard to say in what
way they were influential to our sound. I think bands like them just opened
up our minds for a different approach to music. It is not the right way
to listen to and copy such “idols”. What counts is the overall impression
such a group leaves on you as a musician. Dream Theater: Haha... Let me
keep it short: none of us will ever be able to write and present music
like they do. Those guys are over-the-top musicians. The main influences
might be that although we love this band, we'll always be reminded of what
we’ll never be able to reach :). I don’t like it to be compared to DT,
it’s a different league.
7. AS I CAN JUDGE BY THE NAME OF THE BAND AND
SOME TITLE TRACKS LIKE “ANUBIS”, I CAN SEE THAT THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
AND HISTORY ATTRACTS YOU. WHY IS THAT? WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN THE
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS?
Well, the concept is not that new, but it
leaves us certain opportunities to experiment with more uncommon sounds
and scales. And man, those scales sound so cool and heavy compared to standard
e-minor :). Additionally the mythology offers a broad variety for lyrical
inspirations. But actually John is the one who initially came up with this
idea. He was very fascinated by this topic. Afterwards I can’t even say
why.
8. BY THE WAY DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE EGYPTIAN
CIVILIZATION WAS PRODUCT OF AN ALIEN CIVILIZATION LIKE SOME TEND TO BELIEVE?
People often tend to believe in the wildest
stories when it comes to things that seem inexplicable. "How were they
able to build such big monuments, the pyramids" could be such a question.
They cannot accept that there are lots of things that go over our mind.
But in that case, I think those Egyptian guys were able to build those
monuments on their own. If aliens would have civilized the earth, why do
they not come back, bring new technology or just harvest what they had
seeded? If those guys had interferred in human evolution in that explicit
way, I think every one on earth would know about their existence. But if
you are interested in themes like that, get yourself some information about
the theory of panspermia. I don’t get into detail right now, but it’s worth
it. Daniel Gildenlöw from Pain of Salvation once told me about that
theory in an interview and I found it worthy to do some internet research
on this topic.
9. YOU ALSO HAVE A SONG INSPIRED BY EDGAR ALAN
POE’S FAMOUS STORY “THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH”. ARE YOU AWARE THAT ALSO
BANDS LIKE CRIMSON GLORY AND MANILLA ROAD HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT THE SAME THEME?
Did they? I like the CRIMSON GLORY sound,
but until now did not get into their lyrics that deep. Concerning MANILLA
ROAD, I’ve never listened to them.
10. DO YOU THINK THAT WITH THIS STORY POE WANTED
TO SAY THAT ALL THE PEOPLE ARE EQUAL IN FRONT OF DEATH, NO MATTER HOW POOR
OR RICH THEY ARE?
Of course. I guess it is the only sure thing
in life. No matter how bloody rich or how poor you are, what you experienced
and what goals in life you have. For the harvester it’s all the same. It
is often the case that material wealth leads into arrogance. People start
to feel invulnerable and more worthy than the ordinary person. Seems to
be a nice idea, that they all end up in an equal way.
11. APART FROM THE PREVIOUS SONGS THAT WE MENTIONED,
CAN YOU TELL US WHICH THE THEMES OF THE OTHER SONGS THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED
HERE ARE?
“Forever” John wrote for his son Joey. “Terrified”
and “The Masque” are inspired by E.A. Poe. “Anubis” deals with the Egyptian
god and “Exodus” with the biblical story, when the Israelites made their
way out of Egypt. In this song you can actually feel the sand storms they
had to face… very good song, we’re all very proud of it. Finally we have
“In Oceans Of Lies” which pinpoints the music biz as a real pool of "sharks"
and “Flame Of War”, which describes the religious conflicts in Northern
Ireland. As you see, quite a bunch of themes…
12. SO FAR, HOW HAVE THE PRESS AND ESPECIALLY
THE FANS RECEIVED YOUR NEW ALBUM? DO YOU REMEMBER A REVIEW THAT YOU READ
AND THOUGHT THAT THE REVIEWER DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT EXACTLY YOU WANT TO
DO WITH YOUR MUSIC?
We mainly received quite good resonances.
But of course you always have some guys among the reviewers, that didn’t
invest enough time to get into the details of the album. But hey, that’s
no problem as long as there are still people who appreciate what we are
doing and give us a fair chance. I remember a review from an English AOR
Zine which was really bottomless… Never mind though.
13. IT MIGHT SEEM A POINTLESS QUESTION, BUT I
WANT YOU TO THINK WELL AND TELL ME WHAT HEAVY METAL MEANS TO YOU AND YOUR
LIFE?
Yes, you’re right, that’s pointless… :). Well,
actually for everyone it might mean something different. For me it is just
a beautiful way to express myself and to share something I love with a
lot of people. This might be a RA’S DAWN gig or a nice festival weekend
or just listening to a great record with a couple of friends. Although
it may sound old fashioned Heavy Metal is still a way of life. Either you’re
into it or not. Once infected, you’ll never get rid of it. I like this
idea in a way.
14. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! THE LAST LINES ARE
YOURS AND PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
You’re welcome. Well, buy and listen to our
record and I hope you will like it. Since I don't expect us touring Greece
in near future there's just this way to share our vision with you. You're
all invited to visit our homepage (www.ras-dawn.com)
to leave some statements, criticism or simple greets on our guestbook.
We'll appreciate it! And to end up with some fairly words from George 'Corpsegrinder'
Fisher: "Keep f**kin' supportin' METAL" :)
Bye!
Yours,
Marek Schoppa
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
|