Well,Friends Of Aristocracy!
Line UP:
Brendan Sloan-Vocal\Bass
Lewis Fischer-Guitarrist
Alan Cadman-Drummer
Member Who Left But Remains Close To The Band:
Cale Schmidt Vocals And Bass
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will begin in all your emotions, the 120th interview of the Aristocracy.This time, we'll be talking to a band that does high-end Death Metal.We are talking about Altars, a band that uses the old school, but uses it with capacity, intensity, violence and high technique.They will show us on the 8th of July, their second full album titled Ascetic Reflection. Thank you very much to the band for answering our questions, we also thank this sensational Italian label called Everlasting Spew Records.
Let's go straight to this spectacular interview we did.
A1:Talking about the composition work in Ascetic Reflection?
Lewis Fischer:I began working on the record properly in around 2020 after coming back from tour in Europe/KTDF with Ignivomous. I had planned to relaunch the project for a while already but hadn’t yet had the time to spend extracting these ideas from my head. The first half of Slouching Towards Gomorrah was written in 2013/14, but I wasn’t able to finish it at the time and then we disbanded. I’m glad I revisited it, as it felt like the perfect bridge between the worlds of Paramnesia and Ascetic Reflection. The remainder came about in between bushfires, border closures and lockdowns which left me mostly writing alone at home before eventually sharing the work and progress with others. I eventually became stuck in Adelaide due to these border closures, but this allowed us to work together to complete the album and collaborate together more immediately and extensively toward the end of the album writing process.
A2:I have excellent memories of Adelaide brought by Formula 1. In Death Metal, no. What influences brought the band in this style besides Morbid Angel?
Lewis Fischer: I do believe there is a particular ‘Adelaide sound’, but perhaps it is more an Australian one generally. If you look back to bands like Martire, particularly their first EP, you can hear how specific elements of their sound crept into and influenced bands like StarGazer. Both Denny Blake and Damon Good from StarGazer played in Martire, along with founding member Vince Feleppa and Don Taylor (Tzun Tzu, Oni) at a certain point in time. Good went on to form Mournful Congregation in 1993, who became perhaps the definitive band of the funeral doom genre. Both Blake and Good performed with Brisbane’s Portal on their sophomore and perhaps my favourite release Outre. The scene here is relatively small, and coincidentally Alan Cadman from Altars now plays drums in StarGazer. He also performs with Don Taylor, Adam Ritchie (who also played in Martire) and others in Tzun Tzu.When Altars first came about, we were absolute newcomers to this scene. I had been attending shows from a pretty young age and was familiar and inspired by a lot of the aforementioned bands, but I was very much trying to find my own sound. We eventually made that impression as a band with Paramnesia.These bands have created an incredible legacy in this country and on the world stage. I’m not interested in emulating their work, but they have been inspiring to me in other ways. For example, I’ve long admired Denny Blake’s guitar tone. In StarGazer, he plays with a minimal amount of gain through a clean Fender combo amplifier. In developing my own sound, this inspired me to play with less gain and lower output guitar pickups. The end result of that is my own sound, style and techniques, particularly in terms of playing dynamics — which have become a defining part of the Altars sound.
A3:Why does the 16th century inspire this album?
Brendan Sloan:Perhaps you’re referring to “Ascetic” from the title? It’s not really about the 16th century, the album isn’t about a time in history directly. Asceticism is an extremely old spiritual practice of denial, restriction, fasting and so on to try and shed human conveniences and comforts to be closer to god, or the creator spirit, or whatever you believe is divine. Like extreme Buddhism. To become pure by ‘suffering’ and rejecting your humanity, spending life in constant prayer and devotion to spirituality and introspection. There are still ascetic monks practicing today,and there are ways in common practice that are less extreme like ritual fasting/ramadan etc that are used to connect people with their faith in the divine. It’s used as the title of our album because of its concept: each of the songs analyse the way human beings destroy themselves and others over and over again in the same ways, even the ascetic destroys in order to become pure. Humanity is in a constant process of destruction, and thereby creation, but the creation will in turn destroy…
A4:How does a top-notch Italian label find a top-notch Australian band?
Lewis Fischer:Tito reached out to me after we announced we were active again and working on new music. I didn’t wish to commit to anything too early but kept in touch with him over the coming months, until the album was a bit closer to being fully complete and the new lineup had been solidified with the addition of Brendan Sloan on bass and vocals. Both Giorgio and Tito knew the band from our previous record Paramnesia and they’ve been fantastic people to work with.
Brendan Sloan:I’ve known Tito and Giorgio for years during various interactions in the obscure metal world. They’ve steadily built up a strong roster and released a lot of albums / supported a lot of artists I really respect into successful careers (Hideous Divinity, Serocs, Convocation, Father Befouled, the list is extremely long), their passion is always there. When they reached out to Altars as a band I was very happy and I encouraged the other two that they’d do an extremely good job if we let them release the album. I’m pleased I finally got to work with G & T on something!
A5:Do you believe the band has ouroboric cycles?
Lewis Fischer:I’m an atheist, or at least agnostic. I don’t necessarily believe in the concept of reincarnation, but I find occult and spiritual concepts such as the ouroboros interesting as they paint an interesting picture of the human consciousness and condition. You can see sorts of ‘ouroboric cycles’ occur in other ways, and repeat themselves ad infinitum throughout history.
A6:Lewis Fischer is a permanent member of the band! He very much help the band. Does your participation happen for any reason other than a friendship?
Lewis Fischer:I have been writing music under the name of Altars since I was 17 years old. The music that is Altars is more or less a complete, full and all encompassing extension of myself as an artist and musician. I have worked with other bands, most recently Ignivomous, but Altars is very different in that the ideas, direction and identity of the band are essentially an everflowing outpouring of myself into the physical sound and manifestation that is Altars. I’m lucky to work with Alan and Brendan and previously Cale, who have each been able to distinctly understand, collaborate and transmute these ideas into their own individual parts which ultimately make Altars whole.
A7:Is a powertrio easier or more practical?
Brendan Sloan:I think so. I’m personally a big fan of the ‘power trio’ arrangement, starting with bands like Rush, who I think are probably my favourite ‘rock’ band. We also have bands like The Chasm and Ulcerate and Krisiun and so on who show how it can be sustained. Geometrically the triangle is the strongest shape! However, simultaneously things are simpler and more complex in this arrangement. Communication is easier, it’s easier to meet up for practice or writing, there’s also less potential for disagreement because there are fewer cooks in the broth. It’s easier to focus on the goal… However, to make a complicated sound, more is required from each of the people in the band. Bass has to also do vocals, guitars must play extra parts of more complexity to make it sound “full” in a live setting, the drummer perhaps plays extra percussion or electronic elements to expand the palette. Everyone must contribute more if you want the sum to be greater than 3. We want 3 to be the sound of 5, so it’s a lot of effort, but very rewarding. Hopefully this answers your question!
Lewis Fischer: I enjoy the challenge, and in writing music for Altars I’ve developed a style of playing that gives the music width and a more complex harmonic content than would naturally be expected from only one guitar. There is more consideration for the whole and for interplay between all instruments, rather than just guitar riffs, throughout the composition process.
A8:Brendan helped the band too. How long has he seen the band evolve?
Brendan Sloan:Evolve” is actually a good word for it. We’re all roughly the same age, but I’m from Sydney originally, about 1000km away from Adelaide, so we could never have met at the time Altars was starting. I discovered Altars around 2013 when Paramnesia was released, long before I met Lewis or Alan personally and years before I joined the band. I was in the audience at Altar’s last Sydney show in 2015 with Ulcerate and Dead River Runs Dry. Later, when I began writing and releasing music as “Convulsing” in 2016, I listened to Paramnesia a lot to maintain focus on the sound I was trying to achieve for myself. I titled a song on my first album “Altered” in homage, and I’m wearing a Paramnesia hoodie in the booklet. After I moved to Adelaide in 2018 I began pressuring Lewis and Alan to resurrect Altars, unaware of precisely why it stopped. Eventually, I got my wish in a very unexpected way. So it’s because of Altars that I am now a member of Altars. Like Jason joining Metallica. Another ouroboric cycle: Altars created me and I am now absorbed into Altars. Into that which begat endless chaos. “Ascetic Reflection” features a little bit of my personal DNA in the form of nearly all the lyrics, bass parts, and the bulk of one of the songs (Anhedonia) but future work will be another evolution again as Lewis, Alan and I try to work together collaboratively. I’m interested to see what will happen.
A9:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Lewis Fischer:I presented both Adam Burke, the artist responsible for the gatefold cover art, and Derek Setzer, who created the collages you see within the album booklet, with a brief explaining the intent and concepts behind the record. They each interpreted these paragraphs in their own way and produced works that perfectly expressed our vision for the album.The album naturally splits into two halves which complement or are a reflection of one another. You could view the first half of the record as the hooded figures on the cover, waist deep in a pool of water, gazing into a kind of orb of energy. The second half of the album could be viewed as the inverse of these individuals, gazing into the same orb from a world upside down deep within this pool of water.
A10:Is Enigma the soul of an Australian band?
Lewis Fischer:An enigma is something that is mysterious or complex to understand. It also happens to be the name of a bar that hosts a lot of metal shows in Adelaide, so this question is quite humorous to us. I think a number of Australian bands could fit into a kind of category like this, but I don’t think it’s a useful micro-classification. Perhaps, because of our isolation from the rest of the world, there is some impression of Australian bands as being mysterious generally.
A11:I know it's not 2013, but what is a Paramnesia besides the album name?
Lewis Fischer:The title Paramnesia is a fancy name for the phenomenon more commonly referred to as déjà vu, which in English means ‘already seen’. Conceptually, the record revolves around this idea and the concept of life, death and rebirth.
A12:What would 2022 Altars say to early career Altars?
Lewis Fischer:Hindsight is nice, but there is little advice I could give to my past-self that would change history. I would not have been able to do things any differently at any point in time.
A13:This album is conceptual?
Lewis Fischer:I prefer to listen to albums as a whole piece of music from start to finish, so it’s unlikely I will work on an album that isn’t conceptual in some way shape or form. For this particular release, we were really trying to create something that placed the album or listening experience first and offered something unique from start to finish. Like a good book or series, you should want more by the end but also feel satisfied that the album has reached completion.
Brendan Sloan:As Lewis says, albums are very important. Music is art, and the art I like best is deep and swallows you. An album is the way to sink inside music, you must devote attention and time and it rewards you for doing so. For this album the songs do stand separately on their own strength, but they’re designed to be listened to as an album. It has been a bit awkward for me to show ‘singles’ before the release day because it wasn’t designed to be listened to this way. The first four tracks reach their maximum potential if you listen to them all in a row; they make more sense together. So do the last four, and all eight of them at once without pause is the true flow. The album also works when played in reverse order, or on a loop repeating forever... The lyrics of each of the tracks are related to each other. It’s not a ‘story’ like 2112 or something, but they all exist in the same world and refer to the same ideas. A perpetual, ouroboric cycle of creation and destruction by whimsical, tempestuous creatures called human beings, seeking power, knowledge and dominion and being destroyed by it over and over….
A14:Cale Schmidt stay cool nowdays?
Lewis Fischer:Cale is currently working on the Monomakh full length, which is kind of like Altars’ evil twin brother. If you haven’t heard of Monomakh, I strongly suggest checking it out. It leans much more into the dark, war metal type side of things and offers a rewarding listen. He and I live quite close to one another and catch up regularly.
Cale Schmidt:I stay cool, yes.
A15:Differences between Paramnesia and Ascetic Reflection?
Lewis Fischer:When we recorded Paramnesia, the approach was very much ‘record the songs’. We were stuck in a ‘live show first’ approach and recorded the songs as they were played. I learnt a lot from that experience, and in time became interested in studios, recording and producing myself. When it came to recording Ascetic Reflection, I had a lot of strong concepts and ideas regarding how to present the work as an album and whole listening experience. Brendan and I recorded and produced the album ourselves, and I split guitar parts I play one way live into multiple parts played on different tracks on the record. So the approach was ‘album first’, which we are now recreating live.
A16:Is hearing you an Inauspicious Prayer?
Lewis Fischer:This track title is a small nod to the monks of the Namgyal Monastery, whose chants I sometimes listen to for inspiration. I love the guttural sound of throat singing, dung chen and other instrumentation commonly used in the ritual music of Tibetan Buddhism, and I was trying to recreate some small part of this feeling when seeing Ascetic Reflection out to its ultimate conclusion.
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