Well, friends of the Aristocracy!We speak again of the newsroom, to present in all its emotions, the forty-ninth interview with the German band Cyphonism. The whole band practices a high-tech and intense Death Metal.They show us in a strong way, their second aggressive work called Cosmic Voidance. In full, only on May 13th. But, a week before, we did a super interview with them.Pat on Vocal,Alijoscha Topel and Julian Muller on Guitars,Levin Mueller on Drums.All band answer our questions.But,we see a song frist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkmqWK8M1Zc
A1:Talk a bit about the composition work on "Cosmic Voidance"!
Cyphonism:Songwriting for us is mostly done by the two guitarists Aljoscha and Julian separately in their home studios with programmed drums and all layers arranged in the DAW. Demo versions of the songs are presented to each other via cloud services. This time we switched from 8 string guitars to 7 string guitars for 9 of the 10 songs for ease of use and a more defined bass in the mix. The song "A Goddess Defaced" is the only 8 string song, where we recorded vocals to a click track first and wrote the instruments to it later.
A2:How is the band achieving a dense atmosphere?
Cyphonism:We tried to write more unique guitar parts for both guitars to have them not play the same thing all the time and used some more effects on the vocals this time. Having a denser atmosphere was even more important for us on this release.
A3:When you say that your death metal is uncompromising can we interpret that the songs occur naturally, organically or both?
Cyphonism:With uncompromising we are referring to the sound as well as the song writing. We don't want to use certain elements just because they are popular. We write Death Metal and we want it to be as brutal and atmospheric as possible. We don't make compromises. We won't force a change to our music just because someone doesn't like it.
A4:What´s the idea behind the albums artwork?
Cyphonism:As we seem to always pick one specific song from the albums, where its lyrics end up as a rough guideline for the cover artists, this time it resulted in a space goddess with unlimited power that controls planets single-handedly. After the first sketch that Jakhangir did for us, it became clear that it could look like a boss fight level from a video game, so the platforms and pillars came directly from Doom (Eternal). That's the look we went for. It reflects the lyrics and themes on this record pretty well. It's cosmic, lovecraftian, space-horror.
A5:Is this album conceptual?
Cyphonism:No. We don't follow a strict concept like an overarching storyline. But all our songs play around the themes mentioned in the last question.
A6:Is it easier or more practical to play in a power trio band?
Cyphonism:We are currently four guys, with the new drummer just recently joining in preparation for live shows. As this news is so fresh, we could not find the time yet to take new, professional band photos with him, but that and his official announcement will follow soon. The fact that we are three main guys actually just stems from not being able to find bassists and drummers with the skill level necessary that are not already in four different bands at the same time in the local scene, so we rely on writing on our own and having session musicians for gigging. We had support from friends in the local scene and also hired guys behind the drums, who were extremely professional and learned the songs really quickly in the past.
Kudos for Julian Dietrich (Into Coffin, Bloodjob, Crescent and Cypecore) and Philipp Hammelmann (Streams Of Blood) for learning and playing the songs live and in the studio, but we also would not mind having a permanent member also on bass duties. Time will tell if we can find dedicated people there.
A7:Some literature or film inspire the band?
Cyphonism:The list would probably look very different depending on which member you ask directly, but for the most parts it is movies, sci-fi and fantasy video games, other bands and literature in the digital format, reading on wikipedia about ancient rites and philosophy. Daily life is also a factor of course, but we try to keep politics and "daily affairs" in the background and focus on themes that are more broad and hopefully more timeless.
A8:In the cosmic voidance that the band talks about on this album, is there a chance that we might find some black holes?
Cyphonism:Actually the title does not reference "the void" as in "space" and black holes. Though, we are fans of all things space, but can be understood as "nullity", basically saying, when all things are said and done and our planet explodes there will be nothing left of humanity besides space debris. Daily business and human affairs, which seem to be so important when you are in it, become less important fast if you zoom out further and further and let time progress.
A9:How long did the pre-production of this album take?
Cyphonism:After the release of "Obsidian Nothingness" in May 2016 we did not have much left over demos from that time. So the writing process started roughly a year later. Looking for mixing engineers, drummers, studios and at last, a label took some time as well as we all have stable, full-time jobs and are very picky and quality focused. This time Aljoscha mixed the album himself in his studio as we wanted full control over the sound and save a little on production cost. He also made his audio endeavors into an official studio service with "Konstrukted Audio". Covid did not really affect us considerably, because we already worked remote from our homes before and were playing together only when necessary in preparation for shows.
A10:How did the band arrive at Black Sunset Records?
Cyphonism:That is our vocalist Pat's achievement as he is already signed to them with his other band so communication was easier than an anonymous email to people you don't know in real life until that point. The guys treat us well, have nothing to say in the musical creations and are in bands themselves, so they understand us well and just provide us with a good distribution service, the way it should be.
A11:Literally speaking: Is the world ridiculous?
Cyphonism:Everything is as it always was. Wars, diseases, greed, power, control. Even with the changes over thousands of years the motivating factors remain the same.
A12: Why does the band have this name?
Cyphonism:When we started out in 2013 we had a long list of names we liked but it came down to the single word band names that stood out to us. Cyphonism, as the old torture method, is the one that we agreed on. It is simple enough yet unique.
A13:How is Cyphonism different from your previous bands?
Cyphonism:We all played in bands before but Cyphonism is the culmination of our previous endeavors. And above all with this band we wanted to do everything as professional as we can. From the songs all the way to our live shows.
A14:What are the bands influences?
Cyphonism:Like we said before there is a long list of movies, bands, video games and books that inspire our works.
A15:Is there black humor on this album?
Cyphonism:Not really. Comedy is not what we strive for with our music. We tell stories of distant worlds, old gods and philosophical concepts like the void. Comedic elements just don't fit in there for us.
A16:Does the band feel differences between "Obsidian Nothingness" and now "Cosmic Voidance"?
Cyphonism:The main differences are that we progressed as songwriters and that expanded our sound. We feel the songs are more on point this time and we don't waste time. Straight to the point Death Metal.
A17:Is it better to think of the human being as agony than an animal for health?
Cyphonism:Human beings are past the point of being animals. We grew to be the worst living creatures on this planet. Like a virus that infects the host. Even with all our technological advancements we still can't unite and find a higher goal that we all strive for. Destruction and bloodshed in our DNA it seems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_i2z1sZPI8
Comments