AETERNUS
Shadows of
Old
(By Thomas Bonnicel)
Aeternus are
once again on the road, but this time with Cannibal Corpse… Their tour with
Deicide seems to have had a strong influence on them, because they now sound
closer to the American quartet than to old black metal bands like Darkthrone. And
as I had the opportunity to meet Ares (guitar/vocals), I interviewed him while
Cannibal Corpse were making their soundcheck. Too bad the pretty Morrigan
showed up only at the end of the interview…
Ares, what’s new since
February when you toured with Deicide, Behemoth, Rotting Christ and Ancient
Rites?
Since that, we have recorded
our new album, ‘Shadows Of Old’, and we’ve been preparing this tour as a
support for Cannibal Corpse. That’s what happened. And the new CD is not out
officially yet, but it will be out by the end of November, and we sell it on
the tour. And we got a new guitarist, he’s a permanent member and joined the
band when we were producing the CD in the studio.
So, you are now four people in
the band?
Now we are four people. He’s
not on the cover or anything, but it’s because we got him on the band after the
production. He just played a bit on one of the songs.
I got your new album
yesterday, and it’s more death metal than ever. There’s especially a strong
Deicide influence on both vocals and riffing…
There’s nothing we can hide,
Deicide had an influence on us. It’s not only the tour, we listen to Deicide
too, and I wanted to use some death metal elements in our music too. We also
listen to Morbid Angel a lot, and that was normal for us. We also chose the
death metal elements to make a little change in the Aeternus style. But we’ve
been very careful, it’s not much, it suits well, and we might not do it again. On
the vocals too, it has not a lot to see with Glen Benton. His vocals are deep,
but I sing deeper, I have a better voice now…We went for a more death metal
sound on this album, it was a part of the different things we changed for this
album, actually.
But you still have the
traditional folk elements. There’s even only bagpipe on the song ‘The Sunset’s
Glory’. Why did you choose to put bagpipe?
Because all the time, when we
have acoustic instrument, we a large number of them put together. But this
time, we don’t have any intro, it kicks ass from the beginning, and therefore I
chose to have an instrumental sons as we’ve always done, but a very simple one.
So it’ s just a piece from a very old Scottish song, but it just sounds
perfect. The whole album ‘Shadows Of Old’ sounds very brutal, and all the songs
are quite easy to listen to. The atmosphere is the same, and I think that the
bagpipe track suits very well to the CD.
Ares, you were supposed to be
touring with Immortal this summer, what happened?
I was never supposed to join
them!
But that’s what you told me
when I met you in February!
Oh, yes, that’s right. At that
time, that was true, but now they have a permanent bass player, and I don’t
think I would have said yes if they had ask, because there are so many things
happening with Aeternus. So, I don’t think I would have time to help any band. I
mean, if they had asked me for one concert, I would have done it. But big
tours, four weeks, that’s too much for me. I have Aeternus now, and a lot of
shit is going on. If I had the time, yes…
Concerning your label
Hammerheart, are you happy with the way they promote you?
Yes, now everything has
increased with Hammerheart. They have changed a lot of promoters and
distributors for the better, and I think they are spending a lot more money
than before on promotion. The bigger they spend, the better we sell! I feel
that they’re a bit more risky on everything than before, they’re less careful,
they try to make 200% benefit with each album. So, I think that’s good, and
they also got us on tour with Deicide, they got us on this tour with Cannibal
Corpse! There were a lot of bands who wanted to go on this tour with Cannibal
Corpse, and we were lucky they managed to get us on the bill.
Do you like the other bands on
this tour?
Yeah, it’s cool. They’re all
good bands, everybody loves everybody.
Which band do you prefer?
Cannibal Corpse! But Marduk is
really great too, Angel Corpse too. I like all those bands, Defleshed is cool
too, kind of thrashy, and I like that too. They know what they’re doing. But
Cannibal Corpse, I have to say that they have a special atmosphere, I think
they beat Deicide in many ways. But Glen Benton has an atmosphere that nobody
has, they stand there and play. And Cannibal Corpse are more physical on stage.
Deicide and Cannibal Corpse are two very different bands, but I’m really
impressed by Cannibal Corpse. They’re fucking crazy, they don’t stop, they just
bang their heads, and they freak out, and play and play and play so fucking
long! Everything is perfect, you know. And I’m a huge fan too.
On the last tour with Deicide,
you had very good relations with them, especially Morrigan, right?
Yeah. (laughs)
Between this tour with
Cannibal and the one with Deicide, which one do you prefer? Musically and
humanly?
I don’t know. Both tours have
been cool, and it’s hard to say. The last tour was really cool, and on this
one, the guys are very cool too. There’s no negative point, all the audiences
are great, and I hope that next time, we’re gonna tour with Morbid Angel, that
would be great to meet them.
What are now the projects for
Aeternus?
We were supposed to release a
CD single before the new album, but we didn’t have time for it, so we’re gonna
do that in spring. We’ll make some more recordings, we’re gonna fix some mixing
shit, do some talking about live recordings. We haven’t planned anything yet,
but if it happens, I don’t know. And after the single release, we’re gonna tour
again. Beyond that, we’ll compose the fourth album, and it will take a long
time. It’s really hard to make music, because of the direction we are taking,
but that’s really cool too, because our new guitarist has lots of influences. We’ve
been talking with Metallysee booking agency, and we might do a headlining tour
in future, probably in France, about two weeks long. It’s also 90% sure we’ll
play the Dynamo, as well as some other festivals. We’re also going to play Oslo
and other places near from where we live, that’s something we’ve never done
before, and we feel like it’s now the good time to do that. We have three CD’s
out, and the interest could be good in Norway. The people I know tell me that
my band is cool, so it would be cool to grow in Norway.
By the way, do you have some
relations with other Norwegian bands?
Yes, some bands. The Bergen
bands, of course, and some bands in Oslo. But I don’t like them generally. I
met the Emperor guys, and some other bands, like Nocturnal Breed…
Do you wish to tour other
continents than Europe in the future?
Yes, that would be really
cool. We’re always ready to tour wherever and whenever, but it’s about money
too. We need money, and we’ve got to check the sales before going to America. You
have to be sure that people are coming to the shows. But it’s interesting to
see that we’re doing well in the States, we have been talking to Angel Corpse
to tour with them some time, we just have to look closer to it. I guess we
would be supporting them on some kind of US tour, or something. Maybe also
Milwaukee Festival…
OK, would you have one last
word?
I would like to recommend my
own CD, because it has a lot more elements than before, it makes us more
original, the sound is better, and the production and the lyrics and the vocals
and everything have been done in a different way and with another angle, so
it’s really worth to check it out. If you like the old stuff, this will be
something that you’ve got to have.