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The first
thing to spring to my mind is the fact that we have gotten better as musicians
in the years between the two releases. Our songs are now faster and more
technical than they used to be, but without falling in the "too
technical" trap! For us the feeling will always come first. On the other
hand, we have kept this mood of extreme darkness that has always been and will
always be the backbone of Frozen Shadows. Our sound has also become more
defined and unique, I believe, as that is something of high importance for a
band's identity. All in all, we feel that we have developped our own unique
brand of Black Metal between the demo and the album...
From the
day we created Frozen Shadows, we have always strived to do with our music what
very few groups (in our opinions at least) have been able to achieve: having a
perfect balance between speed, anger and agression on one hand and atmosphere
and mood on the other. Most bands tend to be either brutal OR dark, we want to
be both at the same time. What most people told us about our music is that even
tough they are first hit by the extreme speed and raging guitars, they discover
afterwards the depth and feelings that hide beneath all the hatred. That is
exactely our intent, having many layers to our music, lyrics and general
approach. Even tough we love bands that simply bash it out to the last minute
we want to do more than that with Frozen Shadows, and we like to incorporate
more moody and atmospheric passages and use a bit of keyboards amidst all the
mayhem. I have always believed that when you are able to create some truly dark
and atmospheric moments then the hateful parts come out much angrier, and going
from one extreme to the other is a lot more effective than always staying
within the same emotions. I think our music is quite simply put a reflection of
our characters: cold and rationnal while at the same time burning with anger,
hatred and sometimes sorrow.
Our music
is very much influenced by our emotions, as we usually channel and exteriorate
them through the art we make. The dark side of the psyche is so much more
inspiring if you ask me, just look at the greatest musicians and artists
troughout the years and you will draw the same conclusion for nearly each and
everyone of them: they were all tortured souls! When I write music I have to be
either depressed or vengeful, and I know for having discussed the matter with
both Namtar and Alvater that the same goes for them.
Yes, I do
agree. Since we see ourselves as misfits to this mind-numbing society we are
almost permanently either angry towards humanity in general or sad to contemplate
what we have to endure every day. "Dans les Bras des Immortels" is
for sure a cry against our environnement, a punch in the face of this
hypocritical age we loathe so much, where the weak rule the strong and
judeo-christianity is still squeezing all individuality out of the masses...
The
keyboards we use HAVE to be either dark, depressed or hyptnotic, and nothing
else. Don't count on us to incorporate any cute melodies or romantic moments!!!
I often stick to the more "classical" sounds like the strings,
choirs, horns, timpanis, organs and pianos, but I also do use some more
"ambiant" sounds from time to time, most of which I have created
entirely on my own.
There is no
concept that ties the songs in this album, except that all of them are Satanic
Poems. Themes I obsess over are Death, Darkness, Damnation, Winter and Sorrow. I
have always been fascinated by those five elements and I will always be.
There is so
much that I like about poetry... It's way of giving a concrete form to the
abstract or obscuring the obvious, the whole aesthetics behind it, the way the
words flow when you read them. No prose will ever be as good a mirror to one's
thoughts than poetry, and no ordinary text can be as gratifying to write as a good
poem. If lyrics can show you someone's frame of mind, a poem will open the gate
to his soul...
My poems
basically come out the same way either in French or English: gloomy and
obscure. The emotions I want to transmit to the listeners depends on their
general outlook on life. While they always come out dark, individuals like
myself tend to also find them beautiful and soothing and "normal
humans" are usually scared by their ugliness/grimness. That suits me just
well, since I do not want to be understood by everyone...
I believe
in the dark side of the human nature or what fearful dogmas are calling Satan. Some
choose a life of servitude and weakness, conforted that they are by being part
of a blind, deaf and mute mass they call society, and then others embrace
individuality, strenght even tough it means being outcasts. We are on this
world to suffer, and those that are called "elite" have accepted this
and are able to grow through this torment, while the rest are only trying to
deny the truth. When I crumble into dust, at least I will have the satisfaction
of having been a wolf, not a mere cattle!
What man
has built, man will destroy; what man has destroyed, nature will erase. This is
the epitaph that comes to mind...
We are
extremely nostalgic about the early 90's BM scene and it's long lost spirit,
and not a day goes by without us being sickened by the current state of this
so-called scene! There are still a few bands living this way of life, but sadly
they are few and far between.
When
Carsten from Millenium/Solistitium approached us about doing a 1000 limited
edition as a tribute to the early 90's scene we immediately said yes as we
liked the idea behind it. Yes, it did bring back some memories, and at the same
time we had the opportunity to make something new of this old recording, and
experiment on it a bit. Since Millenium is a label with a good visibility
especially in Germany, we figured that this re-release couldn't hurt us in
terms of visibility, but if it was something done out of pure greed we would
have backed down for sure. Even tough Millenium will broaden it's horizons to
other spectrums of music, I know for a fact that they still support True Black
Metal in a way many BM labels don't even do anymore!
Hopefully
we will record something new by the end of 2000, in the meantime we will
probably do a promo CD with 4/5 new songs for some interested labels sometimes
this summer. The general approach will be generally the same, but at the same
time an evolution will be seen. All in all, it's probably going to be a bit
(and ONLY a bit) more technical and even faster!
Right now
we are putting the finishing touches on a compilation called "Waging the
War/ A tribute to the Olden Ways" which will stand as an hommage to the
old values of Black Metal. This will feature only bands that are still playing
BM the true way (dark/hateful), many of them with exclusive or rare songs. We
also have tried to have a good mix of know bands, cult bands and new ones that
are doing something right. A few bands that are going to be on this are Lord
Belial (with an exclusive cover of Mercyful Fate's Come to the Sabbath!), Thy
Primordial, Ragnarok, Horna, Frozen Shadows, Antaeus, Celestia, Negura Bunget
and others, all in all this will feature 17/18 bands on one CD, with an AMAZING
warlike cover! If all goes as planned, this should be out in early july. We
should also release two other CDs by BM bands from Québec this summer, namely
Esker and Skjull, both of them being very good at what they do. All in all, we
are looking to expand Sepulchral Productions quite considerably towards the end
of 2000...