Hanna Tsepesh: Hello Aggreash! Thank you a lot for accepting this interview. For the ones who don’t know you guys, tell me little bit about the Lyfthrasyr history, and about the members in the band?
Aggreash: Lyfthrasyr was founded in 2002, when I recorded the demo “Beyond the Frontiers of Mortality”. With these songs I watched out for interested and capable musicians, who finally were found in Insorior (guitar) and Mathar (drums) in 2004. After some concerts with very positive feedback, we decided to record our first full-length The Final Resurrection in 2005 and were signed afterwards by German label twilight. The reactions in the press were very good either and right after a successful festival season in 2006 we started working on our second album The Recent Foresight to be now released on November 30th 2007. In the run-up to this release we already had the chance to play our first European tour together with Behemoth, Kataklysm and Aborted in September/October 2007. The current line-up consists of Aggreash (bass, keys, vocals), Insorior (guitars), Skytorian (drums) and just some weeks ago, we added a new member with Vethys (live keys) as support for our concerts.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is the meaning of Lyfthrasyr and also your name? Do they have any history or something?
Hanna Tsepesh: What is the meaning of Lyfthrasyr and also your name? Do they have any history or something?
Aggreash: Our band name’s origin can be found in the Nordic mythology: When the apocalypse “Ragnarök” took place, only one pair of humans survived it. The man of those two was called “Lifthrasir” and we adapted this to our name. It has no deeper meaning for us, because our lyrics aren’t about mythology, but we wanted to have a special name consisting of only one word and with an unusual pronunciation. My name is another adaption of an fallen angel called “Agreas”, who is a duke of the underworld finding pleasure in teaching immoral expressions. For me it has some meaning as I’m pretty interested in the forces and values of morality or immorality.
Hanna Tsepesh: So cool!!! Tell me about your musical Background and the others guys, what is your musical influences?
Aggreash: We all have pretty different backgrounds and influences. Insoriror played in several hard rock and heavy metal bands before joining Lyfthrasyr to be his first extreme metal band. His musical influences vary from heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden to melodic death metal bands like In Flames or Amon Amarth. Skytorian’s origin is brutal death metal, which can be heard easily in his weird style of playing the drums on “The Recent Foresight”. Finally, Lyfthrasyr is also my first extreme metal band. I used to play very different kinds of music like jazz/blues, alternative rock or heavy metal but when I got to know black and death metal a couple of years ago, I was fascinated instantly by the speed, the precision and the aggressiveness. My present influences are for example Rammstein, Machine Head, Deathstars, various movie soundtracks and still Dimmu Borgir. Currently, Lyfthrasyr is the only band for all of us. I like this fact, because everyone concentrates on one band only and there are never and scheduling problems coming up.
Hanna Tsepesh: I read that you are making all the lyrics and compose all the songs right?! Tell me your inspirations when you do all those things. What you think when you do it?
Hanna Tsepesh: I read that you are making all the lyrics and compose all the songs right?! Tell me your inspirations when you do all those things. What you think when you do it?
Aggreash: Most of my musical inspirations you can read in the answer right above. The lyrical influences can be found in ancient Roman or Greek philosophy, because – from my point of view – we didn’t get really further since this time regarding topics like morals, weakness of human character or even political science. When composing, it’s always the music, which is finished before any line of lyrics is written. The procedure is pretty rational: Experimenting in finding the right sound, testing many melodies and parts and connecting them to a good coherence.
Hanna Tsepesh: That is a very interesting thing, now i can understand more your lyrics! One curiosity…In Germany is very hard to record on studio, to find a record label or have some kind of support?Aggreash: Germany is one of the biggest countries for metal in general. We have many studios, record labels, distribution companies and also fans and metal supporters here. So, you could expect a big support as well, but the problem is, that we also have some kind of oversupply or over saturation in Germany: There are simply too much bands and listening to music becomes a mass consumption more and more. People download huge amounts of songs from the internet illegally and don’t know to what they should support or at least listen to because of this oversupply. Of course, this is not a Germany-specific problem but a global one! The conclusion is: You have many studios and labels on the one hand but by far too much bands for their supporting slots on the other. And exactly this fact makes it so difficult nowadays.
Hanna Tsepesh:Thanks a lot for answer it! How is the vision on people about Metal and Metal bands in your country? Do you have in there many people listening to metal bands? I ask you this because i know some bands in others country's that don’t have so many support in there own country and they try to find label records on Germany to have little bit of help…
Hanna Tsepesh:Thanks a lot for answer it! How is the vision on people about Metal and Metal bands in your country? Do you have in there many people listening to metal bands? I ask you this because i know some bands in others country's that don’t have so many support in there own country and they try to find label records on Germany to have little bit of help…
Aggreash: As I just mentioned, these foreign bands look for support in Germany because we have so many labels and companies. This may sound nice, but with the current over saturation of bands, it’s nearly impossible for a new and still rather unknown band to get real support from every direction – magazines, labels, distribution, booking agencies and festivals. So, the percentage of these bands out of the “new-bands-pool” making it to the top is unbelievably small compared to former times.
Hanna Tsepesh: Yeah that don’t sound so nice! Speaking now about your 2º album “The Recent Foresight”, i have to tell you this: For me is a brilliant work, your album is very powerful in voice and sound, honestly i don't have one bad thing to say, is just an amazing work! I give my congratulations for the band and special for you, that write all the lyrics and create the sounds. I know that is not easy all this work but you and your band have a Great album and nobody can’t take that from you! Is a Great melodic black/death metal album, all the lovers of this style have to listen some musics on MySpace band and to buy the album. I like also the sound of the keyboards is not very Exaggerated, the sound is in right time and makes a beautiful melody. Can you tell a little bit about the album and what you want to pass to your fans? Have you made any changes from the first album to this 2º one?
Hanna Tsepesh: Yeah that don’t sound so nice! Speaking now about your 2º album “The Recent Foresight”, i have to tell you this: For me is a brilliant work, your album is very powerful in voice and sound, honestly i don't have one bad thing to say, is just an amazing work! I give my congratulations for the band and special for you, that write all the lyrics and create the sounds. I know that is not easy all this work but you and your band have a Great album and nobody can’t take that from you! Is a Great melodic black/death metal album, all the lovers of this style have to listen some musics on MySpace band and to buy the album. I like also the sound of the keyboards is not very Exaggerated, the sound is in right time and makes a beautiful melody. Can you tell a little bit about the album and what you want to pass to your fans? Have you made any changes from the first album to this 2º one?
Aggreash: First of all thank you very much for this comment to our new release “The Recent Foresight”! We worked unbelievably hard to make this on as best as possible and are proud of what we reached so far. The main intention was to write interesting songs, which aren’t too complex but won’t get boring even after several times of listening either. Furthermore, every song should have something unique and special, so that no two songs of the album are really comparable to each other – this can be a special keyboard sound like in “Perception never expected”, a particular drum rhythm like in “Rage towards Apathy” or freaky melodies, of course. We also wanted to have a big advancement to our last album “The Final Resurrection”, not because we don’t like this album anymore, but because it seemed to be natural due to all the new influences, which came on since the release back in 2005. These enhancements can be heared in every tone from the composition straight to the production: Songs getting right to the point but still not “easy-listening”, experimental and more selectively used keyboards, smashing guitars, killer drums and a very powerful and modern sound by Fredrik Nordström’s great mixing effort and Björn Engelmann’s majestic mastering. We are really satisfied with the result!
Hanna Tsepesh: Don’t need to thank me, is only the truth! When the band enter on studio you have all the lyrics and riffs done? Tell to us about the process on studio recording.Aggreash: It was a pretty long-taking recording process starting in June and ending in September 2007. Right after the song-writing was finished, we went to German Iguana Studios to record the drums in June. Afterwards we recorded and edited all the other instrumental and the vocal tracks at home to save lots of money for the big studios we went to in September. By recording nearly everything at home, we were able to bring the tracks as near to perfection as possible. When these very hard recordings and preparations finally came to an end at the beginning ot September, we traveled to Sweden to well-known Studio Fredman in Gothenburg for getting the album mixed by Fredrik Nordström. Right after the mix we went to Stockholm to finish the album with the mastering by Björn Engelmann at the famous Cutting Room. So, most of the album production process was again – like with “The Final Resurrection” – done by ourselves in about three months of really hard and exhaustive homework.
Hanna Tsepesh: Yeah, but in the end you have a GREAT album, you can be very proud of it and your band as well! In the album “The Recent Foresight” the intro (“The Addiction To Peace”) it is amazing, tell me from were did it come your inspiration to make it?
Aggreash: Thank you very much! I was highly inspired by some movie soundtracks of Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer, to which I listened at this time. The choir sings the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem para bellum” which means “If you seek peace, prepare for war”. This is an antagonism to the title “The addiction to peace” to show that the search for peace not rarely leeds to violence.
Hanna Tsepesh: In visual terms, i have to congratulate the person who make this Great Job with you guys in photos, band logo and the album. If any person want to buy the album in Portugal what can we do?
Hanna Tsepesh: In visual terms, i have to congratulate the person who make this Great Job with you guys in photos, band logo and the album. If any person want to buy the album in Portugal what can we do?
Aggreash: It’s the work of our band’s graphics designer Nephilim, who is a good friend of mine and works for Lyfthrasyr exclusively. This way, we’re able to connect the music and the artwork very closely. I’ll forward your commendation to him, of course.If someone wants to buy “The Recent Foresight” in Portugal, it’s not that easy, I guess. There is an mp3-distribution via “Musica Online”, but no real store with real CDs. The easiest way would probably be to order the album at the international mailorders EMP or Nuclear Blast. You’ll find the direct links to them and many more stores on our website at www.lyfthrasyr.com/shop-e.html
Hanna Tsepesh: He make a really cool Job, the pictures are fantastic! Great work Nephilim! In the future you have any plans to Play in Portugal?
Hanna Tsepesh: He make a really cool Job, the pictures are fantastic! Great work Nephilim! In the future you have any plans to Play in Portugal?
Aggreash: Unfortunately, Portugal is pretty far away from Germany and only few European tour s travel to Portugal or Spain because of the big distance. We’d be euphoric to play in your country for sure, but still we’re a too unknown band to decide, where we want to play. We’re working hard on changing this fact and maybe we’ll be able to come to Portugal for a festival once.
Hanna Tsepesh: You have any concerts for now? Tell to us some dates and places.
Hanna Tsepesh: You have any concerts for now? Tell to us some dates and places.
Aggreash: Currently, we have several concerts announced, most of them in Germany, but also in the neighbor countries Netherlands and Czech Republic. We’re looking forward to each time presenting the new songs live. In addition, there are negotiations going on for another tour in autumn this year, but I can’t tell too much about this, yet. On our tour with Behemoth and Kataklysm in autumn 2007, we didn’t play any concert in Germany, so we want to focus on our home-country with the next tour.
Hanna Tsepesh: Talking about concerts…i read that you guys Play with some Great bands like Kataklysm, Behemoth, Susperia, Lacrimas Profundere,Theatre of Tragedy, Oomph!, Samael,Deathstars, Belphegor & Norther.I know that was a long time, but tell to us the feeling to Play on the same stage with them, they are nice people? What is the Great memory that you keep from that concerts and with them?
Aggreash: It was a big honor for us to share the stage with the bands you mentioned, but we didn’t meet all of these bands in personal. However, the bands we met were really nice and friendly – unless they’re maybe frightening and fierce appearance on stage. Fortunately, most of the music guys just play a role in a nice, evil theater, what is much better than a real evil way of life...
Hanna Tsepesh: Last question, what is the projects for the future of Lyfthrasyr? The band and are you already thinking in the 3º album?
Hanna Tsepesh: Last question, what is the projects for the future of Lyfthrasyr? The band and are you already thinking in the 3º album?
Aggreash: There are no concrete plans up to now, but there will be another album very likely. As we’re no full-time musicians you can never tell for sure, because it takes really a lot of time to write and produce an album and it all depends on our future and timing plans besides music. Fortunately, our label twilight has already shown their interest in extending our contract, so with their support we’ll be more motivated in planning another album, of course.
Hanna Tsepesh: That is Great, we are going to wait for that! THE GATES OF METAL wish you and your band a Great success, and we hope to see you guys in here very soon. Auf Wiedersehen Aggreash!
Hanna Tsepesh: That is Great, we are going to wait for that! THE GATES OF METAL wish you and your band a Great success, and we hope to see you guys in here very soon. Auf Wiedersehen Aggreash!
Aggreash: Thanks a lot for this interview, it was our first one with a Portuguese. Listen to our songs at www.myspace.com/lyfthrasyr and see you on the road!
