Hanna Tsepesh: Olá (Hello in Portuguese) The Spektrum! Thanks so much for accepting this interview and Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL! First of all: how are you guys and how are the things doing with your concerts? I saw you guy’s a couple of times and you guy’s are still very humble and very nice and talkative to the public! I hope you guys never lose that…Zouza: Olá Hanna! First of all, thank you for the interview opportunity. We are fine, concerts are going well, we've made lots of friends everywhere, awesome.
Engraved: Olá Hanna! The concerts are going well, lots of beer, awesome public in the concerts and many great bands to play with!
Dyrion: Olá Hanna! How are you? Hope everything’s great, and thank you for this opportunity. Well everything is going great, the shows are being better and better as we play and people are loving it. We are still the same crazy guys; we love to hear some good metal and drink some beers, and we usually talk and hang out with everybody, unless someone’s too drunk to talk (laughs).
Hanna Tsepesh: I am fine Dyrion, thanks for asking! For those who do not know The Spektrum could tell us a little how it all started? In the beginning you guys start to play Thrash, why you change the music style?
Zouza: The Spektrum started on October 2005, with a different line up, we were 6 members. We started playing Thrash cause of our drummer, he was a Thrash fan, but, all changed when Samnu (originally as the keyboard player) arrived to the band with his “keyboard” influences, we decided to work on music’s with keyboards and leave the Thrash influences behind.
Engraved: Lulu was, with no doubt, the trash head that strapped us there, even more, we couldn’t develop our sound, because he couldn’t keep to our evolution. That became a problem, generating a bad ambience in the rehearsals. I started composing more “technical” (more advanced that before) causing him to stop attending the rehearsals and always complaining. Eventually he decided to get off the boat, which turn to be good, cause we, Zouza, was about to fire him. Samnu integration in the band was with no shadow of doubt a major step towards our today’s sound. Our first music in the style we play today (similar, more raw)” Shadows”, the keyboard was made by him, its that gives the “doomsdays” ambience, sadness. And we were all happy with that result, making that our road!
Dyrion: We felt that we needed to do something strongest and definitely darker, we wanted to create obscure ambiences, and Lulu didn´t fit in our vision what the band should be. After his departure we started to work in that kind of material, and faster, we started to record our demo in July (2006); we composed technical/heavy dark stuff, finally we could use keyboards as we always wanted.
We played a lot in 2006/2007, we shared stage with a lot of great bands, we played in Spain, and we took a few contests, it was great.
In that time we’ve discovered a lot of new things, it helped us growing as mans/musicians, we are always discovering new things, like everybody, I think in that time we found our path, and for shore we will explore many ways in this dark journey.
Hanna Tsepesh: How did the name of the band come from?
Dyrion: I remember when we discuss the name, it was 2 weeks before our first show, we didn’t know what to call ourselves, I wanted some obscure, enigmatic, that makes you think and imagine things in your mind, something that you could not touch, but something that it is always there, an obscure presence that walks right beside everyone; it is difficult materialize everything in one word or two, and I think The Spektrum is the better expression to define us.
Hanna Tsepesh: I have a big difficult question for you guys (laughs). What is The Spektrum music style? Some people say: Death/Gothic, Black/death, etc. So, for the people out there that are lost in what The Spektrum are, what is your answer for them?
Dyrion: (Laughs); it is very complicated to answer that question, I think we don’t know the right definition for our music style, we love a lot of different metal things, I don´t know if we ever can classify our music, in the future when people hear our music we want they to say this is The Spektrum . We want to play brutal stuff with dark/epic ambiences, that makes people think about their existences, we do not concern about a specific style, we concern about our own music, it is the most important part, I think future releases will help people to identify better our sound, not a specific music style, but as The Spektrum, we are trying to make some difference, it’s our goal.
Engraved: That is with no doubt a difficult question to ask, seeing that many people have classified us and there are so many classifications. We’ve been classified as Death Gothic Metal, others Medieval Heavy Metal, Black Doom Metal. I think we have a little bit of various things, making it difficult to be classified in these words. “Being forced to choose a style” I think I would probably pick the Death Melodic Metal, I think that is what we have more, in Daemonicus Awakening.
Hanna Tsepesh: What inspired you the most to create the lyrics for The Spektrum?
Dyrion: Well, mostly life, everything that surrounds me, I write almost every day, different kind of things, usually very dark stuff (laughs), and I don’t need to be depressed or something, just let the feelings come, I write poetry, almost everything in Portuguese, and mostly every day I gather new ideas for The Spektrum, it makes me think a lot and explore new worlds, which I love. The other part of the inspiration come from the riffs, I am a big fan of Engraved way to compose music, many of his riffs inspired me, and I work the lyrics embracing them in the riff/ambience of the music, so we can have everything gathered as one unified piece.
Hanna Tsepesh: What are your favorite bands?
Zouza: I started listening Rammstein, and I think is still my favorite band, I also like Moonspell, Tiamat, Bathory, Ramp, W.A.K.O, Switchtense, etc. I listen to loads of bands, especially Portuguese bands.
Dyrion: Well I don’t know, good music inspires me, when I was a kid, Rammstein, those guys are crazy, and Zouza got me addicted to them, (laughs), Moonspell it was a band that helped me a lot to walk among the shadows, Monotheist from Celtic Frost is an authentic masterpiece, I love it, all it´s ambience, the riffs, the delays, and mostly the lyrics, it really elevates my mind, Tom is a genius, he’s unique; Quorthon it was another genius, I love Tiamat ambiences and the lyrics are awesome.
I love Emperor, Marduk, I heard a lot of progressive German black metal, bands such as Farsot or Secrets of The Moon, lately I’ve being heard a lot of grind/brutal death bands, Nile, Anaal Nathrakh, oh and I was about to forget Anathema, Antimatter, it makes really fly (laughs), and in Portugal, I already refer Moonspell, we got a lot of bands which is great, and really all of them inspires me a lot, because we all are in the same boat, we got to take the right path we got here so much good bands in such different music styles, and I think we are in the right way to take Portugal to another level in the metal scene in Europe, to become a reference in the world metal scene.
Engraved: As Zouza, it was Rammstein that brought me to the “metal planet”. That’s why I know, every album and music from them, so its one of my favorite bands, but not the favorite. I hold on the top Moonspell and Dimmu Borgir my two top favorite bands. Also I like Emperor, Bathory [fav. cds: Hammerheart, Destroyer of Worlds, Twilight of The Gods), Septic Flesh, Old Man’s Child. These are my tops; but there are many more bands.
Hanna Tsepesh: Let’s talk a little bit of you guys. First I would like to start with
Dyrion: Do you have any singer that you admire the most? Dyrion: You want it you got it laughs, they are so many, Ihsahn ( Hails to the mighty Emperor , laughs), Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell), Tom G. Warrior( Hellhamer, Celtic Frost, Triptykon), Dave Hunt (Anaal Nathrakh), Till (Rammstein), Mortuus (Marduk), Alan “Nemtheanga” (Primordia), Vincent Cavanagh ( Anathema), Dany Filth (Cradle of Filth); well I’m definitely forgetting someone, fortunately there are so many.
Hanna Tsepesh: I would like to know if you had or have any singing lessons or any guttural technique lessons? I don’t know if you agree on this with me, but do you think when your band started to play Thrash metal, it helped you to have more technique in your voice?
Dyrion: No I never had any lessons of anything, I learned everything for myself, as I am still learning now, it is an long process of evolution, I think about some ideas in my mind and I practice until I got minimally satisfied. Everything we’ve done helped me in my singing, every rehashed, the bands that I listen, and me (laughs), I am trying to get there, to get close of my own perfection, we learn experimenting things, it’s a work for a life.
Hanna Tsepesh: Engraved, do you have any guitar player that you admire the most? When you create the riffs and melodies what is your big inspiration?
When I listen to some melodies in this album they remind me the old terror movies. Engraved: My favorite guitarist is Tom Rune Andersen [Galder] from Old Man’s Child and Dimmu Borgir. I admire his work in his band, especially the “Revelation 666 - The Curse Of Damnation” and “Vermin” albums, he is a reference!
Now about inspiration: First there’s a crucial element for inspiration (when composing) to appear, creativity. I think I was “blessed” with such (laughs) Inspiration surrounds us. It is everywhere, you get it through your eyes, through you ears, trough every sense. The mood is also an influential element in inspiration, whether your sad or happy, if you’re with rage or peaceful. I myself am an adept of composing drunk (laughs).
Take, for example, “Nenphilis”, what a night (laughs).. I had arrived at Nazaré, in the summer, not to go to the beach, but to get drunk. I took my guitar and a pc. At night I started drinking Port Wine. After a whole bottle a riff came to me, so I recorded it not to forget, this is because I have a faulty memory, I forget things very easy. Then I went to a bar to have some beers (my favorite beverage), after an “indicated” amount of that I returned home. The inspiration stroke me again, and from that I recorded the entire music. I’m quite happy with the result. It has happen with other music’s too, all related with wine or beer, or even both (laughs)
A mood influence is for example “Eternal Fear” was when I was upset and kind of nostalgic. I compose it all in the same day. Started by the keyboards, then moved to guitars, that’s the why the keyboards, to me, are the highlight of the music!
About the “old terror movie” sounds, those are my favorite’s movies (laughs). Hail Hellraiser! You’re the first to relate our sound to it, it is good. I’m remembering old terror movies to have awesome dark ambiences, and suspense!
Hanna Tsepesh: Also I know that you have another band project, right? Can you tell to us about that? You guys have MySpace or something for the listeners out there add your band and listen to some stuff…
Engraved: I have something like four (laughs) but two of them are currently stopped, being “Mortis Causa” a Death Metal project and Shadow Sun Gothic Metal, but are currently on hold and Thrones of Astaroth, which I founded to play black metal, but in the way others styles come in (laughs)! You can take a look at www.myspace.com/thronesofastaroth . We’ve finished the 5 music’s, plus an intro, we’re going to record on our EP. We are too here seeking for others members, being, the bassist, drummer, and perhaps keyboarder, and also looking to get a female choir to record in our EP and a female solo voice.
Hanna Tsepesh: Zouza, You have any bass player that you admire the most?
Any reasons for you pick this instrument? It was difficult to learn?Zouza: I´m a fan of Jeordie White, he is a great bass player, and, thanks to him, I discovered B.C. Rich basses about 14 years ago. The reason I choose to play bass it was because the first band I had I was playing keyboards, but we were not able to find a bass player, so, I decided to buy one bass and start playing bass.. Was it difficult to learn?? I still don’t know how to play bass.
Hanna Tsepesh: (laughs) Good one Zousa! The band has a new album called “Daemonicus Awakening". My god what can I say about your album (laughs), we have a lot of things to discover in this amazing album! I liked a lot the melodies and all the atmosphere that the band create in all the music’s some of them remember me the old movies(like I already told to Engraved), I send my congratulations for the entire band for this great work! My favorite music’s are “Lost in Time”, “Drowned in sadness” and “Eternal Fear”. For people who don’t listen yet can you talk about “Daemonicus Awakening” and what the band want to accomplish?
Dyrion: Thanks a lot, our main goal was creating something unique, something unified, like I said before, we wanted to do an album that touch people, to make them think about their existences. We worked a lot for having a whole album that would touch people; to make them think about their existences. Like I said, we worked a lot for having a whole album intimately connected itself; the music, lyrics, among the illustrations.
It is a conceptual work, all the music’s are fables, and all of them are connected, unifies the whole concept, it is like a movie, divided in 10 chapters; you can listen the tracks separated, but if you listen the whole cd among with the lyrics, you will understand it much better; it is when everything is really connected, when you do that you will realize that this opus it’s much bigger and epic that it seems. I think our main goal was achieved; we wanted to breach our own borders and we did it, we are very satisfied with ourselves.
Hanna Tsepesh: How was working with Dikk (WichBreed) and Ares (WitchBreed)? You guys learning something with them? Also, everything went well at recording studio? It was an easy process for the band?
Zouza: It was great to meet and work with Dikk and Ares, two Portuguese metal masters, we’ve learned a lot with them, as persons and musicians, we had great time with them as professionals and friends, and I hope we can repeat the experience soon, I even got the pleasure of recording “Daemoncius Awakeing” with the ESH bass that toured with Moonspell back in the “Irreligious” album. All went well and fast, we had some problems, but nothing special, normal things I think, except the mastering of the album, which went missing for about 2 months on the way to Portugal from Germany.
Dyrion: Well, what can I say, it was a great experience for us, we never worked before with someone with such experience. It is never easy to record an album as you know, but we went to studio almost 90 percent prepared; one of the most important things was that we worked almost without pressure; we did everything we wanted to do and much more. Ares and Dikk were awesome; as the whole Witchbreed crew, we felt at home, and that is the most important thing in my point of view. It is a natural process, while someone was recording the others were drinking, laughing and working on other aspects of the album, like the photo session or the artwork.
Engraved: As for my experience, like Zouza said, it was an incredible pleasure to work with Dikk and Ares. Very patient and with awesome personality. Also, Dikk was a fundamental key on the recording process. In all areas he gave his ideas on which to make it sound better. The guitars were improved in some parts due to ideas he gave. Also in the keyboards, he put his hands to work, and done some amazing things! The recording process was “hard” it self, two days to records the guitars from the whole album and overdubbing them! It was intense (laughs) In the second day, which was the one where I recorded for more hours straight, I got to a point where my hands desynchronized one from the other, but then a glass of wine put it back together (laughs). Overall it was a great experience which I intend to repeat!
Hanna Tsepesh: In this album you have 2 Guest vocals: Ruby (witchbreed) and Peter Slaughter (Echoes of the Fallen Messiah). How was working with them? Can you tell to us what are your opinion about their contribute on “Daemonicus Awakening"?
Dyrion: It was great, Peter is a friend for a long time and it was a kind of natural, he did a great job; Ruby has a great voice, she can do almost whatever she wants, and while we recording Ares suggest her contribution, we needed a female voice and she is awesome, so it was natural to, she took the role of a nymph Hamadryad in “Drowned in Sadness”, and in "The Awakening" she does the voice of conscience, we are very satisfied with their contribution, they’ve done an amazing job.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band feels proud with the final result or you think that miss something?
Engraved: I’m proud of it, for what we had ended up in a great opus in my way of view.
Dyrion: We are very proud of the job we’ve done, I think it is a very powerful album, very compact, full of great details, and it marked a specific time of our lives, it is not an perfect album, nothing is perfect, but there is nothing to change there, if we need to change something we work that for future releases, we learn with our mistakes and if we need to change anything it is a good signal, it is because we are in the right way, it is evolution, and you put that in practice for further releases, because if we pass our lives try to get one perfect album, we didn’t record anything.
Zouza: Yes, we are proud with the final result, of course that we think we could of done something’s better, but, thinking that way, the album would never be finished, there always something better that should have done.
Hanna Tsepesh: How has the response been to the album by the media and fans?Dyrion: Great, people are loving it by the reaction we’ve received, every day we collect new fans, It is a difficult job; the market is full field o new great bands every week, and it take a lot of time and hard work to reach many people as possible; yesterday a friend of mine call me and say, “men your new video clip it’s amazing”, and I thought for me, this video has a year, in the end of this month we will record another video, you see, it took a year for him to see the video, it is a long process. We had received great reactions from Europe, South America, and the US and Canada of course, and lately we had a lot of good reactions from Asia, and it is because of them that we will record this new video, in the past few months Eternal Fear had been heard thousands of times, and people talk a lot about that music, and it is one of our favorites, we will record this video to show respect for our fans for everything and it marks a new Aeon for us to.
Hanna Tsepesh: If one of our readers wants to buy your album safely, what they can do?
Zouza: They can buy the album at our label website www.noiseheadrecords.com, or visit Locomotive Records, www.locomotive.es (our distributor in Spain and Portugal) website to find where to buy our album in Portugal.
Hanna Tsepesh: what is your favorite music in this album and why?
Dyrion: All of them, I’m proud of my babies, (laughs), each one in a different way, there are some parts that I prefer more than others, it is normal, every music and every lyric has something very special to me, it depends of my mood, I love to play all of them live.
Zouza: Lost in Time is the oldest music from the album, and still one of my favorites, The Angels Set our Future Appart, I love this music and I love to play it live, and the melodic Eternal Fear, is such a great music, can take us to suicide, I think is the best music from the album.
Engraved: It’s hard to say, “every music has its moment”. But I would go for Eternal Fear, I think it’s the more complete song of the album. It has great ambience, a good melody, a great “feeling”
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is thinking about an European tour?
Dyrion: Yes, of course, it is very hard to go on tour for a young band, without any kind of support, this market it’s fuck up for young bands, and usually the small bands have to pay this costs to the bigger ones, it’s complicated, we already received a few proposals, and 2 of them were very tempting , but back in that time it was impossible for us to go on that tour, if anything went wrong it were catastrophic for us, we have to plan it very carefully. But just to answer again to your question, touring is our dream, is that what we wanted to do forever, and soon or later it will happens.
Hanna Tsepesh: I know that is very soon to ask that but, the band is thinking about other album? What are the future plains for THE SPEKTRUM?
Dyrion: Yes, and I think it is not so soon, we had a lot of new material, almost ready to record, Engraved had composed some of that material while we were at studio, we all go a lot of new ideas, and I think this next further release it will be much more characteristically, it is natural evolution, I think we will be ready to record during the second semester of this year; just like Zouza and Engraved I want fresh blood to.
Zouza: I feel ready to start working on a new album, we recorded “Daemonicus Awakenging” at the end of 2007, and it was only released on 2009, for fans is a “fresh” album, for me a very old album.
Engraved: Well I started creating new stuff even before we went to studio (laughs). I got dozens of music’s, I’m always trying to compose new stuff, I don’t like to be stopped, unfortunately the time isn’t enough and I end up forgetting things. I’m anxious to enter studio again.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is your feeling to have NOISE HEAD RECORDS as your label? The entire band is happy with N.H.R work so far?
Dyron: Yes, we are, they are helping us with our own publicity, and I have to tell you, after we got signed we have a lot of work, we learned a lot of new things, that will help us a lot in the future. It is hard, because we work at distance, but it is normal like you know, your job is similar (laughs), and the internet help us a lot to communicate, it is an recent label and they have a lot of records on the market, they are growing, so as we, sometimes it is hard to get 100 per cent attention, because they have a lot of bands, but I think that is a great thing to, because they spread their/our word in different regions of many countries, and that’s awesome.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is your opinion about the metal in our country (Portugal)? Do you think that the metal bands are supported in here by Magazines, Radios, places to play, etc.? Dyrion: Well it is growing a lot really, every week we heard about new bands, the hole community is growing and you can see it by the number of shows last year, and by the shows already booked for this year, there are a lot o people working in the right direction, but still are many to do, we all need more support and recognition for all our work, I’m talking for the all Portuguese metal bands, many promoters and bars earn a lot of money exploiting bands, because bands need to play, many times we pay for play, it is very hard to get good conditions, but fortunately there are good people, personally, and for example we love to play at Side B Lounge Live Club, in Benavente, it is a fantastic place to play, and to go to see a live show, people are amazing and they only care about the music, and we have more examples, last year we had great festivals, and I think this year it will be better, and by the way my deep regards and respect for Alex & Bigdog Prod, for Caos Emergente Open Air among other events, and of course the other fantastic festivals like Swr Barroselas, Vagos Open Air, and Ilha do Ermal, they are the living proof of the capability of what we can do. And by the way, last year when we played at Caos, we were treated like everybody else, we had fantastic conditions to work, the sound was amazing, so as everybody, I’m telling you this because unfortunately it is not usual, many magazines and radios, etc, disrespect our work when it is compared to our foreign friends, I’m not talking only for us, but for almost every Portuguese bands, and many promoters don’t care about the sound and the conditions for the Portuguese bands, they only care about the foreign ones, but fortunately this is changing, I think we all are in the right way, you know why? Portuguese metal bands are getting better and better.
Hanna Tsepesh: I agree with you and you are totally right! How does the band deal when people say bad things about your work?
Zouza: I like to hear / read bad things, I don’t answer, but I think on them and work to improve the “bad things”.
Dyrion: I like it (laughs), we had an album, many people like, many don’t, it’s normal, in my case I am the front man, I get used to it, hear it is normal people to say good and bad things about us, I don’t care about that bad things, you know why? Because they already listen to our music and that is our main goal, people listen to our music, well if they say bad things and they didn’t listen to our music, I cannot talk about that, it’s ridiculous. History already teaches us, those who gather more attention, are the most loved and hated ones, you cannot be loved by everyone, even Jesus, the savior (laughs), supposedly he was the promised one, loved by humanity, and men crucified him, he got out of lucky. (laughs)
Hanna Tsepesh: (laughs)
Engraved: I share Zouza’s opinion, if it is an opinion, a review, etc, as long as it is founded. Like, if a person says “they suck” just because they feel too, well…It’s not a very appealing comment, if a person doesn’t like she doesn’t like, it’s normal, it’s a taste. But when they make shitty comments just to try to take the band down. (laughs)
Hanna Tsepesh: Do you want to send any message for the people who going to read this interview?
Dyrion: Thank you for your patience (laugh), for those who had been taking the same path as us thank you so much, we owe you everything, for those who don’t know our music, listen to our album, visit us on MySpace, youtube, our label, etc, but make shore that you come to one of our shows, you won’t forget that soon, and this year we are stronger than ever and we will rock live, that is for sure.
Zouza: Listen to “Daemonicus Awakening”, buy the album, or just download it (we aren’t able to fight that) and make sure you go to our shows.
Engraved: Listen our music and, especially, support all metal!
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks o much for your answers and for your time to answer this big interview. THE GATES OF METAL wishes the entire band a great success with “Daemonicus Awakening" and good luck for your future concerts! See you guys very soon in live concert…
Engraved: It was a pleasure being here! Thanks, Hanna, for the interview, you’re awesome! Great Work!
Dyrion: Thank you so much, it is always a pleasure, best luck for you to, you have been doing an amazing job, really; hope to see you soon for some beers and metal. Awwwghhhh!!!
Zouza: All the best for you and THE GATES OF METAL, it was a pleasure, see you live. Cheers and beers
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much guys for your words! All the best...
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To listen to some THE SPEKTRUM music’s and for future information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/thespektrum
