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Interview Interrogation: Mahmoud Nader from Riverwood (Egypt)

20/5/2020

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For a band whose lyrics revolve around topics involving fantasy and death, you would have thought that the single 'Stalingrad' would have been by a Black Metal band. Instead it's by Egyptian Progressive / Folk Metal entity Riverwood and as frontman Mahmoud went on to explain, the single is drawing a comparison to the second world war and the current war against COVID-19. During his interrogation he confessed as to how the band came about, why Egyptian Metal is embracing a revolution and what venues metalheads should go to in the city of Alexandria.

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For those who have not heard of Riverwood, could you give us a brief history of the band?

     "The band was formed only 2 years ago under the name of Riverwood. Our first album was released in the same year and its called "Fairytale". With 1 million streams online "Fairytale" has been chosen as one of the top 20 Folk metal albums in 2020."


You recently released your new single 'Stalingrad', what was the idea behind this - why a song about WW2?
    
     "The song basically tells the story about a timeline that is almost the same as the current one, as the world is at war now with the COVID-19 virus. That's why we have decided to release it as a stand-alone single since it will not be a part of our second full album."


Your debut album "Fairytale" is out now, what was the reception like and have you had people outside of Egypt download it?; will it be on CD / vinyl?

     "It has exceeded my expectations. I've never imagined it will be viral in the middle east that fast and also never imagined that it will reach one million streams online all over the world. The album is on CD as well and its sold outside of Egypt. We've sold CDs in Germany, France, Poland, Spain and many more international countries."


Do you feel that there is a rise in Middle Eastern / North African tinged metal? (Myrath, Riverwood, Blaakyum, Scarab, Orphaned Land, etc); how would you describe your sound?

     "Unique. That's how I would describe the sound as all of the mentioned bands including Riverwood are injecting the Arabian sounds and Eastern cultures into their music and stories."

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Citadel Of Fort Qaitbey, Alexandria, Egypt / Source: Gazelle Safari Company
What is the current state of the Egyptian Metal scene? Is it going strong? When did metal music first arrive in Egypt?

     "It was pretty much dead since 2010, but since 2018 it's being brought back to life with a lot of shows and releases."


For metalheads visiting Alexandria, what sights / attractions and bars / venues could you recommend?

     "Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Sawy Cultural Wheel, Jesuit Center... these are the top notch venues for metal heads."


What plans does Riverwood have for late 2020 / early 2021?

     "Currently we are working on our second full length album. Just like "Fairytale", the album will be telling a story that will be visualized in a book. The album also will be featuring more than one artist, of which 2 of them are big names in the metal music industry."


Do you have any greetings or thanks you wish to send out to friends, family, fans etc?


     "As we rarely use the word fans, I would like to thank our family and warriors for all their support through out the "Fairytale" journey, it never could have been done without you and until we see you again on stage please stay safe. Wash your hands! Much love!"

https://www.facebook.com/Riverwoodeg/
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Interview Interrogation: Sammy Sayed of Scarab (Egypt)

29/4/2020

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"It's better for us to stay underground, it might turn really hostile if we went big in our home town"


It goes without saying that alongside Crescent, Scarab are spearheading the Egyptian Metal scene on the international front, although they are definitely humble in their origins and yet pushing harder than ever to reach new heights. Having released their 4th album "Martyrs Of The Storm" back in March via ViciSolum Productions, it was only fair for GMA to interrogate their frontman Sammy Sayed about the band's humble origins, the challenges bands in Egypt face, the lack of a fully functional scene i.e. barely any venues, media or market as such, why the album being released on vinyl was a dream come true and something about a word made up by guitarist Al Sharif Marzeban - that word? 'Verminejya'.

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What was the reception like for "Martyrs Of The Storm"? What was the feedback like in Egypt; was there any resistance?

      "I think it's very contradictory because somehow people related to it as it was something a little bit different to what we are doing; songs are heavier, shorter and more complex. So some people didn't really feel it, maybe it takes a while for it grow on them, and on the other hand we have also been showered with an intense positive feedback. But I believe that it is mainly controversial and that's a good thing; it got people to think and that's a good thing, perhaps it's not just music the you can listen to it and enjoy it, you have to dig deeper into it I believe.

     And in regards to any resistance in our home town... Not at all, because anyway this kind of music is underground and I don't believe there will be any kind of market for metal - we try to push for this to happen, but it didn't happen and I don't think it will happen on a major scale. But for the Egyptian Metal scene itself, so far I think people are really digging the album, especially in Egypt because the inspiration comes from here, it comes from what we're going through energetically and it just speaks to them I guess, so they can relate and feel it."


"Martyrs Of The Storm" was released through ViciSolum Productions, will you sign with another label in the future?

     "That is not something we have in mind right now, what we have in mind right now is working harder. With the album, we believe that it's not just music any more and the message has to artistically expand in the sense of more material to come in order to support the release, more things that we should say in order to explain what this album may represent or what it may mean for us. I don't know about expanding, so far ViciSolum have been really good to us and that's all what we need and this is something I would leave for the future; basically we are very happy with ViciSolum anyway."


Would you say this is the most ambitious album Scarab has ever done?

     "It is to me, not just because of how musically it would sound, but the process itself of creating the album was much different to what we've gone through... we've learned a lot through this album and it's like... we were trying to perfect something and I believe there is nothing like called perfection but it is as perfect as it can get, I believe this is the most sacred work that we have done so far and it's an evolution of anything that we have attempted to do in all ways shapes and forms. "Martyrs Of The Storm" is the purification of Scarab's past."


From "Martyrs Of The Storm" which is your favourite song and why?

     "This is a very hard question because we come up with the concept and I interpret the concept later on after the work has been finished, because our way of working (Marz and I) in terms of writing and composing music, it's like channelling or something - so for me when I started to write the lyrics it was also a from of automatic writing. I would unite with the energy of the song and Marz would give me the song titles mainly and I would start to contemplate and follow synchronicities of writing lyrics for the song depending on what it feels like. In the end what I want to say is to choose one song is hard because to us and to me, it feels like the Egyptian tree of life where the leaves are our chapters and every leaf is so important, it's like the human body.

    But if you insist on me choosing then I would go with the first song 'Martyrs Of The Storm', because I think it speaks of what the album is going to be about, what the other tracks would be about - like a good introduction." 


Can you tell us what the word 'Verminejya' in the song title 'Circles Of Verminejya' means?

     "Ha-ha it doesn't mean anything, the title and concept of the song came from Marz and he was like telling me about the 'Circles Of Verminejya', so OK it's not English, it's not any language, it's a made-up-word and so I was like OK so what does it mean? What the f**k does Verminejya mean? He's like 'Verminejya' means danger, it's a magical word, you get the point? It's not something that linguistically means anything but the energy behind it means something. So we started to interpret it and he's like I think it's about Africa, it's about the tradition, the religion and the magic of Africa. We don't like to stick to gimmicks in the sense of trying to act like we are something from 4,000 years ago, so with this song it's like a magical mix between Voodoo in Africa and Ancient Egypt, what it would be like if we mixed both into one thing... that's what Verminejya is, it's a kind of a realm where the magician or priest would hop into a dance ritual for the gods; it's like a magical war. That's what Verminejya is, it's dancing in magical wars furiously, manoeuvring dangerous. It can be taken as a mantra and that's what I think it means for us."


What do your parents think of Scarab's music? Are they very supportive?

     "They are very supportive, no one interfered; I'm lucky, there is a lot of freedom when it comes to my family. They never had a problem with the idea of 'what the f**k are you doing, why are you singing like that?' or anything like this. From my father or mother or any member of the family, they always thought of me as this weird kid who was an artist and is crazy, just leave him be." 

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Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt / Source: Wikipedia
Do you feel that it's becoming ever more important for bands to reflect their national culture?

     "I guess so, but I have to say that I'm not sure if we fell into this idea of acting, the idea of music not being honest would lead it turning into a gimmick. But at the same time I think it's very important for bands to reflect their culture through their music, but it's not an obligation - if you don't feel it, do what you feel. There is one thing that I really hate, how can I explain this, it's not kind of a product where you are going to manufacture and represent, you know this kind of thinking? I hate it because for me, music is very spiritual and if you feel it, do it. If you feel that you have a message to be spoken about, then go ahead and do that, don't think that 'oh because I'm from Egypt, what is it that would make me different from others, I have to stand out' and then sell yourself as a manufactured product... that way of thinking for me, I am really trying not to judge but it's too commercial for me. And it is easy to spot it, simply honest music will always reach the heart."  


Over the years you've had a number of line-up changes, were these all amicable or were there discrepencies?

     "A little bit of both. We've been together as the same line-up until 2014, so from 2006 until late 2014 / early 2015 we started to have different views, interests, things like this. You know when you have had a relationship for a long time, that's how it is. I think we needed a break and some people just needed to break-up from this thing and I wouldn't say musical differences, it's about losing an interest somehow. The people who left had lost the interest in the essence of what they're doing and lost love towards the entity of Scarab itself, so they left; only Tarek Amr took a break and returned back again.

     The only hard thing to do was to replace them, for Scarab it's not business but more of a friendship; we grew up together and have been through a lot, it's friendship before musicianship and so it was really hard to find the right people to replace them; that is the hardest thing we've been through, it was only Al Sharif Marzeban and myself whom were left to serve the band and in terms of writing the music that's fine, but in terms of finding people that can give the right energy, dedication, chemistry, just everything - that's really hard to find until Stephen Moss from the UK (who is a very good friend of ours) helped to record "Martyrs of the Storm" with Al Sharif Marzeban, then he departed.

     We're still friends until now, the only reason I think this is not happening between us any more is actually the distance, that's the main problem; but now we're fine, Tarek Amr is back as a guitarist again and we have a new bassist Ahmed Abdel Samad, after another great bassist from the UK helped to record "Martyrs Of The Storm" (Arran McSporran from De Profundis and Virvum) as a recording musician. 

     It took us from around 2015 until 2020 to find the right people that we could feel right to us, because being a Death Metal band in Egypt is like 'swimming against tides', 'going through the abyss', something like that."



With exception of say Scarab, Crescent and say Mythos, do you feel the Egyptian Metal scene has yet to be fully recognised on the international stage?

     "I believe so very much because, speaking from my own point of view when it first started, when I first started in trying to perform, most of the bands were cover bands and very early on you would find some who would make their own music. But right now it's the other way round actually, which is a very positive thing, there are a lot of bands right now writing their own music, playing and recording their own music. Back in 2009 there was this disbelief about the idea that any band that plays metal music would be able to break through internationally anyway, it was not possible at that time because there was no one else that had done it as far as I know.

     I don't know if we were kind of lucky but we worked hard and luck served us, and we won 'battle of the bands' in Dubai and therefore played Desert Rock Festival alongside Nervecell (The UAE) who are our long-time friends and on the main stage of With Full Force Festival (DE) 2009 and that was the turning point, because for us it was a dream come true and was unbelievable like what the f**k is going on, it's how it felt like 'what was going on, is this magic?'. At the same time, it was an eye-opener I believe for a lot of great bands in Egypt, because there is not only just Scarab, there are other bands that are really good at what they do... the eye-opener is that 'yeah it can happen.'


     I wouldn't say that Scarab is the reason why, maybe we were just mediums for this to happen, it could have been anyone else, it was bound to happen anyway, but Scarab was ready and that is why it happened to us. Also there are two bands who I feel are very successful right now, they are Crescent (Black / Death Metal); back in the days they were playing Black Metal and then they changed their theme into Ancient Egyptian theme and are now their music is being distributed through Listenable Records and have also performed a lot abroad - big festivals...

     Also Odious who are a Symphonic Black Metal band from Alexandria, they've also performed abroad and they do tours, and their music is distributed worldwide. This is a good thing and there are a lot of other good bands that are coming up and I think that the more of this happening, the more it will lead the scene to expand at least internationally, not here... maybe I'm pessimistic OK? But I believe that if this kind of music went big and there was a market here, if you could actually tour Egypt and things like that, I think it's going to be negative, I'm really sorry but I think this is what's going to happen for the time being.

     It's better for us to stay underground, it might turn really hostile if we went big in our home town I believe so - that's my own opinion."



Given the COVID-19 situation, what are some of the plans that Scarab had that are still intact (if any?).

     "Now that everything is cancelled for everyone, so no shows, no tours, nothing, I think what we will be doing is writing new material... but before writing new material we will try to serve the album and maybe do more video material for every track... that's mainly what we are going to be doing and trying to figure out how 2021 would go, and if we're going to be booking shows... I think that's what we will be working on, but mainly since there is a lot of time we will be working on more video material."


For those metalheads visiting Cairo or indeed Egypt as a whole under normal circumstances, aside from the Pyramids, would sights / attractions could you recommend?

     "Well man that's the problem, there are no metal bars in Egypt, not as far as I know and metal shows happen every now and then; it depends on the luck or the research the person who listens to metal is going to visit Egypt in the hope of finding metal stuff, I don't think that's possible unless there's a show. There is Metal Blast Festival, I believe that's a great festival in Egypt because they host international acts like Swallow The Sun, I don't remember what else but they bring decent international acts and make local Egyptian bands open for them. So this is a very positive thing and I hope there is more of this. There are no venues, there is only El Sawy Culture Wheel, in Zamalek, Cairo and there is also, it depends but there is also the Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza, Giza which you can play at as a metal band.

     I would recommend anyone to visit south Sinai to see Saint Catherine's Monastery as well as the beach on the red sea, and also would recommend them to go on to the complete otherwise in Siwa - there is a lot of magic there. I believe these are the the two places that really speak of the essence of Egypt."



Given the resurgence of vinyl, what are your thoughts on Scarab's music being pressed on LP?

     "I'm very happy for it because for me I've always had this as a dream to have Scarab's music on vinyl or record, however cheesy that may sound, but it is to me, the band, Al Sharif Marzeban - Marz was like I wish "Martyrs Of The Storm" would go on vinyl. We didn't ask for it, actually what happened was that Thomas from ViciSolum, as soon as I sent him the final master he was like 'this has to go on vinyl' and then that's when I started to think, I wanted to make the vinyl a bit different than the CD and also the digital version.

     The CD is like a seamless kind of run, it feels like if you are listening to one song; all the tracks enter each other, but with the vinyl it's 5 songs on Side A and the other 5 on Side B - the energy of the first 5 songs on Side A is lighter before it gets darker on Side B with the last 5 songs. Like Side A is rage and anger, Side B is evil. Metaphorically speaking Side A would be the sun, Side B would be the moon. Side B has more of this Black Metal touch to it hidden inside somewhere."



Do you have any greetings or thanks you wish to send out to friends, family, fans etc?

     "Yeah of course I want to thank everyone who supported us throughout the years, and all the musicians that have their energy in some way or shape in the album, the guitarists that Marz invited - Karl Sanders, Joe Haley to name a few, and basically everyone that had their hands into this collaboration. All of our fans, their patience, believing in us, Thomas from ViciSolum for believing in us and being patient for 5 years for us to actually put this together during this hindrance and hardships that we were going through in finding the right members. I wish everyone will stay safe through this process of transition in 2020, wish them peace, growth and wisdom".

https://www.facebook.com/Scarabegypt
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Interview Interrogation: Scarab (Egypt)

29/11/2018

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Scarab are arguably the leaders of the Egyptian Metal scene, and whilst they're purveyors of 'True Egyptian Death Metal', the sextet are always exploring new avenues in which to take their music down. Humbled by the past oppression seen across most countries in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region in terms of authorities viewing metal music as the 'devil's music'; watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDXqP49ZNE8, Scarab's origins start back in 2001 under their previous guise 'Hate Suffocation' from which became Scarab in 2006; carried on by three members (Sammy Sayed - vocals, Tarek Amr - guitars and Al-Sharif Marzeban - guitars/backing vocals); the original bassist Bombest left in 2015 and a year after that the original drummer Hatem El Akkad left.

Scarab are on the home run stretch in the completion of their third album "Martyrs of the Storm", Scarab spoke to GMA about the impending album, the current state of the Egyptian Metal scene, Rami Malek in the film 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and what to do when visiting Egypt.

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""The Papyrus Trilogy" (an era in Scarab that connected "Blinding The Masses", "Serpents Of The Nile" and then "finally Martyrs Of The Storm". That doesn't mean the end, it means a newer era Scarab)."


A lot has been going on in the Scarab camp with a new album and line-up changes, what is the current mood in the Scarab camp?

     "Right now, Scarab is dedicated to finalizing the album "Martyrs of the Storm" of which is proving to be a very challenging release for us. It has been a strongly initiative journey that is full of chaotic energies to put into order after immersing yourself into it in order to understand it; this has been the experience of creating "Martyrs of the Storm" until it has reached its final phase now at Noizz Studio in Cairo, Egypt.

     It is tricky to find the right people to work with, making music is all about energy and chemistry, it is a magical experience where we turn abstract feelings into something honest & real. During the making of the album Scarab had a lot of line up changes, and this is part of the challenges we met, we find that losing the members strangely relate to the title "Martyrs of the Storm" because really, being in the band during this album in particular is one hell of a journey that needs a proper warrior spirit within a storm of inner and outer forces to fight with, whether if the fight is with your own personal ego, or just indescribable events that happens during the process that feels like a hinder; but as we overcome the challenges, we realize that it is for the greater good of the album and the band, and for us on a personal level, as they say "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and this is the whole idea of Scarab's concept for us, to constantly reinvent ourselves.


What can fans expect from "Martyrs Of The Storm" that was not present on the previous album "Serpents Of The Nile".

     "Martyrs of the Storm is condensed and has shorter songs than Scarab's previous releases, most certainly it is way more brutal and mature than anything we wrote before, and nevertheless more complicated in the sense of the ideas and energies behind them and how to musically & lyrically represent that in the most honest and effective way possible. The music is mostly written in collaboration between Al Sharif Marzeban and Sammy Sayed and we can pretty much say that we have now an artistic master piece that we are all grateful to be a part of.

     With our new drummer Amir El Saidi joining us on the album we have new energy that is really organic and honest, the drums were recorded in a studio called "El Warsha" in a magical place right next to the pyramids of Giza. The album features guest musicians from all around the globe that we are very proud to work with, and we want to make this collaboration as a statement showing brotherhood and unity of metalheads worldwide. We want to bluntly tell all the fans who feel Scarab, "Martyrs of the Storm" is a beast that we cannot wait to share with you, it is a real heavy weight that has a great deal of energies that we carry and cannot wait to let it out and share it with everyone! Contain your spirit as the storm is approaching!"



There seems to be a continual theme with the albums, 'of the' is prevalent in all three albums - do the albums relate to one another?

     "We didn't really plan it to come out this way, we channel the music and it comes out as it is supposed to come out, and then we start the construction until we are finished. The concept and the lyrics come after contemplation into the energy of every song and also the bunch of songs in the album as a whole, Sammy Sayed does this process and after the lyrical content is done we realized that there is a theme going on with every album. We analyse our music after it is finished to understand what it really means to us and so should every listener of our music decide for themselves.

     The common feedback we got was that "Blinding The Masses" was a prophetic album before the revolutions in Egypt, but we didn't really think of it this way, we were just channelling music and the lyrics were expressing how that music felt.

     On the other hand "Serpents Of The Nile", was kind of a surreal journey for an individual who is channelling wisdom from ancient forms of God and spirits, a journey of self-evolution being expressed through the music through the mind's eye of the protagonist.

     "Martyrs Of The Storm" deals with a completely different type of energy, it is dealing with cosmic forces of nature, it is the sound of a cosmic upheaval beyond the will of human beings. Every song in the album is a universe of its own all interconnected in a sphere of chaos that we organized in an album. We will leave it to the listener to interpret it deeply on their own because "Martyrs Of The Storm" has a lot more complicated depth and meanings into it whether musically, thematically or lyrically. We would say that "Martyrs Of The Storm" is the completion of what we call "The Papyrus Trilogy" and that this was an era in Scarab that connected "Blinding The Masses", "Serpents Of The Nile" and then "finally Martyrs Of The Storm". That doesn't mean the end, it means a newer era Scarab."



What is the current state of the Egyptian Metal scene? Strong? Healthy? Is there still an element of oppression towards metal music?


     "The Egyptian metal scene is getting stronger, back in the days we believe it was only us and a countable few who really wrote music passionately and was serious about what they are doing and honest to it, now there are many bands present and active; there is a healthier metal scene in the sense of better events that is hosting international bands, yet we still need more venues that can host this type of music in Egypt without breaching any kind of rules; everything has to be authentic and with full permits, just like any professional festival or show outside of Egypt. It is taking time, but it is getting there, we feel it."

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Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt. Built by Pharaoh Djoser's vizier Imhotep.

Speaking of Egyptian's, will you see Rami Malek in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'? Would you hope he would be able to put Egypt on the map for rock and metal too?

     "It is definitely great to see an Egyptian playing the role of one of our idols whom we grew up listening to, Freddie Mercury of Queen. It does Egypt a lot of good indeed. Of course we will be watching it in the theatres."


Can you tell us the meaning behind the song 'Circles of Verminejya', who created the lyric video also?

     "The question always rises, what does 'Verminejya' mean? Is it some different language or is it English driven? It doesn't have to have a direct meaning that one must analyse linguistically, Verminejya' is a realm within the aetheric abyss that is full of dangerous energies to deal with, and the voodoo energy presented itself in the music and then this energy was translated into lyrics, the lyrics are meant to be sung through the tongue of a powerful vooodoo warrior whom have tamed the dangers of this realm and made it work for his own benefit. We couldn't help but to proudly dedicate this song to the vooodoo culture of Africa. The song is only the tip of the iceberg, as every song in "Martyrs Of The Storm" holds a universe of its own. The lyric video is created by Sammy Sayed to represent as much as possible the proper meaning behind the song visually."


With 2018 not far from ending, what plans do you have for the rest of the year and into 2019?

     "We plan to release "Martyrs Of The Storm", tour and perform our music. There is a lot more going on in Scarab but we prefer to keep silent until we can share it with the masses. With 2019 knocking the doors soon we will also be working on recording our newer release which we have captured the road for."


For those visiting Cairo, what sights / attractions would you recommend to metalheads?

     "This is the hardest question, because Cairo / Giza has a lot of things to see and it all depends on your favourite cup of tea. From ancient to old to modern places to visit, we recommend the ancient though. For example visiting all the pyramids and ancient Egyptian tombs and temples, it isn't only the three famous pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, there is also Dahsour, About Sir, Zawyet El Eryan, Saqqara, also destroyed pyramids like the one in Abu Rawash. Basically, we don't want to get into details because it is too much to talk about when it comes to what you can see and visit in Cairo and Giza, nevertheless... Egypt itself, it is good you only asked about Cairo, Cairo and Giza are almost the same city by the way. One has to do a proper research before they come cause there is a lot to see! \m/


Are there any greetings, thank you's, etc you wish to send out?

     "We wish to greet and thank everyone who has been in the back of Scarab and supporting the band since the beginning, our fans and lovers we promise you an album that will pay this favour back 10 times fold \m/"

http://www.facebook.com/Scarabegypt
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Interview Interrogation: De Profundis (England)

27/5/2016

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For a band who has only released four albums as of 2015 and have only been going 11 years, De Profundis have been making more than just waves happen from the backyard streets of blackened London. Having stamped their mark on Bloodstock Open Air back in 2014 and taken their name from a song by the Swedish outfit Abruptum (although we suspect Oscar Wilde's letter entitled 'De Profundis' (from the depths) is more credible), De Profundis have established themselves as one of those involved in the new wave of British Black Metal.

For this interview, a candlelit room provided the perfect setting for which Shoi (Soikot Sengupta) entered and placed his guitar down on the table... this was going to be one interesting talk.

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"Metal is a global music hence why I find the whole extreme right wing affiliations of certain bands even more disturbing for a genre that actually has no boundaries"



Recently times have been great for De Profundis, in 2014 you played Bloodstock and last year you released your fourth album "Kingdom Of The Blind". Now you're playing in September with Egyptian Death Metallers Scarab, surely this tour is going to be one of the best you've done?

"We always look forward to being on the road and playing with bands we haven't played with before so yes we are looking forward to it. Hopefully the turnouts will be great and therefore the tour will be great too."

 
Will you be playing a mix of songs, some from 'Kingdom Of The Blind' or the majority coming from the album?

"As co-headliners we will have a longer set which means we will mainly play tracks from "Kingdom Of The Blind" but also from "The Emptiness Within" and "A Bleak Reflection". We've been doing that lately on recent shows like at Incineration and it's been working great. The material from "Kingdom Of The Blind and the "Frequencies" EP is fast and brutal, so its cool to bring more mid paced atmospheric songs from our old catalogue to balance the set. That's when we realised that we are in a great position to have such a great back catalogue. A lot of people have actually commented on how nicely the old songs sit with the current set, it's like as if they have been given a second life."


British Black Metal is in a newfound form of renaissance, would you say it's stronger than ever and establishing a unique identity?

"I am going to be honest here I don't follow the British Black Metal scene at all. Our guitarist Paul is in a Black Metal band, so he probably follows it a lot more. In fairness I wasn't too keen on the whole nationalistic theme that some English Black Metal bands have started bringing in as it was often accompanied with dubious and extreme right wing ideologies which I obviously wouldn't be comfortable with."
 

Regarding Scarab, when you first heard about them, was you surprised about a metal scene existing in Egypt? What are your thoughts about metal's spread across the globe?

"I wasn't surprised at all about the presence of a metal scene in Egypt or anywhere else in the world. Hell I even know a couple of metal bands in Caribbean. Metal is a global music hence why I find the whole extreme right wing affiliations of certain bands even more disturbing for a genre that actually has no boundaries. As for Scarab I have followed them from a distance for some time. You know the funny thing for me is ever since I turned pro I have been listening less and less to music, just through the lack of time really. But from what I have heard of Scarab I do like."
 

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Be there or be square.

On this five-date tour, will there be any new venues / locations you will be visiting? If no, when did you last play in these locations? Will there be a EU tour after the September UK run?

"We've never played in Selby which will be the Warhorns Festival and we are very much looking forward to that. Otherwise we've played all the other venues or cities at some point. Besides London, Plymouth is always a highlight with a highly energetic crowd. We're also playing the Hordes Of Belial festival in Dundee (not with Scarab), we played there last in 2013 so it will be a blast to get back there. The organiser Paul MacMillan does a great job for metal in Scotland. With regards to the EU we are doing a run of 3 shows next week in France and Luxembourg with our friends Nemost. We're hoping for a full EU tour at the end of the year."
  

What are the biggest challenges for bands in general these days in your opinion? What about challenges facing unsigned bands? Is it better to start your own label rather than seek a deal with an established label?

"Man there are so many challenges. You know if it was just the issue of downloading and all that we could work with that, but when politics gets in the way it's so frustrating. It's less and less about talent but about who you are drinking mates with. De Profundis generally doesn't hang around in the usual London haunts because we are all professional musicians with busy schedules and if we have time we'd rather write music or something. Setting up a label isn't a bad idea but to really make it viable you need to have a critical mass of fans otherwise you will struggle. An established label will always be better I think."


What plans have you got for the rest of the year?

"Well apart from playing shows, we are going to be recording album 5 in August, we've had some downtime lately which we used to write the follow up of "Kingdom Of The Blind". We are really looking forward to that because the new material is absolutely KILLER!"
 

Have you got any hello's and thank you's you wish to send out?

"I'd like to thank Global Metal Apocalypse for their support through the years. We also want to tell the UK metalheads to turn up in masses at the shows in September."

http://www.facebook.com/deprofundistheband

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