Emeth pour l'album "Reticulated"

1) Hi Tom, I’m Keyser from the French webzine Thrashocore. At first, can you introduce Emeth to our readers?

Ok, first of all thanx for your interest in my band! Here is a short introduction: Emeth is a Belgian death metal band and we are around for almost 9 years now. It all started back in October 1997 and after the neccesary line up changes the music evolved to what Emeth has become known for: Extreme Belgian Sickness. In 2003 we inked a deal with Brutal Bands (US) and the Insidious album was officially released on june 30th 2004. Immediately after this release we played on numerous very known underground festivals and extended the reach of our skullcrushing music through a US tour in august 2004. We continued performing at festivals and gigs throughout entire Europe. During July and August 2005 we once again headed out for a string of dates throughout Southern US. After nearly 1,5 years of frequent live shows Emeth aligned with Daniel Bergstrand to record our highly anticipated second full album: Reticulated.


2) Insidious, your first album, was released 5 years after the Breathing The Unclean 2-song EP. Why such a long time between the two records?

Well, the first four years of the bands existence it was more metal - death core orientated music as you can hear on the « Breathing The Unclean EP ». After a few years some people in the band wanted to evolve into a more technical and faster death metal band. Due to these musical differences the band parted with most of it’s original members, leaving matty & myself with the task of finding new bandmembers. After a non active period of nearly 2 years we met Tom A. (Ales, Ndt) (2001) who formerly played drums in a local band called ‘necrodochion’. He was looking for a band and we started jamming and his drumming capabilities matched perfectly with what emeth was looking for: fast and technical. So his joining with matty & myself really was a new start for the band and we started to write new songs. We wrote the whole insidious album in nearly one year and a half. We entered the excess studio in september 2003 and the latest adjustments were made in december 2003. Due to the fact that everyone in the band was constantly supervising upon every musical detail to push the boundaries of the record, we had some delay. The release date for insidious was : june 2004.


3) It’s been 2 years since the release of Insidious. What’s your opinion on it today? Personally I’m still impressed by its intensity!

So far I have not read any bad reviews of insidious which of course is very stimulating. While we were recording the album we knew at the time that we had made a great record, the one that we had in mind, but we didn't expect such positive feedback. I think Insidious was a good first album!!



4) You’ve just released your 2nd album, Reticulated. I got it a couple of weeks ago and I can’t stop listening to it since then. Insidious was impressive, no doubt about it, but you’ve definitely reached the top level with Reticulated. It’s so much technical, complex and intense that a lot of listenings are necessary to assimilate it. You must be proud of it I guess! What are the differences between the two albums for you?

I’m proud of the new album, I sure am! I think the biggest difference between the two albums is that we evolved as a band and ofcourse as musicians too, we didn’t feel like doing an insidious 2, so we added a lot of new stuff to the music to give it more dimension and depth. A big difference between the albums is of course the production. We recorded the 2 albums in the same studio (Excess studio’s in Rotterdam -Holland), but this time we worked with producer Daniel Bergstrand and the mixing was done at the Dug Out Studios in Sweden.


5) One of the main changes is your vocals. They are more hardcore oriented and that (plus the few mosh parts) gives Emeth a deathcore touch. Why this change in your singing?

Like I mentioned in question 4, we evolved as a band and as musicians. The old vocal style just flattened out everything that was going on in the music.

6) You have your own personal sound on Reticulated but I’ve noticed some influences from Cryptopsy (especially Tom Ales’ incredible drumming) and Despised Icon (for your technical deathcore side). Have these Canadian bands really had an impact on your music?

In the past, we heared a lot of people saying that we play US deathmetal and now those people are saying we play Canadian Deathmetal. So, this comparison is not only yours, we heared it a couple of times! The members in Emeth are all Cryptopsy fans, but we just try to have our own personal sound like you mentioned but we don’t mind being compared with these bands!!


7) You worked with Daniel Bergstrand for the production of Reticulated. As he’s mostly known for his work with melodic death metal bands, I was wondering why you chose him. Are you satisfied with Daniel’s work? What do you think he brought to us? And how did the recording process go?

Yeah, Daniel is the man! It was a pleasure to work with him, the list of bands he produced is incredible and we are very satisfied about his work on Reticulated. We also learned a lot from him. The recording process went very smooth because we did it again in the Excess studio’s in Rotterdam just like the first time.

Like I mentioned before we didn’t want to make an insidious 2 and he was the guy we all wanted in Emeth to produce this album. We all listened to the stuff he did in the past and the decision was made very quick.


8) Reticulated isn’t only complex musically speaking. Matty’s lyrics also are a brain-teaser. Can you tell us what they’re all about?

There is an inward-looking, introspective, self-referential exploration wherein the main movements of metaphor and transgression/transcendence happening on a subtle, finely detailed plane, rather than a projecting outwards of openly emotive/evocative themes. The subject isn't always very clear if you read the lyrics so there is a huge freedom of interpretation. If one does take the time to read the lyrics the readers own interpretation of the lyrics will define the written subject. In this sense one could say that my lyrics are a paradox. They "refuse" people's attempts to empathize with its true subject, yet it is needed to read them and think them over to interpret them.



9) The cover of Reticulated was created by Sven from Aborted. I think it’s awesome, it represents very well the music and the lyrics. To me, the guy with the strait-jacket is also a kind of warning: “listening to this album can make you lose your mind”! Haha! More seriously, what does this cover represent exactly? Can you explain the meaning of the word “reticulated”?

Yeah, we are very satisfied about it and it perfectly represents the music and the lyrics. Well, if the guy is making this impression on you, that’s really cool!! The guy represents where Emeth stands for: “Extreme Belgian Sickness”. Reticulated means ‘forming a network’ like for example the reticulate veins in a leaf ...


10) Why did you sign with Brutal Bands? BB is a pretty good label but its releases suffer from bad distribution in Europe, which isn’t logical for a Belgian band. Wouldn’t you prefer to be signed on a more famous label so your albums can be more easily available?

Scott from Brutal Bands really puts a lot of effort in our band, like the Brutal Domination Tour was completely organised by this guy. He really knows how to run a label, he knows a lot of promotion is required. It might be a small label but he does a lot of work to get us promoted and distributed all over the surface. He sure is doing a hell of a job...


11) Emeth appear on the Brutal Domination DVD which was released last year. What do you think about this DVD? How was the tour with Incinerate, Stabwound and Internal Suffering (one of the greatest death metal bands in my opinion)?

Yes, the dvd was released in december 2005, but the recordings were done during our 2004 us –tour with Incinerate, Stabwound and Internal Suffering ...

It was an amazing adventure! It was an experience we will never forget. You never know what to expect when you put 17 people on a bus for nearly 2.5 week. I can assure you there are nicer things in the morning than the odour of 17 3-days smelly asses, haha!! Anyway, all in all it was a good tour. There's always things that could be done better, but everything worked out OK. In 2005 we toured again with Internal Suffering and those guys are super cool !!


12) As we’re talking about touring, when will we have the chance to see you live in France?

Well, we don’t play that much in France, hopefully this will change in the future. Soon we’ll have our release show in Belgium in Gent with Textures and Debauchery. Then Emeth will be gearing up for a show in Tel Aviv, Israël around 10 august together with Whorecore & Aborted. After a short break we start playing again around autumn at several european fests & shows. With the highlight of playing a string of dates in Greece which shall finish at the Athens Death Fest, so no dates for France yet. People who are interested in booking Emeth, please contact us: booking@emeth.be ...


13) Matty Dupont, Emeth’s main composer and lyricist, is now a permanent member of Aborted. Does it change something for Emeth? Aren’t you afraid he could quit Emeth to fully concentrate on Aborted?

You’re not the first one who asks this question!! It helps a lot that both bands work in a professional way; all time available is well used. Plus both bands perform on such a frequency that one can easily maintain a routine.



14) I’ve just mentioned Aborted, which is the most famous band from Belgium. But I guess the Belgian scene doesn’t sum up in this only band. What’s your opinion on your national metal scene? What bands do you recommend?

In my opinion there isn’t much to tell about the Belgian metalscene actually, cause it’s not such a big scene. There are only a few bands in Belgium that really stand apart from the mediocre. A good example of the the fact that there isn’t a real scene over here are the appearances on underground gigs. We’ve seen it happen so many times: an underground gig takes place and there are more musicians (from the bands that play) than visitors who come to see the bands. It’s has gotten a bit better over the last few years but still belgian people are more interested in seeing the major foreign bands. I guess that says enough. Apart from Aborted I can recommend you bands like: In-quest, Leng t’che, Axamenta ...


15) What bands kicked your ass recently? What are your favorite bands, your biggest influences as a vocalist?

Well, I like the new Tool, the new In Flames ... I’m also a big fan of Morbid Angel, Gojira, Fear Factory, Meshuggah, Gorguts, Nile, Aborted, Mnemic, Dillinger Escape Plan, Tool ...


16) I’m curious. What do the Emeth members do for a living outside the band?

Tom Ales and Kevin (Schutters, le bassiste, Ndt) are both into transport, our guitar player Peter is a student and Matty and Myself are social workers!!


17) Well, I think I’ve asked too much questions, you’re gonna hate me for that haha! Thanks for your time, last words are yours!

No problem man!! I wish you all the best with your zine!!

http://www.emeth.be
http://www.myspace.com/emethbe

info@emeth.be

official Emeth forum: http://www.smnnews.com/board/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=121