Cryptic Shift pour "Visitations from Enceladus"

A : Hello guys. First things first, congrats for the release of your first album. How much time did the band spend on it and how do you perceive it now that it's released amongst the jungle of other death or thrash metal albums unleashed lately ? Tease us !

CS : Greetings, and thanks a lot! To dive straight in, we spent around two-three years putting together ‘Visitations from Enceladus’ - from the writing stages to the end of the production process. Whilst some would perceive the time from our previous release ‘Cosmic Dreams’ to today as a delay - we actually had the opportunity to spend a lot of time on making the best of our debut record. A lot of time and effort went into the composition of this material, therefore we wanted to put the same amount of time into the production elements, as well as the release of the record itself. We are more than happy with the reception this record has already received,
and we believe the record holds its own level of creativity within the modern Thrash
and Death Metal scenes respectively!

A : From what I've heard from listening to Beyond the Celestial Realms to Visitations, your style has quite much improved and matured. What are the factors that made the band evolve ?

CS : I believe this came naturally for us as performers. At the time of Beyond the Celestial Realms we were all young and perhaps not so experienced, however we knew what we wanted to accomplish. As the years progressed, and we gained more experience as musicians and performers, we naturally developed our style towards more Technical and Death Metal influenced songwriting with our single ‘Cosmic Dreams’. Again, through further experience and development we embarked on developing the songwriting and style enhancement presented on ‘Visitations from Enceladus’. This came from performing more and more live shows, practicing both together and independently, maturing mentaly and having more drive/determination to be the best musicians we possibly can be. We live for the progression as human beings and musical artists.

A : Quite bland yet essential question : what are the musical influences of all of you and what are the ones that influenced more the disc ? And do you have other influences outside music ? (films, series, books... even video games or related !)

CS : We have always connected over our love for Sci-Fi. Film media such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stargate, Robocop, the X-Files, UFO Documentaries, Conspiracy Theories, Science, Space Footage, NASA Launches. Personally, I probably fell into a genuine sci-fi world when playing Mass Effect on Xbox 360 when I was around twelve years old and I don't think I have returned to Earth since. I'm also really interested in UFO sightings, and the unexplained in general, having witnessed things that have changed my perspective on life (and made me very paranoid)... BACK ON TOPIC: Musically we are all influenced by Death and Thrash Metal acts such as Morbid Angel, Coroner, Watchtower, Death, Gorguts, Toxik, Megadeth, Timeghoul, VOIVOD!!!, Revocation, Vektor, Atheist, Ripping Corpse, Dim Mak, Martyr, Cynic - all of which could probably be heard in tiny parts during our latest record. Myself and Bassist John Riley also enjoy a lot of Jazz Fusion music such as Allan Holdsworth and Tribal Tech etc. I also really enjoy 90s Honky Tonk Country Pop Music and the occasional 80s Japanese Pop Record - anything with a nice beat behind it. We also enjoy reading, aside from the obvious sci-fi works, we enjoy works of Tony Robbins and other self-development reads.

A : The album kicks off with "Moonbelt Immolator", an almost 26-minute long track and I've a few questions regarding it. What motivated you to create such a long song ?

CS : The motivation to create “Moonbelt Immolator” was nothing as intentional as you may expect. The track progressed as the sections developed, the minutes started adding up. The whole record follows a concept storyline written by Xander Bradley (Vocals/Guitars) - it was never as though we sat down and stated “okay, let’s
compose a twenty-six minute long song”. I guess it’s just what came naturally along with the songwriting between us.

A : Don't you fear that such a long opener would dissuade some listeners from listening to the album ?

CS : It is true that there are some people… THE MUTANTS… who may not have the attention span to appreciate a song with such length - however, the record was written for those who enjoy appreciating full-length records as pieces of art. The track will take time to digest, and I believe this gives the track a lot of relistenability! There’s a lot of hidden elements and layers within ‘Moonbelt…’ which fans will enjoy discovering, for sure.

A : What's the processus of creation of such a huge and complex track ? How do you end up rehearsing and remembering everything ? Do you intend playing it live ?

CS : It took months to put together ‘Moonbelt…’, we learnt the track in the six-parts it contains as it was put together. It was definitely time consuming however we are very proud of the final result. As for playing it live, we will be performing ‘Moonbelt…’ at shows once the lockdown is lifted and we can focus on touring. Recently we added Joss Farrington (Guitars) to the band, we are working on getting him comfortable with presenting the material on the record to the best of his ability.

A : Only four songs : is it something you decided on purpose or does something else motivate
such a short tracklist (which reminds me of Blood Incantation's last album thought it might be
a coincidence) ?

CS : Again, this just happened naturally with the songwriting. Each track represents a ‘chapter’ of the storyline unfolding within the lyrical content and musical themes. It’s great that bands such as Blood Incantation can present records with short tracklists - I think it’s really productive. There’s nothing worse than getting lost when getting to the track six or seven mark whilst listening to a record. If you counted each ‘part’ of ‘Moonbelt…’ as a track, ‘Visitations…’ would actually be a nine track record - which would perhaps have been even more chaotic to put together! Maybe one day we will release a record with such a long track listing - however we aim to continue with our progressive songwriting approach for future records.

A : No band logo nor album title on a colourful artwork : again, what motivated such choice ?

CS : The artwork represents ‘The Arctic Chasm’, track three of the record - a beautiful, elusive piece of art. Hand Painted by A. Nagamasa in Russia, and digitally shipped to Cryptic Shift - I would hope that this presents the viewer with a lot of questions: Who is this guy on the front? And where is he? What is he holding? Where is he heading? These answers can only be answered by paying close attention to the lyrical content within. The lack of the logo and the album title also represents emphasis on the concept story - ‘Visitations from Enceladus’ is more than a Extreme Metal record - it is a Science Fiction Journey, which we hope fans will recognise, strap in and embark on.

A : What are the lyrical concepts behind the album ? What motivated such choices ?

CS : Continuing from our 2017 single ‘Cosmic Dreams’, a long and intricate science-fiction adventure ensues. ‘Moonbelt Immolator’ opens with the character waking up aboard a starcraft being warped and confounded as it exits a worm hole straight into a skirmish between multiple battle cruisers above a glowing gas giant. From here, while trying to recollect what previously occurred to him, he approaches his inevitable destination…
The Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Fifth Element, ALIEN, Interstellar, 12 Monkeys, Waterworld. These are amongst many films we love and possibly inspired the creation of a story to go along with our compositions. We’re not too interested in trying to push an agenda or morals onto listeners, so presenting strange landscapes and weird journeys beyond dimensions that are just as interesting and intricate to us as the music seems best for us.

A : How would you describe your music ? In other terms, what words come into your mind when listening to it ?

CS : By this point in time we have been playing these riffs and imagining the lyrics for many years, so it’s an extremely familiar experience for us and I can imagine the events with great detail as if it was an epic George Lucas directed movie! On the music side I believe it’s an experience you can close your eyes to and be engulfed into the atmospheres. Amidst the light speed tempos and intricate structures however, I do not feel that our songs are overly technical; they still retain the riffs and melodies while simultaneously being able to be followed and engross the listener.

A : What are your plans now that the album has been released ? Do you have other ambitions ?

CS : Once these lockdowns are lifted we wish to practice together as soon as possible, with it usually being a staple of all our lives it's very strange when I take a moment and realise that regular rehearsals have been absent. Prior to the release of our debut, guitarist Joe Bradley left the band to be replaced by Joss Farrington; we only played one show with Joss before the virus hit so we're really looking forward to jamming together again and making sure that the album is tight again for shows. We did have a long stream of gigs planned or booked in May/June which we will be rescheduling, we also had a pre-release listening party with a bunch of our fans which would have been a LOT of fun. However despite the circumstances, the isolation has given us time to focus much more on the marketing and promotion of the album and time to plan ahead. So we're turning the pandemic around to work in our favour in a way. Make no mistake, we will be playing as many shows as possible when we can in the UK and beyond to bring our music, as well as a load of new merch designs to fans.

A : The very last words of the interview are yours, if you've anything more to add. Thank you very much !

CS : Support Blood Harvest Records and go order a copy of Visitations From Enceladus. Keep and eye on the sky and may the force be with you…