Deathcode Society im Plausch über das DONG 2019
Deathcode Society und Moshpit Passion führen diese Woche das Interview zum Dong 2019. In genau 2 Monaten wird es auf der Halde Norddeutschland laut! Um euch dafür einzustimmen, folgt jede Woche ein neues Interview mit einer Kapelle die dieses Jahr die Stage rocken wird. HIER findet ihr noch weitere tolle Gespräche mit anderen Bands.
Frontmann Arnhwald im Gespräch
Please introduce us yourself, our readers of Moshpit Passion and the visitors of the Dong Open Air 2019.
I‘m Arnhwald, singer in the band DEATHCODE SOCIETY. We are a French/British based band that has released one studio and one live album through Osmose Productions.
Tell us a bit about your important milestones as a band? What would do you want to achieve in the future?
We have been lucky enough to perform at a couple of important festivals such as Inferno Norway, which was a kind of symbolic recognition, and the Hellfest in France on the Altar Stage. The fact that we have been given these opportunities were big accomplishments, as we know having been chosen for our music and not because we know a lot of VIP in the scene : we basically sent our music to the aforementionned festival‘s internet page, never using „magick management tricks“. As you have noticed, we‘re a small band and all the booking/management/PR is DIY for now.
The next step for us would be to increase our live presence by playing more festivals. On an artistical level, we‘re working on our next album and wish it makes us recognized as a classic in our style.
Große Namen haben großen Einfluss auf die Band:Deathcode Society
How would you describe the sound of your band to someone who never heared it before? List three similar bands.
EMPEROR had a huge influence on us, especially “Anthems…”. When we the project was born, it was the initial purpose : to try to complete the trip that band once started with that album, with our own personalities, specific backgrounds, to move forward that direction.
So we perform a sophisticated yet radical and brutal form of extreme metal, using symphonic or even electronic elements to to build that large spectral, ghastly and eerie atmosphere we love, while remaining a guitar oriented heavy metal band with lots of blast-beats and fast-picking harmonized riffs. If we had to sell the band and work like a label, we would surely present ourselves as close parents to Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren and Fleshgod Apocalypse, but we were far more influenced by Emperor, Abigor or Anorexia Nervosa, among many other bands.
Tell us a bit about your current release? What is the name, topic and your mission statement?
We released our first studio album a couple of years ago, „Eschatonizer“. It is the conclusion of a long songwritting process and we are still very proud of it. The title is kind of metaphoric. It‘s an answer to the question „why do you write and play that kind of music“ ? Well, to find a way to express the Absolute and reach an ideal point where music is so powerful and charged that it has the power to end the world. In 2017, we released a live album, which basically revisits the songs of the album in a more organic and straight-forward way. It‘s important to us to show that we are actually able to perform our music live. It‘s a technical and musical challenge : completing challenges is our mission statement. It was also a legacy for our guitar player Franz. He passed away last year and this live recording session is the last testimony for his huge talent.
How can fans support you as a „small band“?
Wow, in many ways. First of all by buying the music, be it physical CDs, vinyl, or even digital albums. We have got a bandcamp page (https://deathcodesociety.bandcamp.com/) and I have to thank a lot all those who actually cared for the band and bought us music and merchandising. It‘s also important to attend to the shows.
For the ones who aren‘t rich enough to even buy a t-shirt, it can be also cool to share the music, make it discovered and listened by their friends, etc. Spread the plague.
Please show us a music video so that we can get a small taste of your music. What is the story behind that song/video?
This song is really special to us because it is one of the most ambitious one we ever wrote. It‘s really intense, powerfull, with plenty of fast and vicious riffs. It took me two years, I think, to complete it because I had the will to include a choral work inside, and I had to learn how to write it properly. It‘s a 4 voices choir, starting as „plain-chant“ and then evolving from a classical form to a more romantic one. This song involved quite a lot of people, among them two musicians we really respect : Saint Vincent (Blacklodge) and Rose Hreidmarr (Glaciation, ex- Anorexia Nervosa) as guest singers. The lyrics are also of interest, dealing with science-fiction and mysticism through a meditation on transhumanism. Well, it‘s a huge mess and it sounds possessed !
Why are you playing at the Dong? What do you know about the festival? What does is make it special?
We just applied to play there the regular way, and the festival seemed to like our music enough to offer us that opportunity. We know this is an interesting festival, with a ecclectic line-up, so people can enjoy a huge variety of styles. We like this approach, being ourselves a complex band composed of many different things.
How does it feel to share the stage with global player like Steel Panther, Alestorm, Kataklysm, Glory Hammer? Will you also watch concerts or enjoy the beer?
We‘re glad of it. Yes, we‘ll probably enjoy the shows and have a good time together and with a couple of friends who‘ll be there too.
Our Magazin is called Moshpit Passion and our interview partners tell us at least a nice moshpit story. Do you have cool story which you want to share?
Every band has its stories. We sure have a couple, some of them funny, some of them pretty sinister.
I‘d rather concentrate on the first time the band actually rehearsed in live conditions, because it really gives an idea about the power of „passion“. When we started, we had never thought Deathcode Society to be a live act. „Eschatonizer“ is such a complex album that I came to the conclusion we were not good enough to do it justice on live conditions.
Our drummer, who really is a live musician at his core, managed to convince me that we should at least try, so we booked three days in a concert hall. Everybody worked a lot – passion again. We had barely rehearsed before and had never seen each others altogether in the same room before that day. We set up the stuff, and then started, and it worked. We had a recorded plugged in, listened to the first batch of songs we had played almost instantly, and it sounded killer. In a way, it was the moment the band really came to live – in all the meanings of the word.
Thank you for the interview and we hope to see an impressive gig of Deathcode Society at the Dong!
Bildnachweis: Moshpit Passion.