Blood Incantation: Messages From The Stargate
BLOOD INCANTATION have just released their new album Absolute Elsewhere and it is a stunning piece of work that melds together prime death metal with sublime progressive rock amongst a myriad of other sonic wonders. Listening to the record takes you on a vast and wild journey amongst the stars. We had the pleasure of talking to guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky about Absolute Elsewhere and got an insight into the making of the album.
We start things off with Morris excitedly telling us about Absolute Elsewhere and the mass praise that the album has gained so far. “Every day I wake up to some new crazy review or news about where the record has reached. It’s getting into a lot of circles outside of the metal community, which is what we were hoping for. We obviously appreciate all the praise within the metal community as well, because it is still a pretty extreme record.”
Morris then goes on to tell us about the biggest influences on the record, which includes some heavy hitters in both the death metal world and the prog rock world. “There’s a lot, because there isn’t any one sound to the record, and that makes it so interesting. There’s so many different types of parts. We’ve always been a band that incorporates lots of different genres into our sound, so there isn’t necessarily any one influence.”
Morris then goes into more detail about those influences in a refreshingly honest manner. “The influence comes from, first of all, ourselves, our previous output. We like to listen to our own music because we make music, we want to hear. What’s the point otherwise? We went back and listened to the stuff we’ve done in the past and tried to push it further into every direction. Over the years, we’ve toured with a lot of great bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE and we wanted to incorporate tricks we’ve seen from these people, especially in the live environment, into our record. But there’s so much more to it. TANGERINE DREAM obviously, we recorded in Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin with Arthur Rizk for the first time. Lots of 70s prog, CAMEL, GONG. I can go on forever!”
With the mention of TANGERINE DREAM as a huge influence on Absolute Elsewhere, Morris then passionately tells the tale of working with Thorsten Quaeschning from the band on the track Stargate (Tablet II) and how that collaboration arose. “It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever experienced in my life. I mean, this is a band that influenced us all greatly over the course of years. It came about through our product manager, who worked for Century Media at the time,” he explains. “He was emailing with Edgar Froese‘s wife, who runs the estate of TANGERINE DREAM. After he died, he passed the torch on to Thorsten, and he is the current bandleader. Later, we were able to have Thorsten come to the studio and listen to what we were working on. We went to his studio in Berlin, where Edgar Froese lived, and there was this massive collection of vintage 70s/80s gear that he used on every single TANGERINE DREAM album. I nearly cried, because this gear is legendary. It’s more than just having a guy play on your record. It meant the world to us. We were all just like, ‘I can’t believe this is actually happening’. The music he made for it, and the way it’s incorporated into the album is crucial, and it worked out so well. The guy knows what he’s doing. He’s a fucking master. We’ve stayed in touch and are friends now. We’re in talks about the European shows we’re doing next May. I think for the Berlin show, he’ll be incorporated into a set somehow.”
With all this talk of prog rock royalty, we discuss the entry point for any metal fan getting into prog rock as Morris lists a few of his favourite albums. “Well, first of all, before we get to prog, I would recommend that a person getting into this, should probably also listen to OPETH, because they are a band that’s been championing the 70s prog into extreme metal for much longer than we have been. Ghost Reveries is one of my favourite records, and Still Life is named after a VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR song. I think a good starting place would be CAMEL, a record called Moonmadness is an absolute classic. One of my personal favourites is a bit more of a deep cut. Steve Hillage from GONG. I’m obsessed with the guy. I love his guitar playing. All of his solo records are fantastic, but there was a supergroup that he was in with the keyboard player from EGG called KHAN, and they have a record called Space Shanty that’s absolutely mind blowing, it’ll melt your brain, completely crazy musicianship, catchy songs, KHAN is amazing! I think those would be a good place to start before you really go down the rabbit hole and get lost in it forever, because I’m still discovering new bands every day too!”
Talk then turns to the recently announced BLOOD INCANTATION European tour which will see the band playing at next year’s Incineration Festival in London where they will play Absolute Elsewhere in full, something Morris is very excited about. “The Roundhouse is a very classic venue. OPETH recorded a live record there, so that’s my reference point. To me, that’s already enough to be, I can’t believe we’re doing this! The festival itself looks really cool.”
Morris goes on to enthuse about playing Absolute Elsewhere in full live. “We just did the release show a couple weeks ago, and it was the first time we played it live. So we’ve still only done it one time, and I think with this coming tour, it’ll really lock in. So by time we get to Europe, it’ll be an absolute powerhouse!”
We finish off this great chat with Morris tantalisingly talking about potential new music from the band. “Usually for BLOOD INCANTATION, writing new music is a process, because we’ll write record and go on tour and play these songs. This is the first time where we sat down with this material and we didn’t ever play it live before we recorded it. We do have all these tours, but we still have a clean slate. So now we can be more free and open to creating amidst all these other things that are happening. So we do actually have a bunch of ideas and some work in the pipeline.”
Absolute Elsewhere is out now via Century Media Records.
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