Distant: Aeons Of Oblivion

It would be easy to get down in the dumps and be mournful of the events and moments that the pandemic has snatched away from the music industry but if you look at it from a different perspective it has given everyone the chance to take advantage of the abundance of time and really get stuck into the creative process. Downtempo deathcore outfit DISTANT have grabbed this opportunity with both hands, producing a whole host of material to share with their fans in the form of two EPs and an album, Dawn Of Corruption, Dusk Of Anguish and Aeons Of Oblivion.

“This process all started last year with the start of the pandemic, we had a lot of spare time due to cancellations of shows so we started writing and it kind of progressed from there,” explains bassist Elmer Maurits. “We decided let’s do an EP, which then became two EPs, which then became a full album. We wanted to release it in stages, the writing process was all kind of mixed up together so we had to choose which tracks to release in what order and when we got to selecting the order for the album we switched it up as we wanted it to feel fresh rather than just the EPs in sequence and in the way we have approached it, to me it sounds like one complete album. The pandemic gave us the opportunity to work with so many musicians and friends and made it possible for us to write tracks like Argent Debt. We wanted to do something fun and collaborative.”

In a previous interview with frontman Alan Grnja he stated how the process for their previous effort Tyrannotophia was quite stressful due to timing constraints and scheduling. With this series of releases the band were more conscious of these elements of the process and made it work to their advantage. “I think that staggering the releases relieved a lot of pressure on our end,” states guitarist Eise Smit. “The end product was basically the same but this way it kept the fans happy as we were giving them new music more frequently and it gave us a bit of extra time to work on the final product.”

“We learned a lot from Tyrannotophia, it gave us clear direction into what sound we wanted to create and who we wanted to work with,” adds guitarist Nouri Yetgin. “More of the band was involved in the writing process this time round which in my opinion made the songs a lot stronger. We’ve also been working on our playing a lot through this writing process and you can probably tell how we’re learning new skills and experimenting along the way. It’s very important for us to continue improving and being able to put out the best music we possibly can. It also helped a lot this time round that we had a drummer who was confident enough to write his own parts and we feel that with Jan on board the drums took a real step up.”

As well as the music itself DISTANT have really pushed themselves, thinking outside the box to bring the fans an immersive, engaging experience. As well as the striking imagery contained with their accompanying music videos they have also constructed a 176 page book of lore that encapsulates the overarching concept. “The lore was something we always spoke about but never really focused on it too much, it was just kind of a vague idea when we were brainstorming for the releases,” discusses Elmer. “We wanted to go back and tie our releases together including our 2017 EP Tsukiyomi and Tyrannotophia. If you want to dig deeper into the lyrics and the concepts we’ve created then the lore goes into a lot more details and explanations. We didn’t want to refer to the lyrics too much in the book as we want everyone to read the story and piece it together themselves. All of our videos reference back to the lore as well so it all ties in neatly together. We really wanted to release the lore as everything is connected and we don’t want people to perceive our releases as separate. It’s all part of the same world and it is something we plan to continue.”

“The way we released the tracks also helped them correspond to the accompanying lore which Elmer and Alan put a lot of time into,” adds Eise. “The lyrics are all symbolic to what unfolds in the lore. We wanted to get the fans immersed in that feeling and the different chapters building up to the big ending!”

Aeons Of Oblivion is out now via Unique Leader Records.

Like DISTANT on Facebook.