Ophidian I: The Resurgence
Cast your minds back to 2012, a group of budding youngsters from Iceland who joined forces under the moniker of OPHIDIAN I took the technical death metal world by storm with their debut release Solvet Saeclum only to abruptly vanish off the face of the earth shortly after. 2021 marks the exciting rebirth of this project, with only a couple of original members but a newfound purpose and vigour to bring their vision into the new era with new album Desolate.
“After the initial release by the original version of the band it just kind of dwindled off,” explains drummer Ragnar Sverrisson. “There was a period of time with members moving onto other projects and I actually joined as a session drummer initially for a couple of gigs. After gaining lots of experience and feeling the need to come back to a technical level we converged and started working on the new album. We look at it now as a new band, everyone brings their own palette to the table and it definitely sounds different, more mature. The guys who recorded the first album were barely out of their teens! We’ve all been immersed in technical metal for all this time and our influences have diversified along the way. It has been very inspiring.”
Technical death metal requires a lot of intricate choreography to ensure the instruments are in unison and don’t sound like an overwhelming barrage of noise. Considering the sheer level of intensity which was being poured into this effort it made sense for a main songwriter to take the helm. “As a drummer I did not personally write any of the songs, most of the material was written by Máni, our guitarist with input from our bassist Þórður,” discusses Ragnar.
“The material was then sent around the guys and we would build the skeleton of the song until we were all happy with it. We could then practice this and see how we felt playing it and whether they sparked excitement and we would go back and forth, scrutinise it, shave off all the excess. It was a very dynamic process. We were very lucky that we have never went into a full lockdown here in Iceland so it didn’t cause us too many issues throughout the process. We just had to limit how many of us could get together in the same location. Unfortunately it is looking more like next year before we can get out on the road and properly begin the promotional side of things. It is not just about the music too, it’s the socialising, networking, meeting likeminded people who can inspire you. We do have a lot of things planned however, like playthrough videos to give the fans some additional content.”
The creative process differs considerably from musician to musician. Some prefer collaboration from the offset and in some cases there is a mutual agreement where an experienced member is entrusted with the responsibility of crafting the majority of the material. This has been the case this time round with OPHIDIAN I and it is a process which has benefited all parties and given them the opportunity to push themselves further than ever before. “I definitely found it a challenge but I also enjoyed it a great deal. A lot of my drumming colleagues don’t like when the other members write the drum parts but to me it was just another part of the process and the guys were writing those drums with the melodies and hooks in mind to make sure everything complimented each other and there was instances where they would come up with parts which I wouldn’t have myself. It took me out of my comfort zone which was actually really beneficial as it has helped me progress as a musician,” explains Ragnar.
“I had to learn some new techniques and improve my playing to pull some of those parts off. I wanted it to be as perfect as possible and not feel like I was the weak link in the chain. This mentality made us all push ourselves to be the best we could be. We wanted this album to be insane in terms of technical ability and just as impressive as the other bands who fall under the banner of technical death metal but at the same time make sure there was plenty of melodies too rather than it just being a cacophony that had no signs of being memorable or accessible. Taking this approach did make the song writing process a lot more challenging but we made sure we trimmed away the parts which felt like they didn’t have a purpose in the overall arrangement and made it a conscious decision that the listeners could take something away from each song. We want people to hear this material and come see us live so we can show that we can actually pull this material off.”
It is unsure what the future holds for OPHIDIAN I at this stage but signs are pointing in the direction that this will not be the last we see of this talented collective. “I don’t see any reason why we should press the stop button and turn it all off again,” admits Ragnar. “All the members of this band are super productive and already have built up some ideas for potential future material. We’re not discussing it that much at this point as we are focusing on promoting this release. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished.”
Desolate is out now via Season of Mist.
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