Black Orchid Empire: Survival Is Tantamount To Success
Well known for their ability to mix wonderful melodic vocals with a technical rock and metal fusion, BLACK ORCHID EMPIRE are back with a bang in the form of their brand new album, Tempus Veritas.
Their previous album, Semaphore played around with a sci-fi theme, delving into the extra-terrestrial beings of the universe. This new release also follows a strong narrative, looking into the past rather than the future. Distorted Sound was lucky enough to speak to Paul Visser, guitarist and vocalist for the band. When speaking about how the idea for this concept album came about, he says, “like most of our best and worst ideas – whilst drinking on a Thursday night at our studio!” A classic song writing technique! “On our previous record Semaphore, we really enjoyed having an overarching concept that allowed us all to collaborate lyrically. The idea of delving into the past this time around came naturally, and instantly resulted in loads of great narratives to explore.”
History is full of brilliant stories, and many lessons that humanity needs to learn from. In this new album, the band tries to explore the points of view of historical figures whilst they’re going through specific events in history. One such story inspired the single, Deny The Sun, which centres around “Galileo’s ideas about the central nature of the Sun and the clash with religious views at the time, written from the point of view of his friend Pope Urban VIII who found himself in an impossible position and ended up condemning the astronomer.”
A super interesting topic such as this needs an equally interesting music video. “Ever since Semaphore the videos for our projects have been something we’ve left completely in the hands of the wonderful Alina Gordienco. We give her the lyrics, the track, and total freedom to do whatever she wants within budget. She routinely far exceeds our expectations, and Deny The Sun is no exception!” The Deny The Sun video features a beautiful sun goddess who struggles through the uncertain times surrounding her, embodied by Galileo’s supposedly controversial ideas.
When asked if there were any specific moments in history that stuck out to the band before they began the songwriting process, Visser explains, “we tackled the lyrics one song at a time as soon as the music and melody were defined, so it was more a case of being inspired by the instrumental. Sometimes though specific things came to mind – for example I love the Vagabond manga by Takehiko Inoue, and that directly inspired the story of Last Ronin, which is based on the life of Musashi Miyamoto.”
In terms of meaning, Semaphore has strong parallels with this new release, Tempus Veritas. It explored the future and how we as the human race communicates, whilst this new album attempts to get inside the head of historical figures and dissect their thoughts and feelings. Visser explains that this may not have been as intentional as it first seems. “I feel that as an artist you are always intrinsically speaking through the lens of your own experience, independent of subject matter. Using far-flung concepts as the narrative bedrock of both albums is really just a way of allowing the expression of that viewpoint without being tethered to a simple regurgitation of real life, and allows the painting of fictional worlds that explore situations never actually experienced that still resonate emotionally in a personal way. In that way I think the commentary on our state of existence is a common thread, and something we couldn’t avoid even if we tried.” An interesting idea, can we really escape our past and future selves, or the mysterious electrical energy that connects us all?
The band never fails to create captivating and hard hitting tracks that really get your brain ticking. Paul‘s melodic clean vocals beautifully wend and weave themselves into the hypnotic riffs and rhythms. The band has said that they wanted to explore the more technical side of their sound for this realease. “Whilst melody is always absolutely crucial for us, exploring polyrhythmic ideas and interesting compound time signatures has always been something we love, and Tempus Veritas definitely pushes that aspect of our writing. The middle section in Deny The Sun for example definitely pushes my ability to play one rhythm whilst singing another!” Being able to combine contrasting elements such as melodics and technical metal in such a seamless way is sure to be difficult. “We’ve always enjoyed riding the knife edge between the two – the fun comes from seeing which way we’ll fall!” BLACK ORCHID EMPIRE really do have to be commended for this display of control.
The album cover for this new album is super interesting and can be interpreted in many different ways. Paul explains that they wanted to create something that, “represented balance, duplicity, and the possibility of multiple meanings. It’s a distillation of the core concept of the album – the lack of objective truth, and the importance of interpretation.” With so many deep meanings running throughout this album, it’s sure to take the listener on a journey. To be taken on that path by musicians who clearly love what they do makes the experience so much more worth it. “We make the music we like, and are always hugely gratified and humbled that anyone else enjoys it too.”
Ending the interview with a question about what the band’s aspirations and goals are for the near future, Visser replies, “to thrive in a world where survival is tantamount to sucess.” Now if there isn’t anything more deep and thought provoking than that to reflect on, we don’t know what is. BLACK ORCHID EMPIRE constantly push boundaries, lyrically and musically, earning them well deserved recognition.
Tempus Veritas is out now via Season Of Mist.
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