Exit Eden: Enchanting The Power Three
A new year brings forth the anticipation of new sounds and what styles the next 12 months can present for everyone to listen to and take in. There are so many albums and EPs that are ready to play throughout the upcoming months, some kicking off the year with a bang. One of these albums is Femme Fatales from symphonic metal trio, EXIT EDEN, returning after seven years since their debut with the expected covers the group are known for, but also showcasing original songs like the single Run. In preparation for this release, Distorted Sound spoke with vocalist Marina La Torraca about the music within the new record, the time inbetween since the last record, and the choices of covers, including one of JOURNEY’s Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).
“The answer to that question is always a little bit less spectacular than people think,” Marina begins. “There’s a number of people that are involved in the production of the EXIT EDEN albums, especially with this one. The decision of what we should cover was actually made for us. They took into consideration our opinions of course, but the decision had been made by the label and Hadas Brown, our producer. We had a enormous list of cover ideas that we’ve been collecting since 2018 and we wanted to do all sorts of crazy things. The direction of the project’s changed from doing the crazy pop songs to symphonic metal, it just matured into something else. So that’s why JOURNEY and ALICE COOPER and HEART, the rock acts with very respected rock classics. Therefore we wanted to make a tribute to them without seeming like a gimmick band. It just builds a reliability around us and the acts, and that’s why Separate Ways from JOURNEY was selected to be on the album.”
“We wanted to make a new album shortly after our debut,” she explains further, as their first album, Rhapsodies In Black was released back in 2017. “The thing is that EXIT EDEN is not a project that belongs to us like our own separate bands. The project belonged to a label before, and we were bound to it with a contract. The label, it didn’t work out with them, they didn’t want to continue the project. It was such a hit in the metal world but I think because they were a big mainstream label thing, they had intentions for us to be a mainstream act. So, of course, that didn’t happen and I kind of already knew because if you go in with the attitude of ‘I’m gonna make this music mainstream’, it’s just not gonna work.”
“Napalm Records were already distributing the first EXIT EDEN album, they bought the brand so to speak,” Marina elaborates further. “That’s why this new record is being released in 2024, because of the whole administrative process took so long with COVID inbetween, it changes everything. People become afraid of investing, or releasing an album and no one wants to buy it, you know, so that’s why it’s been, let’s say, in the drawer for so long. The album itself, it’s been ready for a couple of years. As an artist, all you want to do is record something and release it, just be able to show everyone what we’re doing. It’s part of what it is but I must say that EXIT EDEN, we have way more of ourselves in this than the first album. That was really just hands off, people were doing things and now with this record, with this album, we wrote the songs. It’s a different experience for sure.”
As mentioned, Femme Fatales will be the first EXIT EDEN album to include songs written by the members, including their single with Marko Hietala of TAROT: Run. Written by Anna Brunner, Mariana describes working on the song. “She wanted to write to make an epic story that just evokes the times of ancient history and just this atmospheric vibe around it. It’s part of the perfect text to that music and it just matches, it comes together really well. I also think the video added another layer that came on top because when she wrote the song, I’m just speaking for her, but I don’t think she wrote it about the fates at all, which were the creatures that we were representing on the video. That was just like another layer of interest, adding something interesting to create this whole universe to that song and it fits perfectly.”
With the release of a long-awaited album, especially at the beginning of a new year, there is a tone to be set that the fanbase can expect from this new chapter of the band, which Marina describes to round out the interview. “We would love for people to get the energy people see from our music videos, that sisterhood energy. We want people to feel that warmth, we want them to feel that they’re not alone. We want them to feel that things are possible, that COVID didn’t stop the world for us who are here.”
“We just want people to feel inspired by this, to go and do their own thing or want to listen to this at the gym because this makes me want to move,” she states, finalising her thoughts as the interview comes to a close. “Just inspire good things and good vibes and good connections, I think that’s what we want, that’s all we can ask for with releasing such a meaningful album. The name of the album, Femmes Fatales, and the fact that we’re three women coming together in a heavily male-dominated scene, that’s also quite meaningful. I know things are getting better, we’re getting a lot more female representation in metal, but just make it even more over the top, especially with themes like witches and the Goddesses from mythology and whatnot. Showcase it all to people in a good way.”
Femmes Fatales is out now via Napalm Records.
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