Monday, July 18, 2016

Denominate Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1. We are a progressive death metal band based in Oulu, Finland. Our band was formed in 2009 under the name Encrypted when all of us were still in high school.

2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
2. It continues our bands musical evolution more towards the progressive, compared to our debut EP Realms of Confusion. We have experimented more with melody on this new album,while still keeping the pummeling death metal part present. In our music we try to blend old school death metal with modern progressive and technical sounds.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
3. The band's lyrical themes revolve around quite common death metal topics. Death, philosophy, horror etc. I try to integrate my own occult interest into the music,
with metaphors and multiple possibilities of interpretation. Our album continues with the same type of dystopic and apocalyptic themes as our EP did, but this time with
a more planned structure of ideas. Even though some songs like Terrestrial Funeral and Penumbra are thematically and by their plots directly connected with some songs
all the way back to our demos, other songs like Apeirophobia are not completely out of context. I like making lyrics with lots of layers for the listener to discover.

4.originally the band was called 'Encrypted' what was the cause of the name change and also the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Denominate'?
4. The main reason was other bands called Encrypted and one of them had trademarked the name and threatened us with lawsuits.
It was primarly a name change but our music has evolved too since our last EP. The idea for "Denominate" came from our vocalist Ville where he remembered a word "denominated"
from a book he just read. We decided to shorten it to "Denominate", as it was a name suitable for our situation since its definition is to give a name to something.
We also liked that the word is in imperative, so it is at the same time a kind of an order to name something. Also the new name being in the form of an command is perfect for our somewhat "forced" change of identity.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
5. I’d have to say the most memorable show was 2015 year’s gig at Jalometalli Music Festival. It was kind of a honour to play there because all of us have frequently visited
it over the years and it is here right at our hometown, Oulu. When on stage we try to play and move as energetic as possible. We always try to give a good show that is both nice to listen and look at.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
6. We are currently planning to go on a tour in February - March 2017 with couple other bands. The tour consists four countries, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

7.The new album was released on 'Inverse Records' are you happy with the support they have given you so far?
7. So far, the support from Inverse Records has been good. We have gotten a lot more coverage than we could have hoped to get on our own.
A lot of of webzines and blogs have covered us and so far we have gotten quite a few reviews.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of extreme metal?
8. I don't really know specifically what fans of black metal have thought about our album, but overall the reception has been good. We have gotten reviews from all around the world and so far all of them have been favourable. People have liked that we have very varied material and enjoy the mixing of multiple genres we do.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
9. We plan on progressing more and continue to push the envelope to bring more to the world of death metal. We definetly will continue to experiment more with our music and we don’t plan on standing still when it comes to our musical direction. Also we have been toying with the idea of a concept album for our next release.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
10. Every one in the band has a quite a diverse and one some areas even differentiating music tastes. We draw a lot of influence from the old legendary death metal bands such as Death and Carcass.
Also many progressive death metal acts such as Cynic, Atheist, Gorguts and Demilich have been an influence. From the extreme metal genre black metal has also been an influence on some level.
But apart from the obvious big influences, really everything I listen and experience will have an influence of some kind.
Recently I have been re-listening to some older death metal. Apart from extreme metal I have also been listening to post-rock, folk and progressive rock.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11. There is really nothing that special what we do outside of our music. Our vocalist Ville likes to read a lot to get inspiration for his lyrical work.
Our drummer Joni takes care of his fitness, so he can play drums without getting out of breath and Eetu, one of our guitarists, has a little side business where he crafts instruments and other music related hardware (you can follow his work at Instagram: @soultrap_777).

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12. Thank you so much for all of our fans out there for the support, we would be nothing without you. We hope that you guys enjoy our new album when it's released, as much as we do like to hear and read
your opinions and reviews about it so that we can improve both our music and ourselves too. And this time, "Those Who Beheld the End" will be released and distributed as a physical copy over Europe unlike our previous EP. Thank you and keep it blasting!


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