Billy
Bob and THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE, an interesting combination.
By releasing their debut album Pitch Black Dawn the Dutch
stomping Death Metal heads raise dust quite fairly. Right back
home from their tour with Entombed and Mother Misery, Earik
(Vocals) and Thomas (Guitar) hit the keys to give us an understanding
of their version of evil.
Torsten:
Hey guys, first of all my congratulations! As I said in my review
that Pitch Black Dawn is the first big bang in 2008 –
and hell yeah – I love this album!
Earik/Thomas: Thanx man, the album was released 3 months
ago in Belgium and Holland, this month (January) in the USA
and Germany, we’re very happy Pitch Black Dawn
got such great reaction until now.
Torsten:
Dudes, before talking about your sound: you founded back in
the end of 2004. When listening to your tunes it felt like that
you picked up several professional elements in the life before
THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE. So, what have you done before? Tell us
the story of founding.
Earik/Thomas: Got some time?... Just kiddin'. Before THE
LUCIFER PRINCIPLE was formed we all played in various (metal)
bands. We know each other from our local scene. When we got
together, we decided it would be a good plan not to rush anything
and start working on a concept, let's say a firm and steady
basis to work on music. By bringing structure into the song
writing, we had a clear vision of the direction we took of to.
You could say we used only our experience as an element of our
past. We try to look ahead and don’t want to bump our
heads by looking back to much.
Torsten:
And of course it is interesting to know, why you were inspired
by Howard Blooms THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE. Where are the analogies
between Howard Blooms story and the present world in your opinion?
Earik/Thomas: Look around you, our society is transforming
into a world where the individual is taking control again. More
individual idea's, more reasons to start of a conflict. We don't
say that violence and
aggression is a good thing, but it solved a lot of historical
problems. We don’t want to translate Howard Bloom’s
idea’s 1 on 1 in our music, but the man has some very
interesting thoughts which help to look at life in a different
way. In our case: a different approach of our lyrics.
Torsten:
When having a look at your cover, browsing your homepage (The
Flesh, The Others…), when reading the Pitch Black Story
(The Ignition, The Fire…) and comparing these elements
with your sound… everything appears professionally and
elaborated. Everything has a high recognition value. It seems
that you won’t leave something a chance. You’re
following a concept?
Earik/Thomas: Yes, we follow a concept, but not lyrically.
The concept of violence, fear and aggression forms the connection
between the songs. Life is full of surprises, so is the music
and lyrics on Pitch Black Dawn. We used the concept-wise
thinking when we released our two demos’ (Burn!
& Flamethrower), on both covers the highly
inflammable character of our music is visualized by fire. The
concept behind Pitch Black Dawn can be found in
the way the artwork was created. The main figure, "Billy
Bob", stands for the pure evil in man. He is the connecting
factor between the songs. We also had a different approach towards
the new songs; we tried to start of with more structure. By
bringing structure into the song writing, we had a clear vision
of the direction we took of to. We believe that every detail
must be in order, to be sure that people notice the album and
of course, the band. That’s why we decided to think of
Pitch Black Dawn as a new beginning, a new step.
Torsten:
Professional and elaborate are also your musical characteristics.
Instead of following only one style you manage to assemble a
phat groove, brutality and technical niceties to your Death
Metal. Death Metal is used as a base which transports different
kinds of Metal and as if there would be no difficulties you
come up with your stuff just like this…
Earik/Thomas: Well, Giedo, our guitar player, was missing
something in the metal scene. By keeping the music open and
accessible we're able to write music with a wide range of influences,
without trying to make it to complicated. We believe our music
is far from original, we only combined certain "Old-School"
elements and for some, strange influences, like rock 'n roll
and some ancient Metal styles, therefore our music feels like
something new and original. We don't like to follow a trend
or play music that appeals most to people. We do what we like
and write music for everybody who is willing to listen and gets
the STOMPING groove.
Torsten:
When listening to the opener The Pitch Black Dawn I thought
„ok, a Six Feet Under copy“. But it is the variety
in song writing which changed my thoughts quickly and that makes
this release interesting. Where you took the ideas from?
Earik/Thomas: Like said before we do not believe our music
is that original. But the compositions are certainly not based
on or taken from other shredders. The songs have arranged by
THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE witch consists of 5 people with
different backgrounds from Kiss, Six feet Under, In Flames,
Megadeth, Aborted and so on... and I think the listeners are
catching that elements in the music, with that same feel they
have with a other band.
Torsten:
I still get goose bumps when listening to the solo-storm of
Soul Saviour Throat Cut… this song is genius! Damn
good work by your guitarists!
Earik/Thomas: A big advantage of making easy accessible
music is that you have some technical overhead; we use this
overhead to arrange the songs in a proper matter and writing
interesting solos which fitted along in the style and feel of
the songs. Soul Saviour Throat Cut is one of those shredders
where a good old “Give them hell” solo couldn’t
be left out.
Torsten:
It is unusual that using a Stand-Up Bass instead of an E-Bass.
How and when you decided for this one?
Earik/Thomas: When it was clear which way our music was
progressing we wanted to underline every thought we had with
our music, for example: the concept-wise thinking. The use of
a stand-up bass underlines the phat groove in the songs; the
sound of a stand-up bass has more warmth and on the other hand
much more attacks as an e-bass. The impact the bass has when
playing live is quit logical, it looks extreme, it sounds extreme,
so a double advantage.
Torsten:
The promo doesn’t enclose any lyrics. Which themes you
are dealing with on Pitch Black Dawn?
Earik/Thomas: The lyrics handle a wide range of topics,
which all have to do with humanity, or the lack of humanity,
some people have. As a death metal band the more extreme part
of life is being described in our lyrics. Murder can be described
from the victims’ point of view or been looked at from
a psychological point of view from the killer. On the other
hand features the album also a hand full of lyrics which are
more to the point. In a way the listener can make up his own
story while reading the lyrics. We try to keep it as open structured
as possible.
Torsten:
How important are the lyrics for you? Is there a song which
means something special for you?
Earik/Thomas: Lyrics are very important; the lyrics determine
how the vocal parts are filled in and express a certain emotion
or feeling. When the guitars are shredding and the drums are
rolling, it doesn’t' make any sense to sing about flower
and birds, or a nice walk on the beach, the image I get it much
more disturbed and extreme. A special song... difficult question,
I feel that every song has something special to it, but one
of my favorite songs to sing live would be, Pitch Black Dawn
or Into Decay, the two songs are very different but the
lyrics follow the music in a perfect matter. I like the imaginary
character within the song writing.
Torsten:
Having a look on the recording session in the case i/O studio.
It was a hard time? Are there things you would like to change
after the event?
Earik/Thomas: Working with Cees at the case I/0 studio felt
perfectly natural we had a lot of time to get things right,
and Cees is a killer guy with a good sense of humor. We tried
a few recording techniques and ended up quite traditionally,
we recorded the drums first and started building around those
tracks. Working in the studio is always a heavy process where
a lot of decisions have to be made in a short period of time;
Cees helped us out making those decisions in the right way.
Torsten:
You are signed by Apache Productions. Apache is a quite young
Indie Label. How is it working with Apache? And what comes next?
Earik/Thomas: Apache is the perfect media partner for THE
LUCIFER PRINCIPLE, we think that a smaller Indie label can
use all its power to concentrate on the release of an album,
and that’s the way it happened. We got a firm advertising
campaign in all relevant Dutch and Belgium press and perfect
help in getting the promotion done! These guys know what their
doing! We have an option for a second album, so let’s
see what Pitch Black Dawn will bring THE LUCIFER
PRINCIPLE.
Torsten:
Next coming up is a short tour with Entombed. Wow, a real killer
package – Death’n Roll meets pounding Death Metal.
The crowds will probably freak out be totally be exhausted afterwards…
Earik/Thomas: We're just back home (actually a few hours),
we had a fucking blast! The bill was very wide from musical
range, Mother Misery (S), Entombed and THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE
all play different types of metal, Entombed and THE LUCIFER
PRINCIPLE fit together like a left and right glove. Mother
Misery forms the connecting part with their stoner-rockish-metal.
A great experience, we'll post a tour diary this week on our
MySpace and homepage, check it out!
Torsten:
When will you haunt across Germany? Are any gigs planned?
Earik/Thomas: At this moment we're looking for a bookings
agency in Germany, we need to plan ahead so we need some help
with that. Hopefully we have some good news very soon... So
far we have no gig planning in Germany, but we already played
twice in your beautiful country. Two years ago we played FUCK
THE COMMERCE and we did a gig in the north of Germany (Oldenburg).
We hope we can return this year!!!
Torsten:
Certainly, 2008 will be a great one for you. But take a look
to future: What you would like to accomplish maybe in three
years?
Earik/Thomas: Three years, three albums! That's for sure.
We like to work fast and play new material, during the tour
with Entombed we already played two from the four new songs
we have ready. So hopefully we’ll be doing some big festivals
in Germany, or even better worldwide domination!!! ;-)
Torsten:
And now: give us your actual Top 5 play list:
Earik/Thomas: Pfffffffffffffffffffffffff, you asked the
wrong person, I’ll try…, here it goes:
1. Autopsy – Mental Funeral
2. Celestial Season – All stoner albums
3. Six Feet Under – Warpath
4. Mr. Bungle – California
5. Entombed – When In Sodom EP
PS: never
ask me this again… (*hehe, just wail until the next Interview
? - the.wangacopta)
Torsten:
Thank you for this Interview! The last words are yours:
Earik/Thomas: Thank you for a very cool interview; hope
to see you guys out there soon! Download our album, like it,
support us, and buy it!
Cheers,
Earik & Thomas
