Infern is a brand-new death metal band. Geographically they are from France, and their main influence is obviously Bolt Thrower – so, it’s all about the old school death metal approach of the early ’90s. Infern’s life as a new band starts with old school directions, lovable brutality and appropriate enthusiasm. When did you guys meet each other first –how did the band come to life? Are you all fans of the old school approach?
Loup: Sylvain and I formed a stoner band more than fifteen years ago.We remained friends and one day while we were spearfishing we decided to do music together again and form a death metal band. The funny story about the vinyl we found in the sea was the departure of this journey. Then my cousin Julien accepted to come with us, and he brought Simon and JM with whom he played for a long time. We decided to do a death metal band with a raw and groovy approach. Mixing influences from the 90’s metal band we like. If by old school approach you mean writing catchy guitar riffs and groovy drum parts mixed with anti-system lyrics that is what we try to achieve.
Julien: We are all more or less fans of old school music (Death, Hardcore, Stoner, Heavy…), so it was easy for us to agree on what we wanted to do.
Obviously, we shouldn’t look for novelties here, because you guys cultivate that exact, original death metal approach – and one should really not touch that! It can still be a collection of interesting, brutal and cool riffs. How did you start writing the songs? How much do you care about being original?
Loup: Since Tony Iommi created metal everything starts from a good riff! We try to write riffs that you can remember, create songs that are catchy and not too complex. We just write things that come to our mind, with our experience as musicians and metal listeners and then we shape songs together as a band. If we like it, we hope people will like it too. Is it original? I hope the listener will find that we have some identity.
Sylvain: For me, as long as you do something with your heart, it will be interesting.
Here, our goal is not to create a style, but to make sincere and authentic music
Your debut material will be released on the 4th of October via Dolorem Records. That’s a really cool thing! You’ve created 10 songs, and put them together really well! The studio work was done by Charles Elliott. Why did you choose him? What was your original idea, what kind of instructions did you give him?
Loup: We worked with Charles on our First EP and were very happy with it. So we decided to do the album with the same approach. Recording drum and Vocals in France, sending guitars and bass tracks, so Charles could re-amp it in LA. Then we spend some time discussing by email during the mixing and mastering process. We managed to do a pretty good job together, I must say.
We asked him to match his previous work with his band Abysmal Dawn, also to try to match production like those of Blood Red Throne, Deicide, but still maintaining that 90’s vibe from Obituary of early Death. A wide and not easy demand.
What do we need to know about the songs? What would you point out about your music? Why should we listen to it?
Sylvain: We write songs we want to listen to and be proud to play, what you hear on this album has been composed with passion.
Loup: We tried to do catchy songs, with good riffs and grooves so people could feel the energy on stage and have a good time.
Those who buy the CD will also receive a massive 12-page booklet that includes the lyrics. What are the songs about? Who wrote the lyrics?
Julien: I’m in charge of the lyrics and melodies . Some of those are inspired by the world around us (the trap of capitalism, ecology, despotism…) and some are more like what we could expect from a typical death band (paranoia, fears…). In terms of lyrics, the themes are quite varied.
For example, in Phineas case, I draw a parallel between the story of Phineas Gage (who was an american railroad construction foreman) and the world in which we live today (the loss of a certain number of landmarks which disrupts our lives, the omnipresence of social networks… ), it’s also a song about memories.
But conversely, there are others songs that are more-down-to-down. “Gaining ground” is a song about conflicts and wars that are currently raging around the world and “Burning fields” talks about being slaves of the modern society that we live in.
How many bands of a similar style are emerging in the French underground these days? How popular is this genre over there now?
Loup: There are a lot of very good death metal bands in France, the scene is strong with bands like Skelethal, Voorhees, Mercyless , Mortuary to name a few. Our label Dolorem records is doing a good job on putting bands like Ad Vitam Infernal or Creeping Fear on the map.
What are your expectations for the album? Will you be happy with even the smallest success 🙂 ?
Loup: We worked on this record for more than 2 years now, so seeing it released in good condition with a label and some promotion is great. We’ve been unconscious enough to release 500 LP , 500 Cd’s and 50 Tapes, so we hope we could sell a few. People headbanging heavily and consistently asking for our merchandising at shows so far, is a blessing.
I suppose Infern’s aim is to always stick to the old school style. In which direction do you think your evolution might proceed?
Loup: We have some good riffs and ersatz of songs already, and we need to work on it in the future. We will try to stick to what we are, and do a second album in the same vein. A few more brutal songs maybe, a few more down tempo? We don’t know yet. Releasing the album was very time consuming , so we put composition aside but I’m glad it comes to an end so we can create music again.
Julien: For the next songs, we’ll try to stay true to ourselves. Old school, easy listening, but still with an in-your-face style. We know that we won’t reinvent the wheel. Anyway, this is not our intention.
Quite a few old bands have become active again in the last few years. Which bands were you most excited about to see resurrected, and who else do you think it would be good to have back to make music?
Sylvain: I don’t know…it’s always cool to see an old band coming back to life but sometimes it’s not that great, I mean, sometimes it’s better to have nostalgia than disappointment.
To what extent do you consider the new bands (starting after 2000) different compared to the old school syte?
Loup: Starting a band after 2000 is a long time ago 🙂
Style wise I think every musician has to take what they like from the music they listen to and try to create something different if not new.
Bands like Gatecreeper emerged a few years ago and created a new wave of old school death metal with HM-2 Swedish inspiration. Are they old school?Yes Are they original? I’d say yes. Are they doing something new? To me, yes. They must be heavily influenced by 90’s bands ,but to me those are good NEW bands with young guys doing a great job at mixing different influences.Trash, Death, Black metal.. Not everybody can be Venom, Pantera or Judas priest and create a new subgenre of metal? We hope we are one of those bands that express our love of all metal genres in two or three songs, not too bad to listen to.
I’m sure that death metal fans will be happy to discover you! Be as loud as you can to get more Infern fans 🙂 !
Sylvain: Don’t worry, we will be loud !
Thanks for this interview, it was fun
Cheers
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