Interview with Lord Maakryth of Anarazel Interview questions by Decadent |
HM: Greetings Lord Maakryth, tell us about Anarazel, past and present.
Lord Maakryth: Anarazel past and present is a dark, misanthropic presence which represents the most bestial aspects of man. Anarazel hails under the devil`s banner, as an adversary to god, punishing the weak & antagonising the holy. Anarazel is the manifestation of apocalyptic visions & dreams, the demon within… and a product of the hatred coursing through our veins.
HM: One thing I noticed listening to your two EP`s, is that there`s a considerable change in style between one and the next. "Rise of the Tempest" is more melodious aggressive black metal album, while "Devil Hymns" is a bit more stripped back and brutal. What would you attribute this change of sound to?
Lord Maakryth: The change in style can be attributed quite simply to the fact that we had a significant line up change between the two EPs. We replaced our original guitarist with two new ones & eventually added a bass player to the mix. We felt that this was an ideal time to further develop our style. Stuart, our original guitarist & song writer wasn`t too enthusiastic about going down a more brutal path. In fact he went on to do some acoustic stuff after leaving Anarazel. We recruited Valak, who had just arrived from New Zealand having played with Coven until they split. He brought us that brutal style of song writing we were seeking at the time and from then we went about developing our current style which I would describe as good mix of the two EPs.
HM: There`s been an Anarazel full length in the works for a while it seems. Though "Undivine" was recorded in 2001, it seems that it never went anyway. I believe you`ve been re-recording it. So were you so unhappy with the result of "Undivine" that you decided to re-record, or were there other factors?
Lord Maakryth: There were a few factors. The main one being that we weren`t really happy with the finished product. We had an engineer who couldn`t give two fucks about how the CD sounded & the chemistry between certain band members was quite negative at the time. The bottom line was, we didn`t think the CD did our music justice. Those who have heard the recording have been impressed but that wasn`t enough for us. Undivine needs to be one of those CDs that sends a chill up your spine… makes you feel hatred like never before. We failed to achieve that with the original recording. Another factor was the departure of two members immediately after the recording. The band lost a stack of money but at the end of the day, the decision to re-record was the only option.
HM: What sort of sound can we expect from the full length? The more melodious black metal or the more brutal style?
Lord Maakryth: The sound will be every bit as brutal as Devil Hymns, with the speed & aggression of Rise of the Tempest. We haven`t gone too melodic but there is an atmospheric element to the music this time round. The important thing is that there is a massive improvement there since our last release. Undivine is at least 666 notches above Devil Hymns in every possible way. It also succeeds where Rise of the Tempest fell short in the heaviness department.
HM: When can we expect to finally see Undivine being released?
Lord Maakryth: I have been making predictions about the release date for years. The short answer is, no idea! I will say this though. The album is fully recorded & will be ready for release very soon. It looks like the only thing that will slow us down is the issue of distribution. As it stands now, Anarazel is unsigned & not very financial. Should we find a suitable label in the near future, there`s no reason why the CD won`t be released almost immediately.
HM: How is the scene down in Melbourne? There seems to be a lot of death and grindcore bands coming from there these days, so how well does Anarazel do amongst those crowds?
Lord Maakryth: We get a pretty good response from the crowd here. You see a lot of the same faces at death, grind & black metal gigs, so playing in front of any of those audiences is fine. I think its possible to detect traces of death and grind in our music too, which hopefully gives us an edge and increases our audience. We haven`t played live for over a year though so it will be interesting to see what kind of response we get when we return to the stage with Dawn of Azazel in November.
HM: On the "Devil Hymns" EP, you recorded a song called "Coven of Ghouls" which was a Morbid Angel tribute. Do you consider Morbid Angel a big influence?
Lord Maakryth: Not really. The song was a result of some experimentation… we thought it had a Morbid Angel type of buzz to it so we turned it into a tribute song. I wouldn`t say that they have influenced our music a great deal but we all grew up listening to Morbid Angel & decided that a tribute would be appropriate enough for an EP. It gave me a chance to experiment with a deathier vocal style too, which is something I`ve tried to incorporate a bit more in our newer material.
HM: You guys had a track from the original recording of Undivine on the Decius Productions compilation "Barbaric Onslaught". How did that come about, and why was that track chosen?
Lord Maakryth: We were asked if we wanted to submit a track so we chose a song that represented our current musical direction. In fact, the song we used, The Red Rite, was one of the tunes recorded for the original Undivine. So that gives you an idea of the standard of recording, had we gone ahead and released it. That song will appear on the re-recorded version, of course in a much improved format.
HM: Cheers for your time and support. Any last comments can go here.
Lord Maakryth: Gather around Aussie metal maniacs & prepare for war! The apocalyptic cacophony that is Undivine is soon to be unleashed, to rip a hole through the heavens & ravage angels before the throne of god… till we bask in the rain that is their blood.
