Interviews

Evenfall

Following last month's review of Evenfall's fine debut album, we decided to find out some more about them. Bear in mind that they are Austrian, so things are often put rather strangely. I've edited the less comprehensible bits...

Please introduce the band. Who plays which instrument and what's their personality like?
Evenfall plays dark avant-garde and consists of 5 members. Ivan Dalia - guitars / Ansgar Zöshg - vocals / Max ADE Boj - keyboards / Roland Wurzer - Bass / Moritz Neuner - drums. I think it is not that easy to describe the personality of each of us, but the personalities are reflected in the music.

What got you interested the Doom and Black metal scenes?
As you are interested in music you listen to a lot of stuff, and you get hooked on that thing you are interested in. In our case it was a partial development, because as we started to create our music we discovered that there was already something in this direction.

evensm.jpg (10172 bytes)How long have the band been together and how has it developed musically through that time?
The roots of the band reach back to 1992 as Resurrecturis started to exist. Through numerous line-up changes the band developed and changed the name into Conspectum Mortis; Evenfall really started to exist in 1997. The musical development is a natural one, not a planned one. All the time the band tries to express their feelings and these changed, as also the people changed, until we were at the point we are today.

What kind of atmosphere were you trying to create with this album?
Our lives consist of a lot of influences and emotions, these you focus as you try to express yourself. In our case we reflect our emotions in the music we are making. It is like drawing a picture or writing a poem. We are musicians and we express ourselves as we play or make music. Naturally not all emotions are bright ones, the mixture is the atmosphere and this one is dark.

How do you feel about bands like Cradle of Filth who rather than take themselves overly seriously, pastiche themselves and make fun of the "evil Satanic" image of a lot of metal bands?
Everyone should follow the way fate presents to them, we have to follow ours.

Do you have influences other than musical such as films, comics, visual art, literature etc?
Yes, in any case movies and literature. Personally I like Dante and Goethe. There are also a lot of movies I love, especial out of the Horror-genre.

In my review of Still in the Grey Dying, I said that parts of the album conjured up a mental picture of "hordes of cute wee demons jumping up and down to this at a gig", because of their bouncy sing-along qualities coupled with the vocal style. What kind of mental pictures would you like this album to conjure up in listeners' minds?
Perhaps the picture of a Sabbath or the romantics mixed with the cruelty in the life of a vampire......

One of the main riffs in 'Garden Of Sadness' is, shall we say, clearly Sabbath influenced (ever heard Sabbath Bloody Sabbath?!?). Did you realise that when you wrote it, or was it purely accidental?
We do not think so.

How hard are you working to break the British metal market? Are you pleased with reviews you've been getting in the British music press? How are you doing in other countries in Europe?
We do three concerts and try to do as many interviews as possible but we will focus on this topics as we are back from tour, perhaps the Internet helps (http://evenfall.cjb.net) We have to confess that we do not know what reviews we got in the UK, but we will check that out as soon as possible. (On tour you are a bit cut off from the homefront and do not get the latest news). With the responses of the other European countries we are quite pleased, but again I have to confess that I am not really up to date (because of being on tour).

What is the Austrian metal scene like? Are there any other Austrian bands we ought to look out for?
Austria has a very small but interesting metal scene. Some bands you might know (for example Abigor or Summoning). There are also some upcoming bands which should be recognised (for example Korova, DornenReich, Darkwell, Amortis)

Could you name your favourite three albums of all time?
Iron Maiden -The Number of the Beast
King Diamond -The Eye
Slayer - Reign in Blood

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