Aeons
Of Old
I don't want to write
much about this interview, because I think that it has some very interesting
answers. So pass this prologue immediately and read the interview and of
course support AEONS OF OLD...
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY BY GIVING US A SHORT BIOGRAPHY AND INTRODUCING
THE CURRENT LINE UP.
-
Most of the musicians in Aeons Of Old started
out in 1997 as Anaemica. I am not going to elaborate on those past achievements
(for those interested they can be found on our site). The name changed
early 2003 felt right after two founding members of Anaemica left. Funny
enough both are active in our band again ; Jeroen who was first drummer
changed quite successfully and surprisingly to guitars (after a one-year
sabbath leave nonetheless) and the other member Dirk VH (former rhythm
guitars) took on a managerial role in Aeons Of Old and helps out wherever
possible. Paul B (lead guitars, songwriter) and Donald VH (bass guitars)
never abandoned their position since the very start over seven years ago,
and Dirk B (vocals) is the third guy screaming and grunting his guts out
for about one-and-a-half year [the surname letters in the previous
sentences suggest real-life fraternity]. There is however still a vacancy
for a motivated drummer. Enough about the line-up, nobody is interested
in that. The achievements since early 2003 include : 20+ gigs in less than
a year, a fairly decent promo CD entitled "Nemesis", participation on the
DeathMetal.be compilation cd "Face Your Underground Vol. 1" with a previously
unreleased track, more than a dozen of songs transcribed completely onto
computer for each instrument, learning to play with a drum computer (which
benefits the tightness of our ensemble greatly), some new songs, ...
2. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE MONIKER AEONS OF OLD?
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST?
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"Aeons Of Old" means something along the lines
of "centuries of a distant past". So why the name change ? Paul B was tired
of "Anaemica" (based on the blood disease anaemia) which also was considered
as a closed chapter then. Therefore a new moniker was needed, and since
all one-word names were taken and we wanted something truly original, we
decided on "Aeons Of Old". Admitted it may not be the best name out there
(and not the easiest to pronounce either) but we feel comfortable with
it. A rather personal interpretation of the term has to do with the relative
concept of time. How we perceive time is something very subjective. For
instance if you are bored things seem to last for an eternity or aeons,
on the other hand if you are truly enjoying yourself or working on something
in a state of concentration time flies by and hours become minutes. Having
said that, "Aeons Of Old" may not only quite literally refer to primeval
times where Cthulhu reigns supreme but also to our youth or even past life
if something like that exists. Some experiences still lay vividly in the
mind but others are sunken far too deep in our subconscious... until when
you least expect it a mystic experience called a deja-vu overwhelms you.
3.FILL US IN ON THE BAND'S RELEASES. HOW MANY
DEMOS DO YOU HAVE? COULD YOU POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT SIMILARITIES
AND DIFFERENCES AMONG THEM?
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Three releases if you count the Anaemica days.
An untitled promo tape in 1999, a demo CD "Great Vengeance... And Furious
Anger" in 2001 and then day to day five years after the first tape, there
was the first Aeons Of Old release, the 3-track promo "Nemesis". The most
persistent similarity just by looking at the track listings in the discography
is the fact that the song "Supreme Lords Of Mankind" is featured both on
the 1999 and 2001 release. All releases combine death grunts with black
screams and stress on the guitar parts. As for differences, the sound
has evolved a lot (from a fucked-up production where on some parts your
stereo would go in the red to a fairly good production for a home studio).
Also the overall tightness has increased incredibly over the releases.
But there is always room for improvement and I am sure if the band entered
a professional studio we would make another big leap forward.
4.YOUR LATEST PROMO CD IS ENTITLED "NEMESIS".
HOW
WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT MUSICALLY SPEAKING?
YOU BELONG TO THE MELODIC DEATH METAL BRANCH, HOWEVER, YOU HAVE MANY VARIATIONS
IN YOUR SOUND AND RHYTHMS. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THIS AND HOW DIFFICULT IS
IT TO STAND OUT IN THIS BRANCH THAT IS SO FAMOUS LATELY?
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After lots of thinking we came up with the term
"varied melodic death metal". Our lead guitarist and songwriter Paul is
in my opinion somewhat of a mastermind because he always succeeds to come
up with something totally unexpected yet catchy. I could let you hear a
dozen of songs and none of them sound alike (at least from the point of
view of the guitars). I guess listening to lots of music and having enough
talent to write songs can go a long way. Another approach to variation
is having different tunings. The guitars on the second track "The Outsider"
are downtuned a couple of steps which automatically results in a different
feeling. I do not know to what extent Aeons Of Old stands out in the melodic
death metal genre, but I do think we are different.
5.I ALSO NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE 2 KINDS OF VOCALS,
SOME MORE BLACKISH AND HIGH PITCHED ONES AND THE OTHER ONES THAT ARE MORE
BRUTAL DEATH METAL. HOW COME YOU USED MORE BRUTAL DEATH METAL VOCALS COMPARED
TO THE VOCALS MOST MELODIC DEATHMETAL BANDS USE?
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It is the legacy of our birth ; back in 1998 we
had two vocalists serving duties simultaneously with one specialized in
blackish stuff and the other one in grunts. A bit later one became redundant,
but because his parts were not, the remaining frontman combined both parts.
When the latter one also quit, our current singer took his place and just
adopted the style.
6.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO? CAN YOU
SAY A
FEW THINGS ABOUT EACH SONG? I'VE NOTICED THAT
YOU ARE DEALING WITH DIFFERENT SUBJECTS IN EACH TRACK. WHICH ARE THOSE
ELEMENTS THAT INTRIGUE YOU TO WRITE ABOUT A SPECIFIC TOPIC?
-
The lyrics are written by me and my namesake,
and the lyrics on the promo revolve around loss of identity and schizophrenia.
"Howl Of Despair" is about a mental institution patient struggling with
his other perverted personality which seems to be getting the upperhand.
The cool part is that each personality is represented by a different voice
in the song. "The Outsider" is about emerging from the subconscious ...
a man who has been trapped for countless years in a tower and finally decides
to climb out and then is terrified by what he sees in the mirror (because
he has literally been a slumbering mummy for aeons, but honestly I like
the figurative and more imaginative aforementioned interpretation about
transcending oneself more.) "Dreamwork" finally deals with the loss of
a beloved one and the madman's obsession to bring his precious back to
life ... whatever the cost. I cannot really tell why I write about something,
it just has to come naturally. Of course watching movies or reading books
can be valuable sources of inspiration.
7.YOUR ARTWORK IS SIMPLE, BUT I LIKED IT! WHO
IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT? DOES THIS DEMON FIGURE REPRESENT NEMESIS ITSELF
OR DOES IT REPRESENT THE TWISTED INNER SELF HUMANS HAVE? I'M TALKING ABOUT
MAN'S DARK SIDE.
-
Sofi Bennetier drew everything. She is an artist
from around here and is really keen on doing some more work for underground
bands for free. In our case not the Greek Goddess of Vengeance is depicted,
but as you correctly suggested the enemy inside. The way I see it, the
Demon Of Old.
8.WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE BELGIAN UNDERGROUND METAL
SCENE? ARE THERE ANY BANDS YOU THINK THEY
DESERVE OUR ATTENTION?
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Lots of stuff. Actually our manager is one of
the headmasters at the renowned DeathMetal.be site. We are making lots
of contacts and get to know much bands. At present I think there are about
500 metal bands in our tiny country of which roughly half play extreme
metal. Bands you probably already know are Aborted and Ancient Rites. Other
bands who are getting more famous every day are Axamenta,Demonizer, Leng
Tch'E, In-Quest, Prejudice, Serial Butcher and Suhrim. Of the smaller bands
we can recommend you to check out Orb Of Torture (old Suffocation) and
Sacramental Awakened (technical death/heavy metal). If you rather listen
to thrash metal, check Grinning Ghoul and if you like modern melodic stuff
go to the Shadow's Veil site. (all links can be found easily on the DeathMetal.be
Portal).
9.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST ELEMENT IN YOUR MUSIC? IN WHICH FIELD DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
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The best parts are undoubtedly the guitars, they
are really interesting. The worst element (besides the drumcomputer - which
is only temporary) are the vocals in my opinion. I really think they could
use some more variation in rhythm, tempo and tone. It would be nice to
see everything evolve onto plain level field with the guitars, so I think
those are the areas that need more work.
10.HAVE YOU SENT THE PROMO TO ANY LABEL THIS FAR?
WHICH WERE THEIR REACTIONS? DO YOU HAVE ANY PROPOSALS TO SIGN A DEAL? WITH
WHAT CRITERIA DO YOU WANT TO SELECT THE LABEL YOU'LL SIGN TO?
-
No efforts have been undertaken so far in that
direction. There is a huge problem in Belgium (but I guess everywhere)
with what I call pseudo labels. People who are doing some kind of distro
or merch activity as a hobby but cannot really offer any worthwhile contacts,
promotion, distribution points or shelve space in metal shops. Of course
the internet works to a certain extent, but I guess we do not really need
to pay a label for that at this point. You see labels have a big aversion
for taking financial risk, so you wind up paying for everything. Since
we have not even entered a studio yet, we cannot expect to sell let's say
500 copies of a demo cd even if we were on a label. I think it would be
better to first get our production on a competitive level and then maybe
take the step. But as I said before, I am really weary of what most labels
do for bands.
11.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? HOW IMPORTANT
ARE GIGS FOR A BAND? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE FANS?
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I am sure live shows are an important part of
being in a band. Apart from releasing stuff it is the undisputed indicator
of band health vis-u-vis the outside world. You can work extremely hard
for your band, but it is by what people see or listen that you are judged.
With Aeons Of Old we have done much gigs the past year to establish a reputation
under the new moniker. This is going to change in the sense that half of
those gigs were without remuneration for the band. From now on only gigs
which pay a certain amount will be accepted. That way we do not have to
spend weeks on end where rehearsals are merely used to play the live set
for the gig taking place the following weekend, and we can take our time
for new songs. The band brings a tight set in front of audience (the only
letdown is the drumcomputer however but we hope to change that soon) and
our live presence has also improved a lot through experience.
12.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU GOT THIS
FAR? WHICH WAS THE BEST AND WHICH THE WORST REVIEW? WHICH PHRASE WAS THE
ONE THAT BEST DESCRIBED YOUR MUSIC AND IS THERE A COMMON STATEMENT YOU
SEE REPEATED IN ALMOST ALL THE REVIEWS YOU RECEIVE?
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So far little over half the zines have responded
to our promo by writing a review. We are satisfied with the majority but
the rest is either way too short (as in one paragraph) or completely miss
the point of a good review (too much preformulated eloquence for the reviewer's
own pleasure). The worst review would probably be the one from the German
(they do not seem to dig us there) "Voices From The Darkside" magazine
which just focussed on the fact a drumcomputer was used (he used the word
or syllable "drum" 6 times in his review that is ... less than 6 lines
long). Some of the best reviews came from you and the Finnish zine "Archaic
Metallurgy" which really went in-depth (the only review that noticed three
guitars and the few bearly audible keyboard touches). I do not think there
is one single sentence that can capture the true essence of Aeons Of Old,
so I cannot respond to that part of the question without missing something.
The common statement that we see repeated lots of times is some sort of
complaint about the drumcomputer, and the most annoying mentality which
we have encountered is the "I can only think according to a few mind presets
and if you guys don't fit in, there's nothing else for me to do but to
say it's not my style since I can't possible say anything about the music
itself" attitude, which really makes me wonder why some people are running
a magazine? Probably for the free stuff they get.
13.IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO EXPRESS YOURSELVES AND
YOUR CREATIVE NEEDS THROUGH MUSIC, WHICH OTHER ART FORMS WOULD YOU SELECT
OR GENERALLY WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU DO?
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I think writing (because I suck at drawing, painting
and sculpting), although they can all be good therapy.
14.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
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Hard question. I would go for deliria. If it were
a painting it would probably be some guy rotting away in a shack after
completely having gone mad from his encounter with the anomaly that haunts
through the aeons. Oops, revealed too much of a possible concept I am striving
for. Frankly I think the Megadeth cd cover of "Countdown To Extinction"
would make a very nice Aeons Of Old cover - it ressembles more or less
what I just described.
15.THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE
TO SAY?
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Thanks a lot for this nice interview, it is really
appreciated. Guess this is the place where I can reveal some of our future
practices ; Aeons Of Old will be featured on the first DeathMetal.be DVD,
out early 2005. Furthermore watch out for our late 2004 demo which will
rock your socks off, yet will be completely different from "Nemesis". All
I can say for now is that it will revolve around horror lyrics and will
comprise around 7 tracks. Rest assured Christine, we will see to it that
you get both the DeathMetal.be DVD and the future Aeons Of Old demo for
reviewing purposes! And of course do check out our site (http://www.aeons.be)
from time to time.
Christine Parastatidou
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