Another
Messiah
Another Messiah is a Dutch
apocalypse in the wide-area doom idiom and I say wide-area because their
music is not simple as that, but it comprises many different elements
that nevertheless create a really united and coherent sound! Hard not to
identify them, if you ask me! The band's drummer Christiaan A.J.B. Crouwers
offered Behind The Veil some really interesting and in depth answers!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about the
band history? Why did you change your name from Nee to Another Messiah?
Does this mark a new beginning for the band?
C: We founded the band already a long time
ago. I won’t bore you with our complete history, but a brief overview would
be as follows: we started playing together in the fall of 1994. We were
quite young at the time, so it took some years just to define our style
and master our instruments. We used to call ourselves ‘Nee’, which means
‘no’ in Dutch. This was an illustration of the emotionally negative and
desparate music we used to make. During the ‘Nee’ period we produced two
demo tapes and one EP, which is called ‘Spieghel Historial’. We’ve also
won some band contests, including one organised by Dynamo, the founders
of the Dynamo Open Air festival, that used to be (and still is) one of
the most famous metal festivals in Europe. In 2003 we changed our name
to ‘Another Messiah’ to kick off a new period of the band. The name ‘Nee’
didn’t generate the right impression with people in the Netherlands. People
didn’t associate it with our music (they associated it with another genre
we’re not into), and we didn’t either at a certain point. Not that our
music has changed so much (although it is more energetic, more melodic
and more emotional than before), but it was the right time for a new start.
I think the name fits the musical style much better than before.
2. Although many call you doom I’d say that
you are far more than just that. You also make use of elements from atmospheric,
death, thrash and traditional heavy metal. How would you call your music
if not progressive doom that might sound a bit cheesy? What is your target
as a band?
C: Defining your own musical style is incredibly
difficult. What other people think of our music is often different from
what we hear in it, or mean by it. You’re so into your own music that it
is hard to be sober and completely objective about it. Especially since
our musical style is very diverse and varied. We often use the term progressive
doom, since it grasps two important elements: the fact that it is often
melodic and well thought-out (at least we think about it a lot), and the
fact that is often very heavy emotionally. We don’t really like happy music.
And I am not sure if progressive doom sounds cheesy, does it? In the future
we will work towards a more coherent style, but we will just keep on playing
what feels right. Important elements are and will be: emotional, atmospheric,
progressive, melodic, heavy and aggressive. Of course this is still diverse,
but that is just our style. Our target as a band? Well, we are ambitious,
but we are also sincere. We just want to express ourselves through our
music, and if other people like it, and if we can even make a living, then
that would be terrific, like a dream come true. But we have to be realistic,
we’re not like Britney Spears, it will never be millions.
3. Do you have any specific influences you’d
like to mention, like favorite bands or something? What inspires you composing
music in general?
We have a broad musical background. We all
listen to various kinds of music. From classical to rock and pop, from
hardcore to funeral doom. Of course we are influenced by all these styles,
but musically we have some common inspirators: My Dying Bride, Gorefest,
Opeth, Orphanage, Death, Rammstein, System of a Down, Shape of Despair,
Dream Theater, Pro Pain and Entombed. Actually, the list of metal bands
we like is endless. In general, our motivation to make music originates
from the urge to express ourself. Music is our way of expressing our emotions
and thoughts. And on top of that it is great to work together with people
you really like and have fun with each other and produce something other
people might like too. I am sure you can imagine the kick you get from
performing in front of metalheads that go crazy on your music, or the reactions
you get from people that they really like your music. Really cool. Well,
there are many reasons to make music, cannot imagine not making music at
all.
4. Robbie is a magnificent vocalist and you
are lucky to have him. Are the songs composed to be sung in that sort of
operatic heavy metal (don’t know how else to describe it) way? Is he the
one that produces the grunts on “One minute between’?
C: We are indeed very happy to play with Robbie.
His voice is strong and flexible and characterizes our music. I am not
sure what you mean by operatic. The heavy metal vocal style is actually
not on purpose. Like I said before, we tend to do what feels right. The
more emotional epic wailing vocals are often an expression of desperation
and heavy emotions. Robbie does all the vocals, although on the next cd
and at live performances Martijn also contributes to the vocals. We used
to use more grunts in the music, but it will still be a main element in
our music.
5. You also have oboe in some songs played
also by Robbie. What is it that this instrument gives to your sound? Maybe
a traveling psychedelic atmosphere like the one Psychotic Waltz produce
with the flute?
C: To be honest, I am not really familiar
with the way Psychotic Waltz uses the flute. But a traveling psychedelic
atmosphere is certainly what we sometimes create. We tend to use the oboe
in various ways, and not only as an instrument that is only used in the
more atmospheric parts. To us, the oboe is an up to par instrument, equal
to the other instruments. We choose not to exploit it by overusing it like
some bands used to do with their unique assets, but of course it is an
instrument that very much creates the special atmosphere and character
of our music. This is mainly due to the fact that the oboe is rarely used
in our music, and that the oboe is a very flowing and hypnotizing instrument.
6. Although Martijn sounds like a very skilled
guitarist I hear no classic guitar solos in the EP. Why’s that?
C: This has various reasons. Since Martijn
is the only guitar player, there is no one to back him up when he would
perform a solo. Then the solo does not generate the climax you need and
want. Our philosophy is to play the songs live the same way as it is on
cd. On a cd you can back up yourself, live this is rather difficult. But
that is just practical, we could of course add a guitar player, but currently
we don’t have the urge to play a lot of solo’s. We tend to work to climaxes
in other ways then guitar solo’s. But you never know what we will do in
future. Martijn is a real all-round guitarist, he sure knows how to play
solo’s.
7. When you want to, you sound as doom as possible
like the refrain riff on “Renaissance” or the middle part of “One minute
between”. How close are you to that certain style?
C: Well, doom is a broad genre within metal
(or even within rock). I think the basis for our music is doom metal. In
my opinion, doom stands for melancholy. We often tend to work to such an
atmosphere in our music. But definitely not always. In general I think
we fit into the doom genre, but we often go over the borders if the genre.
It is hard to say. We don’t want to commit too much to a certain style.
You often end up copying other bands, or existing styles. So in general
it would be doom, but in the end it is a mixture of various kinds of metal,
played on our own, hopefully unique, way.
8. The production is very balanced and gives
us the opportunity to listen to all the instruments clearly sort of like
progressive metal productions. Did you wish to have such a production that
lets the music breathe?
C: We like a good definition of the instruments.
Although I listen to doom metal quite a lot, I am not always charmed by
the blurry production. I prefer productions like the ones of Shape of Despair,
My Dying Bride or Opeth. Our guitar player is a big fan of Dream Theater,
so you might hear this back in the production. We didn’t want to make the
production as sleak as Dream Theaters though. That wouldn’t fit our more
natural and emotional music. We were also impressed by the extremely raw
production of for example Entombed, we tried to create a breathing production
with just enough roughness and rawness to give it a natural atmosphere.
9. How progressive do you consider your music?
Did you think important to make this EP consist of 4 different but yet
Another Messiah songs?
C: Our progressiveness is not always a conscious
choice. We think a lot about our music, we are also very critical. We do
like to avoid clichés, or standard sounds, rythms or riffs. We do
like to play everything in our own style. Style is not necessarily restricted
to a certain genre. We are glad to hear that it is still one style: Another
Messiah. That is exactly our goal. We do not want to create a style by
doing the same tricks over and over again, like some other, really famous
bands even do. Our style should be identified by the way we play and build
our songs, our sounds and everything. I am not sure if all our music is
really progressive. I think we have many classical elements. We are certainly
not as progressive as Dream Theater, but it depends on what you mean by
progressive. Do you mean the style progressive, or do you mean progressiveness?
We certainly do not want to be pretentious to say that we are incredibly
progressive, because we are not, our music is still built around concepts
invented ages ago.
10. You have developed a really solid sound
and you come out as a very homogeneous band. How much time does a band
need to become like you?
C: Again, we are very glad to hear that our
sound is homogeneous. I am not sure how much time it takes. But logically
it helps that we learned to play our instruments together and at the same
time. There is also a great personal and musical chemistry. I can’t say
how much time it would take, I cannot compare it to other bands, since
this is our only serious long term musical project. Really, I think it
is just a matter of finding the right people around you. Then eventually
everything will fit into place I guess.
11. Does your name Another Messiah imply anything
about religion and how many saviors are actually out there? If not what
does it mean?
C: Our name can be explained in many ways.
We are not religious, but also not against religion. We don’t want to make
a religious statement. We also do not see ourselves as the next savior!
It is a way of putting things into perspective, but at the same time a
sign of desperation and futility. Throughout history, there have been many
small and great saviors. The Christian Messiah is not viewed as The Messiah
by everyone on this planet, every religion has their own Messiah, or God
or whatever they look up to. There have been many small Messiahs, think
of the people who liberated countries or important leaders (Walesa, Mandela,
Ghandi). But all in all, misery prevails, people die anyway no matter what
Messiah will turn up. Christ this sounds heavy man, we’re generally quite
positive minded hahaha.
12. Are you considering incorporating more
alien to metal elements in your music in the future? What would those be?
Do you intend leaving the band’s character as fluid as this EP reveals
it?
C: The oboe was an experiment that actually
just started off just for fun. It was very coincidentally that Robbie also
appeared to be a talented oboist. We immediately fell in love with the
instrument, and now it is part of our identity and style. We have thought
of using other instruments in addition to the oboe. For example other flutes,
or maybe a violin, keyboards (not alien to metal but anyway). But we tend
to see a challenge in making music with this quite small formation. We
would never use a full orchestra like Metallica. I think that right now
the oboe is part of our identity and currently we don’t have a need to
add instruments, we are not out of inspiration yet, and there is still
much we can do with the current instruments. By the way, sometimes it is
better not to add too many instruments, tricks and effects to the music,
we like to have it pure and comprehensive.
13. Which is, according to you, the best and
which the worst part in your music?
C: Very confronting question, especially the
last part. The best would be me, and the worst all other band members?
Haha, no, just kidding. I hope the best part would be the dynamic atmosphere
we are trying to create. Really I am not sure. It depends who you are talking
to. But in my opinion it would be the atmosphere and the way we built to
climaxes, that is also emotion of course. The worst? Really, I wouldn’t
know, what’s your opinion on this one? Maybe the fact that we are quite
perfectionistic and therefore not quick writers. But maybe that is also
a strong point. We do want to work to a little more coherent style though,
the broadness of our music used to be a weakness. But I guess that especially
with our new materials that will not be a problem anymore. Don’t get me
wrong, we will still be diverse, but with a stronger own identity.
14. If your music were an emotion, what would
it be? If it were a painting, what would it show?
C: Haha, another confronting question. If
it were an emotion, I would say a combination or succession of desparation,
aggression, sadness, anger, melancholy, hypnose (is that an emotion?) and
sometimes relief. A painting? It depends, Renaissance would be a little
like Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, but if you listen to other songs it might
be totally different. That is why it is hard to talk about our music, it
is very varied and multidimensional. Some people even call it schizophrenic,
but I think that is a little exaggerated. I must say, our cover is a something
like a painting would look like if it would be based on our music I guess.
Something in that atmosphere.
15. Thank you! Do you wish to add anything
that I did not ask you?
C: Thank you for the interview and for the
complements. I can only say that we will produce a full length cd in the
summer of 2005. A lot of what I have told you in the interview applies
to the new material. We won’t change our style much, but it will be more
coherent, darker and heavier.
George "Volt"
Tassis
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