BLACKOUT
Blackout prove once again
the power of the French extreme metal scene. A well bound heavy progressive
death metal combo is unleashing its power upon us and we didn’t have anything
else to do rather than interview them. Here is what they told us…
1. HELLO! FIRST OF ALL SINCE I
DON’T HAVE A BAND BIO, CAN YOU POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF
THE BAND’S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE THE CURRENT LINE UP?
Well... The band first saw the
light in the south of France in the spring of 1999. Before the band was
created, Julien(guitar), Laurent(keyboards) and Sebb(drums) played music
together because they are friends many years now. Then in 1999 Fred(vocals)
and Nacim(bass) joined the rest to form BLACKOUT.
2. YOUR MUSIC ALTHOUGH IT CAN BE DESCRIBED
AS MELODIC DEATH METAL, IT ALSO HAS MANY PROGRESSIVE, THRASH AND CLASSIC
HEAVY METAL ELEMENTS. DO YOU AGREE? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE MUSIC YOU
PLAY?
You are right! Our promotional
CD is a mix of all metal styles, going from heavy metal to thrash metal,
going through black metal, death metal and progressive. But to define our
style it’s very difficult, the most we hear is “heavy death progressive”.
We can just tell you that we’re not just influenced by metal.
3. I THINK THAT CHILDREN OF BODOM AND
N.W.O.S.D.M. ARE A BIG INFLUENCE TO YOU. CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH MUSICIANS
HAVE INFLUENCED YOU AND IN WHICH WAYS?
Each one of us has different influences
and even if you think Children of Bodom and NWOSDM are a big influence
for us, you’re wrong. We like their music but they definitely aren’t an
influence for us. Our influences are so big to tell you which musician
and band have influenced us more than an other...
4. THE BOOKLET OF YOUR MINI CD DOESN’T
CONTAIN ANY LYRICS. SO CAN YOU TELL ME IN WHAT KIND OF THEMES DO YOU REFER
TO LYRICALLY? WHO IS MAINLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LYRICS AND WHAT INSPIRES
YOU TO WRITE THEM?
Fred(vocals) is mainly responsible
for the lyrics. The theme that mainly inspires him is “human being” because
it’s so complex and there’re so many things to say about it.
So the first song “Keys of Time”
is about a man who suffers a lot living in that world. Then he tries to
find an exit out of his torture.
The second one “Hidden Borders”
is a little similar to “Keys of Time” because it’s about a man who uses
his brain to create an imaginary world because of an oppressive ill being.
“Wasted Life” is about a
young man who’s sent to make war against his own wishes and the stupidity
we can feel round the wars.
And the last one “I used to
live” is about a man who thinks that he is persecuted by death (like
we all are) but in his case it’s a little bit paranoid.
Here are the main subjects of the
lyrics, but we really think that everybody can feel different things reading
the lyrics...
5. IS THIS MINI CD YOUR FIRST RELEASE?
IF SO, WHY DIDN’T YOU RELEASE A FULL LENGTH ALBUM? DID YOU RELEASE IT,
PERHAPS, AS A TEASER OF YOUR UPCOMING ALBUM? WHEN DO YOU PLAN TO RELEASE
A FULL LENGTH ALBUM AND WILL YOU INCLUDE ANY SONGS TAKEN FROM THIS MINI
CD?
This CD is our second release,
but the first one wasn’t so good because of the sound and other stuff...
So this time we still didn’t release a full length because at first this
CD was for promo but when we found a label it became a real sell product.
For the moment we don’t know when we will release a full length because
the band has some line up problems.
6. THESE LAST FEW YEARS FRANCE GAVE
US MANY GOOD METAL RELEASES, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SOME YEARS AGO METAL
WASN’T SO POPULAR OVER THERE. WHAT DO YOU THINK MADE THIS SITUATION CHANGE
AND HELPED METAL BECOME MORE FAMOUS?
We don’t know whether the situation
really changed in France or not. The only thing that has changed is that
the rest of the world “finally” realized that even in France there are
good bands.
7. FRENCH PEOPLE HAVE THE FAME THAT
ARE INTOLERANT TO ANY OTHER LANGUAGE, EXCEPT FOR THEIR NATIVE ONE. HOW
EASY I IT FOR A BAND USING ENGLISH LYRICS TO BE ACCEPTED IN FRANCE?
We don’t know if it’s true for
the metal music, because English is like an evidence for most of the bands.
But in general, bands using the English language in their lyrics are well
accepted.
8. WHICH IS THE DEFINITION OF HEAVY
METAL MUSIC IN YOUR LIFE AND WHICH THINGS MADE YOU LIKE THIS SPECIFIC MUSIC
AND ALSO PLAY IT?
Energy, technicality, melody, emotion...,
all you can feel with this music made us like it. Heavy metal
is a music so rich, so complex that we can’t live without it.
9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
WHAT SHOULD THE METALLERS EXPECT FROM A BLACKOUT LIVE SHOW? SHARE SOME
OF YOUR EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR LIVE SHOWS WITH US...
As we told you, before our line
up problems we had a mini tour in Italy planned, but unfortunately... In
a Blackout live show you have a lot of energy and melody, a real contact
with people. Even if our tracks are technical, during our shows you can’t
be bored.
10. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT
DOESN'T KNOW YOU, IN ORDER TO INTRIGUE HIS INTEREST? WHICH IS YOUR MOST
APPEALING ELEMENT ACCORDING TO YOU?
The Blackout’s music is very technical,
melodic and aggressive. All the styles of metal music, and other branches
too, influenced us. Our music is made for the metal fans who are not afraid
of the originality.
11. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION,
WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
This is not an easy question...
If our music were an emotion it would be a raging anguish and if it were
a painting it would be abstract with different colors on a black
background.
12. IF YOU HAD A PROPOSAL TO DO A VIDEO
CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
“Wasted Life” could be a good song
for a video clip because it’s very thrashy and it’s about a young boy forced
to go to kill people just because certain persons don’t know how to be
adults and don’t take the right decisions, but this is the man’s distinguishing
feature.
13. WHICH FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE
TO MEET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
...Fred would also like to meet
Britney Spears and ask her “Do you wanna suck me ?”
14. LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A
WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
If music wouldn’t exist in that
world we would not be attracted by it so we can’t really tell… perhaps
another kind of art or perhaps we would invent music...
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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