DUNGORTHEB
Wel my experience so far
showed me that you shouldn't expect to listen to a conventional band from
France and that most of the bands that belong to the extreme emtal genre
have a lot of technical skills and high amounts of inspiration. Dungortheb
make no exception and with their simply amazing technical death metal create
a dynamite that will blow your ears. An interview with them was a MUST.
Enjoy...
1. CONGRATULATIONS FOR “INTENDED
TO…”! AN EXCELLENT PIECE OF WORK!
Hello to all the readers of Behind
The Veil zine and thank you for this interview ....
2. SO, CAN YOU POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND’S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE THE CURRENT LINE UP TO THE
READERS?
I think that the most important
moment for us at this time and since the beginning , is the release of
our first album “intended to ...” !! Because it has been very very difficult
for us !! We had since the beginning a lot of problem due to a lot of change
of line up . We had some line up problem during recording session,
before gigs ... ! it’s why the release of this album has been very difficult
for us Actually we are five members in DUNGORTHEB : Grégory VALENTIN
to vocals , Hervé JOLY to the drums , François TOUSSAINT
to the bass, Jean-Yves MOTTE and me Jean Marc WERLY to the guitars ...
3. GIVE US SOME INFO REGARDING “INTENDED
TO…”. WHERE WAS IT RECORDED, WHO WAS THE PRODUCER, HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?
ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL RESULT OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO
CHANGE?
Intended to... has been recorded
by ourselves in our home studio !! Hervé JOLY the drummer, he worked
with me on the recordings, but he made all the mix of this opus !! And
He made a real good work I think ! Normally this album had to release
one year before !! But just after recording all the vocals part on the
album our previous singer David decided to leave the band !! And Gregory
was at this time our Bass player became our new singer !! he have had to
work a lot and he had to recording all the vocals again !! Finally
we are so satisfied of the result !! After all, you can always do better
but .....
4. WHEN YOU COMPOSE SONGS DO YOU HAVE
TO BE IN A SPECIFIC MOOD OR SENTIMENTAL SITUATION OR DOES IT COME NATURALLY
OUT OF YOU?
You know everybody has moments
more difficult than others in his life !! but for the composing of our
song , all comes naturally ! This is our way of work , we take a
lot of time to arrange each riff, each links , each songs ... We want each
link to take the audience and bring them higher !
5. YOU PLAY TECHNICAL DEATH METAL.
A DIFFICULT GENRE IF YOU ASK ME, SO HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU WHILST
WRITING SONGS TO KEEP A GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN MELODY AND AGGRESSIVENESS?
HOW CAN YOU COMPOSE SONGS THAT ACQUIRE TECHNICAL SKILLS BUT AT THE SAME
TIME THEY ARE PLEASING AND NOT BORING AT ALL TO LISTEN TO…NAME SOME OF
YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS.
Yes , We try to keep always a powerfull
and aggressive side in our songs with some great melody and a lot of technical
skills . This is a big work you know , we take a lot of time for each song
! we don’t want any boring song, each part are important in every song
. We want to keep a real feeling in DUNGORTHEB , Our feeling !! Personally
I like a lot of technical bands from the 90’s like Cynic, Death, Nocturnus
(thresholds), Coroner (mental vortex),Pestilence (spheres), Testament ....
And a lot of others bands ...but the list is too bigger !!
6. WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING
TO? WITH WHAT KIND OF SUBJECTS DO YOU DEAL WITH AND WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO
WRITE LYRICS? WHAT DO YOU “INTEND TO…” DO WITH THIS RELEASE?
The lyrics are speaking mainly
about man's behavior facing the different problems to which he is confront
with in the present life. His anguish, his thoughts, his way to be and
to act, the whole mystery of life after death! All questions that all people
could be brought to land to one moment of his/her/its life! Especially
when she/it reaches her/its end!! We wanted to try create a concept between
the texts, the artwork and the title of the album in order to make think
the listeners, in order to raise this question "Intended to... what!! each
person have to find his own answer to this question!! Maybe our answer
will be given in the next album...
7. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
DO YOU LIKE PERFORMING LIVE? SHARE SOME OF YOUR LIVE EXPERIENCES WITH US…
Yes since the realease of Intended
to .. we play some shows and festival here in France and in Belgium, Germany
!! Yes we love playing all our stuff on stage !! We try to be a killer
band on stage !!! All the song have to be played very very clean !! with
a cool show ! a DUNGORTHEB show is powerfull I think ! We try to create
great atmosphere, This is very important for us that people have to be
curdled !
8. ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU RECEIVE FOR “INTENDED TO…” TILL NOW? HAVE YOU SPOTTED A SPECIFIC OBSERVATION
THAT APPEARS IN ALMOST ALL THE REVIEWS YOU GET, REGARDING THE BAND’S MUSIC?
Yes in general we are very satisfied
by the feedback for this album ! I think we are too much compared to Death
( I don’t think that our music is the same thing with Death ! I just think
that we have the same spirit in composing structure of songs and
we work a lot every links to give perfect songs like death that’s all )
. But this is very cool to be compared to this monument and this is not
bad comparison in general ...
9. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT
DOESN’T KNOW YOU IN ORDER TO INTRIGUE HIS INTEREST? WHICH IS ACCORDING
TO YOU YOUR MOST APPEALING ELEMENTS AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
I think , I could just tell “hear
just one song of this album !!” after this he will like or not but I’m
really sure that people who are into powerful, melodic and technical ways,
will like this album ! Because I think there is nothing boring and you
can easily hear all the album and tell wwooooww this is already the end
!! 8 songs in 43 min but when you are into ! it seems 15 min ... Listen
to !! And don’t hesitate to give us your impressions about the album .
10. WHICH SONG WOULD YOU USE TO SUM
UP ALL THOSE YEARS OF THE BAND’S EXISTENCE AND ALL YOUR EFFORTS?
Hum !! This is very difficult for
me to tell you that this song is better than this for representing the
band since the beginning but I will tell you Twisted reality , the first
song on the album is very representative of the Band .
11. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION,
WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
It’s too difficult!! Because we
try to follow a lot of different emotions like melancholy, lightness, sadness
but some positive emotions too .If it were a painting it could be a landscape
with the evolution of each season !! Summer is more positive in our minds
, spring is the renewal , the rebirth (creation) , Autumn is very sad season
, melancholy , sadness et finally the Winter , paralysing you , chaos ....
12. IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH
HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY?
The prehistorical time to see how
was the world before the hand of the mankind acts on this earth !! And
the future to see the end of the mankind ! We are actually preparing our
own end you know !!
13. WHICH FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE
TO MEET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
Chuck Schuldiner ! simply I will
tell him thank you for giving to me the envy to play this kind of music
!!
14. IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE
CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL HIM OR
ASK HIM?
Could you help us to save the world
and to make all better on this earth of desolation !
15. WHAT DOES DUNGORTHEB MEAN? IT’S
A STRANGE AND DIFFICULT WORD. HOW DID YOU SELECT IT AND DOES IT HAVE A
SPECIAL MEANING FOR YOU?
DUNGORTHEB is taken from the lords
of the ring (we have this name since the beginning in 1995 ! ) This is
the name of the dreadful valley of death in the middle land ! this is very
close to the world in which we are all living I think !! no ?!
16. THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO
ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
No !! Thanks for all ! I hope that
you !! readers !! will have the envy to discover DUNGORTHEB ! that’s all
...
Christine
Parastatidou
|