METAL IN PROGRESS

INTO ETERNITY

If you believe that INTO ETERNITY will be the first band from country that will play typical heavy metal, then you are wrong. Simply, the guys over there have a bizzare way of creating heavy metal music, something though that make us very happy, because we have the chance to listen very interesting things. So liten to their music and find out some more info here...

1.FIRST OF ALL, POINT OUT THE MOSTIMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE THE CURRENT LINEUP...

The current line up of Into Eternity is Jim Austin(drums/backing death vocals), Tim Roth(guitar/clean/death vocals), Chris Krall(clean/death vocals), Rob Doherty(guitar,death vocals) and Troy Bleich(bass). We have had a few important moments in this band. The first was saving to release our debut CD. Then we got a deal with DVS Records out of Europe. Touring Europe for the first time was the next big step for us. It helped create a buzz for the band. Another step was releasing Dead or Dreaming and getting signed to Century Media. That got us touring the USA for 2 months straight and it meant more exposure. The final thing for us was releasing our new record Buried In Oblivion.

2.WHY DID YOU MERGE ALL THOSE DIFFERENTSTYLES? COULDN'T ANY OF THEM FULFILL YOUR MUSICAL VISION?

We formed the band as a hybrid band. No single genre of metal could fulfill our vision. I always wondered why bands couldn't combine different styles of metal. I personally love all types of metal, whether it's prog, death, power or thrash. There are no limitations on what types of metal we will use. It keeps the songs exciting that way and it's something we will always do.

3.I'D SAY THAT YOUR INFLUENCES AREDEATH, SOILWORK, AGENT STEEL AND NEVERMORE. DO YOU AGREE AND COULD YOUADD ANOTHER NAME OR EVEN DELETE ONE OF THOSE?

I'd agree with those influences. Agent Steel is a legendary band. I wasn't influenced by them, but i would be now. we just played with them in the US and they were great! What great, nice guys. They had high vocals and shredding solos. It was nice to finally meet them. I really dig all those bands you mentioned. I love soilwork. We formed in 1997, so they weren't an early influence on us.Death and Nevermore for sure were! They are my 2 favorite bands. I have all their albums! I grew up on thrash metal, so that is a big part of our sound as well. Bands like Megadeth, Testament, Forbidden, Sanctuary and Annihilator. I've been listening lately to Spiral Architech, Arch Enemy, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zero Hour and Children of Bodom. There are so many great bands out there these days.

4.YOU SEEM TO BE EXCELLENT MUSICIANS.DRUMS AND GUITARS REALLY SHOW EXTREMELY HIGH SKILL! HAVE YOU DONE ANY STUDIESON YOUR INSTRUMENTS?

Everyone in the band is basically self taught. Jim took a few years of lessons and I did as well. That was when I first started, so it was really nothing. Just your basic tuning, chords and some theory. My main experience, and the guys as well, was playing in bands and performing. I have learned a lot from that. Instructional videos were also a great help to me. I would just sit at home and practice. I bought all of those videos and studied them. Players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Micheal Angelo and Chris Impellitteri. They were all great shredders and masters of their instruments.

5.IS IT LIKELY FOR A GIFTED MUSICIANTO CHOOSE THE EXTREME METAL BRANCH TO EXPRESS HIMSELF, EVEN COMBINED WITHCLASSIC METAL SOUNDS?

I don't know if it's for everyone. There is such a great energy to extrememusic. Shredding solos work well against this type of metal. there are no rules in music and I enjoy expressing my skills in this music. I think you are right though. This isn't the most common thing for most extreme bands.

6.THE GUITARIST MANY TIMES SURPRISES WITH SOLOS THAT COULD EASILY FIT TO A NEOCLASSICAL METAL ALBUM AND NOTA DEATH/THRASH ONE! ONE MORE INGREDIENT TO ALL THIS MULTIFORMITY OR SOMETHING MORE? DO YOU LIKE NEOCLASSICAL METAL OR EVEN CLASSICAL MUSIC?

I'm responsiable for that one! Ha-ha. I love neo-classical music. It has such a feel to it. Randy Rhodes, Chris Impellitteri and Yngwie Malmsteen were big inspirations. It adds a bit of class to the record. The main thing is to have good songs and then all the neat solos / interludes are the icing on the cake. I respect classical music and someday I plan to have some trainingin that field. I think it adds a lot to our music. Other bands that do it well are Children of Bodom and Chris Amott in Arch Enemy.

7.DO YOU THINK THE REST OF SOLOS SHOWTHE IMPACT CHUCK SCHULDINER MADE ON YOUR GUITARIST(S)?

Rob and I both were greatly influenced by Chuck. I love all the Death albums to this day! They are totaL classics. Meeting Chuck was one of the things I always hoped would happen. It's sad to say that it can't now. It was just inspiring to watch Chuck perform. He had it all in his playing. Chuck wrote the best albums, amazing riffing, could solo with emotion and had brutal vocals. I also enjoyed his Control Denied album.I listened to that quite a bit. Hopefully the second one will be relased someday. He seemed to be headed in a cool progressive area with his material and only played with the best musicians.

8.THE CLEAN VOCALS ARE DOUBLED UP AND THUS SOUNDING VERY UNIQUE AND OF COURSE MAGNIFICENT! HOW DID YOU COME UPWITH THIS IDEA? DID YOU EXPECT SUCH NICE FIT?

I think doubling the vocals give them a thicker feel. There is also a lot of cool harmonies going on as well. Everyone in the band has their part to do with the vocals, Chris is the main man. He came up with great stuff on this record. As years went on, other band members became more active in the voclas.It's like one big team. It has been a natural evolution for us. we knew we always wanted to keep the voclas exciting and I think we did just that. There is a lot of melody happening, plus the heavy death vocals as well.

9.ALL THE BAND MEMBERS CONTRIBUTE DEATHMETAL VOCALS BUT WHO ACTUALLY PRODUCES EACH VOICE? IS IT FOR EXAMPLE BECAUSESOMEONE PRODUCES BETTER GRUNTS AND SOMEONE ELSE BETTER SCREAMS?

Yeah we all have our different styles.To best hearthat, check out 3 Dimensional Aperture. We do a 3 part death vocaL trade off. Rob does the first line, then Chris and then finally me. Rob does these cool death vocal inhales that sound like the wind. He does that at the end of Spiraling Into Depression. Chris does a lot of the brutal low stuf on the album. His voice is heard the most. I do all the high screaching death stuff. It's easy to tell mine. On the album Chris and I traded off a lot and took seperate lines each and combining ours. Examples of that would be Beginning of the End and Point of Uncertainty.

10.ALMOST EVERY BAND FROM CANADA HASVERY GOOD MUSICIANS! IS THERE A SECRET METHOD YOU APPLY OVER THERE WHENTEACHING MUSIC?

It must be in the water! Ha-ha. Maybe it's just luck. It's weird because a lot of bands in Canada have a unique sound. We all don't sound the same. Bands like Cryptopsy, Rush, S.Y.L., Heavens Cry, Annihilator, Eidolon and Kataklysm all have a different sound. I know for us it wasen't a matter of musical training. Not many bands would come through our city when I was growing up, so we weren't influenced a lot by that. The isolation factor played a part in our sound. In school we didn't have much of a music program at all. I tried lessons, but nobody was teaching metal here in town. Basically everyone in the band is self-taught. It was our hunger for metal that was our best teacher.

11.THE SONGS "BURIED IN OBLIVION" AND"BLACK SEA OF AGONY" SEEM TO BE PARTS THE TWO OF ONE BIGGER SONG. AM I CORRECT? IF YES WHY DID YOU DIVIDE IT?

You are totally right! They are one song, but it's over 10 minutes long, so we decided to split them up. When you listen to the album though, it's one continuous piece. I thought we should separate them on the track listing. That way the fans could choose to listen to it as a whole or skip the acoutic beginning. Not everyone enjoys a 10 minute epic.That was definately a different journey on this disc. We're really proud of it.

12.DOESN'T "BURIED IN OBLIVION" REMIND OF THOSE EARLY EMOTIONAL SONGS NEVERMORE DID? BY THE WAY IT IS EXTREMELYBEAUTIFUL!

Well, Nevermore is my favorite band. I can't deny that one! Ha-ha. You caught me on that one. Nevermore has been an influence on us for sure. I was also a big Sanctuary fan as well.I could see Warral Dane singing Buried In Oblivion. He has a perfect voice and it's totally unique. The song was written for Dead or Dreaming originally,but I knew it needed more time. I'm real happy with the way it came out. The song is a good breather point on the album.

13.MY FAVORITE TRACK IS "SPIRALINGINTO DEPRESSION" BECAUSE OF ITS MARVELOUS REFRAIN, THE GREAT GUITAR WORKAND ITS CLEARER PROGRESSIVE METAL CHARACTER. WHICH ONE IS YOURS?

Spiraling was the song that the label chose as the first single. we are also working on a video for that track as well. It will be filmed in June/04 here in our hometown. There will be live footage and a storyline as well.It was the last song written for the disc. It has my favorite lyrics that I came up with. I'm happy with the way the words came out. I prefer the heavier/busier songs. Splintered Visions would be my favorite. It has all the elements of the band all in one song. The big chorus, shredding solos, brutal death vocals and clean vocal harmonies.

14.GENERALLY YOUR SONG-TITLES SEEMREALLY DARK AND GLOOMY. WHAT DO THE LYRICS TALK ABOUT? WHAT IS "BURIEDIN OBLIVION" THAT WE CANNOT REMEMBER?

All the lyrics are dark and depressing with morose issues running throughout. That is how I've always written for the band. It seems to fit with our music, which is dark as well. We write mainly in the minor.sad keys. There are some exceptions on this album though. Slintered Visions is about pill drug use. Isolation was written about a guy I knew who's apartment was basically his prision cell. He would never leave it. Beinggining of the End deals with the Armageddon. I don't think we'll be writing about flowers anytime soon! Ha-ha.

15.I'VE NOTICED THAT WHEN YOU PLAYYOUR SPEED / THRASH PARTS YOU TRY TO SOUND AS TRADITIONAL AS POSSIBLE ANDNOT SO SWEDISH AS MOST NEW BANDS DO. AM I CORRECT? WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOINGON IN THE WHOLE OF NORTH AMERICA WITH THE SOUND OF GOTHENBURG?

Rob and I grew up on traditional metal and the bay area thrash movement. That probably explains that. I happen to love that Swedish Gothenburg sound! Those bands have great albums and have inspired a lot of the U.S. bands as well. It probably goes both ways though. The U.S. has an influence in Europe as well. The bands that did that soundwell are Soilwork, In Flames, Darkane, Carnal Forge and At The Gates.

16.WOULD YOU CALL YOUR MUSIC PROGRESSIVEDEATH LIKE THE MUSIC DEATH, CYNIC, NOCTURNUS OR EVEN MARTYR (FROM YOUR COUNTRY!) OR SOMETHING ELSE DUE TO THE MORE EXTENSIVE USE OF CLEAN VOCALS?

We label ourselves as progressive/death metal. Our music is a hybrid of clean/death vocals with progressive riffing and solos. I find it hard to fully describe us, but that description seems to work for us okay. Death and Cynic were huge influences on me growing up. So it would be an hounour to be in the same class of music style as them. They are some of the best musicians in metal music ever!!

17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASKYOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

Thanks a lot for the interview! I hope to see/meet everyone on the road. Check out our website for all our information, Qww.intoeternity.com . Thanks again and keep it metal!!

George "Volt" Tasis

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