DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS
INTERVIEW WITH QUAZARRE OF DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS
BY ADRENALIN

Adrenalin : Well... please give us a short history of the band?

The concept of Devilish Impressions was born in 1998. By 2000, the band's line-up was established and the ideas were starting to be shaped into musical works. The founder members of the band were: Quazarre (voices, guitars and additional synthesizers), Turquoissa (synthesizers) and Starash (guitars).

With this line-up the band put out their first self-released material enigmatically entitled “Eritis sicut Deus; Verbum Diaboli Manet in Aeternum; Vox Vespertilio Act I – Moon Var Dies Irae” in 2002.

For the latest album “Plurima Mortis Imago”, Adrian Nefarious (bass guitar) and Dragor (drums) joined from another Polish black metal horde Luna Ad Noctum. The involvement of these artists introduced greater power and a new dimension to our music although none of them had anything to do with creation of the whole album's both music and its lyrical side. Every single note was written down much before they joined but thanks to them we were able to fulfill “Plurima Mortis Imago” visions and presumptions.

At the end of 2005 Adrian left Devilish Impressions. His duties have been taken over by the band's former guitarist Starash. To replace Starash a new guitarist Armers has been recruited but that is not all of the line-up changes. Knowing that Dragor would not be able to go on long tours, a new drummer had to be found. In his place now is Icanraz of Abused Majesty and Hermh.

In June 2006 Devilish Impressions signed a deal with London-based Conquer Records.

In November/December 2006 the band took part in the Ageless Void Tour 2006 across Europe as support for the Norwegian band Aeternus and has since been receiving a great deal of positive feedback from fans.

Adrenalin : Would you describe "Devilish Impression" to our readers that maybe haven't heard you before?

Devilish Impressions is wandering around all of extreme forms of black and death metal with a few symphonic elements in the structure of our songs as well as some which may suggest we belong to some sort of the avant-garde. In my opinion it is the atmosphere which mostly makes our creation so characteristic. You see, even Devilish Impressions' name came into existence to reflect the band's search of dissimilar identity, to mark our need of creating words and sounds that would be hard to classify by our potential listeners. When we formed the band and slowly started giving a shape to the first songs we said to ourselves that our creation can not be limited by any artificial rule; that we would like to compose something which could go far beyond everyone's and even our expectations. I do not know if we are succeeded in what we wanted to do but I know we will be always giving our best to do so.

Getting back to the point – it is so hard to say where we exactly belong to. At the same time I am aware of the fact that all of those definitions just simply must exist. Otherwise it would be impossible for a new horde to come into existence of the metal fans' consciousness. Obviously, sometimes names you are being given or bands you are being compared to have in fact nothing to do with it but it just proves lack of reviewer's knowledge. I guess you know that there are a lot of these omniscient journalists who have their own self indulgent prejudices on the subject instead of giving possibly the most objective opinion about certain release.

Well, to sum it up I believe Devilish Impressions is just one of these bands which play qualitative sort of black/death metal - haha.

Adrenalin : "Plurima Mortis Imago" is your 1st album? Can you give a summary of any previous release, demos etc if any?

We only have one more material released under Devilish Impressions' name - “Eritis sicut Deus; Verbum Diaboli Manet in Aeternum; Vox Vespertilio Act I – Moon Var Dies Irae”. It is not available anymore as it came out in a strictly limited edition. The idea behind it was just to point out that there is such a horde which came into existence as well as to get this first, the most important, step in every band's career done. That time we didn't even have a drummer therefore all the drums were synthetic.

It's really hard to univocally classify the sounds created by us, what's certain is that since the realization of that concept by later enclosing it into a material like “Eritis sicut Deus...” we proudly started to walk the pathway of avant-garde of the genre. Naturally you can refuse this material decent production, or expose other defects however we are still satisfied with it in a way. Above all it's our first child, a record full of contrasts with sophisticated smacks and extremely fast tempos remaining in a counterpoint to the awesome, atmospheric slowdowns. The three main, very long and complex compositions were combined into whole with dark-ambient intros, being different, inhuman vision of emotions slumbering in us back then…

The album starts and ends with the same vast keyboard motive, what was supposed to emphasize a consciously oriented 'indissolubility' of all these elements. I used to say that this material is like a vision of an astral trip trough worlds of hidden dimensions, meanings and prophecies, and its great diversification is to serve the deepening of the potential listener's imagination as well as to make him arrange the strewed puzzles, for he may be able to create a personal story out of the events presented by us.

It is too early to say now but I guess we may release it in the future, probably in both original and a new, re-arranged version. Before it happens you can suck one of the old tracks from our website.

Adrenalin : So, who are your main influences? How would you describe your music?

I think Metallica “Master of Puppets” would be the first one!!! This was the very first album I had and the first band ever which inspired me so strongly. Then I felt in love with the aggression of Kreator “Endless Pain” followed by even stronger and long-lasting expressions left by Death and their debut “Scream Bloody Gore”. Then I started to discover more groups and different albums which turned out to be even better than those which I was admiring at that time. That is how Iron Maiden came, earlier Metallica's titles, Accept, Kreator, Megadeth, Wasp, Sepultura etc.

The most influential ones as follows: Metallica (Ride the lighting, Master of Puppets, … And justice for all); Death (Leprosy, Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic); Tiamat (The Astral Sleep, Clouds); Bathory (Blood Fire Death, Twilight Of The Gods); Christ Agony (Unholyunion, Dameoonseth Act II, Moonlight); Emperor (In The Nightside Eclipse, Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk), Arcturus (La Masquerade Infernale), Limbonic Art (Moon In The Scorpio, In Abhorrence Dementia), Burzum (Aske, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss), Vital Remains (Dechristianize) and the list goes on and on…

I think that there is only good or bad music and that is the only definition of music I have. Obviously, it is metal which I listen to most of the time but I do also admire some other artists, especially those who compose movie soundtracks and those who are known as a classic composers. Sometimes I also listen to ambient or even industrial as long as it is not becoming some fucking noise only.

I could mention hundreds of band's names or movies' titles which strongly influenced contemporary Devilish Impressions' face as well as a lot of other things, phenomenon or even daily situations which are having a strong impact on our creation - all sorts of visions, dreams, nature's complexity, memories, art and different states of our consciousness… Sometimes these visions appear automatically, without any external stimulus. It is just inside of me, inside of us and come out totally unexpectedly, without any particular reason. In my opinion what really matters is ability of transforming it into intriguing sounds and words, into something you can be internally proud of as a reflection of an authentic feeling.

Adrenalin : Are you happy with the end result of "Plurima Mortis Imago"? Would you rate it as your best?

Oh, yeah… Since the album's premiere we've had a lot of very positive feedback from fans and media from all over the world. Just check out our webpage to see their amazing reactions on it. Obviously, there are a few negative opinions as well but that is the way it is.

I would say that perception of “Plurima Mortis Imago” variations depends to a large extent on the potential listener's patience whether he/she really wants to go through all of the record's details or just to classify the album as unbearable to listen due to its excessive complexity. I mean, I have already heard a few opinions from some die-hard fans of both “true” black metal and modern black/death metal styles and they all admittedthat there is something special in “Plurima…”, that the atmosphere we have managed to put into these sounds and words makes the album really accessible and easy to listen despite its false pretences and intricacy.

“Plurima Mortis Imago” means “Many Faces of Death”. All of the tracks are separate sort of vision regarding to death's essence presentation, explicit praise of internal self-independence, being some kind of manifesto against all the religions and other forms of restrictions. There are also a lot of apocalyptic visions, inspired by dreams and imagination of the Armageddon's aftermath, strong statement directly saying that “there is no god but you”. In some sense – the concept behind “Plurima Mortis Imago” continues and develops the themes started on Devilish Impressions' first material - above mentioned “Eritis sicut Deus…” The only difference is that they seem to be rather less poetical than before as – together with the music – they became more immediate and absolute in their meanings. And when I say – less poetical – it doesn't mean they are shallow or whatever. They are just stronger, hateful and full of anger. They reflect the state of the band's spirit while composing and recording the album.

I used to say that “Plurima Mortis Imago” is a record for every metal fan, as it contains a mass of technical death metal riffs as well as essential dose of original melodies, breathtakingly fast blasts, raging vocals and beautiful keyboard passages, enveloped in a totally sick and furious atmosphere of all-pervading coldness, rebellion and licentiousness. With this album we wanted to prove that moving across the genre makes it possible to distance oneself and play the music a little differently, but without losing the original spirit of what metal has always been, is and what it should be in the future.

Adrenalin : Will you be touring to support "Plurima Mortis Imago" album?

We have already done European Tour with Aeternus, Drakshine and Arum in November/December 2006

A few days ago (24.02.2007) we've played on an fantastic all-day black metal festival at London's famous The Underworld along with Thus Defiled, NFD and a few other bands.

We are also confirmed as a main support act for the Swedish black metal legend - Marduk on their Eastern Europe tour which is supposed to start at the beginning of April and will roll over Russia, Ukraine and Belarus! Devilish Impressions w ill appear over there with slightly different line-up including session drummer S.Winter (Aeternus, Eld; ex-Gehenna, ex-Forlorn) as due to Icanraz' obligations to his own band whom he will be recording a new stuff with we were forced to find someone else instead who could take over the drums during that tour.

After that we are going to record this new album which will be supported by another tours along with our country mates Behemoth in Poland, United Kingdom and Ireland!!! Hopefully we will manage to get on another European tour as well.

Adrenalin : Have you ever play in other bands before "Devilish Impression" has formed?

Oh yeah… The first band I had in 1992 was Apogeum Guf transformed to Rivendell later on. We were pretty young kids back then though and didn't push the things strong enough to record anything apart from some rehearsal tapes. I actually may still have some of them but I guess they are really well-hidden – haha.

Next important band I played with was Autumnal Breath Of The Moonlight Serenade which I formed with Starash amongst others. The group didn't exist for a long time as soon we gathered forces with Turquoissa and formed Devilish Impressions instead.

The other band I still work with is Asgaard in which I pay my duties as a singer only. The music we play is entirely different from what we do in Devilish Impressions. We call it dark atmospheric art and it is kind of a mixture of complex guitar structures with a strong use of synthesizers, violins, electronic loops and a lot of clean voices. During the whole band's career (formed in 1994) we have managed to release five full-length albums (“When The Twilight Set it Again”, “Ad sidera, ad infinitum”, “Ex Oriente Lux”, “XIII Voltum Lunae, “EyeMDX-tasy”) and a live DVD (“Lux in Tenebris”). Although not well-known outside of Poland we are quite famous in our country having played with such a big names as: Katatonia, Behemoth, Dark Tranquility, Enslaved, Rotting Christ, Driller Killer, Morbid Angel, Limbonic Art, Krisiun, Moonspell and Tiamat amongst others.

Adrenalin : Are you happy with the current position of "Devilish Impression"? Do you think you should be selling more records or gaining more recognition outside?

Well, I think we are doing pretty well, especially if you take under consideration the fact that we are quite young band ! You see, my other band - Asgaard will probably be a good example to prove it… Having five full-lengths released, all of them critically acclaimed and having these titles distributed all over the world never have we gone that far as we go today with Devilish Impressions although we are just at the beginning of our way! We were interviewed by the most respectful magazines such as Terrorizer, Legacy, Zero Tolerance, Metallian, Butcherian Vibe as well as have had our tracks on the compilations added to those magazines. That is a power of a proper promotion! Obviously, once you step onto a certain level you will always push the things to get yourself higher and higher but at the moment Conquer Records seems to fulfil all our expectations perfectly.

Adrenalin : Have you ever heard any (extreme) bands from Indonesia?

Unfortunately, I do not know or rather I do not remember any... I mean, I have heard the names although I am not familiar with their music. Fuck, not long ago me and the friend of mine were going through a shitloads of different records and suddenly we played this Indonesian band (I do not remember the name though) and… wow! That was pretty sick and devastating stuff. You see, that sucks! You may have a lot of very good hordes over there although none of them gained wider attention here in Europe. It all depends on where you actually live or whom you are dealing with and correct me if I am wrong but I believe it must be quite difficult to sign a proper deal for Indonesian groups.

Adrenalin : Additional comment for closing this interview?

We have booked the studio already and will start recording new stuff during May and June 2007. This time we will lie down all of the drums and guitars tracks in Hertz Studio (Vader, Decapitated, Hate) following by later recording of keys and vocals with Arek Malczewski (Behemoth, Vesania) whom we also want to do a mix with. In order to reach aggressive sound the material is going to be mastered by Andy Classen at Germany's Stage One Studio (Rotting Christ, Belphegor, Circle II Circle).

The new songs seem to be much heavier; I would say more rhythmic, straight-forward and ass-kicking. It does not mean that we are taking an easy way in comparison to the previous materials. It is just another vision and attempt of creating something fresh and remarkable. We do not want to be a band which records the same albums every time. We want our listeners to be surprised with our music, to make them think of it in different dimensions. For us it is like a challenge which is supposed to prove whether we are able to be unpredictable even for ourselves as for the material's creators and as long as it satisfies me as a musician and composer the band will remain worth its name.

Thanks a lot for supporting us!!! I hope one day we will have an opportunity to invade the lands of Indonesia!!! Hail to all of you – metal maniacs out there!!!

On behalf of Devilish Impressions – Quazarre

Adrenalin
www.centrawebzine.tk