DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS
INTERVIEW WITH QUAZARRE OF DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS
BY BATO (METAL REVOLUTION)
Origins of this Polish band date 1998, however the official date of it's founding is considered to be the Night In Remembrance of The Deceased 1.11.2000 a.s. when Turquoissa (synth), Starash (guitars) oraz Quazarre (voices, guitars, synth) - known wider as the vocalist of Asgaard - begun more serious actions in order to create the lyrical and musical conscience of Devilish Impressions. Now the band had existed for almost ten years releasing a few very good releases establishing their place as one of the best and leading bands in their native Poland but also abroad. DI's mixture of different extreme genres is what is so appealing to me. Already a few months ago I contacted Quazarre in order to conduct this interview, but he didn't have time before now. Anyway, it is worth waiting, as this is one of the best and most interesting interviews I've ever done.
MR: Hey; please be kind and introduce your mighty band briefly.
Quazarre: 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). Quazarre also creates dark atmospheric art with the well-known Polish band Asgaard.
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 Plurima Mortis Imago , Adrian Nefarious (bass guitar) and Dragor (drums) joined from Luna Ad Noctum. The involvement of these artists introduced greater power and a new dimension to the music to enhance the creation of the whole album's musical and lyrical side.
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 (ex-Hermh and a few other bands).
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.
In February 2007 Devilish Impressions has played as one of co-headliners on an all day black metal festival in London. Recently the band has just played as a main support act for Marduk on their “Sword In The East Tour 2007” (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia).
MR: You've recently released Plurima Mortis Imago through Conquer Records. How do you feel about it and how do you think the audience should view it?
Quazarre: Well, I wouldn't point any particular way audience should view it as it all depends on someone's private preferences and his/her personal life's perception. This is supposed to be the only way when it comes to any music or lyrics interpretation. On top of it - having such a name chosen we consciously left the room for our potential listeners' internal expressions. It all depends on a personal ability of receiving the tones and words hidden behind its concept.
MR: Anything you would like to change if you could? I mean looking back, do you think like you wanted to do something differently?
Quazarre: Well, obviously, if we had to record this album once again we would definitely change a lot of things here and there. Only big-headed assholes claim to achieve the perfection during their lives. You know, this whole recording session was really tough as I can not remember having such a lot of problems during any previous sessions both with Devilish Impressions and my other band Asgaard. The guy who recorded all the drums and guitars was also supposed to edit all of the laid tracks but he simply ignored all our indications and fucked up a lot of basic things, eventually, leaving us the material which we hardly fixed up later on. Fortunately – we got in touch with Arek Malczewski (Behemoth's sound engineer) whom we have had a pleasure working with in the past and Wojtek Kostrzewa (Asgaard's synth player) and they did their best to help us to get out of that shit. After all we decided the album had to be mastered by Wieslawski Bros at Hertz Studio (Vader, Decapitated etc.) in order to reach aggressive, spatial and straight-forward sound. Is it a fair representation of the band? Yes, in spite of everything I think it is. You can call it just a coincidence or a destiny but it contains all of the feelings captured in the certain moments of creating and then recording the album. Technically you can always do almost everything much better than you did in the past but the feeling would never remain the same…
MR: What was the response been like? How did the media and more important fans react to this album of yours?
Quazarre: Oh, the response from media and fans on Plurima Mortis Imago is just amazing! We still receive some new reviews as well as private correspondence from all over the world and it seems people really love it. It's an incredible feeling to know something we create gets so positive feedback. Of course, I wouldn't do anything just to please anyone's expectations but it's kind of a fulfilment when our art is being appreciated that much. It is said bands are composing to satisfy themselves as artists but in fact we really exist thanks to fans only.
MR: How would you describe your sound? Some call it symphonic black; some call it black/death and even avant-garde metal? What do you think of that?
Quazarre: I would call it a mixture of all sort of extreme sub-genres but – in my opinion – we have managed to put everything together in a very convincing and pretty much interesting way. Obviously, there is more of black and death metal attitude than others but still – we have left quite a space for visions not strictly connected with these certain sounds. What's the most important in Plurima Mortis Imago concept is its atmosphere, all of these thrilling moments lurking at every sound and word which eventually makes you waiting for each song's unpredictable evolution. I really believe that – considering our music complexity – it can be well appreciated by fans of different metal tones; the only matter is whether someone would be patient enough to get into the album's details and its various structures. To sum it up it is a material rather for open-minded and unprejudiced ones although there is a bunch of straight-forward arse kicking riffing as well as a dose of furious blasting with diabolical strength and attitude.
MR: As a musician do you find it hard writing songs that are so intricate and diverse?
Quazarre: Not really, as it's all inside of me and that's the way I express it. Some of the songs have been composed during the long-term process of checking possibly the best options while the others were created in one day and only re-arranged later on. We are all pretty experienced musicians and know our abilities to play on our instruments. I for instance play on guitar for 15 years already therefore I can realize almost every concept born in my mind. It is just the matter of separating some intriguing ideas from those which simply aren't good enough... Things get harder when it comes to arrangements of other instruments because at this level it's quite easy to fuck up the song's structure by using solutions way too predictable. On the other hand – there are a lot of songs with typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus structure which works really well but not many bands are able to do it in leisurely yet interesting means.
MR: Who's responsible for writing lyrics and where do you find inspiration?
Quazarre: I am the main guy behind Devilish Impressions. I could mention hundreds of band's names or movies' title 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 but that's not a point. Why? Because I also get inspired by people I meet and conversations I have with them plus – on top of it – 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.
Obviously, as I've mentioned above, even our songs consist of death metal elements but you wouldn't easily classify Devilish Impressions' creation as to this genre only. I think we are very open-minded in what we do, exploring so many ways of expression characteristic for other genres and that in consequence makes our music an lyrics more unique and sophisticated. We are not playing this sort of stuff just for the sake of being more original than other bands are, we are Avant-Garde Black/Death Metal Orchestra as we love everything what has been created both in Black and Death metal and we mix it all by adding even some thrash or heavy metal influences.
MR: What do you think of you being compared to Emperor, Borknagar, Dimmu Borgir etc.? Do you listen to their music, and what are your main musical influences? I mean, where do you find inspiration?
Quazarre: I really love some of the stuff of the bands you are talking about but I would never play the same sort of sounds just because I like it. 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 add to our music our personal, Devilish Impressions' touch. At the same time I am aware of the fact that all of those comaprisons and definitions just simply must exist. Otherwise it would be impossible for a new horde to come into existence of the metal fans' consciousness. Imagine if you had to write down something else of every single record you get without helping yourself even with band's general classification... 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. There are a lot of these omniscient journalists who – instead of giving possibly the most objective opinion about certain release - have their own self indulgent prejudices on the subject. Unfortunately none of us is able to change it, as it is far beyond our possibilities I am afraid…
As I've already stated, Devilish Impressions is wandering around all of extreme forms of the genre. We are black/death metal and there are 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 but in my opinion it is the atmosphere which mostly makes our creation so characteristic and slighlty different from other groups around.
MR: I know that you've performed live in London starting your European tour supporting Aeternus. How was that experience for you?
Quazarre: It's been fantastic! We've played in many different places and have managed to prove we can be also good stage act. Each night we've performed directly before Aeternus and given our best to kick a lot of asses here and there. Although organization of that tour was far away from professional we've had a great, unforgettable time over there especially since all the other bands turned out to be extremely friendly and supportively to each other. To us those moments shall always be priceless as that was also our first touring experience with Devilish Impressions. I remember when all the guys from Aeternus, Darkshine and Arum got on stage while we were performing in London and Bradford (the last two gigs) and joined us with our interpretation of “Inno A Satana” by Emperor. You know, those moments will always remain deep inside of our hearts. No matter what happens – nobody ever will take it away from us.
MR: Devilish Impressions signed a two album deal with Conquer Records. How did you guys develop this relationship with Conquer Records and how has it treated you so far?
Quazarre: We actually knew Thomas of Conquer Records for a few years and he was the first one who proposed us a deal. At the beginning we weren't quite sure whether we had to sign to his label or not as there is always this huge perplexity when it comes to a business' co-operation with someone you know, especially knowing each other on a deeper personal level… We asked him then to give us a bit of time while we could consider other options we could have probably had but after all it turned out that Conquer Records' proposal was the best one of all we got. Later on we just sat down together and discussed all of the final details to satisfy both sides of this covenant. Having such a strong support like being able to play some tours and a lot more opportunities to arise from the underground and take our music to another level we decided to take this risk and spread the wings of a strong believe. To make a long story short – things are rolling on very good until now and we really do not have anything to complaint about. 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! 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.
MR: What do you think of black metal scene in Poland and word-wide nowadays?
Quazarre: I guess Polish scene is one of the most active and one of the most respected these days. There are a lot of Polish hordes to be heard of! One of my favourite ones as follows: Vesania – “Firefrost arcanum”, “God The Lux” (excellent black/death metal), Christ Agony – “Unholyunion”, Dameoonseth Act II”, “Moonlight”, “Darkside” (nowadays they have been forced to change the name for Union; one of the Polish black metal pioneers who started before the whole “Norway's case”), Behemoth – almost everything they have created but most of all “Sventevith – Storming Near The Baltic”, Pandemonic Incantations”, “Satanica”, “Thelema.6”, Zos Kia Cultus”, “Demigod” (no words needed to describe their well-known music, I guess), Crionics – “Human Error; Ways to Self-destruction” (symphonic black metal), Infernal War – “Terrorfront”(hyper fast and uncompromised black metal), Trauma – “DetermiNation”, ”Neurotic Mass” (technically perfect death metal), Thunderbolt – “Inhuman Ritual Massmurder” (extremely fast yet intelligent, amazing black metal). All of these titles are just like a top of the iceberg of the Polish metal albums I was listening to lately…
Talking about Polish black metal scene only I guess there are lots of bands even I haven't heard of as they remain deep in the underground. Of course most of them, like everywhere else around the world, are just shitty, trying to cover lack of musical abilities with a big, pompous words and ideology instead. But amongst them there are a few which are definitely worth to be checked out.
MR: Some of you guys are involved in other projects beside Devilish Impressions. Can you reveal more details on that?
Quazarre: The other band I 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 and a live DVD ('When The Twilight Set It Again', 'Ad sidera, ad infinitum', 'Ex Oriente Lux', 'XIII Voltum Lunae', 'Lux In Tenebris DVD', 'EyeMDX-tasy'). Although not well-known outside of Poland – I would say we are quite famous in our country having played with such names as: Katatonia, Behemoth, Dark Tranquility, Enslaved, Driller Killer, Morbid Angel, Limbonic Art, Krisiun, Moonspell, Rotting Christ and Tiamat amongst others.
Dragor and Adrian responsible for the drums and bass guitar on Plurima Mortis Imago originally come from Luna Ad Noctum. Their discography is a bit smaller and consists of three albums of sympho black metal in a vein of Anorexia Nervosa. They were also quite active with live appearances and shared the stages with Cannibal Corpse, Asgaard and Hell-Born to mention only a few.
Our new drummer used to play in Hermh (pretty old Polish band re-activated a few years ago). He also has his own band called Abused Majesty which is about to release the second album soon.
Other members of Devilish Impressions used to play in smaller, rather underground bands in the past.
MR: You guys have a female member. Do you think that too many bands try to exploit that aspect of their band? Take just a look at the rising number of female singers in esp. Gothic/doom orientated bands.
Quazarre: Oh yeah, it sickens a lot of people around... Turquoissa is my wife and has been with us since the beginning of Devilish Impressions. That time we needed keyboard player and luckily she was good enough to take it over. That was the simplest and the most comfortable option which just turned out to work really well later on. I find this relation really handy as we can work on some arrangements at almost every conveniance. In fact, she is the first person in this fucking world whom I play all the new songs or even incomplete ideas and most of the time it is me and her who work together on their further arrangements. She is also the only one musically-educated musician in Devilish Impressions and thanks to her knowledge we have improved our internal communication.
Getting back to the question – I really don't know why so many bands try to exploit the fact one of their members is a female. To me in Devilish Impressions' case she's just another musician being in the band exactly on the same conditions like anybody else. Obviously, things work totally different when it comes to our private life. In that case I am fucking proud to be a partner of such beautiful and intelligent women.
MR: You guys did an excellent video for “SataniChaoSymphony”. Can you tell me your vision of the concept for that video? Where was it shoot?
Quazarre: You know, this track is full of symbols which enable you to create your own way of their interpretation and that was the main concept when filming it. We just didn't want to record another video with the band standing somewhere in the forest pretending to spout with evil and hiding behind the trees (laughing). I mean, there are clips with the bands playing but it has to be done in a really nice, convincing way. Usually groups which decide to present themselves this way haven't got budget big enough to do it properly. Since the beginning we wanted to record it differently therefore we decided not to use any instruments on the recording plan.The video was filmed in an old factory in London. Believe me, this place is fucking scary! I guess none of us would like to be there alone at night. Bruce Dickinson might have been visiting that place when writing ”Fear of the Dark” (Laughing) .
At the beginning of the video there is that guy taking some drugs as an attempt of escaping from his own problems. Unfortunately – he steps into different dimension of his psyche and faces various personifications of his internal demons…
MR: As artists do you feel that Devilish Impressions is an expression of your own personal philosophy? I mean what is Devilish Impressions all about? What are your views on let's say following subjects: Satan vs. god, evil vs. good, birth vs. death etc.
Quazarre: All of the lyrics are characterized with strong apocalyptic and irreligious implication. It is a vision of a new world belonging to those who can decide for themselves without begging some fake prophets for help or forgiveness. Plurima Mortis Imago means “Many Faces of Death” and that what is all about – different forms of expressions and attempts of explanation its phenomenon. Death can be considered just as a physical end of our existence while others believe in some outer involvement taking under consideration its irrational aspect. We do not want to tell people what is good or bad, we are not fucking priests. The main thought behind this album is that “there is no god but you” and this is what we stand for!
MR: Final words to summer this interview up? Any message for the readers of Metal Revolution webzine?
Quazarre: First of all – thank you very much for support (I should have also said – for your patience…)! We are soon going to enter the studio in order to record the Plurima Mortis Imago successor. It shall be out in autumn 2007. Before that I encourage you all to check out our earlier stuff. Have our devilish regards!!! On behalf of Devilish Impressions – Quazarre
www.devilish-impressions.com & www.myspace.com/devilishimpressions & www.conquerrec.com