One of the better today´s Melodic Death Metal-bands that refer to the godfathers of this style, AT THE GATES, is DARKNESS BY OATH from Spain that has now released it´s successful third record “Near Death Experience”. Drummer Asier Bilbao lets us know some facts of the album and something about the roots of the band. Also he makes a small excursion to the consistence of the Spanish Metal-scene…InterviewHi! How are you?
Hi there, Asier here. Not bad, thank you, listening to some music as I type the answers; NAGLFAR, BARREN EARTH, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, MISERY INDEX, ALCEST or BORKNAGAR, to name a few.
At first: your new album is called “Near Death Experience”. Does this title deal with some personal experiences that one member of the band has had?
No, it has nothing to do with any personal experiences. Aritz, our singer, has been reading a lot of stuff regarding this lately and some lyrics from the album fit perfectly with the idea, so that’s why we decided to go for that title. We also talk about other aspects like serial killers, violence, and the likes.
In what points do you think that “Near Death Experience” is a stronger album than the predecessors “Confidential World Of Lies” and “Fear Yourself”?
I guess it’s the perfect mix of the previous albums, its more varied than “Fear Yourself” for example, has some common points with “Confidential World Of Lies” regarding rhythm and tempo changes and the melodic aspect from “Fear Yourself”. I think the songs are better in general, and it is a good balance of melody, speed and structures. I also think the production itself fits the songs better than in the previous albums.
DARKNESS BY OATH always refer to Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal-pioneers AT THE GATES that can also be heard on your new album “Near Death Experience”. Where do you think you can tie in with the work of that band? Do you think there are some things in music that you can probably make better than them?
I guess we’ll always be compared to them or some other bands of the so called Gothemburg Melodic Death scene, we can’t escape to that. Our aim was to do this kind of music because we have always liked to hear and play it. We are not the ones who can tell if we can do it better, worse or equal to them, is not something that we are thinking about when we write music, record or play gigs.
For “Near Death Experience” you were able to win Anders Björler (AT THE GATES) and Marios Iliopoulos (NIGHTRAGE) to play as guests within the songs “Unequivocal Evil Excitement” and “Terror In Thousand Faces”. How were you able to argue them into performing these appearances?
As easy as asking them if they’d be up to do it. Tris (guitars) has been in contact with Marios since quite a long time, and Anders knew from us before, too. They agreed and we can’t thank them enough for doing such an awesome work. We´ve always been big fans of their music and playing so it’s a big honor and pleasure to have them in our album, for sure.
Your musical style is located deeply in the 90´s, so what do you think of all the more modern Melodic Death Metal-albums that are released nowadays by bands like IN FLAMES, DARK TRANQUILLITY or THE HAUNTED? Don´t you think that they depart a little bit from the roots of this sound?
They’re obviously far from what they used to do time ago. Maybe DARK TRANQUILLITY is the band who has developed in a more “natural” way, so to speak. I can’t say I’ve been a fan of IN FLAMES since “Whoracle” maybe. The last two THE HAUNTED albums did not get my attention either, they’ve chosen a direction that I don’t really like, but what the hell, you can’t blame a band for not doing the same stuff during their whole career. If you don’t like it, just play their old stuff or listen to other bands.
Where are your musical influences coming from? Do you just like Melodic Death Metal, or have you also grown up with the classics – like most headbangers?
We do listen to a lot of stuff apart from Melodic Death Metal. Of course we like the classics, as most of the Metalheads. You start listening to bands like MAIDEN or PRIEST and then you can end listening to more extreme stuff as we have mostly done. There’s a wide range of music that we enjoy listening, from doomy stuff to Thrash, Brutal Death Metal, Old School Death Metal, Folk, Black, Hard Rock or Power Metal, as long as it’s good, hehe.
When considering the Metal-scene in Spain, what kind of styles do the people like there at the moment? And do you have a big scene there at the beginning of the 2010´s years?
I’d say it’s quite varied. If you talk about the extreme scene, Black Metal and Brutal Death Metal are more popular and prolific. Lately you can hear more Thrash Metal-bands too, it’s become bigger during the years.
I’d say the scene is active and you can find all kind of bands in different styles, from ANGELUS APATRIDA, LEGEN BELTZA (Thrash), HAEMORRHAGE, LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER (Grind), CEREBRAL EFFUSION, GORY DELIVERY (Brutal Death), NUMEN, AIUMEEN BASOA, FOSCOR (Black Metal), some newer stuff like RISE TO FALL or THE DESCENT (Melodic Death), and lots more...
Do you have some special final words for your fans in Germany?
First of all, thanks a lot to you guys for giving us the chance to answer to your questions and being included at www.metal-inside.de, it’s been a big pleasure. To the German fans, don’t hesitate checking out our new album “Near Death Experience” (released by Cyclone Empire). You can buy it directly at www.metal-recycler.de. We really hope to go back to Germany to play some shows! You can follow our activities checking our website (www.darknessbyoath.com), Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and whatnot.
Horns up and greetings from DARKNESS BY OATH, Dankeschön!!
