How would you describe the sound of your most recent release, Holy Lands?
It’s a riff record. A bunch of sounds we stumbled across while jamming together. What we liked, we expanded on and wrote some songs. Some are old, some new. There’s a kind of cosmic vibe to it but it’s still straight up hard and brutal music.
In Buddhist cosmology, Sumeru refers to the central world-mountain. How does this idea relate to your music?
It’s a Buddhist concept, so it’s related to waking up to a wider vision of oneself. The lyrics express different aspects of Sumeru in terms of what’s possible for a human being and what it means to embody that.
You’ve been described as a band that melds together many genres to create your unique sound. Which would you say your music is most closely related to?
We’re all at that point where genres really aren’t that important to us. We’re always looking for a heavy groove that makes us smile. When it feels good, we know. It’s heavy metal music and whatever else we like musically comes through.
Tell us about your first headline show in Melbourne.
We’ve been to Melbourne twice before this as a supporting band but with the release of Holy Lands we thought we might see how we go as a headliner. We can’t do this without the help of friends. We love The Watchtower dudes so they’re helping us out with this show as well as a few others interstate. Joining us is Caged Grave, Grim Rhythm and Cement Pig.
SUMERU are playing at The Bendigo Hotel on Friday March 13.
