Your tour is in support of your new album, Olm. It’s being released through EVP Recordings, the same lot who take care of Behemoth, King Parrot and Psycroptic. How did you manage to swing that? I remember being told by a few people that we should hit them up as they were familiar with our stuff and were interested in signing some newer acts. I spoke with people like Youngie (King Parrot), Dave Haley (Psycroptic) and Karina from High Tension who all vouched for them. Their word is more than enough for me.
In 2016 you changed your vocalist, bringing in Sam Dillon. What do you think he brings to the band? I think the main adjustment was the idea of having a permanent vocalist. Given we’re only going to get someone who’s a hard working, like-minded individual, there shouldn’t be much to adjust to. Watching him punish himself as he wrote and recorded the vocals for the new album the way he did, we knew he was a perfect fit. Musically he brings a whole new versatility to the sound, he’s already got this incredible palette of screams to draw on and since joining he’s developed all these different low end sounds and whatever else in between. We can still tackle our old death metal style and branch out wherever we like.
Aside from having a new lineup, what makes Olm different to previous releases? I’d say the overall emphasis on atmosphere and weight to the sound. We’ve dialled the speed and busyness right back to help articulate our ideas better to create more impact, especially stuff that’s going to translate live.
There’s a plethora of genres when it comes to metal, but they’re all vastly different. What are your personal favourites? Personally I’m not too fazed. Generally I’m most interested in bands within a genre that sound just like them. A band like Gojira might play a fairly traditional style of metal, but they always sound just like Gojira and that’s probably what I’m most interested in. Beyond that, I’ve been listening to mostly fairly grimy stuff like post and black metal.
If you could pick three bands or artists to play a show with, who would they be and why? I’d have to include Meshuggah, aside from being a band I love to watch and listen to, it would be really inspiring to have a band to try and match with every night. Gojira would be on the list but more for the performance aspect, trying to match that level of energy. I’d probably pick Départe if only because they’re good mates of ours and are great value, so it would definitely make touring a breeze.
