SEPTICFLESH

My Body, My Blood

- I was just about asking about it...
Yes, it’s Fotis’s work. He just made me sing again. He was so feverish with this idea that I couldn’t persuade him out of it (laugh). We think, however, that it was worth listening to him. This time melodic parts perfectly filled several places and the band was very enthusiastic about my ideas. Of course Seth is still the main vocalist and I only add a little part from time to time…

- The exception here is “Revolution DNA” where you were singing pretty much…
I went a bit too far on that album (laugh). The music on “Revolution DNA” was a step in a different, more modern direction. So it demanded a different approach. At that time we all felt that melodic vocals went better with those tracks than strong sinister Seth’s growl. Nevertheless I like this album, it was a great experience for us.

- In my opinion your voice is an important feature of SEPTICFLESH’s sound and although “Sumerian Daemons” is complete to me, I really enjoy your comeback to a microphone. By the way, who was teaching Mr. Sotiris to sing?
Mr. Sotiris learnt it himself (laugh). But to tell the truth I attended professional singing classes once, as - like Chris – I got a classical education. In my case it didn’t go so far however, but before I felt in love with guitar I’d been playing violin for many years. Later some theoretical issues and general concepts connected with it helped me develop my voice.

- Let’s come back to “Communion”. By the way, what was Chris smoking or taking when he was writing “Babel’s Gate”?
(laugh) You probably mean these symphonic interludes joined with Fotis’s drum parts? Yeah, it really kicks ass, it’s one of the weirdest and most technical compositions in our career. When I listened to these ideas for the first time my jaw dropped. It was some fucking chaos, no one could understand it! The music of “Babel’s Gate” totally smashed me, at first I couldn’t even sit down and write a text to this track. My imagination didn’t reach that far! Later, however, again Fotis appeared, whose parts - although chaotic as well – gave Chris’s ideas more coherence, they made use of these lacking orchestrations’ space. And just then I realized that our drummer has exceptional imagination. I underestimated him. Now I understand his energy in making use of every fucking element of his drum set (laugh).

- It must be mentioned as well that orchestrations and choir parts were created in Chris’s cooperation with Prague symphony orchestra and their local choir. But they are not the same people with whom commonly work other metal bands recently…
No, this time we worked with orchestra which is well-known in film branch. Recently they were recording music to the second part of “Hostel”. Quentin Tarantino is this film’s producer. These musicians appeared actually in loads of other productions. Their participation in “Communion” is of course up to Chris. His connections turned out to be priceless. And we enjoy it even more as those parts sound completely differently on our album. I dare say that never has any band made use of choirs and orchestrations in similar way.

- The remaining part of the album was recorded in already well-known to you Fredman Studio. I heard that at the end of the recording session an unpleasant accident happened to you…
Yes. During the session Fredman was not only the place of our work but our home as well, we’ve been sleeping and eating there. By courtesy of Fredrik in this way we could record at any time of the day and night. The day before leaving for Greece Chris left his notebook in one of the rooms, close to window. A thief broke in and took it. It happened in the middle of a night. Maybe it’s not that bad, if anyone came across the thief, it could have ended up in a fight and some serious injuries. Such people are unpredictable.

- Let’s look at the text content of the album. You’re the author of the most lyrics on previous releases of SEPTICFLESH and it’s alike with the newest album. I’m particularly interested in the title track and the opening album “Lovecraft’s Death”. Tell me in a few words about a general tinge of the album as well…
The phrase „communion”, being in Christianity a ritual of consuming the transfigured Christ’s body, actually derives from the word “communication”. Of course it’s about a particular form of communication with other beings, searching for gods and demons which became an obsession characteristic for the human (laugh). Whereas “Lovecraft’s Death” is a personal tribute to my favourite – next to Edgar Allan Poe – writer, it’s his last moments’ of life imagination. I used the titles of his books in some verses to even better underline the greatness of his works and give it a special meaning. And so there is reference to Sumerian gods and Cthulhu mythology being kind of addition to a history made up by my imagination. In general, lyrics of this album are in my opinion deeper than everything that I’ve written to date. It is worth to look at them closer, search between the lines. The tracks on “Communion” are quite versatile thematically although all of them are set in esoteric and occultist convention of SEPTICFLESH.