Nature’s Stillness may be interrupted by French band Demented

interview with demented from france, death metal band

French death metal is having a healthy resurgence of late, Demented are one such band leading the charge and with the release of their second album ‘Across The Nature’s Stillness’, Demented are proving to be no followers, more so they are leading the charge from the underground.

You could give us a brief introduction to yourself and the band so we know who we are dealing with?
Demented was formed in 2008. We are a band of death metal tinged with old school influences, modern and brutal with dark atmospheres. At the beginning we have adopted for this name because it transcribes the musical style and themes written in the words of Demented, specifically in the first album "Fields of Suffering" which talk about psychological troubles. But we find this theme in this second album too but with another perspective which is more spiritual.  But the best plan is to listen the album and come to the concerts because the definition of our music with words is restrictive.

"Across The Nature’s Stillness" is a very happening death metal album, considering you formed in 2008, what is your main influence as you easily mix old school death metal with a modern in your face approach?
"Across the Nature's Stillness" is more technical than what we have done before. We all have our personal influences which are not necessarily those influencing Demented. We wanted to mix old school death metal and modern death metal and achieve a balance between the two, and we are also inspired by the scene of brutal death and technical death. There is multiple influences that we each have and we are inspired by it, so our music is not only death metal.

There are also darker passages that can remind  you of black metal and other passages sound like death core, all without getting lost or to miss some homogeneity. It is always risk when you mix different styles. Maybe it's this who is different than the others death metal bands. And we have a different visual too, we have our own picture and a visual identity who represent our lyrics and our universe.

We are always working to progress, as a lot of people who play this music. There is a lot of bands today in the metal scene which is rather crowded and not only in death metal. It's good because it means metal is in expansion mode, most people play what’s gone before and it's a good to try to be new but then it's complicated too for be original of course...

Going back to the beginning of the band, did you do anything different during the recording of "Across The Nature’s Stillness" to say that of your first demo or last album "Fields Of Suffering"?
« Across the Nature's Stillness » is more brutal, fast, technical and modern than its predecessor and it also includes atmospheric passages darker than before, fans have enjoyed this evolution. The first demo had been recorded 4 months after our formation because we want to try something, we wanted to do discover our music and have some reviews. "Fields of Suffering" is the result of the two first years of work, we have recorded this album with Mathieu Pascal (Gorod guitar player) at  Bud Records Studio, Mathieu have mixed and Scot Hull (Pig Destroyer) mastered it.

With this we have had very good feedback from audiences and good critics the album and concerts too since our beginnings. We sold a lot of albums even when we did not have official distribution. This success has allowed us to be known and after we had many propositions of labels. So the lack of distribution for the first album was not a problem.

But our way to undertake this second album was very different, more mature music, a bigger production; more visible too, we decided to be more professional in our artistic approach at all levels.

Was this the first time you have been to Hertz Studio to record? Was it your choice or the label one? And why did you recorded at Hertz?
This second album was recorded once again by Mathieu Pascal, but mixed and mastered in Hertz Studio (Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated, ...) because we would know that this studio is specialized in extreme metal. This is the first time we have decided to work with the Hertz Studio. We had the choice and we knew our music would be highlighted. This studio used to record metal bands with extreme style.  It was important for us to have a good production to make our music very powerful, we wanted a better production than the first album and people appreciated this effort, as did Klonosphere. So Klonosphere has decided to promote our second album which has been available since February 22nd. We are really happy to join this label which includes large groups and now thanks to Klonosphere we have most visibility in other countries, we think this opportunity has arrived in the good moment because our music is become more mature. The album is delivered by Season of Mist.

How do you find the recording process? Do you demo everything or simply go in and record? Do you record as a group or individually?
Before recording we had guidelines from Hertz to optimize the battery in the guitars, bass and vocals to already comply with their way of working upstream of the mix. No were not all there all the time when recording with Mathieu because we each recorded our parts in turn. But we came to see us to see how the recording took place. After three weeks of recording, we chose and sent a track to Hertz Studio for mix and master  as a basis to the overall sound of all tracks. First we had three versions which were totally different. We chose one version and began to correspond with Wojtek and Slawek of Hertz, and exchanged different mixes and mastered many times to get the result we wanted, which is powerful. We are satisfied with the result, they are very professional and the agreement was good with them and their work very good.

How long was the recording process? Which things went easy and which were the hardest parts during the recording?
Three weeks for recording. There are always parts more difficult to record than others. The guitar solos are always tricky to negotiate well, they were made many times, we compared, it takes time and all is discussed. The atmospheric samples have taken the most time.

Unlike the first album where the video game was our best friend (laugh!), this time we spent our time listening to music, chatting and remaining as attentive to what was going on. We never stayed too long to see recording of someone else, we knew what we want even if we have changed few little something. Except for the drum which were done at a friend of Mathieu’s is his studio, we thank him!

Beside the stress of recording they must be entertainment to relief such pressures. Tell us some funny stories after recording sessions. Don't be embarrassed to share.
An anecdote, when recording the drums… the policeman arrived in the room where John recorded in full blast apparently it's weird we do not understand too much (they confused the snare with gunfire? ). It was a room that the city had lent us which hosted various musical activities. The problem is that behind this room there was a hedge and apartments, where a young student was revising . Apparently play death metal made more noise than usual (laugh). She did not think it was a drum, but youth had entered and put the mess, so we went to talk to him to explain that it would not last. We had already well advanced.

What do you make of the feedback so far on "Across The Nature’s Stillness"?
We had a lot of good comments as less good but we accept all the criticism in order to improve our music. Then some are unfounded and are not taken into account.

What is the concept behind the artwork done by Yenceland/Amelie Innocente? And who in the band is going to take the cover art as a tattoo on their body?
The artwork has been long meditated to represent the universe of the theme of the album. The cover is a shaman who spits a spine ending in a pool in which a woman is born decapitated. The shaman is surrounded by spewing snake, causing the "visions", they are according to mythology, the link between the world of the dead and the living. For the cover, the desire of the band was therefore to work around several issues. Certainly the madness’s theme was central, as those of shamanism that is ubiquitous in this album. From there, the cosmic and cosmological themes were imaged and naturally conceived by the artist; with many references to Native American myths include participation by the snake’s theme, whose symbolism is very rich.

And for the tattoo if you want to be the first you can but we want a picture of you with this one. (laugh)!

Do you have any shows or tours coming up in the future? Which place would you like to tour and why?
Not during this summer because we prepare a new show for September where we will play at the MFEST with Kronos, Glorior Belli, Svart Crown and others very good bands and after we have of course some gigs.

We would like to do a tour in Europe in several countries of course to discover different atmospheres  and we are working to be able to do so.

There seems to be a lot of bands unearthing from France, what is the French death metal scene like? Are there particular cities that host events, a scene etc, or is it countrywide? We all know of bands like Benighted and Gorod, are there others you would recommend?
There are many great bands in France that are more or less known and that’s why we find a lot of events in our country.

Svart Crown, Livarkahil, Otargos, Kronos, Klone, Trepalium, Aosoth, Hacride, ... are really great bands in France and there are many others!

Do you have hobbies or pastimes outside of music?
We have no hobbies, we all live in a cave and make death metal (laugh!). Of course we all have different hobbies but not necessarily linked around Demented.

Thank you for your time, thumbs up for "Across the Nature’s Stillness" hopefully we will see you live on tour.
Thank you to you and we hope to meet you and burn a room in your home when we will play.