Krisiun On “The Great Execution” And More – in Interviews ( Metal Underground.com )
Interview
For full-length studio release number eight, Brazilian death metal trio Krisiun has changed up the formula and brought influences from the classic metal masters to bear in “The great Execution.” With the album now officially launched the death dealers are currently laying low in preparation for an assault on Europe with Vital Remains and Malevolent Creation.
In the calm before the coming storm, I hit up Krisiun drummer Max Kolesne to get the low down on “The great Execution,” from the band’s writing rituals to the decision to go all analog for a natural sound and onto his favorite releases of the year from other metal legends. The full interview is available below.
xFiruath: are you guys at home or on the road at the moment?
Max: We are at home right now, we’re doing a few shows in Brazil, but we usually only play weekends. We spend the weekdays at home.
xFiruath: How do you feel “The great Execution” sounds compared to your other albums and has there been a big shift in sound?
Max: “The great Execution” is definitely different from the previous releases. Maybe it’s the most different album we’ve done so far. It’s like a more diverse album. it has its own personality and we tried to make each song different from each other. We wanted a different approach and view for each one so we don’t have a boring album. So basically “The great Execution” is more diverse and has a lot more going on.
xFiruath: So I heard you guys ditched anything digital and did this solely with analog-only gear to get a proper death metal sound. Tell me a bit about that and why you went that route.
Max: Yeah, we’re trying to get this real, natural sound. We’ve always been looking for a natural sound and it’s kind of hard these days because you’ve got to have a balance between modern recordings with the clearness and heaviness of the new modern recordings and the natural, analog sound and old school production. it was recorded 100% analog with real instruments, and it’s old school and natural. you can still hear all the dynamics and tempo changes, so it’s modern and clear at the same time.
xFiruath: you had mentioned how you wanted to make each song sound different and have its own approach. Tell me a bit about writing the songs for this album and how they came together.
Max: We always do the same process, once we are done with touring. We finished the U.S. tour in March of last year and then we had a few more shows here in South America. then we took some time from touring and doing shows so we were able to concentrate 100% on the album. We like to take time from live shows to be 100% focused on the writing process. We took like three or four months playing and practicing together almost every day, sharing ideas and stuff. We work as a team, it’s not like one guy writes the whole song. Basically we do it together. The guitar player comes up with the main riffs or the idea for an intro and then from that we start working on putting drums and sharing ideas. Alex will have some ideas for vocal lines, he does all the lyrics. It’s basically teamwork and we jam a lot together.
xFiruath: What’s going on in the lyrics on the album and does each song have its own idea or are they supposed to flow together?
Max: The lyrics talk a lot about fighting and conquering, but some of the lyrics have two meanings. if you check the lyrics on the first song “The will to Potency,” they talk about battling and fighting and moving forward and always fighting for the things you believe and the power you have inside of you. It’s all about struggling and denying the whatever bullshit, the society or politics or religions try to impose on you and not giving up the things you believe. it also talks about the wars and bloodshed and devastation in man’s history.
xFiruath: when you are writing new material is there any type of music you specifically listen to or avoid listening to so you get specific influences?
Max: when we’re writing, especially when we were about to start writing this we listened to a lot of old school metal bands, like the classic metal bands that inspired us when we were starting out as teenagers. We were listening to a lot of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. It’s a very brutal death metal album, but it has a lot of influences from classic metal bands, which we couldn’t show before. you can tell we are showing more of those influences more than ever. We have the melodies and the drum beats and the vocal patterns from old school metal. our traditional influences from thrash metal bands like Slayer or old Metallica are always going to be there, or from death metal bands like Morbid Angel, but this time we’re adding more of the classic metal.
xFiruath: do you have any concrete tour dates setup to support the new album?
Max: sure man we have this tour lined up in Europe that’s going to happen in January/February. We’ll be sharing the stage with the great bands Malevolent Creation and Vital Remains. We have a tour we are still working on the dates, that will be happening in the states, and that will be after the European tour. The dates are going to be announced later, but we’ll definitely be back in the states next year.
xFiruath: you had mentioned before playing shows around Brazil on the weekends. What’s going on in your local metal scene these days?
Max: We play a lot here, and the scene here is quite neat. Usually we play every weekend, but it’s a different system here. It’s not like touring in Europe or the states where you get in a tour bus and play every day. Usually people don’t book shows here, especially local bands. on Monday or Tuesdays it’s tough to book shows. Basically we only get to play Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays. It’s a huge country so we can play south to north with lots of shows, so it’s quite good here.
xFiruath: We’re almost at the end of the year. Have you got a personal favorite album that came out this year so far?
Max: A bunch of good albums I’ve been listening to, like the new Morbid Angel came out over here. The new Motorhead, I don’t know if that was released in 2011. The new Sepultura came out really good, it went back to the roots and they played more of the heavier stuff. The new Vader that was just released a few months ago. There’s a lot of good metal albums out there. Also the new Decapitated, that’s quite good.