Heaving Earth Interview

Interview With Heaving Earth
After a long wait, Heaving Earth interview is here for your perusal. Check out their myspace to listen to the new songs.


Answered by Tomas (Guitars)
03/28/2010


How does it feel now that the album is finally done?
Feels great, really. It took us much more time than we expected, due to several reasons you might know, so I heard those tracks so many times... and damn, it’s done! Now it´s time to spread it to death metal community and I can finally listen to some other sounds. That doesn´t mean that I´m not satisfied with the result, which is in my opinion really cool, but I´m kinda tired after all the time...


Diabolic Prophecies, is the final album title? Will you tell us more about this record?
Right! Diabolic Prophecies is final album title. Drums and guitars for the record were done in May/June 2009 in studio Davos (Vyškov, Czech Republic) during 2 weekends; vocals for the record were done in our rehearsal room in Prague afterwards. Record contains 8 tracks of pure death metal passion without any -core influences, I mean death metal the way it has to be done, and last about 45 minutes. Enough said.

How about the album cover, do you have somebody in mind to do it?
Yes sir, Marco Hasmann is supposed to do the job for us. He already did a couple of great death metal covers in a best traditional way, Dan Seagrave style a little bit, but he´s cheaper so we can afford it, hahah!

What are your expectations from a label that might be interested in releasing the album?
To push us forward, promote the band in every possible honest way. Recently we got a fair offer and it looks pretty good for us. No major label (of course, we are new and pretty unknown, so you have to be sober), but seems to be good working underground death metal label. I expect that we will be able to announce the label that will release our CD in a couple of weeks!


Promo CD is now available for the press and labels but with only two original songs and a cover of Morbid Angel cover. How did you choose which song is to appear on the promo?
The choice was quite easy for us, because at the time we had only 3-4 songs done with vocals and Morbid Angel cover. We choose these 2 tracks, cause they pretty good represent 2 sides or moods of the record. Beyond the Void is mostly slower, epic song with lots of harmonies in guitar work which constantly flows through the song and few refreshing tempo changes and blasts in the middle, really comprehensive song. Hideous Idolatry Violation is on the other hand fast, aggressive and violent death metal from the very start, that falls slower only in the evil atmospheric ending of the song.

The cover song isn’t included in the album track list though, why?
45 minutes of playing time is good enough for death metal record, so there is no need to add anything more and mostly it´s the reason why we placed it on promo. So, there will be no cover versions on Diabolic Prophecies CD.

The overall sound, even the production is very American, was it intentional?
Probably yes. As you can hear (and sure you can!) our main music influences came from good old Florida and New York scene from the 90´s. This is the music that matters to us! We are pretty new to the scene, but surely not the youngest. This is the music we were growing with and we are going to die with. To sound different, non-american, with influences like we have, is completely unimaginable for me and completely unpardonable. Besides that, our live sound is very close, to what we recorded.

Strapp left the band in the middle of recording the album and at the time you were scheduled to play in a couple of important metalfest. How does his departure affect the band initially?
Strap left the band due to some differences we had with him. It was a both side agreement, so it didn´t affected us much. We have found replacement in a few days in Sepp and it works out really good with him.

Why did he leave the band in the first place? Did he have any contribution to the album before he left like some lyrics perhaps?
Sorry, I don´t want to talk rubbish. We are much more ok now, when he´s out of band and we occasionally talk. No bad blood. Sepp used two song titles, which Strap wrote, besides that, he wrote all the stuff himself.

No offense to Strapp but I find Sepp voice to be more sinister, his vocals is far more different than what he’s doing at Despise. What’s more amazing was that he left Despise to concentrate on Heaving Earth. He probably got the revelation that you guys are heading for a big time hehehe.
Oh man, thanks! I´m proud of him. I think he really found his style in Heaving Earth and our music fits him the best yet. I was bit doubting about his skills, cause I didn´t like much some of the vocals he did in past with some other bands, but I was really surprised. Anyway, I have to correct you a bit. Sepp didn´t left Despise for Heaving Earth. He was already decided to leave Despise before we even asked him to help us as session vocalist for the live shows.


Heaving Earth’s members are all from technical, more aggressive, even eclectic bands (Intervalle Bizarre, Ahumado Granujo, Despise), what you’re playing now in Heaving Earth is more different, as the songs are more focused on feeling while keeping the technicality and aggression, were you tired of doing rather less tangible song structures or were there some other reasons?
I don´t think, that we were tired of playing extreme music. Some of the music that seems and pretends to be extremely technical is in fact pretty easy to play and boring and that´s not the thing we are looking for. The truth is, that most of us always wanted to do some more traditional stuff with remarkable structures, but it´s always pain in the ass to complete the band line-up here in Czech republic. It´s almost miracle that we have succeed.

What can you say about the sudden resurgence of old school death metal and the younger listeners interest into it?
Simply nothing. Here´s nothing like resurgence of death metal in Czech republic. We have quite strong grindcore scene, but I don´t see many youngsters into death metal and I don´t think we can change this with Heaving Earth. We bring the old shit to old fans. Just look at the attendance of the shows in here - it sucks and mostly old fans keep this alive. I wish I´m wrong, believe me.

Does this resurgence have anything to do with Heaving Earth?
No. We are all quite old farts and this is the music of our youth. We can hardly think of 90´s death metal scene as old school, that was for us Bathory, Celtic Frost, Venom and other acts of the 80´s.

I presume that you (Tomas) played the bass tracks on the album but what about live, any plan on recruiting one to complete the line up?
We are searching for the bass player, but didn´t succeed yet. Like I mentioned above, it´s always pain in the ass to find a solid player for the bands with some ambitions in this country. I don´t know, if it doesn´t have any coincidence with our mentality and consuming such amount of beer.

Franta played a solo in Pain Divine cover; it’s almost like a reformed Intervalle Bizarre doing the cover. How’s it like to be together in the studio once again?
No special feelings about that. Our drummer is the last member from the classic Intervalle Bizzare line-up and Strap was not part of the recording sessions. I have joined Intervalle Bizzare as a bass player in a time, they were supposed to write stuff for the full-lenght album, but instead found the band unfocused and disorganized, so there is absolutely no nostalgia for me.

Were there any other guest musicians that appeared on the album?
Only Franta Serak. He recorded one lead in Pain Divine and the second lead in Beyond the Void.


There are lots of great bands in Czech Republic, mostly grind influenced though, but it seems like there are only a few players as most bands share another member or two. Aren’t there any competent new musicians to fill the void?
You´re right, scene is getting older and desperately lacks new blood. Good musicians are in extreme demand and it´s not possible to please everyone. It´s a big problem here. Seems that young guys don´t have the dedication that we had (and still have for sure). So the answer must be NO. I see just a few good young musicians, who can barely fill the void in the scene.

Speaking of new musicians, will you give us a heads up on the Czech scene?
This is always the hardest question to answer for me. Czech Rep. is mostly known for the grindcore scene, which is the strongest one in here and with some quality, that´s without discussion. Czech death metal scene is better known from the 90´s. Some of these bands are still alive producing some standard or sub-standard death metal, but nothing that really can impress people outside. Most of these bands call themselves legends, forefathers, cult, etc.... but they´re completely unknown outside and when listen to it, you understand why. Then you have bands from the late 90´s, more extreme with lots of grind influences, really fast uncompromising acts, but this scene have almost withered, and the surviving bands are not kicking like they used to anymore. And then you have nothing. Simply nothing happened in the past years and this is the "new blood" in Czech Republic. I can name just one good new young band in the past years - Mindwork from Prague. They play some so called "progressive" death metal in a vein of Cynic and Death. Not my cup of tea, but well played music and good musicians indeed. I just don´t understand, how can anyone call progressive band, that plays something that did some other bands like 20 years ago, and then you call Morbid Angel or Suffocation "old school". Really strange.
Besides that, you can find some new bands with young musicians, but they do not deserve much interest yet, in my opinion. These days the only one band I´m really proud of from Czech Rep. are Destroying Divinity. They are supposed to release their 3rd album on Brutal Bands, but devil knows man. The stuff was recorded already back in 2008 and it´s still not out. What a shame!


http://www.myspace.com/heavingearthcz