WHEN SANITY BECOMES INSANITY – SUFFERING SIGHTS
Art: Fernando JFL
At the beginning, it was a little bunch of Suffering, Existential Realism and Death Mysteries; at that time, Luciano (vocals, guitars) was fully stuck into philosophical and cosmic discussions of our reality, by now, with the work of Francisco (Backing Vocals & Guitars) and Juan (Bass & Synths) we are more into a mature developing of lyrics like Psychopathologies, Life Reflections and Anthropological Questions. The lyrics of the LP were too subjective. At some point, it was difficult to realise what you were reading because so many people were asking, “what are you aiming for with these lyrics?” so we preferred to change the way we were composing and making both music and lyrics, respectively.
Until now, Luciano is writing the lyrics, so we cannot say too much about his process except that, as he has commented on other occasions, after a series of reflections and dense readings of various subjects, he feels the need to write about that. However, it often happens to us a lot that intrusive thoughts constantly bother us. It turns out that sometimes these come with certain nuances that remind us of or resemble a particular riff; when we play it or try to imitate what we were associating with those thoughts, our riffs appear it’s not like we have a ready lyric, and do random guitar riffs, bass lines and drum fills to it. There is a certain association between certain riffs and certain lyrics, although we cannot deny that this happens in all the tracks either since there are other parts where we had to fill in those spaces where we did not know what to place with variations of other riffs. Now, going back to the rituals, sacrifices or Eucharists, the truth is that we don’t practise it collectively. Each of the boys has their own beliefs, science or spirituality, but nothing related to the Abrahamic, that’s for sure!!!
Broadly speaking, because if we go into details, we would have plans for this answer; as we said in the previous question, each of the boys has their way of seeing the world and understanding things, for example, Juan (bass, synths ) believes in science and the power behind the mind of the human being because taming these elements concerns a great development in pursuit of progress, even the daily practice of Stoicism has served to maintain the aspiration to individual improvement as a person. Sebastián (Drums) considers himself agnostic but feels a strange sense of spiritual relaxation in nature; he gives him what we sometimes need either because we have lost it or because it needs to be renewed. Francisco (backing vocals, guitar), like Juan (bass, synth), believes in the human power behind the mind, not in the way it grants through progress but as a double-edged element. It can be the fundamental engine of progress or mass destruction, as humanity has shown throughout time and history. That is why it is more accurate for him to practise certain nihilistic currents to carry the day-to-day in a more bearable way. In the case of Luciano (Vocals & Guitars), it is something quite different from the rest of the band; he practises an overly dogmatic Animism. It resembles Tengriism due to its powerful shamanic character, but certain elements are similar to Confucianism. If we are talking about virtues to follow for both personal and collective realisation, it often comments that it follows a spiritual path characterised by righteousness. And the indomitability that guides the desire for eternal joy in victory. Despite having several gods, some prevail over others. It depends a lot on the case. It is an archaic way of seeing the world, but he feels comfortable practising it.
The truth is that, yes, it can have both positive and negative aspects; if we think about it, within the world of metal or music, there are always different characters almost taken from cartoons; unfortunately, a large majority are just a bunch of idiots, and that’s it you have to imagine what happens when people idolise or worship a bunch of assholes, it seems terrible to us that just because they make excellent music they can’t question a series of bullshit, which are swallowed inside the speech that comes attached to the music they consume. They are not gods or deities, angels or saints; they are flesh and blood humans just like us. Returning to the main idea, we started with the intention of doing something different. Even though we sound the same as many other bands, at least that was the intention because we saw that many bands imitated what came from outside the country or continent. It is classic to see the denomination Teutonic Thrash, Bay Area Thrash, Swedish Death Metal, Norwegian Black Metal, and a series of other nonsense. Although we did not want to, we fell into the same game. Having self-determined ourselves as Proto Death Metal, we thought we would be doing something different from Death Thrash and perhaps more rooted in Early Death Metal, but under another pseudonym, we failed! We have done more of the same, just like the rest of the bands; our one distinguishable hallmark could be that we draw a lot on the early glories of Extreme Metal on this continent; Atomic Aggressor, Pentagram, Cancerbero, Death Yell, Totten Korps, In Aggression, Mortem, Masacre, Parabellum, Holocausto, Sepultura, Vulcano, Mutilator, Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Impetigo, Slaughter and others that we always take into account at the moment to say that that was what caused the interest in playing like them! To bring to the present something extreme made by ourselves but always keeping in mind who and how they had done it first, long before us!!! And about our origins, with some disappointment on our part and respect towards you, we prefer not to talk about our history and the beginnings of the band, this is closely linked to the following, perhaps a very lucky event was having expelled the previous drummer because everything should -according to him – a nod to Thrash metal, we were and continue to be bored with Thrash Metal because in the national UG, rather in the capital, everything sounds the same and traced from Bay Area or Hardcore Thrash, fuck that! We recognise the affection and determination they have made possible, but it is not our thing, and we do not feel part of Thrash Metal or North American Thrash Metal. We have a great weight on our backs and want to end the stigma attached to us with that thrashy crap.
As we said in some of the other questions, it helps a lot to reflect and discern what we want to capture in the music we make. Since everything in life is learned and does not come out of anywhere, we have taken certain classic references that we always had into account but that we had never studied them determinedly, to expand our compositional spectrum beyond what we are used to doing together. Especially now with the new drummer! Some interesting news is that we are working on new compositions with more aggressive technics similar to some works of Formulas Fatal to the Flesh/Gateways to Annihilation (Morbid Angel), From Wisdom To Hate (Gorguts), Human Waste (Suffocation), Manor Of Infinite Forms (Tomb Mold) and Through Wilderness (Mortuous). Obviously, with the classic sickening touch of Extreme Metal that captures excellent works like Member Of Immortal Damnation (Purtenance), Endless Wound (Black Curse), Misantropologi (Undergang) and Carnal Leftovers (Nihilist). We hope the tracks will have more to say this time than our old ones! We are composing on C and maybe B tuning, so expect thick and putrid work.
For Juan (bass, synths), beyond metal, there are a series of elements that he considers essential in terms of the way of executing and thinking about music as such, Jazz and notably Jazz Fusion, there are certain aspects that he takes to develop within his compositional style and even in his way of developing mentally, some solid examples are the work of John Patitucci, Bill Evans and John Coltrane. For Sebastían (Drums), John Frusciante is an essential one within his perspective; his impact on the music of that time means a lot. He even marked the genre to the point of creating a converging line, considering that the natural consequence was to give it an incredibly dense meaning. Now, he values the creative and motivating power of the artist despite having been sunk in heroin. Francisco (Backing Vocals & Guitars) has several figures as a reference outside of what metal is, which have inspired him for years, perhaps they are not so far-fetched within metal, but some of them are Howard Philips Lovecraft, Timo Ketola and Vincent Locke. All more linked to the literary and illustration field, including certain mainly existentialist philosophical currents. But going straight to the point, the greatest influence of his to make art and express metal is H.R. Giger, his way of seeing life, from the morbid through biomechanics together with each illustration charged with a criticism built based on sexuality, the social, the political, the religious and the philosophical, make it stand out even more -with this symbolism- the dark tones in his illustrations. In this way, he shows you that from his point of view, life is a set of morbidities, experiments that start playing with the natural and the fictitious, the carnal and the mechanical, plus the trauma of the impact of industries on life itself, such as if it specifically changed the meaning of life to reproduction, suffering and agonising death. For Luciano (Vocals & Guitars), it is not exactly what he aspires to be, but he tries to follow the same path he left. Here we refer particularly to the singer-songwriter Victor Jara, who died on September 16, 1973, of political assassination during the Chilean civil-military dictatorship. His legacy is incredibly powerful because he carried through music the reality of the majority of Chileans plunged into poverty due to the economic and social gap at that time. His songs recount a series of crude stories and narratives generally framed in a collectivist and insurrectionary discourse, inviting you not to lower your forehead despite whatever adversity you may face. And above all, that victory is achieved with will, motivation, determination and perseverance from the heart, mind and soul. They may say it is obstinacy, but Luciano would say they are comfortable cowards.
Music is more than melodies and compositional structures. It is a human expression closely linked to cultural symbolism reflected in how it is performed. There are many elements, such as identity, feelings, emotions and discursive forms, and incredible stories behind each composition; there is the life of those people and, above all, the perception placed on their creations. For us, it is more than spiritual; it is a way to liven up or organise our journey through life. It is no less than that and never will be! The Homo-Neanderthalensis appeared more than 400,000 years ago. Together with them, the first technological forms understood as musical instruments appeared (40,000 – 50,000 BP) within a series of archaeological records; it is an element that manifests itself intimately or collectively. The music repeats sounds that come directly from nature, imitates them, transforms them, progresses them and techniques them to further perfect that element that reaches some people almost like a spiritual catharsis, although for us, it happens that way. Some of our recommendations to understand what we mean by this and especially with perfecting technicality, we leave the following artists to explore! Some are: Serú Girán, Invisible, Sui Generis, Los Jaivas, Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani and Congreso. The first releases in their discographies are some of their best works ever! Take time and try it!
https://burningcoffinrecs.bandcamp.com
