They have just released their outstanding new album “II” on CD, Digital Download and Vinyl. I recently reviewed their brilliant new album recently. And I thought it was an amazing album to check out.
Well the guys have kindly agreed to an interview with me.
Q1 – For People not in the know – Can you tell them how the band came about, When you formed etc...
We formed in the summer of 2006. Initiately, we started jamming as a two piece and wanted to add a bassplayer and a vocalist, but quickly it felt that this was enough. We don’t do any tricks or hyperintensive technical stuff, because we can’t and we’re not interested in doing so. We play AC/DC-doom I guess. Precise, no bullshit and straight forward.
Q2 – How would yourselves describe your sound.
A thick heavy storm.
Q3 – Which bands influence you on your music.
Listening to SardoniS, you can’t deny that fact that we’re influenced by Black Sabbath, but also bands like High on Fire and 5IVE leave their mark on the SardoniS’ sound. We listen to a wide variety of music, but we don’t have to bullshit that one can hear Cash or Young, because these fine men simply aren’t represented in our sound.
Q4 – Your new album “II” is a brilliant album full of hard-hitting action packed riffs. Was this album a harder one to write than the last one.
The first album were a bunch of songs that we had at that time, it just happened to be enough for a record. We wrote the second album as one piece. The album was there, we just had to fill in the story. The songs are more coherent and each one tells something about the other one. We both can pick 1 or 2 songs from the debut that we aren’t really satisfied off, but we’re both very enthousiastic of all the songs on the new album.
The reactions are beyond our expectations to be honest. We had a lot of good reviews after the first album, so for us it felt that the expectations were bigger now. But the reviews and reactions on the new album are absolutely amazing.
Q6 – What has been the overall reception like for your music at home and abroad.
People like the wall we produce, the vibe and groove that we spread. We don’t have a vocalist that is claiming all the attention and just telling our story without words, is something that appeals to a lot of people out there. We really love to tour and bring the brotherhood on the road, although we’re quite selective on where and when we play.
Q7 – Though your albums are simply named “Sardonis” and “II”, all of your songs have a more precise title: “Burial Of Men”, “The Drowning”, “The Torch And The Bearer”, … . How do you think of these titles, how do you create them, since there are obviously no lyrical topics they could relate to?
We always use the same recipe when we create a song. We jam, pick the riffs and create a song. Then we start deleting all the riffs and drums that are unnecesary for the song and we try to make the song as simple as possible. We record it in the rehearsel space and we start brainstorming on a song title. What atmosphere has the song? What emotion? What feeling and visions? We’re extreme critics when it comes down to picking a song title. Sometime picking the song title takes months.
Q8 – Do you want to tell a “story” with your songs despite the fact, that they are instrumental?
With the new album, each song tells something about the other to our ears. It’s more coherent then the debut album. We don’t want to express a certain story, but the songs breath a kind of bleak, desolate and heavy atmosphere. I don’t think people think of beaches and cocktails when they listen to our music.
Q9 – Is Sardonis a Full Time Project or do you have normal jobs to do as well to support the band.
We both have dayjobs and the band is purely a hobby. We’re happy that we have come to a point that we don’t have to pull out our own hard earned cash to keep this band going. We now can cover all the costs and the money that we make goes to the band to invest in new merch, recordings,…
Q10 – Are you families supportive of your band and music.
Yes, totally! My wife supports me and seeing my son Thor walking around in the house with a SardoniS shirt and beating on everything with his drumsticks makes this guy a happy father. We’ve now come to a point that our families are interested in the band and are proud of us instead of thinking we have a strange hobby.
Q11 – What is the song-writing process like in the band. Is it a whole band collective or individuals that write the music.
Every song is composed as a duo in the rehearsel room. We always work together on the songs and pick the song titles together. One of us starts with either a riff or a drumroll and we start building up the song from there. We also play live as a duo, we never had any session musicians, because we don’t need them. We’re loud and heavy on stage, so why bother taking more people on stage.
Q12 – Do you gig a lot in your home country or is it always touring abroad to get your music the most recognition.
We support touring bands when they play in Belgium. For example, we play with Electric Wizard on August 1st in Bruges. We did so for Voivod, Grand Magus, Torche, COC, Kylesa,… We don’t tour a lot, but we rather choose minitours, we did a 3 day tour in Greece last year and that was fucking great!
Q13 – You have recently toured with Saint Vitus/Acid King. How was that. Was it daunting to be on a tour like that with those two legendary bands.
You play in the Champions League for 1 week, it’s amazing. We’ve learned a lot and we were respected by the bands that were above us on the bill. We were the unknown band so we could only surprise the people that came out. The reactions were great, we’ve met a lot of nice people and sold a big batch of merch.
Q14 – Finally what are the future plans for the band. Probably promoting your amazing new album
In October we fly over to Japan to get loud in the land of the rising sun. We’ll tour with the amazing Eternal Elysium with whom we’ll do a split 10” that will be released by Hydro-Phonic Records. We have some other awesome gigs lined up and when the year is over, we’ll get around the table to see what we’ll do in the future. There’s nothing planned for the future yet, we just go with the flow in 2012 and we’ll see what happens.
Well guys thanks for answering my questions. I hope to hear more great tunes from you guys in the future. Best Luck with everything you do. Thanks.
Thanks for the interview and interest in our band. We have a new website online, so be sure to check that one out at www.sardonis666.be We’re on facebook too, so feel free to join the brotherhood of SardoniS. Inhale heavy riffing and praise the Behemoth666!
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