Today's
guests literally came out of nowhere and impressed the hell out of
me with their brilliant debut album – At The Left Hand Of The Sun.
With
its bleak and brutal take on Sludge Metal but with vicious elements
of Doom Metal, Psychedelic Metal, Black Metal and Hardcore, this
album will leave you dazed for days. It's a brilliant album which is
a very dark album indeed.
This is what I said about the album: - “Collapsian's debut album - At The Left Hand Of The Sun – is a volatile mix of Sludge, Doom, Black Metal and Hardcore for one uncompromising ride into the darker side of progressive metal.
The
album is not an easy listen as its constant change in moods and
atmospheres could be quite difficult for some people to follow. It
dares to be different by not following one set musical style. It
blends elements from different genres for one violent and hypnotic
trippy ride.
The
album has a slight Isis/Neurosis influence but it does not stop the
fact that this album is a masterclass of progressive sludge metal. It
is an intelligent and thought-provoking album that oozes sheer
brutality with passion to match.”
Collapsian
kindly agreed to do an interview with ourselves at Sludgelord HQ. So
lets get started with Collapsian before they unleash more destruction
upon the universe!!!
Q1
– Hi guys. Thanks for doing this. How are things with you today.
Thank
you Steve for asking us to do this. Things have been great. We
released our debut record “At The Left Hand Of The Sun” on July
1st
and the response thus far has been fantastic. People really seem to
dig it.
Q2
– Can you tell our readers a brief history of how the band came
about and where it is today.
The
history of our band is rooted in the ashes of a band named Sihr. We
were active from around 2008 to 2012. We released a full length
called “Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone” in 2009. We went through a
period of inactivity and when we picked back up we enlisted a new
vocalist. The music we wrote and recorded became the majority of “At
The Left Hand Of The Sun”.
Q3
– How would yourselves describe your music as you have a lot of
different sounds going on.
We
have all been involved in music and different bands for years. There
are a lot of different influences between the four of us, and that
becomes apparent in our debut record. The music is probably
categorized best as Sludge, but there are a lot of other elements
baked into our sound. For this record we were aiming to make
something that was unique, heavy as fuck, pretty and intricate,
spacey and weird, but also methodical. Our sound is constantly
evolving, and this record is a snapshot of where we were at when we
recorded it.
Q4
– Why did you choose the name Collapsian.
When
we initially started tracking this record, we were still under the
moniker of Sihr. Right after we completed the primary tracking
process our vocalist Garrett moved to Brazil to study international
relations and slay hot Brazilian trim. We were looking for a rebirth
of sorts, and we started collaborating with our current vocalist Tom.
It was a perfect time to put a new label on what we were creating. I
have a huge running list of potential band names, and Collapsian was
one of them. It seemed to fit what we were doing, and it is unique
and somewhat ambiguous.
Q5
– You're new album – At The Left Hand Of The Sun - has been
released. Can you tell us what the album is all about.
We
didn’t set out to have a particular type of sound or
categorization. We worked on ideas and refined them over time, some a
few years. Some of the riffs of one song used to be in another, with
things moving around until everything fit properly. We didn’t want
any of the song structures seem half-baked or unfinished. In the end
we feel that everything congealed properly and naturally.
Q6
– Was it an easy or hard album to write and record for.
It’s
basically a collection of ideas that we all contributed to. We wrote
and arranged things without the thought that they should all fit on a
particular album. When we had a decent amount of material, it was
time to record everything. That made the whole process fairly easy,
albeit time-consuming.
Q7
– Why did you call the album – At The Left Hand Of The Sun. Any
particular meaning behind it.
The
“left hand” or “left hand path” is considered the
non-righteous path, often mentioned in reference to the occult. I
read about how the Aztec culture had a deity that was their god of
sun and war. They would sacrifice thousands of people during a
worship session to appease this sun god atop a series of pyramids.
The name of this god, Huitzilopochtli, was loosely translated to “the
bird on the left hand of the sun (or universe)”. So their idea was
that there was this blood-thirsty bird-god that sat at the left hand
of the creator of the universe, who required bloodshed and sacrifice
in order to appease him and not wipe their race off the face of the
Earth. That probably worked for a few hundred years until the Spanish
came and decimated their entire culture in the name of European
conquest. We thought that was a pretty awesome story and would make a
great subject to base an album on.
Q8
– What influenced you when creating the album as it's a very dark
and mysterious album.
Because
we have a fairly varied sound for the type of music that we play, we
didn’t want to make an album that was just a sludge record, or a
stoner-metal album, or a fuzzed-out drone record. There’s elements
of all of that, along with touches of black-metal, thrash, prog and
noise. At the heart of it, it’s fucking heavy. This record reflects
the wide spectrum of ideas that we all have, and our desire to create
something that is unique and not easily labelled.
Q9
– We have to talk about Psychoderek. Damn that is one fucked-up
disturbing song. Especially the end sound-clips. What is that sound
towards the end. Very horrific at times.
Our
vocalist at the time Garrett had the idea of layering a few tracks of
spoken word that he had at the beginning of the song. We added a
bunch of effects and crazy panning to those tracks, and played that
over the intro riff and a repeating polyrhythmic drum beat. The outro
at the end is actually 3 of my cats. One of them makes this odd
hi-pitched sound if you squeeze him a bit, which I’ve always wanted
to record. I took him and 2 of my other kitties in one of my
recording rooms and recorded them getting pissed off and annoyed at
me holding and squeezing them in front of a mic. Add some weird delay
over some faint guitar noise and those are the ominous sounds at the
end of the track.*
*
No kitties were harmed in the making of Psychoderek
Q10
– Was it your intention to create something brutal and almost
primal for your debut album.
Mainly
we wanted a record that was an honest reflection of how we intended
the end result of each song to be. We were really happy with the
finished product
and
that resulted in a pretty brutal and somewhat primal outcome for the
record as a whole.
Q11
– What is the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it a group
collective or down to one individual.
Ideas
usually start with a riff or series of riffs. As the drummer I will
hash out details like tempo, transitions and combining guitar riffs
with Anton. From there Joe begins to write his bass parts and we all
work together to fine-tune everything. Tom will write vocals parts as
the last element to take shape, but some songs tend to have a
different workflow than the others. Several songs we wrote in a
couple days, others take years to find the right riffs to fit
together.
Q12
– You managed to get Brad Boatright to become involved with the
mixing of the album. How did that come about. Hugely talented guy.
After
I wrapped up the final mix of the record I wanted to work with a
mastering engineer that understood where we are coming from
musically, and had experience with mastering our type of sound. I had
been listening to a lot of APMD and Nails, and saw their last records
were both mastered by Brad. I had also really liked his mix of the
reissue of Sleep’s Dopesmoker, so I reached out to him to explain
our project and see if he would be interested in working with us. We
found some time for him to sit down with our tracks and what you hear
are the results. Needless to say, we are very happy with his work on
our record.
Q13
- What is your musical set-up when playing live or recording your
music. Any hints and tips would you like to give to the budding
musicians out there.
We
usually record all tracks separately, drums first to a scratch and
build from there. We recorded almost everything at my house, and we
took our time to make sure we were completely happy with the sounds
we recorded. I feel we captured a very accurate, almost live sound
with this recording.
Q14
– If you could change anything within the Hard Rock/Metal scene.
What would it be and why.
This
is not indicative of just heavy music scene, but it’s difficult to
put out a record or project that truly stands out from all of the
noise that we are exposed to on a daily basis that requests our
attention. There is a ridiculous number of bands, movies, podcasts
and a plethora of other media that is immediately available us. It’s
hard to not get lost in that sea of data. This is one of the reasons
we are so appreciative of the positive feedback and response we have
gotten from this record, especially being our first record and not
being a group that most people are immediately familiar with.
Q15
– We have to talk about the brilliant album cover. Who designed
the cover and how much input did you have into it. As it reflects the
mood of the entire album.
We
wanted something that reflected the meaning behind the album title.
We worked with a very talented and creative artist from Austria named
Dr.Winter. He had designed the artwork for the last two Gigan
records, and I loved his work on those. I had sent him some rough
mixes of the majority of the music on the record and we went back and
forth with ideas, refining each along the way. He explored some new
and unfamiliar ways of bridging all of our ideas, which gave it a
strange and ominous feel. I’d say he definitely nailed the vibe of
the music with the album design.
Q16
– What is your favourite song off the album and why.
I
really enjoy playing all the songs of this record. They all have
their own panache and are a lot of fun to play through. As a drummer,
Slew of Wounds is interesting because it’s pretty spacey and leaves
a lot of room for changing and modifying parts on the fly. There’s
almost a jazzy improv feel to it.
Q17
– If you could give any advice to someone wanting to start a band.
What would it be.
Be
dedicated and give proper time and energy to any project you are
serious about. Stay persistent and welcome progress, change, and the
unexpected. Remain true to your ideas, disregard people who don’t
get what you are doing, and be persistent in your creativity.
Q18
– What are your thoughts of the entire crowd-funding scene. It
seems to have it's defenders and people think it's a waste of time.
Would yourselves ever participate in a crowd-funding project.
I
think it’s a great way to leverage a whole new and organic way of
funding new ideas and projects. In order for it to be effective you
have to present it properly and not be unrealistic or greedy. Give
the people that would be interested in helping you a worthwhile and
unique incentive to be a part of your project. Bottom line is if you
have a good idea and people want to check it out, they will help you
if you allow them to.
Q19
– The last thing before you go, Do you have anything else to say to
your fans.
Thanks
to everyone who checked out our new record! We will be playing shows
around the Phoenix area. Come say Hi and keep an eye out for CDs,
stickers, and shirts in the next few months.
I want to thank Collapsian for talking to us here at Sludgelord HQ. Check out their debut album as it's a stunning and brutal as hell experience you won't instantly forget.
Check The Band From Links Below
Written by Steve Howe
