translated by Markéta, thank you!
Interview
with brutal death metal band ENTHRALLMENT - vocalist Plamen
Bakardzhiev
www.enthrallment.eu
www.facebook.com/Enthrallment
Ave ENTHRALLMENT „Eugenic Wombs“ is the second album I was able to listen from you. Could you please introduce your band a little bit? To be honest, death metal from Bulgaria is not very known in the Czech Republic.
Of
course! First HI to the readers! Yes, in fact “EUGENIC WOMBS” is
our fifth full-length album. But we have one demo, one EP and one
split with Swedish death metalers RELENTLESS before our first album.
We started at 1998 and this is our discography.
“Eugenic
Wombs” has been out for a while. How is the feedback and reactions
for this album? How about fans, critique? And how your songs work on
concerts?
All
I see like comments and reviews only make me feel good. Obviously
people pay more attention to our lyrics and music. They feel the
moods in the song well. That’s a nice surprise for me. It means we
touch them with our music.
We
have played in Sofia a few weeks before with our old friends
Malevolent Creation and with Grave/for a first time/.We don’t play
often so people enjoyed our show. I’m glad. We have played two
songs from “Eugenic Wombs”, before the release date of the album.
The songs challenged a real disaster among the crowd. I think there
is a video in youtube. We heard a lot of great comments after the
concert, so this only can make us go on!
This
is the second album you guys launched in German Rebirth the Metal
Productions. How did you get to this label and are you happy with
your decision? Label is very important nowadays. We can hear about
you everywhere. How is the cooperation? Does Andreas Rieger talks
about how you should sound? Sometimes there could be a problems
between publisher and band.
Of
course the label always have the final decision. They hold the final
word about sound and vision. Of course we have enough experience and
work only with the right people. We will never sound badly or just to
release a cover art without meaning. In that way would not find a
label. About our cooperation with Andreas....it’s really good. Easy
and nice working with Rebirth the Metal Productions. We discuss
everything step by step and we have really good results.
I
really like the sound of your album. It´s raw and at the same tie
readable. Uncompromising however each melody and idea is visible.
Where did you recorded? Who did the mix and mastering? In booklet is
says that the whole band did it?
We
record the album in our studio, Murder Sound Studio. Our drummer Ivo
works on recording, mixing and mastering. You can read that all of us
take a part in this, but that’s why Ivo sent us files with samples
and we discuss it every time till we find the right sound. You know
something like : “I don’t hear my voice” or “ the guitars are
too depth “ and so on....But finally we have this sound and we are
glad!
I´m
just holding an original CD in my hands and I am not able to find the
author of this cover. The logo is made by Christophe Szpajdel but
there is no mention of the cover. And your covers are ones of the
most interesting, there are ideas and memorable. Who is the author of
this cover? And how did you guys find the author?
In
fact you can find the name of the author. I checked it and you can
read his name Mirko Stanchev. He is from Bulgaria, too. He is the
author of the cover art of “Eugenic Wombs” and our previous album
“The Voice Of Human Perversity” .We will work with him on the
next material, because he is really good and the most important - he
understand our themes and ideas very well. You can check his work on
his website www.illogicalconversions.com
I´m
glad that there are lyrics in the booklet. I find them interesting.
Please tell us who is the author of the lyrics and how they were
created?
In
the last three albums most of the lyrics are written by our guitarist
Vasil Furnigov. I have a few lyrics and even my girlfriend have one
lyric in “The Voice Of Human Perversity”. About the lyrics - they
describe the most scary things in the future. With a few words - we
records our fears....
When
someone says death metal band from Bulgaria I have to admit that
there is only one band which came in my mind and that´s you. Do you
have more bands in Bulgaria? I mean not only death metal but thrash,
black.
Yes,
there are a lot of good bands here, but I don’t really know how
they work on their popularity outside Bulgaria. I don’t know how
they distribute their albums and reach the people. Every band have
it’s own aims and priorities.
How
is it to play death metal in Bulgaria? Do fans go on concerts? Do
they support you, buy CDs? When you organize some event how many
people would come?
If
I must be honest the time changes....it’s not like in the
beginning. Now even the old famous bands are not satisfacted I’m
sure. If we have a live show in Bulgaria I don’t believe there will
be more than 100-150 people. Before few years every place we visited
was full of people. Sadly now I cannot see some of the old fans here.
Most of them even do not live here. It’s hard to play Death Metal
in our country. But not only here.
ENTHRALLMENT
has been playing since 1998. This is a long time for a band. How did
you managed to hold your band together for that long? Correct me if
I´m wrong but since the beginning there is only the drummer Ivo and
in 2001 you have Plamen, the singer. Is it difficult to find some
good guitarist in Bulgaria? Or base player, etc.?
Well
the question is not about the good or bad guitar players. Every
musician who have played with us really had a good time in the band,
but this is a long period of time and everybody takes care for his,
job, family you know.....personal reasons and we would never blame
them for this. In fact it’s not easy to find a good musicians who
wants to play exactly this style. They must love it or it just not
works....My appearance in the band was an accident. It was 2001 and
ENTHRALLMENT announced they will play on Death Fest in Shumen. I was
there just like a fan of the band just to shoot a few pictures. Their
vocalist told them he is not able to arrive for the show and they
make to replace him for this show. Lyrics? I didn’t know even one
word. I was just fan coming to drink and shoot. I imagine I’m a
monster and started grunting......After the show people took pictures
with me as like I am the vocalist of the band. The were really mad.
It was a crazy show and was strange, but great. The same year the
guys told me to record EP “ Burning Fields “ with them. Later
this EP was released on split with Relentless...good old times.
When
we take a look on the beginning…What was the first impulse to put
together a band? Why brutal death metal? That´s not exactly the
style which would give you a big “fame”.
When
you are grown up with this music and start playing it you will learn
two things - stop do it or do it till you are able to. So we choose
the second. How exactly choose death metal? We didn’t think about
styles, just start playing influenced by the early 90 death metal
bands. We are from Pleven, Bulgaria and this is the city with a lot
of death metal and grind core bands.
You
can clearly see on your band that every album is better, that you are
growing, developing. Do you have some kind of target which you would
like to reach? For someone it´s a famous publishing, for other
people it´s to play with SUFFOCATION.
We
have two important aims: to reach more people listen to our music and
to playing on more different stages. We never know what our next
album would be. That’s the most interesting. This loads us with
power to continue.
How
about ENTHRALLMENT and concerts? Did you have some Europe tour? Do
you want to do it? I would like to see you play in Prague!
Yes
,we had a lot of concerts behind us. The best period was 2010-2012
.After that the promoters was not so interested in death metal. The
rules changes you know...money, crisis and becomes harder. We shared
the stage with bands like : Napalm Death, Deicide, Destruction,
Obituary, Vital Remains, Grave, Missery Index and many more. We was
on tour with Rotting Christ, Malevolent Creation and Rotten Sound -
great guys. I may be forgot something....We played on OBSCENE EXTREME
2011. We had our personal tours and gigs in Europe. We tried to
organize a tour in South America last year and there was really good
interest, but a plane ticket problems appeared at the last moment and
problem with passing some of the countries then we canceled the tour
sadly.....Now we are trying to organize a tour this year in Europe
and we will try to play in Czech Republic and exactly Prague. We love
the great Czech beer, too.
Are
there some albums which have catch your attention in a last few
months?
In
2015 ......maybe the new Slayer album.
Do
you know and listen some bands from the Czech Republic?
Of
course we know a lot of Czech bands. Now I remember we played with
Hypnos on HELLHAMMER FEST in Serbia. We know people in Czech love
grindcore and we know a lot of grind bands.
What
are ENTHRALLMENT about to do in the next few months?
In
the next few months we start working on new material about the next
album then enter in studio. If we have a chance, see you this autumn
and play some new unreleased song.
Thank
you so much for this interview and I wish you a lot of sold albums,
hundreds of crazy fans and tones of good ideas.
Hey this is cool! We
never finished an interview like that. Thanx about everything. I
think people will understand what ENTHRALLMENT is.
