Interview with black death metal band from Chile - INFERNAL THORNS.
Answered Andrés Arancibia, guitarist/vocalist, thank you!
Recenze/review - INFERNAL THORNS - Christus Venari (2025):
Ave INFERNAL THORNS! Greetings to the Chilean underground. I hope everything is fine with you. It should be, you have the third great long-playing album of your career on your account this year. I have to admit that it literally nailed me to the wall. It is dark, energetic, cuts with a sharp edge of a knife. It is very audible that you have done a great job and also a lot of talent. How do you perceive the new album in relation to your first work? Where did you want to move and in what way do you think the records are different?
In relation to the first job, this is a much more mature, heavier and faster job. To begin with, the first work was practically a solo album and now it was a work of the whole band, where we also worked with Seba Puente on the recording, which gave us a lot and guided us to find the final sound we wanted to obtain.
“Christus Venari” contains all the attributes of good death and black metal. For me personally, it is an album that I really like to return to. How was it created? How do INFERNAL THORNS compose new material?
Mainly I think that the songs and I take them finished to rehearsals, rarely end up being as I did them because we work on it with the band, adding and removing things, changing speeds and rhythms until we reach the point where we all agree and we move on to the next song.
I found out that Seba Puente is signed for recording and mixing. I have to confirm that the sound is literally killing. It keeps making me turn up the volume on the hi-fi. Seba Puente created a sound for you that is cruel, raw and at the same time dark and animalistic. How was it working with him and why him? In which studio did you record and how did it all go?
Somehow and since it's already the third album, we needed to take a leap and make an impact. We were certain that with this new lineup and with the quality of the songs we had composed we could achieve it, so we needed someone who understood what we wanted and who reflected the sound we had in mind on the album, that's why we chose Seba Puente, since he is the one who has been at the head of several national and international projects with excellent results. Our album was recorded in his studio, Audiocustom Studio in Santiago de Chile, and took about 8 months the entire process, between recording, mixing and mastering.
An integral part and a kind of bonus for fans today is the CD. You released it on Personal Records and it has a corpse-like cover. Who is its author? How did you choose the motif and how does it relate to the music on the new album?
The author of the art is Elias Vergara, we also worked with him on the art of the second album "Inflicting Ravage to the Holy Cattle". The reason for this particular art is an idea that I had in mind for lyrics of some particular themes and that symbolize in some way the persecution of Christ and his subsequent punishment and submission, that is why the art shows Christ crucified, gagged and already in a state of putrefaction being devoured by snakes and worms. With Elías we worked on the concept until we reached the final result that left us very satisfied.
I have been wandering the underworld for over thirty years and I go to Chile to get music, actually, to be safe. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I follow your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, we only have a few death metal bands here that are worth it. How do you explain that death metal is doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
Death metal in Chile is part of history, if we go back to the 80s, here we already had extreme bands, perhaps not exactly death metal, but with tints, some closer to grind, like Belial, and others more to thrash like pentagram, which were finally a reference for other bands... this being so, Chile has a habit of extreme bands, perhaps it must be because of the repression of the time, because of the distance from the world, I don't know, what I do know is that there is a stable scene, with labels that are serious and constant, such as Apocalyptic, who have released great glories!
Regarding the fans, they have always been present, death metal shows are always massive, but unfortunately in recent times they have become very massive, a situation that affects the attendance of the public, a lot of concerts, which affects that everyone attends.... However, fans are always there, buy material, enjoy and share with you.
You play death metal influenced by the old school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I'd be interested in how the idea of founding INFERNAL THORNS actually came about, who was and is your role model, and where do you want to take your band? Are you attracted to big foreign festivals, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
The band was born around 2003 but lasted only a couple of years, until 2006 approximately and the main idea at that time and until now, was to combine death metal and black metal, bands like Grave, Unleashed, Deicide combine them with Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir (old), Darkthrone (old) that somehow I think it was achieved. Then in 2016 I resumed the band to start what we have been until now, with the recording of 3 LPs and 1 EP. The idea now is to promote this last album as much as possible to be able to reach as many countries as possible, and I think that with Personal Records we are going to achieve it. For the same reason we are always willing to go abroad and better yet, participate in festivals and make a tour that raises the level and prestige of the band even more.
When I founded my website seven years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that I don't think are that prominent. To let the world know about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the feedback. How do you approach promotion? Do you leave it to the label or do you send CDs yourself for various reviews? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. How are you doing? Are you also fans who like and often support their colleagues? Do you go to concerts? Do you party?
We have always done the promotion ourselves, contacting zines and blogs, sending our material so that they can make us reviews of our albums. But now that we're under the Personal Records label, we don't have to worry about that as they take care of everything and that's been a relief for us at that point. And of course I'm also a fan and I consume a lot of music from colleagues, mainly national, material that I buy at the same events and I also buy online from bands that I can't see live since they are from more distant cities, but I like to go to events and share with colleagues always.
On the one hand, a band starting out today has a lot of opportunities to make themselves known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of bands and fans get lost in them. Many people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of a concert, they prefer to spit venomous saliva on Facebook. How do you, like INFERNAL THORNS, get influenced by modern technologies? What do you think about downloading music, Google metalheads, streaming music, etc.?
Social networks, streaming platforms and all that is part of the new world where we are inserted, we don't worry much, we have more attention on making music, playing, and that's it, if they download the shit, copy it or do whatever, I don't care... Since those who do that, they would never buy music, they don't go to shows, so they don't exist...
The true fans are those who go to the shows, buy music and find out about the bands' news through the different means that exist.
I like to ask musicians what death/black metal means to them. How would they define it, is it more of a philosophy and lifestyle for them or “just” relaxation. What does it mean to you? How do you perceive and experience it?
For us it is an expression, whether it is anger, artistic, violence, cruelty, can it be a philosophy? If, in certain cases, sometimes even a declaration of principles, on our part it has always been a way of expressing our appreciation of various dogmas and the frustrations of the interposed systems, not in political terms, but rather in cultural terms, thinking of the culpist social structure interposed by that nefarious organization that everyone knows....
This is death metal, death, hatred and destruction
Finally, a classic but important question. What are INFERNAL THORNS planning in the coming months? Where can we see you at a concert and when will you visit Europe? If you want to say something to fans, labels, promoters, here is the space…
For the next few months there is a lot of promotion of the last album, some events, and the recording of a second video clip, we already have one of our song "Christ Distressed". Next year we are scheduled to make a live recording, where we will record songs from all our albums to present it on youtube and perhaps edit it on CD with 4 bonus tracks that are songs that we have already recorded and saved. We intend to visit Europe in the not too distant future, hopefully next year, and if promoters join, even better and always open to conversation.
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish not only the new album a lot of success and may the ranks of your fans expand as much as possible. I'll be looking forward to seeing you live somewhere and I hope you're doing well both musically and personally. I'm going to get "Christus Venari" stuck in my head again!
Thank you very much for having an interest in the band and giving us the opportunity to make ourselves known. Hopefully one day we can meet on those sides and be able to share a ton of beers as it should be. Greetings to all bangers and follow us on our social networks to be aware of our news !! \m/
Recenze/review - INFERNAL THORNS - Christus Venari (2025):
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