Interview with death metal band from Poland - CLAIRVOYANCE.
Answered Denis (guitars) and Kacper (guitars), thank you!
Recenze/review - CLAIRVOYANCE - Chasm of Immurement (2025):
Ave CLAIRVOYANCE! I couldn't find any interview with you in Czech anywhere. So I'll ask you first to introduce the band to the readers who don't know you yet. You can start from the beginning and take us through the whole history of CLAIRVOYANCE.
Denis: We started playing together in late 2019 I think. First it was just me and Maciej who took over the vocals while I focused on the guitar, but quickly after that the drummer Adrian and the bassist Jan had also joined the band. In early 2020 we recorded our first 3 songs and put them on Bandcamp, and to our surprise the demo got picked up really fast by Caligari Records. Over the next several years we played a lot of shows (including Tones of Decay festival in Prague in 2023), released an EP via Blood Harvest Records, and had some changes in the lineup with Kacper and Vlad becoming the permanent members of the band taking over the guitar and bass, respectively.
This year you have just released a fresh new album "Chasm of Immurement". Once again it is dark, gritty and honest death metal from the old school. Did you approach the recording differently than last time or did you go with tried and tested methods?
Denis: Yeah, compared to our previous releases, the LP was done in a much more professional manner. We were more prepared, had a clear plan of what should be done and when and we tried to stick to it as closely as possible. There were some hiccups along the way and the recording and writing process itself took a bit longer than we wanted initially, but at the end of the day it turned out to have the level of quality we were aiming for, but without sounding too clean or being overproduced.
Kacper: As Denis mentioned, we wanted to make it significantly better than our previous records, but at the same time, we didn’t want to overproduce it. We also learned a few lessons during the process and already have some ideas about what could be improved next time but that’s part of the journey every band has to go through, I think.
I find the new record to be an order of magnitude more complicated, perhaps less accessible at first, but at the same time incredibly dark and evil than your 2022 EP "Threshold of Nothingness". Was that the intention? How did the album actually come together and how did you compose the music?
Denis: I feel like the 2022 EP was a bit of a fluke in our (rather small) discography in the sense that while it was mostly written by me (same as the Chasm of Immurement LP) and did have some good riffs, the overall result came out to be not up to our usual standards. Maybe it's the quality of production (we recorded the whole thing at our rehearsal space), or maybe it's because of what Clairvoyance was going through as a band at that time (lineup changes, etc.), but ultimately it failed to show what we were really capable of as composers and musicians.
So when we started working on Chasm of Immurement some time around 2022/2023, we instantly knew that it had to be better, more complex, and layered. Hard to say if it ended up being less accessible because of that, as we never had any intentions to reduce our music to solely playing caveman riffs (which to be honest we do like and still incorporate sometimes); I would rather call the overall listening experience being a bit more refined now. On the other hand, probably the biggest reason why the LP sounds the way it does is the production, which helped a lot to put these new 6 tracks into a single coherent piece of music.
I have "Chasm of Immurement" in my MP3 player and I have to say I am literally consumed by it. It's not just the great ideas, but the sound, which is in a word devastating. For example, I'm sitting on a tram and suddenly I find myself tapping my foot. I feel like partying. If I weren't a gentleman of my years, I'd probably do it. Where did you record the album and who is the mastering engineer?
Kacper: I was responsible for the entire recording process and part of the mixing, which we carried out at Dobra 12 Studio in my hometown. Having worked as a sound engineer in the past, I knew exactly how to approach the recording to achieve the results we were aiming for. Once we had all the tracks recorded, I began the mixing stage, which I completed together with my friend Piotrek Polak, who owns the studio and also handled the mastering. I definitely needed some help to speed up the process and to have a fresh pair of ears involved. We chose not to separate the mixing and mastering sessions, as I believe it’s not always necessary to achieve great results. From a technical perspective, keeping everything in one session gave us full control over each stage of the production. I think everyone is happy with the final result, and I’m glad to hear that others appreciate the recording quality and the hard work we put into it.
Who wrote the lyrics on "Chasm of Immurement"? And what are they about? Where do you get inspiration for the themes?
Denis: Previously we shared the writing process within the band, but for Chasm of Immurement it was our vocalist Maciej's responsibility to compile the lyrics. As the title of the record suggests, the main theme that goes through the narrations on the LP revolves around being imprisoned one way or the other, both physically and mentally, be it in a mind inside of a sick and rotten human body, or as a person in the endless space that surrounds us. That said, for us the lyrics are never in the foreground. We treat vocals as a separate instrument, the main role of which is to add to the atmosphere.
Is Paolo Girardi signed under the cover of "Chasm of Immurement"? I like his work a lot. How did you choose the theme for the cover? What exactly does it mean in relation to the music?
Denis: He did sign it, yes! Paolo is one of our favourite painters in the scene, so it was a no-brainer for us to contact him to do something for the album. We had a few ideas in mind already on what we’d like to see, but ultimately it was Paolo’s vision that ended up on the final iteration of the artwork. As for the meaning, I guess it references some of the themes mentioned in the lyrics, such as the darkness and nothingness of human existence that sucks our souls into it.
Looking back to the beginning...What was the first impulse that made you put the band together? And why death metal? It's not exactly the styles that would have gained you a lot of "fame".
Denis: Honestly when we started the band back in 2019 all we wanted was just to have some fun, maybe play a few shows here and there, and that’s it basically. Not to say we don’t have fun right now, but for sure the band became a much more important part of our lives, and we try to treat it respectfully while balancing our personal stuff and full time jobs. As for the "fame", I'm not sure I want it even if there was an option to get mainstream. Knowing how things can look for big touring bands in the scene, I think I'd rather prefer a more stable life. But who knows, maybe someone like Metal Blade will sign us up and offer loads of money?
You come from Warsaw and play extreme death metal. Our readers would be interested to know how the death black metal scene works in Poland. To tell you the truth, lately I've been hearing from you only great bands again. Does it mean that the scene is very strong in your country nowadays? What about gigs, how many people come?
Denis: The scene is strong for sure here in Poland. Tons of cool new bands (Species (who recently signed with 20 Buck Spin), Toughness, Frightful, Mental Funeral to name a few), as well as loads of cool live gigs to see mainly thanks to Tomek, the owner of Behind the Mountain booking/distro/record label.
There’s of course a lot more mainstream stuff going on currently both in death and black metal in Poland, but I’m not really following any of it.
From your music you can feel that you are influenced by both the American death metal school and the old European bands. How are you as fans? Do you prefer the original death metal of the 90s or do you draw inspiration from new records as well? If so, I wonder which bands had/have the biggest influence on CLAIRVOYANCE?
Denis: People often say that we sound a lot like Incantation, and while I do like what John McEntee is doing, it’s not my favorite band (blasphemy, I know!), and it was never a source of inspiration for Clairvoyance. But generally speaking yeah, we do like a lot of 90s stuff from the USA and Europe (Finland specifically), but I can't really say that there's a particular band that we look up to when making music for the band. Honestly, as pretentious as it sounds, I don't even listen to death metal that much anymore apart from new releases from bands like Innumerable Forms or Apparition, or maybe the old stuff from The Chasm or Death.
What about you and concerts in general? Are you a band that goes to as many shows as possible or do you pick and choose a lot? Do you have a dream, like a band you'd like to tour with or a festival, a city you'd like to perform in?
Denis: Live shows are something that we always liked to do, so whenever there’s an option to play in a good company with good people around, we’ll most likely be up for it no matter if it’s a small venue for 50 people or a relatively large festival like Tones of Decay.
I’d really like to tour the States (maybe with someone like Tomb Mold?) and visit places where death metal really started as a genre.
Kacper: I've always wanted to go to Asia, so Japan, Korea, or China would be amazing places to tour. I don’t understand those cultures very well (and I don’t think I ever truly will), which is exactly why I’m so curious about them. Getting to know the local scene there would be even cooler. Playing with Obituary would be great too, as they were one of the first death metal bands I discovered in my childhood.
We're coming to the end so I'd like to try a more philosophical question. How would you define the style called death metal? What is this music to you and why did you choose this style?
Denis: There's already a rather strict definition for death metal as a genre, but I feel like it doesn't really convey what this music is for me really, both as a musician and a listener. There are countless other genres around that might do certain things better, but I think what I like the most about it is the lack of boundaries and the sheer amount of different flavours of music you get as a listener without stressing about what's trve kvlt or not or if someone will gatekeep you from liking your favourite band because it's not true underground anymore.
I recently listened to a podcast with George Clarke from Deafheaven, and at some point he was talking about the amount of flack they got from black metal fans for releasing Sunbather back in the day. I feel like stuff like that wouldn't even happen in the death metal scene, and bands like Blood Incantation or Tomb Mold are good examples of this.
Kacper: Personally, I’m not too concerned with strict definitions. Of course, there are frameworks we work within, but they’re ultimately quite flexible. If something resonates with me, I don’t care what label it carries. To me, death metal is just a means of expressing yourself but I’m not stuck only into that one.
What is CLAIRVOYANCE planning in the coming months? If you have something to say to fans, promoters, labels, here's the space…
Denis: The positive reception we got from the LP gave us a lot of motivation, so we started working on new material already. It’s a long shot at the moment, but I hope we’ll have a few new songs ready by the end of the year. So maybe a split with someone or a new EP? We’ll see.
And of course we have live shows planned for the remainder of the year and early 2026, both in Poland and other places.
Kacper: As Denis mentioned, we would like to record something new this year and just not stop with what we’re doing now. I would like to thank everyone who supports us because without that, we would never have been able to do what we are doing. And of course, big thanks to Carbonized Records for releasing our album. We’re really happy with our cooperation and proud to be part of the label.
I'm going to listen to your new album "Chasm of Immurement" again. I have to say that for me personally it is basically a perfect death metal masterpiece. A total inferno. I wish the record to do well, to reach as many fans as possible. It deserves it. I wish you all the best in your personal life. Good luck. Thank you for the interview and I look forward to seeing you live sometime!
Denis: Thanks a lot for having us and for such kind words! For me this is one of the reasons to keep going, that is to give fans some good music they can vibe to.
Kacper: Thanks!
Recenze/review - CLAIRVOYANCE - Chasm of Immurement (2025):
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