A technical-melodic-progressive-blackened-death metal band with such thundering 7 string guitars, crossing genres, of classical influenced overtures, to straight on chromatic driven progressive metal brutality. Dei Aemeth continues to grow and move forward with the release of "Apotheosis", that there is no turning back let alone stopping them, thus they got together to talk of this release, themselves, and future activity!
1. What type of band are you?
Carl Ferre-Lange: Richard Strauss said "there are only two genres of music: good and bad". We'll let history decide.
Sam Paquette: We are an extreme progressive metal band with death and black metal overtones. However, with our occult influences, and mystic presentation, the unique sound we craft can best be described as wizard metal or magecore.
Simple Nomad: If you read the Wikipedia entry for Experimental Metal it probably comes close to covering us, although I don't think we've ever used that to describe ourselves now that I think about it.
Vale Ethereal: Most things that are mysterious are a treasure, "something to be had" "sought after". Dei Aemeth is this.
2. Tell us the brief history of your band.
Sam: I wanted to start a project that focused mainly on my natural writing style, just what I sit down to play for fun on the guitar, stuff that sounds cool to me. So the riffs that evolved into the songs came about in a very effortless way. I never tried to 'force' or try to sound a certain way, and eventually a signature sound started to emerge, with this sort of unique occult vibe. I pre-recorded the songs circa 2007-2008 which is about when Carl became involved, we've had a few members come and go since this time, but since 2010-11, when Vale and Simple became involved, is when the solidity of the line up came to form. Its been a fermenting process really... still ongoing; we need to find a permanent drummer.
Carl: Sam and I hooked up in 2007. There were a few false starts, we've had a few people come and go. Around 2010 we hooked up with Vale and rebuilt the band into its current iteration. Took some time, but Sam built his studio from the ground up.
Vale: Joining the band in 2010, I had already met Sam Paquette earlier that year at Mayhem Fest in Dallas. Things were really just getting off the ground then. I couldn't have joined the band at a better time. Soon after we relocated from Sache to Garland then to Dallas. Where Dei Aemeth's Apotheosis was conceived and completed.
Simple: I joined in 2011. We've had a few others but it has basically been the four of us as the core.
Carl: We're looking for the perfect drummer to even out the numbers, make it an even 5 piece.
Simple: Not that Noah ("Shark" Robertson) isn't excellent, he did great on the album, but he lives up around Kansas City and we're based out of Dallas.
3. Where did the name of the band come from and does it have a meaning behind it?
Carl: The name is the name of the famous sigil used by John Dee. He was a formative influence on the modern occult and the world's first secret agent. This allows us to channel themes that really interest us - talking to angels, ascended spirits, projection, govt coverups, ancient aliens... The sigil is the alter and that alter the doorway- we attempt to open with our music.
Sam: I came across the name of the sigil, Sigillum Dei Aemeth, used in Enochian magic, while researching various occult subjects, as I frequently do. Its a combination of Latin and Hebrew which translates to the sigil of god's truth. Just the phrase Dei Aemeth had a ring to it, I liked it. It was original and seemed representative of our sound.
Simple: I've seen it as God's Truth, and I've seen it referred to as The One True God. I consider the sigil itself a seal, a seal we would use to pierce the veil.
Vale: There are many forms of this sigil to this date. As it has and always will hold an accepted challenge of enlightenment. This sigil in all forms is said to hold the power of truth of all truths.
4. Who are your musical influences?
Carl: Sam should really answer this question.. he writes most of the music which we then finish with our own parts. Mine personally are ECLECTIC. I studied as a classical double bass player, so I have more influences who are dead than living.. Bach, Wagner, Brahms, modern/ contemporary music like Messiaen (edit note: please please please don't lump this all together as classical music: I actually hate most classical music), ancient music, organ music, I'm a huge fan of musics from other cultures. As far as metal goes, I like anything that really pushes the boundary- I respect things that haven't been done in metal and other musicians with a generally broad view of music. After all, it's all pretty much one entity.. I also like folks that can play their instruments well.
Vale: Currently I am into Fausten, Behemoth, The 69 Eyes, and Type O Negative.
Simple: My background is in prog rock, so there is a lot of influence from old school 70s and 80s prog, but I also like a ton of metal bands. I am also a big fan of classical music, I enjoy everything there from Chopin to Wagner to Stravinsky. Stravinsky was probably the biggest influence on my music life to narrow it down to one.
Carl: Hell yeah, prog + 1 here!
Sam: I listen to all kinds of music really, all genres, classical, prog, jazz, a lot of metal of course. Some of my top influences for Dei Aemeth are Tool, Pantera, Opeth, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Dimmu Borgir, etc.
5. You guys got signed with Swimming With Sharks Records, tell me how this came about and are you happy with the ending results?
Sam: I used to be in a band known as SRLSM with Noah, the CEO (of Swimming With Sharks Records), and we've been good friends since. Hell, he recorded drums for the album so it seemed like a no brainer. The album just came out so the end results are yet to be truly seen, but so far we feel this has been a great move for us.
Simple: The deal with Swimming With Sharks Records is for digital distribution, it is flexible in that we still have artistic control, which is pretty much a requirement.
Carl: Noah gave us the opportunity. We took it. So far we aren't at the "end results" bit yet, but we're a lot happier than we certainly could be. We have an awful lot of personal freedom this way.
Vale: Friendship is how it came about. We couldn't be happier to have the opportunity to release our music on this level. Dei Aemeth has 100 years of musical interest combined. And it's all paying off. We have so much more in store as well. Actually already crafting the second album.6. So you released your debut album Apotheosis how does it feel to have finally a debut album under your belts.
Carl: Great. Sam took his time with all of the tracks, and really grew as an engineer through the year long process. We edited the whole thing together and all had final approval. Because of our mutual involvement, I think we ended up with a really killer sounding debut, that we had all the time in the world to work on and that didn't, in the final tally, cost us an arm and a leg. I know all of us are quite proud of it.
Sam: It is truly a great feeling. We all put alot of hard work and time into the creation of this debut album and I feel we are very pleased with the end result; truthfully though, I am anxious to get started on the next one.
Simple: It took a long time, the album was in pre-production when I joined, it was over a year before it was completed, and no telling how long Sam had started on material before then. Very satisfying, hearing the difference of the end result from the pre-production tracks and knowing how it came together.
Vale: Releasing Apotheosis with a group of guys like this is a dream come true. I am very much so looking to foward to the future of this project.
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Simple: Sam is the captain, we are the crew. Sam brings these songs as skeletons to the group. Sometimes they are completely fleshed out, sometimes it is just a skeleton, and we typically write our own parts, or adapt over what Sam comes up with. However Sam is cool if one of us starts saying "let's change the hair color or clothes on this thing" and there is room to experiment. And he trusts us enough not to want to add like an extra arm onto that skeleton.
Sam: I'll bang around a few riffs and ideas, melodic or rhythmic ideas and see how they evolve, then I'll program drums over them, arrange and refine, and then let everybody else fill in their parts. I could get more philosophical about the process but thats the gist of it.
Carl: Sam started with all of the material on this album, we all added our parts and had a huge voice in the orchestration of the parts. One track on that album, as an example, has three double bass tracks and three electric bass tracks with different instruments.
Vale: Yes, all the material is original. Sam is the brainchild really. He writes the core structures of Dei Aemeth and then we under go the process learning these movements and contributing in our own ways. The will of each player is critical to the outcome. The process is very natural so to speak. So organic in fact it is difficult to document.
8. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Sam: Adventures and conquests, personal journeys and transformations.
Simple: We don't write about the usual things a lot of other people write about, we stick with interesting stories that involve our shared interests.
Carl: They run the gamut. The theme of this album is trasformation. Apotheosis is our hopeful warning to the human race that nothing less than the future of our existence is at hand. Transformation of consciousness, mind, soul and body is the ladder out of the mire this world has become. There will be no apocalypse in the christian sense, only enlightenment. Also we have songs about a conjuring gone wrong, and a rendition of the viking text of one of the lays from the Poetic Edda. It's the part in the story where Gundrun's brothers get invited to her wedding and instead meet war, capture and inevitable death. This might be my influence. I have an open thirst for epic poetry and norse and teutonic poetry in particular.
Vale: The songs Dei Aemeth formulated for Apotheosis are very much so encrypted with legend, mythos and the metaphysical aspects of the human experience.
9. What would you say is your favorite song off this album and why is that song your
favorite?
Simple: Each one is interesting for its own reasons, but if I had to narrow it down I'd say the 4 part Luminous suite. That covers our entire "genre" so to speak, and it's probably more representative of our overall direction.
Carl: I'm proudest of the whole multi-track song Luminous. Is that a cop out? I think all of our collective influences come together most prominently in this track. Also it has the most contrast and for that reason it is long, but not tiring. I don't know, it's a great fucking track and it has transformative power onstage.. When the lulling meditative "raga like" give way to the heaviest riffs on the album... it changes you.
Sam: I also have to agree with the guys on this one. Luminous is the full spectrum of what Dei Aemeth is in one song. One very long song, which we broke into four segments, or movements. It ranges from extreme death metal, to proggy, instrumental, psychedelic inspired sections.
Vale: They are like my children. Its impossible for me to pick a favorite. Each song has its own life force.
10. Do you guys have any new music in the works?
Vale: We do, and it's turning out to be quite the experience. The Dei Aemeth signature sound is running rampant in this upcoming record.
Simple: Very very awesome stuff. I think we are getting into some new territory.
Carl: We're working on prepro for our sophomore effort right now. Hopefully we'll have another full length album in the new year.
Sam: We have an entire follow up album completely written, more or less. We've already got alot of the pre-production together and I'm already feeling ultra fantastic about the new material.
11. What are your upcoming plans for this year?
Sam: We are going to try and get out on the road as much as we can, and try to get our music out there the best ways possible. Find a permanent drummer. We also have plans to start the recording process on the 2nd album which will hopefully be released by a major label in early 2014.
Simple: I'd love to get the Apotheosis show on the road. And we are already doing pre-production for the next album, which I'd love to record this year.
Carl: Hopefully, we will tour as we can over the summer. We all have day jobs so this is a real labor of love for us, but we do what we can. Thankfully, we are all pretty much in the same boat and pretty forgiving of others' time constraints. In fact, our time constraints have in the past caused us to slow down and focus on doing it right.. And three of us are fathers so.. Other than that I think we're all hoping to get as much of our principle recording done on the new album.
Vale Ethereal: All in all we are in a process of creation and evolution. We are simultaneously working the upcoming album and new elements to our live show. And at this point waiting to hear back about a possible small tour this summer.
12. What do you hope for in 2013?
Sam: Gaining more fans and reaching people across the globe. Playing killer shows and traveling.
Simple: Evolving the live show. We already try to do things slightly differently, we don't wear the usual "uniform" of cargo shorts and some metal shirt. We dress like that when attending a show, but we like to look a little different from the audience when performing. I think we'd really like to include something more interesting visually.
Carl: I hope we pretty much finish our second album and that our touring is productive. I personally had a bad experience with my finger getting caught in a door and I can only hope it continues to heal. I'm pretty happy where we are, and I just hope that we all continue to work hard and our work continues to have meaning to us.
Vale: For all good things to continue. To heighten our presence and connection through good music, through our music.
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