Melodic/death/epic metallers Darkest Horizon have released an EP called "Scattered World" and have got a lot of plans with playing shows, touring, and even writing further material for more new music. These guys took the time to talk about this EP and more.
1. What type of band are you?
Officially we are an „epic melodic death metal“ band. This sounds a little bit complicated, but in the end it is film music combined with metal.
2. Tell us the brief history of your band.
Darkest Horizon was found in 2010 by Aurelius Lie Vocals), Oliver Sattler (Guitars) and Christian Mühlbauer (Keyboards). After some time 3 more members were found (Jonas Heinzel – Bass, Daniel Baum – Guitar and Phil Hammelmann – Drums). In 2011 we released our first EP Shattered Skies, which brought us a lot of positive attention (as for example a review from Metalhammer/GER) and let us play some bigger shows (Metalfest 2012, ISLA Festival 2012). In 2013 we released our second EP Scattered Worlds, for which the response was very positive, too.
3. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Our songs are about life and the end of life from different points of view. You can see the world from the point of an ant or from another galaxy, things will stay the same, just your point of view changes. The lyrics describe the importance of being who you are... or the opposite, the unimportant of a person.
4. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Yes, we write our own songs. Normally one of us (mostly Christian) writes the song basically. Then everybody picks his own parts and works them out and then we start jamming around, giving it a try what could work, what fits, what sounds the way we want it to. As a last step we combine all parts we worked out to see, if everything fits. If it does, we play the song over and over again, until it works fluently and it still sounds as it has to. The last little working steps are done while recording the song. And then we have to wait and hope, that everything goes well. ;)
5. Who are your musical influences?
Oh, there is a lot of influences... Everyone of us has his personal favorites (of course), but our main influence are Scandinavian Metal Bands and film music. But the finishing comes from our personal backgrounds. Though we play epic melodic death metal, our roots are (all in all): black metal, death metal, nu metal, hardcore, power metal, melodic death metal, jazz, blues, rock So, everyone has his own specialist area and we combine the best of it to create our own sound.
6. Tell me about your new EP.
Our new EP was the first time we worked with a bigger recording studio (Markus Gumball / Cubeaudio) and also part of a pre-recording for our first album. We tried to work with clean vocals for the first time and put some new influences to our style of playing.
7. How would you describe the overall sound of this EP?
Strong, epic, hard, explosive... or: METAL! Though the sound is hard and sometimes even rough, there is also space left for the calm parts, so the sound can be described in its best as a perfect mixture of all our influences.
8. What would you say is your favorite track off it?
Skybreaker. This song was the first one done for this EP and the first we heard of it. This song combines screams, growls and clean vocals, it inhabits strong rhythm parts and melodic, epic influences. Skybreaker also was the first one we showed our fans and which is just pure fun to play live.
9. Did the band have any definitive goals they were shooting for before the recording process began for this EP?
Not really, it was more like a new experience. We wanted to try some new influences, some new sounds. There no goal, just the way it should has been reached.
10. Are you using any new instrumentation you've never used in the recording process before?
No, it's our standard instrumentation we always use, but in a new way combined. We also tried new possibilities for example by playing new melodies or playing riffs in a structure. But in this whole process we still focused on songs which are possible to be played live with our instruments, without recruiting new musicians for live shows.
11. Can you go into one or two tracks on the new EP? If so, can you give us the track title and brief description of how the track sounds and how it came about?
"Skybreaker" this one is a very epic but also very diversified song. It starts with a calm, constructive intro, leading into the first verse. While the verse is based on rhythmic accent, the pre-chorus leads to an epic final, unfolding itself in the chorus. This creates the diversified sound of the song. Though the song was written before going to the studio, a lot of little variations (for example the sounds of the keyboard, the interplay of the guitars) were tested in studio and... well, they worked. ;)
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to us on Spotify, Facebook, our Homepage and YouTube and buy our stuff on iTunes and Amazon. Our merchandise can be ordered via mail@darkesthorizon.com.
13. What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Right now we are collections ideas and working the out for our first album. As live gigs we are going to play a few shows in the next time as Metaldays (Slovenia), “Let the bad times roll” - Open Air (Northern Germany). And after these gigs... we'll see what happens. ;)14. Anything else you'd like to say or add?
Well, thank you very much for this interview, it is an honor to be heard in the U.S. And we would also like to thank all of you out there, our fans, you're amazing! Hope to see you soon on a concert in your area!! Stay heavy!
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