Metal go getters ASPHERIUM have several albums currently out, having started back in 2007. Since then the band has played shows with more coming, released music, with no plans on stopping! Their heaviness and intensity of their progressive forces, will keep them pushing through this metal music scene for many years to come. Find out how else they will continue their metal music activities below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
The band was started in 2007 by me (Marius) on guitar and vocals and Torgeir on bass and backing vocals. We quickly found a drummer in Bjørn Tore, who we had played some cover songs with earlier. We jammed together, and it immediately felt just right. The next few years included recording a demo, finding a second guitar player in Morten, starting to play live shows in Norway, and a few small runs in Belgium. Our debut album The Veil of Serenity was released in 2011 and received great reviews. There were lots of live shows including a European tour with Blood Red Throne. The second album The Fall of Therenia was released in 2014 and was even better received than the first album. We played a lot of shows, including some very cool festival gigs, and we toured with Decapitated. And in 2019 we finally released our third album The Embers of Eternity. It has not been out very long, but so far it has been very well received! It is in my opinion the best album we’ve made yet.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
I was playing around with different words, trying to come up with a band name that wasn’t already taken. I think I was playing around with words like sphere and atmosphere, and somewhere a long the line it turned into Aspherium. I made a logo and had it as a background on my PC get used to the name, and it felt right. And no one else had taken it, since I made it up. So, the name itself doesn’t really mean anything, but to me it symbolizes the feeling our music gives me.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are from Norway. And in the beginning, we were based in Moss and to a lesser degree Oslo. Now we are spread across Moss, Oslo and Drammen… In Moss where I live, there is a very cool music scene, but there’s not a big metal scene. There are some very cool metal bands not too far away, though. Like Sphere, Maahlas, Befouled, Vingulmork, Kampfar, Mork and Mecalimb to name a few.
4. How would you describe your style?
We are rooted in a death and thrash metal style, but we also have groove and modern metal influences, and a lot of progressive, mellow and melodic parts. We have been called progressive death metal, which I think fits pretty well. We have a lot of long songs that often don’t have a regular verse, chorus, verse, chorus structure. We like building songs in different ways that can be unexpected and interesting. We also like putting a lot of details in the music, so you will often find something new even after hearing songs many times.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have released three full length albums, and they are all concept albums. We make music that take you on a journey, like scenes in a movie or chapters in a book. You will get brutal parts and melodic and mellow parts. We work hard on arranging the songs, so they flow very well, and there is a lot of thought put into everything, including how the album flows from song to song to make the whole album feel like everything belongs together.
Our debut album The Veil of Serenity was about humanity closing their eyes while the world was burning down around them. The Fall of Therenia, our second album had a science fiction concept about a peaceful civilization being invaded by another species for unknown reasons. The story deals with unraveling the mystery about what happened, and how to save their planet. If you strip away the sci fi parts, there is quite a lot that deals with stuff that’s going on in our world as well. The latest album The Embers of Eternity is about planet earth in the distant future and the people there trying to figure out how we in our time now could let the earth be destroyed. Now, these concepts may sound negative, but a big part of our music is that there is always hope. There is a way to make things better, even when everything may seem dark. And you can expect great, and very varied metal music that is brutal, heavy, epic and beautiful.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We always have new music in various forms of completion. We have endless amounts off riffs that we will sort through and find out what we want to use for the next album. There are a couple songs that never got done during the writing for the last album, so maybe some of those will end up on the next album. One thing is for sure, we don’t want there to be as long of a wait between this album this time, so we are already thinking about the next one.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We did a run of shows right after the new album came out, right now Bjørn Tore is recovering from hand surgery, so we will return to the stage in 2020, and the plan is to play a lot of shows!
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We will continue to write music and release albums, play shows and have a lot of fun! That’s the main thing we must focus on. If it’s not fun, there’s no point in doing it. The way the industry is for small bands now, we have to do it for the love of playing music! And there is no feeling quite like being on stage, having a great show with a great crowd, or the great feeling you get while writing and recording music and you get to hear how your ideas come together to make something great! We will also try to focus on making more videos for YouTube. We have made a few music videos ourselves that turned out pretty good, and we’d like to do more of that, and other types of videos. Yet another creative thing to enjoy!
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
We would appreciate it a lot if you could listen to and follow us on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/artist/1f9vK1LjJ4YPpThBEiiI25?si=rcVLt8qjQLWN1-dciI2SYQ.
You can find us on any digital platform, though. Bandcamp is great if you want to buy the music digitally. For physical releases we have CD, vinyl, tape and t-shirts at https://aspherium.bigcartel.com/ and we are trying out this Spreadshirt store where there is a much bigger selection of t-shirts and hoodies than we can do ourselves. https://shop.spreadshirt.com/aspherium/all.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
The riffs! The almighty riffs! Thank you! Marius - Aspherium
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