Interview mit James Malone von Arsis

The last five years was very quiet around ARSIS – what has happened during this time, why did it take so long to release the new album?
While the last 5 years has seemed quite for ARSIS this hasn’t entirely been the case. We were touring to support „Unwelcome“ fairly heavily until 2015 and even did some touring in 2016. By 2016 Brandon Ellis had joined The Black Dahlia Murder and I had joined Necromancing The Stone. Both Brandon and I were very much wrapped up in writing and touring for those bands and Shawn and Noah were involved in other projects as well. Aside from this there was also a lot of major life changes going on for some of the members. Noah and I both made substantial moves during this time; I moved from the East Coast to Texas and Noah moved from the East Coast to Washington. It just took a little time for us to find ourselves settled enough to focus on a new ARSIS record. We didn’t want to rush anything.

„Visitant“ is an archaic word for visitor as well as an ornithologic term for birds which after the incubation period, mostly in swarms, roams in wide radius. What are you referring to, why did you choose this title?
You actually neglected some very important parts of the definition and completely ignored the most popular definition altogether. “Visitant: Visitor, specifically one thought to come from the spirit world.”  This is literally definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The definition from Google is:  “a supernatural being or agency; an apparition.” Given the subject matter of the lyrics, every song is inspired by a different horror film, we must have been referring to migrating birds. (laughs)

What is the album about, and how important are the lyrics for you?
In my opinion the aesthetics of heavy metal, even at their most fundamental and basic level, lend themselves perfectly to horror genre – and vice versa. When I would listen to the music we were writing for „Visitant“ I would try to let my mind wander and paint a mental picture for me. I would relate these mental images to a horror film and use that as the lyrical inspiration. I didn’t try to tell stories with the lyrics as much as I tried to paint images that were inspired by the films.
This is the ‘surface’ reason that I chose to give the lyrics on the album a horror theme. I think the underlying reason is that I lost my father this year and given his illness and the care he was receiving it was something I was trying to brace myself for during most of the writing for „Visitant“. An interest and appreciation for horror was something that both he and I shared so in that sense it was kind of a ‘tribute’ to him. In another sense, I feel that one of the reasons horror exists as an art is to help us deal with events or emotions that we don’t wish to process in reality…death being the most obvious.

Musicwise, its a mixture of technical death, but also thrash metal. What influenced you, which bands are you listening most at the moment?
To me, one of the things that set ARSIS apart in the early days was that we created some extreme records but extreme metal was not our biggest influence. We definitely had an ‘outside’ perspective on the genre and I think this was reflected in the music. It made for what was a ‘fresh’ product at the time.
I think a huge pitfall for the band was that we became self aware. Once we started really touring we were touring with bands like The Faceless and Necrophagist and felt like we needed to put a ‘technical’ album together just for the sake of being ‘tech’. The result was „We Are The Nightmare“ and what was once a small part of our sound (the technical aspects of the music) began to dominate everything. For every cause there is an effect and the next release, „Starve For The Devil“, was a reaction to these (overly) technical attributes. This certainly met with a mixed reaction. (laughs) Next up was „Unwelcome“, which was kind of a rushed attempt to regain the brutality and rawness of the early material.
With „Visitant“ I think I was finally able to put enough distance between myself, the ‘scene’, and booze to finally be able to let my creativity flow. I think the result is, if anything, a very genuine record. To answer your question more specially, I haven’t been listening to any bands that would reflect directly on my writing in the sense that you are looking for.

Which kind of atmosphere did you want to create?
If I had to put it into words I was hoping to create a surreal atmosphere with the music. The same way that Dario Argento or Fulci create(d) surreal atmospheres in their films I was seeking to do this with my music.

The artwork is kept very simple, and, to be honest not really outstanding – don’t you think, it’s a bit unspectecular, at least in the context with your music?
I personally think it’s fantastic! Mark Riddick chose to use paintings for this album cover as opposed to his usual pen and ink style and I think it gave it a much more ‘ethereal’ quality or feel. I feel certain that Mark Riddick knows art far better than you or I, perhaps this is a question for him. For me personally, I am not a fan of colorful, elaborate album covers so Riddick’s art suits me just fine. One thing that makes art great is that not everyone needs to appreciate it for it still to be brilliant.

It looks also very different from your prior artworks – why did you decide to break with the tradition of those futuristic artworks?
Mark Riddick, the same artist we have always worked with, handled the album art. I take a very ‘hands off’ approach to the album covers with Mark and I always have. I usually just give him the album title and maybe a few pre-production songs to listen to. From there I let his imagination and skills do the work. For this album he chose to use paintings as opposed to his typical pen and ink style. There are seven paintings total in the layout and I think they all work together. One should really examine the entire layout.

Why is it the perfect visualisation of your music nevertheless?
I feel as the all the paintings use in the layout (there are seven in total) and the layout as whole help to create a very surreal or ethereal atmosphere for the album. I think one needs to see the entire layout before forming an opinion.

Talking about visualisation: For „Tricking The Gods“ you also did a quite „strange“ and futuristic video. What was the idea behind that clip?
Well, the song lyrics were inspired by a few werewolf films („Silver Bullet“ and „Dog Soldiers“) and in the video a cult transforms someone into werewolf that in turn starts killing the cult members. Given this knowledge I don’t think it is all that strange. The costuming and imagery may have come across a bit futuristic, but this has more to do with the director and budget restrictions than anything else. When you consider the lyrical content, the budget restrictions, and the surreal atmosphere of the album I think the director did a more than adequate job with the video.

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What do you think about music-videos in general: Part of the art, or part of the promotion-strategy?
Videos can be fun to make, but I personally don’t put much weight or stock in them. For me, the true art is in the music. By this I mean, I am not a visual artist and I rely on other people for assistance with this. I am also a firm believer that other people have a greater knowledge of visual arts than I do. This applies to Mark Riddick with the album cover and Rob Nielson, the video director. They are both very capable in their respective fields and in some cases renown. I trust them to do the best possible job and I don’t feel it is my place (or anyone else’s) to criticize too much.

The album features guest appearence of Trevor Strand (The Black Dahlia Murder) and Malcolm Pugh (Inferi). Why did you decide to ask those two guys and how did the collaboration take place, did you meet or was it an online-only-cooperation?
We have been friends with both Malcolm and Trevor for over a decade. Malcolm and I have talked about trading guest spots on each others albums for years. The timing was right and I did a guest spot on the new Inferi album and he was able to contribute to ours. Since Brandon Ellis is now a member of The Black Dahlia Murder it was very easy to arrange a guest spot from Trevor.

You are a classical educated musician, a skilled violinist and a composition major – in how far does that influence your way of composing music for ARSIS?
I think that in the genre of death metal too much emphasis is placed on things being ‘technical’ or ‘brutal’ and things like composition get overlooked. People don’t really seem to understand the concept of establishing a theme and developing it anymore. This is something that I try to examine closely within every ARSIS song. I think this approach and the output of the approach definitely sets us apart from other bands within the genre.

Thanks for your time and answers, lets finish this with a short brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following terms:
Donald Trump: Orange.
The end of Slayer: Nostalgia.
Germany: Helloween.
Death Metal: Diminished Fifths.
Your favorite album at the moment: „Leather Teeth“ by Carpenter Brut.
ARSIS in 10 years: Synthesizers.

Thanks again! The last words are yours:
Thank you so much for the interview! Hope to see you in Germany!

Publiziert am 31. Oktober 2018 von Moritz Grütz