Interview mit Lionel von Impureza

Hello Lionel! First, congratulations on your album Alcázares! It’s turned out great. As an opening question: For people who don’t know IMPUREZA yet, which of your songs would you recommend getting to know you musically?
Hi, thanks to you too for this interview and also for your congratulations. I would recommend „Leyenda Negra“ and „Sangre para los Dioses“ both from the previous album „La Caida de Tonatiuh“ and „El Gitano Maldito“ from our first release „La Iglesia Del Odio“. You have here a cool mix of style. Without being too calculated, I could also recommend our last two tracks „Pestilencia“ and „Bajo las Tizonas de Toledo“ which are certainly the perfect example of the best concentrate of Hispanic Metal that we have composed to date!

Tell us a bit about the band itself. How did you come together as a group?
At the beginning I was playing metal in a band, and in another side, I was making a sort of acoustic fusion of rock with Spanish elements. So with my friends, we decided to try a sort of acoustic metal but trying to make it in a more death metal way. So step by step we started to make the fusion to reach our current point.

Your lyrics are written in Spanish, and their content is deeply rooted in Spanish history and culture. Specifically regarding „Alcázares“: What is the album about?
„Alcazares“ is a fiction taking inspiration from the Reconquista’s period. The main theme in here is the conspiracy of religions, Templar’s fates, battles and mystic quests. We also refer to evil spirits as Djinns, dark legends and holy punishments which were the beliefs from that time into the old spain’s mythology.

When your music has such a strong historical reference, is that something you research beforehand, or do you draw entirely from your own mythological-historical repertoire?
We take inspiration about real facts, and then we turn them into a sort of epic, evil and cruel tale.

Let’s talk about the music itself. Since you’re also a flamenco guitarist, was it clear from the beginning that you’d combine that with extreme metal in IMPUREZA, or did that develop more intuitively during the songwriting process?
To be honest, I always believed in it, sometimes not, and sometimes it was a lot of work and tries to find something cool at the end. To make a cool combination of both styles was a curious idea, but we arrived to develop it step by step.

The fusion of flamenco and death metal is not only original, you even created a whole new genre label with Hispanic Extreme Metal. What does the songwriting process look like for IMPUREZA?
I don’t think we have a special type of writing process, in general i start to find some cool riffs and melodies, I try to combine them together to make a sort of little structure, and then we share the ideas with the band members, we brainstorm and propose things. Till to have the better result we can.

What stands out for example in a track like „Pestilencia“ is how well you blend the temperament of flamenco with the intensity of death metal. Your songs sound very mature and compositionally well-thought-out. I imagine that’s not always easy during the songwriting. Do you ever encounter challenges when merging your styles?
Yes, of course! I proposed to my friends a special record with four versions of the songs. This way, everyone has his preferred track!! No joke, it’s not always easy to compose with four people, as you can imagine. The difficulty is certainly greater, at least I think so, for a band like ours that mixes two musical styles. But we start from the principle that when it’s good, it’s good. When we listen to the song, and it sounds good, that’s ultimately what matters, and we all find a connection there.

Beyond the influences you’ve already established, are there any genres you’d like to experiment with in the future?
Maybe yes but into another project. IMPUREZA is full hispanic and metal, so the basic components are yet here in our music. Why not try a fusion with country music? It could be fun.

A subtle but significant element on „Alcázares“ is the orchestration, especially noticeable in the opening track „Verdiales“, as well as „Castigos Eclesiásticos“ and „Reconquistar Al-Andalus“. How do these elements find their place in IMPUREZAS sound?
Orchestrations and samplers are things we always loved. And looking to make our music more cinematographic, more fantastic and eloquent, we tried to integrate more stuffs like this. But we won’t become so much symphonic too. Our essence is before to be an ass kickin‘ metal hispanic stuffed band.

The mastering of your album was done by Jacob Hansen. Compared to „La caída de Tonatiuh“, how did that make a difference for you?
For „Alcazares“ we wanted to get a new sound, a bit more modern, so they suggested us Jacob because he is a really experienced person with a good metal view about making modern productions. It was a good choice.

Let’s briefly return to the historical background of your music. Your lyrics often carry an undertone of religious criticism. How much influence do you think religion has on the currently tense political climate worldwide?
Not so much, in fact… The matter in this world, is that we are too much enough.

Is the global shift to the right something that worries you? For instance, Marie Le Pen was recently able to mobilize many voters in France with her political agenda before her electoral exclusion?
We only care about music, no time for worries.

Let’s stay in your home country and move to something more positive. You’re playing this year in September at the Mennecy Metal Fest alongside Carpenter Brut and Dirty Fonzy, among others. How important is musical diversity to you outside the rehearsal room and off-stage?
It’s important, yes, it makes you a better person and a better musician. It’s cool sometimes to be in another music mood to refresh inspiration. I think we managed to merge two styles that could be totally opposed at the start to make our music, I think that says it all.

If I’m informed correctly, you’ll have flamenco dancer Cécile Cappozzo with you at the Mennecy Festival. Is she specifically joining you just for that set, or is she a regular part of your live performance?
She’s specifically joining us for that gig, but why not make another live project with her with pleasure. We had the chance to meet her for a special project that you’ll be discovering very soon. On July 18th, to be precise. She’s a talented flamenco dancer with incredible energy and technique. She learned alongside the greatest in Spain and then founded her own school in Tours, France. It’s a joy and a blessing to have her by our side! I think we’re going to offer more than just a metal concert at Mennecy, but a Hispanic Metal show with a metal side, featuring heavy drums, and on the other, an Andalusian spotlight in the colors of Spain!

At which festival would you absolutely love to perform, and why?
70 000 tons of metal would be great for me. I’m getting older and tired. Holidays in a cruiseboat with a bit of metal, nothing better to reboost a man!

Lionel, thank you so much for the interview. To wrap things up, lets do our Metal1 brainstorming session.

Benighted: A really mighty band with wich WE shared stage several Times. Really talented and live experimented. Hail to them
Zapateado in films: Always nice, I adore when something flamenco Is shown into film, zapateados are really intense and fast, so it’s also really interesting to record it to see more well the difficulty of the dance feet moves.
Pope Leo XIV: I don’t have any particular affinity with him yet because he’s just arrived but being American, maybe he’ll like our American production with our sharp riffs and our massive drums!!
Sant Jordi and the Dragon: I love this kind of story or legends, there is inside of Sant Jordi a real romance that I find cool cause of its chivalry. The picture of the rose growing from the dragon’s blood Is so epic. I think the traditional rose gift to your lover came from that legend, maybe.
IMPUREZA in ten years: IMPUREZA in ten years… Probably playing again and making why not ?? Maybe in a cruise boat talking with the Pope about productions and music… But for sure making something, always the best we can, with sincerity and passion. I hope we will have made more albums and a lot of gigs wherever on this planet!

Publiziert am 7. Juli 2025 von Philipp Sorger