1. Greetings to the PANTHEIST ranks. As you are after three years releasing a new album and it is by no means ordinary, but maybe for some a bit surprising one, I would like to speak mainly about it. But before we start, I would like to ask about the thing that you have been asked about probably more than hundred times... Kostas, what was the reason behind you leaving Antwerp and moving to London?
Kostas: Greetings to Mortem zine! Behind my move to London is just an ordinary love story…when I finished working as research assistant in Brussels (Belgium), I was looking for another challenge and my mother who at the time lived in London, suggested that I move to England for a few months to try my luck there. I did and I got to meet my current fiancee at a Cathedral gig and the rest, as they say, is history!
2. After a few listens, I can not resist the feeling that the new album is something really personal. How difficult decision was it to choose the direction of the album and how was the composing process?
Sterghios: You are absolutely correct. The album is made of songs with personal significance to the composers. Each and every one reflects a situation experienced or observed that made a substantial impact to the person that decided to put it down in sound. Moreover, whilst the main composer elicited the root idea, each and every band member contributed their personal interpretation and twist to each concept. This is really the way we work. An event triggers the writing of a song. This frame is taken forward and explained to the others who all put in their own view on the matter. Each and every song therefore starts as a personal collection of thoughts and ends as a detailed treatise of the collective concepts and emotions engendered by this event. Sometimes the feelings are unanimous, sometimes expansionary. They aim to involve the listeners and invite them to render their own twist so that each and every song means something special to them. Put simply we give you ideas: we want you to expand on these and tell us of your feelings. Sombre, dark, elatory or otherwise.
Kostas: I think Dr Sterghios has covered a lot ;) rests me to add that this time choosing the direction was perhaps more difficult as far as I'm concerned, because I accepted the involvement of other people (particularly Ilia) in the composition process, so I felt less in control of the direction the album was moving to (even though I still wrote most of the tracks). But I think the end result was well worth this change in writing process, the tracks flow naturally and our spontaneity and reluctance to follow a fixed formula have become more apparent.
3. The evolution that is to be heard on the new album is really significant. When compared to "Journey Through Lands Unknown" (not mentioning the earlier material), the difference is more than obvious, even though it also an experiment-friendly album...
Kostas: Yes, I do accept that the evolution is more that apparent. On the previous album, we decided to open our horizons, experiment with different sounds and textures and generally have a totally boundless approach to our music. This time the basic idea was different, we went back to the past of the band and thought about the good elements, what we wanted to keep and the elements that hadn't worked that well. Then we expanded on the first, and tried to minimise the second. So I guess it was a much more deliberate process, although quite surprisingly this newly found discipline somehow freed us up, made the songs more spontaneous and kept them away from unnecessary distractions.
4. Could you please recall some of the reactions that came after the release of "Journey Through Lands Unknown"? In our redaction, the feelings were quite negative as it was not easy to grasp and absorb the album...
Kostas: We definitely had some interesting reactions, including people who said they smashed the cd on the floor in frustration when they first heard it, or people who begged us on behalf of the doom fans to 'return to the real Pantheist sound of O Solitude'. At the same time, the album got some of the best reviews we ever received, especially in reputed magazines here in the UK who praised it as brave and original, and it made us a lot of new fans who considered us as an uninteresting 'funeral doom' band before. All in all, it was an album we had to do if only to show that we have our own identity and make our own rules, rather than belonging to a 'scene'. Even in our earlier albums, we never felt comfortable being identified with 'funeral doom', a genre that had already peaked before the turn of the century with 3-4 releases only. But what's done is done, we don't like to look too much in the past, we picked up on what we thought worked well on that album, we limited what we thought didn't have the impact we hoped, and life goes on. .
5. The new album is called simply "Pantheist". Are we to see this as a beginning of new era for the band, something starting different, more open of accessible PANTHEIST?
Kostas: Yes, I hope so. As I said before, this is the album where we learn from the past and look firmly in the future. Music is all about communication, and despite our best efforts I don't think we always communicated well what we wanted to say in the past, but with this album we feel for the first time that we came damn close as there was much more detailed work and now we hope to continue in this vein in the future.
6. Is the new album a conceptual work? I ask because the atmosphere of the album feels somehow joint and continuous. I think that the splinters were placed with a true sensitivity. The listener is despite the "fluctuant" atmosphere still on the right wave.
Kostas: I'm glad to hear that you have that impression, because we always try to think in terms of albums, rather than individual tracks. I had composed several more tracks that didn't make it to this album as they didn't fit the whole, and overall we only kept what we thought was working in the context of the general flow. Ilia's tracks also work surprisingly well alongside mine. It is not a conceptual album as the themes of the individual tracks are all very different, but we have taken care to make sure that they make sense together.
7. If I could stay by the atmosphere for a while longer, it is the most important factor of any album I listen to. I have to feel it. There are compositions like "Be Here" and "Broken Statue" that caught me immedietly, but there are those that need to ripen. The overall feeling is of featheriness and uphold, of vulnerably giving oneself away... I do not feel depression, just a hint of sadness, a kind of resignation to who we are. Was it a fundamental decision to lead the album towards this negligence?
Kostas: I think this is a very accurate observation; there is definitely a vulnerability to the album, a honesty in dealing with topics that were 'too close for comfort' for some of the individual members. I agree that there is not much in terms of depression, rather a form of silent acceptance that life is what it is, and that despite its shortcomings we better make the best of it because this is all we have.
8. PANTHEIST is by all means an atmospheric band. You label yourself as "atmospheric prog doom" which is understandable and quite fitting. I personally call you simply "new PANTHEIST". :) It was interesting to notice the amount of non-metal elements of the album. Sometimes it really has the rock feel. What would you say about the opinion that your new album is about dittiness, playing with the motifs and tearing down the former borders?
Kostas: Yes, there is I believe a certain subtlety to this album that you don't find in other Pantheist releases. E.g in 'Journey Through Lands Unknown' we made a statement of independence in a very abrupt, almost shocking way to 'wake up' the world. This time it's a gradual expansion of the former borders, it almost happens in front of your eyes without you noticing it. Rock, shoegaze and even ballads slip in insidiously, but they are still hidden behind layers of low tuned guitars, or played at tortuously slow tempos.
9. The hardcore funeral fans are probably going to be dissapointed but new will for sure come. I personally think that on the album, there is more than enough of true doom... Have you already faced any downright negative reaction about the new material or maybe even a call to continue under a different name?
Kostas: Although I haven't heard any negative reactions yet, I'm sure they will come. We are not a band that tries to please everyone, and therefore there is always someone bound to be left dissatisfied for as long as we don't sound like on our first album (and we never will). I say 'doom is a state of mind' and yes, I also think there is more than enough doom on this record, just not in the conventional, obvious way.
10. The new album is the first swallow in cooperation with Grau Records. How did the courting with this label go and for how long did you make your agreement? Do you also know any other bands under this label?
Kostas: Back in June 2010, we sent a promo to labels with two demo versions of tracks that ended up on our album. Grau was one of them. We didn't hear from them initially but I insisted and wrote to them again, as I knew some of the bands they were releasing and thought they were always taking care of the quality of their releases. Their distribution network was also always very decent.
We have played several gigs with Mourning Beloveth in the past, and I also know and appreciate bands like Mael Mordha and Agalloch that both had albums released by Grau.
11. You also released a split "Unveiling the Signs". One of the bands are the Czech guys Dissolving of Prodigy. Do you also know about any other Czech bands? In the 90s, there used to be quite an interesting doom metal base, a lot of band from the same region, but this is a thing of the past. But - not long ago, one of the bands - Silent Stream of Godless Elegy - signed under Season of Mist and opened its way to the world...
Kostas: I've heard about Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, but never really listened to them. I have been a fan of Dissolving of Prodigy since their two early albums that I think are underrated masterpieces of doom death, so I was very pleased to play some gigs with them recently. I also know a few very underground Czech doom bands like Quercus, but haven't heard many others recently.
12. PANTHEIST are to play a performance called Dordrecht Doom Day in May. There you are going to play with 40 Watt Sun. Have you heard their new album? And I can not resist asking you, a doom metal guru, about your overall opinion about the British scene. Are you still so interested and sunken deep into doom metal in general?
Pepijn: I have heard the new 40 Watt Sun album and I think it's very good. I've always been a fan of Warning and I was therefore especially looking forward to this album. I haven't seen them live yet but as far as I've heard they are very well capable of recreating the atmosphere of their songs on stage, so I'm very keen to play with them in Dordrecht.
As for the doom scene in the UK, there are some really good bands that we're friends with (e.g. Esoteric, the Prophecy), but there isn't a massive scene of bands that play together often. Doom metal isn't as popular here as for example in Holland or Germany, which further complicates things. I think that with a smaller subgenre such as doom it would be more appropriate to look at it in terms of a European scene. That being said, Pantheist needn't be confined to one scene in particular and we'd be happy to play with bands of any style. All of us listen to many different kinds of music, but of course I/we try to keep track of what's going on doom-wise.
Kostas: I will also answer to this as I assume I'm the 'doom guru' here :) I think Pepijn is right in that unlike other scenes, there is not much coherence in doom metal. It's a small scene and it's further divided between extreme doom bands and traditional doom bands that don't often interact. I guess traditional doom has a bit of a scene in the UK with the whole Miskatonic connection (Solstice, Warning, Pagan Altar etc). When it comes to 'extreme' doom however, bands are islands on their own and don't often play gigs, because most promotors think they won't draw enough of an audience. Occasionally you hear of a new doom band suddenly appearing like a mushroom, but usually they will disappear equally suddenly after a few releases only. As for my interest in doom, nowadays I don't actively seek out to hear bands, but when someone suggests to check out a new doom band, I always give them a listen. It's not easy to hear originality and quality in such a strictly defined genre and many bands seem to be happy to just follow the sound of the great 'masters'.
13. Thanks a lot for your answers and the presence of PANTHEIST on our pages. I have run out of questions and I will express the rest of my feelings in my review of your new album. it was my pleasure to speak with you, I wish you good luck and goodbye to London!
Kostas: Thank you for your questions, they definitely made me think hard :) See you around, hopefully next time when we play in your country!
