Soulburn from the Netherlands released their fourth album called "Noa's D'ark" these days, which should definitely be heard by fans who like Asphyx, Celtic Frost, Pentacle and listeners who like Death / Doom and prefer high quality dark music in general. Apart from that, Soulburn have of course long been a brand in their own right and need no comparison with other bands. Furthermore, l would like to point out that the lyrical concept of the new album perfectly reflects the state of our times, which are characterised by climate catastrophes, pandemics and environmental destruction. But more about this in the interview. Guitarist Eric Daniels answered my questions.
Hey there, we are doing very well, thank you. The reactions on our new album "Noa’s D’ark" are very overwhelming. People like the new album as much as we do, we see a lot of reponse and it makes us proud and happy to see our fans like our new album very much.
Four years
have passed since "Earthless Pagan Spirit", what have you done during
that time? Bob Bagchus left the band in 2018, what were the reasons and was it
a bitter setback ?
Yes, it
was a long time between the two last albums, however we planned to make the new
songs and ideas very carefully, it took some more time than usual, but after
all we did make this brand new album and it’s released this month and we are
very happy with the result. On the other hand we are not machines, programmed
to make music between a set of time. It’s art, we are musicians, we put all our
feelings and heart into our music.
In May
2018 we all received a whatsapp message from Bob, where he explained he didn’t
felt connected anymore with the Soulburn music, the blackened parts in our
music particularly. It was right after we recorded the 7inch EP „Carpe Noctem“.
That was a big bummer for us all. We had to let the message sink, but we were
determined and convinced we needed an replacement for Bob, because we had so many
ideas to explore and to record. It took about one week or so and we had Marc in
our band. The search wasn’t that long. Marc went with us to shows as helping
hand and as drum tech, so he was very familar with our approach and style of
drumming. He fitted in right away and he is friends with Remco for a very long
time and they are practical as neighbours living close together. His approach
is awesome, he is called inside the band "the human drum machine", he's tight and
with the right groove and vibe what we like so much.
When you
hear our new album "Noa’s D’ark", we definitly think it’s a step forwards where
we want to be in our musical development. All former albums were and are so
important to have reached this level. If you hear all our albums you know what
i mean.
We consider it as a natural process, it just entered our musical minds. The songs of this album were build up in a dark atmosphere from the first ideas to the last. We all are very happy with the result. To mention, John Bart van de Wal, did the mixing and mastering, and he definitly did an awesome job. We never told him what kind of sound we wished, he just started to make his own view and when we heared it, we right away said, this is it! It perfectly reflects what we meant to do with this album. For us it’s not an complex album, it’s basic meant, our approach means less is more.
When I look
at "From Archaeon into oblivion", for example, it's very diversified,
even though there are countless Death / Doom / Black bands out there, you've
already found your own little niche. The song has faster, straighter parts,
those epic elements and those very slow melodic doom parts. So that's kind of
Celtic Frost, Asphyx and My Dying Bride all in one, whereas those very slow
parts have always been an integral Asphyx part. Did you consciously choose this
claim of complexity within the tight Death / Black / Doom corset or does this
kind of music emerge in a very natural way, almost inevitably?
I never
think before I compose riffs or idea’s in the sense of "oh lets make something various or complex", no
that’s not my style of composing. The riffs come up in a natural way, it’s
pure. I never seek hours for a particular phrase of riffs. I pick up the guitar
when I have the mood, not like it must be, sometimes I don’t pick up the guitar
for three weeks or so, and than suddenly a bucket load of riffs flow out my mind
into the guitar. The riffs are connected in a natural way, also the switch between
the midtempo or fast riffs into the slow heavy doomparts. Its natural to me, as
I did it before in Asphyx. It’s my style of thinking and with Soulburn it fits
even more perfectly. It’s our kind of style we like, to lighten up the songs,
we always want to surprise with the tempo switches.
Please tell us someting about the lyrics, the album title itself is an interesting pun.
Twan’s
lyrics are about death, but maybe even more so, the life towards it. He likes
to draw a thin line between imagination and reality, to play around with words and trick the
reader. Puzzle the mind and all things that are so full of dirt attach to our ways
of thinking in the dullness of everyday life. Inspired by great writers and
taboo-breaking free-thinkers such as Nietzsche, Bataille, De Sade &
Crowley, he pours the ink that drips like blood form his soul straight into the
lyrics.
As all
can tell, it’s in first a play of words on the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark. The
ark was to be filled with all different species from this planet to escape from
the flood that would eradicate all life on earth. With this Ark, the diversity
of species would be saved to start a new and to finally re-populate. With Noa’s D’ark the future doesn’t look this bright I’m afraid.
Although
the flood is coming, and in metaphor ‘arks’ are being built to save us from
annihilation, we throw everything in the wind against it, to speed up our storm
of self-destruction. The most beautiful animal species extinct and the ugliness
of mankind prevails, we are so deeply lost. And we are not the ones to be saved due to
our arrogant and ignorant short sided way of thinking. Just plain stupidity and
selfish greed and the denial of our true nature pave the way to desolate lives,
depression and despair.
Did you
know that Noa(h) is also a very popular name for new born babies these days?
Somehow people feel that a new messiah has to come perhaps to come up with a
trick to get us out of this shit, haha! With the song "Noah's Dark" I bring in a
vampiric twist to this. If I bite you, you would be like me, and eventually,
the more bitten, the more the same we become, until there is no diversity
anymore, no identity but the empty hollowness, a bleak vessel with an undying
thirst that never gets to be stilled. In the end, the ark is to be filled with
just this one hollow species, we will all bored.
Of course
it's hard to plan at the moment because of the corona crisis, but are there any
concerts planned in the near future or festival appearances in 2021 ?
Playing live and promote the album in his fullest is unusual in this period of the Covid-19. We really like to go out there and spread the Soulburn message. Our booker, Continental Concerts, is looking for corona-shows we can possible do, so that would be awesome. We also reallly hope this shit period will end soon with vaccins or something to stop this madness.Further we need to be creative, we sure have the idea to play the album from the first note till the last note in a live-surrounding somewhere in a room our venue and our fans can stream the show. We have to be creative, yes.
You all play in other bands (Graceless, Legion of the Damned, Grand Supreme Blood court, although the latter have not been active in the last years). How important is Soulburn in this structure of different bands and in general in your life ? Bob Bagchus for example said that he left Asphyx, because it became too big and too much for him. Could Soulburn get bigger and do you agree within the band where you want to go and what you don't want ?
Yes,
besides Soulburn we all do. All those bands are important for us otherwise we
would't take part of the bands. We like to be busy and play our instruments.
The love is big for the kind of metal we like. Yes, how busier we can be, the better we
feel, so all combined together we really feel comfortable with all of our bands. We also play very different styles in those bands, so each band has a special
place and feeling. We simply have to flow our ideas out.
Could Soulburn become bigger ? Well, I can remember a phrase from an TV interview by Roger Waters, the
ex-frontman of the legendary band Pink Floyd. They asked him the same question
back in the 70ties, and it always keeps me in mind, he said, his aim is to reach with their music as much people as possible on this planet and making bucket loads of money. The
most true and honest answer I heared from an musician, so I also speak for the
other bandmembers, my answer is the same.
That’s
true said from Wannes, however I think there are too many bands also in Holland
which do act like they are big but on the world scale they reached nothing. I
want to say, the good bands are drowned by the numerous bands which have
nothing to do with metal at all. It's nowadays very hard to pick up good bands
but I am convinced the good bands with the right feeling will float at the
surface and be picked up. With social media as the big tool it can be done. Further
I'm personally no longer engaged finding out bands in Holland, to me there are
still a one hand count good bands here and they have my respect of what they
are doing, and also the Dutch fans pick them up and gave them their fullest
support what I really like and respect.
The last
words are yours !
Thank you very much for this awesome interview, good luck with Systematic Desensitization Zine. Stay safe, take care and above all take care of each other who needs it in this shit Covid-19 period. To your readers I say, listen to our new album "Noa’s D’ark", give it a spin, and to our fans we say, thanks for your awesome support again and we hope to see you all very soon in the live-setting !
