ARKHAN - ENTREVISTA

Good afternoon, How's everything for Monthey?, Thank you very much for agreeing to answer these questions.

Hi! Thanks a lot for this interview. Everything is fine in Monthey!

1. How were the early Arkhan in 2001? What despite more than ten years as a group do not post material prodigals much? How has it affected the band formation changes and small break forced by different diseases of the members in 2006? Maybe this break is somewhat truncated progression group?

Arkhan have changed a lot since 2001. We were four musicians playing in black metal band and even if we loved this music, we wanted to play something a little bit different. Arkhan was created with the idea of playing a mixture of black and death metal. At the beginning, it was only a side project and the first serious line-up of Arkhan was only formed in 2003. It means that we have released 3 albums in 10 years. Of course it’s not a lot, but it’s not so bad ! To be sincere, we are slow worker : we don’t want to record a new album until we are 100% happy with the songs… and it takes a lot of time! Moreover, as you said, the line-up has changed a number of time and some of the musicians encountered medical problems, which as slowed even more the recording of new material. But I don’t think that all these things have truncated the progression of the band.

2.Primal is your second album, how would you describe the sound of Primal, how the sound has evolved over MACHINE? What is your way of working in the studio and your way of composing?

Actually, Primal is our third album. Dead End was our first album, but it has only been released in Switzerland. Back then, our music was a mixture of 50% black metal and 50% death metal. MACHINE, our second album, was much more brutal. Even if it still contained some black metal influences, it was much influenced by the old school death metal scene. With our new record Primal, we wanted to explore new territories and incorporate a rock’n roll feeling. It’s still death metal, but with the groove of rock tunes!

Our way of composing is simple: I write a number of riffs and then I work with our drummer to glue these ideas together, in order to create catchy songs. When we are happy, we record a demo and the singer writes the lyrics. When we enter a recording studio, the songs are 100% written and we don’t change anything!

3. The mastering David Castello Pimal made in Stockholm, known for working with bands like Katatonia among others. How important has been the work of David Castello to the final sound of Primal? Are you satisfied with the end result?

Since our music is influenced by the Swedish death metal sound, it was natural to work with a Swedish producer! We have always been huge fans of the work of David Castillo. All the albums that he has recorded sound huge, but at the same time very natural. That’s exactly what we wanted: a good sounding album, but with an old school feeling. We are more than happy with the result.

4. Toxic Studio in Lausanne hosted the recording of your latest work; do you feel comfortable recording there? What do you offer these studies with respect to others?

The Toxic Studio is my own recording facility. It gives me the opportunity to record everything by myself. It’s great to be able to work alone, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want! Every Arkhan album has been recorded there. However, the studio is not really big and it’s not possible to record the drum. Christophe Noth, our live sound engineer, has recorded the drum in a bigger recording studio.

5. Although your sound mainly be death, there are also some flirting with the black, how would you describe the band's sound? What bands have influenced you to compose Arkhan?

As I said, black metal was a huge influence at the beginning of the band. Even if it’s not so much the case right now, we appreciate this kind a music and some of our songs still contain black metal elements. Right now, I have written a number of brutal black metal sounding riffs… perhaps some of them will be found in our future songs!

Our main influence is Entombed, but we are also inspired by bands such as Morbid Angel, Satyricon and Napalm Death.

6. What brand of tools do you use them in the studio and at concerts?

Arkhan is organized like a rock band and we like to keep everything simple: one guitar player, one bass player, one singer and a drummer with a small drum kit. Normally, a metal band is composed by two guitar player. Since I’m the only one, my instrument is plugged into two different amplifiers in order to make it sound like two musicians are playing at the same time! One amplifier gives a modern and powerful guitar sound, while the other one gives a dirty old school sound. The combination of both feels great! In the studio, we use exactly the same setup.

7. What events in your life pushed you want to dedicate to be musicians to form a group like Arkhan? How were your beginnings in the death?

I don’t think that a particular event gave us the motivation to play metal. Life could be complicated and this music is an incredible way to express what you feel inside of you; rage, frustration, sadness… but also happiness! In a way, our music is fun. To be sincere we haven’t decided to play death metal, we are just trying to play good metal.

8. As for the theme of your lyrics, what do they talk? What inspires you when writing the texts?

The lyrics are written by our singer. The basic theme of each song is inspired by events of our lifes, sometimes happy and sometimes frustrating. But it’s always written in a funny way. We don’t take it too seriously.

9. Who designed the cover of Primal? What do you reflect it and how it relates to the music?

David Gfeller, a swiss graphic designer, has designed the cover. This album sounds much more raw and organic than the previous ones. We wanted a cover that reflects this evolution. The bird is a symbol: even if we have encountered a number of problems in the past few years, we are flying again high in the sky.

10. Pimal Monkey Records has released, did you not you work with Thundering Records? How is the relationship with the label Monkey Records?

MACHINE was indeed released by the French record label Thundering Records. We were happy with their work, but we prefer to do everything by ourself. Monkey Records is our own label and it’s perfect for us right now!

11. What is being a presentation Primal concert? How would you describe a concert of Arkhan?

We are always giving 200% of our energy. We really think that a metal concert must be as powerful as it could be, and we are doing our best to achieve that!

12. What future awaits your followers about new releases, concerts, etc...?

We have just done a few concerts with DevilDriver and Pro Pain. It was an amazing experience and we can’t wait to go back on stage. We are now booking concerts for the end of the year. We have played a lot of gigs in Switzerland and we are now trying to travel around Europe. Unfortunately it’s now so easy to book concert outside your country! We are open for any opportunity, so if one of your reader could help us in your country, we would be very interested!

As for the recording, we are not working on new songs and we will hopefully record an EP next year.

13. Thank you very much for taking the time to Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for the followers of Arkhan, this is the place. I hope the questions are to your liking.

Thanks a lot for this interesting interview. Our music can be easily found everywhere on internet: itunes, spotify, google music, etc… so please take a few minutes to listen to our music! Thanks!