PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Planetmosh caught up with Disintegrate, and talked about the new album, future plans, influences et al.
Welcome to Planetmosh guys, fill us in on the history of the band, you formed in 2005 I understand?
Thank you for having us! The band started out in 2005, but we’ve been playing in the current line-up since 2009. We released an EP in 2009, released our debut album in 2011 by ourselves and signed with Massacre Records early 2012. They released our debut album worldwide on July 27.
Your sound is hard to put into any particular bracket, I guess Melodic Death Metal would be a reasonable tag, who were your influences when starting out, in places the sound reminds me of Dark Tranquillity amongst others?
With Dark Tranquillity you definitely mention one of our influences, but our spectrum of influences is very large. Every member has his own preferences which influence their playing and writing style. This combination creates the sound of Disintegrate. Besides Dark Tranquillity, bands that need to be mentioned as influences are Death, Kreator, Darkane and In Flames. But the list is almost endless.
Your debut full length album “Parasites Of A Shifting Future” was released a month or so ago now, how long was the album in the making?
We initially self-released the album in 2011, just to see what our music would do. After that we went looking for a suitable partner, which we eventually found in Massacre Records. Our album, as are many debut albums, is a collection of songs we’ve written to create a live set. Some songs date from the early start of the band. So you could say it took us 5 years. Only two songs, ‘Abecedarium’ and ‘The Subtle Decay’, were written especially for the album. After recording the album we encountered some production difficulties and had to re-record most of the drum parts. In the end, the process from recording the first notes to having the master disc took us about 9 months.
I was fortunate enough to be able to review the album for Planetmosh, and noticed that you roped in Jord Otto of ReVamp to take control of mixing the project, how did that come about, had you known him a while?
We’ve know Jord for a while, since he’s a local guy and actually was the roommate of our bassist for some time. We heard some of his productions and he was willing to mix and master the album for us. While doing that, he was also willing to record an awesome solo on The Art of Clairvoyance. He did a great job on both!
The album is really diverse and varied in its sound, including female vocals courtesy of Claudia Edwards van Muijen on the track “The Subtle Decay”, was that track written with her in mind?
The track was not written with a certain vocalist in mind. If you were to do that, you run the risk of leaving your style behind to make it suit a voice and we wanted to create a Disintegrate-song that has female vocals. Claudia is the only front-woman in our local metal scene and we’ve always liked her voice. When we asked her for the song, she did not hesitate and did a great job.
You packed a lot into the album, were there tracks that didn’t make the cut?
Yes. There were some songs that gradually disappeared from our live-set in the year before recording the album, so those songs were also not recorded. Perhaps we will re-use some of the riffs from those songs on a new album.
You have a reputation as a great live band, when do you plan to take the new material on the road?
We have some shows coming up in places we haven’t played before. Hopefully we can get some touring done with the release of the album, but it’s too early to say. We want to expand our territory.
When will the process of writing new material begin for you, the follow up album can often be the most important for a band, is that something your conscious of?
We are writing new material as we speak. In fact we’ve already written about 9 new songs and are making demos for a few of these. We realize that our second album will be important, but when we listen to the songs we’ve composed so far, we’re well on our way to creating a killer record.
The bands sound has an excellent balance of melody mixed with all out aggression, is that the style you see the band sticking to?
Yes. Of course, the band will evolve, but this is the main style of the band and we would like to keep that balance and even improve it. Faster, more melodic and very aggressive.
The music business is truly global now, do you have to focus more on the international market, or is the home country fan base just as important?
Without our local fan base we would not be here, so you must never neglect them. Obviously we would like to do shows all over the world and meet our fans, but shows in our hometown are always special.
What have the stand out moments of 2012 been for the band apart from the album release?
The main focus has been the album release and the promotion for it. The fact that we get good reviews from both the underground and major magazines is great! Also the release of our video for the song Shatter Them is a highlight. For us the year so far is a bit more behind the scenes. Writing great new songs and rehearsing them and getting our live show to a new level.
Finally, to those who haven’t heard the band yet, how would you describe yourselves and the music?
We are an energetic band that writes well-balanced songs. Fast, aggressive yet melodic death metal with a thrashy edge.
Thanks again guys, and all the best with the new album.
http://www.massacre-records.com
http://www.facebook.com/disintegrateband?ref=ts
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7vKX07-ZI4&w=560&h=315]
