Thank you. Yes, it is quite delightful for us. We’ve been waiting for so long, we’ve worked on the release so hard, and here it is, finally.

It’s been very well received so far. We’ve got very good reviews in press, and fans were satisfied as well. It seems like the album has found its listener.  

I guess, it’s always wrong to expect something in any situation. The expectation of something prevents us from seeing things the way they really are. That’s why I’ll just recommend listening to the music and then you’ll see for yourself. 

It’s very hard to describe your own music, frankly speaking. The thing is that everyone takes it his own way, through the prism of his personal emotions, perception and life-experience. 

I think it can be called progressive, yes. In my opinion, this can be seen in the affluence of artistic means, interweaving of styles and diversity of hidden motives in our lyrics.

Doom attracts us with its ability to create the atmosphere and the dramatic effect. It is also a good base for various experiments, both with sound and with other musical aspects.

Lyrics and music should complement each other in order to enhance the general effect. Music influences us emotionally, and lyrics make us dive into the process intellectually. It seems to me that the semantic load and the emotional part let one feel and understand some particular aspects more thoroughly. These aspects can thus be understood better because of the correlation and empathy which are achieved by music.   

A conflict or a problem is the basis of these emotions. That is the reason why they are interesting to explore. I don’t want my music to make people depressed, but I offer them a journey through my conscience. You can even call it an examination of some inner demons, if you like. In this album, the emotional involvement of the protagonist is revealed, and also his perception of reality as a projection of himself and his own emotions and feelings is shown.

The process of recording was a very long a hard undertaking for us. We recorded the album in our little studio on our own. 

As I have already mentioned, protagonist’s conscious and inner world, his attempts to understand the nature of things are described in the album. The protagonist meets his own materialized fears, sorrows and solitude, but fails to understand that all he sees is just a theatrical performance which he’s showing to himself. The idea and the concept originates from the Tibetan Book of The Dead (which actual title is “The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State”), but the images and the specifics are not the quotes from there. 

In some way it does, yes. There was an image in the lyrics to “A Painting (Digging into the Canvas with Oil)”. The character perceived the reality as a lifeless world picture, but then it fell to pieces and he saw that the picture had been “painted” with his own coagulated blood and bandages (his own wounds), and there was a mirror behind them, so it means that he himself was the reality. So the artwork admonishes this “twisted” picture is some way.  

The artwork is based on a picture of a painter from St. Petersburg, Alyona Svetlitska. And the booklet I created by myself.

Oh, unfortunately, I do not keep in mind the background history of every riff that I write.

I can’t say that there were some bands that inspired us in a particular way. I’d say that a big cultural background, both musical and literary, served as an inspiration for us. 

I wanted to create a band which combined “extreme” music styles with mild and atmospheric ones. Only gradually my desire took a form of a band. First, we called ourselves “The Splinters of Silence”, but then we decided to change the band-name, because the old one seemed to be somewhat crude and immature. Moreover, it seemed very typical for a doom-metal band.  

I’m a big admirer of Franz Kafka’s creation. I believe that this image of a spirited bobbin and the story itself touch upon the aspects that I needed. 

You can find the latest information on the Hypnotic Dirge Records website. We will also provide you with the further information on our Facebook page. 

Thank you and good luck!