In my infancy of musical knowledge I think of Industrial as a rather refreshing and breath of fresh air considering my large interest in death metal and thrash. Of course NIN is the undeniable favorite of mine, but there was an interesting time in my life when I heard about Circle of Dust, AP2, Mortal and now somebody who I always found a connection and camaraderie with is Klank, or the man himself Daren Diolosa, and of course all the talented individuals involved with this lovely music.
Klank to me was always an open honest and abrasive voice that didn’t disguise the Christian walk with the pretty pictures you see on television and movies, but instead it detailed the life and battle of all human beings, and their reliance on God and Christ to find peace and prosperity.
Q: First of all, I want to thank you for braving this musical landscape and having the courage to express yourself as best as you see fit. Yes I do enjoy your music, I will admit, “Still Suffering” is my favorite, but I am beginning to warm up to your newer work, I am a hardened death metal after all, that being said what is your musical interests lately?
Klank – My personal musical tastes are pretty wide. I always say I like everything from ABBA to Zappa. I’m a huge Electric Light Orchestra fan. Also love Kansas, The Cars, King’s X to name a few. I’m really into older music.
Pat Servedio, my partner in Klank, has a lot of similar musical interests. We both love Depeche Mode, Stabbing Westward, Life Of Agony.
Q: Are you still actively embracing Christianity?
Klank- Yes I am. I actually work for my church as well and am very involved in our homeless feeding ministry we have going on. I handle food donations from a local grocery store to disperse to our community multiple days a week.
Q: Do you find a brotherhood in music? or does it seem like a competition to sell records and get recognized?
Klank – It’s actually a bit of both. There’s definitely a lot of brotherhood in music, amongst friends, fellow musicians, and those you may consider peers.
There’s also the flip side of the coin where you have to constantly prove yourself, your bands worth, and earn your spot in a scene so to speak.
Q: Did you ever know or speak to Howard Stern?
Klank – Yes. I was actually a huge Howard Stern fan growing up on Long Island in New York. Some friends and I went to one of his book signings and ended up showing up like 15 hours early and standing on this long line overnight just so we can have a moment to say hi and for me to give him a pre-release copy I’m still suffering before it was even out. He was super nice and very supportive actually.
Q: Its incredibly difficult to love and express love to hurting individuals, especially in this day and age. I personally think Christ, reinforces and reacts that sentiment. Do you agree?
Klank- I would say yes and no only because it can be easy to show love to some, but others might not see it at love or misunderstand where you’re coming from. Usually, anyone who is hurting is pretty guarded and puts up walls because they don’t wanna be hurt anymore which is totally understandable. It can be really easy to show people love, but really hard for some people to accept that love if that makes sense.
Q: Where you ever into CS Lewis or Fredrich Nietzsche?
Klank – Nah, I’m not big on reading.
Q: Do you like video games?
Klank – Not really. I mean, I can appreciate them, but I grew up in an insane born-again Christian household, where we were told video games are of the devil, and that they would rot your brains lol. The whole garbage in, garbage out routine essentially is what my parents pushed on us.
Q: Never saw you at Cornerstone, did you ever play that festival?
Klank – Yes. I played a few years with Circle Of Dust way back in the day, and also with KLANK. So many great memories there. We always look forward to playing that because it was like a big family get together, so to speak of all the people you didn’t see during the year.
Encouraging words of advice, and anything you want to promote or say please feel more than free to share. Please provide any pictures, links, media you want me to include. This concludes the interview, something I failed to mention to him in the interview that for as long as I can remember I used his band name as part of my passwords for web sites growing up. As I said before “still suffering” was a big influence and favorite of mine. My taste in music shifts and moves rapidly, and the combination of industrial and metal is a special interest of mine. I hope anyone who got something from this would take the opportunity to check them out and help support them individually and for their art and craft in music.
First off, I wanna say thank you for the opportunity to chat today. We really appreciate it.
We are gearing up for our 12th release coming on June 16, 2023 called “Between Unholy And Divine Vol.2”. Pre-orders for that album begin on May 19 and we’re really stoked to get this new music out there.
Without much delay, they have delivered to me the answers to some of my most pressing questions. This release of Entropy is a signal of the atmosphere for sure. I think this is a powerful discussion and I hope you will enjoy. And yes, I will introduce a new page specifically for interviews.
First of all, how the hell are you, anyway? considering the social and political climate in the European disaster that is happening, it goes without saying.
A, Thanks for having us again. We have just come back home from a show in central Greece, we did a local festival there. This is the second show we played since the whole pandemic thing ensued. Regarding climate, I don’t really feel like discussing inflation, fuel shortage, energy crisis etc. . It seems like an endless downward spiral, let alone history tends to repeat itself. Regarding the band during the COVID crisis, we suffered the cancellation of a festival appearance and we saw a tour going down the drain, eventually also getting canceled. We try to stay afloat. Entropy Dynamics, which is the upcoming album, was recorded a year ago. In the meantime, we released an Ep. Needless to say, that I don’t have any grandiose expectations when it comes to the near future as there is still turbulence around. One thing that I find pleasing is that we managed to write and record a damn great album, filled with darkness and contempt, totally representative of the Kali Yuga age we are undergoing.
Q, I was actually browsing over your recent Facebook post and I saw your aggression and concern about the genre of black metal, I think you spoke it rather well, and no need to divulge. But it’s with a passing concern that we allow Hollywood to narrate our music? or it be the other way around?
A, I don’t really lose any sleep over the future of Black metal and metal in general. We are in the middle of a weeding out process (to quote BLACK FLAG). You see when it comes to black metal there is a certain sensationalist approach plus it is a very popular subject matter for the press to write about, as well we are witnessing a generational shift when it comes to who is involved with the black metal scene. I said, in a stream of consciousness style, but rather calmly, what I think about the whole issue. I was asked in an interview, and I answered back. Black metal is a big part of my past, present and probably my future, so I think my 2 cents are somehow relevant. Suffice to say, that this is no longer a scene consisting of renegades and outcasts. Back when I was a teen, I had to make a stand when it came to my choice of black metal t-shirts, now it’s been an integral part of the pop culture. People are making feature films and documentaries about black metal. But this is the reality of the situation.
Q, I’m still thinking about Antigone and that goddamn scene of suicide and sacrifices of humans, its unthinkable this Greek mythology. How much does this affect your music?
A, what is most interesting in my eyes is sacrilege, blasphemy and divine punishment involved and inherent in ancient Greek tragedies, as well as other forms of social commentary. Human sacrifices among other measures were utilized to appease the angry gods. Burnt offerings, such as animals were mostly used and sacrificing humans was considered the last resort. That was common in many pre-Christian civilizations.
Antigone poses critique to the social structure of many ancient Greek states and uses some very interesting symbolism. When primary identity is reduced to “us” and “them,” the definition of justice narrows. It becomes simply what helps “us” and harms “them”. When a leader urges citizens to identify his enemies as enemies of the state, what those citizens may end up having most in common with each other is anger, fear and mutual contempt. Thucydides’, one of the most significant ancient Greek Historians, observed that when a community is at war with itself, “moderates suffered most, because they were subject to attack by both factions.”
Sophocles offers another lesson in Antigone. Namely, that a single person in power, if he persuades or frightens enough people, can cause the suffering of innocents and the loss of institutions and customs on which civil order rely.
Of course, this masterpiece could have taught the future generations a lesson or two. Alas, it wasn’t bound to happen.
Art in general, be it music, literature, cinema or theater profoundly affects our music.
Q, I have had 2 psychotic breaks and dislocated my right shoulder, I need a replacement shoulder, it’s been on my mind to get the surgery, what do you think? Yeah, shoulder is a flawed joint anyways,please do get a replacement shoulder…
A, as for the psychotic breaks of yours, I don’t know your background and I don’t want to patronize you, but it seems that more and more people are in a bad place and are struggling with depression, borderline personality disorder, self-harm tendencies etc. This should be of primary interest. I am very aware of the reality of mental disorders and very supportive of people who struggle. I’ve had people close to me who suffered in silence. When I was young, I was clueless, I was raised to buckle up and suck it, bite the shit sandwich and smile type of approach. This is of course wrong, and I figured this out on my own, when shit hit the fan in more than one occasions.
Q, it’s exciting your releasing new music, how about Dead Congregation? any idea if they might be brewing something up? {maybe I should ask them myself?}
A, Yeah, they have written the new album but haven’t found time to record yet. Hopefully soon…
Q, what are your thoughts on Ketamine and mushrooms? do you think the world will ever get there shit straight and consider the fact that this does indeed help people?
A, there’s been a discussion since the Sixties on hallucinogens and other mind-expanding drugs or drugs that serve medical purposes. It is without doubt that people get helped by certain drugs. However, the whole drug culture is definitely not my thing.
Q, You guys like video games?
A, some of the past and present members like them. I was never a fan. I am mostly infatuated with music, cinema and literature.
Thats the best of it, I look forward to your response.
I would like to thank you again for hosting us again. New album is going to hit you hard.
Die by Power!
…………………………… https://embracethorns.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/EmbraceOfThorns/
When I think about current bands that epitomize the true nature of black and death metal music, I hold a special place for bands like Embrace of Thorns, an establish band from Greece. I was inspired to conduct this interview after repeated listens to their new release “Scorn Aesthetics”. A dark gripping, almost depressing and sometimes painful listen. And after reading through the responses here I find that I wasn’t necessarily fallen from the mark. During this interview process they were just finishing up a U.S. tour.
If there is one thing to appreciate considering this primitive form of music, it is the work ethic and devoted interest in this music. With all this said, I hope you will enjoy this brief but entertaining interview. I once again thank Embrace of Thorn for taking time to speak with me. Just a lowly no-name metal head from Michigan.
Tell me what is the underground metal scene like in Greece? It’s been increasingly better during the last decade, there are shows every week and lots of quality recordings coming out. Well it’s my big dysfunctional family, I tend to loathe it but I am unable to do without it. It carries the analogies and pathologies of every scene but it’s better than it was in the early 2000s.
What were your inspirations with Scorn Aesthetics? Calculated ,cold , desperate, comforting scorn against pretty much everything . It’s a rude awakening thing and a realization that change is not likely to come. So what we are left with is to fortify our own little strongholds . So strife has now another meaning , to barricade our precious world and not succumb to conformity and to the unified vision of the modern blindfolded man, a nihilistic irony…
Your music is very raw and primitive, a semblance of death and black metal. Angry and primitive, you even included (used exceptionally well) samples from the Jonestown Massacre. Please tell me what your worldview is in regards to living, basically what encourages you to continue on in this life? There is no unified worldview,but a rather tribal, dare I say atavistic need for preserving what fulfills our lifecode and inner needs. No edgy stuff here rather than a defiant philosophy and a hunger to reap the fruits of inner strife in times of conformity, that “encourages” us to move on. We ve been saying pretty much the same stuff since 2009… but some lyrics for an upcoming song briefly encapsulate my standpoint.
“Humanity is a cancer and tumours have been long devouring its marrow,All mechanisms of defense seem to have failed and there is no room for reversalThe end of this disgraceful travesty is nigh , this sick animal must be put to sleep.I dream of pallbearers and endless funerals, a rather pleasant interval to this misery incarnate.I dream of ravens croaking and vultures circling…I dream of heartbroken mothers, of their pale wrinkled faces ,of eyes blood red and self inflicted chest wounds.Let the deceased sons of failure be baptized in a pool of rotten blood…Let them dismantle in an eruption of disproportionate proportions…Mourning for what should have happened ages ago is pointless…For the threads and the fabrics have been long ago torn… And Rightfully the Filthy vermin brought the black plague forth …”
Can you give me a brief idea of your current band formation? are you all close friends? I am sure you all have employment and side jobs to support yourselves to play this kind of music. We are comrades,partners in crime, brothers from different mothers. Members with own agendas have no place in EoT. One must either unconditionally surrender himself to the glory of darkness impenetrable or he won’t last. The Scorn Aesthetics line-up is the quintessential EoT line-up
Current music that you are enjoying? the new DECEASED album, new DEATHHAMMER,COMMUNION,WITCHCRAFT(Fin), DEATHLY SCYTHE,AIMA,the new ARCHGOAT,last NECROPHOBIC album that’s what I’ve recently enjoyed
Current films, books you are enjoying? Tons of them but nothing that has impacted EoT lately.
My interest in metal of Greece started with Dead Congregation. Are you at all associated with them? or friends? Yes we are, we can call them close acquaintances,even friends, AV even used to play for EoT from 2009 til’ 2012, he recorded “praying for absolution” with us and remains someone we hold dear. DEAD CONGREGATION are very dedicated persons and deserve all the support they have gotten through the years.
Do you think Friedrich Nietzsche would listen to death/black metal? (assuming he was alive today) I guess he would rather listen to some very brooding classical pieces…
The zine is dead and the label in hiatus,there are no hopes for a revival of the zine ,as for the label time shall tell. The scene is something that I hold in very high esteem and I don’t want to do the label thing if my heart is not into it 100%, at the moment there is no possibility to be more active with the label, but I think the impact of what I have released has been big enough. My goal was to create something in the vein those very dedicated 90ies labels, that provided an outlet for underground expression wrapped in a very limited anticommercial framework. I have been let down but I have also reaped great rewards through my course in Kyp. Truth is however that the underground is a whole different beast nowadays and I don’t have much left in the tank anymore ,so as to keep on soldiering through it forever. If I am to go through the motions in order to do it,i’d rather not do it at all. Kill Yourself Productions – Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
I think that is all I have got for you. I want to thank you in advance for this opportunity, and honor of speaking with you. Feel free to include any promotional information or closing words. I will do my best to get the word out about your band and music.
thank you for the interview…
Please support these musicians and their pursuit and vision. They are incredibly hard working, and what great guys to take the time to answer some questions from me.
Much of today’s metal bands are a dying stagnant breed. We do still have a handful of new and old faces, that offer a refreshing change to the bunch. But it is rarely happening by new and upcoming faces. Which brings me to the music of Dead Congregation, a death metal band from Greece, that plays a charismatic mixture of death metal. I was privileged to have the chance to talk with them about several interesting topics. I hope you all enjoy.
Let me first off with saying how much of an honor and privilege to finally get into a dialogue with the band. Your music takes a chaotic blend of the earliest roots of death metal, and have delivered a new refreshing sound, to the stagnant death metal flock that has been a forbearance, in regards to the new flock of “death metal bands is a lot of cases a decline of the roots, of what makes death metal such a pivotal piece to a stagnant genre. What lead you to go with against the grain, and produce something that is so overtly driven to technicality in favor of a slew of releases that hold no boundaries in terms of the new death metal bands. A chaotic blend with rhythmic overtures which lead to an agonizing ministry of sound.
Thank you very much for the kind words. We never tried to go against the grain, we always write and play the music that feels natural to us, the band is a medium to channel our creativity and serves as a cathartic vessel with which we outflow our spiritual and artistic restlessness. There is not much thought behind our compositions, only primal instinct and emotion.
I want to slowly get away the obligatory questions and dive deeper into what makes you such a pivotal piece in the underground.
It’s not up to us to say if we’re a pivotal band in the underground so we can’t say what makes us that either. We don’t really feel like an underground band anyway, maybe a band that refuses to conform to the marketing side of things and sign to a big label but our music has passed the boundaries of the underground circles.
The geographical location Greece, has a lot of mythology surrounding your culture, and how much of that influences your impacts your music and lyrical approach.?
It doesn’t really. Although we all have huge admiration of our country’s history it doesn’t affect the way we write for Dead Congregation.
Your standard of lyrical content comes from a almost nihilistic stance as far the establishment of organized religion. How much does the church deter you away from social norms of religion?
Our lyrics are mainly about the ongoing decline of organized religion, however we prefer to write them rather abstractly so they can be loosely interpreted, as we don’t wish to preach our personal beliefs to anyone. We just want to create discomforting images/feelings to the listener by combining sardonic lyrics with the suffocating atmosphere of our music.
I want to also admit that my actual first introduction to your music was Promulgation of Fall*, which lead to me seek out your earliest releases, namely Graves of the Archangels, which still holds me in a contempt to your newest release, which is very unique in its ability to include what sounds to me like chanting monks, which surprisingly blends with the overall sound and creates an undeniable atmosphere, which works perfectly well with the sound surprisingly enough.
You mean ‘Promulgation of the Fall’ (not ‘Promulgation of Dead’). In regards to the chants in ‘Graves of the Archangels’, they were means to an end. The idea of using those chants came after we recorded all the music, then we thought about using some chants of Orthodox priests that sing hymns to the Archangels which we had and they sounded just perfect for the specific case. It was something that fit and enhanced the concept of the album.
Promulgation of the fall, has left behind the monk chanting and delivers a myriad of memorable riffs that derives the brutality and brings about a more presentable masterpiece. Slow churning riff, that assembles a opus of brutality. All the while, keep it all in context.
Indeed, it was a very conscious choice to not repeat ourselves by using similar samples but instead create all the opposing atmosphere with the sheer aggression of the riffs and compositions themselves. The new album is more direct and more diverse at the same time, there are a lot of things happening in the structures of the songs but all of feelings we want to get across are channeled through our instruments and our music’s balance between melody and disharmony.
The lyrical content is very anti-religion. and makes me wonder how much a part of the church in Greece, that fuels your hatred for the stigmas of organized religion.?
We just feel scorn towards people who are easily manipulated and have no individual thought, such as the mindless followers of any organized religion. Since Christian religion is not only prevalent in our country but in the majority of western civilization, our lyrics are mainly targeting that.
I guess my next question, is your worldview on life and morality. Do your lyrics directly influence your lifestyle of individuals?
In general we are into individualism and personal spiritual elevation. Each one should be constantly striving for self-improvement and not conform to hypocritically moral rules instructed by any church.
To me you have made a credible sound for yourself, in the ability to bring a unpresented disregard, for the typical run of the mill death metal bands. Slow churning, while instantaneously delivering a hard driven force to meld together a perfect blend of chaos with rhythmic sections that leave a lasting impression in your mind.
Again, thanks, it’s nothing intentional. That’s just how we express ourselves through music to feel fulfilled as artists.
Now I would like to lighten up the mood a little, and ask about hobbies, and work related obligations. Its presumably with this brand of music, it must be difficult to make a reasonable living outside of your touring and being an active band.
I think the majority of our hobbies are very much music-oriented. We also read books and personally I like a lot of activities that bring me closer to nature, from snowboarding to fishing, mountain biking, even just a walk in nature. All of us enjoy trips very much so it’s a great privilege to be able to see all these foreign countries when playing with the band. Sometimes if we play in a city that is particularly interesting we’ll make sure to stay some extra days, like we did in Prague, Bergen and some others. We do have regular jobs as well so that we can afford a descent life and not live like bums.
Not to back step a little and ask, where does the monk chanting come from? is that all done and performed by the band.
No, as said, they are Orthodox hymns to the Archangels, sung by monks in a Greek monastery.
I always want to lay the nail in the coffin, because when I first heard your music, I found a slight influential from the band Incantation. But to be honest the more I listen to your music the more I hear less of Incantation, and a created sound all of your own.
Maybe our ‘sound’ and our music’s suffocating atmosphere has similarities to Incantation’s sound/atmosphere but the music and riffs and drumming themselves don’t have much in common with Incantation. We have tons of influences and the strongest are probably Slayer’s first 5 albums and Morbid Angel but as a principal we don’t try to sound like anyone in specific. We just filter all our influences and have our own interpretation of how Death Metal must sound.
What is your favorite brew of choice?
I like a lot of beers from small and big breweries but if I have to narrow it down to favorites from ‘known’ brands I’d say Kozel Dark for anytime and Corona for the hot Greek summer days when you need something very refreshing to cool you down.
Favorite past times? outside of music.
Movies, books, historical documentaries, trips, walking my dog, spending time with my girlfriend and close friends and spending time in nature.
What is the Greece metal scene like? any notable bands that you respect?
It’s quite active lately, we always had a lot of passionate metal heads in Greece and in the last 10 years we see many good bands popping up in the underground. My respect goes to Acrimonious, The Psalm, Resurgency, Embrace Of Thorns, Impure Worship, Convixion, Exarsis, many others…
I would be interested also into know what your philosophical approach to live? and what has determined your worldview?
I’m a fucking pessimistic nihilist.
The tone of your music has a inherently depressive tone, and chaotic as all hell. You hold no boundaries in your abilities to create something almost esoteric. It’s outright original in presentation. Not a single track is left without a guided direction, your writing approach is absolutely blasphemous.
Our music IS very esoteric and not calculated at all. Maybe it appears like we have tremendous
attention to detail but in reality all the layers in our songs that work together in favor for the bigger picture are just strokes of inspiration – sometimes you sit down with the guitar and an entire song takes shape without effort, ideas pop in your head one after the other and you don’t even know how you came up with all that because the composing process is not a conscious one at all. It’s not like we can sit down and say ‘ok, we’ll use this riff, then we must do a riff like this and put a lead on top like this’ and voila a song takes shape. Our music is multi-dimensional because balancing fast aggressive parts with oppressive slow parts and chaotic moments with melancholic melodies is OUR way to express ourselves, at least on this specific album. Other artists feel fulfilled with creating a 10 song album out of 9 riffs, like VON’s ‘Satanic Blood’ for example, and there is nothing wrong with that either! There is no recipe on how to write songs, you just need to be in a certain (inspirational) state which may last for a few or a lot of ideas before you fall in a writer’s block for some time. But in any case, if you’re sincere to yourself as an artist, you never force yourself to create on purpose, everything just comes naturally.
Well that is all I got. Feel free to share any final words to publicize your music accordingly. As I have said before, your music alongside Triptykon, are the reigning champions of the calendar year of 2014. Slow foreboding harmonies that leave a lasting impression. All the while unleashing a chaotic face ripping masterpiece.
Again thank you for your kind words and for having us here.
I thank you for this opportunity. And I am thoroughly impressed with your ability in musicianship.
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