Symbolik is ready to release their album “Emergence” this Friday April 10th. We asked the band a handful of questions about the album and about themselves as well. You can check out the early stream of the album right here. Enjoy!
TMR: What shows do you have coming up supporting “Emergence”?
Well, we had a tour booked from April 10th to April 26 with our labelmates in Flub and Aethereus in support of our album release but due to the current global pandemic from the COVID-19 outbreak, we were forced to cancel. We are looking to reschedule later this year once things start to return to normal. We’re also talking about doing a live stream of sorts during our quarantine/lockdown time.
TMR: Explain the art and lyrics behind “Emergence”.
The artwork was created by Mark Erskine and it’s meant to loosely represent some aspects of the concept of our album. “Emergence” is a journey of a character we created. Symbolically, it’s about one’s journey of self-realization, growth, death, and rebirth. Conceptually, it’s about our character growing into power, but also being led by an entity who has attached to him from the beginning, pushing him to develop his powers along the way with an ulterior motive in mind. The story also is about parallels and the multiverse on a grander scale with the album story itself being split into two separate lives/universes and ranging from medieval/magical times to more scientific and modern times.
TMR: Do you think it helped or hurt going a long time since your EP was released? Do you think it made fans thirstier for new music or a bit less interested? Some people expect new music much sooner these days in comparison to the past.
I’m not sure if it helped or hurt us having a long break in-between our last release. I think people that enjoyed the EP we’re waiting for more and then maybe forgot about us only to get excited when we came back. Having somewhat of an established fanbase from the past seemed to help boost the interest of the new release though. We had many setbacks that put the album on hold over the years but now we have about half of a second album written already and are looking to keep the time between “Emergence” and the next release minimal. At this point, we’re aiming for 2021 for the second album release so that we can keep the momentum going this time.
TMR: How did your relationship with The Artisan Era begin?
It began it 2017 when we sent a friend of ours a demo song of what became the song “Invoking Oblivion”. The demo track got sent to Nick Padovani of Equipoise who then sent it to Malcolm Pugh of Inferi/TAE. Our vocalist Chris started talking online to Malcolm as he was interested in hearing more from us. Then a few months later in early 2018 our guitarist Allen, who at the time was also playing guitar with Alterbeast, did a tour with Inferi and became friends with Mike and Malcolm. They kept in contact over the next year and in 2019 when we finally finished the album and got the rough mix from Zack Ohren we sent it to them. They sent us an offer right away and then we signed with them that same week.
TMR: Who are some of your favorite bands right now?
Currently been listening to Shadow of Intent’s new album quite a bit. Inferi, Warforged, and that new Wormhole have been in regular rotation as well. Outside of metal, we all listen to a lot of different things, from hip hop to classical music and most of the stuff in-between.
TMR: What are you most proud of as a band? Was it a certain song you guys wrote or a certain moment that gave you a sense of pride?
As a band, I would say we are most proud of completing this album. There were many times where we never thought it would get done or even get a proper release. The years between “Emergence” and our debut EP we probably wrote about 3 albums, one was lost to a failed hard drive, one we just scraped and rewrote into what eventually became “Emergence”. We wanted to create something that was more focused, more technical, better produced and overall just something that we could be proud of and still enjoy listening to for years. I think we finally achieved that with this album and we’re finally honing in on our true sound and potential. The next album will be our next step in this direction and will hopefully even more refined.
TMR: What factors influenced the name of the band?
The bands origins go way back to 2007 when our guitarist Allen and vocalist Chris first began playing together in another band. After that band fell apart they both stuck together to create something new. They practiced and wrote songs over the next year with some friends and played their first show as “Demise Embraced” in late 2008. Then in the beginning of 2009, they decided to change the name to Symbolik. The name was chosen because of its simplicity and with how generalized the word is. There are a lot of things that can be considered symbolic in a sense, but “Symbolik” is our own personal connection to different ideals and symbolisms which we like to leave up for interpretation by everyone else. Consider it like if you play a video game and have to create a character. “Symbolik” is meant to be that base character that you build into something that you can relate to with your own imagination and ideals.
TMR: What releases have you enjoyed from this year so far?
So far this year has had some great releases! We’re really digging the new Wormhole album. Sanjay, Sanil and the rest of the guys really outdid themselves with that release. Also the new Lorna Shore has some bangers on it. We’re not huge on Deathcore/breakdown stuff at all but they’ve blended that symphonic blackened style so well we just can’t deny it. Artisan Era also just released two very amazing albums by Aronious and Sutrah that have been on regular rotation since they dropped.
TMR: What do you guys do outside of Symbolik?
Most of us work regular day jobs currently in order to fund the band and live our daily lives. Our guitarist Allen has been self-employed as an audio engineer for a while since he began touring/filling in with bands like Alterbeast and Inanimate Existence regularly. Being a touring musician you have to become self-sufficient and find ways to keep income flowing between each tour. Now that Symbolik has the album coming out we’re all looking to hit the road hard over the next year (global pandemic be damned!) so some of us have to look to things like Uber in order to generate income and still be able to leave for a tour when the time comes.
Categories: Interview, Symphonic Death Metal, Technical Death Metal