I had an interview with Dom the singer of the hell fucking thrash death metal band Bloodspot about their first full-length album “Embrace The End” on early August.
Q: “The Demon EP” that you guys released in 2009 totally kick-ass! and you almost finished making the first full-length album, right? So, please tell me about the album title and introduce the per track…
Dom: At first we wanna send a huge THANK YOU to you and all you guys out there in Japan for being interested in what we do! It is a great feeling knowing that there are people listening to our stuff on the other side of the world. Yes, just as you mentioned, we are right now in the final phase before publishing our brand new album EMBRACE THE END, which is really going to kick all your asses into the atmosphere…hopefully ^^.
Dom: The idea for the title was born from one of our guitar players after reading through the lyrics of THE DEMON EP. Through this, the album title is closely connected to the EP. I would say, THE DEMON EP was the first drip of water before the storm: EMBRACE THE END. The title itself has many ways to be interpretated. When it comes to the band, every member has another thought of interpretation concerning the title. I associate a certain feeling of maximum calmness, maybe just within the second before you die. You kick back, relax, think the last time about your life and embrace what is coming – to accept the end and BECOME the end. And maybe, just maybe, one can connect this intention into all day life when one realizes, that we are mortal and just a blink of the eye within time.
Dom: Okay, here’s the introduction of the songs:
In Nighttime
I made this piece with a friend of the band, who is very brilliant in creating music on his Mac. If you guys want to check him out, his facebook address is here.
Just check him out! very talented! I wanted to create a post apocalyptic atmosphere, in which the END has already begun. All this in combination with a song from the early 20th century “into each life some rain must fall”. I just wanted to give a first dark impression of the album itself.
Breathless
This is actually the first song we ever wrote. It was created within the first practicing sessions back in 2006. We stood there in this really small room, looking at each other and having no idea what to do. So we said “ok lets just play and see what happens”. Some hours later the first song BREATHLESS was born. The lyrics are very crypted. At that time I was in a very dark phase of my own life and I just wrote down what came to my mind. On the first sight it might make no sense but if someone filters out some messages or just pictures for himself, that is more that i could wish for. I think it is very obvious that this song has no typical verse-chorus structure. I think this is the result of “just playing what comes to your mind”.
Beneath A Burning Sky
We wanted to create a blasting song being made of triplets because of terms of rhythm and brutality combined with fast thrash metal riffs. You have to decide for your own if we managed to reach this goal or not. I think we did. The songwriting is quite simple. This was made by purpose because we didn’t want the song to be too complicated so that it might lose its blasting and brutal effect. The lyrics are adding the last ingredient of a apocalyptic atmosphere.
Bullets
This is one of our newer ones. We recorded it with a friend of the band who used to be the leader of a band called PUBLIC EXECUTION which changed their name after a short time into PUBLEX. They were a big influence for us in the beginning and so we decided to include their singer into this song. There are several half-time parts waiting with their boots for your face The lyrics are a combination between a superior being punishing you and social criticism. In fact, this song is very hard for me to perform live, because it is growled very low all the time.
Answer My Fall
This is the most actual song being on the album. Right now my favorite!! This song really kicks ass from beginning to end and rarely gives you a break. Combined to the other songs, this one gives a more complicated impression when it comes to songwriting. The lyrics are dealing with a struggling inner being, which is running at the edge of insanity while accepting the upcoming fall. This person tries to send out a last scream of help with saying “Answer my Fall” while dealing with this situation in some sort of irony and schizophrenia. And last but not least get ready for a real nice guitar solo.
Consumed By Hatred
This is a real neck-breaker! Being fast and limitless from the very beginning, this song only slows down in the chorus and in the end with the intention to build up only more power. The lyrics and the vocals are giving the impression of a dialogue between a fictional person and this feeling, called hate, which tries to sneak into the mind of the person unnoticed and breaking out at the end of the song.
Heart Gore
This is a very personal song. I wrote it in 2008, after a relationship of mine ended very unpleasantly. I had to fight hard every day not to lose my will of living for about 3 months. A long and hard time of pain and tears. For me, this time was HARDCORE, an so I created this wordplay HeartGore. A very slow, hallucinating song with a very hypnotic part in the middle and very honest lyrics. Just check it out!
Rise From Depravity
Everyone who knows THE DEMON EP might be reminded somehow of IN HONESTY. A melodic song which surely gets in the path of Metalcore genre songs. There is a little gimmick just within the first 10 seconds of this song. You will surely hear it – getting back to the old days of metal haha^^. The lyrics are a combination of themes of inner fighting and the call to arms against the depravity we are facing nowadays nearly everywhere.
Unborn
This is also an old one, being #5 in the chronological list. It was born just shortly after Breathless was born and so the lyrics are also relatively dark and crypted. I would say it deals with the missing knowledge of one’s place within modern society. The song in general is dark but fast and combines real fast riffs and drumming with slow mosh-parts.
Lifeless Flesh
This is the longest song we have ever written. I think it takes something about 7 1/2 minutes. Normally songs being this long are ballads or hypnotic ones. But this song really could remind you of the old days of Slayer. BRUTAL! FAST! SHOWING NO MERCY! The lyrics are dealing with the kind of decadency a lot of people are showing in modern times. The title itself shall draw the bow back to the album title with giving it a real brutal ending.
Venus
This one is actually written and recorded by myself. I am writing acoustic songs for my own since 2 years. What you hear are 3 acoustic guitars and an e-guitar playing a solo. After having shown it to the rest of the band we had the idea to put it on the album and so I recorded it within the last hours of being in the studio. It shall calm you down and give you this feeling of relaxing I talked about in the beginning.
Dom: In general I have to say, that I normally don’t talk a lot about the lyrics of BLOODSPOT. I just want the listener and the follower of lyrics to create their own idea of the pictures and atmosphere created. If the listener is able to draw something out of the songs, which could mean something to him, then I managed to draw the listeners attention and that is more I can wish for.
Q: Tell me what you are planning for the band this year.
Dom: We are planning to release EMBRACE THE END in September 2011. Right now we have a little break until September. There will be a gig on a local festival in the beginning of September – just at my birthday!
And after that we are playing 2 weeks of constant touring at the end of November 2011 throughout Germany and some countries within Europe. Going to be a great time! If you want to follow us, just check: http://www.myspace.com/bloodspot
There you all can see tour dates and news stuff!
About Daniel “Howdy” Geberzahn
