This time, Lachryma Christi had the pleasure of interviewing a Portuguese Black Metal band. My Enchantment have been around for almost 20 years. Their last release was a EP called The Death of Silence (which was one of the suggestions for you readers, in the playlist for this week!), and they are releasing a new album called Saligia, on the 13th of April. In fact, this album will be released on a show that they are playing, in Lisbon (PT), at RCA Club. You may find a photo of the cover of this album a bit further down.
They have a few gigs scheduled as well, so it might be interesting to all of you to read this fine interview.
What do you mean by My Enchantment as a name for the band? What's the idea behind it?
The idea we tried to convey was to somehow describe, as it were, the sound of the band. By the time the name came up, that sound was somewhere between goth, industrial and black metal, so we thought the name had definitely something to do with it.
How do you describe the style of music you play?
Being six elements in the band, there are various influences on our style of play, but we think that it can be described as Symphonic Black Metal.
What do you speak about on the lyrics? Is there a main idea you want to spread within the people that listen to your music?
Mainly our own day-to-day experiences, dreams or nightmares we may had, a subject or a problem that we have been through in life, it can be something like that. On our latest record, “Saligia”, for instance, we talk about a journey through the circles of Hell and the deadly sins and the way this affects us today. A concept album always gives you room to explore in more detail a specific theme or subject and have a story, characters and a guideline throughout the entire record and this was something that we really wanted to do.
My Enchantment have been around for a long time. There have been some line-up changes, which usually change stuff. However, the feel is very similar always. Is this a conscious thing? Or did it just happened this way?
Yes, it has been almost 20 years now and it has not been an easy journey. We had several line-up changes over the years and that tends not to give you the stability to progress as wanted. Nonetheless, as you pointed out, our sound and feel do remain similar. Although we believe we have evolved naturally in terms of song structures, of doing the sound we wanted to do and not be bound by genres or something like that, but actually, we also wanted to preserve as much as we could the identity of the band and its roots.
You have a new album coming up, do you want to talk about it and about what we can expect of it?
Yes, we are very excited about this album! It has been long since we released a record, but we think it was worth the waiting. As we mentioned, “Saligia” is a concept album about a journey through the circles of Hell and the deadly sins portrayed on a main character. It is loosely based on Dante’s Inferno but is more about our own experiences on dealing with people’s behaviours that trigger an array of emotions that are almost primitive. On the music itself, we tried to connect the songs to these emotions so that the listeners could really sense that they are on a journey, with all the highs and lows of a hard journey through the darker corners of human behaviour. In that sense, we have moments of raw brutality, slower paced songs, more ambience keyboard-based moments and faster riff-based songs. We hope that everyone who listens can enjoy it as much as we had fun doing it.
What are your biggest influences musically? What makes you write such emotional powerful melodic Black Metal?
Our influences are as vast as it can go in the metal genre. From black metal to power metal to djent tp prog, you name it. Bands like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Slayer, Lamb of God, Metallica and Iron Maiden can be named as our biggest influences, we think mainly because you can feel them more evidently in our music. However, there are others like Opeth, Dream Theater, Helloween, Megadeth, Meshuggah, Immortal or Em peror that can build a strong case as well.
We think most of the bands named as our biggest influences are in this category, really! Of course, some bands have a more similar sound to our own, so those would be the ones, realistically speaking, that we could imagine ourselves headlining with on a gig or tour.
Since your album is coming out now, I suppose you have some gigs coming too. Anything you would like to advertise?
Fortunately, we already have some gigs lined up and we are always looking forward to play live, it is one of the main reasons of being in a band, just to go out there and leave it all on stage. After all the backstage preparations people usually do not see, of composing new songs, rehearsals and all that, it really gives us great joy to perform live. The live debut of “Saligia” will be on April 13 th , at RCA Club in Lisbon. After that, we will play on the 20 th of April at Milagre Metaleiro in Viseu and on the 27 th at Moita. On the 4 th of May in Leiria at Texas Bar, on June 29 th at Metalpoint in Porto. On October 26 th we will be in Cartaxo, on the 1 st of November in Portalegre Core Fest and on the 1 st of December in Cacém.
What was your most remarkable experience live? The show that gives you those special memories?
We always have a lot of fun playing live, but the gig we did with Therion we believe will have a special place in our memories. The gig was awesome and hanging around with those guys was great! They are very humble, down-to-earth people and that made it that a great night indeed.
Lachryma Christi hopes to see you live many times still and wishes you all the best. Any last messageyou would like to leave for your fans and followers?
Thank you! It was great talking with you and we really hope to see you as well out on the road more times! For all you metal heads out there, go listen to our new album and come see us live. Come chat with us at a gig and give us your thoughts on the music, we always appreciate to engage with anyone who attends at our shows and as we have one of the best metal crowds in the world, we like to give some of that energy back!
Ricardo Oliveira - Drums
João "Grande" - Guitar
Fernando Campos - Guitar
Fernando Barroso - Bass
Rui Gonçalves - Keyboards
Alex Zander - Vocals
Read more about My Enchantment here:
https://www.facebook.com/My.Enchantment.PT/
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