This time, Lachryma Christi had the chance to interview Ischemic, Blackened Doom Metal band from Canada.
Ischemic are releasing a new album on the 5th April, called Condemned to the Breaking Wheel.
You may find a link for the review for the same after the interview.
Ischemic truly are a force of nature, they are powerful, they are original, and here is your chance (and mine too!) of knowing a bit more about them.
Ischemic is quite a different name, how did you come up with that idea?
Iz gets full credit for this one! Ischemic is a medical term used to describe parts of the body that have been deprived of blood flow and oxygen, and generally means the affected area is withering and dying.
How would you define the kind of music you play?
We play Death/Doom metal, but our approach is to try and reconcile the different sounds that genre tag tends to encompass. Some death/doom is creepy and brutal - like Asphyx or Runemagick, sometimes it’s gloomy and emotional, like Katatonia or early Swallow the Sun, so we try to make music that encapsulates all those feelings. In the end, people tend to pick out a black metal sound entwined in that end result, so I suppose you could also just say Blackened Death/Doom.
What are your lyrics usually about? Where do you get the inspiration for them?
In the past our lyrical themes tended to deal with an intermingling of the gloom that comes from struggling with or dying from disease of all kinds, or just death in general. But as time has gone on, themes of hopelessness in the modern world, ancient, supernatural horrors and personal loss have made their way into our music.
How does the composing work for you? Do you have a standard way of doing things, or it can vary from album to album?
On past albums, I would write a loose structure and the band would jam out/workshop what worked and what didn’t and then add their interpretations to that. On Condemned to the Breaking Wheel, Mrudul and I came up with more fleshed out works and then just added the odd lead or harmonization over what each other did.
What artists influence you the most?
As a band I’d say there’s varying degrees of mutual love for acts like Hooded Menace, Katatonia, Ahab, later Celtic Frost/Triptykon and Agalloch. Personally, I’ve drawn on those acts as well as Autopsy, Conan, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Thergothon.
Ischemic have been around for quite a long time already, over ten years. How would you describe your journey so far? Have you already accomplished what you would have expected?
Long and fun, which I think is rare in the erratic world of the music industry, and the world in general, has become. The world changed a lot right before we started Ischemic and has changed significantly in these past 12 years once or twice as well, so at this point, I’m just happy that I did my part in keeping Metal culture alive in a city that is unapologetically trying to strangle out live music.
You have a new album coming up next month, Condemned to the Breaking Wheel. How would you describe it? What can your fans and followers expect?
Condemned to the Breaking Wheel will definitely deliver on the Death and the Doom that we aim for, but will be a lot more condensed than the last few albums. The themes and overall vibe of the album tend to lend a lot more to mental imagery of creeping horrors and anguish known since time immemorial and that will be known into the future, as opposed to the gloom specific to the modern world that we used to focus on in the past.
Do you play live? If yes, how is usually a show of Ischemic? If not, are you planning on doing so?
We do play live. Generally, our shows are an interesting juxtaposition of whirlwind headbanging and moshing madness with Iz in the crowd there with you, as well as creeping, focus-driven passages that elicit nothing more than head bobbing and your gaze.
What advice would you give to people wanting to start a band right now?
Just some shows with some really cool bands at the moment and debuting the new songs to the public.
Is there anything else you'd like to add to everyone reading this interview?
Persistence is the key, but honestly, try and learn your way around the basics of all instruments you plan to involve in your project, purely for the sake of communication. Have a solid idea when it comes to a song or project that you will defend, but be open to other people’s opinions and desires - they want to have fun too!
-Listen to DEATH.
Find Ischemic here:
Read the review for Condemned to the Breaking Wheel here:
