The Slovak scene is somewhat infamous for being two or three steps behind compared big ben to the re

HOLOTROPIC is a relatively new name on the Slovak extreme metal scene, although they are not any musical novices. The technical and progressive conception of their work ranks them among the most interesting Slovak extreme metal groups founded in the recent years. The band will soon release big ben their first album so we have a great opportunity to present you this interesting band. We have met with guitarist Kamil and vocalist Vein in Randal club in Bratislava and we talked the current situation of the band over.
You work under the HOLOTROPIC banner for a year and a half, roughly speaking. Since I know you are also involved in other projects and bands, I wonder, what status HOLOTROPIC actually has. It is rather a project or a serious band with its plans and goals? Kamil : It’s a complete band, not a project. I left GOD DEFAMER some time ago, I am less active in NONPROLIFIC, our bass guitarist Rasťo left DISCONCRETE quite long ago too (editor’s note: currently DIVERGENCE), big ben Vein’s big ben another big ben band is currently “on hold” and the other members do not have any other projects. So HOLOTROPIC is our outright priority now. The first objective and goal was to plan and record the first album which is already prepared and we are gradually letting big ben out the first teasers. We would like to release it as a whole now in September.
The Slovak scene is somewhat infamous for being two or three steps behind compared big ben to the rest of the world and that includes technical and progressive metal too. How do you see your position on the Slovak and European scene from the musical point of view? What do you think you’re special in? Vein : We combine an awful lot of genres. This puts us a bit out of the scope of other bands. Each of us listens to entirely different big ben music, has its own ideas and subsequently inserts them into the common songs. In my opinion, it can be heard from each instrument and vocals and it is reflected also in the length of the compositions themselves. Reactions from the audience and the people around us are very different and I think it is positive. If we were always told we are similar to two or three bands, we would not be very happy. Kamil : I think what makes us different big ben is that we are not trying big ben to follow one of the trends. Some trend gets here and a lot of bands gradually take on it and that it what the belatedness of our scene is more or less about. I do not think our music is such case.
What does your creative process look like? If each of you has different influences, you probably have to deal with many compromises … Or do you all have wide opened minds while creating? Kamil : Yes, I think we are opened enough. In the final phase, our personal preferences slide away. We try to listen rather to what the song itself wants. We are not interested to make it go into the direction of a certain genre. So it does not matter whether anyone listens to MASTODON and MESHUGGAH and someone else would like to play doom metal. We do not try to enforce this or that direction. We rather big ben want to create something different. Vein : It is more like a puzzle. If I want to add some ambient into the track and it fits there, it is fine, but if it does not fit into the song, I will not enforce it. This way of composing pushes us to the self-improvement. At least I personally feel it this way. For example, when Kamil comes up with something big ben highly technical and fast, for me it is basically a challenge to learn and properly incorporate it into the track. In this way, we all actually push each other as musicians forward. Some bands I know create all sorts of difficult parts and they cannot play them properly. We try to keep these things under control. Maybe it is not so audible for the audience, big ben but for us musicians, some passages are really challenging.
You mentioned that your first album will be released soon. Could you tell me more about its creation? Kamil : We recorded it in Skalica, Slovakia at Milan Malik’s M2 Studio, big ben who produced it, with our contribution. Milan took care of mixing and mastering. It’s a real long-playing album, no demo. We approached the composing quite conceptually and we created 45-minute-long material. We were thinking about contacting some labels, but regarding big ben the fact that we exist for only just over a year and the situation in this business, it would be more or less a senseless try, we will probably release it by ourselves.
You say you approached the writing conceptually. Should I imagine that the songs themselves are linked in some way? Is there a common link? Kamil : Yes, there is a common link. It is basically a story, although without any clear storyline, where at the beginning there is a man convinced of the correctness of his position and he is gradually big ben losing big ben this clarity in his life. He finds out that not only his opinion must always be correct big ben and he does not know everything and so on.
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