SEVEN ENDS Interview
Category: Interviews Published Date Written by Christine Hits: 155
Genre: Thrash/Death Metal
1. First of all I’d like you to fill us in on what’s happening in the SEVEN ENDS camp at the moment.
We’ve just signed with Massacre Records, and our debut full length album will come out on March 23rd. That brings a lot of work, we’re renewing the website, got a whole bunch of new merchandise and we’re hard at work to get gigs to promote the album.
2. Please point out the most important moments and experiences you’ve had with the band thus far, be them good or bad.
Our highlight was playing at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2010 after winning the Dutch metal battle contest. That’s definitely something we’d like to do again.
3. Can you present “To the Worms” to our readers in a few words? Give reasons to our readers to check your work out. What will they find in it?
“To The Worms” is a heavy modern thrash album spiced up with some death metal influences. It’s fast, raw and kicks ass. It’s mixed and mastered by Andy Classen (LEGION OF THE DAMNED, BELPHEGOR, TANKARD, a.o.), wich you can definitely hear in the raw sound.
4. Can you name some of your favorite bands? Who are those musicians that made you realize this is the kind of music you enjoy the most?
Mmmm…. SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS. I know, everyone says that, but still, they kick ass. HATESPHERE and THE HAUNTED have been a great influence as well. I also listen to CHIMAIRA a lot, but you can’t find much of that sound in our music. Most of our death metal influences come from bands like VADER and VOMITORY.
5. Why do you think you stand out from most death/thrash metal bands out there? What do you believe you can offer to the metal scene?
I think a lot of bands sound the same and get boring. When you start listening to an album, initially it kicks ass, but then after a song or two it’s too much of the same. It gets boring. We slow down or turn the wheel every now and then to keep it interesting.
6. Which song or songs do you think are the most ideal to represent the whole album’s essence?
I think our title track “To the Worms” shows what we’re all about. Straight forward thrash. “Hypocrites of Faith” has more depth in it, without compromising the aggressiveness.
7. Which are your sources of inspiration when it comes to the lyrics? Which are the main topics you deal with?
Social, political and religious topics. But also, like HATESPHERE states, blood beer and Satan.
8. Why did you name the album “To the Worms”? What do you mean?
Buried in the ground…. with the worms: “I’ll send you to the worms”. Our title track is about a sick mind with intent to kill, like you see a lot in the news nowadays. The lyrics are written in his point of view. We’ve chosen this title for our album because the topic death is found in most songs.
9. Who created the cover artwork? How is it connected to the album title and lyrics?
Our vocalist Jan does most of our artwork. The picture shows a gate to a graveyard, hence the name.
10. Have you got any plans for live shows?
Of course, first of all we’ll throw a party to release the album, March 23rd in Venlo (NL). We’re currently planning and waiting for confirmation of more shows. We’ll keep you posted of www.sevenends.com
11. How easy is it for you to play your songs live? Do you have to be in a certain state of mind in order to create the right atmosphere and feeling?
Playing live is never easy. When the adrenaline starts flowing, song will be played a bit (or a lot) faster than on the album. But that’s also what makes playing live interesting. Being a little drunk helps.
12. Have you made any video clips? With YouTube I think videos have started becoming a necessity for bands again. How helpful is the Internet?
We have some live videos online, but not an official video clip, yet. I think any form of promotion, YouTube, websites, social media, anything on the Internet is a necessity. People are spoiled with all kinds of possibilities to get to know bands/musicians. As a band you need to be found everywhere to been seen. The internet is helpful, but also a pain in the ass.
13. What kind of feedback have you received thus far? Can you mention a comment, be it positive or negative, serious or funny, that impressed you?
About the album: we’ve shown the album to some of our friends… they we’re blown away. We also found some reviews on the Internet, wich weren’t bad at all.
At our Wacken open air show, circle pits weren’t allowed. At a point in our set the audience started chanting for a circle pit anyway… pretty awesome. But afterwards festival security and the German police took our vocalist Jan to some room to have a “friendly talk” about what happened. Apparently they were not amused.
14. I know you are a signed band, but do you think that the contemporary metal scene has a place for record labels? I mean more and more bands do everything on their own and more and more labels don’t support the bands or pay them any money… What’s your view on this phenomenon?
Of course it’s possible for a band to release an album by themselves. But then you’ll have to do it all by yourself, production, distribution, promotion, administration. You need some really good contacts, and a lot of money to pull it off… and even then it’s a ton of work. I’m happy we can leave that to our label.
15. What kind of feelings and thoughts do you think your music creates to your listeners?
We don’t have a lot of “sensitive” songs that are meant to bring out a lot of feelings. Singer song writers do that. We hope people get a kick of our music and start talking about it.
16. By the way you have an interesting moniker. How did you come up with it?
Haha… here we go: When we were looking for a band name our drummer Cor used to write down everything he thought of. After a night of heavy drinking he found this piece of paper with SEVEN ENDS written on it, not knowing how he came up with that. Somehow we thought it sounded like us, so we went with that.
17. Thank you! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Yeah, we hope to welcome you one day on one of our live shows and drink a beer with us… and buy the album!! Cheers.
Christine Parastatidou