Venom Prison Interview from Erebos (Spanish Subtitles)
Hello, is Tony Gonzalez from Made in Metal And today we are going to interview venom Prison, who recently released a new CD called Erebos. We are going to interview -the guitar player Ashley. How are you? -I'm good. Thank you. How are you? How are -you? -Fine. Thank you. So my first question is our curiosity to me. How a band from Wales decide to get in the band a woman
-from Russia? -And we've all been in bands prior to Venom prison, and we were all touring quite a lot. And I think we all kind of knew each other like Ben, our guitarist. He lives in a time not far from mine, and our bands were always playing together. Same with Ben's band was playing with Larissa's quite a lot touring in Europe, UK shows, and I think everyone just got to know each other through the years of touring. And then we kind of came to an end with those bands and we just decided to put Venom prison together. And that's pretty much
-how it came to life, to be honest. -Have you seen Larissa singing before going -to prison? -Yeah, yeah. That's the band that she was in. She was also in a band before Venom prison as well, which was tore in loads, you know? So it was. Yeah, it was. We always knew it. We always knew each other.
And everyone always kind of knew what everyone did in their previous bands and everything. So I think it was just one of those things where everything just lined up perfectly in time. You know, I wasn't in my band anymore at the time while my previous band and scene with Ben and Mike and Joe and the wrestler as well. And I think it just kind of lined up perfectly like there's no real like, you know, definitive story to it, ever. It was just like everyone just come out
of bands and was like, Hey, do you want to give it another go? And that's kind of where it really started to come together, you know? Yes, Ash it was a good movement to take here in the in the band because she sings spectacular. I enjoy a lot and a from this CD, something that I enjoy. I love is the CD cover made by Eliran Cantor. That is awesome. So tell me about the idea -and its relation with the music. -So we've been working with Eliran for quite some time now. We worked with them on our first album, so it's been three records now that we've done with them, and it's always so great to work with them like our ideas come out so perfectly together and we'll do pre-production on the album where I recorded at my place or Ben's place, and then the rest old demo vocals on it onto the record or the pre-production. And then we kind of send it to Eliran and give him the lyrics, and we give him the pre-production of all the songs that have been demoed. And we kind of just leave and just sit with
it for a couple of weeks to get comfortable listening over and over again. And he'll normally take a passage of lyrics from some point in the album and kind of has this idea of like the imagery of it wanting to round itself off is one whole, you know, like image that kind of almost brings the idea of like what Erebos sounds and looks like imagery. And I think he's always very good at capturing it like the first moment I see my sketches. It felt very you look at it and you even when you look at the artwork, you feel very isolated. And yeah, it's certainly a powerful cover. Like I remember when we first got the physical with the vinyl come through and I just stayed at it, you know, a good 10 20 minutes and hours, just like this is pretty intense. It's working. It's really
capturing those lyrics and that to this record perfectly, and it's almost like you can hear the album when you look at the artwork. I imagine when I see the cover that a those two women are between dead people maybe in an open grave or something, one of them is trying to control the other, -who is in panic, yes. -Okay, yeah, if it's a nice one, because like I think the cool thing when we were talking about when the artwork was kind of done is that there's so many, because the whole idea of Erebos is that everything in Erebos to be linked to the idea of something born from chaos. The interpretation of when you look at those eyes on the record and make everyone's interpretation of it is going to be slightly different because somebody know someone feels. Something from that may not be the same feeling that everyone
else is getting, and I think maybe these past experiences that kind of like make you feel that there's like that isolation and that feeling. And that's kind of what I really liked about how we left it so open where they, you know, those to the eyes and the desperation of the two people, like everyone goes through that desperation and suffering in different ways. So however you interpret, it is still the same. Meaning is no matter what the other person will interpret.
So I really like the idea that it was kind of an open book, -almost -so I am living from Madrid. But my co-workers are from Bilbao and they were a in a concert when you were here in Spain supporting Trivium in 2018, and the people there in Bilbao still remember the concert, the power and energy. They don't forget the voice of Larissa. Do you remember this too? Can you tell us anything about it? Yes. Yeah, I remember. I remember that so very well. Like, yeah, that that toll
was really good, and I think it was great because we had the opportunity to come to places that we haven't had a chance to explore. Or maybe there is a tour that we had gone on in the past that had gone through that way. So it was really nice to be able to actually have a chance to go there. And then when we played Resurrection Fest, yes, like what an incredible festival like that was.
That was such when we played Resurrection Festival that was so good for us. That was after the Trivium tour. But the the crowd and the reaction was like great. And I was saying to someone not long ago, like we, we are already looking to kind of come back to that because it was it was really good. So yeah, we definitely do remember and are aware that we kind of want to come back because Resurrection Fest and some dates around that, I think would be super cool and a that I've -brought up numerous amount of times now. -Yes, we will be happy to receive the band again, of course. So I would like to ask you about some songs in the in the CD that
a day we were really curious. And I'm going to start talking about "Pain of Oizys" because the song is completely different and you even selected is even when the song is completely different. You selected as a single and video, tell me -why. -I think it was because we were ready. We had said a lot in the past that we would never do the same record twice.
Like "Animus" doesn't sound like "Samsara" in "Samsara", certainly doesn't sound like "Erebos". And we were, say into interviews and press or we started recording and like the build up to that. We were going back into the studio and people were like, What was it going to be like? And I remember saying it won't be the same like you. It will be Venom Prison. You'll hear that core sound, you'll hear everything about it. That makes of Venom Prison song, but it won't be a song that you will be familiar with. And I think that's why we chose it to be single too,
because it was almost a way of saying, Hey, we're serious. We did say we're not, you know? And I think I think people kind of appreciate it in a way like the response to it wasn't negative at all. It was all very positive and it was the most diverse, different directions song we've done. But everyone was kind of like what they did say that were going to do that. And I think that's kind of like, I think that's kind of all worked really well. As we said, yeah,
we'll do something different. We know we know what's important about Venom prison, but we're certainly becoming cleverer with finding ways to kind of make it more creative and add a lot more depth and layers. And like, even as soon as we left the studio from Erebos, me and Ben were already talking about new songs and how we were going to build in new additional layer to Venom prison and what we would introduce. But I think the real good thing about that is we're very on this counts
for all of Erebos not just "Pain of Oizys", but we're very good at being sparing with those moments we don't force and new influence or a new layer or a new thing onto the listeners. We kind of sparingly use it and introduce it as a new element to the band. And I think a lot of bands that kind of use that statement of, Oh, we're going to change our saying. We're going for a different. Action and all that, and we never said that, we just said it won't be the same song you've heard before. And. "paint of Oizys" was the reason it was number two. Yeah,
-that was the exact reason why. -If you think of what the people say, you know that all the time will be extremist that say, Oh, the band is sold, the bband is sold. But no, I think not. But on the other hand, if you are thinking of this person, you will never grow up as a band playing every day the same songs. And that's what some, some people, not what the people wants is one some people -wants. -Yeah, that's it. And I also felt that this is relating to "Pain of Oizys" of when we when we were over, I remember we were over a it was me, myself and Mike, our bassist, and we were in the demo period of writing "Pain of Oizys". And I remember just our basiss and he was like, When did our band stop writing songs like this? And I was like, What? What do you mean? And he was like, Well, nobody no one ever complained about Metallica's "Nothing else matters" or Ozzy Osborne's "Killer of giants". In fact, all of Ozzy Osborne's
catalog that wasn't with Sabbath was all ballads, and that's the type of music I listen to I always have. And, you know, when people try and use like that def con label on a set, it is quite confusing because I don't really know what they were. I know what. I know what type of band that's cool. Like, you know, I haven't been living under a rock like, I know I know what it is. But when I listen to Venon Prison, I don't hear that. I don't hear it. All I hear is like metal, you know, like, I obviously know there's the subgenres of is it death metal or is it black metal? Is this this is that. But ultimately we went into Erebos
just saying, let's make a metal record. And that was it. So it's something that like it about the video, apart from the music, the actress is the landscape. So now you're telling me that this landscape was around the corner -of your house? -Our video guy, while our friend Tom. He lives in Brighton. And it was. It was not far. Well, it was pretty much. I saw it is where we lived in Brighton, essentially. But yeah, Brian's a very, very nice. You know, is a beautiful place, really is.
Yes. When when I see it, those landscape, I imagine I say this is the reason why the people who live there are different than the people who live here. This is where I live. I live in Wales. And I mean, it's, you know, I live very close to lots of fields and and mountains and, you know, they drive the waterfalls quite regularly and stuff. And yeah, if it's a if it's certainly a quieter life, I let's go back to the let's go back to Erebos because there is I know. I like
it even more now. This "Nemesis" is the the video. So this video is totally crazy. Totally, totally crazy to me. Tell me about the song and the video, please. So basically the way we approached it is we brought in Jonathan, who was in judges of the underworld. He was the actor and judges of the underworld. And obviously we had Tony who was in pain of all these and we wanted to bring him back the nemesis like both of them in one video, just to make people aware that it was the same, you know, the same universe. It's not like we're not trying to do some Marvel shit. It's just like, Yeah, it was just like, we wanted to know that they do have relations to each other and. I like the idea of with the lyrics,
the nemesis is very aggressive and out there, but I also remember speaking to Tom Brokaw, the video guy, and I said to him, I don't want any goal or violence or blood or anything like that. And he was like, Well, what do we do to the guy that, you know, how does he become a damaged one? And I kind of left the eye like we left the idea with him to sit with and kind of come out with what he was going to come out with and stuff. And then he sent us the video and we didn't even know what else had gone on over the last conversation we had. And yeah, it come into a very, totally crazy way where like, there's a lot of. Yeah, there's a lot of spiritual us going on in there to cause thing, but it was nice because even though it does make it crazy as such, I like the fact that we completely dodged like having the blood in the gore and the, you know what I mean? Like, we didn't want to make it like anything typical in like, Oh, you're a death metal band, there should probably be some blood and a hammer. And I'm like, Oh yeah, because we could do
other things, I guess. I think that's kind of how nemesis really. The implications of what it's implying is still exactly the same is hurting someone. But I think the fact we're not visually showing it just the same again, it leaves that nice openness of interpretation for like viewers and listeners. Sometimes I think when everything becomes so transparent, there's no real creativity behind it and it loses the beauty of what? What is this? You know what I mean? Rather than going, I know what it is. And if you know what everything is, then it becomes
-boring, doesn't it? -I think that a whole CD is open to interpretation. So the man who wrote the review in Made in Metal, ends the review, saying that the CD is some uncomfortable to listen to. So do you agree? 100 percent. 100 percent. It was. It was very. Yeah, it knows where to pull in certain places of the record. And yeah, it does seems to be. One thing we managed to accomplish in records is we know where dynamics and things to make. The lesson to feel comfortable in certain points, but then I think Erebos does it in a more haunting way because there's so much more melody and so much more clean and lightness to it. But when those darker moments come, it does make it a lot more
harrowing. And I do feel that's what makes it even more uncomfortable because you think you know you go from comfort of complexity where you've got straight fast metal into like a big, major key prog twin solo section into pain of voices, which is piano and electronics. And then somehow you get two golden apples, which is just a crushing Death Metal Blast song and it it just makes it plays with those emotions. And I think we we like the idea of that. I think it makes a record have more feel and more emotion. Just tell me, are you already touring the UK and you have planned you have planned -to -come to Europe. So funny. You mention it. I've been talking about that today, actually. We have our summer festivals
books. We will be planning some stuff around the later half of the year. But I think at the moment I've been saying this quite a bit, but we're still quite creative at the moment. And me and Ben have been talking about things that we would like to do to like, almost support Erebos and interlink like in, you know, without giving too much away. Like, I'd like to keep that creativity go in and see if there's some concept behind Erebos that can link in to it and be new and just keep that going because I feel like it's putting the band in a good place and it's putting the band in a more better place and we're learning every time we're doing these things and I think. Just giving us that little bit more time
to carry on being creative could really be very beneficial for Venom prison. Moving forward as a band like record after record because we don't want it to be the case of this is the problem that we've always faced as a band is that everyone keeps telling us every record we do is our best records. So it's like it's really difficult because it's like "Anima". It's the best debut I viewed in years. And then "Samsara", this is the best follow up record I get, and then we get to "Erebos" and it's like, This is the best. And it's like, you do realize I've got to try
and think about how the far right of record each time. And I wouldn't I don't want to back step on that. I do want to move forward, and I do want to make sure that we keep writing better and bigger record each time. And if it means that that creativity is still there and it's still working, I think it's wise to play on that for a little bit longer rather than jumping on toes and then kind of forget and everything that we were on to and everything we were doing. And then
we get back and then it's like, Oh, where do we start with the writing process? And that's the kind of always been the problem is right. Toll record, right, toll records. And then like even when you go to the studio, sometimes you got some of your best ideas come in, you're like, Oh, wow, I'm going on tour for eight weeks now. I'm never going to remember that ever again. And I just feel like that
is the way everybody is turned out. I'm just not sure I'm OK with just letting that creativity go. Right now, I feel like it's an important time to capitalize on it and see what we can come up with a band and see what boundaries we can keep -pushing, you know? -Yes. So I asked I will tell if edibles is going to be a good product, a good music or not, because edibles is not the study that you play on the first one when you say, Wow, this is awesome. No, you need -to taste. You need to taste. -Yes. Yeah. If you've got many days, there's a lot of dissecting going on with that record. You need to very. It's almost
like it doesn't want you to know what's going on, it wants you to pay attention to it, which I find is why it's not the pop catch. So Ash, this was basically our questions if you want to say something to the Spanish fans And then we say goodbye. "Erebos" is out now. Make sure you check it, I guess, and well, we'll be on the road for sure soon. It's something that we are talking about and working on and stuff. So I don't want people to think that we're not doing shows. We definitely are. It's just maybe not right at this exact moment, you know?
But other than that, check out Erebos and thank you for having me. Yes, thank you very much to you for your time, your answer. So I enjoyed this conversation and discover new things about "Erebos" and about. So it was Tony Gonzalez talking to Ash GRay from Venom prison, introducing the new CD "Erebos" -by Bye us. -Take care. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye. -Have a good weekend. -You too. You too. Goodbye.
Bye bye.
2022-03-04 06:10
