DIONYSIAQUE - In Vino Veritas ! (Doom-Metal - Interview with N.C.)
Please introduce yourself and let me know how it all began with the band ?
Hi Fabien. This is N.C., singer of Dionysiaque, who wrote to you while listening to Hellwitch's latest album. We first met with L.B., who plays guitar, 10 years ago in 2014. After the split of Résistance, in which I held the vocals, I did a bit of experimental music, but the desire to return to my metal roots prompted me to look for new partners in crime. L.B. is about ten years younger than me and hadn't had any really significant experience in other bands before. On the other hand, his curiosity and genuine interest in music, and particularly in the most ancestral of metal styles, motivated me to start the adventure with him. His ability to compose riffs that blithely mix Darkthrone, Voivod and Candlemass and his musical openness immediately appealed to me. What's more, we're both big fans of bands like Head of the Demon and Evil Spirit. All these bands were the basis of the music we were to create. Very early on, we realized that the name of the band had to represent us in our deepest essence. That's how the name Dionysiaque came about. We were going to tell stories in music, and the main theme would be life at its most exhilarating, but also its most terrible and appalling. Dionysus is the god of drunkenness, but not only that. He is also the god of theater, self-transfiguration and rebirth (sap and the rhythm of the seasons). It was this approach to life's abundance and chaos that motivated us to take this name. From the outset, it was decided that we would record 2 demos on cassette before going on to record the 1st album, now released on March 15, 2024 by I, Voidhanger Records. Like Dionysus, the twice-born god ("diogonos" means twice-born in Greek), the birth of Dionysiaque was to be marked by two demos. The aim was to give us time to develop our style and our universe in a coherent, well-crafted way, so that the 1st album would be the result of a slow but necessary gestation and could be a finished work intense enough to leave its mark. What's more, the line-up changed considerably between the demos and the recording of the "Diogonos" album. Only the two founders of the band, L.B. and myself, remain, now accompanied by three other satyrs who have perfectly assimilated Dionysiaque's desire to play a free, powerful and unique style of music, with its very unorthodox Doom Metal, yet powerfully rooted in the ancestrality of metal, prog, punk and rock.
Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all costs ?
You've no obligation to listen to us. But if you like music that's off the beaten track but know exactly where it's going, and you're willing to let yourself get carried away, it's quite possible that you'll go on a psychedelic, intoxicating journey listening to us. We speak to your repressed animality, and our music is multi-layered. You can take it in its raw entirety, or have fun concentrating on what each band member is playing and trying to figure out how the whole mess comes together. But the most important thing is that we play our music viscerally, and consider that if we play it without conviction or intention to harm the audience's sanity, then it's nothing.
Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences? How important are lyrics to you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts that you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
We see each track as a story. Reality, often tinged with a social dimension, and fiction, often reflecting our philosophical or even political concerns, are major influences. The lyrics give colour to each piece. We deal with those moments when the social order established on a contract dominated by violence breaks down and gives way to chaos, the unexpected, fear and sometimes genius.
In the past, I've drawn inspiration from films like Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Bubby, the literature of Leonid Andreiev and Georges Bataille. I've also drawn inspiration from history with an anti-militaristic song about post-traumatic shock, "Shellshock", in which I quote an army psychiatrist who explains that "the instinct for self-preservation rebels against war". The videos of the traumatized victims of the First World War shaking their poor souls continuously haunted me and continue to terrify me. The last public execution by guillotine in France in 1939 was also a great source of inspiration for our very first track "between the ties". It is said that once the condemned man's head had been cut off, the women threw themselves on top of it to take the blood with them, in a kind of strange fertility ritual totally at odds with the very Catholic fervour of French society at the time.
I've also written about Western capitalism's absurd quest for conquest and expansion in Canada's far north, with the filthy privateer Martin Frobisher in the 16th century.
And the album 'Diogonos' deals with episodes in the life of Dionysus, with an initiatory side, sometimes full of unheard-of violence. We have other tracks in the composition phase for a new album and a long EP, whose themes will be eminently imbued with humanity, madness and commitment against the reactionary obscurantism that is increasingly eating away at our society, steeped in an almost mystical but nonetheless deadly neo-liberalism.
What about your latest album ?
Our first album, entitled "Diogonos", is supported by the Italian label I, Voidhanger Records, known for its eclectic, cutting-edge catalogue, which tends to focus on extreme metal but has a strong appreciation of doom metal.
The CD version was released on 15 March 2024. We'll have to wait a little longer for the vinyl version, which will be about a month later than originally planned and should be available around June.
The album was recorded live in 5 days at Heldscalla Studio by Raphaël Henry, who has worked with Necrowretch, Sacrifizer, Mercyless, Venefixion, Carcolh, Stonewitch, Fall of Seraphs, etc.
We've known him for a long time, and working with him on the album was not only an obvious choice, but also the best one, given the results of his work and that of Benoît Roux from Drudenhaus Studio for the mastering.
Guitars, bass and drums were recorded live. Only the guitar solos, including those of Ogma from Manzer, the flutes of Shaxul, also from Manzer, and the vocals were overdubbed. We wanted to keep the sound as close as possible to our rehearsal and live performances. That's why the bass sounds so powerful on the recording, for example.
For the cover, we stuck to the visual identity of the two previous demos, with this royalty-free photo of dancers in nature dating back over a century. It symbolises the mood of the record and has a strong, unusual character for a Metal album cover.
The album is available from the label and also from Volume Brutal Distro in France, which means that French fans can obtain it at a lower cost in terms of postage and packing than if they ordered it from abroad. Volume Brutal Distro has the CD and will also distribute the vinyl when it becomes available.
What are your plans for the future ?
Playing at the Courts Of Chaos festival in May, Lausanne and Paris in July and the Homme Sauvage Festival in September to promote the album.
In September we're due to release a compilation of our two demos. So far, these have been released exclusively on cassette and as downloads, with tracks appearing on various compilations. It will be released by La Fin Du Monde Records on CD and by Kuravilu Productions in Chile on cassette.
We're continuing to work on the compositions for our next album and we're starting to put the pieces in place to tour abroad in 2025 with bands that speak to us artistically and humanely.
Your wildest dream with the band would be ?
To be interviewed by Rough Times! (Done, you can die happy - Ed.)
In fact, we're already living the dream. The fact that our rather personal music is received so enthusiastically by people who are close to us as well as by people who are just discovering us and who already have a solid background in music is really gratifying. Likewise, the public generally embraces our crazy, provocative universe in a very sincere way. We get an incredible amount of energy in our faces. It's exhilarating, and we make it a point of honour to keep this freshness and authenticity in every one of our live appearances and recordings. That's the dream. And then, come what may.
Your BEST & WORST gig and why ?
Worst gig, in Besançon this year because we didn't have time to rehearse properly before playing and even though we gave a decent set overall, we weren't as effective and intense as usual.
Best concert... we've had quite a few really excellent ones. That said. The gig we played in Saint-Etienne a few months ago with Animalize and Ormagoden was a real blast. The conditions and the welcome were top-notch and the audience was in communion. We were on fire. And we really got on well with the bands. More recently we've also had some excellent concerts with Jade from Barcelona and Meurtrières. Going out on the road with them is just magical. We've become really close and we're going to be doing a lot more together.
Next live appearance(s) ?
- May 18th - Courts of Chaos Festival - Plozévet (France)
- July 5th - Lausanne (Switzerland)
- July 6th - Paris (France) with Abysmal Grief
- September 27th - Festival de l'Homme Sauvage - Pyrénées (France)
A few words about your local scene - the bands you're friends with that you'd like to name ?
We can already mention the bands our members are active with like Sacrifizer, Au-delà, Supertzar and Proudhon. In Alsace, there's Peine Kapital, who kick ass with their fat sludge. Gravel Grower are also doing well. There's also LMDA from Strasbourg, the late Crown from Colmar, Goatvermin from Belfort, Civilian Thrower and Whoresnation from Besançon.
The last word is yours...
Thank you for taking the time to present our music and our world in the pages of Rough Times. I hope the zine lives long. It's always a pleasure to talk to you and to see you so involved in this music! (Thanks a lot - Ed.)
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