THE LAST OATH - Echoes of Darkness (France - Post-Punk/Death-Rock - Interview with Xzvrey).
- Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what attracted you, what fascinated you and what made you want to make music?
Hi Rough Times! Gosh, we've known you, Fab, for a while now, and frankly, we're delighted to see that you've found a new form of expression that seems to suit you 666% (Thanks so much my friend, I must say it's a real pleasure to have you featured in ROUGH TIMES 😊 ! Ed.)
Well, I'm Xzvrey ("Flo" to my friends) and I've been a musician for about 30 years now. I've played in a number of bands, including Stonewitch and Manzer, Night Train To Nowhere, as well as with other formations on occasion - such as a live performance by Seol from Guatemala when they came to France. (Legendary performance from both the band and YOU, you did an incredible job !! Ed.)
Well, to be honest, it all started for me in the early 90s (when I was about 5) with the discovery of Joy Division's first album. After that first monstrous slap in the face, I went on to discover as much as I could about the world of gothic music, and haven't stopped since. Since then, thousands of references have enriched my musical culture across the whole spectrum of so-called dark music (Goth-Rock, Post-Punk, Coldwave, Deathrock and so on). What always fascinated me about these gothic styles was the realization that it was possible to make music that was dark, intense and beautiful at the same time. That's when I got the urge to play this kind of music, and it came to fruition with The Last Oath.
Add to that a hefty dose of hard metal, blues, electro and classical musics (yes, plural haha), and you get a good idea of the musical spectrum that drives me day after day.
- Tell me about the band... How did you meet - the current line-up - past experiences - and most importantly - WHY the need to form THIS band?
The Last Oath is a fierce and dark Post-Punk/Gothrock band. We founded the entity with Nico in 2013 initially as a quartet with a view to playing Gothic Rock with the addition of Heavy Metal's own “Twin Guitars” playing. After a few line-up changes and a demo, our second guitarist had to leave the band for professional reasons - and has remained our friend ever since. We then rethought the formula as a power trio and recorded the band's first album: "Palynsyndrome", which was released by Bat-Cave Productions in 2022, a great Polish label. So it was a long time between the band's creation and its evolution into its current form.
-At the end of 2024, Cedric joined us on drums, replacing Shaxul, and we got straight down to recording the second album. Since then, we've been playing gig after gig, and are extremely happy to be able to promote our music to the public. We love playing, and you can tell that from the audience feedback 😊
- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all costs?
Our sound is very reverberant, that's a fact. It's very full, and at the same time, the compositions are sometimes very aggressive. We're not here to talk about spring flowers, our themes revolve around the macabre, memory, philosophy (particularly phenomenology) and the struggle to exist as beings in a normative world that clearly doesn't want abnormal people like us. Darkness and its understanding play a central role in our music. We try to capture what's fascinating about darkness, how it allows us to see beyond appearances.
Why should you listen to our music? Because we're special in that we've transferred the energy and power of metal into our traditional Goth compositions. We're offering you something a bit different, more focused on rock elements compared to the current gothic music on offer. This doesn't mean we don't love other bands' music, quite the contrary. We just have our own approach.
Basically: we make goth music with our hardcore guts!
- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences? How important are lyrics to you? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics?
My main inspirations come from the traditional Goth scene, with bands like Play Dead, Joy Division, Christian Death, Bauhaus, The Cure, The Wake, Asylum Party, Mephisto Walz, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Sisters Of Mercy (to name but a few). Add to that a passion for Iron Maiden and bands like Paradise Lost and Slayer, and you've got an idea of our influences. There are hundreds more, of course, but we can't list them all.
Lyrics are very important to us. At the heart of every song is a concept, a guiding idea. Without that, it's very difficult to move forward. We have lyrics with very direct themes, such as “None Of Us Will Be Back”, a tribute to the French resistance fighter Charlotte Delbo. Other themes are more sinister, such as “Like Hell”, which we see as a letter of defiance against conventional wisdom. More nostalgic themes are addressed in texts like “Palynsyndrome”, dedicated to happy memories and the desire to relive them. Finally, we sometimes take a more contemplative approach, as with the text of “Universe”, which will feature on our second album, inviting you to take a journey from our good old Earth to the cosmological deep sea and beyond.
- If I'm not mistaken, you have a new album in the pipeline... can you tell us about it?
Our next album is now fully recorded and being mixed at the time of writing. The cover is being designed by a great artist: Siouxside, a genius tattoo artist and a very good musician too (active in Mark Of The Sphinx and The Cemetary Girlz).
This new opus is entitled “Smile Of The Moon” and we're aiming for an autumn 2025 release on the Bat-Cave Productions label, as we've had a happy experience with Tomasz (the owner), a top-quality person and a real pillar of today's Post-Punk/Goth underground.
We'll be releasing the album on CD, and possibly also on Vinyl and K7 if we manage to come up with satisfactory plans. The album includes several tracks that we're already playing live, and for which we've had good feedback from the public (which has been a bit of a relief haha). We can't wait to bring you this new volume, and hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed creating it 😉
- What are your plans for the future?
Clearly, to play as much as possible, to defend our music in front of as many people as we can, all the while offering the best quality we're able of, or at least doing our best at every gig. Then, to continue the adventure, release a few more singles, then another album and so on.
One project still in the pipeline: drinking Polish vodka :p
- What's your wildest dream for the band?
I'm already making it come true. I'm lucky enough to play with 2 loyal friends and spend a lot of quality time with them and the audience. I always dream of doing great concerts. I think if I had a crazy dream, it would be that one day people in the audience would sing the words to some of our songs. It's not so much out of vanity, but rather because it would imply that our music has touched them, to the point where they remember it and find something in it that resonates with them.
- Your BEST & WORST gig - as a band - and why?
Best concert to date for me, clearly the Return To The Bat-Cave Festival in 2023 in Wroclaw (Poland) because we discovered an incredible audience, bands, friends, country and culture there. Everything was fantastic, like a dream. We felt something magical during those 3 crazy days.
More recently, the Courts Of Chaos opening concert on May 22, 2025 (right in the middle of Gothic World Day) was great too. It was an immense pleasure to launch the hostilities of this three days festival.
As for the worst concert, well... I couldn't say. We've never had a disaster concert - knock on wood haha ! - so I don't think we could answer that question.
- Next stage appearance(s)?
Well, I'm glad you asked, because we've got some dates coming up. First of all, from July 10 to 12, 2025, we're doing a little tour with Cataphiles, a German Goth/Dark-Punk band we met at Return To The Bat-Cave. There will be 3 dates: Mülheim on the 10th, Frankfurt on the 11th and Strasbourg on the 12th.
Then we're off again to the beautiful land of Poland to play Warsaw on September 5, 2025.
We are then organizing a date in Limoges on September 20, 2025.
We're working hard to prepare other concerts for the end of the year and then, in 2026, we'd love to perform at festivals. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you'd like to program us 😊. We're generally very accommodating and always respectful with orgas. (I can confirm that they are good boys, clean and well-behaved! Ed.).
- A few words about your local scene - any bands you're friends with that you'd like to name?
Our local Post-Punk/Goth scene isn't very well developed around here, but there are a few bands like The Doctors, Darkline Spectrum (more EBM), Urge, Love In Prague and many others.
We've often played with Cabaret Fantôme, a great rockwave band led by Jey, who you probably know as the frontman of Hexecutor. We'd love to play with them again as soon as possible, as we've got a great feeling together 😉
- The last word is yours...
Thank you very much for offering us this interview, it was very interesting to answer your questions (Thanks, i'm always a bit afraid they may be boring and not interesting 😉 - Ed.) To our readers, we can't wait to introduce you to our music. We hope you'll enjoy our dark, rocking universe, and that it will also inspire you to discover many other bands from the fantastic Post-Punk/Goth scene !
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