Seven years after the critically acclaimed “Flesh Is Heir”, whose vanguard approach brought to life a mesmerizing mixture of Industrial and Death Metal, THE AMENTA return with their latest opus, namely “Revelator“. As depicted in the cover artwork, the heart of the Australian Extreme Metal innovators might be crooked, but full of energy and will to transcend and further expand the limits of the Metal genre. We grabbed a few words from Timothy Pope to find out more on their return and the new album.
Q: What made The Amenta rise after their long Hiatus and why now?
Timothy Pope: After our last album, 2013’s “Flesh is Heir”, we were really burnt out from the writing, recording and touring process. The three albums we’d released seemed to be a perfect encapsulation of that first chapter of the band and, being burnt out and uninspired, we felt that anything we wrote at that time would be a continuation of those albums but not adding anything new. As a band that has always abhorred repeating ourselves, the whole thing just seemed distasteful. So, we decided to disappear for as long as it took for us to recover our inspiration. If it never happened, so be it, but thankfully we managed to find a new way forward.
After disappearing, we started writing quickly, but we decided to try to write for a completely new project. As there were no historical expectations and no record labels and all that shit, we could write completely freely, with no restrictions. As a result, we quickly knocked together 10 songs. In the process, it became clear that we were writing the new The Amenta album all along, with a little bit of reworking we soon had the seeds of “Revelator”. Since then, it has just been a process of refining the songs, demoing, and recording them. When it was complete, it was time to come back.
Q: For those who have not listened yet, how does Revelator differ to past Amenta?
Timothy Pope: Where our previous albums have been very claustrophobic and intense, I think “Revelator” is a lot more organic and open. The sounds that we were excited about this time were ones that focused more on tension and unease, rather than beating the audience in the eardrum with a blast beat. Of course, there are still very intense moments of more traditional extreme metal, but this time that is leavened with almost post-punk moments. And Cain [Cressall, vocals] has contributed the most varied vocal work of our discography. Everything from the death and black metal vocals you’d expect, to almost trad metal clean vocals through to Alice in Chains style harmonies. I think “Revelator” will surprise a new listener. We make the ugliest, darkest music we can, and we like to keep ourselves excited and inspired so we tend to find new ways to make that ugly dark music.
Q: How has the band grown or changed since it’s birth?
Timothy Pope: I don’t think we have really changed too much, fundamentally, because we’ve always focused on pushing ourselves and exploring outwards from our obsessions. Even when we were 17 and writing the first album, our process was the same as it is today. We are trying to keep ourselves excited. So, any growth or change is because that process of growth and change is built directly into our technique for making music. Because of that process, our abilities, talents, and available instrumentation have broadened, so to an outsider I can see that it would look like seismic shifts. For us it is the same process of experimentation and trying things.
However, one big change would be our line-up. In the early days, it was basically Erik [Miehs, guitars] and I who would write all the music. We worked with other musicians to make the songs into something special, but those musicians were, with a few exceptions, not really involved in the core writing process. Since adding Cain in 2009, however, we’ve had a third member of the creative core who contributes to the vision and progress of the band. Cain has brought in a lot of elements that Erik and I don’t have so it has been very helpful for us in pushing our agenda of experimentation.
Q: Are you happy with how Revelator has been received?
Timothy Pope: We couldn’t be happier. As we’ve been away for so long, and generally kept completely out of the loop, we had no idea what to expect when we came back. There was a very real possibility that the people who had been our supporters could have moved on or lost interest. We had no right to expect to pick up where we left off, but thankfully, we saw early on that there was still interest and buzz. Reviews have been sensational and the feedback from our regular listeners has been incredible. I had a message the other day from a long-time fan who had waited until he received his physical copy before listening to anything, so he hadn’t seen any film clips or listened to the stream. He said the first play through he was confused as fuck, it wasn’t what he expected at all. By the 10th play through he decided it was our best album. That is the best possible reaction for us. We want this album to confuse and beguile. The albums that people must work a bit to understand are the ones that stay with them for longer, at least that’s how I find it.
Q: What was the biggest challenge creating Revelator?
Timothy Pope: Distance is always the biggest challenge for us. We’ve always had a large distance between portions of the band. Dave [Hayley, drums] has always lived in a different state to us, whether it’s Victoria or Tasmania. When Cain joined, he was the furthest away as most of us lived in Sydney while he was in Perth. This time around, while we wrote much of the album while Erik and I were both in Sydney, by the time we recorded the album I was the only one left here. Erik was living in London, Dan [Quinlan, bass] was living in L.A and Cain and Dave were still living in Perth and Melbourne. There were only very few occasions when a few of us could get into a room together, and never the whole band. Logistically, it was a huge struggle, but we are used to that in some ways. We shared a lot of files over email and through Google Drive and Dropbox so we could still bounce ideas off each other.
Q: What is your favourite track and why?
Timothy Pope: My favourite track changes regularly, and often it’s the track I have not listened to in a while that becomes one I go back to. I think the track that has stayed with me as favourite the longest is ‘Twined Towers’. It’s the centrepiece of the album, and very different than anything we have attempted before. It could have been an absolute flop as it is a slow, pensive, and doomy number which is not something we have done too much of before, but it came together really well, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. It has a magic and an oddness about it. Plus, the lyrics are some of my favourites on the album, for a variety of reasons which I won’t delve into.
Q: What are you looking forward to most now the album is out?
Timothy Pope: Well live shows are still uncertain, but we’re all excited about trying to take the band back on stage again, if and when we can. The next exciting thing is writing again for a new album. There are a few bits and pieces lying around but I am excited to get into the guts of an album and see where this one takes us. It will be a more difficult process than ever, because while “Revelator” was recorded in multiple countries and states it was written when Erik and I could be in the same room, sending files and ideas to Cain. Now we are all in different states so we won’t be able to have that organic connection to bounce ideas around, but I am sure we will find a way that works.
Q: Tell us about the music clip/s released so far, are there more coming?
Timothy Pope: We’ve been lucky to work with some incredibly talented people, not least Garth Hurley of www.crtfilms.com.au who worked with Cain on the clips for ‘Sere Money’ and ‘Psoriastasis’ as well as editing together the footage that we all shot in our home states for ‘An Epoch Ellipsis’. Like the album and the lyrics, the film clips are the product of allowing our subconscious to dictate themes and ideas. Cain came up with the ideas of ‘Sere Money’ and ‘Psoriastasis’, in conjunction with Garth, and I believe his process was to listen to the songs in a dark room and just let his mind wander, suggesting images as it went. One concept that is important to all three clips is the transmutation through suffering of an individual. I think watching the clips with that in mind should give you a hand hold to begin understanding them. There may be one or two new clips in the future. We’re always working on things.
Q: How and why did you come up with the mask concept and what does it represent or mean for you?
Timothy Pope: Once again, that was Cain’s concept because of that same process of subconscious suggestion. I forget which song, but Cain was listening to an early demo and thinking about album covers. The image that popped into his mind was of a man with a demented mask on his face, through which you could see his original face, who was sitting in a fancy apartment, miserable and drinking himself into oblivion. We loved the idea, so Cain started working on the masks. Ultimately, we went another way for the cover but the mask tied in with so many themes on the album that we wanted to ensure they were used for album images. As with the lyrics, I don’t want to dig into the personal meanings the masks have for me, and I don’t want to speak for the other guys. I think you should take it as a visual clue and try to interpret it. There are myriad meanings and all of them are right.
Q: What’s next for The Amenta?
Timothy Pope: If not live shows, then we’re working on new music. We have something we are working on now, which is not a new album, that is connected in some ways to “Revelator”. We hope to have that finished mid-year and then we will get into writing and recording album number 5. We’re hoping to get it done well within 8 years this time!
Read the review of “Revelator”
Q: What is your favorite place to play?
Timothy Pope: Gigs all seemed to run together for me. There are whole countries I have been to, if you believe a tour routing, but for me they are a long corridor of rooms, full of sweaty unwashed dudes and plates of suspicious looking cold cuts. But I will say that one of the best shows we ever played was in Katowice in Poland on our first tour of Europe. We were opening the 6-band show so we didn’t expect too much but for some reason that city was into us in a big way. We played to a packed room. There were people with Australian flags in the audience and when we finished, they were chanting our name as we walked backstage to drink warm beer and eat cold cuts. That was a memorable one.
Q: If you could trade places with any other band or artist, past or present, who would it be?
Timothy Pope: Fuck that’s a hard one. I genuinely don’t want to live anyone else’s life; I imagine they are just as horrible as my own but everyone speaks a different language. That said, it would be cool to be someone like David Bowie, who got to get fueled up on uppers and work in studios with infinite budgets to fuck around and come up with something as perfect as the Berlin trilogy. That would be fun. Any artist or band who can fuck around in the studio, experimenting with the instruments and toys. I could do that for sure.
Q: Who is a band you would love to tour with?
Timothy Pope: I’d love to tour with Einsturzende Neubauten, solely because I want to watch and see how everything is done. I love that they can make such elegant and beautiful noise from such a varied collection of detritus. And how do they mic that shit up so it doesn’t feedback? That would be killer, though I’m not sure how well the musical pairing would go for listeners. But fuck them!
Q: Most valuable advice ever given to you?
Timothy Pope: Not given to me directly but I think about it a lot: I saw a quote with Warren Ellis of Dirty Three / Bad Seeds who was talking about writing songs with a synth and the crux of it was to stop fucking around trying to get the perfect sound, start with a pre-set and write a song and see what comes of it. I like the idea of building something out of something simple and allowing its qualities, good or bad, to suggest possible ideas. I’m not sure I follow the advice all that much, I can get stuck deep in sound designing hell holes, but it’s followed me around since I read it.
Q: Proudest achievement with your band?
Timothy Pope: A cliché to say, but I am going to say “Revelator”. It’s the end of result of some seriously hard work, some crazy experimentation, long nights, self-doubt and more booze than is recommended. It felt, many times, that it was a pipe dream but to have it out, and for it to be garnering the great response it has, is an achievement I am so proud of that I can’t think of any other.
Q: If you could be credited with any song ever written, what song would you want your name attached to?
Timothy Pope: Currently it would be ‘Margaritas at the Mall’ by Purple Mountains. The first lines are incredible: “I’ve drawn up all my findings / And I warn you they are candid” and then to follow that up with “A place where I wake up blushing / Like I’m ashamed to be alive”. I love those lyrics. The whole song is about the pageantry we call life while we tap dance over the void. Probably a surprising choice for some, as it’s practically country, but existential angst knows no genre.
Q: If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any album in history, what album would it be?
Timothy Pope: I’m going to go with Einsturzende Neubauten again and say their album “Halber Mensch”. Once again, I would love to see how it was all done, the process from conception to recording. A fascinating album from a fascinating band.
Q: What is the meaning of life?
Timothy Pope: Death.
Revelator available on Vinyl, CD & digital
https://evp-recordings.lnk.to/revelator
https://direct-merch.com/collections/the-amenta
