Death Metal, a life force in the musical spectrum whose fans aren’t quite like any other. Led by devotion Metal is by and far the most loyal of genres, formed of various different subcultures and genres the Metal ideology has been cultivated far and wide. Moving over not only cities but continents themselves to become a worldwide phenomenon. Known for their addition of Sepultura and Angra to name a few, Brazil has also quietly been keeping the Death Metal fire alive with Krisiun. Celebrating their twenty five years together last year the band released their return Forged In Fury. Meant as a testament to the everlasting spirit of Death Metal and its ideologies we caught up with Moyses Kolesne on their UK stint of their tour with Dark Funeral to find out a little more about the band and their ethos.
So I am here today with the main man from Krisiun!
Oh no! I’m doing alright man! We are back in London, doing a show after a couple of years.
Its been a while since the last time you guys were here.
I think it was two, three years ago. Can’t be that long! I even don’t remember because we have been touring so many times but I think it was about two three years ago.
Here’s the classic boring question, how is the tour going?
Really well man! This tour is going really good, all of the show are packed. It’s a good combination, Black Metal Death Metal, so I guess its drawing a different type of people and in the end we are really happy, we are getting along with the band too. All of the Dark Funeral guys are really nice, the crew are nice. We’re having a good time!
Do you think that obviously the pairing of you two attracts various different audiences that wouldn’t necessarily listen to Krisiun?
Yeah, even though if its Death Metal sometimes they are not really into Black Metal but the bands in the end I think that we are all Metal. That’s what matters for me, I don’t care much myself if its Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal I go for a show and look at the band and just to see what they deliver. Do they play with the soul and the heart and I think that they are pleasing the Death Metal guys and we are pleasing the Black Metal people too, it’s a win win situation. Just if you are really close minded then you will be complaining about it. I think that so far, so good! Its doing really good.
Have you got a lot of dates left?
We’ve got like 21 dates left. I think this is sixth or fifth show, its just the beginning!
Your album, Forged In Fury, came out last year, what was it like writing the album. Did you work with Erik Rutan?
Pretty much it was all about jamming. We jammed together, it wasn’t like I was the one working in my home studio and then giving it to them and them just following. We all share, we all collaborated. We all write music on the same level, we start jamming together and everyone threw their ideas there. It’s a pretty democratic band everyone has the right to write music. Gives their opinion, in the end we balance everything and see what is better for the band. No egos, no shit involved. Its pretty natural like the old days, guys get together and practice in a room and start jamming together. Ideas start flowing around and we end up doing music.
I was going to say that the style of music, sounds like it has been very thought out. That in a jam setting?
We never plan so much. For the last record we didn’t have preproduction. Usually we do Preproduction but for the last one, I remember I had a computer and the computer got broken so it was a short time to do everything again. We decided “Fuck that” We’re going to go to the studio and we can tough it out. Erik was complaining about it a bit because he wants to listen to songs before. I just said we are sorry, we lost the files of the stuff. We’re going to do like an old style, like Motohead. Lemmy says that they never did preproduction. We pretty much did that, went to the studio and pressed record without planning so much.
What was it like working with Erik Rutan, he has Hate Eternal and he is a drummer.
Man Erik is an old friend, he produced us in the year 2000. He did the Conquerors of Armageddon record. We were a lot together, so we are really good friends. We know normal friends, we do jokes, go out to dinner it was like working with family you know? Pretty good but when it comes to work he’s a little bit, he’s really serious and wants to get the best the band can give. So we spent four weeks at his studio in Florida and it was really good man. Everything went smooth, there were some hard times here and there but in the end of the day we are all friends. We had a beer together.
Just chilled.
Just chilled, no big problems.
So what have you guys got planned after this tour?
The plan is that we are going to start writing new stuff, December, January maybe February. This year we did so many tours. We toured here in Europe with Cannibal Corpse, we did a couple of festivals touring westwise. We did the Summer Slaughter tour before this tour in the US. It’s a big market and now we are doing this where we still get some shows. We’re going to look for a new producer, a studio, a place where we can do a new record next year. Probably around July / Augsut hopefully the album will be done and we can get some festivals booked for the next year. That’s the plan so far, get back home and start writing new stuff.
You mentioned with the previous album that there was no pre pro, are you going to try and do that again with this one?
No,no this one I want to do better the pre production. Because I missed this a little bit for the last record so for the next one I want to work a little bit more. I like the spontaneous feeling, its really good the old style Reign In Blood from Slayer, Morbid Angel, they say that they just went to the studio and started recording without planning so much stuff. Playing too much the music can get a little bit too mindful, I prefer more…
Organic?
Organic! That’s what we do, we are much more of an organic band we are not really into the digital world and stuff. For the new one I want to work a little bit better for the songs, the song structure, song writing. Then we don’t need to spend so much time in the studio thinking about what we are going to do. We are going to get there ready to go and just start tracking without “Oh what should I do? Should I do it like that, like this?” For the new one I want to be more ready.
So what about Forged In Fury, what is the overall theme for that?
Forged In Fury means that we are a band man, we’re twenty five years old. We never quit playing Death Metal, we have done that for so many years. Our life is forged in this Death Metal fury. There are trends that come and go, bands get bigger then they disappear but we are still doing the same stuff we did. We develop a little bit our style but we are still doing the same kind of music when we started the band. Our career is pretty much forged in Death Metal fury, this record represents the twenty five years of the band.
Right ok! So it’s a commemorative sort of thing. You being from Brazil, a lot of the fans from Brazil, because its harder for bands to tour there. They are very, very passionate…
This used to be more back in time. Now they get so many shows, as many shows as you guys get here! Big shows, bands they prefer to do DVD’s there nowawadays because they get bigger clubs, bigger crowds than they get in Europe. The city where I live Sao Paolo city, I can see shows everyday. European bands, maybe in the eighties it was like that, it was really hard to see shows because its was expensive for bands to get there, there were not many promoters, nowadays it is busy! People are spoiled. Sometimes a band will play there and there isn’t a big crowd, they don’t have so much money to see shows every week! Tickets are expensive there, I think its like here nowadays. This stuff that you go there you find the El Dorado of thousands of fans, those years are gone.
What about the actual scene of Death Metal in Brazil what is that like?
Its strong but Brazil is not really a Death Metal culture, we are one of a few bands that still play Death Metal there. A lot of bands, young bands are maybe like Metalcore or Folk, they always follow trends, kids always follow trends. Brazil is big for, or used to be big for Melodic Heavy Metal like Helloween stuff from Thrash Metal, Sepultura is from Brazil, this type of Thrash Metal, tribal stuff. It was really big, nowadays not as big as it used to be. Nowadays man, its like here, like the US or Germany, bands have a lot of promotion. Kids go and buy and attend their shows, I don’t know if they like the music. For us as we have been in Brazil for so many years we have built a solid following of fans there. Whenever we play in Brazil we draw a lot of people, we probably save hundred or thousand… One hundred in small cities so we do pretty well, pretty good in Brazil. They consider us a band that helped the Brazilian culture in Metal. Not only Sepultura but there is us, some other bands too there are more and more bands coming from Brazil. For us we do really well.
What was playing Summer Slaughter like? That was pretty high profile…
It was killer man! There was twelve bands I think, plus local bands. I think it was a comeback of the Brutal Death Metal in the US. Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Nile, there were some other more modern bands in there like Carnifex too. Last year the Summer Slaughter was like Arch Enemy, some other bands, was not really brutal and the fans were complaining. Where’s the real Summer Slaughter, so they decided to do a really brutal one this year and did really well. Most of the shows were sold out, we played in some really nice clubs in the US. For us it was really good, we played right in the middle so we got a really good crowd every night. It was fucking amazing. It was the best tour that we did in the US so far.
When you write your songs, especially Forged In Fury, they are very pneumatic, very, very tight they seem to stay in 4/4 then go outside of the time signature…
We don’t use metronomes, we do it organic. Its like the old days man! You go offbeat then on the beat, 3/8, 4/4 a lot of sixteenths then come back to 4/4… It’s really spontaneous. I don’t think about what kind of mathematics we are doing its just me and the drummer, we have a riff coming out and we think “Ah this is good!”. We try not to complicate it too much, this record we decided to make straightforward. Not to do a lot of crazy shit, there are a lot of crazy bands out there. We decided to do straight Death Metal, Thrash Metal influences try not to think so much.
What about you, what are your influences for Death Metal?
Man! So many bands! I was born in the seventies and I grew up in the 80’s…
So you were spoilt!
Yeah man! I heard a lot of the old Thrash Metal, the early Death Metal, then 90’s Metal went out a little bit in different styles then the year 2000 came. Then there were a lot more Progressive bands, Progressive Death Metal but I still prefer the old stuff. I would go for Maiden, Black Sabbath then Slayer, Sepultura, Morbid Angel, old Morbid Angel and I listen to a lot of different music man. I listen to a lot of different music man. I listen to Jazz, Blues…
Really?
Yeah man, I’m really out of Metal sometimes!
Do you think that comes into the writing process?
Sure man! Especially Jazz! Jazz is so crazy, you can have different ideas when you go to Jazz and put that in Metal. Some offbeats and some different stuff, Classical music is a big influences too but in the end I want to do Metal and be Metal. I know that in the back in my mind that there are these type of melodies and harmonies that I distribute into Metal.
To finish up what has been a record that you have listened to for the last six months to a year?
For new bands you mean?
Any bands and anything you have been listening to!
I listen to all sorts of stuff, I never get tired of listening to Killers from Maiden or Reign in Blood. These are the classic albums, Dark Angel, I like the new Asphyx! The new Asphyx came out really good!
Yeah Incoming Death is really good!
And a band from Brazil called Claustrophobia. I don’t know if you ever heard of them? They put out a new record that was produced by a guy from England? Russ…
Russ Russell?
He went out to Brazil, I did some lead guitars on this band too just some small stuff you know. The whole record they did is pretty awesome man, its called Downloaded Hatred. The name of the band is Claustrophobia and it’s a fucking amazing band man, I listen to that record a lot man! I listen to some crazy shit too, I listen to Corrosion of Conformity too… The new Dark Funeral I am digging a lot! Black Metal, I like some Black Metal…
