The first Belgian Metal band to perform in India, and the first international band to play a show in India post-midnight to a packed audience, Thurisaz, is known for its unique genre of music that's the result of a blend of different genres. NXg caught up with the band that was in Chennai recently.
What does “Thurisaz” mean?
When we started out 14 years ago, we were called Modilium. After a few years, we grew tired of that and wanted a name with more meaning. We decided to switch to Thurisaz, an old German-Futhark rune. One meaning is “gathering of different opinions”, which sums up what we stand for: a mixture of different styles blended together.
How would you define yourselves and your music?
That's a very hard question to answer. In the past we have been related to all kind of metal genres — doom, death, black, dark, atmospheric... But in the end we have always tried to make our own style of music. I think the biggest compliment is when people say Thurisaz sounds like Thurisaz.
Your influences?
We started playing in the 1990s, so our main influences were bands like Amorphis, My Dying Bride, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom… But when you're playing, you sometimes tend to listen from a technical point of view. That changes your whole idea of metal. Nowadays, we appreciate all kinds of metal. You'll also find Meshuggah, Tool, Opeth, Devin Townsend, Porcupine Tree… in our collections. And in each of those bands there are elements we adore — the multiple vocal layers in Devin Townsend's music, the mathematical patterns in Meshuggah, the emotions in Porcupine Tree… But it's not only metal we listen to. There are plenty of other bands and artists outside the metal scene that make excellent music.
What are the expectations from your latest album “The Cimmerian Years”?
We hope that the critics will see the new album as an improvement. We hope it will open new doors to new places in Europe and maybe even to other parts of the world.
Every time Thurisaz has something new for the worshippers of metal. Where does it all come from?
We try to make our own style of music. We try not to limit ourselves to genres, if it sounds good to us it doesn't matter what style it is. We're certainly not claiming to be the most original band around but we do put a lot of effort and time in making our music and we always try to incorporate new elements.
Tell us more about the songs featuring Paul Kuhr and Thomas AG Jensen as guest vocalist in the new album.
We were looking for a death metal growl with a lot of power for No Regrets. Paul's voice fits perfectly in that song and takes it to a wholenew level. If someday we could perform this song live with him, we would be thrilled! Thomas guest appearance on A Glance Of Misperception was different than Paul's. When we toured with Saturnus, we discovered that hecan easily take an audience in a trance with his spoken words. His growl is also very different from the growls in the other songs. It's the mostdepressive song and his voice puts a dark aura over the song
Tell us about your India tour.
We're very excited. We performed in BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus. After that we explored the city for a few days.
India's metal scene is growing rapidly. So, any advice to the metal heads here?
Stay true to yourself and keep supporting metal!
Check out : www.facebook.com/pages/Thurisaz
Album Review:
“The Cimmerian Years” starts with a beautiful instrumental Broken , grooving drums amalgamated with clean guitar and keyboard. The journey speeds up to My Precious Unknown, a complete atmospheric extravaganza, along with the vocals alteration between death metal growls and black metal screams, with variable tempo and changes in the musical progression. Third song, Second Mirror , is a blend of a lot of different patterns of music, symphonic black metal to melodic death metal.The album takes a notable turn with No Regrets; sharp guitar riffs surrounded by dark keyboard notes with intense growls and deep reverberating roar of Paul Kuhr of November Doom, as a guest vocalist for this song. Fare Thee Well starts with clean vocals followed by slow, mournful guitars which transform into deep growls. Carnival Of Miscreation , has nice guitar, bass line and drum harmonisation and the keyboard notes make it sound more melodic powerful at times with the change of vocals from heavy screams to clean. Unhealed starts with nice keyboard notes and beautiful vocals of Els Blieck of Inis Cathaigh; then diversifies with some brutal heavy vocals, heavy guitar riffs and a unique jazz touch. My favourite was A Glance of Misperception, which starts with soft piano notes that combines with some slow intense sorrowful guitar line and evolve into an emotionally charged harmony with intense clean vocals. Thomas A.G. Jensen of Saturnus adds extra beauty as a guest vocalist here.
