When one thinks of Black Metal, Canada isn’t the first country to spring to mind… however, there’s been a boom of Black Metal bands there and they’re actually quite good. Trepás is one of those bands… The band is currently promoting their latest effort “L’héritage du monde” and they’re nailing it. Trepás told us everything about their latest album, revealed some details about the upcoming one and touring.

Please tell us a bit about Trépas’ history... when and why did you get formed? 
We formed Trépas about 2 years ago when Averse and Harfang decided to concretise their old desire to write some Black Metal songs together. Those two were friends for a long time and they always loved to jam together. Along with Goliatt who writes the lyrics, Averse and Harfang are the main creative forces of Trépas. Also, each member of the band was more active in the Thrash Metal and Death Metal scene; they were eager to delve into a more melancholic music style.

Who are Trépas’ members and what’s their experience in music? 
Harfang is a self-taught musician; he plays guitar, bass and drums. He played in numerous bands over the last decade (Kaotik, Kremlin, Necrosphere, Outre-Tombe, War Command..). He is an incredible riff-machine and honestly has one of the greatest Death Metal vocals I have ever heard (do yourself a favour and go listen to Outre-tombe albums ‘Repurgation’ and ‘Necrovortex’!). Golliatt and Fléau are also in the Death/Black outfit Morgue. Averse is playing in the high-octane old-school Thrash Metal band Survival Instinct and is also self-taught. Finally, I (Orme), also played in Kaotik and Outre-Tombe with Harfang. We did a lot of shows together… he is my oldest brother-in-arms in the metal realm.

Trépas is a band which features members from Outre-Tombe and Morgue. Is Trépas just a simple project or a band to be taken in consideration? Is this a priority or just a side-project? 
We think that any project is worth listening to! Depending on the calendar and projects of our others bands and occupations, Trépas is a priority for everyone in the band. We like to multi-task! The main goal is to get together as much as we can to create music and art that we love. 

What are your short-term goals for Trépas? 
We want to promote “L’héritage du monde” as much as possible, but we are already in the process of writing new material for our next release and we are very pleased with the result so far. We aim at creating a musical mix of dark, depressive and tormented vibe with an underlying hyptonis and luminous intention that pierces through to the listener (I find it kind of hard to describe!)

What’s so special about Trépas that you are getting so much attention from the underground scene and, only a little over a month ago, did you release your only material and debut album? What’s your “secret”? 
I think that since each member of the band was already part of the local underground scene, people were naturally curious about the album, since it is a musical genre that we were not known to do until now. We were also very lucky to be able to get Sepulchral Productions involved in the project; we have immense respect for this label and we wanted to work with them for some time now. Also, there’s the fact that we came with a quite singular proposition. Stylistically, our sound is kind of refreshing to many people out there, and that pleases us very much.

Your logo is quite interesting as the T and S seem to be ghostly figures and the P is rooted to the earth beneath it... what’s its meaning? Who designed it? 
Frankly, I did not see the ghosts in the T and S until now! You are right about that. There is no particular meaning in our logo, except that we wanted it to be close to nature, hence the tree and the root. It is quite fitting for the Black Metal genre as well. The designer is MOONROOT ART. 

In 2019 your first album “L’héritage du Monde” was released... however you never released any demos... why? Is this a kind of demo? 
We did not feel the need to release a demo. We were ready to hit the studio with our friend and sound engineer Olivier Vaillancourt-Girard at Holywaves Studios, in a small village in the mountains about 45min east of Quebec City. It was the perfect spot to capture the cold vibe of “L’héritage du monde”. I would not say that it is a demo, but surely a mere taste of what is to come for Trépas!

How’s the reaction to the album been so far?
We get tons of positive comments and some really encouraging reviews from everywhere around the globe. The full album is also available via the Youtube channel Black Metal Promotion and it helped us to reach a lot of people. 

Your album has been included in a “Best of 2019” listener’s list... how does that make you feel? 
Feels great, of course. We cannot wait to get some more music out there and continue the Trépas onslaught! It shows that the art that we wanted to make with “L’héritage” is also appealing to other humans… and that is great.

“L’héritage du monde” translates into “World heritage”... why have you chosen this to be the title of your first album? 
Because this world’s heritage is dark, depressed, uncertain. We were thinking of giving the album the name Trépas but we changed our mind at the last minute. We felt that the song “L’héritage du monde” was a good pick for the album’s name. 

So, all the tracks are in French... what inspires Trépas?
Depression, distress, fatality, torment, nihilism; but also hope and salvation. And we wanted to create in French, since it is our first language and we live in a French-speaking territory. Goliatt is writing the poems and we just love his style and his vision. 

Can you describe the artwork of the album? Is it an animal lying there? What’s its meaning? 
It is a dead raven. The picture was taken by Harfang, just outside his house. Trépas means Death, ‘’la mort’’, and this picture represents death in its simplest and purest form: a carcass. 

The album was recorded at Holywaves Studios by Olivier Vaillancourt-Girard. How did the recording go? 
Averse laid the drum tracks with only a metronome in-ear. He really is a monster on the drums, a creature that you unleash and take cover. He did every song over two days, and barely needed alternate takes. After that, Fléau did the bass lines; and finally Harfang and Orme did the guitar work. Orme worked on the melodies and the acoustic part. Finally, Goliatt laid the vocal. We had already worked in this environment so it was pretty natural for us to go there to record. 

Trépas means Death in English... what’s death importance to you so that you chose it to be the name of your band? 
Death is everything, the beginning and the end. Death is the meaning. Death is the single thing that every living thing has in common. 

Frozen Shadows are probably one of the most well-known Black Metal bands from Canada... How’s the Canadian underground scene? How’s the relationship between bands? Animosity or friendship? 
It is a healthy scene; everyone pretty much knows everyone. We know our supporters and our supporters knows us. And every serious musician is involved with many bands in the scene. It really is a nasty but delicious creative orgy.

The album was released through Sepulchral Productions, a Canadian label, specialized in Black Metal in French... was this is your choice or did you receive offers from other labels? 
We wanted to work with Sepulchral for some time now, and it has been a real pleasure so far. Much r
espect for this incredible label and their work over the years.

The band’s been active live... any plans to come to Europe in 2020? What can fans expect of Trépas in 2020? 
As for now, we don’t have anything planned for Europe but it is one of our goals. We would be honoured to present our material out there. This year, we are planning on writing a ton of new material and maybe even release a split. We want to hit the studio as fast as possible to create some dark music. 

Could you please leave a message to all the fans out there and to our readers? 
Many thanks to you and your readers. For those of you who didn’t listen to our stuff, go to our Bandcamp, Youtube, Facebook… you know the drill. Leave us a message; talk to us. We are TRÉPAS from Quebec, Canada, and you are not alone. 

Interview by Sónia Fonseca

February 2020