Please tell us a few words about the new release, about the music on it as a whole or a few words on each track in part. How are you happy with the final release?
Our upcoming album „A New Dawn“ is an epic, dark, thirsty, folky, symphonic metal work, that‘s got something for every listener.
We start with the ever changing 9-minute-epic „The Awakening“, drift into the medieval streets of Bamberg and drink the strongest ale in „Tränk Dein Herz“. After sobering up, our wanderlust pays us a visit, as we strive for „A New Dawn“ in search for liberty and better days. An epic journey all the way through, making you want to raise your fists into the sky. The end of all days, the apocalypse lets the ashes of the dead rain from the heavens, as the blastbeats and furious dark walls of guitar brings us the „Ascheregen“. We sit back and mourn those fallen in the last battle with the melancholic and droning „Ein Lebewohl“. As life goes on, some people stay, some go, some fade away. It‘s the „Wandel Der Zeit“, a slow-paced, reflective piece that draws influences from Hammond-oriented classic rock and classical music.
Above all, we enjoy being on stage and singing out loud „The Minstrel‘s Chant“, bringing joy and happiness to the people with this sea shanty and folk infused progressive piece, while playing the flute on one leg.
Our journey is over and we‘re thirsty, craving for a final beer, prone to sing along to thrashy, yet jolly tunes in „Die Letzte Schenke“.
How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sounds like anything we might have heard before?
In the past, we used some different terms, like Epic Metal, Epic Bombast Metal and all sorts of made-up description, also to give us some tongue-in-cheek humor. Recently, we‘ve decided to keep it simple with „Symphonic Folk Metal“ to make it more accessible for people and future fans. I think, it needs to be something, people can associate with.
Moreover, that‘s the style we‘d like to promote, as that‘s the essence of our music. That‘s the term where all our influences come together. You could even say, it‘s the main ingredients: Metal, symphonic orchestras and Folk.
Think of it, as if Turisas and Ensiferum are having a baby, Dimmu Borgir being the godfather and Jethro Tull the godmother.
Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
All recordings have been done in a nice, warm and cozy place: at home. One could say, we‘re very geeky about the whole recording process and the gear behind it. The bass and drum tracks have been send to me by the bandmates. Vocals, flutes and folk instruments were done in my home studio, as well as guitars. The latter usually involved Stefan, our guitarist, and me sitting around until 4 in the morning, fiddling around with harmonies and getting the best results. You know, we always like to blow ourselves away and do it over the top, even if it might be tiring. Usually, we laughed around like some teens, who just played shenanigans on someone.
An interesting might be all the additional tracks, our bass player Norbert send me. He‘s playing a huge stock of instruments, so I randomly received some demo recordings of Bodhran (Irish frame drum), Cello and Celtic Harp. In fact, he told me to wait until he can record them properly. All of those „trash“ tracks (his own words!) made it into the final album, as they did indeed sound amazing to me. You can mostly hear them on our most experimental track „The Minstrel‘s Chant“.
It‘s been a lenghty and sometimes frustrating process. We took around 5-6 years getting it finished which is also related to a few line-up changes.
What can you tell us about the cover artwork? Is there a link between the artwork and the lyrics? What are the topics of your lyrics?
Our cover artwork is heavily influenced by the Romantic period and especially by „Wanderer above the Sea of Fog“. The first time I saw it, I was extremely drawn to it. However, I wanted it to be more over the top with a glooming dawn sun in the distance. It‘s very closely related to our lyrics, as they cover the topics of liberty, freedom, wanderlust and staying open minded. That‘s the main themes of our lyrics but there‘s two drinking songs on the upcoming release, as well as one farewell song for a close friend who died three years ago. We try not to restrict ourselves but always keep something new and fresh.
What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band's aims at the moment?
We‘ve got high hopes to gain a bigger following and getting our music out to the people, who‘ll hopefully like our music. One of the best goals to achieve is if somebody tells you, your music means something to them. These might be things like giving motivation, helping them through the day or personal struggles.
Is there a special format the material is released in? Or is it released in multiple formats? How many copies were pressed?
While going the usual digital online way (Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, Bandcamp etc.), we also pressed a batch of 300 CDs. The metal scene still requires these, in my opinion and that‘s an amazing thing. CD sales are dropping everywhere but I feel that the whole metal community still values playing live shows and selling copies at the gigs. What a great motivation it is, when our (new) fans have just enjoyed the show and are coming to the merch booth, having a chat/beer with us after holding a record in their hands. This never gets old and it‘s the way it‘s supposed to be!
Where and how will you promote this new release?
We‘re doing a lot on social media and are releasing a new „Inside“ video every Thursday 8pm (CET) on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/varusofficial
These are basically making ofs and we share some insights on what motivated us to do a certain song. It also includes some background facts and clips from the recording sessions. Feedback has been great so far but it might be a bit geeky, so watch out.
Apart from that, our good friend Markus from metalmessage.de is helping us a lot with promotion in organizing reviews, interviews and the like. We‘re happy having him around, as he‘s been in the business for such a long time and knows lots of people.
Where can we order it from?
You can just have a look onto our landing page, where most shops, streaming services and social media channels are linked.
Get ready for epic pre-orders here: https://bit.ly/get-epic-here
May 2020