Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Holotropic are a relatively new band, that came to existence in 2013, but all the band members have been active in various bands and projects of Slovakian underground scene like God Defamer, Disconcrete (now Divergence), Nonprolific, Drifted Shadows etc. This band was an ongoing initiative of two band members Kamil Adamík and Janko Hutka, who during the time were joined by vocalist Matej Fernčík, guitarist Tomáš Švantner and at last bass player Rasťo Molnár. We started playing local shows and during the first year of existence managed to prepare material for our debut record and to play shows in Slovakia and neighboring countries.
How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
Our style can be in a boring way described as a prog/extreme metal which draws from the modern forms of technical death metal, progressive metal and ads bits of different genres to it along with strong feeling for atmosphere and melody. There is also a quite significant portion of oriental melodies in our songs. We are all influenced by a lot of different music but if I had to point out the main, more or less audible influences, it would have to be Between the Buried and Me, Cynic, Cryptopsy, Cult of Luna, The Faceless, Meshuggah, Born of Osiris, Death, Tool, Leprous, Karnivool, oriental metal such as Melechesh, Orphaned Land and then different forms of Middle-Eastern, Indian and other mainly Asian original forms of music.
Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
Because we try hard not to sound as any other band out there. We do not respect the genres and we create something that at least to a certain part can be considered unheard and original.
What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media?
We have released our debut record “Permeate” in October 2014 and so far the reactions have been overwhelmingly good and there seems to be only two kinds of them. It is either “that is great/interesting” or “it is not for me”. So it seems to have a certain amount of respect. We would of course like to see as many responses from as many people and media as it gets but we are limited in our possibilities of how to get the music “out there”.
Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
Right now, we are in the middle of an approximately 3-month-long live pause but other than that we try to play as many shows as we can get to. So far, apart from Slovak local shows, we managed to play a radio metal show called Headbanger_FM on Slovak national radio or to be a part of a show connected to the cult Asymmetry festival in Polish Wroclaw. We’ll see what the future holds but we are already confirmed for the biggest Slovak metal festival Gothoom for 2015.
What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
That we are a band that is original, that wants to evolve and surprise people, that we do what we can to promote our band and that we care about all the little details around our music and band.
What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Right now, we are preparing the concert show for 2015 as well as writing and arranging new music, because we don’t want to stagnate and stay at one place although the record was released only a it more then a month ago.
Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to our band on more internet sources, but the best source for listening and buying our stuff at the same time would be our bandcamp: http://holotropicband.bandcamp.com. You can also enquire us for anything through email (holotropic.band@gmail.com) or on our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/holotropic). Take care and have your ears opened!
(Questions answered by Kamil (guitars, guitar synth)
December 2014