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?
Crawling Chaos is a four song EP, coming out on April 2nd in full. We’ll be releasing a few singles before the release- the first single, “Crawling Chaos” was released at the beginning of February. Malacoda has done some different things on each release and what I wanted to do with this one was take a departure from our previous release, Restless Dreams, and simplify the song structures to emphasize really melodic vocals and big choruses. I’m pretty happy with it, I had sat on these songs for years and while I think there’s definitely some things I would have changed from a production standpoint the songs themselves are some of our strongest I think.

How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sounds like anything we might have heard before?
I would label this as symphonic metal/gothic metal. At times it sounds a little bit like power metal, but it’s much darker… no unicorns and dragons here, just Lovecraftian horrors and existential torment! We’re massive fans of Kamelot and Nightwish, but we’re also into a lot of death metal and other stuff, so it’s kind of a blend of that symphonic metal style but ramping up the darkness and aggression.

Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
This was all recorded at my recording studio, Old Haunt Records. I engineered, produced and mixed it and it was mastered at Schematic Sound in Ottawa by Dan Dubois. This took way too long to record haha! I had started writing these demos before we had even released our last record in 2018. I think I had written the first few songs for this in early 2017, and I tend to record every idea I have when I’m writing. We tracked two different drummers with completely different kits and styles for this, and when it was time to “track it for real” Covid hit and the lockdowns started. So basically it was a lot of getting the other guys to send me files and me pulling out what’s left of my hair trying to make all these varied recordings from different sources sound cohesive in a mix. 

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?
The cover artwork was made by my girlfriend, Yeganeh Ghasemi, and she was on the cover of our last record. She didn’t want to do that again because seeing her face everywhere when we started our press campaign was a bit weird for her I think. So we got a friend of ours who is a gothic/alternative model from Toronto who goes by the name Melissa Morke: Goddess ov Death and she had some cool makeup, outfits and crazy contact lenses. We snapped some photos and got my girlfriend to create an art piece with that and some other images we had acquired. The link to the lyrics and art is a bit less direct and more interpretive. The first single, called Crawling Chaos, is what we named the EP and it’s basically my interpretation of the H.P. Lovecraft story Nyarlathotep and trying to fit it’s themes to modern society and its obsession with technology and the internet. I just wanted to have a cool art piece that had a Lovecraftian vibe with the tentacles and occult imagery.
The lyrics in this EP are all over the place though… we have a song called Deadlights which is about the “It” movie remakes, and then we’ve got some other songs that are more about just stuff in my life or things I’ve had happen to me that I’ve got something to say about.

What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band's aims at the moment? 
I really hope we can gain some more fans, and I’m really trying to focus on growing our social media. I’ve neglected that a bit since I just don’t get it and I’m a bit too introverted for it. This kind of gives me a reason to get more involved with that. I think we’re all actually just trying to step up our social media game. We’ve got the time to do it now, we can’t tour, so might as well try and figure it out.

Is there a special format the material is released in? Or is it released in multiple formats? How many copies were pressed?
So, without being able to tour, it’s pretty hard for a band at the level we’re at to print a ton of CD’s and justify the cost. I still have a ton of older records that people need to buy. If I’m being totally honest with you, as a professional recording engineer, most clients I’ve had that work in other genres never print CD’s. They just focus on the streaming services. Metal is funny, there’s kind of a desire for it- or at least it’s perceived to be that way, but I don’t see as many people still buying physicals. Right now, it’s on every streaming service you can think of. I think once all this is over and we’ve released a few more EP’s I’d probably be interested in doing a limited edition box set with a bunch of stuff. Something cool that’s really special.

Where and how will you promote this new release?
Everywhere on social media, wherever online, Spotify... and anyone who posts about it we’ll share it where we can.

Where can we order it from?
You can currently pre-order a downloadable version of it on our website at www.malacodametal.com or on our Bandcamp at www.malacoda.bandcamp.com - you can also find all kinds of merch on our website as well, including CD’s of our old releases.
https://www.facebook.com/MalacodaBand
https://www.instagram.com/malacodametal
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0uSMLxN5CQhtsuekp5sGqe

Answers by Lucas di Mascio

February 2021