After receiving the final version of the album, we worked a lot on our live set, both in rehearsal room and in a professional stage as well to make a live pre-production. We did that to be ready for our first gigs with our new singer, the first one was a festival headlined by Benighted in July. This summer we've made a lyric video and shot a new video-clip with a professional director. We also prepared a lot of various stuff these last months: promotion matters, merchandising, lots of paper work for the label and booking related matters of course! So we were and we're still very busy since the recording!
2.You have a new album coming out in October, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
There are less complexity on the songs, more atmospheric parts and also a darker mood that fits the album's concept. We tried to make something more homogenous than our 1st album with songs focused more on emotion than on pure technical aspect. Nevertheless we've kept several elements that we had in the past: fast & aggressive parts, twin guitar harmonies, guitar solos and a lot of melodies.
3.Your lyrics cover philosophy and duality themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?
Duality & philosophy were the theme of our first album, it was written by our former singer so this is not our lyrics theme anymore. The concept of “White Stained Inferno” is about illness and all the difficulties to live with it, especially when it's a rare/unknown disease and when you're trapped in a hospital for a while. Some of us have been confronted to this at different degrees and one of us had a very tough time at hospital a few years ago. It was obvious to write about it and tell about all the psychological and physical pain that involve a serious disease.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Temnein'?
Temnein is an Ancient Greek word, written "τέμνειν", meaning "to cut". Etymologically, you can find it in the French word "tome" (volume) which is "a book cut into tome", or "atome" as "something you can't cut". The word "temple" is also derived from it as "templum" is a place cut from the rest of the world.
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We had the chance to play some very cool gigs: 3 shows in Japan in 2014, supporting Mors Principium Est & Beyond Creation, a festival in Belgium last year headlined by Eluveitie, Powerwolf, Leprous, Primordial... We also opened in France for great bands such as Benighted, Gorod, No Return and many more!
Our live performances changed radically since the arrival of our new singer. We chose to now play with a click track and some samples included in the album will be played. That involved a lot of work in rehearsal and we took our time to shape it as best as possible! We did only two shows with this new configuration and it went very well!
Overall, we tried to be energic as much as possible with a lot of movements, interactions within the band's members and make sure to focalize into the crowd. We don't want to perform while watching our instruments and with a lower interaction to the crowd.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
Some French gigs are booked for the end of 2017 and next year. We aim to tour Europe next year and we're discussing with some agencies but nothing is signed yet! We'd love to play in festivals, an obvious goal for a band like us.
7.The new album is coming out on 'Massacre Records', how would you compare working with them to other labels that you have been a part of i the past?
Overall it's a similar way of working, but for the impact of the promotion it's quite different than our previous label (Mighty Music based in Danemark). The promotion/PR at Massacre is really bigger and we're very glad about that. We learned a lot from the PR from Mighty Music but we're more satisfied with Massacre. Nevertheless it's a bit early to really compare both labels on every aspects, the album cycle is far from over!
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of progressive and melodic death metal?
We’ve been receiving several reviews almost every day since early October and we're overwhelmed by the album global feedback! Many reviewers liked what we did for this new album and had mentioned the diversity within the record, so we couldn't be happier! The reaction for the previous album (404 B.C.) was more mixed, that's something we understood now that this 1st album was released almost 4 years ago. We think we'll be more satisfied with White Stained Inferno than 404 B.C. in the coming years!
9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
It's a bit early to have a detailed plan of our future musical direction, but it could be something even more atmospheric, maybe with the addition of keyboards. We'll also try to make less long songs, creating something more direct and homogeneous. We'll see what the future brings!
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
For the new album, Ghost Brigade or In Mourning are some of our new influences: still melodic death metal but with a more atmospheric/post-metal side.
Otherwise, our influences are classic bands in melodic death metal (At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Insomnium), some more progressive outfits (Opeth, Nevermore...) and more modern/NWOAHM stuff (Kataklysm, Darkest Hour, Chimaira).
We always listen to different type of music, whether it is Metal or not. And we also love to discover or re-discover bands or musical styles. Here are some bands that we listen at the moment: Words of Farewell, Secrets of the Sky, While She Sleeps, Native Construct, Zero 7 (Flo). After the Burial, Regarde les Hommes Tomber, Opeth, Carpenter Brut (James). Archspire, Leprous, Within the Ruins, Perturbator (Jocelyn). God is An Astronaut, Junius, Tesseract (Jul). Oathbreaker, Au-Dessus, The Black Dahlia Murder, Igorrr (Val).
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Our singer is also passionate about dubbing and acting. He's taking professional lessons and starts to play roles in music videos and short-movies. He's playing the main character in our latest video-clip, released on late October!
For the rest of the members, music is our main passion so we enjoy some classic interests (sports, gaming, travelling, video games, motorcycling...)
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for this interview, it's was a pleasure to answer! Cheers to all the readers of the webzine, see you on tour!
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