interview: Mithridatic

Mithridatic is an extreme metal band from France and the band’s 2016 album is called Miserable Miracle. Given that the band is new to this publication, this interview is an attempt to delve deeper into the music. The official information describes the band as: “Swirling all around like a sickening bad peyotl trip or voodoo seance gone wrong, twisting, bending levels of consciousness like drowning in a whirlwind of dark dimensions, MITHRIDATIC envision and explore the realms of terror, misery, pain, suffering, disease, madness and nihilism, through menacing, both crushingly heavy and hyperblasting drums, possessed vocals, lightning fast and razor sharp guitar attacks and an apocalypticly rumbling bass low end: a roller coaster of the most evil kind, from suffocating belows to breathtaking beyonds. With influences ranging from José Mojica Marins’ movies to Henri Michaux, Antonin Artaud and Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings, with gifted drummer Kevin Paradis (SVART CROWN, live for MELECHESH, BENIGHTED, SETH, AGRESSOR…) and ultra-talented members, with a massive production courtesy of Sainte Marthe studio (ARKHON INFAUSTUS, DEHUMAN…) and a schizophrenic dissonant approach of blackened Death Metal, MITHRIDATIC release with “Miserable Miracle” a debut full-length that sounds like a bulldozer powered by rockets from Hell.”

Below you will find links to hear the music and to find out more about the band.

Hello from the USA! Can you explain a bit about your metal band in your city and country where you live? You are in France, correct?

Hey! Yes, we are from France, St-Etienne, not far away from Lyon. Well we have a very good fan base their, and we just to say thank you guys for all your support! From my experience, as I’ve tour in the US with Svart Crown, I would say nevertheless that in France, it is a bit more complicated to earn decent money with music. I don’t mean enough money to live, just a bit of money in return of all the hard work you have to do to make decent music. Then with Mithridatic, we all make huge sacrifices on our personal life to be able to run the band. After all, you know what? It worth it! There is some metal heads in France, I guess it is just a bit more complicated to make them go to the shows than in the US. But when they come, they enjoy the music and show some support. We are trying to give them the best live experience possible, by playing well, and by having a great sound. In fact most of the time when you go a Death/Black Metal show, it is hard to understand what is going on, especially if you don’t know the song. With Mithridatic, we want to be sure that even people that never had a chance to ear our music will understand what is going on.

What is the history of the band and who are the members of the band; who is answering this interview?

So, I’m Kevin, the new drummer of the band. Then you have Guitou, (vocal) Remolow, (bass guitar) Alex and Romain (guitar). Mithridatic was born with Guitou, Remolow, Alex and Romain. Simon was the former drummer of the bands. After some underground demo record, show in France, Holland, Belgium and good opening slot (Eyehategod, Belphegor, etc.) the band splitted. 3 years ago, I receive an email from Romain. The band wanted to make music again, and was asking me to be the drummer, so I’ve said yes! Then we made the demo «The Hunt Is On», some shows in France. For a month now our first full-length album « Miserable Miracle» is out, and we are just back from a tour with Nile and Melechesh, and of some gigs in France.

Does it matter to you what people call your music? What do you think about genres and categorizations?

Well, «The Hunt Is On» was pretty straight Death Metal, but for «Miserable Miracle», we say «Blackened Death Metal » because there is black metal atmospheres. Nevertheless, we don’t make Black Metal! Some review are bad because they where expecting black metal, but basically, it is old school Death Metal with some Black Metal atmosphere. So we don’t really care in a way if people says Death Metal or Black Metal or whatever. The problem is that people then expect just Death Metal, or just Black Metal, and are disappointed. Just listen to the music, without expectation, and then see what’s happen. We don’t want people to tell us: I was expecting something more like Morbid Angel, or more like Mayhem, or just more Death Metal etc. we want people to talk about us, to about want they expected. Bands aren’t here to make the music that people are asking, they are here to create something, of course from what is already made, and to propose this creation to the audience. Then, and only then, the audience have the freedom to say if the music is good or not, but still, without judging it from it desire.

Tell us about your recordings.

So as I was saying, this is our first full-length record. Before, we have made a EP «The Hunt Is On», available on the Kaotoxin shop, like our EP, as Kaotoxin is our awesome label. Before, the band have several underground record which are no more available! «Miserable Miracle» was recorded in a studio near to our home place, which have very good gear. Then we send all the tracks the Sainte Marthe studio in Paris. Both of them have made an amazing work. We are very happy with the organic sound, precise and thick at the same time.

What led you to becoming a musician? How were things at the beginning?

Well I’m just going to talk about me then here, as I’m not sure we have the same experience with the others. And I’m going to say… I don’t know, it was just a feeling that drove me there you know. I’ve begun to play drum completely randomly, I was listen to Rock and Heavy Metal Music, as my father, and step by step, I’ve found the music I like, I’ve worked on my playing in order to create my drumming, etc.

I guess it is difficult first to get access to the music. I mean there is a lot of bands, so basically, it does take a while to find what you like the most, and to understand why you like more a band than an other one. And basically, sometime you really miss something important! So it take some time to have a musical culture. Then to find the right people take some time, but for me it was not the most difficult. To find an audience…well I guess we still haven’t an audience. We have our local fanbase, we are reaching a French fanbase slowly, but a band need a worldwide fanbase nowadays, and that kind of hard!

How would like to see your listeners engage with your band in terms of support?

Well sure come to the show, buy merch, etc., everyone knows that. But guys, our album is in streaming on YouTube. You can’t buy it right now? Listen to it, at least just to 2, 3 songs without doing anything else, just alone, with loud volume. If you like the songs, please share them on the web BUT!! most important, fuck that cyberspace, talk about our music with your friends, face to face, explain why you think it is great, if you think it is. This is going to help us, because a band with a fanbase is a band that can go on tour, in order to play in front of people that support the bands by paying their ticket, and merch. And even without this touring things, you keep our work alive if you work about it. We make sacrifice for our music, because we feel that we have to do it. Then, if people still talk about it, everything can happen, we can end living in the street, we can die, it doesn’t matter, as we have done something.

How is the financial situation for your metal band in France? Can you make any money at all?

I think it is possible to earn enough money to live from music, even metal music. The question is how? Well with a very huge amount of daily time, during a lot of years. That mean you can’t work during maybe 10 years before you get enough money for a living from your band. But basically, this is not something you can make unless you have a rich family. So well the question is in fact how to be able to invest a lot of time in your band during a lot of years, considering that you have to earn money from somewhere else… and this is so hard. I mean, in the band we feel this is everyday. There is a lot of very difficult things everyday that remind you that everything could be easy with a regular job. But well, we all feel that we have to make music, so anyway, we have no choice! The best we can do in this situation is to remember to have fun.

What is your opinion about the issue of terrorism and the government response in France (and Belgium)? Does it affect your lyrics?

Well, I’m not sure we consider music as something that have anything in common with politics, and we don’t want to make easy judgments on political issues. I guess our lyrics are more about ontological, spiritual, existential and psychological issues. For sure the atmosphere that can grow in a community because of political issues is more important to us, because this is more like people forgetting what is truly important, people getting stupid because they overreact, etc. In any case, a lot of political issue are just issue for some days, weeks, or month. Most of the time, our lyrics are concerned kind of larger problem that drove humanity for century, like the question of addiction, metal illness, the difference between normal and pathological, etc.

www.kaotoxin.com/discography/mithridatic-miserable-miracle-cd-digital/

www.facebook.com/Mithridatic/

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