1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hey thanks for having us.
We're from Montreal Quebec Canada. We have alot of snow and the cold temperature is really inpiring when it comes down to writting Dark Music.
2. When it comes to Mürtenscythe’s origins until today, what is the toughest aspect for the band to conquer, given the current state of metal and the lack of proper major media support?
For us, the toughest part is the fact that you need to be a social media expert to have your band stand out. It's not really about music anymore, it's about online presence. For us, it was a pretty big learning curve. We are musician, not influencers. We're getting better at it now tho.
3. Musically you guys incorporate a wide variety of styles, from black to death, stoner to psycheledic as well. Does this make the process of coming up with dynamic material easier or difficult – or do you enjoy the variety that you can develop as a result of not boxing yourselves into one particular sub-genre?
To be completely honest, We don't really tag our music. It always end up being in the same box of genre because it's what we like to play. Writting song is a really open project for us. We ar all bringing something different to the table and we try to be original. We think that today, everyone's ears are polutated. It could be good or bad polution. This means everything has already been done and that new riff you just came out with has probably been influenced by something you already heard in the past. So we try to accept those ''polutions'' and make the best out of it. It creates something original and we like that.
4. Some of the melodies you use are dark and atmospheric. To you, what makes up a good melody line?
Well, we really like the Minor scale haha. For us, a good melody will be something dark, original, weird and most importantly catchy. Sometime it's hard to have a catchy melody without going too cliché.
5. “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” is my favorite song from the last EP. Can you give me some details on it? It’s absolutely astonishing…
This is a special one. It's an older song that we decided to rework. we used the skeleton of a song we wrote in 2016 and redid almost everything. Back then we didn't have 2 guitar players. It was alot of fun figuring out all the harmony we could incorporate. Also, we have a special guess singer on this song. Fez Khan From Montreal's crossover band Double Cross sings in it. We practice on the same floor as them and we drank so much beers together for it to not happen.
6. The production on your EP is really very well done. What can you tell me about the recording process and what kind of sound you were going for? Are you satisfied with final results?
Thank you, Our Bass Player Will studied at a recording art school in Canada. He has his own studio. It's a small studio so we had to record the drum in our friend Pavlo Haikalis's studio. Other than that, Guitars, bass, vocals, editing and mixing ahs been done at Will's studio. The main influence recording wise was ''At The Gates - Slaughter of The Souls'' album. We even used the same guitar recording technique ''Fredman'' with the same microphones they are using on the album.
7. As a musician, how mandatory is the process of coming up with new ideas or incorporating new influences as opposed to staying within the style you are known for or that you are most familiar with?
As long as it's heavy Metal and it doesn't involve clean singing, We are open to everything.
8. How would you describe your musical progress over the years and what direction do you see the music heading into on future releases?
We used to be more about partying, drinking beer and worshipping Satan. Now our music evolved into a more progressive and conceptual artform. We want to focus more on telling a story with our music and explore deeper aspect lyrically talking. We still talk about satanism tho.
9. What do you attempt to capture, express or communicate through your music? Or… is this even the goal of music?
We play music for music. There is no political aspect to our music. We are 4 guys having fun while doing what we're best at doing.
10. How would you describe the band in terms of your live performances? What have been some of your favorite venues and shows through the career that you’ve played?
We played alot of venue in our homtown of montreal and around it. We have a decent energy on stage and we can get the crowd moving. That being said, we love playing smaller venues where you can bring your own booze and smoke inside. It's really where you get to see the Underground aspect of the scene. So many good and passionate people that breath and live heavy metal.
11. Within the heavy metal and rock worlds there has been a massive resurgence of vinyl, and even cassettes to an extent. How do you feel about the re-emergence of these formats? Do you have a preferred medium for listening to music?
We love them both. Vynils are the way to go tho. Just the fact you have to actually do something to make it work is awesome. Listening to a vynil is an activity by itself, it forces you to actually listen to the music. It's not a background music anymore, most of the time, It'S the main activity.
12. What would you like to see Mürtenscythe accomplish that you have not been able to achieve yet?
Play outside of Canada!
13. On an international level, how has your music been received? Do you try to promote your music on a large scale?
It's been better received in Europe than where we live. If i check my Spotify for artist app, We have more listens in Sweden and Germany than Canada and USA. We did some promotion outside the country but not that much. Europe has always been known for their metal scene, it didn't surprise us.
14. What have you been listening to lately? Any new and upcoming bands that might have caught your attention?
We try to stay up to date with what comes out. I've been rocking ''200 Stab Wounds'' lately. I just love how they went all OSDM with a touch of modernity to it. sounds amazing. There's also ''Legacy of Brutality'' thats been playing on repeat in the car. They have a 20 minutes long prgressive Death metal song. It's heavy and brutal but it tells a story and it's different. Love it.
15. And now we have finally come to the end of this interview, do you have some important words for our readers?
Check out our new video for our song DHMO that just came out. You can see our singer having a Water overdose and posessed by a hot water girl. It's pretty cool.
We are also Working on another the release right now and it should be out soon.
THanks everyone for your time!