Interview to DEATH IN TAIGA (Lithuania)

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.

The pleasure is ours!

We’re doing great, just had a couple of our debut album showcase shows in Lithuania and came back to our hometown, the capital city Vilnius.

2. So where in Lithuania do you live? How is the scene where you’re at?

As I mentioned, we’re based in Vilnius. Being the largest city in Lithuania, it naturally has the most concentrated metal scene. The scene here is relatively small, but it’s tight-knit, with bands knowing each other well and maintaining great relationships. We’re fortunate to have a good variety of venues where metal music thrives, making it fairly easy to organize shows. This accessibility keeps the scene active, with plenty of events to attend. While we don’t have large organizations behind the scene, its size doesn’t hold it back—it’s active and alive.

3. Take us briefly through your life’s musical journey. Were either of you classically trained as a child? Musically, what were some of your early favorites?

Our journey began in our teenage years, about 15 years ago, when each of us first discovered bands like Linkin Park, Slipknot, and System of a Down on MTV and early YouTube. This sparked a natural progression into exploring heavier music, and we soon started diving into various metal genres. Although we play deathcore now, each member brings a unique musical background. Our drummer, Tomas, has strong roots in post-hardcore, while our bassist, Žygis, is drawn to the punk scene. Our vocalist, Domas, comes from a black metal background. These influences all come together in our music, where you might catch glimpses of each of these styles.

In terms of musical training, Domas completed music school with a focus on saxophone, while both of our guitarists graduated from music schools. Our lead guitarist, Šarūnas, also went on to music college and currently teaches at a music school. While we aren’t strictly theory-driven when it comes to writing, this training helps us communicate and express ideas effectively. We’re also deeply invested in music mixing, which is essential today for achieving high-quality sound and experimenting with different tones to make our music stand out.

4. You have been in the band for over 5 years, tell us about the highs and lows that Death In Taiga has experienced in the music over the years and how this helped the band in possibly becoming stronger?

I can’t really point out a specific thing we’d consider a low period for us. We did have a change in line-up early on, but this came very naturally and didn’t pose much difficulty. One thing is sure, the whole Covid lockdown period had a positive impact on us. We made the most of our progress during that period. We were able to focus on learning our craft and prepare for the future.

5. Explain to us what went into developing the concept, music and cover artwork for your debut EP “Insight//Frenzy”?

There’s a couple of conceptual ideas in this EP. We decided to go with the 6 best tracks we had at our disposal at the time. The songs can be split in two halves, written in two different tunings and are quite different stylistically. This is reflected in the titles of the songs as well - “Amygdala”, “Godflesh” and “Devourer” being the more close to the traditional deathcore sound, while “claw_mark”, “writhe//” and “pale_blood” is more avant garde, more experimental.

For the cover art, we worked with Chris, aka Dementula, who’s worked with bands such as Enterprise Earth, and Carnifex. We exchanged a couple of ideas we wanted to incorporate into the art, got a sketch drawing and he nailed it almost instantly. With a few touch ups, we thought we had something incredibly special on our hands and are very happy with the end result.

6. Was there a specific goal in mind when writing these 6 tracks? How do you guys write such brutal yet memorable music? Is it tough to do?

I think the only goal here is to write some sick tunes. So keeping this in mind, we try to work on all these little details that make our music the way it is. We try to align ourselves and our goals with other bands that we think are the best and we try to learn the things they’re doing - not simply copying whatever say a band like Vildhjarta is doing with their crazy pitch shifting riffs, but be inspired by the idea of trying something different and then apply our own tastes and abilities, making something more unique.

Writing this type of music is not easy, especially considering the fact that the scene is quite saturated at the moment, so it’s really important to remain authentic in order to stand out among others.

7. When you work in the studio what kind of process do you go through? Do you come in all prepared or do you improvise?

We did most of our production at our home studio. Our guitarist Dominykas comes in with a demo, our drummer Tomas programs the drums and then we start tracking the guitars. When the guitars are done or close to being done, I go to our rehearsal studio and start working on the lyrics. Usually by the time I’m ready to track the vocals, most of the other instruments are done. This is when the toughest part comes in - the post production stuff which we probably spend the most time working on. Stuff like the backing tracks, effects, impacts, synths and everything else we put into our music is really time consuming and requires a great deal of attention and persistence in order to make it all work together. For the track “Devourer” we had a Swedish musician and recording engineer Chris Swahn help us out with the orchestra and choir arrangements. The EP was mixed by Timothe Baque from Modern Nihilism Recordings, who’s worked with bands like Humanity's Last Breath and Fractalize as well as his own band No Oath. The mastering was done by Lance Prenc from Prenc Audio, who’s also known for working with bands like Ten56., Polaris and many other great musicians in this genre.

8. If you had to highlight one important message behind your music, what would it be?

We believe it's crucial to keep pushing yourself to put out the best material possible while also finding the right balance in releasing it consistently. It’s a hard thing to achieve—you want to do your best without lingering on it for years or obsessing over every small detail. The goal is to create something you’re truly proud of, without getting stuck in perfectionism.

9. How much fun is it to hear people’s interpretations of what you created, things that you might never ever have dreamed up about the stuff you’ve written?

It’s always fun. We’ve heard that people envision dying to our certain songs, which then they explained is a compliment from their end. Another thing we have in Lithuania is that it’s quite hard to express the feelings of darkness and heaviness in our language so we often have to compensate with other words as synonyms. Because of this reason we’ve heard plenty of comments about our band being related to heavy building blocks, tractors, bulldozers, various types of heavy machinery etc. So yeah, it’s fun and at times pretty silly.

10. Since the amount of Deathcore bands should keep on increasing, the style currently being fashionable, how do you think Death In Taiga could stand out?

Chasing trends is a big thing in this genre. We all see the vocal acrobatic olympics in social media, bands trying to shove in as many pitch changes and weird noises into their songs as possible, and while all of these things are cool to see on their own, it usually renders the whole thing a pretty bad listening experience looking from a larger perspective. We’re trying to have some cohesion and distinctiveness to our sound and we never try to unreasonably punch above our weight. It is important to us to be able to play our songs live and make sure we can perform them as close to the recording as possible and we do take this into consideration while we’re writing our music.

11. Could you tell us more about the metal scene in Vilnius? Is this a quite good state on a metal point of view?

The scene is alive and well. Even if we don’t have as many bands as other major cities in the world, Vilnius scene has it all covered, bands playing grindcore, death metal, black metal, thrash metal - you name it. We just had a couple of gigs with our friends,the death metal veterans Crypts of Despair, thrash metal band Phrenetix, a newly formed grindcore band Kaukolė and the winners of Wacken Metal Battle Lietuva 2024 Griefgod. I think we’re entering a great period for metal here in Lithuania as some of these bands are starting to get some recognition worldwide, so the future seems to be promising.

12. Are there some parts of the world that really impress you due to the quality of the bands coming from the same area? I mean are you involved with what happens in South America, Asia, Eastern Europe.etc???

Not in particular. We’ve always had an appreciation for the way metal genres seem to thrive in specific areas—like how Florida/Tampa became known for death metal, Sweden had its own old-school death metal scene in the early '90s, and Norway became synonymous with black metal. Nowadays, though, great music seems to come from all around the world, and it’s amazing to discover bands from places you’d least expect. The Australian music scene, for instance, seems really sick and unique, with bands that bring something fresh and exciting to the genre.

13. What ways has been the best for you in order to promote the band? What do you do to reach as many interest as possible?

We’re always trying to focus on the quality of our content over quantity. We’re fine with slower organic growth which we believe will be more consistent and reliable in a long term. One thing that certainly put us on the map was winning the Wacken Metal Battle Lietuva 2023 and having a chance to go to the Wacken Open Air festival. We were able to perform to a massive multi-international crowd in one of the biggest metal festivals in the world. As of right now, we’re working to expand our reach abroad and are looking forward to playing shows in other countries.

14. How tough is it to be a Lithuanian band today? Do you feel that you do not get extra attention just because you are Lithuanian?

It comes with its pros and cons. The lack of a strong metal industry here means that many bands struggle to find management and booking agents—we’re no exception. This puts extra pressure on musicians to take on many roles beyond just playing music. We have to manage social media advertising, contact venues, organize video shoots, and handle everything else involved in playing and releasing music.

Another thing is geographically, our location often poses a challenge. While there are opportunities to play shows in Central Europe, it requires a lot more money and organization just to cover the distance to countries like Germany or France. From an organizer’s perspective, there’s interest in booking Lithuanian bands, but it’s often easier for them to book another band that doesn’t need two days of driving to play a gig.

15. Many thanks again for your valuable time and your effort! I wish you only the best! The last words to our readers are of course yours!

Thank you so much for having us and for supporting the scene! To everyone reading, keep discovering new music and supporting the bands you love—your energy keeps this community alive.

https://www.facebook.com/deathintaiga