AD PATRES
“Ad Patres” is a France based death metal band. Their first recording, released late 2010 and rereleased in 2012 as a splittape with “Writhing” (USA), allowed them to get early exposure. Now, they have released their debut album "Scorn Aesthetics" through “Kaotoxin Records”. This album is an incredible punch in the face delivered with force and passion. Everything falls into place on "Scorn Aesthetics", with the energy level dished with skillful instrumentation. I talked to Canard (guitar) and Arnaud (bass) about some background and band's recent activities. “Ad Patres” was formed at the end of 2008 and it's a relatively young band. Did you have any basic ideas for its sound in your head for years before 2008? Canard: Not really, Arnaud, Julien and I started the band with the idea of keeping our former deathgrind band alive ater the drummer called it quits. It didn’t take long (maybe an hour) to acknowledge the fact that it wouldn’t be possible, so we started playing what was on our mind. As we all were death metal fans it just came naturally. 4
In 2010, your promo release was recorded by Mathieu Pascal (“Gorod”). How has Pascal’s work and legacy influenced what you’re doing in “Ad Patres”? Canard: We’ve known Mat for a long time now and have recorded several time with him. I wouldn’t say that has influenced me much on a musical point of view, he’s such a talented musician that I can’t even relate to what comes out of his guitar most of the time. As a producer, he is really great to February 2014 I Milfits 'zine
work with, he will always point out what is wrong in your take how try to give you directions on how to improve and that’s really cool.
AD PATRES
external influence, apart from the music we like. As I said, the lyrics are not influenced by Lovecraft, HG Wells, or those author that have been references for so many bands in our musical genre. Maybe Freud and What was the recording process like for Jung could be considered as mentors? I “Scorn Aesthetics”? What did you focus don’t know! on the most while recording it? Arnaud: In all honesty, I think we only How is the cooperation with “Kaotoxin focused on playing the songs correctly. We Records”? How does the label support are not sound or instrument geeks but we you? knew that if our tracks were recorded well, Canard: It’s going great actually, it might without any need for editing and cheating, not be the biggest label on earth but we Mathieu would have the best material really feel taken care of. They have really possible to create a great sounding album. got us a lot of exposure both in France and abroad and are always willing to do the Which element of your debut fulllength maximum for us. They got us in touch with album are you most proud of? “Blakhart Guitars” who now endorse me, Arnaud: As simple as it may be, I am proud they always try to get us fair prices for of the songs, the riffing. I think that many merch production and we even get a little band tend to be a bit lazy on songwriting text for our birthdays, isn’t that sweet? and can balance that with big productions. Many people love overcompressed and With new death metal bands popping up overproduced sound. We prefer clear everywhere, how is difficult to be well sounding and we always give special care to recognized in the genre? put together the best matching riffs. Canard: I don’t think there’s that much more death metal bands than before, it is, What kind of subjects have you been however, really easier to have some decent exploring in the lyrics to “Scorn sounding material and get some exposure Aesthetics”? through the web. I, as a listener, find it Arnaud: I am not interested in gore, horror, overwhelming, you get access to hours and mythology, Chtulu, Lovecraft and stuff...My hours of music and you’re not sure you’re favourite topics are death, humanity, fate, going to find anything you may enjoy… To arts and social behaviours. I really like to stand out in that kind of context, you need draw connections between themes that do some kind of balance between musical not seem to be related, and I also like to use style, talent, communication skills, not to the vocabulary or lexical field of a theme forget being damn lucky. that is not linked with my main subject and create parables and metaphors. I also like to It’s been a couple years since you’ve write my lyrics like descriptions of scenes played at “Hellfest Open Air 2011”. How or pictures I elaborate. did it feel to be able to play in such type of big festival? What's your memories? Is there any particular art/literature Canard: It was really impressive, I mean that’s influenced your musical direction? REALLY. A couple weeks before we were Arnaud: Regarding music, there is no playing in our hometown in front of fifty February 2014 I Milfits 'zine
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AD PATRES
friends or so and there we were, with thousands of people waiting and everyone coming to us while we were warming up saying “guys it’s like really crowded out there but don’t freak out” which wasn’t helping us calm down at all of course. I mostly remember the sound of the crowd when we went up the stage totally breathtaking. It was an amazing opportunity and we’re really glad we did it, awesome festival, awesome audience, awesome crew and awesome show! We’d do it again whenever possible. Tell me about shooting the music video for “Scars of Compromise” and what’s going on in the song. Canard: It took us a while to make this video, it is our first one and you can’t just have everything straight on the first try. We worked with Padre, a young team which did all the planning, filming, editing, acting, well everything altogether actually. We did have the brilliant idea of recording the band scenes in february in a non heated warehouse, which is why you can see steam coming out of us sometimes in the video.
overwhelming those days and I think some people are just engulfing music. I mean like downloading album, listening once or twice and then delete it and repeat with the next one. We are doing our best to write great songs that remain good and catchy for as long as possible, not disposable death metal. Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add? Arnaud: First, we’d like to thank you personaly and you webzine for offering us some time and lines. Also thanks a lot to your readers and all the people showing their support to our band. If you haven’t yet, check our first album “Scorn Aesthetics”, I assure you won’t regret if you like your death metal catchy and brutal!
What’s the status of the songs for the next studio album? What can we expect from it? Arnaud: I think it is too early to focus on writing new material. We are collecting some ideas when we have it but today, this is not our priority. Our album “Scorn Aesthetics” was released just one year ago and it is not distributed in shops in The Netherlands, Luxemburg and Belgium for anly a couple of months. As Canard said above, music productions can be 6
February 2014 I Milfits 'zine