1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We are a death metal two-piece founded in the north rhine westphalia area in Germany. We've known each other since quite some time and were always joking about starting a band. Much to our suprise, that actually happened in 2012. We've since recorded a demo tape (still searching for a sound that felt right) and an EP.
2.How would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recordings?
Our demo contains the first 3 songs we've ever written. It's a mix of primtive death and black metal, performed with limited skills, presented in a shitty DIY sound. So everything you'd expect from a first demo haha.
Our EP sounds more mature, as we knew what style we feel comfortable with and we progressed as songwriters as well. It's pure death metal, strongly influenced by 90's finnish and american death metal.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
We're trying to keep true to the imagery used in death metal. The EP is actually kind of a concept album regarding the lyrics. They're about real life problems and social criticism, but we're using words to create horrific paintings, embedded in a mankind ending doomsday scenario.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Encrypted'?
We always liked the word „crypt“ and wanted to use it somehow in our bandname. We were thinking about names like „Forgotten Crypt“, „Encryption“ and the likes but finally „Encrypted“ felt natural to us. If you play darker death metal like we do without your generic song structures, the music might sound cryptic especially to people who're not used to this kind of music haha. But there's not really any special meaning behind our name.
5.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you open to expanding the line up or do you prefer to remain a duo?
We actually like being a 2-piece. As mentioned before we know each other pretty well and we have the same death metal background and preferences, which makes writing songs together in the rehearsal room fairly easy. For live shows we would obviously have to ask people to step in, as we'd definitely need at least 2 more guys on bass and second guitar.
As we're living in different regions of Germany now, rehearsals have become a pretty difficult subject, that's why we haven't peformed live yet. But we're trying to solve this issue...
6.The mini album was released on 'Star Spawn Society' are you happy with the support that they have given you so far?
The deal with SSS was perfect and exactly what we've been looking for. Mr Hacker, our label boss, death metal brainiac and high priest of the Cthulhu cult, is well know in the death metal underground. He does all the trades with the small underground labels and knows which maniacs around the globe might enjoy our music. We're really thankful and owe him a lot.
7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
The feedback from the death metal community has been very good so far. Reviews from different zines have been quite postitive and even few black metal heads from Luxembourg really like the CD (but they're friends, so who knows haha). Luckily people who think you suck rarely send you a message to tell you that...
8.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I don't think we'll change much musically. A few parts have been written here and there, but we can't REALLY say if the material is gonna differ much from what you can hear on the EP. It will obviously be tighter as we're improving our playing skills, but apart from that, who knows... Sometimes it feels like we're going into a more brutal direction digesting our US death metal influences, some parts on the other hand feel more gloomy and complex in a Norwegian death metal way. We can't tell yet in which way or form we're gonna release new material. Stay tuned! We're excited as well.
9.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?
We're listening to a vast array of different bands and styles, not only metal. But we chose to only use the death metal we hold dearest as an influence to our music. This means dark finnish death metal (some nods to Sweden and Norway) and the groove of US east coast and Texan death metal. Which is a hard thing to combine and we're still working on the right dose for everything… That's what we had in mind in a nutshell and always comes naturally. We don't have to think about what's right or wrong for us.
Some current favorites:
Sacrificulus:
- New Norwegian death metal school: Execration, Diskord, Reptilian, …
- The 3 mighty S's (until I die): Sabbath, Suffocation, Slayer
- Quite some non metal. Lots of Trip Hop, Hip Hop, 70s Progressive Rock, …
T666:
- Escarnium
- Krypts
- Engulfed
- Desolate Shrine
- Solstafir
10.Does Satanism or Occultism play any role in your music?
Honestly, no. We might play with this kind of imagery, but it's nothing more than a gimmick for us.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Can't speak for T666, but if we're only talking about arts/entertainment... I'm interested in scientific (natural sciences), horror/sci-fi and philosophical literature, graphic novels, old action/horror movies. There are too many enjoyable things in life, sadly not enough time. That's probably as well the reason why we're such sluggish songwriters... haha
S.
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