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Interview with Insidiöus Törment - Insidiöus Törment
The following is an interview with a local, upcoming, crazed, cult and concept band from Aarhus - they spawned from the English Institute at Aarhus University. The band still mentally lives in the 80's, and their background in Germany is more or less fictitious. The interview was made in the band's rehearsal room here in Aarhus. It more or less sums up to being all about integrity and paying tribute to the 80's and taking it into the 21st century. The interview was with the whole band - I gave up keeping track of who said what, so it has all just been mixed together.
Insidiöus Törment is a relatively new name on the metal scene - could you give a brief description of the history of the band?
You have to read the material on the website to fully understand. It is all about paying tribute to the 80's and taking it a step further into the 21st century. Much of the stuff that people know from the 80's was actually inspired by the original Insidiöus Törment back in '83 - we started out in Schwartzdorf in southern Germany. Then we split up in the early 90's and recently we were reformed.
The sound of Insidiöus Törment is somewhat old school - how would you categorize your style of music?
Well like I said it is about paying tribute to the 80's and taking it a step further into the 21st century, so it is kind of a mixture between that. It is a way to try and avoid the NU metal sound - it has been dominating the radio waves and the television scene.
I find it hard to believe that the music has been written in this millennium!?
Thank you. Thank you very much. Some of the tracks were actually written in the early 80's - it is hard to write that stuff nowadays because we've been polluted by NU metal, so it is hard to get that true metal feeling back. But I think we've done a good job. Especially on our new track The Duke of Liechtenstein which is also the title track for our next EP. It will of course only be out on vinyl - that is also to avoid the influence of NU metal, and to avoid being corrupted by that culture. We often look back to Greek mythology and Nordic mythology to get that authentic feel. We also try to avoid having more than two or three riffs per song because we don't want to confuse the fans. We don't have anymore riffs than we have guitars in the band.
I think the sound of IT is very unique, but at the same time the sound is pretty familiar. What have your influences been?
We try to make every song sound the same and still not the same - so it is the same only it is different. It is not easy.
You have released a demo CD called The Moors of Harschness - how would you describe this debut?
Well it is all about integrity really. It is a strong album from a strong band at a time when they are regaining strength. It is a young album from an old band. One of the songs was actually written during the making of the demo. It is kind of a spur of the moment album made mostly in the studio while recording.
The studio in Aalborg was next to a cemetery, so it was easy for us to get that special haunted feeling.
I find the music to be catchy and very sing-along friendly - is this something you've had in mind while writing the music?
Oh yeah - definitely. No, honestly that is what really great metal is all about for us. If you only have one riff per song and one chorus and a bit of verse - you have to try and make it catchy. And I hope you will listen to our next album which is going to be a live album recorded in Aalborg on the 22nd of March this year. Some new material will appear and actually some of the songs have more than 3 riffs. Also we are trying to bring back fur and mascara into heavy metal music. We feel it has been missing for a long time. We can't afford real armor.
I know you've had some line up changes - what can you tell about this?
Well, we had to get a new drummer because the old one sucked, but it turned out he was quite brilliant on the guitar. So we invited our good old friend Ronnie Gamboa to play with us. It was ideal because at that time we only had two guitarists - that is of course not enough for any decent heavy metal band. We had the worst guitarist shortage since the late 80's.
So no one has actually been thrown out of the band?
No we just added a person, and we are going to continue adding persons. Actually I think we will be the first heavy metal big band in the world. We are even growing our own band members.
You have put a lot of work in the image of IT - you've made a cartoon, and written biographies of your artist characters. Is this all part of the true IT experience? What do these other things mean to you?
Well we will always be "criss-crossing" into the thunder realm of heavy metal. That is a very good question actually. The band has always been a concept band - of course we're for real. It is not like you can just listen to the songs - you have to read the lyrics and look at the costumes. Of course all our extra material which is not directly related to the material - it is all about bringing entertainment to the fans and the metal genre. I think that special kind of metal genre we pay tribute to is very intertwine with a lot of other stuff like fantasy, literature and comics. Our webpage is a mixture of all that great 80's stuff. It also relates to pure delusion, insanity, schizophrenia and all that.
If you look at Iron Maiden - they have been playing at the Roskilde Festival. Some of the old German thrash bands have been touring in the States, and I believe that Manowar's new album was a big hit. And new bands as Hammerfall try to copy the real 80's sound. So it is sort of a movement to bring back the 80's and forget that the 90's ever existed.
I hope you don't get offended when I insinuate that humor is a big part of IT - how seriously do you actually take yourself?
Humor is very important, but that doesn't mean it is not serious. We take the metal genre very serious, but we do not necessarily take ourselves very seriously. That is a fine line we have to walk every day, and every time we rehearse. It's all about integrity really.
Is wearing wigs a way of making fun of the metal scene - what is your opinion of this?
I can only speak for myself, but my hair has always been all natural. I kind of lost my hair when I was in my early twenties, so wigs are a natural part of my everyday life. Well again it is a thin line like OJ said. When you're being sarcastic and when you're being ironic .. and when you're taking the music into the 21st century (laugh). I think people have to realize that spoof metal bands have always been around - for example Spinal Tap and Bad News. You either accept that when you love the genre you can play around with rules of the genre. If we weren't wearing wigs people would probably miss the jokes. We're a bad hair day band. Maybe some people could get offended by our music, but I think anyone who listens to our music, reads the lyrics and visits our homepage, who doesn't laugh at least five times - they're allowed to be offended. But if people get a good laugh out of it - our work is done.
Do you have a political agenda?
Well, we're trying to avoid the 90's scene which seemed to be very political aware, and we are trying to get away from all that. It is a kind of escapism from the material world. It is also a question of accepting the fact that you can work a life time trying to change the world without changing anything. It is perhaps better to give people a hint to a better world through the escapism. And to strike a chord of eternal principles and metal in people so they can really gain positive energy from the metal, and use that to change the everyday situation, and maybe beat up your boss or whatever.
What do you want to reflect with the band name Insidiöus Törment?
It sounds cool, and it encapsulates the entire essence of the band. And also it is to make people have a hard time finding our website, because no one can spell "insidious". But "Insidiöus Törment" doesn't really make sense - I mean torment is very rarely insidious. It is sort of a paradox. On the Internet there are actually over 9000 pages when you search for the two words "Insidious" and "torment" because there is a new Magic card Torment and then the insidious robe or something like that. And the number 9000 is not quite coincidental - I am not going to say why though, you can read that on the website
I believe the band has potential to evolve to more than a local cult band - what are your plans for promoting IT in the future.
Well first we need some money.
But otherwise the main strategy for promoting the band has been that every time Killer meets someone slightly associated with the music business he throws CD's at them. I had a CD, which I threw on the stage to a Motörhead concert - and we think that is really going to pay off. To answer your question - I think maybe we hope for our home page to get some hits. We've also been featured in Jyllandsposten (Danish newspaper), when we played in a soccer tournament. Of course we will be playing live in Aalborg, and we're looking for a gig with the same line up in Aarhus as well. We're playing with Iron Maiden Jam from Aalborg - they have some really good musicians. For example Mikkel Sandager from Mercenary and the bass player from Behind the Curtain. They are going to be our warm up act. The only reason for that is because they wouldn't let them play unless there was a band playing their original songs. You weren't supposed to say that.
We are hoping our songwriting will evolve into even catchier chorus lines.
How much of your material has actually been released - on your webpage there is a discography for a band called Törment. How does it all fit together?
Well the comic about Törment is sort of loosely based on the band Insidiöus Törment. We did actually have a pretty good career in the 80's. We might as well admit that in the late 80's our kind of heroic German metal went out of style - we tried to innovate and make a new metal sound by combining classic heroic poetry with salsa rhythms and stuff like that. We had to hide for a long time because our lead guitarist smashed up a stadium in Korea, and the lawsuit was just humongous. But it just says "Törment" in the comic book is because it was pretty difficult to get the whole name into those small pictures. But the next version is going to have the full. Iron Maiden is also known as Maiden, so it is kind of the same thing.
I hope this interview will help promote IT. Where can interested readers buy your material? Where can they get info on the band?
Through our website - definitely. And they can show up to the concert in Aalborg March 22nd. But on the website you can sign up for newsletters and you can write comments - also for specific people in the band if you have questions. And you can listen to the songs on the website too.
Any closing comments you would like to add?
Thanks a lot for interviewing us.
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Written by Anders - 2/26/2003 |
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