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Coming from United States, Oubliette is a melodic black metal band. With the first release from 2014 “Apparations” the band already shows the maturity of the sound. If you are a fan from this style I recommend you to listen to them, its a really great band and I am sure that only good material will come from Oubliette. See below the interview we did with the guitarrist Mike Low.
GroundCast: To warm up, talk about how the band started and a little bit of what happened in all the years.
The idea of this project began in 2011. Emily and I wanted to record just a song or two of some folk/black metal that she could both sing and scream on. The sound evolved quickly into something else. After we recorded a couple, we just kept going. Originally we wanted to keep this as a project between us, but it grew into an actual band.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
All kinds of stuff. I really love pagan/black/folk stuff like Moonsorrow and Windir, but equally Dissection, Alcest, and old school In Flames.
GroundCast: Last year you released the first material “Apparitions”, what can you tell about this release? How you describe this and the songs have something to tell?
Well lyrically, it varies, but mostly pretty gloomy and pessimistic themes. Just to name a few… “Creatures of the Endless Slumber” and “Whispers” were based off of dreams that Emily had. “Creatures” is about a dream she had after her cousin passed away. She struggled with her loss and often dreamed about her. “Howls of Death” is about sleep paralysis, which Emily and I have both experienced numerous times. Lyrics for “The Fog” were written by our friend Eric Gordon, who also played drums on the demo version of the song. He sent me some lyrics he had written and I loved the these in particular. They actually deal with a breakup, and I thought they fit in perfectly with the music to the song.
Let’s see, other info about the album? It was recorded in three different cities. All guitars and vocals were recorded at my house. Doug and Vincent recorded themselves respectively at their own houses. I mixed it at first, but then decided to get in contact with my friend Zak Denham (of Anagnorisis) to remix and master it.
GroundCast: How is the composition process? You have a main song-writer or not? And the lyrics, exist a main-lyricwriter?
Thus far, I have written the vast majority of the material. Vincent had a couple riffs that were on the album, and Emily came up with several melody lines that ended up as synth, guitar, or vocal melodies. In the future, I think it will be more collaborative. Lyrics were about 50/50 between Emily and me.
Groundcast The band exists since 2011, but you only released the first material in 2014, why this material took so long to be released?
In 2011 and 2012, we released several demo songs on Bandcamp. At this point it was just me and Emily. Once we started getting closer to having the album written, we asked Doug and Vincent to join, and they contributed some ideas to help complete the album. Doug began recording drums in the first half of 2013. I was busy working on an album with my other band and various other recording projects so we didn’t complete “Apparitions” until 2014.
GroundCast: What comes now in the Oubliette’s journey?
We just released a cover of Dissection’s “Thorns of Crimson Death,” which is available for streaming on Bandcamp. Also, we have just brought in a second guitarist, Todd Harris, and have begun rehearsing. We plan on performing live starting in early 2016. I have written a good bit of material for our second album. That should start coming together more in 2016.
GroundCast: What do you think that defines the Oubliette’s sound and how would you describe the band?
That’s hard to say… it’s dynamic, melodic, and generally pretty haunting. It has a good bit of melodic black and death metal influence but with a blend of harsh and clean vocals to set it apart.
GroundCast: We live in the internet era, lots of musicians complain about the download and an equal part agreed. What is your position about it? Where do you think that the musical industry will march?
I think downloading has been beneficial for bands to gain much wider audiences, but nowadays it seems like there is no reason to download anymore with the widespread use of services like Spotify and Bandcamp. It really sucks that Spotify barely pays out anything. I wish I knew where the music industry was going in the future so I could be one step ahead! I still like buying physical copies because it is a much more personal connection with the album.
Groundcast: Do you have any other band or project that you would like to share with us?
Yes, several actually. I am also a guitarist for Inferi, a melodic/tech death band. Vincent is in a really good folk metal/melodeath band called Aether Realm. They are finishing up writing their second album right now. Our new guitarist Todd is in a badass doom band called Battle Path. Their new album was just released and I highly recommend it!
Groundcast. Ok guys, thank you so much, we are so grateful for this interview, now the space is yours to send a message to our readers.
Thanks for checking us out. Keep an eye on things to come in 2016!