GroundCast – For the beginning, tell us how everything began?
Cat: Ben and myself began collaborating over the internet a couple of years ago. We shared the same vision for music, we wanted to create highly emotive songs with a dark asthetic. So we started Rise of Avernus merely as a side project, little did we know at the time that it would consume our lives so quickly. It was all driven on instinct, our first song ‘Forbidden Sin’ fell together very naturally so it was a sign to us to keep going with it, and we’ve not looked back since. Since releasing the self titled EP we’ve had some very talented musicians jump onboard that have now enabled us to take the band even further in such a short space of time.
GroundCast – What are your influences?
Cat: Where to begin? We derive inspiration from many different genres such as jazz, classical and 70’s rock, I grew up listening things like Pink
Floyd, America, The Beatles and Dire Straits. To be honest, we don’t actually listen to a lot of doom specifically but some of our favourite metal bands include Paradise Lost, Enslaved, Fantomas, Opeth, Moonspell, Gojira.
GroundCast – Last year you released the first EP, the self-titled “Rise of Avernus”. How was the acceptance of the material?
Cat: the EP must of done the trick, we managed to lure some great musicians into the fold once we released it which allowed us to begin live shows shortly after. I think it surprised a lot of people who know us from our previous bands and it’s been really exciting to see the positive response to our music.
GroundCast – Australia’s metal scene has been growings , the world is knowing about you, as an exemple I can say about the magnific “Ne Obliviscaris”, we have “A Million Dead Birds Laughing”, Katabasis and I can spend my day saying bands here. How do you see the Australian Metal Scene nowadays?
Cat: It’s diversifying, artists appear to be using a much more eclectic range of sounds to create styles that don’t squarely fit in the one genre.
GroundCast – You have Marc Grewe from Morgorth as a special guest in the EP. How appeared the opportunity to Marc record something with you?
Cat: I met Marc through a mutual friend when I was working at Keynote Studios and we became good friends, since he was already tracking vocals for another project at the time he was more then happy to contribute a very eerie narrative for ‘Beneath the Frozen Hand of Time’, you can also hear a few of his trademark growls if you listen carefully.
GroundCast – What means “Rise of Avernus”?
Cat: Avernus in a greek word, it was believed to be the entrance to the underworld. In fact, there is a lake near Naples by the same name, they called it Avernus because any bird that flew over the lake was destined to die.
GroundCast – We’re in the internet era, everything can be downloaded for free. What do you think about it?
Cat: It is no threat to a young and aspiring band, the goal is to get the music out there, if your motivation is to make the big bucks then you are in the wrong industry and should probably try something like dentistry.
GroundCast – What are the plans to the band’s future? Record a full-length this year?
Cat: The album is already in the works, we will be releasing it later this year. We are really looking forward to it now that we have Matthew Bell, Daniel Warrington and Andrew Craig involved in the recording process. I predict there will be a few surprises. Once that’s released we will be planning a tour throughout Europe, we would like to include South America but nothing planned at this stage.
GroundCast – Do you have any project that you would like to share with us?
Cat: If you haven’t heard our guitarist Matt’s other band Troldhaugen then go do yourself a favour and embrace the folk. Both Andrew and I also preform with an atmospheric metal band called Katabasis
GroundCast – Is normal the band member have a parallel job, because is so hard life with the music. The Rise of Avernus lives from your music or you have a parallel job?
Cat: If you want a stable income then you have balance your time between music and secure employment, you would be surprised how many well known metal musicians keep a 2nd job to ensure a steady flow of cash. It’s just one of those things, if you want your band to be represented on a professional level then you often have to inject copious amounts of your own money into it.
GroundCast – How can you describe the sound you play?
Cat: We intertwine progressive death doom along with classical and gothic undertones to create our sound. We like to add depth to our songs through ambience and extremity, we don’t tend to write in verse/chorus/verse/chorus format, so each section or theme is it’s own separate movement.
GroundCast – Is something normal the bands copy each other, first, because we have lots of bands and second because some people suffers from a lack of originality, the easiest make something that another person already did, how do you swim against this tide?
Cat: The way I see it, if it’s been done before, don’t do it again. It’s good to see there a lot more bands in recent times adopting this principle rather than just impersonating their favourite band. It’s easy to jump on the band wagon and play it safe rather than take a risk on something more experimental, but there is nothing to be gained by it so we do focus a lot on pushing our sound beyond the foundations of traditional metal as much as we can.
GroundCast – Thanks for your time, now this space is yours to say something for the brazilian fans and GroundCast ‘s readers. Cheers from Brazil.
Cat: We hope to play for you soon brazil, to stay up to date with our progress visit www.riseofavernus.com
Links: Bandcamp