1. Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Well currently we are already preparing new songs and of course rehearsing the material for the upcoming concerts we have planned for the presentation of the new work ‘METATRON’.
2. A couple months back you also released a new album, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
ANNE O we are still a band oriented towards extreme sounds, very underground sounds. our origins were more street sounds marked by a very metallic influence of hardcore. our first two albums, ‘inside, the solution’ and ‘split cd’, have a more hardcore tinge with a lot of influence of new school hardcore or very metallic post-hardcore and crossover of the late 80's. our last work ‘METATRON’ is a return to our fourth album, ‘Dios no tiene ningún plan maestro para nosotros’, we return to very metallic and quite unhinged sounds with some black/death touches and with guttural and disturbed vocals.
As we mentioned the band has been evolving towards darker and denser sounds... more abysmal and apocalyptic... our musical style is intermingled in the intricacies of the underground, taking progressive, death, experimental and dissonant elements, a music for demanding ears and apart from the majority of the listeners, with its own personality.
3. The band has been around since 1997 but so far has only released 5 albums, can you tell us a little bit more about the gaps in between releases?
We are a band that, as happens with many of the extreme metal bands, at least in Spain, we can't dedicate ourselves professionally to music, and sometimes it has been very difficult for us to combine our day to day work and family life with the dynamics of rehearsals and so on. For this reason, a large part of the compositions of the songs are done at home and we put them together at the venue. Apart from this, there are the different changes in the line-up that the band has undergone over the years.
4. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new release and also how would you describe your progress as songwriters over the years?
On a compositional level we play a bit with all that amalgam of ‘underground’ styles and try to enrich that sound by using scales and diminished chords to create more tension and chaos... to make it sound sometimes even unpleasant to the ear. Under this extreme concept we also add melodies and parts that sound more epic, trying to make everything flow in a chaotic/orderly way, adding dissonances and melodies with Angel's guttural and torn vocals.
Our lyrics have always had a very personal and social reading. Angel is the lyricist of the group, he creates the lyrics on subjects that interest or disturb him. The lyrics talk about human behaviour, religion, manipulation, sexual freedom over imposed genitality. In them, you can also find disaffection, love, friendship, tragedies.... In short, we could say that ANNE O's lyrics revolve around human dignity and a ‘free-thinking’ person, with the ability to feel and express their feelings above any socio-political-theological imposition. In ‘METATRÓN’ the thematic of the lyrics talk about how a heterotopia (the ‘truth’ of a minority) can manipulate a majority... maybe that ‘truth’ becomes a hyperstition... that would be something that is a lie but that becomes an absolute truth... by means of this absolute truth they only pretend that you continue being a slave, controlling your time, your sexuality, your feelings... this would have a lot to do with the appearance of monotheisms and how they have imposed on us morals and beliefs by force, far from the essence and instinct of human beings.
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Anne O"?
ANNE O is the clinical name (pseudonym) of BERTA PAPPENGEIM, a woman of Austrian origin who achieved renown as a pioneer in the defense of children's and women's rights.
But what really inspired us is that she was the first patient, the ‘0’ patient of psychoanalysis, treated by Freud and Breuer, who managed through hypnosis, ‘of the word’, to alleviate to a great extent the deficiencies that this woman showed in her daily life and in her conscious state, such as blindness, deafness, paralysis of arms and legs, mixture of languages, etc...
6. The new album cover has a lot of masonic, pagan and esoteric symbolism, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?
The concept of the theme of ‘METATRON’ could be summarized in a phrase that we have included in the design: ‘Never ever humiliated by any power’, it belongs to an anonymous poem dedicated to Satan. They manipulate you through fear... fear of hunger, fear of pain, fear of death... they sell you certain religious and esoteric doctrines as absolute truths to overcome those fears transforming you into a docile and submissive lamb, annulling the symbolic capacity of the human being, depriving him of his instinctive and cognitive capacity and depriving him of his capacity to suffer and feel. We are human because we feel without showing emotions, we are automatons, we are a force of flesh without will.
The design is inspired by alchemical and gnostic illustrations, pagan and Judeo-Christian symbology. In the artbook you can find certain magical and masonic symbols... a ouija board appears... and what is called the southern gate, which is a portal made up of columns and the sun. We have also used Abraxas, symbol of the ‘Gnosis’, the devil god who is ‘good and bad’. Christ also appears accompanied by the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, Baphomet as a symbol of the masculine and feminine duality of the divinity. We have also added characters that have influenced esoteric and exoteric knowledge for better or for worse, we invite you to identify them... The colour of the illustrations and the design is inspired by the light coming through the tinted glass of the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals.
7. What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Our live shows have always been loaded with a lot of evil...hahaha. Heavy and dark enveloping sound... trying to make people enjoy, have fun and respect each other. We try to make people bring out everything they have inside and transform themselves together with us into a whole. Audience and band as one being. There has always been a very good vibe at concerts.
There have been great concerts, but perhaps the most remarkable ones are the ones we've played in the north of Spain, where the ‘underground’ feeling is more alive than in the rest of the country. And of course, the concerts in our home city, Valencia.
8. Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
We are open to play as much as we can and be able to present METATRÓN everywhere!!! We want to present the new material live, which is where we feel most comfortable.
For bands that are at our level it's very difficult to get into a big festival. The vast majority of bands pay to play at them, in order to reach more people, using it as a means of promotion. It's not in our mind to pay to play, and if you don't have a promoter like us, it's even more complicated.
We did the presentation concert of METATRÓN last June 8th in the city of Valencia and we have already closed dates for after the summer, which we will reveal in due time.
9. On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to your music by fans of extreme metal and hardcore?
METATRÓN was released worldwide on March 8th 2024 by Art Gates Records, the diffusion and the channels that the label has at promotional level help us to reach many places.
As for the reactions to this new work are very diverse, from the very good and pleasant, to those who do not quite understand our personal style, which incidentally is not for all ears, ... but from what we know more directly through the numerous media interviews we are attending, people are reacting in a very satisfactory way, even surprising, to the compositional structures of the new songs.
10. Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We are already deep in the composition of new songs, and of course we will continue to explore the darker sides of the underground under our personal compositional vision.
11. What are some of the bands or musical styles the band members are listening to nowadays?
If there is something that has characterized us throughout all these years and all the members who have passed through the band, the range of musical styles has been and continues to be very wide, from death metal, primordial black, metal, experimental, heavy metal, progressive, brutal hardcore, stoner, .... and bands as you can imagine the most diverse, I could not tell you any one in particular, all that can bring us something interesting.
12. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
First of all we would like to thank you for the interest shown towards the band and the opportunity for people to get to know us a little bit more through this interview.
And finally we invite you to know our music, you can find it through ART GATES RECORDS and in all the platforms and social networks of ANNE O!!!!
https://artgatesrecords.com/artists/anne-o
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