1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Mithridatic is a Blackened Death Metal music band created in 2007, St-Etienne, France. The goal is to make a dark, heavy and aggressive music, inspired by old school and blackened Death metal. We want to give hate, power and loose of control to our audience.
2.In March you have a new album coming out, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Before Miserable Miracle, which is our first album, we have released 3 demos, available only at shows. Our music was more Death Metal inspired, mixed with Thrash Metal and Hard-core music. Now it is more a mix between Death Metal and Black Metal, as we use Black Metal atmosphere. The music has definitely darker atmospheres and is also more aggressive with faster tempo. In fact we have songs with riffing, but also with atmospheres.
On “Hunting Fever”, the last demo before the album, and on Miserable Miracle, we also have a new drummer, Kevin Paradis, and who have brings his ability to play fast. Hence our music is even more brutal.
Miserable Miracle was record at the DLM studio, near to our hometown St-Etienne, by Ludovic Dupont, and mixed/mastered at Sainte-Marthe Studio, in Paris, by Francis Caste (Arkhon Infaustus, Kickback, Cowards…). We have work on an organic but precise sound. Our goal was to avoid the modern Death Metal sound, with a full triggered drum, guitars mixed with a lot of high frequencies and no medium etc… But as the music is sometime very fast, it was also necessary to have something precise, but Ludovic and Francis did a perfect job.
3.From 2011 to 2015 there was no new music being released, can you tell us a little bit more about the 4 year gap?
In fact the band splitted in 2011. After a show, everyone decided to take a break. At this moment, everybody in the band needed a break. An overdose of negativity that was leading nowhere... We decided to reform the band, and Kevin joins us at the drums.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
The common theme of this album is to overcome a multitude of intoxications and hostile situations we're surrounded by... I tried to breath and explore the social anxiety that's in the air for tracks like "Oxydized Trigger Sabotage" "The Supply...". within this anxiety I've been inspired by a lot of french authors writings, José "Zé do caxiao" Mojica Marins and Lucio Fulci movies...to go deeper in the symbolism of terror "...for terror and the crowd" is a good example. I also worked on nocebo effects(in the opposition of placebo effects) I mean this situation where you prefer to harm yourself in an harmful environment...I found voodoo and spirituality very important to speak about nocebo effects. At the end of this process you can approach to another face of this album that's a kind surrealism and contemplation of beings collapse...I tried to recreate a "Bardo" state to listen and to read. Helped by Henri Michaux's works on mescaline and Antonin Artaud writings. "Miserable Miracle" "hell compasses points" are some keys to crush your inner boundaries...this work still obsesses me but by this album I had to use my struggles in an useful way
5.Originally the band was called 'Mariscorn', what was the cause of the new change?
Haha ! I don’t know where you get this information, as we have never recorded something with Mariscorn ! Mariscorn was a Progressive Death Metal band, but thanks god we have stop soon enough our shitty music ! We can consider Mariscorn as the embryo of Mithridatic, but Mithridatic borned when Mariscorn meet Guitou, our vocalist, and Remolo, our bass guitar player.
6.I know that the band name came from an ancient deity "Mithras', does the band have any interest in occultism or mythology?
oh yes 'mithras' is the root of 'mithridate' and the Cult of Mithras is very interesting thing...very deep... but 'Mithridatic' comes more from 'Mithridate' which was a king in a Greek region. This guy developed an immunity against poison by taking daily gradually non-lethal doses of poison... to be your own antidote is a fascinating thing to my eyes... it's more the symbolic that's important and that you can use nowadays in all that shit surrounding us... I am not really an expert in mythology neither in occultism but I can use some references for the strength of their symbolic. Through drugs, misery, precarious existence "mithridatic" is more to define the way to overcome this world and accomplish ourselves
7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We like when it is war in the audience ! We are trying a make brutal music, which express anger and madness, so it awesome when we see that people use the show to release their madness. For us, it is very important to play great live : hence we spend a lot of time in rehearsal to work on the show, to be sure than nobody will be disappointed by the performance. Well, people can don’t like our music, but it would be a shame for us if someone that like our music is disappointed by our live performance.
Our best souvenirs are in our hometown, St-Etienne, because the audience is always very brutal and mad.
8.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
At the moment there is no tour booked, but as soon as possible, we will go on tour. Things are a bit complicated as the band is pretty new… this is only our first album. Nevertheless, we have a few gigs booked, and we will play at the Sylak Open Air this year, with bands such as Immolation, The Black Dahlia Murder, Ensiferum etc…
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
Kevin is involved in several other bands, he is filling in for Melechesh, he is playing for Svart Crown, Agressor, Death Lab, and The Arisen.
10.What is gong on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Well the album is very new, and even if there is a full streaming on the internet, the album is not out yet, so it hard to anticipate the global feedback. We do have some great feedback yet, but I guess we have to wait to really know what people think about our work. And the road is long before the name of Mithridatic is known ! But well we are ready for this !
11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
The future of Mithridatic will probably be even darker, and we will follow the same road than the one we have followed from The Hunt Is On to Miserable Miracle, but then who knows ? We are not going to make the same stuff forever, so we will see what kind of new influences will show up !
12.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?
Romain : my main influences are Arkhon Infaustus, Dead Congregation, Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Angel Corpse, Immolation etc… I also listen to sludge, doom, and punk music. Answering to this interview, I’ve just listen to Dawn Of The Possession from Immolation, and I guess I’m going to listen to Take As Needed For Pain of Eyehategod now !
Guitou : 12/ I think we are more interested in bands than in a particular style...we have many influences by the fact that Mithridatic members are from different generations. Remi (bass) Romain (guitar) and I were listening to extreme bands like mayhem Angelcorpse, Morbid Angel, Sadistik Exekution, Pantera, or french punk or U.S punk like GG ALLIN, Antiseen, Nashville Pussy at school... even Alex (guitar) was at school with us but he was more focused on progressive stuff, he's a huge fan of Steven Wilson, Dream Theater, you can hear it on our structures and many soli... but he's also interested in extreme things...and Kevin joined us with an ulcerate feeling on drums we recently talked a lot about Tsjuder, the bulemics, hooded menace, Svart Crown, Nervosa, Department of Correction, Dropdead,...in rehearsal... Main influences for my works on "Miserable Miracle" album are bands that create a strong emotion by sound and lyrics, Eyehategod are very important for me Portal, Mayhem Angelcorpse righteous pigs also, mixed with a kind of punk violence to dynamize my vocals... so I talked about our different generations and sights cause Mithridatic is a melting pot of all these influences...in the end this is just our generation and our feelings
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for your interest and for the interview ! People, if you want to discover our album, Search for Miserable Miracle on Kaotoxin (our record label) soundcloud ! You can listen to the entire album there ! And then, if you want to support us, you can buy the album on the kaotoxin shop ! See you soon on stage !
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