DOXOMEDON's "Evanesce" EP is still one of the best produced, best performed hidden gem of the Southeast Asian Metal scene till today. It is fast approaching 10 years in age (and it's fast approaching 10 years too that we have waited for their debut full length to emerge) ! If you can prove me wrong, do it, because here I am, armed with "Evanesce" and I'm going to force-fed it into the foul mouths of the non-believers.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You should know that I’ll always feature great, talented bands from Malaysia and Singapore scene, and I regard both countries to be in the same scenery. And it’s not hard to guess that DOXOMEDON will have the honour to be interviewed in this issue, so here you go; a great brutal death Metal band from across the shore…
First off, the “Evanesce” EP is impressive. Most particularly the sound produced. How did you managed to get those kind of sound?
Well thanks a lot for the compliment. The whole recording process was done solely in Singapore as we find it cheaper rather than do it elsewhere and we are lucky enough to have good sound engineers who really know what we want for our album. As this is just our debut, we are satisfied with the whole production although we knew it could be done better. We will improvise the quality of the recording if we had a chance to release our debut full length in the future.
The songs presented are more than strong enough, if we are to judge whether the band is able to make a full length. So why chose to release an EP instead?
Originally we wanted to release a full length album instead of EP but since we are still an alien in the underground scene, we thought that we should release an EP first. That would be a better way to introduce us in the scene. Conclusively, the music is brutal all-around, but with penetration of some keyboards passages and emotional parts… We tried not to use too many keyboards in our music ‘cos we believe that our music doesn’t really need the keyboards stuff. We might use it if we feel it’s necessary. Of course, variety in melodies is our main priority in every song we write.
The song-titles are very vague, so what are they really all about? What about the cover?
We don’t like to write something very straightforward, as it may look too plain and basic. Most of the lyrics don’t mean anything with our life or societies we live in… just from our fucking misanthropic perversion imagination. About the cover concept… it does more or less related to our songs.
It’s released by DARK ARTZ… and do you have any kind of deal with PSYCHIC SCREAM?
DARK ARTZ may sounds new to the underground scene but its existence has been around for quite some time now (I believe it’s the continuation of INTO DARKNESS distro-ed.). I don’t know much about them either. Ha! Ha! We signed with them because no other labels want us actually. I don’t know much about PSYCHIC SCREAM too.
How’s the reaction to “Evanesce”?
So far we got positive reviews from media and those who have bought or listen to our stuff. Too bad, promotion wise is very slow and lack of publicity. Should blame to whom huh?
Tell us how the band composed the songs. Does surrounding has some kind of influence?
Most of the songs been composed by our lead guitarist, Sham. We got influence not by surrounding but from our friend Man D.D. He’s our unofficial mascot and our inspiration. I’m actually in the dark about the band, including those years when the band was still called ITNOS. We were formerly from ITNOS. Our 2 original members left the band due to hamstring injuries. Then left 3 of us decided to form a new band and later 2 new members joining in and here we are now… DOXOMEDON.
So why change the name to DOXOMEDON?
We have no idea.
I think the band has shed their onwards adheration towards black Metal, be it in donning war-paints and song-titles alike… Did trends back then had some effects?
ITNOS was a black Metal band and was formed by our first guitarist, Abominathroe. He was a Satanist and he’s the main guy in ITNOS. Since he left ITNOS, we decided not to play anymore black Metal music as majority of the band members are more into death/grind Metal. We still dig up some good black Metal albums and will always support the black Metal scene. People still consider us as a black Metal band although we have told them many times that we aren’t a black Metal band. The reason I think is that we kept contacts with many black Metal bands/friends all around the globe. We are too long in the scene to be in the trendy shit.
So what’s the real difference?
As I told you earlier, ITNOS was meant to be black and DOXOMEDON is purely deathgrind.
Do you ever regret your years as ITNOS?
NEVER.
Don’t you think that the musical direction changed drastically?
It’s naturally meant to be that way for all bands or musician but not drastically.
“Christ Mary Bitch” 7” EP was released by a European label (MIDIAN CREATION I think). How did you guys (ITNOS then) obtained the deal?
That foreign label was just helping us out. They are good friends of us. It’s a good way for Asian bands like us to have a decent deal with international labels. A stepping stone for worldwide recognition.
Is there any possibilities to work with foreign labels again? Will the band accept those kind of offers?
Of course we will. We hope we could get a good deal with any foreign labels but there’s a better deal from the locals, we don’t see why we can’t take up the offer.
Is it really hard for a South East Asia band to gain recognition in the international scene?
If we (the Asian bands) play good or even better than the foreign bands, I don’t see why we couldn’t make it to gain recognition.
Do you believe there really exists some kind of skepticism?
I’m not sure.
When will the new output is going to be released? Your live-sets were very impressive, so is there any plans of live shows?
We look forward to perform in Malaysia and hope we could play in other parts of the Asian region. If there’s no offer from labels to sign us up, we may release our debut full length on our own. We’ll see how it goes.
Well thanks a lot for the compliment. The whole recording process was done solely in Singapore as we find it cheaper rather than do it elsewhere and we are lucky enough to have good sound engineers who really know what we want for our album. As this is just our debut, we are satisfied with the whole production although we knew it could be done better. We will improvise the quality of the recording if we had a chance to release our debut full length in the future.
The songs presented are more than strong enough, if we are to judge whether the band is able to make a full length. So why chose to release an EP instead?
Originally we wanted to release a full length album instead of EP but since we are still an alien in the underground scene, we thought that we should release an EP first. That would be a better way to introduce us in the scene. Conclusively, the music is brutal all-around, but with penetration of some keyboards passages and emotional parts… We tried not to use too many keyboards in our music ‘cos we believe that our music doesn’t really need the keyboards stuff. We might use it if we feel it’s necessary. Of course, variety in melodies is our main priority in every song we write.
The song-titles are very vague, so what are they really all about? What about the cover?
We don’t like to write something very straightforward, as it may look too plain and basic. Most of the lyrics don’t mean anything with our life or societies we live in… just from our fucking misanthropic perversion imagination. About the cover concept… it does more or less related to our songs.
It’s released by DARK ARTZ… and do you have any kind of deal with PSYCHIC SCREAM?
DARK ARTZ may sounds new to the underground scene but its existence has been around for quite some time now (I believe it’s the continuation of INTO DARKNESS distro-ed.). I don’t know much about them either. Ha! Ha! We signed with them because no other labels want us actually. I don’t know much about PSYCHIC SCREAM too.
How’s the reaction to “Evanesce”?
So far we got positive reviews from media and those who have bought or listen to our stuff. Too bad, promotion wise is very slow and lack of publicity. Should blame to whom huh?
Tell us how the band composed the songs. Does surrounding has some kind of influence?Most of the songs been composed by our lead guitarist, Sham. We got influence not by surrounding but from our friend Man D.D. He’s our unofficial mascot and our inspiration. I’m actually in the dark about the band, including those years when the band was still called ITNOS. We were formerly from ITNOS. Our 2 original members left the band due to hamstring injuries. Then left 3 of us decided to form a new band and later 2 new members joining in and here we are now… DOXOMEDON.
So why change the name to DOXOMEDON?
We have no idea.
I think the band has shed their onwards adheration towards black Metal, be it in donning war-paints and song-titles alike… Did trends back then had some effects?
ITNOS was a black Metal band and was formed by our first guitarist, Abominathroe. He was a Satanist and he’s the main guy in ITNOS. Since he left ITNOS, we decided not to play anymore black Metal music as majority of the band members are more into death/grind Metal. We still dig up some good black Metal albums and will always support the black Metal scene. People still consider us as a black Metal band although we have told them many times that we aren’t a black Metal band. The reason I think is that we kept contacts with many black Metal bands/friends all around the globe. We are too long in the scene to be in the trendy shit.
So what’s the real difference?
As I told you earlier, ITNOS was meant to be black and DOXOMEDON is purely deathgrind.
Do you ever regret your years as ITNOS?
NEVER.
Don’t you think that the musical direction changed drastically?
It’s naturally meant to be that way for all bands or musician but not drastically.
“Christ Mary Bitch” 7” EP was released by a European label (MIDIAN CREATION I think). How did you guys (ITNOS then) obtained the deal?
That foreign label was just helping us out. They are good friends of us. It’s a good way for Asian bands like us to have a decent deal with international labels. A stepping stone for worldwide recognition.
Is there any possibilities to work with foreign labels again? Will the band accept those kind of offers?
Of course we will. We hope we could get a good deal with any foreign labels but there’s a better deal from the locals, we don’t see why we can’t take up the offer.
Is it really hard for a South East Asia band to gain recognition in the international scene?
If we (the Asian bands) play good or even better than the foreign bands, I don’t see why we couldn’t make it to gain recognition.
Do you believe there really exists some kind of skepticism?
I’m not sure.
When will the new output is going to be released? Your live-sets were very impressive, so is there any plans of live shows?
We look forward to perform in Malaysia and hope we could play in other parts of the Asian region. If there’s no offer from labels to sign us up, we may release our debut full length on our own. We’ll see how it goes.
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