SARPANITUM (GBR)
"WE DEFINITELY FEEL OUR MUSIC IS CONVEYED TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL ON STAGE, AND HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN THE IMPORTANCE OF A STAGE PRESENCE ESPECIALLY IN THIS TYPE OF BRUTAL MUSIC."
Written by Gerald Robinson on Thursday 07 June, 2007. Last updated on Thursday 07 June, 2007
Sarpanitum’s bruising debut album ‘Despoilment of Origin’ is proof positive that the UK’s death metal underground is in safe hands. Bassist/vocalist Andy Techakosit agreed to give Vampire Magazine an insight into the Birmingham outfit’s Eastern-influenced world…
Could you tell me about the genesis of Sarpanitum? What inspired the formation of the band and what are your goals?
It’s been some time since Sarpanitum, as an entity, was formed; it was back in 2003 when I got together with an old band mate at the time. We were both avid death and black metal enthusiasts who weren’t happy with the progress of the band that we were currently playing in and basically decided to form somewhat of a studio project to write music which we at the time wanted to hear. I guess that is the story with most bands, however fortunately the short two-track demo, entitled “The Agushaya Hymn”, was well received by the underground and eventually led to the reformation of the band as a full unit the following year. Roping some good friends and musicians into the fold subsequently allowed us to pursue the band properly.
I think the main goal that has been in the band’s mindset from the beginning to the present was to restore some faith in British death metal from peers overseas who have surpassed what bands like Bolt Thrower, Carcass and Napalm Death laid the foundations for all those years ago.
You've been labelled with the tag 'Mesopotamian metal' - do you approve of this description of Sarpanitum's sound?
That’s a tough one, I guess with an album and name stemming from Mesopotamian mythology it was always going to be hard not to be categorised. However, I do believe the middle-eastern influence is used to a minimum when it comes to the actual music and we’ve always strived to be more than just as a “one trick pony” so to speak. We’re constantly looking for inspiration further afield than just “metal”, be it musically or lyrically. I reassuringly can drop the hint that the next album won’t be based exclusively on Mesopotamian mythology in regards to concepts.
The debut album 'Despoilment of Origin' is an exhibit of incredible power and maturity. The recording sounds very tight and concise - how was this achieved?
Thank you, we’re really pleased with the way the recording came out and the seemingly positive feedback that the album has received. I think in terms of production, we definitely wanted to have an organic sounding album. We wanted the drums to be huge and thundering throughout the album, being an integral part of metal, and especially death metal, the drum sound focused on trying to convey the live energy onto record.
The drums, guitars and bass, and vocals were all recorded in three different studios as well as having Leon Macey of Dreaming Studios contribute to the record with mixing and mastering. We knew about Leon’s production skills and experience with death metal from his work with Mithras, so we were confident the final product would be up to par.
How difficult is it to replicate the Sarpanitum sound in the live arena? What is the chemistry like between the members?
I think we’d like to think of ourselves as a “live band”, we definitely feel our music is conveyed to its full potential on stage, and have always believed in the importance of a stage presence especially in this type of brutal music. As members, the chemistry both in writing new material as well as at shows has always been positive; even though we’ve only recently added a new guitarist, Mark Broster, the main writing core has remained stable. And with Mark’s addition I feel the band now has the most diverse writing inputs. Also Mark being the brother of Sean (Broster, drums), it has allowed for his addition into the band to become an easy one as we’d known Mark and of his guitar ability for some time.
I believe you have connections with another superb UK death metal combo - Mithras. What can you tell me about these ties?
Well when I met Sean, I was aware of his work as live drummer for Mithras, and thus when we began working together it was only a matter of time until I was introduced to Leon. Being fans of the band’s work with their first two albums, we were pleased to meet a fellow band in the UK scene that we could somewhat relate to, and obviously with the work Leon did on the Despoilment of Origin album, you could say a professional bond was created. Which eventually led to Sarpanitum signing to Galactic Records after finding out Leon was a big fan of our work.
I also knew Alex De Moller from an old friend for some years from his work for Zero Tolerance magazine as a contributor, so when it was announced that he would become the next Mithras live guitar player I was very pleased for him. We’ve been very lucky to find a group of individuals who we’d like to think are very much on the same page as ourselves, which has proved a great pillar of support for the band. Likewise with Mithras as well as Alex’s own band Scythian, we’re sure that the future is bright for death metal hailing from Britain.
Most of the tracks on the LP appeared on your 2005 demo of the same name. Did you re-record them? How many new songs are included and how would you compare the older songs with the newer ones?
All the songs on the album, despite sharing names, were rerecorded and rearranged from the demoed versions. On the demo we were very much learning our craft and even though they were well received we felt when it came to recording the album that we would spend time going over them with a fine-toothed comb ironing our any sections or pieces that we weren’t happy with. In fact several songs on the demo weren’t included on the album and the songs ‘Dawn of Enthrallment’, the new version of ‘Provocation of an Eternal Odium’ and ‘Ascending the Divine’ were not featured on the “Despoilment…” demo.
Were there any tracks left over? Do you have much material written for a follow-up?
For the next album we’re starting the writing process completely from scratch; we had some archived songs that were possibly going to be included on a follow-up, but with the addition of Mark into the band, we definitely feel we want album #2 to be written entirely with this line up, as we feel it is definitely our strongest to date. We have around four incomplete pieces that we are working on currently and intend to utilise the bulk of the summer to continue to gel those together as a unit, as well as continue working on more material for our next Galactic Records release.
If you could tour with any band in the world, past or present, who would you choose and why?
That is definitely a hard question, and one that you may get different answers for from several members of the band. However in terms of extreme metal, I think none of us would disagree with me in saying that if we could choose one band to share the stage with it would be Immolation. Alongside Morbid Angel, they are the most consistent and unique band in this genre, and one we admire greatly.
If Bono emailed you and said he wanted to include 'Ascending the Divine' on a compilation CD to raise money for charity, would you answer him?
I would definitely answer him, now whether or not we’d be on the compilation would purely be down to other variables. Feasibly, it’s simply just one for the imagination.
What do you think of the UK DM scene in general?
I think it is definitely picking up some steam; years ago when I really started to listen out for UK death metal it was mainly dominated by the established bands such as Napalm Death, Benediction etc. I guess rehearsing in Birmingham you can’t really escape it. I think since then bands such as Mithras and Detrimentum have stepped up and others have followed suit. There is definitely enough space for a new batch of bands to help carry the torch of UKDM.
Is DM a form of escapism for both the musician and the listener?
Definitely, I mean what better way to vent anger, frustration or just purely let off some steam than to play this kind of music? And it is always why I feel death metal is best suited on stage, because then you not only take in the sonic value of the music as you would on CD but also the unbeatable live energy that can only be transmitted live, visually, and with the interaction with the crowd.
I definitely believe it is why death metal as a subculture has expanded so much since its conception; being an avid listener of many different music styles I can safely say that the visceral and relentless force of death metal is unrivalled.
Some might argue that the lyrical themes covered by Sarpanitum have no relevance to a 20-year-old dealing with every day life in England. Is there a deeper meaning perhaps?
You raise a good point, and one which I guess is a major subject for debate when looking into the death metal genre from the outside. I cannot speak for any other band but we as Sarpanitum have always believed in the power of lyrics conceptually on the listener. It is the case that some bands in the gore-metal subgenre may feel lyrics and themes may be irrelevant to the band’s sound but that definitely isn’t the case for us. Obviously not everyone is going to look up lyrics, concepts or even their meanings, but for me personally as a lyricist, the band’s lyrical output is a huge proportion of the band’s identity and thus an integral part of a band’s sound. I mean when you hear Immolation, it is obvious the kind of feel that is intended to be conveyed to the listener. Taking Immolation as an example, they have developed their lyrical execution continuously throughout their career; starting off as what some people might perceive as simply a straight forward “Satanic” metal band with their early albums, they have developed their lyrical output into tackling more modern day issues that religion has in fact inflicted upon our society.
As Sarpanitum we’ve never wished to jump on the somewhat popular name-dropping bandwagon of ancient mythology mixed with extreme metal, but instead portray that period of time and the tales within it. Often these struggles can be related into modern day life but that is something best left to the imagination of the listener. It’s an age old cliché but we’d like each listener to hopefully take something different away from our music.
 What has the reaction so far been to 'Despoilment'? Will you be able to give up your day jobs?
The majority of reviews for “Despoilment…” have all pretty much been overwhelmingly positive which we’ve all been extremely thankful and happy about. For a debut album we really hoped to make an impact on the death metal scene and hopefully with the continuation of such positive press we can do just that.
Do any of you guys listen to any other styles of music apart from death metal?
It is safe to say we’re all big fans of music, and luckily we all have different musical tastes; which may not be that great when travelling to a show and trying to find an album to put on, but I feel certainly helps infinitely when writing and brainstorming ideas for the band.
As well as the obvious death metal and black metal influences, I, myself, am an avid listener of ambient music such as Elend, Amon Tobin, Dead Can Dance and the like, alongside genres such as electronica, dub, classical and triphop. As a band we’re big fans of original film scores as well as ambient and atmospheric music, actually it is very rare that you’ll find us listening to death metal when trying to draw musical inspiration.
Finally, could you give me one word to describe how you feel about the following:
black metal: krieg?
religion: unnecessary
WWII: shameful
reality TV: degrading
myspace: useful
death: inescapable
alcohol: doubles
terrorism: prominent
politics: facade
Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel: (yet to watch it – a lot to live up to if his last two were anything to go by)
Thanks for your time mate. If there's anything else you'd like to add, now is your chance:
I would just like to thank Gerald and Vampire Magazine for the support and interest in Sarpanitum; all the best.
Andy
Want more info on Sarpanitum?
Visit Sarpanitum's band information page!
Other articles for Sarpanitum:
| News article |  | Announce new member and UK live dates» | by Gerald
13 Dec, 2007 | | Album review |  | Despoilment of Origin» | by Gerald
30 May, 2007 |
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