Dark and romantic, sensual and gloomy - this is how I would describe the sound of Diminished 7! The album 'Dim World' represented irremediable love at first audition, love that still keeps on growing to this day. The balance between brutal and serene is more than perfect, melancholic but with obscure impetus, beastly growls added here and there to the infinitely pleasant predominant clean vocals, 'Dim World' can easily be considered a perfect release. When listening to an album, everyone probably has one or two less favourite songs that they tend to skip. In this case, the whole thing is a real masterpiece.
The opening song is 'Your Warmth From A Candle', which transmits the comfort of an approaching, anticipated tranquility after long struggles. Quite romantic and mystic at the same time, with the repeated element of the candle. Next up is 'Taste A Vampire', my personal favourite I would say. It's about a vampiric love story, with a heavily obsure, bloody and romantic atmosphere in melodic line and vocals, as well as the lyrics, hosting a lot of perfectly structured variety. 'She Lost Her Heart In Hollywood' has a more sort of cheerful and light flow of sounds which seems to be in slight opposition with the tragic lyrics, describing the stereotypical Hollywood-ian despair worn under a mask of glamour. 'Our Darkest Love' could be referred to as a kind of calm resignation in two, materialized in form of a romantic, simultaneous death that will isolate the two lovers from the burden of life. The next piece is entitled 'Sleep In Shadows', chorus of which delivers a calm sort of sensation, the rest of the song contains some more pronounced growls and a reference to the band as gods, 'the diminished 7 gods are here with us'. 'Midnight Divine' is another personal favourite, also giving the illusion of vampiric ways, which is obviously the leading element of the album all in all. It gives the impression of the love and immortality of a new vampire in need of her maker's guidance. In 'Her Bloodlust At Sunset', we continue the occult journey in the depths of vampirism, embracing the scent of sacrifice that means giving up on mortal life in favour of love. 'In Fear Of The End Of Days' is clearly about death, which is yet unknown and thus, desperately feared. The last song is' Pre-Apocalyptic Meditation', a quite simple instrumental piece with calm continuity, that can suggest either a shade of resignation and hollow endlessness as an effect of the previous song, or a closing ritual to this journey that the album offered the listener.
Playdeadnation warmly recommends this album to everyone wishing for an obscure, notional, soothing yet darkly dynamic heart- and mindtravel!
http://www.diminished-7.com
https://www.facebook.com/diminished7
Fractured Fairytales is a gothic industrial metal band from North Carolina, United States, self-described as 'Finding beauty in the horrid, and finding the horrid in beauty.' Having promised to darken the earth with their tunes, founding member Lutachrist Dupre and bassist Nyx Thanaos are brought to you by playdeadnation as an early Xmas present to share their thoughts!
pdn: Hails! You initiated this project alone; how did you guys meet and decide to make music together?
Lutachrist: I could write a whole book on subject so I'll try to make it somewhat short. The day that I decided to make Fractured Fairytales a performing band as opposed to just a studio project I was aware that I would need some bad asses for the line-up. I also knew that it would not be easy to assimilate a team of the caliber of musicians I was seeking. I needed people that dedicated their lives to music as much as I have....cause otherwise I would just be selling myself short. Having been in several bands in the past I already knew that all too well what that is like. I held many try outs and searched near and far to all corners of the earth until finally one day the first wave of Necromancers were in place to begin the Fractured Fairytales campaign.
pdn: Hmm, tell me a bit about the very beginning and other projects you were involved in prior to Fractured Fairytales, please.
Lutachrist: There is no need to go digging up those corpses this day. In fact I'm not sure any of those musicians would appreciate being associated with us anyway. You see we are actually quite infamous and well hated in the town that Fractured Fairytales is based out of. The locals don't agree with the things we do or say on and off stage. We don't fit into their false assurance of morals and religion. Our approval rating in this town is low and dismal...much like the current President of the United States.
pdn: Who were the people and bands that have influenced you musically, as well as in your personal life?
Lutachrist: I had my hero's growing up, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and on and on. When I was 12 years old we moved to a new town and I met a kid named Joey Revels. He walked up to me the first day and said " I am your guardian Angel and you need to buy a guitar". Him referring to himself as an angel turned out to be very ironic because Joey worshipped the Devil.....unlike anyone I have ever met to this day. He is also the individual that dubbed me as Lutachrist. We chose a very dark path and did many unspeakable things. His spirit transcended from his body to bigger and better realms many years ago. Every Fractured Fairytales album ever released says (RIP Joey Revels) in the liner notes.
pdn: What inspired you while writing the lyrics and what are your main themes?
Lutachrist: Fractured Fairytales lyrics are often about the current condition of the human collective which is more so a conglomeration of all energies in the known and unknown universe in a state of chaos and for reasons unknown at war with itself. The end of society, The apocalypse - which means great change...not the end of the world, the cesspool of the human mind..that fact that everyone is everything somewhere an perhaps it's too bad we are on the brink of extinction right when we are ready to make the next step in evolution.
pdn: If you could pick any band, who would you like to share the stage with someday?
NyX: I would to love see Fractured Fairytales share the stage with nine inch Nails, Manson, and/or Cradle of filth. All those bands are mayor influences for us as a whole and are people we have looked up to for years.
pdn: What are the nearest plans for you guys? Something like tours, new album we can look forward to?
NyX: Fractured Fairytales has a whole list of plans for the near future. We are currently in the studio working on our 3rd full length album and are about to film the “So Red It’s Black” video which is on our remix album “Revale”. We feel like even since it’s a remix album we still need a visual representation of it for the masses before we release the next album. It’s something for the fans to keep them in the edge of their sits; we owe them that and more. We also plan on touring for the new album in the late spring/summer time in the U.S. and hopefully parts of Canada and upper Mexico.
pdn: Thank you for your time and friendship! Any final words you'd like to add for friends and fans?
NyX: This band owes everything to our friends and fans, the entity that is Fractured Fairytales would be nothing without them. We see people talking about the band and sharing our music everywhere we look on the internet and we thank them for getting the word about us out there. The Horde they have created grows stronger every day because of them and they are why we do what we do. To all the fans out there I can say only this; Our Hordes will darken the Earth.
booking@fracturedfairytalesband.com
http://www.fracturedfairytalesband.com/
http://www.myspace.com/fracturedfairytales
http://www.vampirefreaks.com/fracturedfairytales
Bella Morte is a gothic band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in 1996. A complex act, with a style of their own, which combines stories about love and loss, graveyard ballads and guitar riffs typical to their sound. Today, singer Andy Deane was nice as always and gave us some of his time!
pdn: Hello, Andy! Please tell me, how did you
get the idea of 'Bella Morte' as the band's name?
Andy: Actually, Gopal came up with Bella Morte after a month or so of brainstorming for a name. And it fit us perfectly, described our sound to an extent. I think I spent a couple of weeks mispronouncing it after we’d made the decision. I love the name, wouldn’t change it for anything.
pdn: I know there were some line-up changes in the band's history. Did that affect the band's activity in any way?
Andy: Line-up changes have sometimes left a mark. The most telling would be the addition of a live drummer. We made the decision several years ago to add live drums to the show to add a boost of energy to our performances. And it worked. The drums obviously sound quite different than what comes out of a drum machine, and this affected the way we craft songs. But the heart of the band has remained the same throughout the years, and I’m still writing sad and hopeful songs with a very dark twist. That will never change.
pdn: You have a side-project called The Rain Within. How did you decide to start that project and how did you get the idea?
Andy: It had a lot to do with Bella Morte acquiring a drummer. Though I love live drums, I missed playing synthetic songs like Relics and The Rain Within Her Hands (which is obviously where I got the name for this project). And I had several finished tracks that weren’t going to work for Bella, so The Rain Within happened. I wrote and recorded everything by myself, and the first album, Pain Management was a huge success for me. I just finished a second album, which will be released in 2012 if the world doesn’t explode first.
pdn: How can you describe your work as a writer in a few words, and what are the main elements you use? Also, who are your favourite authors?
Andy: I love using metaphors… maybe too much in some people’s eyes. And with most of what I’ve written there’s a good dose of humor involved, but not enough to detract from the scary elements of the story. My novels are horrific tales told through the words of someone with a sense of humor. I like to be straight forward with my storytelling as well, and want the reader to feel like I’m sitting beside them reciting from memory. I’m proud of what I’ve written, and the feedback on my books has been incredibly encouraging. My favorite author is Joe Lansdale, and I’m also a fan of George Oliver, Brian Keene, Clive Barker, Mary Shelley, and many, many more.
pdn: I know what it's like to be an artist with multiple interests and outlets; so I'm curious, what are some of your other preoccupations, besides making music and writing?
Andy: I’m a huge fan of horror films. Movies like Halloween (the original John Carpenter film), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (again, the original), and more recently, Martyrs have all had an influence on what I create. I have a huge collection of films and love scouring the internet for rare films. I also love the hell out of video games, and spend too much time playing Halo and more recently, Skyrim.
pdn: What bands/ people, things have influenced you in becoming who you are today?
Andy: Too many to name. I’ve been told many times that my voice reminds people of Mike Patton, Danzig, and Anthony Kiedis, and that makes sense to me seeing as I’m a fan of all three. But there are so many others in the mix that the list would go a mile or two. More than anyone, my dad played a huge part in making me who I am today, and that has had the greatest effect on my art.
pdn: Any plans for the near future, for both Bella Morte and The Rain Within? New material, tours?
Andy: There will be new albums from both Bella Morte and The Rain Within in 2012, and Bella Morte will definitely be hitting the road to play shows. Seeing as Bella just released “Before the Flood” this summer our next album won’t be available until next fall. On top of all that, Gopal and I recently started a new band called Brighter Fires, and released our debut self-titled album earlier this year. Our first show will take place on New Year’s Eve in New York City, and we’ll be playing live more often after that.
pdn: What band would you love to share the stage with in the future?
Andy: We’d love to tour with our friends in The Cruxshadows again, because it’s been too long since we got to hang out with those guys! I’d love to line up something with The 69 Eyes or AFI as well, and feel we’d fit well with either.
pdn: Thank you so much for your time! Any final words you would like to add for your friends and fans?
Andy: No problem, glad to be here! To fans and friends; buy my books and albums, because I know where you sleep! ;)
http://www.bellamorte.com
http://www.youtube.com/bellamorte
http://www.vampirefreaks.com/bellamortemusic
http://www.therainwithin.com
