LAMENTARI is a Danish band who blend their Symphonic Black Metal with a cinematic universe. It's enough to wake my curiosity! I take a moment to ask Emil (gutarist) a few questions about their new album “Ex Umbra In Lucem”, released in May.
To begin with, can you introduce Lamentari ? Tell us how the adventure began? Emil : Lamentari began from a need of creating a playground for all things bombastic – giving life to combinations of epic orchestral music with virtuosic elements in the style of neo-classical rock and metal while keeping the darkness and raw "fuck you" attitude of black.
“Ex Umbra in Lucem” was released some months ago. What feedback have you had since then ? Great feedback ! Firstly, we have received many amazing messages from fans – old and new – very thorough reviews where you can tell the reviewer really took their time to listen to the details. It’s really interesting how different reviewers notice different aspects of our inspirations, and how we think – and many of them really hit the nail on the head. Secondly, we played a string of concerts at the same time as the release, playing the album in it’s entirety for the first time. It is an understatement to say that the turnout and the audience for these gigs have been amazing.
This album is the first after a series of singles and EP, how did you approach the production process? I will say that our (Emil and Max’s) experience as songwriters for this style from prior releases made the writing process quite fast, considering the type of music. In general, I would fly from Denmark to Max (who lives just outside of London) and we would bake around 3 demos in one week. We did this twice. Then we would take these songs to the rest of the band and start recording. The mixing process was done with Kristoffer Alm who also mixed our first EP.
This first album was released independently. Is it a strength for you to be able to manage all aspects? It is definitely a strength as long as you have good partners. This time around, we had All Noir help us for promotion. We also have a booker and a manager as a fixed part of the team. So while we have a lot of the resources one gets from a record deal, we preserve all of our rights and can do what we want.
You've already played some memorable concerts. What are your best memories you keep of this ? To be honest, almost all concerts are memorable. It is always fun to go out as a team and see the music you’ve worked on over time (in student dorms, bedrooms, actual studios and so on) come to life. Audiences have always been very good to us, regardless of the size of the gig. I will say two of my most memorable moments were Wacken and Copenhell – not only because of the concerts, but the whole aura around the festival activities, going to see music with your friends and also playing yourself. Right now, I am also still high on the concert we played in Copenhagen last month at Hotel Cecil – the room was boiling and we played fresh material. A final great one is Copenhell cruise. I like the festivals (and the cruise festival) because you really get to immerse yourself in the culture for a couple of days, meet the fans, hang out with like minded people and talk music and of course…play !
You were third at the Wacken Metal Battle. What memories do you have of the experience ? Too many to recount, it was an amazing time. I will say that our placement surprised me – I typically set my bar low when it comes to expectations, and while the winners were being announced we were kinda joking around a bit being stupidly Danish. It was a huge honor and cadeau. And although the concert was kind of short, seeing the dirt tornado from the moshpit while we played is a very fond memory.
You also played at a festival in Copenhell with a choir. What memories do you keep of it? Amazing gig. Extremely great audience and extremely great crew – lots of good vibes – we are going to share videos from this concert in the coming time on our YouTube channel and Facebook so keep an eye out! We have the sound from the mixing board and some professional recordings that have been sitting around for too long.
You'll be playing at the Copenhagen Festival again this September. Is it going to be a special concert? We have played Copenhagen Metal Fest before and I think it was one of our first gigs where things really clicked! It will be special in the sense that we will be headlining a special day with a blackened metal theme. Details are still coming together, but it is a chance to check out the new material of course and kick some ass.
I admit I don't know much about the Danish metal scene, except Volbeat. Which bands would you recommend or like to highlight?
Within the last ten years or so I will say that the Danish scene has produced some real quality ! Right now, some of my favorites are Iotunn and upcomers Thus (who won the Danish Wacken Metal Battle this year). Also, an old classic that I like is Mercenary. Oh and Lars Ulrich is Danish ;). And while the Faroe Island is autonomus, it still belongs to the Danish "commonwealth", and so I am cheekily going to include Hamferd on my list of cool bands.
To conclude this interview I leave you the last words : Thanks a bunch for your interest ! Hope to see you on the road.
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