The Ordher
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Arising from the ashes of Brazil's famous underground stalwarts Rebaelliun and Nephasth and debuting on California's Unique Leader Records The Ordher is rapidly establishing itself in the international extreme metal scene. The band's debut "Weaponize" speaks for itself in its sheer technical mastery, strong old school vibe and utterly relentless assault. Masterful Magazine recently had the chance to talk to The Ordher mainmen Fabio Lentino (vocals/bass) and Fabiano Penna (guitars) resulting in the following conversation about the roots of The Ordher, the band's environment and their plans for the future.
First off, I'd like to thank you for taking time to speak with me today. Could you, for those out there who may not know The Ordher, tell a little about the band? Could you tell me what is going on with you and The Ordher right now?
Fabio Lentino: We started the band as a project back in 2005 and some months after the first rehearsal session it became to be our main goal. Now we are 100% working to promote "Weaponize" fixing some shows here in Brazil and soon overseas too...
How have the reactions to "Weaponize" been thus far? We, here at a Masterful Magazine, gave it a praising review due to its impressive technical mastery and strong old school vibe.
Fabio Lentino: We are getting a very good feedback from specialized Heavy Metal media and fans all over the world.
Fabiano Penna: Fortunately we've got great reviews of "Weaponize" from several magazines and webzines, as well as many messages that we receive from extreme metal fans from many different countries.
Prior to this debut album you recorded at 3 track demo that was made available on the band's website. Did this demo open up a lot of doors and gave it the band the exposure you foresaw?
Fabio Lentino: Sure it did! We decided to spread our music only at Internet 'cause we know Internet is the best tool to promote everything that you can imagine nowadays.
Fabiano Penna: Before the album, we were kinda pre-producing our music, we knew the band was not really ready to record a killer album. We were already negotiating with some labels and it would be a good idea to start to promote the band at that moment too, we did not want to wait for the album to promote The Ordher. And since that demo was sounding good, we made it available on our site and MySpace too, what gave us a good promotion and made The Ordher better known among the fans.
Is there an overall theme to this album, or how would you say "Weaponize" is different from your the albums you've done with Rebaelliun and Nephasth?
Fabiano Penna: I would say it's more mature than our old works in every sense, musically and lyrically speaking. "Weaponize" is extreme metal, but also contains elements from heavy and thrash metal, that's very clear. And about lyrics, the album deals with war and violence, sometimes we include religion to those issues too, but it's not a 'romantic' view of point, you know? It deals with those topics really based on what's going on in this fucking world, sometimes we're talking about pure history, but it's still very actual.
How long did it take to write/record the whole album? Tell us something about the recording process: the studio(s), producer you worked with, etc.
Fabiano Penna: From the first rehearsal, around April '05, to the recordings, it took around 2 years. Recordings were done pretty fast, we recorded the whole album in 40 hours, maybe less than that. Then we spent a couple of weeks mixing and mastering the stuff, here at my home studio. We recorded all drums, bass and vocals at Fabio's studio, called Estudio 1000. All guitars, mixing and mastering were done at my home studio, El Diablo. We produced the album by ourselves, I've worked with studios and also live events for 10 years or more, as well as Fabio, so we're really ready to do the work by ourselves.
It seems that you were all very comfortable in the studio. Do you feel that making this record on your own terms ended up in a better overall result?
Fabio Lentino: Yes, it's very good to produce and engineer on our own terms because we know, better than anyone, what we want. Of course that an opinion from somebody who is not a band member is also very positive, but I think we got an excellent sonority and we are very satisfied with the final result of "Weaponize".
When working on "Weaponize", were there any elements from your previous bands Rebaelliun and Nephasth that you wanted to keep and were there any particular things you were looking to improve?
Fabio Lentino: We always have in mind to write heavy, extreme, intense and fast music. We are not worried if something will be similar or not to our previous bands.
Fabiano Penna: When we met first, we knew that we wanted to do something different from the previous bands, but we didn't have to pay attention to any details in order not to sound like Rebaelliun or Nephasth, the music just happened the way we felt it had to happen, and that's cool. If you think too much about music, it becomes unnatural, you know? About the things we had to improve you asked, probably the slow parts on the album... Tracks like 'Father' gave us a lot of work, we had to learn how to play slower and sound really heavy, that was probably the hardest task on this album.
Staying with the new album, what was your intention when you began writing "Weaponize" - did you have a preconceived idea of what you wanted the record to sound like and what you wanted it to achieve, or did that come about naturally?
Fabio Lentino: Everything was made exactly what we had in mind. We did a lot of recordings as pre-productions, so when we entered the studio to record "Weaponize" we had done all tracks for the album.
You recently shot a promotional video for the track 'Rise' which is available on YouTube.com. Really neat and energetic, but very expensive, I'm sure. Were the costs split between the band and the label?
Fabiano Penna: Not really, we did this video by ourselves, and it was not expensive really. We got the images from a good show we did in our hometown last December, and so we thought it could became our first video-clip. We have a friend who works with video editions and cinema here in Brazil, we sent him the stuff and he worked on that. The result is the video-clip people can see on YouTube, or even on our site and MySpace page too. This video will be available on a DVD compilation that Unique Leader will release next Fall in the U.S. too.
With your previous two bands, Rebaelliun and Nephasth the albums were released through Holland's Hammerheart Records and Denmark's Mighty Music. This new album "Weaponize" comes to us by way of Unique Leader Records. Are you happy the way they handled the record, regarding promotion, distribution and marketing?
Fabio Lentino: Unique Leader has done a great job for The Ordher, I think it's all fine. They are doing a good promotion all over the world and they got an excellent distribution as well. I think that another important thing is the fact we have a good relationship with the label.
What do you think makes a good death metal song? Is it the speed, groove, the extremity, the catchiness or something entirely different?
Fabio Lentino: In my opinion all these items are important if you mix feeling to this formula.
Over the last decade Brazil has carved its place in the international metal scene thanks to its utterly relentless and fast death metal bands. Although, Brazil has the ninth biggest economy in the world; bureaucracy, corruption, poverty and illiteracy still are its biggest problems. Do you think these social problems result in bands playing incredibly fierce and technical death metal?
Fabiano Penna: Sure, the environment also defines a band, you're entirely right. So that's not without a reason that American bands sound a way, European ones in another way, and Brazilian acts are more chaotic in the end.
Brazil has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world, 74% are Roman Catholic (about 139 million). A lot of Brazilian death metal acts are strong and vocal in their condemnation of religion. Is religion one of the ills of modern society, where people lack to ability to believe in themselves and need a deity to fill that void?
Fabiano Penna: Yes, religion keeps many people really blind to what's really going on in this world. A lot was already told about this issue, and sometimes it's just too repetitive to keep talking about this, but it's still important to remember people about what they do with those who can't understand this, that they have so many ways to enslave people...
How is the death metal underground doing in Brazil these days?
Fabiano Penna: The same as always. We have some good bands and some people really interested in making a better scene, and we have to say thanks to all these guys, because they keep the spirit alive. But we have too many bands that have not that much to say, too many 'Internet fans', too many people who don't support local acts, too many promoters who really screw with the bands. And the main thing that really fucks with our scene is the lack of structure, that's something that happens due to the critical economical situation we have over here.
Will you be touring Europe in support of this record? Either on your own or as a support to another bigger act?
Fabio Lentino: Yes we are in contact with some European agencies to put The Ordher in a good tour as support act. We think it's the best way for a debut band.
Anything else we might have forgotten to mention? The last words are yours.
Fabio Lentino: Very thanks for the interview and for the support. People can have more info about The Ordher at www.theordher.com and www.myspace.com/theorderextreme. Thanks again, hope to meet you guys on the road soon.
Fabiano Penna: Thanks Wouter for the interview and support. Be sure that soon we will be there to promote our album and to drink some good Belgian beer like Duvel! Hail and kill!!
Info/booking: www.uniqueleader.com
Site: www.theordher.com
