{"id":27277,"date":"2015-03-12T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=27277"},"modified":"2015-04-12T22:19:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T22:19:45","slug":"feature-melechesh-03-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-melechesh-03-15\/","title":{"rendered":"MELECHESH – Multiple Truths (March 2015) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELECHESH – Multiple Truths<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMarch 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nJerusalem, Israel-born black metal outfit Melechesh took a while to author compositions for February 2015 studio full-length Enki<\/em> \u2013 their sixth overall \u2013 founder, vocalist and guitarist Ashmedi writing much of the material alone. Fifth effort The Epigenesis<\/em> had been issued during October 2010, almost four-and-a-half years prior. In comparison to their peers, Melechesh studio affairs surface less frequently to an extent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI write most of the music alone, so it takes a long time between touring and stuff,\u201d Ashmedi explains. \u201cI just basically write guitar parts, add drums to it, make pre-production demos, and then show them to the guys in the band so they can learn it. We spent one month before going to the studio, practising everything after doing demos. Yeah, pretty much that\u2019s the way it goes. Then we take another look at the song, and try to adjust stuff. It\u2019s quite a long process. And yeah, we spent a long time in the studio just recording the damn thing (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Platters taking a greater length of time to come to fruition is largely due to one circumstance. \u201cI do all of it on my own, managing the band,\u201d the singer cites. \u201cWriting the songs, you need to be inspired. Every song I want to have a different mood, and not sound the same. All this causes delays and last year, some people came into the band, but they weren\u2019t the right people. That also caused delays, so it\u2019s circumstances that causes this. Also though, the industry has spoiled people because of the fact that some bands are vomiting albums out every year or two. You can tell that the music is acceptable, but not of a high quality. We want to maintain a high quality standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit issuing material less frequently, Ashmedi often pens guitar riffs. \u201cYou should hear my riff bank,\u201d he reckons. \u201cI have hundreds and hundreds of riffs. Even just going through them is tedious, so you have to keep on filtering yourself and being your own critic. The best critic in Melechesh is myself; I would spend years going through every note and every riff, and sometimes some fan or some journalist would hear the first five minutes and give me a full review of the album. I would be like \u2018What?\u2019 You must be a god of music or something to get it that quickly, because I don\u2019t get it that quickly. I\u2019m still discovering things I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Melechesh members critique prospective riffs the axeman composes. \u201cI listen to people around me, and sometimes they convince me and sometimes I convince them,\u201d he divulges. \u201cThere have been periods where some of our greatest riffs were rejected by the entire band, and then they started liking it later and now they\u2019re \u2018hit riffs\u2019 of the band. Something like the introduction of \u2018Deluge Of Delusional Dreams\u2019 (from October 2006\u2019s Emissaries<\/em>), where everybody was like \u2018No, no\u2019 in the beginning but then were like \u2019Fuck yeah.\u2019 Sometimes I would do something, and they were like \u2018Hey… Are you sure you want to use that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to critique Enki<\/em> against past Melechesh offerings, Ashmedi is reluctant. \u201cIt\u2019s hard, because I don\u2019t compare,\u201d he reasons. \u201cI look forward, not backwards. It\u2019s just what it is right now. Angry, diverse, credible, skilful. I love this album. Writing the best songs possible; that\u2019s my dream, the pursuit of the perfect song. That\u2019s what we tried to do. Whatever happens, happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enki<\/em>\u2019s lyrical content explores \u201cduality, philosophy, Near Eastern occults, a lot of metaphor,\u201d the frontman lists. \u201cThere\u2019s a real lot of metaphor, some of it even relating to the events of today \u2013 a message from me to other people. Also, a lot of it deals with or hints about the Mesopotamian, Sumerian mythology. This is our domain, and we are always playing around within this domain because this is very vast. There\u2019s always no shortage of material lyrically, because we come from a very rich heritage area with a lot of beliefs, a lot of philosophies, a lot of history, and a lot of mythologies. You get to expand your mind, and I think that\u2019s the lyrics. For me, the lyrics are extremely important. What I like with us is if you\u2019re not into that and you\u2019re just into the music, that\u2019s fine. We\u2019re just like any other metal band, but if you want more, you can go places. You\u2019ve gotta decide, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashmedi\u2019s conversation paints the impression that the Melechesh lyricist is a well-read gentleman. \u201cI\u2019ve read a lot of books,\u201d he offers. \u201cThere\u2019s not so many not to read (laughs). It becomes repetitive, but it\u2019s not like I\u2019m a walking library \u2013 obviously not. I forget a lot, so I do remind myself and re-read them, or I just skim through them and then just start sitting and reflecting, and it starts an idea that becomes a story. So yeah, writing lyrics is a really interesting process. It\u2019s almost the opposite of making the music, because each song needs to be done in a separate timeframe when writing the music. The lyrics, I can get into a zone and just write songs right after each other, because I\u2019m in that kind of storytelling zone. I guess you\u2019ve gotta trigger a place in your mind to do that, which is different. It\u2019s very visual doing it, because while writing, you\u2019re seeing what you\u2019re writing. It\u2019s almost like watching an exclusive film. It\u2019s a privilege for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Additionally, current events are somewhat of a lyrical inspiration. \u201cThere\u2019s always hints on every album with the lyrics, even the title \u2018As Jerusalem Burns… Al\u2019Intisar\u2019 (from the December 1996 debut full-length of the same name),\u201d the axe-slinger muses. \u201cWe didn\u2019t mean it like literally burning with fire, because I love Jerusalem. It was more metaphorically with the way of thinking, the whole mass hypnosis they have here. Let\u2019s take \u2018Lost Tribes\u2019; I was thinking about the glorious and diverse ancient people in the Near East. In a way, through religion, kind of these legacies were forgotten, from the mighty Sumerian empire to victims now. They\u2019re peaceful, friendly people, and there\u2019s a lot of hate there with what\u2019s happening. Partially it\u2019s due to politics, but partially also due to people following religions, and perhaps either getting indoctrinated or just losing that beautiful legacy they had which resulted in big empires which lasted hundreds of years. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing is yeah, I take it a little personally. While writing those lyrics, I found out my cousin was shot by ISIS, so I got pissed off. He got shot in the shoulder, because he\u2019s a Christian. Anyway, I don\u2019t want to get into that too much, but it\u2019s disgusting. I hint that what these guys do is fucked up. Afterwards, only now we see what they did to the Mesopotamian ruins and stuff. It\u2019s a tragedy of humanity, and it\u2019s not because they are of an Islamic background or whatever. No, it\u2019s because they are just extremists. They could be Nazis as well, because they all do some kind of shit like that. I do hint about that in \u2018Lost Tribes\u2019, and in \u2018The Palm The Eye And Lapis Lazuli\u2019. There\u2019s a strong message there that I\u2019m sending, because I\u2019ve had bad experiences with less evolved or less enlightened people. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou see, enlightenment and empowerment are strengths and not weaknesses. When you see a smart person, when they see that I\u2019m being enlightened and I\u2019m giving them empowerment, they go \u2018Oh, wow.\u2019 That\u2019s a very strong and kind person, because it takes a lot of courage to do that. A weak person, like some thug or pirate or punk \u2013 and I don\u2019t mean the musical style punk \u2013 always see it as a weakness. Usually, you get savage kind of behaviour around you when you\u2019re showing that kindness to people, so that bothers me. I wrote \u2018The Palm The Eye And Lapis Lazuli\u2019 about that in a way, and that\u2019s like a second meaning. So yeah, that\u2019s how the lyrics work. \u2018Leper Jerusalem\u2019 from Emissaries<\/em> had three meanings; one religious, one societal, and one about the ancient city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listeners can draw different interpretations from Melechesh\u2019s lyrical meanderings, depending upon individual listeners\u2019 perspectives. \u201cI write them with my intentions, but art is open to re-interpretation,\u201d Ashmedi concurs. \u201cSometimes when you see that a song says \u2018When you left me in the dark\u2019 or something like that, or a love song or whatever, one person will go like \u2018Yeah. My girlfriend or my boyfriend dumped me.\u2019 The other person will be thinking about the abuse that they went through. Another person will literally be thinking about, I don\u2019t know, when they were working in a factory and there was a blackout (laughs). It is open to interpretation and I encourage that, because that\u2019s a part of the arts. Listener participation is okay, so you can interpret it in your own way. It\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording sessions for Enki<\/em> took place in Athens, Greece. \u201cI wanted somewhere Mediterranean and sunny,\u201d the composer reveals. \u201cGreek culture is very similar to my culture \u2013 Assyrian \/ Armenian. It\u2019s pretty much identical, so I felt quite at home. I didn\u2019t wanna be somewhere where it was gonna be a little gloomy and rainy and muddy. I just wanted somewhere where it was a little bit culturally significant, and with good weather and good food. I mean, I ended up spending almost three months, so imagine that I was somewhere where I wasn\u2019t comfortable. The previous album we did was recorded in Istanbul, so we kind of go against the grain I suppose. One magazine said that Enki<\/em> was for the book, not by the book, so I found that pretty cool, pretty accurate (laughs). So yeah, it was a good experience. The album got mixed in Sweden though, by the way \u2013 not in Greece. It got mixed and mastered in Sweden (at Black Lounge Studio by Jonas Kjellgren), but the recordings themselves were done in Greece.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much of an effect where a full-length is laid down can have on the eventual results is open to debate. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Ashmedi ponders. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a luxury, I guess. We did Sphynx (March 2003) in an industrial city near Gothenburg, Sweden, and it still sounds good. We did Emissaries<\/em> in a little town, a very great, gloomy town in Germany, and it was snowing all over the place, and it still sounds good. It helps you as an artist, though. You feel better. If I feel better, I feel more creative I guess, so maybe I get more spur of the moment ideas. Mind you, the guitars and drums are always planned perfectly in pre-production, but I leave room for improvisation. We just roll the recorder, and I just play whatever leads I want. It\u2019s not pre-planned. It\u2019s whatever I\u2019m feeling at that second, so obviously when you\u2019re in such an environment and you\u2019re feeling it, it comes out good.\u201d<\/p>\n

While drums were recorded at Devasoundz Studios and engineered by Fotis Benardo, much of the rest was cut at Grindhouse Studio by George Bokos, Melechesh later convening at their German headquarters. \u201cOur rehearsal room has a studio,\u201d the vocalist discloses. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of the traditional instruments there as well, because we have more of them. We didn\u2019t fly them to Greece with us obviously, and yeah, that\u2019s pretty much it. We did some recordings in the States, even. It\u2019s all over the place, and then everything got mixed in Sweden. It\u2019s a global effort I suppose, but that\u2019s what we are. We are a band from planet Earth not bound by man-made borders, so we do things wherever they need to be done, wherever it\u2019s comfortable for us, and that\u2019s how it is. I guess it\u2019s just an extension of my character that I\u2019ve always been a cosmopolitan from all over the place, having lived in so many countries. I\u2019m from Jerusalem, but I\u2019m not even Israeli or Palestinian. My family came from another place, so it just keeps on going like that. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe first language that I spoke wasn\u2019t even my mother tongue; I was speaking French, because when I started speaking, I was in Senegal. Then I lived in the States, in LA, and then I moved back to Israel, then Miami. I lived briefly in Istanbul, I lived in Holland for 17 years, and now I\u2019m in Germany close to our bass player and our stage guitar player. I live in the Rhineland South region which is close to France, but I\u2019m always travelling. At the moment, I\u2019m in Jerusalem. Yeah though, the band is spread out all over the globe. So yeah, I guess people are just… <\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, it\u2019s a mass hypnosis thing to believe in man-made borders, but I just believe that this is a small planet and you do whatever you do wherever you wanna do it, depending on your needs. And no, it\u2019s not an issue of money, because it might actually be even cheaper. If we spent three months in Norway, it would cost way more, or in Germany. The flights are no longer that expensive. I don\u2019t know. You just take risks. The biggest risk in life is not taking one. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it backfires. Sometimes it almost backfires, and so you\u2019ve gotta manage it. That\u2019s the process. You\u2019ve gotta do whatever you\u2019ve gotta do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of Melechesh\u2019s members travelled to Greece for recording sessions. \u201cEverybody flew in there to do their parts obviously, but I\u2019m the producer and I do the majority,\u201d Ashmedi notes. \u201cI did most of the guitars, left and right. Moloch did some guitar leads, not the rhythm. I did the vocals, and I produced the entire thing. I had to be there for the entire period while others could come for brief periods, like coming for a week, recording their parts, and leaving, or staying for a month if they wanted. They\u2019d be welcome \u2013 we have a nice place. I tell people in the band that they\u2019re welcome to stay as long as they want, but of course, it\u2019s unnecessary. I was there every day in the studio, though. Physically, it\u2019s painful as well, Sitting down for so many hours and stuff like that, it hurts the back, it hurts the neck. That\u2019s how it is, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as spearheading production, the Melechesh guitarist wears many other hats. Whether the future will see him gradually reduce his responsibilities is uncertain. \u201cThe band management, pretty much,\u201d he contemplates. \u201cYeah, well, there\u2019s another catch there. You either get the most professional managers \u2013 and we\u2019re not at that level for the most professional managers \u2013 or you get the less professional managers, the mid-sized managers, but then I know as much as they do. Even more, because I used to do A&R and work for major labels \u2013 at EMI Music and Capitol Records \u2013 and I have a master\u2019s degree in business. Sometimes I don\u2019t get their point. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did have a personal assistant that helped me with label intensive stuff so I could focus on other things, but she\u2019s not working for us any more. We have a booking agent, though. We have a record company, and they take care of promotion. Our booking agent takes care of the tours. I do look for a manager to take care of the daily stuff, so that I can also have more time to do other things, like more music, maybe write books. But yeah, the band is my full-time job because of the management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a degree in business administration, not only does Ashmedi have the expertise, but nobody is arguably as passionate about Melechesh as him. \u201cYeah, but sometimes I\u2019m too passionate,\u201d he concedes. \u201cI need a firewall, because there\u2019s good people and bad people. When there\u2019s bad people you\u2019re dealing with, as a manager you\u2019re tough, but as an artist, you get disenchanted. You don\u2019t wanna play, so you need a firewall, and so then someone takes care of that. Meanwhile, the musicians compose non-stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drum parts for Enki<\/em> were initially recorded by a session drummer, but had to be subsequently re-recorded. \u201cThat drummer turned out to be a disaster, in every aspect \u2013 artistically and attitude wise,\u201d the Melechesh founder regrets. \u201cThe person is damaged \u2013 he had some mental issues. I discovered every band had fired him, but I had discovered that later. I wish I knew before. That was due to circumstances, but then while looking for the drums to be re-recorded, our first drummer (Lord Curse) said that he would do it. It\u2019s not because he\u2019s our first drummer, though. It\u2019s because he\u2019s a very good friend of mine. We\u2019ve been very close all of these years, very close, but the fact that he has a great career with George Lucas keeps him from wanting to tour and being active in bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, nobody permanently sits in the drumming chair. \u201cIt\u2019s a problem,\u201d Ashmedi laments. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for someone permanent. A lot of drummers, I find they have something like a pissing contest. The more bands they play in, the better they feel about themselves, but it\u2019s actually detrimental. If you really look at the most successful drummers, they focus on one or two bands. We\u2019re finding great drummers. Even just today, I had to reject a drummer because there\u2019s one show he can\u2019t make. He\u2019s playing with some club band in a bar or something and he can\u2019t cancel that, so I\u2019m like \u2018We can\u2019t work together then, because we need a drummer starting with those shows.\u2019 I\u2019ve seen how some drummers have really fucked up their own careers, but that\u2019s how it is. <\/p>\n

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\u201cSo yeah, I see that some people just wanna play in so many bands that they end up making a scheduling mess or have a loss of focus. And yeah, it looks good, because some drummers will see themselves in the industry as session drummers that play in many bands, but it doesn\u2019t work like that when you\u2019re very active with touring and stuff. There are some guys that I genuinely care about. Like the other day, I was talking to a guy. I was like \u2018I like you so much man, but you\u2019re just ruining your career,\u2019 and he\u2019s starting to see it my way. The person is young, though. He\u2019ll understand maybe in a few years, but then it might be a little bit too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing features, a journalist naturally cites the various groups a sticksman has drummed for. With respect to some musicians, the list may possibly amount to 20 to 30 different ensembles. \u201cThey feel very proud of that, but it\u2019s actually detrimental to their careers,\u201d the singer argues. \u201cAlso, some bands are not so active, so I don\u2019t blame them. If you focus on one or two active bands though and that\u2019s it, then you stick with those bands and not play in so many bands. Literally, there was one drummer that wanted to play with us so much that the night before one of our big shows he was playing a really, really tiny club show, and he couldn\u2019t cancel it. He said he would fly to the show the day of the show, and I said \u2018You can\u2019t do that, man.\u2019 It\u2019s a pity. I see him destroying himself, but whatever \u2013 it\u2019s not my business. We do our stuff as good as we can, and hopefully we\u2019ll find the right partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guest contributors include Brazilian vocalist Max Cavalera. Having stepped behind the microphone for Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, Sepultura and Nailbomb throughout the years, Cavalera lends guest vocals to the track \u2018Lost Tribes\u2019. \u201cHe told us he was a fan of Melechesh,\u201d Ashmedi shares. \u201cThey were supporting us because they liked the band very much, and that\u2019s it \u2013 that\u2019s how it came about. We were talking about collaborating. He wanted us to do something with them, but then our album came first. He has such a cool vocal style, so I asked him to do it. We said \u2018How about you do the vocals for us?\u2019 He did it, despite his really busy schedule. <\/p>\n

\u201cSakis Tolis of Rotting Christ did vocals on \u2018Enki – Divine Nature Awoken\u2019 \u2013 he came by to the studio. There\u2019s Rob Caggiano, who did a guitar lead. It\u2019s really good, because I wanted a guy who\u2019s agile and could play several styles, and not be a show off guitar player. Rob and I wanted to work together for a while, so we made it happen. He was really busy with Volbeat \u2013 he used to be in Anthrax \u2013 and right after coming from tour, he was practising on the tour bus, went to his studio, and recorded the lead. It was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schedule permitting, the axeman would be happy to contribute a guest part to a future record featuring Cavalera at the helm. \u201cI\u2019d love to do that,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cMaybe one day I will. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

As was the case with previous jaunts Emissaries<\/em> and The Epigenesis<\/em>, cover artwork duties fell to John Coulthart. \u201cIt\u2019s just a representation of various lyrical items on the album, so it\u2019s something like a collage,\u201d Ashmedi describes. \u201cIt\u2019s order and chaos \u2013 it\u2019s inclusive of many aspects from Near Eastern culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A music video to promote Enki<\/em> will hopefully be filmed at a later date. \u201cWe should do that, but we don\u2019t have the time to do it at the moment,\u201d the frontman observes. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll do it, but not any time soon. We\u2019re not sure yet which track that will be for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enki<\/em> was released on February 27th, 2015 in Europe (excluding the United Kingdom), on March 2nd in the United Kingdom, and subsequently on the 10th in North America, all via Nuclear Blast Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in March 2015. All promotional photographs by Edo Landwehr.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELECHESH – Multiple Truths Anthony Morgan March 2015 Melechesh (l-r): Scorpios, Ashmedi and Moloch Jerusalem, Israel-born black metal outfit Melechesh took a while to author compositions for February 2015 studio full-length Enki \u2013 their sixth overall \u2013 founder, vocalist and guitarist Ashmedi writing much of the material alone. Fifth effort The Epigenesis had been issued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1935],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-melechesh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27277"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28146,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27277\/revisions\/28146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}