|
 Disaffected with all the identikit drivel on the shelves these days? Well, Ireland's Arcane Sun could be just the tonic yer after. In case you've been living under a particularly large and heavy stone, this act have just given extreme Metal one of the finest debut albums in recent years.
I'm sitting here (March '99) in the basement of a less than salubrious Dublin bar with Paul Kearns, vocalist with Arcane Sun. Also present is Paul's taxi home, also known as 'Aido' Butler, bassist with Ireland's masters of Doom, Mourning Beloveth. After getting the pints and peanuts in, and clearing the manky table of fag ash and what can only be lung detritus, we get done to the actual business itself- the interview. Ok, let's get the obvious one out of the way first, baby... tell us the how's and why's and what's of Arcane Sun
"Alright, the band began about '94 after the demise of my previous outfit, Fifth Dominion which Aido was closely involved with. We started jamming early '95, played with Anathema in June that year, recorded a demo, recorded a promo in May '96 and signed to Ars Metalli soon after it. Recorded the CD early' 98. The original idea behind the band was a Metal version of Fields of the Nephilim, which kinda got watered down, then there was the whole British doom/ death scene of the early 90's... Anathema, early Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Decomposed, bit of Swedish stuff now and then like Dissection. Other stuff like Led Zeppelin, Fergal's a big Yes fan, shit like that. Dead Can Dance, obviously, and Morbid Angel"
The early Anathema comparison is particularly evident I'd say.
"Apart from the fact that its 100 percent original of course!"
The album is definitely one of the strongest and most charismatic debuts that I've heard in quite a while now. For me, the stand out song is clearly 'Longing for Eden's Rain', a meisterwerk epic where all the best elements of Arcane Sun fall seamlessly into place. 'Sundrenched' et al follow very closely behind. But what sort of reception has the album had? I mean, its been out several months now, but I still haven't seen anything in the likes of Terrorizer et al. What's up?
 "Well basically, the label (Ars Metalli- Ed) has no UK distribution. You can get it through Supernal and Misanthropy, but it should be in Metal Hammer soon enough, and Terrorizer. Reception's been good, I mean reviews in the underground have been really brilliant... but good reviews don't always mean good sales"
All too true, Paul, all too true, and it's no different in zine land. People are always going to be more interested in buying a few more pints and trying pathetically to get into some tart's knickers than in spending their cash on local zines or demos etc. Turning to Aido... you obscenely jealous of Arcane Sun's success?
"Well, you know, Paul gets all his influences from me!".
It's really only in recent months that Arcane Sun have begun to get a steady stream of coverage in the underground press. Regarding the interviews you done for zines to date, what are the 3 worst questions that you've been asked to date, and indeed, have I just repeated any of them?
"No... I suppose after a while you get bored of the 'history', but I don't want to be as mean as to give cut n'paste answers. The worst question, I got it in an interview last week. The question was something like 'How do you make Irish stew?' Another one was 'Why don't you play Hardcore?'"
Because it's shite?
"Yeah, there you go. I said that I thought Hardcore was more of a sport, cos people seem to go to the gigs, not to listen to the music, but to jump around"
Hmm, as an aside here purely to wind up any misguided Hardcore dudes perusing this mag... it interesting that Hardcore's so deeply homo-erotic... almost paedophilic... the guys in their little-boy shorts and knee-socks... the bare-chested tactile machismo...
"Yeah, I know, I know. The biggest thing about HC is the fact that everyone professes to love each other. They're probably all cunts! There are one or two decent bands, like early Life of Agony and stuff like that, classic, but that's probably about it".
Any coverage from the press on this fair isle? 'Hot Press' music magazine or anything? In fact, any coverage or acknowledgement of the Metal scene in the mainstream music rags over here at all?
"I'll say this over and over again until I'm blue in the face, but Ireland's a fucking joke. I mean, you've got venues that won't put on anything but traditional fat-bastard Guinness-drinking, flute-playing motherfuckers, and you've got the press... I suppose it all goes back to the fact that the Republic of Ireland is 60 percent Catholic, an overly conservative society you know? I mean, you can't listen to Morbid Angel, but you can be a priest and have sex with young boys. There's a twisted logic there I think! In fact, this is our first 'Irish' interview."
Paul's answer should give the reader an appreciation of the sheer sense of frustration which extreme metal bands face here in Ireland. Northern Ireland's not much better when you consider the fact that an ELO gig was banned a few years back 'because they were Satanic'. Or the fact that Iron Maiden got picketed in Belfast on Bruce's last tour. But let's move onto the song subjects themselves. Hmm, the lyrics ain't overly uplifting; love n'loss, with occasional glimpses of hope (such as 'Sundrenched'). Some of the songs are actually very effective short stories, but do you often find yourself losing the plot and straying into pure bollox land?
"Yeah... that's the main point actually! No, but seriously, with the songs, four are from the demo (Canto, Canto 2, Sundrenched, and Promised) and were all connected with a common thread. Then, with two songs on the promo, 'I was alive then' and 'Your name', there was again a common thread. Likewise with the four new songs 'Avatar', 'Words were like wine', 'Eden's rain' and 'We stood with time'. I suppose, being involved with Metal and other similar music, you don't feel inspired to write any words when you're feeling happy, it just doesn't cut the mustard".
That reminds me of the famous Rob Halford quote that went something along the lines of 'You can't sing about flowers in this kind of music... it just doesn't work'. How do you remember them live? Do you just gulder and shriek and bluff yer way through?
"Pretty much. There's bits and pieces where you bluff your way, but nobody's going to notice, especially as I don't think my singing's the clearest, the diction isn't the best at times, you know? And as far as the growls go, who the fuck knows? But generally its no problem, I've practised them so many times that its almost second nature".
Uh oh, here's the dreaded 'box a' category 'b' question. I'd say that Arcane Sun is essentially Doom-Death Metal, but contradict me if I'm wrong. In fact, how would you best describe it?
"Epic Arcane Metal. The songs were written over four years, so they've seen emotional and musical changes, certain songs tip their hats to certain areas. Yeah, I suppose Doom-Death is the closest... 'Canto 2', for example, has pretty furious Death metal bits in it, but there again, 'Sundrenched' is almost Black metal in places. Yeah, you could say Doom-Death, but you're not really summing everything up"
I stand corrected. 'Arcane Sun' was recorded early last year, but didn't come up for more than a few months. What was the story there?
"Mainly our fault. We finished recording it on Valentine's day 1998, very fitting eh?, and it was supposed to be out mid-June, but the cover artwork used wasn't the original artwork which was much better, but for some reason the software the guy was using couldn't take it, so the whole thing was delayed by about three months. By the time we had a new layout and photos it was September, so it came out October in Europe and November here".
Hmm, rather less exciting than I had imagined. But even after all this delay, you still managed to miss out one guy's photo on the inlay. Did this cause any rock-star tantrums?
"Well, there was no bassist for the album and a guy, Brian, played guitar on some of the album but wasn't properly in the band, so he didn't deserve his photo in there. It was mainly myself, Mark and Fergal, well Fergal did almost everything, he was the wonder boy for the CD! Joe came into the band just after that, but he hadn't played on the CD, so we didn't see the point in his photo being there, and neither did he".
OK, all bands have a secret. Who's gay in Arcane Sun?
"The guy we kicked out"
Smart answer. Right, pretend I'm an uncommonly generous and human promoter. What do you desire for yer rider?
"Lots of lard! We've never really had a rider for a gig. We played the Devil's Church in London in July '96, we travelled over from Dublin to London, we got money for the gig but we were told that we'd be sorted for food and beer. There were five of us, and we got four cans of beer, which is the most we've ever got. Every single gig which we've done has been self-arranged, so whatever our pockets allow, that's our rider"
You share a house with Alan Averill from Primordial and Aido, yeah? Is this Heavy Metal HQ, Dublin? Aido points out that he left a while back because Paul kept eating all the food. Paul insists on it being put on record that it was, in fact, Mr Averill.
He continues "It was originally mucker (bog-trotting rural rednecks- Ed) HQ, they were all from the Laois/ Kildare area, and we infiltrated and brought in a certain level of sophistication, tidied the place up a bit. Ciaron and Alan from Primordial and myself live there now. It'll be probably be trashed when Solstice stay over"
Ok, Paul, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your motivations, why do you bother given that it eats up an incredible amount of time and energy and cash. Basically, what do you want to do with your life? Be warned though, if you say 'I wanna ROCK', I'll spit in your beer.
"Ha! I wanna settle down, have a family, have eight kids who talk with a strong Dublin accent and who'll be fit for slaughter at the age of five. Nah, seriously, being in a band is hard, its expensive, if you talk to people in Europe, they all tend to have better equipment than we do, better circumstances to practice in, and they don't have to deal with the same societal tunnel-vision which is a big problem here. Here, if you're into Metal, 'if you wanna rock', people tend to think you're the Devil Incarnate or something, which is quite nice cos it sets you apart from the norm. It's a pain in the ass at times, but when you do a good gig etc, its cool, there's nothing better"
Little bit of politics now. What do you make of the past year in Northern Ireland? It's only a couple of days until the first anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which paved the way for the establishment of N.I's first democratically-elected Government after a quarter of a century of 'emergency rule' from Britain. Any views?
"Not particularly. I don't read the papers, I don't watch the news; to obey the cliche, every bit of literature that I read is centred around Metal and rock n'roll. Pretty sad, but true. As far as the whole thing up there (NI- Ed) goes, organised religion is a fucking joke anyway, so I don't see the point in fighting over it. Catholicism is wrong, Protestantism is wrong, its just different stances on something which may have been fresh two thousand years ago"
It's not even a religious thing.. It's a power struggle, it's embedded in territorial disputes, it's institutionalised into every facet of life (segregation of schoolkids by religion being a prime example of the stupidity).
"Its just like in Dublin, you've got the junkie population, you can't have anything but a lack of respect for those people, though that's probably more of a social thing cos its in your face. In Northern Ireland, you've got people who are splitting into two different groups, supposedly by religion, and a whole hate campaign which has long transcended religion... Fuck it, find Rock n'roll"
Peace Through Rock?
"Yeah! Ha ha".
Ok, any closing words at all?
"Buy the Arcane Sun CD. Buy the Mourning Beloveth demo. Stop us going bankrupt. Ignore the trends, stick to Morbid Angel cos they deserve eternal hails... and roll on Dynamo!"
Arcane Sun are Paul Kearns (vocals), Mark Higgins (drums) and Fergal (guitar). They are currently seeking a replacement for Joe.
Interview and words by Spandex Oo-er.
|
