“Ad Patres” is a France based death metal band. Their first recording,released late 2010 and rereleased in 2012 as a split­tape with“Writhing” (USA), allowed them to get early exposure. Now, they havereleased their debut album "Scorn Aesthetics" through “KaotoxinRecords”. This album is an incredible punch in the face delivered withforce and passion. Everything falls into place on "Scorn Aesthetics",with the energy level dished with skillful instrumentation. I talked toCanard (guitar) and Arnaud (bass) about some background and band'srecent activities.

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“Ad Patres” was formed at the end of2008 and it's a relatively young band. Didyou have any basic ideas for its sound inyour head for years before 2008?Canard: Not really, Arnaud, Julien and Istarted the band with the idea of keepingour former death­grind band alive ater thedrummer called it quits. It didn’t take long(maybe an hour) to acknowledge the factthat it wouldn’t be possible, so we startedplaying what was on our mind. As we allwere death metal fans it just came naturally.

In 2010, your promo release wasrecorded by Mathieu Pascal (“Gorod”).How has Pascal’s work and legacyinfluenced what you’re doing in “AdPatres”?Canard: We’ve known Mat for a long timenow and have recorded several time withhim. I wouldn’t say that has influenced memuch on a musical point of view, he’s sucha talented musician that I can’t even relateto what comes out of his guitar most of thetime. As a producer, he is really great to

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work with, he will always point out what iswrong in your take how try to give youdirections on how to improve and that’sreally cool.What was the recording process like for“Scorn Aesthetics”? What did you focuson the most while recording it?Arnaud: In all honesty, I think we onlyfocused on playing the songs correctly. Weare not sound or instrument geeks but weknew that if our tracks were recorded well,without any need for editing and cheating,Mathieu would have the best materialpossible to create a great sounding album.Which element of your debut full­lengthalbum are you most proud of?Arnaud: As simple as it may be, I am proudof the songs, the riffing. I think that manyband tend to be a bit lazy on songwritingand can balance that with big productions.Many people love overcompressed andoverproduced sound. We prefer clearsounding and we always give special care toput together the best matching riffs.What kind of subjects have you beenexploring in the lyrics to “ScornAesthetics”?Arnaud: I am not interested in gore, horror,mythology, Chtulu, Lovecraft and stuff...Myfavourite topics are death, humanity, fate,arts and social behaviours. I really like todraw connections between themes that donot seem to be related, and I also like to usethe vocabulary or lexical field of a themethat is not linked with my main subject andcreate parables and metaphors. I also like towrite my lyrics like descriptions of scenesor pictures I elaborate.Is there any particular art/literaturethat’s influenced your musical direction?Arnaud: Regarding music, there is no

external influence, apart from the music welike. As I said, the lyrics are not influencedby Lovecraft, HG Wells, or those authorthat have been references for so many bandsin our musical genre. Maybe Freud andJung could be considered as mentors? Idon’t know!How is the cooperation with “KaotoxinRecords”? How does the label supportyou?Canard: It’s going great actually, it mightnot be the biggest label on earth but wereally feel taken care of. They have reallygot us a lot of exposure both in France andabroad and are always willing to do themaximum for us. They got us in touch with“Blakhart Guitars” who now endorse me,they always try to get us fair prices formerch production and we even get a littletext for our birthdays, isn’t that sweet?With new death metal bands popping upeverywhere, how is difficult to be wellrecognized in the genre?Canard: I don’t think there’s that muchmore death metal bands than before, it is,however, really easier to have some decentsounding material and get some exposurethrough the web. I, as a listener, find itoverwhelming, you get access to hours andhours of music and you’re not sure you’regoing to find anything you may enjoy… Tostand out in that kind of context, you needsome kind of balance between musicalstyle, talent, communication skills, not toforget being damn lucky.It’s been a couple years since you’veplayed at “Hellfest Open Air 2011”. Howdid it feel to be able to play in such typeof big festival? What's your memories?Canard: It was really impressive, I meanREALLY. A couple weeks before we wereplaying in our hometown in front of fifty

friends or so and there we were, withthousands of people waiting andeveryone coming to us while we werewarming up saying “guys it’s likereally crowded out there but don’tfreak out” which wasn’t helping uscalm down at all of course. I mostlyremember the sound of the crowd whenwe went up the stage totallybreathtaking. It was an amazingopportunity and we’re really glad wedid it, awesome festival, awesomeaudience, awesome crew and awesomeshow! We’d do it again wheneverpossible.Tell me about shooting the musicvideo for “Scars of Compromise” andwhat’s going on in the song.Canard: It took us a while to make thisvideo, it is our first one and you can’tjust have everything straight on thefirst try. We worked with Padre, ayoung team which did all the planning,filming, editing, acting, welleverything altogether actually. We didhave the brilliant idea of recording theband scenes in february in a non heatedwarehouse, which is why you can seesteam coming out of us sometimes inthe video.What’s the status of the songs for thenext studio album? What can weexpect from it?Arnaud: I think it is too early to focuson writing new material. We arecollecting some ideas when we have itbut today, this is not our priority. Ouralbum “Scorn Aesthetics” was releasedjust one year ago and it is notdistributed in shops in TheNetherlands, Luxemburg and Belgiumfor anly a couple of months. As Canardsaid above, music productions can be

overwhelming those days and I thinksome people are just engulfing music. Imean like downloading album,listening once or twice and then deleteit and repeat with the next one. We aredoing our best to write great songs thatremain good and catchy for as long aspossible, not disposable death metal.Are there any final thoughts you’dlike to add?Arnaud: First, we’d like to thank youpersonaly and you webzine for offeringus some time and lines. Also thanks alot to your readers and all the peopleshowing their support to our band. Ifyou haven’t yet, check our first album“Scorn Aesthetics”, I assure you won’tregret if you like your death metalcatchy and brutal!

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