Interview with Aristocracia blog (Brazil), 2022

Good morning guys. Let’s talk about the composition work in “Drawn Into Madness”?

That’s easy: Composing and song-writing was done by Arkadius, as well as mix and mastering. Lyrics & vocals by me, Sascha. We worked together very closely throughout a couple of months on the album.

What crossover did you guys want to do on this album?

We just did what we felt like, as always. There was no plan on serving genres or trends or such. This has been so eversince. It comes from the inside. Arkadius shares his riffs or song-ideas, Sascha records some vocal ideas and if it’s cool for both of us, we’re going into details, structure, re-structure, finetuning, lyrics and all that.

Some literature or film inspire the band?

We are both into horror movies and discuss films a lot. There have been references and influences on all albums so far. “Black December” on “The Longed-For Reckoning”, the title song on “Emma Green” and “Smell Of the Oak” on our new album for example, which has references to the korean TV series “Kingdom”. Talking of literature: The album title, as well as a few parts in the lyrics on DIM, are a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Why can we say that the band's sound is modern metal?

Well, probably because it’s not easy to choose a certain genre for our music, LOL. I understand that people need some kind of categorization or tags or whatever, but we really don’t care what you name it, as long as you like what you hear.

How is Fall Of Carthage different from your previous bands?

I think that question is meant for Arkadius. And in that case not “previous bands” but “other bands”. And if i may answer for him because i know his answer from other interviews. With FOC we don't have a conceptual, lyrical plan to guide all the compositions. That's a lot of fun with Suidakra i.e., but it's a completely different musical and songwriting approach. Here with FOC it's about picking up the guitar and writing riffs that sound awesome without thinking about whether or not it fits some overall concept.

What generates the turmoil we feel on the album?

Every song deals with a certain topic that could drive you insane. That’s why the album title is some sort of a bracket around them. If it feels like a turmoil to you, i’d say our job’s well done ;D

What transgressions did the band seek in this work?

This may sound a little far-fetched, but in the midst of the pandemic i think we all felt paralyzed at some point, helpless and fed up. But we also had the chance to turn our wrath into creativity. Instead of giving in, we gathered all energy and turned mere thoughts into music we wanted to share with the people.

What´s the idea behind the artwork?

Close friend of ours Kirsten Schüßler made great abstract paintings about the time we were working on the album and one day i asked her if she could imagine we use her art for our upcoming album. I think i made some layouts with existing stuff she painted. She loved the idea and so we worked on about a dozen of individual abstract paintings she exclusively made for Drawn into Madness. It was important for me that the motives are kind of “wild” and leave enough room for interpretation, just like my lyrics. Also, „Drawn“ is supposed to be a pun because of the painted artwork.

How band arrived to MDD Records?

Arkadius knew label owner Markus Rösner from Suidakra and Realms Of Odoric and Markus was hooked right away.

What personal subjects inspired this album?

Loss, depression, anger, disappointment, fear but also hope, motivation and insight.

What kind of subject doesn´t deserve to be in a Fall Of Carthage song?

Couldn’t think of any. I wouldn’t wanna (and won’t) sing about something i don’t mean or feel, though.

This album is conceptual?

Not in a way that most conceptual albums are meant to be. Each song on DIM has its own story but like i said, together they form the whole book (of madness).

Why is the phoenix such an animal dear to the band?

The rise of the phoenix was a great symbol for me personally, cause I didn’t sing in a band for about 20 years and FOC was a rebirth in a way. I loved the idea of having that image or icon in our logo to emphasize the meaning of the band's name.

Why does the band have this name?

It was Arkadius’ idea that all great empires that break up make room for something new. That's the way it's always been historically and that can be applied to other things in life as well.

The band feel differences between Emma Green and now in Drawn Into Madness?

Yes of course, it was a totally different approach. We took the time we needed to produce all songs in our home studios instead of booking into a studio and record everything in a limited time span. This wouldn’t have been possible due to the pandemic and personal reasons. Arkadius did the production on this album for the first time. That was a new and exciting experience.

Why do you consider this the band's strongest album?

We just feel like it is. We learned alot in the process, we grew among the way and we are proud and happy with the result. Circumstances were difficult but we chose rise of the phoenix over burying it.