Interview: Engraved Darkness Tells of Tales

Engraved Darkness

Too many times we hear politicians, great moralizers, and the uninitiated talking about how extreme metal is glorifying evil in the world.

Frankly, this concept does not make sense.

When was the last time someone said that Law & Order: SVU was glorifying crime in New York City?

No one has ever said that or that Stephen King's IT was glorifying demonic clowns that turn into giant spiders and eat children every 30 years.

Granted, that would be a bit specific.

Bands who find themselves writing about the dark side of the world interest me. Do they hate the world all the time? Are they truly evil? Are they different from you and me? Let's find out with Engraved Darkness.

Glacially Musical: Hello and thank you for taking the time for me. Tell me about how you formed the band? What was the idea for it?

Engraved Darkness: The band was formed from a mutual passion of wanting to write and perform music and to inspire others how it has inspired us. 

Once we found our members we sought out to write material that pushes the envelope, brings brutality too the listeners ears, and paints vivid murals within the mind. 

We are all big fans of the extreme metal genre and we really wanted to write some heavy material to contribute to the world.

The idea of Engraved Darkness spawned from the fact that darkness is just as relevant as light in this world and within every individual. We all have our shadows we cast and our personal demons that we keep there. 

For some more than others, it is a deeply rooted essence of our being. Whether or not each individual acknowledges it, or leaves it to their subconscious, the power it wields in our life is extraordinary. We choose to harness this energy and project it through our music. 

Our flesh is ripped open and our souls are exposed for the whole world to see and hear. All the things that the we bring into the light are significant pieces to us that are embodied in our craft. This is our "Engraved Darkness" and we see it best that the listeners and fans relate to our existence on their terms.  

GM: What are your major musical influences?

ED:Our musical influences include but are not limited to Death, Morbid Angel, Nile, Dissection, Conquering Dystopia, Nevermore, Behemoth, Beyond Creation and most Death and Black metal. 

We have influence from many different artists from all genres but these are the ones that stand out most for fans of metal and the styles we play currently. From the virtuoso guitarists like Jeff Loomis to the beautiful classical pieces buried within cult black metal albums!

GM: The songs are big and scary. Where does your inspiration come from?

ED: Although we may have overactive imaginations, many of the songs we write are based off of history and personal battles that most people go through. 

Even though that can be scary in itself, we tie this in with concepts of the evil from mankind and horrific themes. Religion is also a subject that we frequent but its more in the sense of mythology. We choose not to limit ourselves but to stay true to our being. 

We address subjects of great concern, and conflict to hopefully awaken the minds of our audience to their full potential. We encourage our listeners to strive for greatness and to be the best absolute version of themselves by sharing our creations with them. It could be "scary" for some more than others.

GM: What new bands are you currently listening to?

ED: One album I've been playing a lot lately is Artificial Brain's Labyrinth Constellation. 

We recently had the pleasure of opening for them and they blew me away. I think they bring a particularly horrifying strain of technical death metal to the table, in the vein of Gorguts' last album. 

Really keeping the genre interesting and pushing certain sonic boundaries... I think they're gearing up for record two now, and I'm really looking forward to it.

GM: When we will be seeing your smiling faces on tour?

ED: We have no tour dates booked currently but plan to do a few dates here soon. All of our gigs are currently within a 100 mile radius of our hometown Dayton Ohio and are mashed up between local shows and support for national touring acts. 

We plan to venture out here soon for an east coast adventure while hitting a few states west of us like Indiana and Illinois. This will be our first tour once we get done planning it, so we will aim to make the next ones bigger as our demographic of fans start to grow even bigger!

GM: Being as you're an indie band, how did you go about recording the album?

ED: Well, we released our album independently which can be a difficult task. But, that doesn't touch the fact that we still walked in with a professional mind set and stayed goal oriented. 

We contacted a local musician friend that we perform with frequently to be our engineer for the album, Keith Byerman of Horlet and The Transylvania Hellhounds. Then we booked some time at his studio (SABA Entertainment) for the record. We laid down the album one track/instrument at a time with structured click tracks. 

We made sure all of us were well rehearsed prior to studio and the rest is history. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered there by Keith and all within a few months. 

Our guitarist/frontman Johnnie Wallace produced the album and was present during the whole process to make sure things were in order. Over all it was a great experience and we can not wait to get back in there to immortalize our second album!

GM: What are the five most important albums of all time?

ED: Death-Sound of Perseverance, Dissection-Storm of the Lights Bane, Arcturus-Aspera Hiems Symfonia, Arch Enemy-Wages of Sin, Nevermore-Dead Heart in a Dead World. We could choose so many more between all of our collective influences but this is just the tip of the iceberg. These albums are just a few from the list of musical masterpieces we enjoy from start to finish.

GM: How do you get inspired to write gruesome music?

ED: We have a taste for dark and heavy things and we feel that it comes natural to us. 

When you add the subject into the song it transforms into an even bigger monster. The music fits well with our brand and what we like to convey to our audience. From religious evil and its power over mankind to the diabolical acts of Vlad the Impaler, we write music that sets the mood for such history lessons. 

Ultimately, we absorb our influences in their entirety from wherever they emerge and apply that to our craft. We choose to push the boundaries of our sound to the point of simply being powerful and expressive music. When we write, we let the songs take their own course instead writing music that fits certain sub-genres.