German lords of the doomed riff, Adversvm have returned, rejuvenated and retooled in the art of mood soaked heaviness, on their latest studio effort Vama Marga (released this past June from Moribund Records).
Complete with a new drummer and keyboardist and expert production from Soundlodge Studio out of Rhauderfehn, Germany (Dew Scented, Anvil), Vama Marga sees the dark metal collective emerge with a new swagger and unbridled intensity.
Decibel proudly unveils the latest single from Adversvm’s third studio album, “Sinistrum”, alongside an interview with Sascha Borchard (guitars, vocals) and Don Zaros (keyboards).
Q: Vama Marga expertly balances dread-tinged mood with blistering heaviness. How do you go about balancing the right amount of extreme, while carefully crafting mood and ambiance?
Sascha: That becomes possible in collaboration with people who feel and understand this type of music.
Don: Between the band and Jörg’s amazing production, I feel a perfect blend of extreme metal and atmospherics was created. I also appreciate the fact that the keyboards weren’t buried in the production. They were truly integrated and balanced with all the other instruments in the final mix.
Q: Walk us through your latest single, “Sinistrum”. The song goes so incredibly hard, while also melting the listener with dread soaked doom.
Sascha: “Sinistrum” is the fastest and maybe shortest song of Adversvm so far. Most of our songs have a slow opening, but “Sinistrum” wrathfully explodes in the beginning. With an abrupt break the sound changes to a slower atmosphere. After this deep mood the raging fire burns again and dwells in a mid-tempo passage. Then the sound turns to the death doom destruction until the end.
Q: Take us through the addition of Jörg on drums. He brings so much to the band in terms of his technical prowess, not to mention what he can do in the studio.
Sascha: We are very satisfied that we found Jörg as drummer and producer. He has varied experience and exactly realizes what Adversvm needs. The drumming sounds evolved and the production quality has improved a lot as well.
Don: Jörg performed brilliantly on the album! The drums are tight and precise on “Sinistrum” for example, but broad and spacious sounding on some of the lengthier tracks such as “Emanation” and “Feind”.
Q: How do you feel the band has progressed since Dysangelion? Do you see this as being the next chapter in Adversvm, or more of a new beginning?
Sascha: The drumming became more precise, the sound quality is better than on Dysangelion. Don has created a new atmosphere with his keyboard sounds. In combination with all that, I think Fabian’s lead guitar has more power than in the past. The basic structure of the songs evolved to more variety. Since Vama Marga, the songs have more death metal parts. Since the beginning it was important for me to develop the songwriting with every album as you can hear the differences between Aion Sitra Ahra, Dysangelion and Vama Marga.
So I would say with our new lineup it is more of a new chapter than a new beginning. The style of “Emanation“ is still the same as before and the last riff of “Vindex“ is a very similar riff to the riff of “est in fatis“, our last song before the outro from our debut album. If our sound will change in the future so that the listener will lose the connection to our music from previous years, I cannot say where a new beginning really was. I think we will always have fluid developments in our style.
Don: I’m not sure the band knows this, but I have been listening to them since their debut. I’ve always enjoyed their impressive dark style of metal. The first two albums were extremely dark and oppressive. I feel the new album is just as dark, but has opened up their sound to boundless possibilities as far as phrasing and textures are concerned and there’s a more varied sonic palette this time around. I’m excited to see where we take our sound on future releases!
Q: Anything else that you’d like to add about the record, single or video would be fantastic.
Sascha: Moribund Records made two intriguing music videos for “V.:.O.:.A.:.D“ and “Sinistrum“ which express every passage of the songs perfectly, and visualize the atmosphere of both songs.
Don: I concur, the videos made by Luiz of Audio Power Studios were stunning and truly reflect the music perfectly through his haunting macabre visual style. Most impressive was his video for “V.:.O.:.A.:.D”. Captivating and other worldly.
