Interview with Sacrimonia, Symphonic Black Metal Band from Poland

Interview with Sacrimonia, Symphonic Black Metal Band from Poland

Sacrimonia is Symphonic Black Metal Band from Warsaw, Poland. They’re Filip Gawlak - Bass, F. S. - Drums, Jakub Zgorzelski - Guitars, and Kamila "Lasaira" Grabowska-Derlatka - Vocals. Lasaira and Jakub gave us some information. Check it out. J = Jakub and L = Lasaira.

Tell us about About Sacrimonia

J: The idea of the band goes back to 2014; that was the time I started writing the music for the EP. However, until the beginning of 2015 there were constant line-up changes, so all in all we might say that the band was actually established in February 2015.

L: It's a fantastic band and we are all good friends. It is also very special because we differ very hard from each other and all we do is a fusion of all spectrum of our colourful personalities. It's great to see how common hard work slowly bears fruit.

What are lyrical themes of Sacrimonia?

L: While writing lyrics I usually mix my own life experience with literature I read. On the "New World Ascension" CD lyrics strongly refer to Goethe's, and Bulhakov's works, like "Faust", "The Erlking" and "The Master and Margharita" but also slightly to other writers.

What are your Influences?
J: Our inspirations are quite varied. Apart from the pretty obvious ones, such as Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Cradle of Filth and other symphonic black metal bands, each of us is influenced by different music genres: classical/soundtrack music, old school hard rock and heavy metal, all sorts of gothic stuff, some acts labeled with "post" or "progressive" tags and many more.

L: Everything I listen to makes me inspired. As J. said, we do not only listen to black metal, and even not only metal. There are days I can go from Russian ballet through Gorillaz, TMR, finishing with all kinds of metal stuff. While writing lyrics and arranging Sacrimonia's vocals I am hugely inspired by all sort of post and DSBM things, such as Psychonaut 4 or Shining, but also by doom jazz like Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. It's incredible how all music genres mix together and make you a unique musician and a unique band you want to be.

How did you choose the Cover artwork?

J: The artwork was designed  by Piotr Szafraniec and his Archart Design company, whereas the photo appearing in the inlay was taken by Aleksandra "Krucza" Burska. As far as the image on the cover is concerned, the idea of a decapitated statue popped up quite a long time ago, for the EP of my previous band actually. However, the EP was never finished and the band split up. The idea remained nevertheless, we thought it might fit the ambiance of the title, and when Piotr sent us his interpretation of the concept, we knew it was what we were looking for.

How were the songs written?

J: I started gathering ideas for the songs in January 2014, however they were evolving with line-up changes. Anyway, the line-up stabilised in February 2015 and the songs were finally finished in June 2015. That was also the moment when Kamila finished her lyrics.

L: Yes, I usually think before about the main themes of the song and when I have a ready music piece I write the lyrics and think about vocals. It's important for me to express the words I sing with the way I sing, so there is also a matter of suiting the vocal techniques to every small line of my lyrics.

How did the recording process go?

J: The recordings took place during the fall of 2015 at Invent-Sound Studio in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Our engineer and producer, Szymon "Sigmar" Grodzki, was a guitar player for the band Sammath Naur - in their early days they used to play symphonic black/death metal, so we knew he would "feel" our music, and that was very important for us. The recording itself was a lot of fun - Szymon is a cool guy, so the whole process was absolutely devoid of any stress. He also suggested a few ideas concerning the arrangement of the songs and, as we checked them out, they turned out to be better than ours, so we may say that he contributed to the musical side of the EP as well.

What are your future plan?

J: Basically we would like to do some touring and promote the EP. We are also gathering ideas for some new material, however we cannot estimate how long will it take us to finish it. We can promise though that we will not release anything we are not fully satisfied with, so we will deliver you the best music we can come up with, no matter how long it takes us.

Are there any countries you’re interested in touring or performing in? Why?

J: We would like to play everywhere people would want to see us, I guess there aren't any specific countries. As long as a gig in country X is possible (and makes sense) logistically, we would like to perform there.

L: In Europe I would be happy to play in Germany, France or Czech Republic. But I would also like to go with our music to other continents and maybe hit the american countries like USA, Canada and Mexico. It would be also a fantastic experience to play in Asia, for example South Korea, Japan or China. 

What bands would you like to play alongside?

J: Naturally we would like to play alongside big black metal names, especially those representing more melodic approach to the genre. It would be cool to share the stage with bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Carach Angren, SepticFlesh or, since they are reuniting for a series of gigs, Emperor.

L: Oh yes, Carach Angren, SepticFlesh and Emperor. I would love to add Satyricon and Behemoth here. But my biggest dream (and the reason I started to play an instrument, sing and make my own music as a younger teenager) will always be Iron Maiden.

Any last words?

L: Thank you for the interview, it was a pleasure talking to you!

J: Yes, and thanks for the support!

Sacrimonia:

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