The Spektrum
In the latest months or so I started a new and interesting collaboration with an Austrian label called Noisehead Records; and if we count in here that Napalm Records is the second one I'm in touch with since a while, I'd say that we can learn something about their activity in the extreme Metal scene! One of Noisehead Records bands has just released its brand new opus and, as always, I decided that it will be a very good idea to see how the things are going on with The Spektrum, because this is the combo I'm talking about, and its last opus called "Daemonicus Awakening"! And look what I got for you from band leader, via Uschi from Noisehead Records!
Arcana Noctis: Hello and all my kind regards to all The Spektrum constituents! So here you are back in business with a new material called "Daemonicus Awakening" released through Noisehead Records a while ago. Something new to be mention in the beginning of this interview?
The Spektrum: Greetings! Thanks for your words, and first of all, happy Metal new year to all of you and the readers. Something new? We have a lot of good news for this year, but I will talk about that further, the promotional campaign for "Daemonicus Awakening" is going well, we got a lot of shows last year, and some important festivals; we shared the stage with a lot of Portuguese and foreign great bands, it was fucking awesome.
Arcana Noctis: Because some of our readers aren't so used with your band; could you please make a short introduction in The Spektrum's past, by telling us what the most important from you career is?
The Spektrum: The Spektrum is a cauldron of brutality mixed dark ambiences and depressive feelings, so, characteristically of Portuguese culture, and stands amongst the pillars of justice. I remember one night, 5th May 2006, we went to Coimbra to see a Moonspell show, that night, for the first time we were together and we decided to do this forever. It was a great night, we got way drunk, and in that night we've choose our path, it was great, I can never forget that moment.
Arcana Noctis: When you started to play, back in 2005, band's musical style was Thrash Metal oriented! Right now your musical content is a combination between Death Metal and Doom Metal lines; a sadness Doom that fits perfectly with today's era when everything is falling apart! So why you decided to change the musical orientation? Do you think that the actual musical content represent you much better than the previous one?
The Spektrum: In the beginning we wanted to do the most aggressive thing that we could, with lots of noise (laughs), after a few rehearsals we felt that we needed something. Lulu's depart helped a lot with that change, we decided to have some Portuguese characteristically elements, and all that depression fitted in our needs, so we decided to move in a darkest/obscure ambience, and fortunately for us we found our path, still there are many sideways we can explore. Definitely this kind of dark/obscure a depressive ambience represents ourselves much better as musicians, and that's we want to do.
Arcana Noctis: After Samnu's arrival in The Spektrum, in 2006, you took part in a national contest called Portuguese Metal Band Contest; a very important event with more than 600 combos at the starting line! And you entered in the final of this Metal manifestation with another 30 bands! What the final result was and what interesting recollections could you share with us?
The Spektrum: Back then we only had played once, we recorded that show, and it was a very crazy gig. In that time we only had 3/4 raw music's, and seeing this opportunity we decided to apply for it. We recorded two songs and a cover, they liked it and we were selected to the 30 finalists of Loud Metal Battle; It was our second show, we didn't win, but it opened our minds, people liked and gave us strength to go ahead; I still remember Antonio Freitas words: "Go ahead kids; you are on the right path"; He was the judge of that contest; he is one of the most important references on the Portuguese Metal scene. We can still remember that day, we were talking, "man we got to do more darkest and heavy stuff", and it was true, 3 months later we recorded our demo.
Arcana Noctis: We mentioned this national contest, but what could you tell us about band's playlist that you used at that time?
The Spektrum: Yes, of course, I remember like it was yesterday, we were the youngest, each band could only play 3 songs, 2 originals and one cover song. We started with "Rusting", the first song we ever compose, a Thrash theme, with almost 8 minutes, and then we played our cover song like everyone else, the biggest difference was that we played the beginning of "Sweet Dreams", from Marilyn Manson mixed with the end of "One" from Metallica, it was fucking awesome, and for last we played "Shadows" it is the last music from our demo "Marching Through The Darkness", it was the first time we played it live.
Arcana Noctis: Almost in the same period you had some internal problems, and after Lulu's departure Samnu takes the drums and Abigor will play the keys too! Wasn't too difficult to change from a musical instrument to another? Because I know that in Romania those who learn playing keys are used to play drums too; but someone playing guitar and keys in the same time sounds quite interesting, don't you think?
The Spektrum: Yes, fortunately for us, Lulu has left the band, and Samnu started to play drums, officially, because in that time Lulu stopped attending to rehearsals, it was funny (or not), because in that time we practiced at his home, and Samnu played drums. We needed to practice, and drums are crucial to play, so it was a kind of natural change. Abigor already had some keyboard classes at young age, so it was a kind natural that adaptation; it's interesting everyone in the band plays keyboards except me (laughs).
Arcana Noctis: In July 2006 you decided to enter Saint Studios to record band's first material, a demo called "Marching Through The Darkness"; later released in October the same year! What can you tell us about this important step from your career and what the feedback on this release was at that time?
The Spektrum: Yes, when Lulu left we've decided to record a demo, we searched for a studio near our hometown that would fulfil our needs, and we found Saint Studios. Gabriel, our producer, it was the first time that he produced Metal, it was a good experience, and I think we've captured our young essence with a good sound quality, and when we presented the demo for the first time, we collected good reactions from everybody, I can assure that we were the first band from our hometown with such a good sound quality. The vision we had, concerning our visual/image were right; we started to receive proposals to play all over the country, without any support from anybody, people seemed to like, and so "the road became our bride". It was amazing, the demo was released in October, and during the same month some band from the U.S. ask us if they could do a cover song of our "Random Fear"; we were shocked; we started to receive good reactions from the U.S., South America, and of course from all over Europe; much more attention and respect that we've received from Portugal; so we were motivated and we played a lot in Portugal and in the north of Spain. The first time we went to Vigo we played in Anoeta Bar, we had for the first time 2 fixed frontlines of fans near the stage, they knew we were from Batalha, and that we had a fantastic Monastery there. What would you do about that? We thought: let's record a full length album.
Arcana Noctis: After some national fests and some Spanish shows, you decided to start the working process on your first full length "Daemonicus Awakening" on your own studio! Later this opus will be record in Medusa Studio with Dikk and Ares from WitchBreed as sound engineers! How the working process on "Daemonicus Awakening" went on and what do you think about this adventure with those WitchBreed members at the board?
The Spektrum: We started to search for a studio and a producer that could fit in our demands, and Zouza had another brilliant idea, contacting Ares. Ares amongst with Fernando Ribeiro have founded Moonspell; we loved and we still love earlier Moonspell, and we wanted to give a dark ambience to our album, it was the best for us, so we contacted him, and he was very receptive. We decided to record some new tracks (3/4) on our home studio, plus the demo, and then we sent to them, they liked and in September 2007, there we were at Medusa lab Studios to record our firstborn son. For the first time in our short musician lives we were working with professional musicians, it was amazing; Dikk was amazing so as Ares, we looked like children in a Metal class at school (laughs), they gave us a lot of time to do what we want; so we got drunk, and work a lot on the tracks (laughs), it was a natural process, we took the tracks to the studio almost ready, only one or two tracks gave us more work. Besides Ares and Dikk we got to say thanks to all WitchBreed crew, Tiago was great, Ruby was amazing, so amazing that when we needed a female voice, Ares suggested her, we loved the idea and she recorded two tracks.
Arcana Noctis: The final mastering was made by famous Waldemar Sorychta! How did you manage to work with Waldemar on "Daemonicus Awakening" final mastering and what do you think about his work on this album?
The Spektrum: Well we are big fans of Waldemar's work, among many works he produced "Wolfheart" and "Irreligious", Ares and Waldemar are friends since that time, and we talked about a possible cooperation between us and Waldemar. And when he came to Medusa Lab Studios, to produce WitchBreed's album, we were totally convinced and decide to work with him, because in that time we talked with Tue Madsen, because we are big fans of his work as well, but, like I said, we already had chosen Waldemar. We want to thanks' to Ares and Lee Barrett, the boss of Ascendance Records (WitchBreed's label), for making this possible. About the work itself, we think the result is brutal, the sound is more aggressive, more perceptive, and more powerful, he did a fantastic job we are very satisfied.
Arcana Noctis: It will be fucking great if you could introduce us this material, with all its technical details and a short introduction in its lyrical content!
The Spektrum: Well this is our firstborn son, it took a while to get all things ready, and we learned a lot. This material is a reflex of our soul in that time of our lives, we wanted to create something strong, obscure, and with a hole dark and doomed ambience involving all the album, and I think we caught the right essence. About technical details, hm... Well, we tried to build something complex, but not to complex, so it would go softer on the ear. We have the riffs, for head banging, a good example I would believe it to be "Nenphilis", I think it is good guitar music present in the album. It is not too technical/fast with all those bursting fast solos, that is not even present in our album. We prefer more the rhythmic progression, so a listener can enjoy, without having to be always concentrated on the music to ear all the details. A good example for that is "Eternal Fear" a perfect, pure ambience song. About the lyrical content, I've created a world, not much different from this one, the big thing is that this one is fuelled by justice, like our world should be, it's a conceptual/metaphorical album, each lyric is a different story, but all of them are connected, it is a birth and a life in tragedy, but a kingdom inspired and ruled by justice, and you got many good lessons there, in my point of view (laughs), in the end justice prevails, usual not the way we wanted to, because that depends of our singular acts as human beings.
Arcana Noctis: Your title tracks could make us thinking that The Spektrum is a kind of Funeral Doom Metal band; the lyrical content being for some reviewers somehow obscure! This material use some female clean vocals and a cello, creating dark melodies very well emphasized by Dyrion's vocal register strong growl oriented! Do you think that music and lyrical content are hand in hand to create the ultimate big thing with this opus?
The Spektrum: Each title represents a story and a different message inside the whole message of the album. Everything is obscure and bright, like life, lyrics are sad, involved in rage and determination, and that feelings combined are a powerful weapon to do whatever you want, in this case "Daemonicus" reclaimed his throne by the hands of justice, and once again back to real life, religions of great gods, done by human hands, by human desires, the fear of a holy revenge is the most powerful way to control the will of the masses, and that dumb believers, desperate for spiritual help, are the people that will have their justice in the end. Ruby was great, she has a great voice, in "Drowned In Sadness" she plays the role of the nymph Hamadryad, and in "The Awakening" she does the voice of conscience, in a very powerful and melodic way. Yes, many of my ideas came from the riffs, and I try to embrace the lyrics amongst the instruments, we try to compose songs, not in an usual way, not another music, we try to do something more memorable, something characteristically, so when people hear it they can say "this is The Spektrum", we try to create something that you could not forget, it's that the reason that why we are here.
Arcana Noctis: Because we are at this chapter, tell us please what your musical influences will be and how does they "affect" your compositional process?
The Spektrum: We all have very different influences and we all hear a lot of different styles of Metal but the dark ambiences and ancient melodies mixed with brutality define our music. Among many other great bands I think we could name a few: Moonspell, Dimmu Borgir, Bathory, Celtic Frost and Emperor. Usually the ideas come themselves, it's a natural process, we don't choose the ideas, and we do the things that sound good to us.
Arcana Noctis: Who did the cover artwork, what does it represent for you and how do you think it fits with both musical and lyrical contents imagined for "Daemonicus Awakening"? Also, now that this material was released since a while do you think that there are a few aspects that you want to be somehow different?
The Spektrum: All the artwork was made by João Diogo (Coma Visions), and he did a great job, we are very satisfied, we've searched a lot for someone that could really see what we want, he did an amazing job with the cover artwork, the gate is amazing, I imagined a gate made by souls that represents all human virtues and flaws, and he rocked, it's very cool, full of details. We've only discovered some details after we print it (2m x 2m), for scenario background, we loved it. We had to cut some prints, because we didn't had enough space, the original idea was a different painting for every lyric, but we had to manage it and I think it came out great, people like it. In that time we wanted to do a cover artwork that makes you embrace (amongst with the lyrics) the music, so when the fans buy our album they can embrace our music as one single piece. Like I said we are very satisfied with the artwork, changes are for the future, the past is already written, we have a lot of new ideas, and we will use them, we are satisfied about our past, and we will only touch it for future re-releases.
Arcana Noctis: To be honest with you Noisehead Records is something new for me; but I really like their way to spread the madness! How this label helped you to promote this opus "Daemonicus Awakening" and what interesting commentaries did you receive on it?
The Spektrum: Well we didn't knew either Noisehead Records, when we received the masters from Waldemar, we started to print some promos to send for some labels, we received some contracts and after a week or two we received a contract from Noisehead. We think it was the most ambitious one, we liked it and we sign, it was simple. Since then I think the cooperation has been very positive, we are happy, and this year will be very better, they are young, but very organized/professional, they have the right vision about the industry, I think the future will be great and bright, at least for the commentaries and the reactions that we have heard in the last year.
Arcana Noctis: Right now you are in the promotional campaign for "Daemonicus Awakening". Could you please reveal us a few details about your plans concerning all your live acts that you are going to play in the beginning of the new year?
The Spektrum: During the first semester of this year we will play a lot in Spain and in Portugal as well, soon we will record a new video clip, and we will have a whole new merchandise line ready for the fans, we are working to be part of some important festivals here in Portugal and in Europe, it will be a lot of gigs, and we will present a new type of performance on stage, a new image and one or two surprises on the playlist.
Arcana Noctis: In the end what The Spektrum future plans will be, and what should we expect from your band from now on?
The Spektrum: Yes I can reveal some plans for this year, in the beginning of the year, like I said, we will play a lot in Spain and in Portugal, and we are trying to be part of some important festivals; and during this year we will try to do a European tour. We have collected great reactions from all over the world, and we will try to play in every place that people want us to play. During the second semester we will record a new album more powerful/dark and epic than ever. As you see this year will be very busy for us, it will be a great year.
Arcana Noctis: Unfortunately we are closing to an end, as you can see! If you want to transmit something to your fans, listeners or readers feel free!
The Spektrum: Thanks a lot for everything, it was a pleasure to revive the old times and talking about a new path, we enjoyed a lot, and for all of you that have been sharing the same path as us thank you so much, together we will build a new path, feel free to contact us, to book us, like I said before we will try to go to every place that people want us to play, we want to spread our madness, and for those who are not in the same path as us, I tell you to come up to a show and then you will change your opinion, once again thank you very much, we will see you on the road.
Arcana Noctis: Hello and all my kind regards to all The Spektrum constituents! So here you are back in business with a new material called "Daemonicus Awakening" released through Noisehead Records a while ago. Something new to be mention in the beginning of this interview?
The Spektrum: Greetings! Thanks for your words, and first of all, happy Metal new year to all of you and the readers. Something new? We have a lot of good news for this year, but I will talk about that further, the promotional campaign for "Daemonicus Awakening" is going well, we got a lot of shows last year, and some important festivals; we shared the stage with a lot of Portuguese and foreign great bands, it was fucking awesome.Arcana Noctis: Because some of our readers aren't so used with your band; could you please make a short introduction in The Spektrum's past, by telling us what the most important from you career is?
The Spektrum: The Spektrum is a cauldron of brutality mixed dark ambiences and depressive feelings, so, characteristically of Portuguese culture, and stands amongst the pillars of justice. I remember one night, 5th May 2006, we went to Coimbra to see a Moonspell show, that night, for the first time we were together and we decided to do this forever. It was a great night, we got way drunk, and in that night we've choose our path, it was great, I can never forget that moment.
Arcana Noctis: When you started to play, back in 2005, band's musical style was Thrash Metal oriented! Right now your musical content is a combination between Death Metal and Doom Metal lines; a sadness Doom that fits perfectly with today's era when everything is falling apart! So why you decided to change the musical orientation? Do you think that the actual musical content represent you much better than the previous one?
The Spektrum: In the beginning we wanted to do the most aggressive thing that we could, with lots of noise (laughs), after a few rehearsals we felt that we needed something. Lulu's depart helped a lot with that change, we decided to have some Portuguese characteristically elements, and all that depression fitted in our needs, so we decided to move in a darkest/obscure ambience, and fortunately for us we found our path, still there are many sideways we can explore. Definitely this kind of dark/obscure a depressive ambience represents ourselves much better as musicians, and that's we want to do.
Arcana Noctis: After Samnu's arrival in The Spektrum, in 2006, you took part in a national contest called Portuguese Metal Band Contest; a very important event with more than 600 combos at the starting line! And you entered in the final of this Metal manifestation with another 30 bands! What the final result was and what interesting recollections could you share with us?
The Spektrum: Back then we only had played once, we recorded that show, and it was a very crazy gig. In that time we only had 3/4 raw music's, and seeing this opportunity we decided to apply for it. We recorded two songs and a cover, they liked it and we were selected to the 30 finalists of Loud Metal Battle; It was our second show, we didn't win, but it opened our minds, people liked and gave us strength to go ahead; I still remember Antonio Freitas words: "Go ahead kids; you are on the right path"; He was the judge of that contest; he is one of the most important references on the Portuguese Metal scene. We can still remember that day, we were talking, "man we got to do more darkest and heavy stuff", and it was true, 3 months later we recorded our demo.
Arcana Noctis: We mentioned this national contest, but what could you tell us about band's playlist that you used at that time?
The Spektrum: Yes, of course, I remember like it was yesterday, we were the youngest, each band could only play 3 songs, 2 originals and one cover song. We started with "Rusting", the first song we ever compose, a Thrash theme, with almost 8 minutes, and then we played our cover song like everyone else, the biggest difference was that we played the beginning of "Sweet Dreams", from Marilyn Manson mixed with the end of "One" from Metallica, it was fucking awesome, and for last we played "Shadows" it is the last music from our demo "Marching Through The Darkness", it was the first time we played it live.
Arcana Noctis: Almost in the same period you had some internal problems, and after Lulu's departure Samnu takes the drums and Abigor will play the keys too! Wasn't too difficult to change from a musical instrument to another? Because I know that in Romania those who learn playing keys are used to play drums too; but someone playing guitar and keys in the same time sounds quite interesting, don't you think?
The Spektrum: Yes, fortunately for us, Lulu has left the band, and Samnu started to play drums, officially, because in that time Lulu stopped attending to rehearsals, it was funny (or not), because in that time we practiced at his home, and Samnu played drums. We needed to practice, and drums are crucial to play, so it was a kind of natural change. Abigor already had some keyboard classes at young age, so it was a kind natural that adaptation; it's interesting everyone in the band plays keyboards except me (laughs).
Arcana Noctis: In July 2006 you decided to enter Saint Studios to record band's first material, a demo called "Marching Through The Darkness"; later released in October the same year! What can you tell us about this important step from your career and what the feedback on this release was at that time?
The Spektrum: Yes, when Lulu left we've decided to record a demo, we searched for a studio near our hometown that would fulfil our needs, and we found Saint Studios. Gabriel, our producer, it was the first time that he produced Metal, it was a good experience, and I think we've captured our young essence with a good sound quality, and when we presented the demo for the first time, we collected good reactions from everybody, I can assure that we were the first band from our hometown with such a good sound quality. The vision we had, concerning our visual/image were right; we started to receive proposals to play all over the country, without any support from anybody, people seemed to like, and so "the road became our bride". It was amazing, the demo was released in October, and during the same month some band from the U.S. ask us if they could do a cover song of our "Random Fear"; we were shocked; we started to receive good reactions from the U.S., South America, and of course from all over Europe; much more attention and respect that we've received from Portugal; so we were motivated and we played a lot in Portugal and in the north of Spain. The first time we went to Vigo we played in Anoeta Bar, we had for the first time 2 fixed frontlines of fans near the stage, they knew we were from Batalha, and that we had a fantastic Monastery there. What would you do about that? We thought: let's record a full length album.
Arcana Noctis: After some national fests and some Spanish shows, you decided to start the working process on your first full length "Daemonicus Awakening" on your own studio! Later this opus will be record in Medusa Studio with Dikk and Ares from WitchBreed as sound engineers! How the working process on "Daemonicus Awakening" went on and what do you think about this adventure with those WitchBreed members at the board?
The Spektrum: We started to search for a studio and a producer that could fit in our demands, and Zouza had another brilliant idea, contacting Ares. Ares amongst with Fernando Ribeiro have founded Moonspell; we loved and we still love earlier Moonspell, and we wanted to give a dark ambience to our album, it was the best for us, so we contacted him, and he was very receptive. We decided to record some new tracks (3/4) on our home studio, plus the demo, and then we sent to them, they liked and in September 2007, there we were at Medusa lab Studios to record our firstborn son. For the first time in our short musician lives we were working with professional musicians, it was amazing; Dikk was amazing so as Ares, we looked like children in a Metal class at school (laughs), they gave us a lot of time to do what we want; so we got drunk, and work a lot on the tracks (laughs), it was a natural process, we took the tracks to the studio almost ready, only one or two tracks gave us more work. Besides Ares and Dikk we got to say thanks to all WitchBreed crew, Tiago was great, Ruby was amazing, so amazing that when we needed a female voice, Ares suggested her, we loved the idea and she recorded two tracks.
Arcana Noctis: The final mastering was made by famous Waldemar Sorychta! How did you manage to work with Waldemar on "Daemonicus Awakening" final mastering and what do you think about his work on this album?
The Spektrum: Well we are big fans of Waldemar's work, among many works he produced "Wolfheart" and "Irreligious", Ares and Waldemar are friends since that time, and we talked about a possible cooperation between us and Waldemar. And when he came to Medusa Lab Studios, to produce WitchBreed's album, we were totally convinced and decide to work with him, because in that time we talked with Tue Madsen, because we are big fans of his work as well, but, like I said, we already had chosen Waldemar. We want to thanks' to Ares and Lee Barrett, the boss of Ascendance Records (WitchBreed's label), for making this possible. About the work itself, we think the result is brutal, the sound is more aggressive, more perceptive, and more powerful, he did a fantastic job we are very satisfied.
Arcana Noctis: It will be fucking great if you could introduce us this material, with all its technical details and a short introduction in its lyrical content!
The Spektrum: Well this is our firstborn son, it took a while to get all things ready, and we learned a lot. This material is a reflex of our soul in that time of our lives, we wanted to create something strong, obscure, and with a hole dark and doomed ambience involving all the album, and I think we caught the right essence. About technical details, hm... Well, we tried to build something complex, but not to complex, so it would go softer on the ear. We have the riffs, for head banging, a good example I would believe it to be "Nenphilis", I think it is good guitar music present in the album. It is not too technical/fast with all those bursting fast solos, that is not even present in our album. We prefer more the rhythmic progression, so a listener can enjoy, without having to be always concentrated on the music to ear all the details. A good example for that is "Eternal Fear" a perfect, pure ambience song. About the lyrical content, I've created a world, not much different from this one, the big thing is that this one is fuelled by justice, like our world should be, it's a conceptual/metaphorical album, each lyric is a different story, but all of them are connected, it is a birth and a life in tragedy, but a kingdom inspired and ruled by justice, and you got many good lessons there, in my point of view (laughs), in the end justice prevails, usual not the way we wanted to, because that depends of our singular acts as human beings.
Arcana Noctis: Your title tracks could make us thinking that The Spektrum is a kind of Funeral Doom Metal band; the lyrical content being for some reviewers somehow obscure! This material use some female clean vocals and a cello, creating dark melodies very well emphasized by Dyrion's vocal register strong growl oriented! Do you think that music and lyrical content are hand in hand to create the ultimate big thing with this opus?
The Spektrum: Each title represents a story and a different message inside the whole message of the album. Everything is obscure and bright, like life, lyrics are sad, involved in rage and determination, and that feelings combined are a powerful weapon to do whatever you want, in this case "Daemonicus" reclaimed his throne by the hands of justice, and once again back to real life, religions of great gods, done by human hands, by human desires, the fear of a holy revenge is the most powerful way to control the will of the masses, and that dumb believers, desperate for spiritual help, are the people that will have their justice in the end. Ruby was great, she has a great voice, in "Drowned In Sadness" she plays the role of the nymph Hamadryad, and in "The Awakening" she does the voice of conscience, in a very powerful and melodic way. Yes, many of my ideas came from the riffs, and I try to embrace the lyrics amongst the instruments, we try to compose songs, not in an usual way, not another music, we try to do something more memorable, something characteristically, so when people hear it they can say "this is The Spektrum", we try to create something that you could not forget, it's that the reason that why we are here.
Arcana Noctis: Because we are at this chapter, tell us please what your musical influences will be and how does they "affect" your compositional process?
The Spektrum: We all have very different influences and we all hear a lot of different styles of Metal but the dark ambiences and ancient melodies mixed with brutality define our music. Among many other great bands I think we could name a few: Moonspell, Dimmu Borgir, Bathory, Celtic Frost and Emperor. Usually the ideas come themselves, it's a natural process, we don't choose the ideas, and we do the things that sound good to us.
Arcana Noctis: Who did the cover artwork, what does it represent for you and how do you think it fits with both musical and lyrical contents imagined for "Daemonicus Awakening"? Also, now that this material was released since a while do you think that there are a few aspects that you want to be somehow different?
The Spektrum: All the artwork was made by João Diogo (Coma Visions), and he did a great job, we are very satisfied, we've searched a lot for someone that could really see what we want, he did an amazing job with the cover artwork, the gate is amazing, I imagined a gate made by souls that represents all human virtues and flaws, and he rocked, it's very cool, full of details. We've only discovered some details after we print it (2m x 2m), for scenario background, we loved it. We had to cut some prints, because we didn't had enough space, the original idea was a different painting for every lyric, but we had to manage it and I think it came out great, people like it. In that time we wanted to do a cover artwork that makes you embrace (amongst with the lyrics) the music, so when the fans buy our album they can embrace our music as one single piece. Like I said we are very satisfied with the artwork, changes are for the future, the past is already written, we have a lot of new ideas, and we will use them, we are satisfied about our past, and we will only touch it for future re-releases.
Arcana Noctis: To be honest with you Noisehead Records is something new for me; but I really like their way to spread the madness! How this label helped you to promote this opus "Daemonicus Awakening" and what interesting commentaries did you receive on it?
The Spektrum: Well we didn't knew either Noisehead Records, when we received the masters from Waldemar, we started to print some promos to send for some labels, we received some contracts and after a week or two we received a contract from Noisehead. We think it was the most ambitious one, we liked it and we sign, it was simple. Since then I think the cooperation has been very positive, we are happy, and this year will be very better, they are young, but very organized/professional, they have the right vision about the industry, I think the future will be great and bright, at least for the commentaries and the reactions that we have heard in the last year.
Arcana Noctis: Right now you are in the promotional campaign for "Daemonicus Awakening". Could you please reveal us a few details about your plans concerning all your live acts that you are going to play in the beginning of the new year?
The Spektrum: During the first semester of this year we will play a lot in Spain and in Portugal as well, soon we will record a new video clip, and we will have a whole new merchandise line ready for the fans, we are working to be part of some important festivals here in Portugal and in Europe, it will be a lot of gigs, and we will present a new type of performance on stage, a new image and one or two surprises on the playlist.
Arcana Noctis: In the end what The Spektrum future plans will be, and what should we expect from your band from now on?
The Spektrum: Yes I can reveal some plans for this year, in the beginning of the year, like I said, we will play a lot in Spain and in Portugal, and we are trying to be part of some important festivals; and during this year we will try to do a European tour. We have collected great reactions from all over the world, and we will try to play in every place that people want us to play. During the second semester we will record a new album more powerful/dark and epic than ever. As you see this year will be very busy for us, it will be a great year.
Arcana Noctis: Unfortunately we are closing to an end, as you can see! If you want to transmit something to your fans, listeners or readers feel free!
The Spektrum: Thanks a lot for everything, it was a pleasure to revive the old times and talking about a new path, we enjoyed a lot, and for all of you that have been sharing the same path as us thank you so much, together we will build a new path, feel free to contact us, to book us, like I said before we will try to go to every place that people want us to play, we want to spread our madness, and for those who are not in the same path as us, I tell you to come up to a show and then you will change your opinion, once again thank you very much, we will see you on the road.