Vidres A La Sang
Vidres A La Sang comes from Catalonia and plays Heavy Black Metal, extremely intelligent and well played their lyrics being sung in their local dialect.

Arcana Noctis: Hola España! What's up new out there now that you just released your 3rd opus through Xtreem Music Records?

Vidres A La Sang:
Hola Romania! Greetings from Catalonia! Hi ladies and gents! First of all thank you for interviewing us; it is a pleasure to answer your questions. Right now we are practising a lot for our forthcoming tour with Foscor (another Catalan band; Foscor means darkness in Catalan language) which will take off on December the 4th in Tolouse (France). So this is pretty much what we are focused on at the moment!

Arcana Noctis: "Som" was released, September 2009, and as I've mentioned is band's 3rd official release until now. When you started to work on "Som" and how the recording sessions grew apace?

Vidres A La Sang:
Eloi began writing new stuff for this record already back in 2007, if I'm not wrong, and it was done by late 2008. But then we realised that there were 2 songs that didn't fit in, so they were replaced by "Som" and "El Crit". "Som" was the last we wrote and that was just a month and a half before entering studio. So the whole creative process took us 3 good years but I think it was worth the wait considering what it sounds like. We spent a month and a half in studio. Quite a along time, but again, it was all worth.

Arcana Noctis: How did you spread the duties in Vidres A La Sang, and how did you worked on band's compositional process for "Som"?

Vidres A La Sang:
Well, Eloi does most of the writing although, Albert made his contribution with "No Tornarea Ser Jove". So Eloi is mostly responsible for the music, but we all contribute on the songs. I, personally, besides my drum parts, like to get involved in the creative process by giving ideas, doing "Som" and arrangements or knocking whatever I think it's wrong or unfit. Fortunately, there's no ego shit stuff going in the band. Albert does his solos and arrangements, and Marcos plays an important role with his bass lines making sound everything as compact and thick and also with the backing vocals.

Arcana Noctis: Try to introduce us this new material, starting with the very beginning, and don't forget to make a short description of each song on "Som"!

Vidres A La Sang:
I'll try to answer this question. The key words this time are ambition and confidence. We have faced this new work totally fearless about what people could think of it, knowing that we were doing things right. Don't get me wrong, we are not a bunch of arrogant people, we're just proud of our record, and of course we care about what people think of our music, but even if they like it or not, we would do things the same way. In my opinion, this album is a creative big step forward, risky in a way. There is a lot of variety in it, and that's not very much accepted in the extreme Metal world sometimes.

"Som": Mid-tempo opening track. That's new. We usually started with fast tempos. Very atmospheric and epic song. Keyboards in the background, that's new too. Recited vocal lines. That's not new but we hadn't gone that deep into it before.

"Policromía": First groovy type of song approach. It sounds so heavy, so thick and more "american" I'd say, but pretty Death Metal too.

«Esclaus De La Modernitat» : Almost an experiment! A 10 min. song. It has a strange structure, no parts are repeated, no a, b, a, c... type of structure, it's kind of a, b, c, d... confusing, I know, it's hard to describe! Is the most varied song of the record, you can find a lot of Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Black Metal, groovy parts, some progressive experimental touch in some passages. It's definitely the most extreme song.

"A L'Ombra": Another mid-tempo long song. Don't get bored I advanced, it is interesting enough. Black atmosphere, dark, dense, very epic too. One of my favourite lyrics.

"El Crit": It stars with an epic old school Black Metal riff and then turns into a groovy song first and heavy/mid tempo afterwards to go back to the first riff with an even more epic end. One of my favourite lyrics too.

"No Tornaré A Ser Jove": This is fresh air! This song was written by Albert. It's very apparent that it sounds totally different. Tough to label. It's just a very well done song I think, for your hearing pleasure. Mid/slow-tempo song, probably the shortest of all.

"Mireu-me bé, sóc l'altre": This is a fully justified extra song, not an extension of the sixth song. Ultra epic, with recited vocals and keyboards in the background, a killer song! This one is mean to be a tribute to the immortal poet Miquel Martí i Pol, using one of his poems, probably for the last time, signifying a symbolic musical burial. His legacy will remain but this is the begging of the new Vidres A La Sang.

Arcana Noctis: I label your musical style as "Heavy Black Metal"; and I don't know if you agree with me. But it is heavy, extremely atmospheric and very epic all these in the same time; Something that we can't hear every day, that's for sure! How would you describe your musical content? And what makes you to be so different from other bands and what will be your aim?

Vidres A La Sang:
Yeah! That's flattering man, and I quite agree with you. The only thing I can say is that we always work very hard to reach new labels of creativity to keep evolving honestly. We haven't invented anything, but we've always aimed to sound different, it's true, to stick out somehow by combining all our influences our own way. You know, music changes and it influences you so we try to be as much open minded as possible. Maybe is the combination of all those elements that make us sound different, I don't even know!

Arcana Noctis: Compared to "Endins", released 3 years ago, what will be the main difference and what old elements did you still used on "Som"?

Vidres A La Sang:
The main difference is that we are almost 4 years older now; we are more experienced so we do things more proper and are not afraid of anything anymore. In the past, we used to be concerned about sounding as we were suppose to sound being a Death or Black Metal band. This is all over, time has passed, music has changed and so have we. So our music sounds more mature, more concise, more focused, we're not followers anymore, in other words. I spoke about confidence a few questions above and that's a key word again. The elements we keep from "Endins" are the Heavy Metal epic atmospheric sound mainly. We are actually the same line-up so it's true that some things have changed but many stay the same.

Arcana Noctis: "Som" should be considered as a step forward in band's career and in its compositional process? Or as a normal continuation of your previous releases?

Vidres A La Sang:
A clear step forward and no, this ain't a following up record.

Arcana Noctis: The total playing time is about 55 minutes, for only 6 tracks! And we could say that, at the first look, you are a Funeral Doom Metal band, such as old My Dying Bride or Mourning Beloveth to name but a few! And I'd say that we can find some elements like that in your music! Why do you need almost 10 minutes, for a song, to express your feelings; and what exactly do you want to prove with such a complex musical content?

Vidres A La Sang:
Mmm... We've been told many things about our music but never before anyone had mention anything about sounding or reminding of a Doom Metal band. Intersting anyway! Eloi should be the right person to answer this question, but I guess that when you start writing a song it takes you to unexpected places so is the song itself who decides how long it wants to be. There's is nothing to prove regarding the complexity of some songs, there's no extra thought, songs just come as they come.

Arcana Noctis: Your lyrical content deals mostly with a literary adaptation of Miquel Martí i Pol's poems. What could you tell us about this subject, and why did you decided to sing in Catalonian, your regional dialect?

Vidres A La Sang:
Right. Before answering I'd like to clarify a couple of things: 1 - Catalan is not a dialect. It is a proper language itself. Actually is the non-state largest spoken language in Europe. About 6 million people or more speaks this language with all its local expressions and so on. 2 - Catalonia is not a Spanish region. It is a nation inside a largest nation made of other nations and regions called Spain. It may be confusing I know, but it would take me too long to explain it proper and I guess it may be boring for you and your readers, and after all we are not a political band, music is the only thing that really matters. Now, going back to your question, Miquel Martí i Pol is one the most successful contemporary Catalan poets who's won many awards in the country. He passed away a few years ago. He had multiple sclerosis which led him to live on wheel chair for many years. Thanks or because of that, his poetry became so dark, so we thought it could easily fit with our music and it did perfectly. We decided to sing in Catalan because is our language; it is as simple as that. We also wanted to stick out somehow, just a bunch of extreme Metal bands dared so far, to use our mother tongue for their music, and we wanted to do it exclusively in order to make our difference and also to bring our language to the extreme Metal world and fill this void. All of us had previously been in projects where English was the language used, but Vidres A La Sang was born to be different in all possible ways and the language wasn't an exception.

Arcana Noctis: Singing in this dialect makes you to be probably the only one band doing this way! Is it hard to find the perfect formula to have such a great final result? Do you want to stand out compared to some other bands playing the same musical style?

Vidres A La Sang:
Well, as I said above, there are other bands which use Catalan for their lyrics too. One of them is Foscor, a brilliant band which we are going to tour with. (The rest of the question was already answered above).

Arcana Noctis: Should we include in this chapter your decision to paint your body in red and black; compared to the usual black and white?! What's the main idea behind this chose, and why do you want to be unique in the end?

Vidres A La Sang:
That's right. Red and black, instead of white and black! Why this colors? They're our personal visual way to represent life and dead, hope and fear, happiness and sadness etc. This is a constant thing we deal with on our lyrics in one form or another. The constant contrast in life. Why we want to be unique? Because we are unique, as well as everyone else is, you just have to be aware of it, believe it, exploit it, and fight for it.

Arcana Noctis: The cover artwork is very expressive and interesting, I have to admit; but what will be the main link between this image and all your lyrical content?

Vidres A La Sang:
Each image on the cover is related to each lyric. For instance: The cross symbolises the sense of guilt expressed on "A L'Ombra" (In the shadows). The watch, the passing of the time and it's effects on us dealt with on "No Tornaré A Ser Jove" (I won't be young again). Try to find out the rest by yourself! There are some ambiguous elements too, some abstraction, after all Dalí was a Catalan painter so his imagery is in our psyche since childhood. Our lyrical side is as important as the musical side. It's a whole thing. All this stuff together makes the Vidres A La Sang concept.

Arcana Noctis: If I'm not wrong you stated that your mainly musical influences come from Iron Maiden, Immortal and Morbid Angel! That's the main reason that made me to call your musical way of playing as blackened Heavy Metal! But honestly I tried to found out those elements you are talking about but I found nothing in the end! So what's your point of view in the end?

Vidres A La Sang:
I'll take that as a compliment! The influence of those entire band can be clearly found on our first record, but now all that is vanishing. We're getting to have our own sound and that's something we always wanted to achieve, and according to your comments we are on the right path!

Arcana Noctis: Frequently I heard a few melodic lines that make me to believe that your musical content could be used as a soundtrack for horror and S.F. films! I assure you that I'm not a dick sucker, but you are the second band, besides the Italians Urshurak, that made such a great impression on me! Did you ever thought to work on such things?

Vidres A La Sang:
Thank you, man. That's flattering again I appreciate. No, never thought of that but if we had the chance... why not!

Arcana Noctis: Although this material was released September 2009, could you tell us if you already received quite feedback on your last material?

Vidres A La Sang:
We're starting to. I can't really tell which people in general response will be. Although is being good, less controversial than I personally expected. Still early to tell much about it, anyway.

Arcana Noctis: What do you think about your partners Xtreem Music Records, and what do you expect from this label in the future? Do you have some more albums to record for this Spanish home recording?

Vidres A La Sang:
They're by far; I think the best label on that genre in Spain. One always wants to get better promotion and to reach to a largest audience as possible, but you have to be realistic and patient. However, we are very pleased with them. What we expect is that at least, they keep working the same way with us. Our contract has just expired so, we must sit and talk about what will be next and time will tell what happens.

Arcana Noctis: What about the promo campaign diffused by Xtreem Music? Do you think that you are one of their priorities? Because as far as I know you have quite few interesting label partners, such as Avulsed, Necronomicon, Putrevore or Hellwitch to mention but a few; and we could believe that Xtreem Music is focused more into this direction, instead of doing the same thing with the other bands from their roster! So what's the truth and how do you feel being one of their artists?

Vidres A La Sang:
As I said, we are pleased with them. It is true that Xtreeme Music is more focused on the type of bands you mention above. We're not a priority for them; I don't know which their priorities are really. The only thing that I do know for a fact is what we want, and as I said we need talk and see what happens.

Arcana Noctis: Do you plan to record a video to conclude this incredible work called "Som"? What do you think about "Som" or "Policromía"? Would you record a video for such songs?

Vidres A La Sang:
Actually yes, we've been thinking about making a video of "Som". One of Foscor's members made the videos for their band. They're very well done so; he would be the right person for it so we may do, hopefully!

Arcana Noctis: What will be band's live activity from now on; and tell us if you already prepared something very special for your live offerings?

Vidres A La Sang:
Special?! Yes, in fact we will shot and make a DVD of the gig we'll be doing with Foscor on March the 6th in Barcelona at Sala KGB. I might let you down, but no human sacrifices or stuff like this is planned, I'm sorry!

Arcana Noctis: In the end could you please tell us a few words about your future plans concerning Vidres A La Sang? Do you think to change your musical content, increasing the Death or Black or Heavy or whatever Metal lines?

Vidres A La Sang:
Our future and present plan is, gig as much as we can, we're getting ready for it. We don't even know yet what we'll come up with musically in the future, too early to tell.

Arcana Noctis: Thank you so much for such a great material and for you time. If you have something to add to conclude this interview, use this space properly!

Vidres A La Sang:
Thank you for interviewing us and support us, we deeply appreciate. Thank you to all your readers and all Romanians who follow Vidres A La Sang. Hopefully, we'll meet some day in you're country, you never know! Hugs!