Maurizio Iacono (Kataklysm)
May 2008
Your previous album In The Arms Of Devastation was a huge success worldwide. Are you satisfied with how things turned out for that one?
I was definitely very happy to see that the album was well received. It was a very important album for Kataklysm and it was really cool to see that the impact was so strong for it. I think it was a very well structured record and it was really the album that we needed to do when we did In The Arms. It is our best selling record to date.
Is it always like that? Do your new albums always outsell the previous ones?
Well, for Kataklysm it's been like that for the last 8 years for some reason. Every record after The Prophecy has been outselling each other and the band is becoming bigger and bigger with every album. In The Arms Of Devastation was a very big step forward from Serenity In Fire as far as the sales go. It became a very important album in the whole world and for us it was a ground breaking record so we were really happy about it.
I know it's kind of impossible to answer and you might say it's always the new one, but do you have a favourite Kataklysm album? I don't mean quality-wise but because of the songs or some special reason?
I think Shadows And Dust is my favourite record. That was just a special time for me with Kataklysm and it's just the way it was. We were just happy with it and I think it was a great album. It's something I'm really proud of. That record did a lot of different things for Kataklysm and it opened a lot of doors. Everybody's got their favourite records. For me that was the most complete album we did and there's just good vibes on that record.
Do you see Prevail as the logical continuation of In The Arms Of Devastation?
I think it's a different record. If it continues, it's hard to say because the continuing of that last record I think it would have been even more melodic and maybe go into more different type of sounds. We decided to take a little bit of a turn around with this record and gonna be more aggressive and go more like how we felt because we had a lot of energy when we did this record and we felt like we had to express ourselves this way. I think it has a lot of really catchy moments but it has a lot more intricate moments than In The Arms Of Devastation. I think it's a completely different record in that aspect but at the same time it does really follow-up. I think Prevail is the right album for what we are today.
Was this change in the music something you wanted to do right from the start or it's just the way it came out?
I think it just came out that way. We've been writing this record for a year on and off and we've been taking our time with it. It just felt natural and I think Kataklysm is a spontaneous band. When we write music it's not something that we really emphasise on taking forever to get things done. The initial energy is the most important one and this is really what came through the songs of the Prevail. It was a natural progression.
You mentioned that you worked on the record for a year but did you do this together, involving all the members?
Yes. Actually for this record we worked together as a unit. The previous records, especially In The Arms Of Devastation was mainly written by my guitar player and I wrote a few songs too, but he was the main writer behind it. For this record we worked more as a unit and all of us brought in ideas. It was more of a co-operation between the four of us. I live in Chicago and the guys live in Montreal so it's a little hard for us to get together and do albums and write stuff but we managed to do it this way and it was really cool.
What was the biggest challenge about writing Prevail?
Biggest challenge on this record would be people's expectations. Of course it's always something that we try to tune off when we write because it's not healthy to think about trying to do always better. We decided to do what we felt was the record we needed to do. But I think the pressure is a little high for a band like us. This is our ninth record and when you release nine records it's not easy to sit back and take it easy. We're kind of a band that likes pushing further every time so the barrier gets higher and it's harder. But for us it's the matter of writing the right songs and the challenge is to make the songs good and memorable and just to make sure that they're interesting. We don't wanna be brutal just for the sake of being brutal, that's not what Kataklysm is about.
It's not really easy to make ground breaking records in heavy metal because basically everything has been done before. How can you keep your music fresh without risking losing your fan base?
I think for Kataklysm it's a different approach. I think we sound like us and we don't sound like anybody else and this is a very big plus. When you hear Kataklysm's music and hear my vocals you're not gonna think it's Morbid Angel or Cannibal Corpse. I think that's already an original aspect that is very difficult to find today. And we do different things and we combine a lot of different elements and we can make them stick together. A lot of bands would try things and they just don't fit. We can do a song that sound completely black metal and then do a song that is completely death metal with slow grooves and they can fit on the same album. For some reason Kataklysm is able to make that work. I think that makes us special compared to other bands.
One of the biggest surprises of Prevail is the second part of the song Renaissance. How come?
We're trying to show that we don't forget our roots as well. We did instrumental things before and we've always been the band that like every couple of albums come back with that idea. Renaissance was a very important song on The Prophecy and on this record I think we did a killer instrumental. I think a lot of people are really loving that song. When I go back to five records ago I think it unifies our career.
How do you remember the writing and recording of Renaissance in 2000?
A lot of pressure, man. (Laughs) Actually it was more pressure doing that album than doing any of our records because we were coming out of The Victims Of The Fallen World record, which was received well with some people but not really well with a lot of people. It was an album that we weren't sure about where our career stands so The Prophecy was and album that was very difficult for us to write. But then again, we did the same thing on that album what we did on this record and that's the idea of just purring our hearts on the table and just be like, "Hey, this is who we are and this is how we feel." That was definitely the challenge for that time.
Eight years ago many things were different. Internet was not as huge as it is today and also the scene changed a lot. How do you see that?
It definitely changed a lot with the Internet, that's definitely a very big plus I think but a very negative in another perspective because album sales decreased dramatically. It's not what it used to be for us, even though today we sell more records. It's still that we could imagine how many more we could have sold if this industry was better. But in the more positive way, from the promotion aspect of it, it's ten times bigger than it used to be. You're able to be everywhere in one second. I remember when I started Kataklysm we always used faxes and letters to communicate with penpals and different metalheads around the world. I love that time and to me that was the time of metal and that's how it was. But today the new generation knows about the Internet and that's fine with me as well. It's a different game now but if you're able to adapt you're gonna be all fine. I don't have problem with digital music either because I never bought vinyls, I was into cassettes and cassettes became CDs and I guess now CDs are becoming digital. You just have to adapt with the times.
Speaking of Renaissance, do you see yourself doing a part two to any of your other songs?
I would like to revisit Rome from the Epic record. I would like to go back to the songs Era Of The Mercyless and As The Glorious Weep and maybe continue those. That’s something I’d like to do in the future.
What would be your favourite moment on Prevail whether it’s a song, a solo or any small detail?
I really like the song Tear Down The Kingdom. It brings me back to early Kataklysm days. I like albums like Sorcery and Temple Of Knowledge. It also has that melodic feel that I like. I just think the song has a really cool vibe all the way through. That’s one of my favourite on the record.
Do you also plan to release a single off the record?
Yeah, it’s just got released recently and it’s Taking The World By Storm, which is the second song on the album. We also did a video for it that we just uploaded to our MySpace page. It’s kind of the slowest song on the album and a more melodic one and especially with the video it sounds more catchy. But there’s a lot of heavy hitter songs on this album that are straight in your face and maybe we’re gonna do a second video with a much stronger, faster type of song.
Is the single for commercial release or only for radio?
It’s for commercial release and it’s gonna be on radio as well. Actually we have two singles for the radio, the other one is The Chains Of Power.
Was it Jean-Francois producing the album again?
Yes, for this record we had the same process. We started working together as we always do. He recorded the album and I don’t really want recording an album with anybody else. I mean he’s a guitar player and nobody is better to know what the band expects and wants. He did a fabulous job. But we got the album mixed by a different producer. We went to Florida and we got the mix done by Jason Suecof who worked with bands like DevilDriver, Chimaira and different metal bands. We just wanted to try something different for the sound and we really like the way the album came out. The sound and everything is really cool.
Your drummer Max had some health issues a few years ago. How is he now?
Yeah, he had some problems with his knees and stuff like that but he looks fine now. He’s completely rehabilitated and he’s actually I think the most improved member in the band. He did a fabulous job on this album. He’s really focused and we’re really happy about that. He drinks too much but what you’re gonna do? (Laughs)
You didn’t waste much time this year as you’ve already been out on the road doing some extensive touring. You even went to Australia to complete a tour there. What kind of memories you have from Down Under?
It is really a great place to be. It’s different from most places but very similar to what Canada is like so it was kind of a homeland type of place. It was a mixture between Canada and the UK and having some tropics from California. That’s what it looked like. It was really nice and seeing the kangaroos up close was really fucked up. You don’t really realise you’re there until you see it. Also the fans at the gigs were really great and they were waiting for us for a long time. We had a really warm welcome and we had a really intense time so we were really happy.
Did you perform any songs from the new album?
No. We didn’t wanna play it because we were gonna release a single and the record label didn’t want us to play it avoiding to get it on YouTube before the single is released. Things like that break the surprise of the album. It wasn’t really a good time for playing new songs but we’re returning to Australia next year or the year after and we’ll play a lot more new songs.
Now you’re going to complete The Summer Slaughter Tour with quite a few well-known bands. What are your expectations?
That’s a big line-up with a lot of bands. We wanna make sure that we are well received so we’re gonna give a very killer Kataklysm show. I think that enough to have the people interested in the band. After eight bands that play before you sometimes it gets a little tiring. (Laughs) We’re gonna have to come in and do our job that we usually do. I think they expect a lot of people so it should be a really cool tour.
Is there any bands on the bill that you really want to see live?
Yeah. I might check out The Faceless of what they are doing. They are a pretty good live band. Also Aborted is a really cool band and they are good friends of mine and I would like to check them out as well.
How is the metal scene in Canada these days? How much are you considered to be a big band at home?
It you look at the statistics Kataklysm is the biggest selling band in Canada right now. It’s a very cool scene here and the metal scene is very huge. If you play Canada you’re definitely gonna have a big crowd of a lot of metalheads because we have in North America the biggest scenes. I don’t know why it’s like that… maybe because it’s very European influenced, where we come from and Quebec and Montreal especially. These are two big cities for metal. Usually we do over 1000 people when we play there and headlining. It’s always a good time. I think a lot of the bands if you ask them about their favourite spot in North America, they’ll tell you Montreal is definitely one of the cities.