.png)
Ahead of the release of their new album ‘Illusional Gates’, Darkus magazine caught up with French metal core up and comers Insolvency to talk about the album.
Four years after the release of their debut album Antagonism of the Soul, they return with an album that sees them collaborate once again with Jim Pinder [While She Sleeps, Bullet for my Valentine, Machine Head], speaking with guitarist and vocalist Valentin Gondouin and new drummer Prosper Duffours;
‘With this album we have grown up as musicians as well as in our personal lives, we have experienced personal problems like depression and other issues as well as what's going off in the world and we wanted to talk about it through this album’ explains Valentin ‘it’s definitely a very personal album, it's more about our own lives, it's more aggressive, our first album was very much styled around the bands that we liked, such as Bullet for my Valentine and Trivium but our music tastes evolve and I think you can hear it on this album……. we have become more efficient’
Newcomer to the band Prosper goes on to explain about being efficient.. ‘well I think it really means a lot of things like reading the riffs, in the most parts when we talk about the efficiency, I think would be more catchy stuff, you know maybe in the parts where the riff is pretty brutal and pretty you know… heavy, yeah I think we tend to do this even more heavy so it's just a way of really getting, you know in an idea and trying to be as deep as we can into the idea!’
This evolution of the band since the release of their debut clearly sees a significant progression in production and musical influence that finds them heading towards a mix of metal core, hardcore and pop crossover with hints of While She Sleeps gang chants and choruses and pop passages akin to Bring Me The Horizon, which is not a surprise really considering the album was produced by Jim Pinder who has worked previously with these bands.
‘we went to record drums in the studio it was the same time While She Sleeps were recording drums for one of their albums, so we used their drum kit on our last album’ he laughs ‘that’s a true story and a cool fact’
With guest features on ‘Illusional Gates’ from CJ McMahon (Thy Art Is Murder) and Ryan Kirby (Fit For A King) Prosper explained how these hook ups came about. ‘well first to have them featuring on this album like that is just an honour for the band because personally I was a huge fan of them both and you know to have like this kind of feature on the album is pretty crazy yeah….!? and also we made the album during the covid era, it was a bit difficult to meet and you know we didn't have like the full experience of you the singer coming to the studio together so unfortunately we didn't have that kind of aspect to it yeah but at the same time it's crazy….. to have all these things online you know you can do stuff like that with people, you know we are in France, CJ is in Australia you know it's crazy…it's insane you know when you hear the voice of these kind of guys on your tracks it’s just insane so yeah we've been really lucky.’
Having seen CJ’s social media offering his vocal services, Prosper continues to explain ‘…..we just sent an email, and I think without COVID we would probably not have had a chance to have him on the album.’ he continues ‘ we contacted Ryan Kirby on the same basis, yeah yeah it was pretty much the same and then when we hear him on The Endless Maze … his screaming Is just out of this world.’
On working with Jim Pinder, Valentin explains ‘ We worked with Jim on the previous album and we went to record drums in the studio it was the same time While She Sleeps were recording drums for one of their albums, so we used their drum kit on our last album’ he laughs ‘that’s a true story and a cool fact’…’we love Jim and his work and we’ve seen it so we called him up and he worked on this album ‘Illusional Gates.’
Insolvency – Illusional Gates is available on DSP’s from 21st February 2022
Track List:
Torn Away Inside
The Endless Maze (Featuring Ryan Kirby)
Mirage
Illusional gates
Last Call
Another Fate
Stranger World
Smother The Candle (Featuring CJ McMahon)
Oversight
Afterlight
Fade and Flow
Stay Connected: INSTAGRAM
Article By Steve Harrison
Commentaires