Masachist jokingly say about themselves that they are five motherfuckers who know what they want to do. Five incredibly charismatic guys whose names are etched into the history of Polish death metal. It is a pity that they could not perform in the original line-up, but certain duties could not be left behind this time. I invite you to a short chat with Trufel and Pig (vel-Sauron), which I managed to carry out after their Brutal East Festival appearance.

Arek

Greetings, Masachist is a pretty serious name in our metal world already, how would you evaluate it, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

Trufel - There are no weaknesses! (Laughs) We have been playing for 12 years, because we like it. This is our passion. In general, we don't care whether we are popular or not. We record something from time to time, usually when we feel that muse is with us. Same goes for concerts, we do not feel any great pressure. Of course, we appreciate that someone wants to invite us, hence, we can thank the BrutalEast organizers right here - Jack and the rest of the team. Last time I played in Fama was probably 15 years ago with Yattering. I have to say that I thought it was a bigger club, but I guess I was smaller back then (Laughs) so; it is great that someone appreciates us, though if they wouldn't, we would still play, because we like it.

What about your lineup? Some quite busy people in there.

Trufel – Well, lineup, as colleague Sauron said, is a bunch of sonsofbitches and that's how it must be. For 12 years now, in total, we can say that it stayed the same. Same one recorded and same one played most concerts, except maybe for Heinrich. The prose of life takes him out.

Sauron - In the beginning there was the premise that we are gonna try to play in the same lineup and we knew that there will be limitations. Each of us has his own activities that we are devoted to. We are not the people who make a living out of this, except Daray maybe, who is known to play in several other bands, so from the beginning everything was clear. We play when we can. There's no pressure, as Trufel said, so if we can meet, and that is not easy, then we play. The lineup on the records is very important, and as you can see, some really cool dudes are helping us out during concerts. We have friends who can make this up, because Masachist, is an animal very rarely manifesting itself.

Oh yes. It's been half a year since the release of The Sect, how's the feedback?

Trufel - Pretty good, although it could be better (laughs).

Sauron - Feedback is what it is, but I have to say that I'm fucking happy with this album, and that did not happen to me before. I often listen to this album, and I did not do so with Decapitated or Masachist previously. When you record the album, you listen to the heck out of it, you tirelessly record, and you just have enough of it at some point, and with this disc it was not a case. You know the response is good, and perhaps if more people have heard of this album, then maybe it would be even better. We work in our niche. Whomever it has to reach, it reaches and we have rather good opinions about it. Nobody dared to say to me, that it is a shitty album (laughs)

Listen, I deciphered the mathematical album track and it looks like this: the year of the last album release + the number of years that have passed since the previous release + the number of released albums, gives us the year of release of the next album, and that means that the successor of The Sect arrives in 2025?

Trufel - Oh, really??? No, it can't be, because we may not be recording albums anymore (laughs), we will be recording EP's, but more often. Just 3-4 numbers I think, it will be more advantageous for us and for the fans. There is no need to wait for five years, because it is pointless. You just have to keep grinding and that's it. First strides to the successor, the first riffs are already there, but there is nothing to stress about.

How do you assess your performance on the X edition of BrutalEastFest?

Trufel - The rest of the bands very well, and us??? – Punk-ish! It cannot be hidden that the lineup is different. We did not have the time to really get along and mesh together that well.

Sauron - You know, we are aware it could have been done better because it could, but on the other hand it was a lot of fun. Reception - OK. I am glad. The audience showed up so it was nice to appear.

We are also glad to hear and see you live. Are there any chances that this will change?

Trufel- No! (Laughs) We'll keep playing from time to time. We have our occupations so it will not change much.

Sauron - We will never be a band that plays tours. That was the presumption. We do not strive to play many concerts.

Trufel - We will definitely play something. Maybe not every 2 years, maybe a little more often, but we will not play tours because we do not have time for it. We played more often when we were going to college you know, it was a carefree life, but as soon as the duties began, the prose of life, then there is no time for playing like we used to, but it is still a huge success that we continue to play.

Sauron - This is our choice, you either get your whole ass all in into playing or not. This is a matter of some choices here. That’s how we want it, that’s how we imagined it and that’s how we realize it.

How did your come back under Witching Hour Prod wing happen, after the episode with SelfMadeGod Rec.? How would you rate the work of both publishers?

Trufel - Hocus-pocus (laughs) He was talking, I was talking and didn't notice when paper was signed, (laughs) well, we did not get any great offers. Karol also does a great job. Well, but I think we will keep changing it back and forth (laughs) but seriously, second album was also released by Witching Hour but they had some kind of turbulences going on at the time and we were stressing about putting the music out since all was recorded already and we kept dragging our feet for a long time. We would have to wait for it t be released even more and we didn't want to wait so we came to the agreement with SelfMadeGod back then and with Witching right now. It's good that anybody still wants to put our material out altogether (laughs).

I have a question to you Trufel. Supposedly you recently met with Swierszcz . Was it a normal meeting, or maybe something more than that? I'm thinking about a possibility of reanimating Yattering.

Trufel - No, there is no chance for Yattering, it does not make sense. If Yattering would come back, Zabek would have to come back, but Zabek is going through turmoil in his life at the moment and so far he does not even play on drums at all. It was more of a friendly meeting. I have kept in contact with everyone and frankly all these returns are really worth shit. Either you play uninterrupted, or you break apart and goodbye, not some comebacks. It is not some Brazilian soap opera.

OK, few more words to finish it up.

Trufel - Death metal is fucking governed by its own law, and we are that law! (Laughs) Thanks!

Fractal Generator are the new force in space death metal right now, with their sophomore album Macrocosmos gaining a ton of traction online. By informing their classic Morbid Angel-styled riff base with a modern sense of cosmic atmosphere, they've created something with a really different and unique that's capturing a lot of ears - mine absolutely included. After listening to this album two or three times, I knew I wanted to get more information about what it was and where it came from. I managed to link up with the generator known only as 040118180514, and the mysterious entity was kind enough to provide me with some source data. Below are my findings.

Nathan

What is the mission statement of Fractal Generator?

Our mission really is to create a certain type of sound that we don't think exists. A dark death metal sound that can be open to incorporating many different styles and ideas and creates an atmosphere that transports you into the cold reaches of space.

From what I've gathered, the early material of Fractal Generator (The Cannibalism of Objects etc.) was written with a loose, improvisational approach, but Macrocosmos sounds much more focused and structured (correct me if I'm wrong). Tell me about the songwriting process for the new album and how the creative process differed compared to previous works (if it did differ much).

The band has changed A LOT since the demo. The demo was a quick improvisational experiment that got some attention online. When we restarted in 2013, we had a very different approach in mind, mainly to write more thought-out and refined material. With each album release, we continue to grow as musicians together and improve our song writing processes, and each member brings unique skills and background that are indispensable to what we do.

To follow up on that, it's been six years since your previous album came out - what took so long? What's the band been up to since the release of Apothosyntheosis?

We did have a lot going on in our personal lives around that time, but I won't get into that. We make sure that our albums are perfect before releasing them, so it takes as long as it takes. It's important to us that each song we release is something special. You could say it is also part of our mission statement.

What were some of the main influences for Macrocosmos (musical or otherwise)?

040118180514: Gorguts, Emperor, Augury, Strapping Young Lad, Mayhem, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Timeghoul
102119200914: Deicide, Timeghoul, Myrkskog, Morbid Angel, Teleport
040114090512: Der Weg einer Freiheit, Ne obliviscaris, the Faceless, Ulcerate

We're not really influenced by any band lyrically/thematically, we just write about stuff we think is cool and suits the music. I guess you could say we're inspired by science/technology/science fiction/horror etc.

One thing that any listener should get out of your music is the suffocating, cosmic atmosphere. That being said, one might say space death metal is in vogue right now, with bands like Blood Incantation, Artificial Brain and Wormed getting recognition. What do you think makes Fractal Generator unique?

It comes back to wanting to create a certain sound because it doesn't exist. So, when you start from that standpoint, you're likely to end up with something original in the end. I think that shows in our music. We get compared to bands and most of the time I have trouble seeing the similarities.

How important are lyrics and the literary themes behind Macrocosmos? Do they indicate greater meaning and depth or are they mostly just vocal placeholders?

Admittedly we put more time into our music than our lyrics, but I would still say that they are important for telling the story and conveying the meanings we wish to intend.

How did you come into contact with Everlasting Spew and how has the partnership been so far?

They contacted us in early 2017 after we digitally self-released our first album, Apotheosynthesis. Since then they've grown a lot and we can't say enough good things about them. It's been a great experience and they are very professional and hard working. Releasing the new album has really shown us how much experience they've gained over the last few years and we're proud to be part of their roster.

Being from Ontario myself, I can't say I've heard of you guys or seen you live, so it blew me away when I found out you were based in Sudbury. Prior to the pandemic, did you play live often?

We don't play live very often. We have probably played 20 shows or so, a few of which were outside of Sudbury. Mostly southern Ontario.

I appreciate how each member of the band seems to have their own side-projects that have cool things going on themselves, even though they're very different from Fractal Generator. To diverge a bit, tell me more about these other outlets for your creative juices. Any other new music you're working on I should keep an ear out for?

For people into black metal, 040114090512 plays in Symbiotic Growth who released a self-titled EP and is currently writing a new album.

For those into djent he also plays in Tides of Aurora who released an EP and is currently working on a new album as well.

For those into grim, folky post-black metal you can check out Finnr's Cane, who have a new album ready to release soon, or if you're more into old-school symphonic black metal there's Wolven Ancestry which features 2 members from Fractal.

Are there plans for shows and/or touring in the future, once the pandemic ceases?

We will play a few shows to celebrate the album release, but there are no official plans yet.

What is the best way for fans of your ridiculously dope new album to support you (and give you money) during the pandemic?

You can get our album via Everlasting Spew Records https://www.everlastingspew.com & https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/macrocosmos .

We'll also have the album and merch available through our Bandcamp page in the near future https://fractalgeneratorofficial.bandcamp.com

Thank you for your time in answering these questions. The closing statements are all yours.

Thank you for the interview.