17 years ago, in a small town somewhere in Poland, rage, anger and layers of inexhaustible energy swirled in Radek's head. When a few years later in Krakow, he managed to find 3 dudes equally passionate about death metal Dormant Ordeal was born. Last year, thanks to SelfMadeGod Records, their third album was released, and this was a signal to hook up with them and get some information about the album and the beginnings of the band. You'll read about what, where, how and why from Radek Kowal (drums).

Arek

Hello, for starters I'd like to thank you for taking a moment to give some answers, but above all for a great album. Tell me, are you also satisfied with it?

Hello! I'm glad you liked this material. We are also very pleased with it. This is the material that precisely documents where we are now as a band. First of all, musically, the album presents the sound and compositions that are the essence of what we think is the most interesting in metal. In addition, the lyrical side of the album covers topics that are important to us.

Your death metal has always been intense and fast, but what caused such a strong explosion of energy?

For me, death metal is primarily energy. It is music that perfectly transfers the strong emotions of fury, rebellion and mobilization. There is something about it that, despite the difficulties you are struggling with makes you want to get up and face it with your head held high and fists clenched. Naturally, I wanted to implement this approach in my own band. Sitting behind the drum kit I have a lot of influence on it. Nevertheless, all three of us are supporters of uncompromising and intense metal and we have the feeling that a strong load of raw and brutal energy perfectly complements the interesting and extensive musical layer.

There was four of you playing till now, tell us if you can what made Kacper leave the band after 12 years of cooperation?

Kacper gave up playing death metal. I understand his motivation, but I don't know if I can speak about it on his behalf. We fully respect Kacper's decision and fortunately, despite the fact that we are no longer playing together in the band, we are still friends and go for a beer together.

Have you already taken action to complete the line-up? It can be difficult to live up to the intensity of your music in a three-person band.

Live - this music without bass, of course, doesn't make sense. However, we are currently focused on playing the material among ourselves. We are working on it in terms of concerts and there is quite a lot of work to do with it, as there are two guitars, solos and multi-layered vocals on the album. When we decide that we have material ready to be presented at concerts, we will look for a replacement for Kacper.

Let's go back to the album, the booklet does not explain who wrote the lyrics, although they seem to play an important role in your work. While reading those, I had the impression that their author was one person. Can you reveal the secrets of the creative process and briefly interpret them?

We wrote the lyrics on the album together with Maciek Nieścioruk. The idea for the album and the title itself were created very early. If I am not mistaken, it was when the second or third track were in the works. The idea caught on quickly and we had a lot of time to write words that fit the concept of the album. Probably hence the impression of consistency between them. When it comes to the interpretation of the lyrics, following the title's key, we wanted to try to look at our reality from a broader perspective on this album, or at least encourage both ourselves and the audience to do so. Living in all kinds of bubbles, we are too easily convinced that our understanding of the world and its mechanisms is the only right one, and that the rest of humanity are finite and ignorant morons. Of course, it is not the case. Therefore, only by destroying and contesting comfortable patterns of our perception we can treat ourselves to the delight of discovering "things" anew.

When I initially saw the title "Letters To Mr. Smith" it reeked of Matrix. I was just wondering who would want to write letters to an imaginary character created by machines? However, when I read this text, Matrix thread started to blur a little. Who is Mr. Smith?

The text makes indeed heavy use of the motifs of a certain cultural work. But in this case, it's not "Matrix" but Orwell's "1984". I know this is a hackneyed topic, but in this case the text only uses the language and themes of this book. Each of us can be Mr. Smith. Anyone who, like the protagonist of the book, fell into the great machine of equalization of units into a homogeneous mass, with predetermined ambitions and worldview.

By the way, you've seen Part 4 of Matrix yet?

I haven't seen it yet. My friends scared me a bit that it is very possible to be disappointed. Personally, I've never been an excessive fan of the series, so I won't risk it. Someday we'll watch it with my wife.

Now let's delve into prehistory. Some say that the egg was first, others that the hen, and how was it with you? The encyclopedia that is known here and there points to the beginning of D.O. for 2005. Tell us about the beginning.

The beginnings of Dormant Ordeal were such that coming from a small town, it was very difficult for me to find people who wanted to play an extreme form of death metal. I produced the first two demos myself, mainly as a proof that it is possible and worth playing something like that. I was hoping that such material would make it easier for me to find people for the band I dreamed of. It was only a few years later in Krakow that I managed to find these people and it was they who finally created the Dormant Ordeal in the form in which it is known today.

How did Krzysiek become Radek or vice versa? Is this Krakow's answer to Mr. Jekyll / Hyde?

I don't know anything about any Krzysiek. In the past, the printers were quite buggy and were able to print the entire edition of the album covers with the wrong name and surname of the only member of the band. Rumors say it is a Russian virus injected into the driver code.

Third album and you've chosen Janos' services again. Tell me, was it because of the stylistic constancy or maybe there were other arguments?

If you listen to our albums one by one, you will notice that Janos is constantly moving forward. Every time we work with him, we see that he is constantly looking for new patents for the sound of his productions. It is impossible for him to fall into the trap of another album with a sound identical to the rest of the albums from the same studio. Additionally, we always get along great and almost instinctively with Paweł. You write or tell him that you want a certain sound or effect, and after a few magical clicks, he just recreates it on studio monitors.

I like to immerse my senses in metallic sounds when I put my headphones on, but this genre is even better live. What do you think about it, because it is not easy to see you on stage?

We would like to play a few concerts. More importantly, we would like to play them well and give you and others an experience worthy of what you hear on the album. So, just like in the process of writing the album, we will announce the first concerts only when we think we're ready.

Thanks again for the time and I hope to see you live.

Thank you for this interview too! See you soon!