With "Seven Crowns And Seven Seals" German occult death metal pioneers Sulphur Aeon, not only go far beyond their usual brand but also kind of break out their typical trademarks (read review here). I had a very nice chat via Skype with their songwriter / guitarist T. about the writing process of the album and the evolution of the band. Read it on below – enjoy and support the band!

Michael

Hi T., how are you doing?

I'm fine though I am a little bit tired after the show in Mainz yesterday. I went to bed at 2.30 AM and got up at 6.30 AM again but it's okay.

The new album was released, how satisfied are you with the feedback so far?

It is absolutely amazing. I didn't read one slating review so far so we couldn't be more satisfied with the results. It is really stunning if people celebrate the stuff oneself produced.

I wanted to get the album at Idiots Records (cult metal store in Dortmund; M.) but it wasn't available. Do you know anything about the issue?

I think they got it this Saturday. But it depends a little bit on the pressing company because they had some personal issues, the distribution got its pressing version and there was a little bit of delay with the production but all versions should be available now. Sven and Krugi from Ván Records worked the whole weekend and tried to do their best to send all the orders and I also got the merch just yesterday at the day of the release show. I didn't see a lot of the stuff before so I got it yesterday in the parking spot so everything was just about time.

Let's talk about the album. What took it so long to release the follow-up to "The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos"?

First of all I am not the fastest songwriter. I don't sit down and tell myself that I want to write an album now and set myself an appointment when it has to be finished. I can take some time: I play a lot of guitar and when I do some riffing there is also a lot of crap coming around. So it takes some time until I have a good idea but actually I don't know if it took longer this time than between the two previous albums. Of course we had Covid so we weren't able to rehearse and apart from this the whole coordination concerning studio etc took some time and last but not least the pressing factories had these massive delays. At Ván Records vinyl is the major medium and so it wouldn't have been an option for Sven to release the CD first and half a year later the vinyl version. We sent the master tape last October and this was the deadline that it could be released in 2023. It was recorded some time ago and we had about one year since it was finished but it just wasn't released.

You aren't that limited in the songwriting like you were in the past. Morbid Angel isn't that much in the foreground and there crept in some more dissonant parts like Deathspell Omega have and also some more progressive elements are to be found. Was it the plan right from the start or did this develop itself during the songwriting process? 

Exactly. I never have a plan. A plan didn't exist neither for this album nor for the previous ones. It was just a result and it was nothing I was working on with force. Maybe I was a little bit more courageous to write some parts and told myself "why not if it sounds great". It has to please me and I don't have any blinders. Everybody who wants to have some Morbid Angel-worship – there are plenty of cool bands who do that but I don't write songs that way. I only write one song at the same time and I don't even have a single riff left up my sleeve. When I have an idea, a song comes out or the idea gets trashed. This takes some time and I just let myself get carried through the song. There is no formula and no scheme, it just has to grip me and this happens while writing.

With the new album you moved pretty much out of your comfort zone. Weren't you afraid that a lot of the fans might be antagonized with that?

Of course in some aspects it is a little bit broader but it doesn't seem to be a stylistic break. I mean you cannot write for the fans. If you do that there is always the fraction who says that the first album is the best what is absolutely okay and I know it from myself concerning some bands. What I really can't do is to do some stuff because it worked once well and so I rearrange this stuff a little bit and rewrite such a song.  It has to stay exciting for me. I don't do that to earn money but the music has to catch me. So if people don't like it, well… There are enough other bands, no problem. Not me or anybody else in the band wasn't afraid of that because this is the album which is the result of our work and which we all really like. Even if we would have said, just hypothetically, that we go back to the roots, there would have also been people saying that it is shit. You cannot make it right to everybody and that's fine.

In the past M. has already used clear vocals but in "Seven Crowns And Seven Seals" there is really lots of it. Would you still call it death metal? There are probably some people who would say that it is a sell-out or some kind of betrayal.

Well, we don't even do this so-called classic death metal. We don't sound like Death or Morbid Angel and so it's the problem of these guys. I never know what M. is doing. He gets the songs which were recorded in the studio and then he goes into the studio and does his thing with them. It's always the device we have to have a fling. Scream, sing, do whatever you want. I like it! So, sell-out – we actually aren't talking about conquering the charts and filling the huge locations…

Yes I know what you mean but there are these people who are always fucking around because of some softer tunes…

Yes, they might exist. M. already insinuated that with the last album, he has these great clear vocals and if it gives the song another dimension it would be total daft to leave this out because it sounds great but somebody could think that this isn't death metal anymore. So it isn't death metal anymore, I don't mind! I don't do this for some kind of scene police who want to tell me what to do and what not.

How did you get the idea to collaborate with your label mates from Chapel Of Disease? Was it something that was initiated by the label?

No, we have known Chapel Of Disease for a pretty long time. We started the bands almost at the same time and played at the same concerts. Unfortunately the gigs were mostly scheduled one after the other so that we never had the opportunity to watch each other's show (laughs). But we liked each other right from the start and did a tour with them so this was an idea. Until now I wrote all songs just on my own and Laurent and I both were absolutely up for this idea. We met each other, I had the opening riffs for the song and told him that I would like him to go on with it. If it wouldn't have worked we just have said "okay, it was worth a try, it just shouldn't be" but all worked very well. I just like Laurents guitar playing, he writes cool melodies so the whole experiment succeeded totally. The final riff was written by Michael Zech (ex-Secrets Of The Moon; M.) during a session at home and this was really nice because everybody let the others play out and nobody interrupted the play. Writing the whole thing was very relaxed and exciting (laughs).

Lyrically you deal with Lovecraft again. What about 'Beneath The Ziqqurats' – this sounds like a cool archaeological story?

Well, the lyrics are M.'s concern and I also don't analyze them. For me it is important that they carry a certain mood and they have some hooks. Of course it is Lovecraft but M. doesn't use a certain short story on purpose and shortens it down to the length of a song. He always constructs something own out of it but what was the inspiration for that, I really don't know. The only thing we wanted for the album and what we stated very early was that we wanted to spread some end time feeling with the music.

The whole album spreads a very dark atmosphere. How far do the actual happenings in the world play a role for that?

I don't know. I mean, sure if you watch the news on TV, what one should better avoid these days, this probably takes care that you don't get into a better mood. But there aren't any special things that inspired me- maybe that happened unconsciously.

With Paolo Giradi you have changed your cover artist because Ola Larsson had some time issues. Why did you choose him, I mean these days there is almost every day an album released with a cover done by him so this isn't that special anymore…

We had to find somebody else. I mean, the cover which Ola Larsson did for the first two albums is really hard to top. Then you have to find somebody else. We also thought about if we should choose somebody who has a similar style but we didn't find anybody adequate. Paolo was a suggestion made by Sven and I really like his style. If it will be something different from what Ola did it can also be totally different. Of course he does a lot of covers and at the end of the day the cover has to look amazing and that's what he did. There were also some other candidates but when we talked about it he agreed all was fine with me.

What about future gigs?

We are at Eindhoven Metal Meeting and Party.San in 24. We have some offers we will check but we aren't as active live as other bands (laughs). So we'll see.

I've read that you have a new band called The Omega Swarm in which you play together with Chris from Wound and Max from Hallig. Can you tell a little bit more about it?

I play a lot of guitar and most of the time I play some riffs. Some things came around which I like very much but don't sound like Sulphur Aeon. But I also didn't want to waste them so out of this came an album. On two tracks the vocals are still missing and after that it will be mixed. It is a little bit more symphonic with a lot of keyboards. There are some more soundtrack-like elements in it but it's also fast and brutal with raw vocals. It makes a lot of fun and means a lot to me so that I have to play in two bands in the future (laughs). It will be released via Ván Records and we plan to send it to them in the midst of December. If this all works it might be released before summer break, hopefully.