Interview - Alex Camargo from Krisiun
Writer: Bonnie Archer
They are back and more brutal than ever. Check out this interview with Alex Camargo (bass/vocals) of Brazil's KRISIUN where he talks about the upcoming release of the band's 12th album, Mortem Solis, what it was like filming a video with snakes, their relationship with those "other" Brazilian metal musicians and the upcoming tour.
BA: Greetings, Alex! Great to see you. I saw you guys have a pretty incredible tour coming up, and I was about to say, “Hey, when are you coming to the US?” And then all of a sudden…
AC: (Laughing)
BA: …all these tour dates came up! And that’s fantastic.
AC: We are definitely looking forward to coming back to the US.
BA: And the US is looking forward to having you too. I had an opportunity to listen to the entire new album. Oh wow. Your fans are absolutely going to love it.
AC: Thank you so much. I’m glad to hear that.
BA: The video for the new single “Serpent Messiah” is pretty cool. I love the setting. How did you get the snake to do what you wanted it to do? (laughing)
AC: Actually, we hired this guy, he owns a few snakes, and the idea came from the director. The song itself has a lot to do with snakes. I was little bit scared, having all those snakes around, but it turned out pretty good. We really enjoyed the outcome. When you’re working on it, you don’t really feel how it’s gonna be, but when it got done, and edited, it came out right.
BA: It came out REALLY good. It seems like the whole theme of the album is death. I got a very strong sense of that. “Death of the Sun” – that’s what the album title “Mortem Solis” translates to in Latin, correct?
AC: Yeah, correct. All of us had to deal with those crazy couple of years. All of a sudden everything got shut down. Somehow, we were able to take advantage of it, took some time to write the new songs, and I think that atmosphere is reflected in the songwriting. We were stuck at home for two years. We’ve seen things going badly, people dying, losing perspective, the whole world was wicked. Bad things were just happening. “Death of the Sun” has to do with the end of our resources – the death of light and hope. We’re not trying to bring any negative vibrations to people, but it is what it is, it is what just happened. We all had to deal with that, and yeah, it had a huge influence on the songwriting. Luckily, things are going back to normal. I hope so.
BA: I hope so. You have some great gems on this album, some really interesting songs.
AC: Thank you.
BA: Like “Dawn Sun Carnage.” In that minute-and-a-half intro, and it sounds like when you’re watching a movie –
AC: Yeah!
BA: …and the troops are starting to assemble. Like I can picture them on the cliff, getting ready for battle.
AC: Yeah, definitely.
BA: That’s what it sounds like to me.
AC: You got it. It was supposed to be an intro to use for live shows, but we thought it came out pretty good, and we decided to put it on the album. It is a different approach – it sounds different than the other songs – but somehow it fits with the rest of the songs. And like you said, it’s like a hymn for anticipating a bloody battle.
BA: You have one more on there that sounds a little bit different. “Necronomical.” The intro reminds me a bit of the Scorpions song, “The Zoo.” That steady rock beat. The song with he most morbid title (laughing). But then of course then comes your voice, and it’s aaahhh (growling). It’s you.
AC: (Laughing) Yeah, it’s definitely a different song, it’s more like a mid-tempo song. And the theme itself is pretty hard to do, we wanted to sound like dead, and it gets faster along the way. Sometimes it feels good to play a heavier, slower track, and the words connected with the song itself. It’s a hardened song, and it took a lot from the book Necronomicon. It’s different but it somehow fits with the rest too.
BA: It absolutely does. You are three guys, and the music you create is so powerful. Every single one of you – no one stands out more than the other. The drums are right there, the guitar – just fantastic guitar work…
AC: Thank you.
BA: …those solos…it’s not just straight-up death metal. There’s such intricate musicianship. And I think it’s what sets you apart from the average death metal band. You’re considered “extreme death”, but there’s so much more going on there. I think that’s why you’re as big as you are and as popular as you are.
AC: Well, I’m just glad to hear that. It’s definitely something we’ve been trying to do. Like you said, we’ve been labeled as a death metal band, but we’ve been listening to all kinds of music and all kinds of metal since we were kids. We started with all those early heavy metal bands, like Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC, then there were Slayer, Metallica, Possessed, Morbid Angel, all those bands. We’re definitely trying to sound relevant, especially these days. There are so many bands out there, so many albums coming out, it’s hard to come up with something interesting. But we’ve been doing this for a long time –
BA: Oh yeah
AC: We know each other pretty well and we work hard on those songs. We put a lot of heart and a lot of dedication into them. It demands a lot of passion and study. I know I’ve got to study and I’ve got to improve my game to sound interesting and somehow different.
BA: Because, you know, metal fans are pretty demanding.
AC: Yeah
BA: There IS so much out there, they have the luxury of going to the shows they want to go to, and buying the music and listening to the music they want to listen to. So with metal fans, you can’t just “dial it in” anymore.
AC: Yeah, yeah (nodding head)
BA: You really have to be on top of your game. And I know you take it very seriously. You mixed this new album in Tennessee, right?
AC: We recorded the songs here at home, in São Paulo, and the mixing and the mastering was done in the US by Mark Lewis.
BA: I know he’s worked with Deicide and Kataklysm…
AC: Yeah, yeah, he’s a great producer, and we’re glad we could hook up with him. We’re super happy with the outcome. We think it sounds pretty good.
BA: Well, I will tell you, I go to a lot of shows, and people are coming out to shows. People are wanting this music. They’re excited. I’m seeing old fans like my age, and also young kids, which is exciting and cool. It’s nice to see that. So the “legacy” bands, and I consider you guys kind of like a legacy band, in the same category as Obituary and Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse…
AC: Thank you so much
BA: Well, you are. You started back in the early ‘90s and you’re still here and strong, just like those bands are. They are as strong as ever. And people are coming out to see them. Which is great. The scene is healthy and it’s strong.
AC: Definitely. We played a few shows down here in South America, it was like some kind of a tour with some local bands and Belphegor, Crypta and a band called Nervochaos from Brazil, and it was just crazy. Every single show was packed. Like you said, I could see younger kids and old-school metalheads, all of them just getting together at the shows. It’s a good thing. Everyone is just hungry for shows, to go out, have a good time, share a beer, meet some friends. So we’re hoping for the best. If things go back to normal, I think people will appreciate it more than they used to.
BA: Oh yeah.
AC: I can speak for myself; I remember a few years back, sometimes I’d feel miserable, lazy, not wanting to go out, you don’t want to talk to anybody…next thing you know you’re stuck at home because you have to be…
BA: …and the opportunity is taken away from you. It’s like not even an option. And all of a sudden, you’re like, “Oh wow. I wish…”
AC: Exactly. And I realized, and some other people realized too, how good it is to go out and hang out, watch a bunch of killer shows. So yeah, the attendance has been pretty good.
BA: So I’m sure there’s probably never an interview that you do where there isn’t a mention of those “other guys” from Brazil (laughing)…that you’re going to be on tour with pretty soon…I had an opportunity to see the Cavaleras recently. Max and Iggor were here. It was pretty crazy. They are doing pretty well.
AC: (smiling) Yes. Actually we’ll be playing a couple of shows with them, not really a tour. Hopefully we’ll go on tour with them someday. But yeah, it feels great. I know those guys are huge. Max has been doing this for a long time, and he’s just a metal icon, and anywhere he plays it’s gonna be crazy and great. I heard the shows were doing great in the US. Nothing but respect. I love those guys. Looking forward to playing a couple of shows with them for sure.
BA: I think it was also because it was billed that they were going to be playing those two albums, “Arise” and “Beneath the Remains”, and people our age wanted to see those albums performed. But then there’s you guys. And you guys are just as good. And you’ve been around almost as long. And you guys deserve just as much respect. I can imagine sometimes it must be a little difficult, when people think of Brazilian metal, there’s Sepultura, yeah, got it, but there’s also Krisiun. And you guys are great.
AC: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, early Sepultura was off the hook. We never expected a band from Brazil to become such a big deal and a big band. And they were definitely our main influence. I remember seeing them in 1988 during the Schizophrenia tour. They were still playing for a couple of hundred people in a small place. I remember thinking to myself, “Those guys are going to make it happen.” They were so good. I could tell back then. All we wanted was to do what they were doing, following their steps. It was a big deal for us, having Sepultura.
BA: They put Brazil on map as far as metal is concerned.
AC: They did.
BA: So, they deserve the credit for that. But there are other bands coming from your country as well. And from other countries, too. And for all the bad rap that I think social media gets sometimes, Facebook and Instagram and the like, I think there’s also something really good about those sites in that it really connects the community. Because we are one big international metal community, we are all brothers and sisters, we all know the lyrics to the same songs, and now we’re able to find each other. It’s the coolest thing to make friends with metal people from all over the world. Social media has enabled us to do that, and also find out about tours. Before Facebook, it was a lot harder to communicate.
AC: I totally agree with you. The social media thing – if you use it for good, as as a positive tool, it can only help. People take it for granted. There’s a lot of shit coming through as well, like the fake news and the haters.
BA: Sure.
AC: In the early days we didn’t have anything like that. I was just people spreading flyers and stuff through the mail. But somehow we made things happen. So yeah, social media is a good thing, but it gets too saturated at some point, when people use it to express their misery or bad feelings about anything.
BA: You need to self-filter. Filter the junk.
AC: Filter the junk. You got it.
BA: For example, the minute I saw that you guys were gonna be touring the US, I immediately posted it – “Hey guys, check out this tour, see when they’re coming to your area.” Got some likes and thumbs up from people I hadn’t heard from in a long time, so that was exciting. Back to the new album, are you planning on releasing any more singles or videos?
AC: Yes, as a matter of fact, we just filmed a video for the next single, it’s called “Swords into Flesh.” Another lyric video will be coming out as well. So there will be a total of 4 singles before the release on July 29th.
BA: Your album artwork is also pretty neat, and also done by an artist whose work is known to the metal community, Marcelo Vasco – he’s worked with Slayer and Venom, right? Are you happy with how it came out?
AC: Definitely. We knew the guy for a long time. He’s also a musician. He plays guitar for a couple of local bands. He started drawing covers for huge bands – Slayer, Soulfly, Testament. We got in touch with him and he wanted to do it. He loves what he does. We gave him some input and ideas, and he came up with that. We didn’t change anything. We loved it.
BA: Did he listen to the songs before he came up with it?
AC: Yeah, definitely, we sent him the songs. What I like the most is that it looks organic. It doesn’t look super digital like most of the covers these days.
BA: Exactly. It definitely looks like it was hand drawn. He also did Dark Funeral, right?
AC: Yeah, He just did Dark Funeral right before ours.
BA: So, would you say this album is similar to your previous albums? A little different? How would you describe it when you look at your whole catalogue? Your last one was released in 2018, “Scourge of the Enthroned.”
AC: Well, for this latest one, we wanted it to sound more brutal than the previous ones. We’d been of experimenting with a few things, like with mid-tempo songs and groove/melodic parts and stuff like that. We found that it was time to go back to the roots and sound as brutal as we could without losing the track. Sometimes you just want to sound brutal and fast, and it won’t mean anything. It has to have a feeling and an atmosphere to it. We wanted to sound super organic. Everything we played was just us playing – no crazy additions or anything like that. Especially these days there’s a lot of fake shit out there, you know, bands kind of “fix” their music. We just got there and started playing, like jamming. When we entered the studio, we were ready to go. This album, it’s not just the songwriting; the way it sounds, it’s close to the early albums. Raw, more brutal.
BA: It is brutal. It is definitely in your face. It is raw and it sounds raw. “Temple of the Abattoir” – it’s ferocious, man. It is intense.
AC: (smiling) Yeah. It is. We’ve been doing this for a long time. We wanted it to sound like that and I think it worked out.
BA: I love that, though. And I think that’s what your fans are wanting from you and expecting from you. Because so many bands do the opposite – they start off brutal, and over time they get a little more mellow, a little more commercial, a little softer…and you guys are like, no! (pretended to punch screen)
AC: (laughing) Yes, I agree 100%.
BA: And they will not be disappointed when they hear this. I’m really excited for you guys, I’m excited to see you, for your tour – you guys are going EVERYWHERE, festivals in Europe, all of South America pretty much, you’re going out with Nile -
AC: Oh yeah. With Nile in Europe and with Revocation in the US next Sep/Oct.
BA: Wow. Great talking to you, Alex, and best of luck with the album release.
AC: Thank you so much, Bonnie. I appreciate the support and the opportunity you gave us to talk about the album.
Krisiun’s 12th album, Mortem Solis, will be released on July 29th by Century Media Records