I'm happy to introduce the readers to a great Black Metal Duo from Indonesia, FROM HELL. I was so impressed by their latest release "The Dynasty", I immediately reached out to the band to hear more about them. Here's our conversation about the roots of FROMHELL, their influences and what it's like to be a Metal Band from Indonesia. Enjoy and check out "The Dynasty", it's an incredible listen!
HMT: Hi Guys, I'm totally digging "The Dynasty" album. Tell us about how FROMHELL was formed and both of your musical backgrounds?
FROMHELL: FROMHELL was formed in 2004 with full members. Over time, we decided to just have two members based on the same vision. We absorb various music elements from metal to progressive, folk and world music. Our music comprises of one integral story enclosed in one album. We try to take listeners into a journey of oriental world accompanied with diverse mythologies.
HMT: Your sound is really unique for the Black Metal genre. The sound is really uplifting compared to most traditional BM albums and you incorporate experimental as well as progressive elements. What inspired you to incorporate these unique elements?
FROMHELL: Our music is dynamic as opposed to static. Music is a universal language. We listen to various music genre, we play, compose and produce music which we think is good. Just like eating bacon with Chinese wine, we combine everything, undoubtedly without omitting our characteristic. We are not afraid to go out of the box and absorb anything which we consider as good.
HMT: Were there any books or movies that inspired the magical world you set out to create on The Dynasty?
FROMHELL: Yes, we mostly read epic traditional folks / fictions such as The Three Kingdoms (written by Luo Guan Zhong) , a story about an ancient strategic war, called Silmarillion, the Eight Immortals. But what inspires us the most is culture / tradition which was indoctrinated by the elders.
HMT: The album is comprised of four high quality tracks (at time of writing these questions we had only heard four of the seven tracks on bandcamp) full of awesome transitions and atmospheric rhythms. When you were in the writing process were you setting out to just put out these four tracks or were there any others you might be saving for a later date?
FROMHELL: Thanks for the appreciation. As a matter of fact, this album comprised of 7 main songs, with 1 ambient composition, which surely between our busy life in the city we spare our time to composed. We work on it with perfectionism in mind as if there is no tomorrow. We keep materials which cannot be published in the first album to the next ones in the future, we hope they still correlate with each other.
HMT: In the US I've found a lot of the older clubs that regularly featured metal acts have dwindled in the past ten years or so. Many European acts don't even come to the US. What is the Metal scene like in Indonesia and is it hard to find venues that metal acts can play at?
FROMHELL: Metal scene grows very fast in Indonesia and can be said that its growth is the biggest in South East Asia. Metal acts in Indonesia is not hard to be found, they usually perform weekly, either in big or small events. Other than local bands performances in the past few years, Indonesia has been filled with big international bands performance. Regeneration is in progress, a lot of youngsters grow with metal music here. Indonesia is a fertile land for metal music to grow.
HMT: How long did it take to create this album and how did you relationship with the label Naturmacht come about?
FROMHELL: It took us over a year, in writing, producing (late 2013-2014) because of our busy schedule and the fact that we don’t live in one area prolong the process a little. In searching for label and promotion we are tremendously helped by Robert from Naturmacht Production, who has been tirelessly promoting us in so many places. Robert is a great partner, a label owner who cares about his artist. He’s also a hard working marketer and we are very thankful to him, also some friends from International webzines help to promote us.
HMT: Will you guys be playing out live to support the album when it's officially released?
FROMHELL: For now on we only make albums, as we are already comfortable with this condition, and we think this is the best, the most effective and efficient we ever felt. But who knows, we don’t limit ourselves to play live in the future, if the opportunity arise.
HMT: Thank you guys for your time and the new album. It's definitely a must listen.
FROMHELL IS
Dedi Sadikin (Vocals)
Derick Prawira (Drums)
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