On November the 20th the Spanish metallers of Æolian will release their new album, titled The Negationist. DutchMetalManiac’s Julia Obenauer already reviewed it here and now you can read her interview with Æolian’s founder/guitarist Raúl Morán.
Hi, thank you very much for doing this interview with DutchMetalManiac! Could you briefly introduce yourself and your band?
Hi there, it’s a pleasure. My name is Raúl Morán, guitarist and founder of Æolian, a melodic death metal band with some notes of black metal. We try to raise awareness about the need to protect the environment in case we want to have a safe and beautiful future for us and our children.
How was the band formed, and how did you come up with the band name?
All it began around 2016 when I started to compose some brief ideas for some new songs at home. I used to play in other local bands but I wanted to do something on my own. I looked for the right musicians to record the first album Silent Witness and everything was going very well step by step. I found out about our drummer Alberto wanting to play in more projects, I already knew him because of the scene on our island, but I had never played with him before. I know our singer Dani since we were 15 and we also shared some years in our last band. Gabi is the guitarist of an instrumental surf band in which I play trombones, but I’ve always known he was a metalhead at heart. The bass is the only instrument that we had different members on. Our first album’s bass lines were recorded by Santi Gil (aka Kalifa) and after a while he had to quit. Then our good friend Toni Mainez entered the band for some gigs and promo shows, and now we are joined by our mate Leoben Conoy (Inferitvm), who did an awesome job with basses on the new album and wrote all the lyrics by the way.
About the band’s name, the origin is the word “Aeolus”, the Greek God of wind. We decided on this name for its relation with the unstoppable forces of nature. I did a long list with lots of ideas so I spent a while looking for the right name for the band until I found the one I liked.
Let’s talk about your upcoming album, The Negationist. I liked it and I understood that it deals mainly with the negative impact of humankind on nature and the environment. Is this a topic that is close to your hearts?
Yes indeed. Since the beginning of the band I always thought about this topic for the lyrics. We are immersed in a very serious situation where the reality is scarier than any other fantastic story or topic we could write about.
How did the album production go? Was it a smooth process? How long did it take you in total?
Everything was doing fine even though we had to stop the vocals recording when the lockdown began in our country. Thanks to technology and “cloud storage”, we were able to begin the mix from home talking to our producer Miquel A. Riutort (Mega). At the beginning it was a bit strange, but that permitted us to go ahead with the production nevertheless. Once the lockdown was over we continued the vocals recording process until the last take and then we went to the studio to finalize the mix with our producer. Everything took approximately four months long. Finally we mastered the album with Dan Swanö and we were absolutely amazed with his work.
Of course, in 2020 the coronavirus is a common theme, and had a huge impact on the music industry. How were you affected by it? Did you have to miss out on a lot of live shows or was it in contrary even a more productive period for you?
Well, we had to cancel two gigs in Germany, one in Poland and another one in our home city. We are not a band who does big tours around the world… so right now we are not as affected as other bands are. They are much more harmed by the virus. More productive? Not really, we had all the composition work for the new album done when the virus arrived.
Do you have a tour lined up, or are you thinking of playing and streaming a concert instead?
Due to the actual situation and the fact that we don’t know when it is going to improve, we are not planning any tour by this moment. We would love to play over Europe when things get better but it’s quite difficult to say anything right now. The streaming live option is a bit cold and impersonal but it’s better than nothing. In fact we already did a streaming gig last month and it’s posted on the YouTube channel of our label Black Lion Records.
Talking about the touring life: do you have any funny or bizarre stories from your life on the road that you would like to share with us?
When we played in Leipzig last year, we stayed one night in Berlin. It was funny to drink some beers at Rockcafe Halford and discover he has a double there. It’s curious but we also found a double of Dave Murray when we played in Ibiza, so basically we are looking for some doppelganger of this or that legend of rock.
What was your favorite concert that you played so far?
We enjoy all the live shows we have played, but maybe the one we enjoyed the most was at Full Metal Holiday festival 2019.
What’s your view on the Spanish metal scene? Any (underground) bands that you are really into and that you could recommend?
Spain has lots of super cool metal bands. For example you must know Angelus Apatrida, Crisix or Trallery. Some classic bands like Avulsed, Unbounded Terror or Golgotha. And if you want melodeath bands, we also have them. Some of them would be Eternal Storm, Dormanth, Mistweaver, Perpetual Night or In Mute.
What other bands influence(d) you as a band?
It’s difficult to say but I grew up with the first wave of melodic death and black metal bands during the 90’s so you can imagine… first albums of Amorphis, Opeth, Dark Tranquillity, Dimmu Borgir and many more. It was a super prolific decade and I was lucky to enjoy it in their first moments.
Which album releases, next to your own, are you really looking forward this year, or which albums already released did you really like?
I liked some melodic black albums as Kvaen’s The Funeral Pyre and the new Mörk Gryning album called Hinsides Vrede. Talking about melodeath I like the new Mors Principium Est album, called Seven.
Anything else that you would like to share with our readers?
I would like to remember that our new album is available to pre-order through the Black Lion Records Bandcamp and Big Cartel and some other online shops such as EMP, Nuclear Blast, Season of Mist or Amazon among others. A couple of singles are coming up before the album’s release so stay tuned to our networks this month for more surprises. We wish you all the best in this difficult situation that is hitting us all in a way or another. We are looking forward to seeing you on the stage as soon as all this is over.
Thank you very much for doing this interview! Take care and stay safe.
Here you can also read our earlier review of Æolian’s Silent Witness.
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