Emperors Of Light: Devil Sold His Soul Interviewed At Damnation Festival 2012 (Interview)
Thursday, 06 December 2012
Written by Ben Bland
Fresh from their slot on the Damnation main stage, Devil Sold His Soul chatted to Stereoboard about their new record, being heavy enough and more.
So, 'Empire of Light' came out a couple of months back. In what ways do you see that as a progression from your first two albums?
Ed Gibbs (Vocals): I think it’s probably the most hopeful album we have done so far.
Leks Wood (Drums): Obviously it would be silly for us to say that 'A Fragile Hope' or 'Blessed & Cursed' are better records but I think if you listen to all three of them it does sound like an organic development of the band. It sound like 'Empire of Light' was the natural next step, I think. There are also things on there that see us experimenting more than ever. It was a sort of ‘anything goes’ mentality. Obviously some of the stuff didn’t work so it didn’t make the record but I still think what is on there is perhaps more interesting than anything we have done before.
Ed: We don’t think about these things too much in the studio really. Our only goal is to make an album that was better than the one before really.
Without wishing to make a pun out of the album title, there’s maybe a bit more ‘light’ on this release, if you see what I mean...
Ed: Yeah, I think so. Obviously not in a non-heavy sense, but in terms of the contrast between the light and the dark the light maybe comes through a little more on this one. There’s less ‘evil’ stuff on there, which some people might not like but you can’t please everyone. I personally love that there is more hopeful stuff on there.
You guys get a ridiculous amount of stick sometimes for supposedly not being heavy enough, which is obviously a load of bollocks. What are your views on that?
Leks: A couple of people have said that to us today, which is interesting. Obviously it’s great that we’ve been asked to play at Damnation and especially on the main stage but it is a bit of a strange one for us. I think our music maybe fits in with quite a wide variety of styles. It’s not all just straightforward heaviness…
Ed: We tried to play as many of the heavy, evil ones today as we could fit in of course (laughs).
Leks: I think the problem with that is that sometimes it can be very difficult for us to predict how we are going to be received. It went really well today but it can be a bit daunting sometimes I suppose.
Ed: Especially with the new record, a lot of people seem to be getting pretty hung up on there being too much clean singing or whatever…but it’s really not all that different from how we sounded before. There always seems to be too much of some things or too little of other things for some people. We don’t care at the end of the day what people think, we just do what we want to do but it is quite strange how some people seem to perceive things, and especially the vocals I guess. I still sing and scream in pretty much the same ratio as ever and I still sing in the same way I’ve always sung but some people always have an issue with it apparently!
As you hinted at earlier, a lot of Devil Sold His Soul’s music is built around contrast between the heaviness and the quieter moments, or the darkness and the light if you prefer. How does that manifest itself in terms of songwriting?
Leks: I’d hate people to think it was ever us going “Oh, we need a quiet bit now in the middle of that song” or anything like that! We never want to tick boxes. We just want things to feel right. There is no formula or anything like that.
Ed: I think we just take things wherever they feel right. It’s quite natural for the song to progress and develop in its own way and take us with it I think. I suppose with the ambient bits there is a temptation for some people to assume we just add all that later in the studio but I think most of the time those sections are actually already written into the song from the beginning. We tend to add things in the studio later on as well but all the main elements of the songs have arrived by the time we have started demoing things I think.
How much emphasis do you guys place on the overall feel of each record as a construct? They each seem to have a very defined character of their own, yet are all still recognisably the work of the same band.
Ed: I think actually we just write collections of songs and then it just sort of happens that they all fit together… At the last minute it becomes an ‘album’ I suppose. For most of the time we are writing the records we don’t really know how they are going to sound at all! That only comes later on really. Every release we have done definitely does have its own character but I think that is mainly just a reflection of that period of time more than anything else.
Leks: We do pay attention to things like the sequencing of songs though. We want it to be a cohesive journey as much as possible.
Ed: We don’t want it to be a flat thing; we want it to be a little bit of a rollercoaster. We want to put peaks and troughs in the right place.
You mentioned earlier about how your music can be seen to stretch across several styles rather than just being very easily placed in one genre. Do you think that has helped you over the years or has it become a hindrance?
Ed: To be honest I would lean towards hindrance really. It’s been cool in lots of ways but sometimes we feel like we don’t fit into enough of a box to fit a wider audience, which can be very frustrating.
Leks: I think it has shaped the character of the band in a way and sometimes it definitely can work in our favour. We can get support slots with a wider variety of bands, for example. I do think it can be an advantage in some ways therefore but it really does have its ups and downs.
Ed: The problems can arise when we are actually trying to get on certain tours though! Sometimes we really struggle to get on a tour where promoters want a certain thing. If the tour is a bit more diverse, like the Metal Hammer tour that we are going on for example, then it’s a bit different but a lot of the time tour bills aren’t that easy for us to get on with.
Do you think that is partially because of the type of music you are often classified as making? Obviously a lot of people describe you as a ‘post-metal’ or ‘post-hardcore’ band...
Ed: Yeah, when people compare us to bands like Isis or Cult of Luna…I just don’t get that at all. I really do not understand where people are getting that comparison from. Maybe the older stuff a little bit more because of the bleakness but we don’t do any doomy stuff of any description like those bands do a lot of the time. That’s not the origins of our sound in the way I think it probably is for those groups. We’re always going to be ‘post-something’ because we have ambient bits I suppose. Maybe ‘post-metal’ makes sense then but I think we are more similar to bands like Deftones and Will Haven really.
It’s time for my stock Damnation Festival question, for which I can only give my apologies. If you could consign any one thing to eternal damnation what would it be and why?
Leks: I know my answer. I would consign ‘The X Factor’ to eternal damnation, along with any other mainstream talent contest. That whole format basically. Any overnight superstar machine should be condemned to oblivion.
Ed: If I could consign Nicki Minaj to eternal damnation I’d be pretty fucking happy I have to say. Our bassist and one of our guitarists love Nicki Minaj. We can’t stand her so we are definitely forming the anti-Minaj camp within Devil Sold His Soul over here!
'Empire of Light' is out now via Small Town Records.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
So, 'Empire of Light' came out a couple of months back. In what ways do you see that as a progression from your first two albums?
