The following interview was conducted with death metal squadrons
THECODONTION! If you like unique death metal with a different approach, then you
should definitely check them out.
Can you tell us a bit more about the descriptor “prehistoric death metal” and how it relates to your music? Does it represent a more individual stance in terms of creativity and setting yourselves apart from other bands?
We label our music as "prehistoric metal of death" because we take many elements from death metal, and we try to put them under a "prehistoric" form. You know, when we started the band we chose to use basses only instead of guitars in order to have a more ancestral, raw sound... which is to be interpreted as a prehistoric feature. For the same reason, probably there aren't many bands that could be compared to us so this is good in terms of uniqueness.
Can you please elaborate on your writing approach and why you choose to employ two bassists taking up the role of guitars?
Our process of songwriting is pretty simple. Usually G.E.F. writes the structure and the rhythm section of a song, then G.D. adds bass leads/solos and works on the arrangements. Since 2022 we're now officially a quartet since L.S. (second bass) and V.P. (drums) are now full part of the band (they only were live members before), so the process might change a little bit for our next releases. Regarding the choice of using two basses, this is linked to the creation of a sound of our own and our lyrics, centered about prehistory, paleontology and fossils.
Do you consider creativity as an integral aspect to what you do? How do you feel about bands that keep repeating themselves to the point where they become a weak rehash of their former selves?
Of course. We don't judge the other bands, but creativity should be indeed an integral aspect for all the bands, if your intent is creating something "artistic". Otherwise, it's just a matter of writing stuff like an autopilot, sounds a bit like the negation of doing art. We also don't like to repeat ourselves, we started as a war/death/grind band, and then we added more atmospheric elements. The most important thing is having something to tell, music is a form of language after all.
Which bands would you cite as inspirations that somehow influenced your work with Thecodontion?
We could say many, but no one in particular. There are many bands (metal and not metal) we esteem and that influenced us in some way. For example solos are often influenced by '90s melodic death metal bands, drumming has references to cavernous death metal but also post-metal bands, bass solos have a sound that reminds of some post-rock/shoegaze bands... it's hard to cite someone specifically. Bands like Auroch, Howls of Ebb, Oksennus, Mithras, Chaos Echoes and Mitochondrion, just to name a few extreme metal bands, can be considered influences for sure, though.
Are you interested in any literature? What inspires the lyrics in Thecodontion?
Everyone in the band has different interests in terms of literature, comics, etc. G.D. is the most well versed in books about prehistory and dinosaurs, like "The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs" by Steve Brusatte and the Michael Crichton's original novels about "Jurassic Park". Our lyrics are often inspired by scientific descriptions of prehistoric animals/fossils and geologic events, we even use official documents like academic papers for being more accurate. Then, lyrics are put in a sort of poetic form.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve released so far and also describe your evolution with each release?
"Thecodontia" and "Jurassic" were written very quickly, it's rabid, instinctive, war metal/grindcore with low budget production. They're recommended for fans of old school grindcore and some war metal. Then we started to experiment a little bit: "Supercontinent" and the split with Vessel of Iniquity are the result of these experiments, with longer riffs, more atmosphere, better equipment, more solos, etc. We're adding new elements and the forthcoming releases will mark another step up compared to "Supercontinent".
What are you listening to lately? Are there any albums from this year that you enjoy?
Several things, it depends on the single member so you can have very different answers. Anyway, we listen to many genres, from dark pop to experimental/drone, from extreme metal to movie soundtracks. By the way, Aeviterne, Cosmic Putrefaction and the Bedsore/Mortal Incarnation split are some of the albums from this year we enjoyed the most.
If some major label offered you a deal, would you sign with them? And do you think working with a big label could affect the artistic integrity of a band?
Honestly, we don't have a specific idea about it. We don't think much to labels and so on: our main focus is the music and our artistic goal, which is just releasing what we want to do. If you start thinking about signing with a major, probably the risk is that you lose your focus and you won't produce genuine music anymore, and we absolutely want to avoid this. If a big label contacts us then we'll think about it, but we're happy with I, Voidhanger Records which is a very good label.
Do you feel that music can define a person’s character? And would you call yourself a “metalhead”?
Not sure, people can be attracted by a certain music genre for innumerable reasons. There's nothing wrong with calling themselves a "metalhead", but it's not something we really do.
Lastly, can you tell us about your future plans for the band and what we can expect from your output? Thank you very much for your time.
The split with Vessel of Iniquity we released last year is
the first of three splits. The other two will be probably published in 2023,
plus another special split which will be dedicated to a famous (now deceased)
Italian singer-songwriter. These new splits will mark a slight change in our
sound, but we don't want to "spoil" anything, you'll see.
Thank you too for interviewing us!