Answers by Dany Levesque, guitar player and founder of the band
Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, a history of the band and a little bit about the various members?
We come from a French part of Canada; I wanted a band name that worked in French as well as in English. At the time I was looking for a name I was reading a lot about science, especially about Physics, general relativity, black holes, all that kind of stuff. That’s how the name came to me, an interest in physics and the need for a bilingual name.
Band members are Justin L’Italien Dubé (drums and piano), Simon Desjardins (Bass guitar), Alexandre Labrie (Vocals), Mathieu Duguay (guitars and orchestrations), and me, Dany Lévesque (guitars).
We all had studio and live experience and, soon after we formed the band, we had an offer to join PRC Music, our late Label. We released 2 albums with PRC before it closed its doors during the pandemic, Asylum in 2016 and Lighthouse in 2018.
Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?
The 5 of us are from the cold Northeastern part of the Province of Quebec. We knew each other for a very long time and decided to form a band because all our other projects were dead or not going very well. Our vision was to create music that would have dynamics and a strong melodic side while retaining the essence of what death metal is. After our first album, we decided to add orchestrations to our sound. Mathieu is a music composer, and we all love movie scores and symphonic black and death metal, so it was natural for us to go this way.
Who are your favourite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?
We’re all into different genres of death metal and that’s what has shaped our sound. Alex our vocalist is into death core and black metal; Justin our drummer is into orchestral black metal and prog metal bands; Simon our bass player studied jazz guitar in school but comes from the death core scene; Mathieu our guitar player is also schooled in jazz guitar and is into punk rock, old school death metal and tech death. I come from the thrash metal school, but my interest now gravitates toward death and black metal. Most of us are also huge fans of movie scores and this is a major influence in our music.
The Asylum, our first record is more of a traditional death metal album. Lighthouse, our second album has orchestrations and much more melody to it. As the years went by, we were influenced by many bands, but I would say that the ones who really had an impact on us for the writing and the production of our new record ‘’The Future Remains in Oblivion” were Shadow of Intent, Septicflesh, Lorna Shore, Dimmu, Fleshgod and…. Hans Zimmer.
Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?
I started playing the guitar only for fun and because I’m a huge fan of music in general. But you meet people who have the same passion and get together with your instruments and after a while, you want to find a drummer to jam Slayer and Pantera songs. Like many musicians, my first band was playing covers in clubs but nowadays my interest and motivation are 100% driven by the magic of creating original songs and playing them live for our fans. I don’t have any interest in playing something else than originals, the creation process, the studio work, or playing our own songs live on stage, this is what’s interesting to me. There is nothing as much satisfying as creating something original from scratch with people that you love and have a musical connection with.
What songs or albums are on your current playlist?
Black and Death metal bands are what is on my current playlist, bands like
Nordjevel, Aeternam, Lorna Shore, Gaerea, Carach Angren, Shadow of Intent, Corps Fleur, Fit for an Autopsy, Septicflesh, Asarhaddon, ColdWorld, 1914, Cradel, Darkthrone, Immortal, Burzum, Mephorash, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Hate, Afsky, Akhlys, Sorcier des Glaces, Drudkh, Second to Sun.
Do you sing in the shower?
Of course, some Depeche Mode and a few songs from my favourite 80’s rock band White Lion. Sometimes I just try to find a strong melody by singing in the shower or when jogging, some of the best stuff I have written came to me when I was training or taking a shower. I try writing with no instrument in my hand, this way I come up with different stuff than what your habits or muscular memory would have you play on the instrument.
Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?
We’re putting an album out this summer and are going to tour Canada from September to December. In 2024 we have plans for playing in the US and Europe.
Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?
Our new album, The Future Remains in Oblivion is coming out June 9. The songs are still melodic/orchestral but much more aggressive and some of them have a black metal influence. Our goal was to create songs that would have a greater impact on our live shows, aggressive songs work well live. We feel the album is a good combination of aggression/melody, and ugliness/beauty.
It is a conceptual album and there is a build-up in intensity and emotion that goes along with the storyline and the lyrics as you go from the first song to the last one.
Some of the songs are riff-oriented and some others had the Orchestra and melodies written before the drums and the guitars. We wrote all the lyrics before the music to make sure that it would fit the feel and emotion of each song/part of the story. When we start writing a song, we know exactly what feeling and emotion we are aiming at, it’s a good way to push ourselves creatively and write thoughtful music.
If you could play at any venue in the world where would you choose?
Wacken would be great, or maybe the 70 000 tons of metal cruise.
Do you have a favourite album? If so, what is it?
My answer could be different in a week or two but, at the moment, my favourite albums are The Stars are dead now from the band ColdWorld, Reysa from Asarhaddon and Modern Primitive from Septicflesh.
Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?
The album Black Celebration from Depeche Mode, I’m a huge DM fan. The Faceless covered a DM song that is called Shake the Disease, the best metal cover of a nonmetal song I ever heard.
If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?
It would be an impossible festival with Death, Nevermore, Pantera, Burzum, Darkthrone and Mayhem with Dead and Euronymus.
But more seriously, I can think of two very different shows I would put together. One would be Devin Townsend and Steve Vai and the second one would be Shadow of Intent with Lorna Shore and Septicflesh.
The best show I’ve ever attended was Hans Zimmer with his live band and a full-on orchestra in 2017, I would pay a lot of money to see that show again.
Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?
I don’t remember exactly which one but for sure it was either Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, Def Leppard’s Pyromania or Accept’s Restless and Wild. It could also have been Shout at the Devil. They are all stored in a box somewhere in my garage.
As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?
I’d like to thank all the fans who support us by listening to the records and coming to our live shows, but I would also like to ask your readers who never heard of us to give a serious listen to our music, especially Lighthouse and our new record The Future Remains in Oblivion. At this moment the challenge besides offering quality recorded material and live shows is to have people’s attention. It is so easy nowadays to go from one band to another on Spotify and listen mostly to the big bands and hits. I’d be grateful to those who would take their time to listen a few times to our new record so they can really get into it. I know this is not how it goes now but in my opinion that’s the only way to fully understand and appreciate an artist.
Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!
Here is Vortex Linktree, it will give you the links to our social media, music videos, digital platforms and website:
We, at The Metal Asylum, would like to thank you for your time. Is there is anything further that you would like to add?
I thank you for your interest in Vortex. As I mentioned earlier, getting people to know about us and listen to our music is a real challenge, you are helping in that matter, and it is much appreciated. There is good music from lesser-known bands out there, I encourage the fans to look for new talents, there is so much to be discovered…
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Metal Planet Media 