THE SYNICS AWAKENING – Interview

1.  Hey guys!  How’s everything been going?

Kristian: Doing great, I’ve never been better.

Reza: Everything is great!  I’m in an awesome band being interviewed by an epic magazine.  No complaints here.

2.  Can you start by giving us a brief history of the band?

Kristian: It started out in the summer of 2009.  I was trying to kinda get my music career off the ground.  I prayed a lot and put all of my faith in God and before I knew it I met Reza, who turned out to be an excellent vocalist and partner.  We worked together through the summer months on material we had come up with and were able to eventually finish the mastered version of the Dawn of Vengeance.

Reza: Yeah, I was also trying to get involved with a band to kick off my music career.  I was introduced to Kristian through his half-sister.  He said he was trying to get a band together.  At first I didn’t think this would go anywhere and I was tempted to decline the offer when Kristian asked me to join, but I figured ‘why the hell not?’ Best decision of my life.

3.  How did the band come up with the name The Synics Awakening?

Kristian: The name sort of personifies what happens when Satan screws with people, especially during major events in their lives.  The Devil will tempt you into sin and for a lot of people they fall into it, but those who overcome usually come out reborn in the end.

Reza: The name also says a lot about what we’re trying to do with the music we create.  Cynics, or people who have little faith in the goodness of mankind, are exactly the type of people we want to appeal to.  Hopefully some of them will find deeper meaning in our music and even if they don’t change their views on religion or God, they might at least respect Christians more for what we do.

4.  How would you describe your musical style?

Kristian: I see it as Symphonic Unblack Metal.

Reza: I would just consider us to be a Unblack metal band even though we do use a variety of orchestral elements.

5.  You are set to release you debut album “The Dawn of Vengeance”.  Tell us a little bit about the music in this album and also the messages you are trying to convey.

Kristian: All our lyrics were written through prayer.  We based most of our lyrics on passages from the Book of Revelations and also took some cues from the chapters of when Jesus Foretells the Future in the Synoptic Gospels.  Some of our other songs like Spellbound and Bringer of Light were meant to be more inspirational.  I wrote them during very dark times in my life when I was trying to really discover my faith and avoid the snares of Satan.

Reza: Kristian pretty much took the words right out of my mouth there.  Really I think all of our songs were aimed at the same goal of proclaiming God’s glory in the most profound way possible.

6.  What improvements have you made with the full-length over your demo material?

Kristian: By far the biggest improvement over our demo material is the sound quality and variety.  After the demo we upgraded our recording equipment for the full length album and added some new instruments, like keyboards, that we didn’t have before.

Reza: On our album we have bonus material at the end, which is basically our first 4-track demo.  The songs are still good but you can definitely hear the difference in quality from the main part of the album and also how different songs kinda evolved as we went along.

7.  Who are your biggest musical influences?

Kristian: Antestor, Crimson Moonlight, and Slechtvalk are definitely some of my major influences.  I listen to them pretty much every day and it was their songs that helped inspire our own.

Reza: I have to say a big influence of mine was Cradle of Filth.  Although their premise is pretty wretched and I don’t condone their actions or anything, it’s hard to deny their musical skill, which is why they’re as popular as they are.  We in the Synics Awakening hope to mirror Cradle’s musical style but for the glory of God instead.

8.  How has it been working with Sullen Records?

Kristian: Working with Sullen Records and James Mattern has been awesome!  Sullen was really helpful with getting our band off the ground and into the global Metal scene.  We owe a lot of our success to James, who helped us out a ton.  So yeah, it’s been really great.

Reza: Yeah, Sullen Records really provided us with the resources we needed to get started.  James was able to start marketing our merchandise worldwide.  Not to mention the amazing band logo, courtesy of DrawnsworD, and cover art for our CD that Sullen Records personally had made for us.  We really look forward to working with Sullen Records on our next album.

9.  You guys are brand new to the Christian metal scene obviously.  What are your first impressions and opinions on it?

Reza: It seems to me that Christian Unblack metal is really overshadowed by more mainstream metal.  Openly Satanic metal, especially, seems to cover the would-be popularity of Unblack metal.  There are tons of great bands in the Christian metal scene that never get noticed or don’t become as popular as they would if they opened themselves up to non-Christian avenues.  We have been given a great blessing, being signed so early on in our band’s history.  I really hope we can break the mold with this opportunity and draw some well deserved attention to the Christian metal world.

Kristian: Christian metal, for me, has a very strong personal appeal.  It’s great to talk with a lot of bands in the same genre who are all into the same music and share the same beliefs as we do.

10.  What can we expect in the future for The Synics Awakening?

Kristian: Our next album will have a lot of new elements that weren’t available to us in our first run through.  The Dawn of Vengeance was just us getting our foot in the door to the Christian metal scene.  In our next album we really want to push everything and revamp all the things that were kinda lacking in the Dawn of Vengeance.  We have some really cool ideas lined up so hopefully we can make an even more epic anthem to God the second time around.

Reza: Like Kristian said we are really gonna make the best of our next album.  In addition to the new stuff we have in mind we are also trying to fill some of the instrumental gaps in our band so live performances will be possible.  If everything goes according to plan we should be on stage sometime in the near future so keep your eyes open!

11.  Well thanks you guys for taking the time to do this interview.  I greatly appreciate it.  Any last words?

Kristian: First I want to thank God, of course.  I also want to thank Sullen Records, Starve the Flesh Clothing, DrawnsworD, and, of course, Untombed.  I hope everyone likes our album and anyone can feel free to message us on our myspace ( www.myspace.com/wyldechild8988 ). God bless.

Reza: I think that pretty much covers everything. Oh, and I want to wish good luck to all the other Christian metal bands out there, signed or not.  It takes a lot of guts to profess yourself as an Unblack band and I respect each one of them.  So good luck, and God bless.

Interviewed by:  Matt Marciniec