Ophis

By Sonia Fonseca on Jul 19, 2013 in Exclusive Interviews | 0 comments

Ophis are a Death/Doom metal band hailing from Hamburg in Germany and have recently released “Effegies of Desolation” via Cyclone Empire Records. Guitarist and vocalist Philip enlighted us about this release and other issues.

Online can be found many results for the word Ophis. Which is the one that suits you better? Why have you chosen it?

Ophis is greek and means “serpent”. I chose the name because the serpent is used as a symbol for the emancipation from God and dogmatic religions. It is a symbol for catharsis and self reflection. The serpent taught Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge and to realize themselves as being an individual. Thus, the name seemed fitting to me. Plus, I like snakes from a zoological point of view. They are, in my opinion, the animals that present Doom Metal the most. They seem slow, but can unleash a lot of aggression. And they are secretive, majestic creatures.

Ophis

Your logo seems to be more the one of a black metal band with the inverted cross and the pentagram. Since you’re a death doom band, why the “satanic” logo? Is this your ideology?

No, not really. Ophis is a strongly anti-christian band, as I already evaluated in the first question. And the logo reflects that as well as some of our lyrics. But this is not to be confused with being pro-satanic. We try to deal with religion in a more intellectual way, using metaphors. When our ex-guitarist designed that logo more than 10 years ago, we thought it would fit to have some drastic symbolism as a statement against christianity. Well, we were a lot younger then… If we made a new logo these days, maybe it would be without an inverted cross, as we have matured a bit. But the logo is a part of our history, so we kept it as it is. After all, it is still legit. Fuck christianity!

Ophis are usually labeled as Death/Doom Metal. This combination of death and doom is not so usual. Why these particular genres?

It just happened to be. When I started the band, I was originally also playing in a Thrash Metal band. But I was looking for something else that expressed my inner feelings better than Thrash. I wrote some songs which represented myself more clearly. It turned out to be much slower, darker. I also wanted it to sound more brutal, so both the Death Metal and the Doom Metal aspects came together. It was a very natural process, not a distinct decision.

Lyrically you basically deal with Depression, Suffering, Death, Demonic enchantments. Where is inspiration drawn from?

From life. Look around you, turn on the TV, talk to people, and then tell me this world is not sick. The lyrics are the result of my everyday observation and relationships. By the way, I think those topics are taken from Metal Archives, right? I don’t know who put “demonic enchantments” there. There is just one Ophis-track dealing with demonology, so it is not really a common topic in our lyrics.

In your website one can read that “OPHIS prove they have travelled deeper and deeper into the darkness to painfully bear a death/doom masterpiece that stands out of a mass awash in gothic glam and rocking stoner vibes and convinces with inspired song-writing, merciless heaviness, haunting melodies as well as cavernous growls and screams torn straight from the soul.” Though this refers to “Stream of Misery” released in 2007, does this happen in each and every release?

This was written by our then-label Imperium Productions, which released that album. I guess we should really update our website, haha. Of course, this was written for promotional reasons, but I agree that we differ from the mass of the Doom scene, which is in fact currently heavily dominated by Stoner rock bands. Doom is a very varied music, and to us it means pain! So yes, in a way, this is correct for all our releases.

“EFFIGIES OF DESOLATION” is a 2-CD compilation which includes your full first two records, “Stream of Misery” (2007) and “Nostrae Mortis Signaculum” (2004) plus 5 bonustracks: live recordings, demotracks and a rehearsal recording from the very beginnings of the band. Was it Cyclone Empire Records idea to re-release all this material?

We developed the idea together. Originally, Cyclone Empire wanted to re-release just the “Stream of Misery” album. We thought a while about which material should be used as bonustracks without much result, so then we said “fuck it, why not release the old stuff as a compilation instead of a simple repressing”? Both records were out of print, so people had a hard time to buy them. A compilation seemed to be more value for money than just a mere re-release. That’s the reason why we gave it a new name and an exclusive artwork. It’s supposed to be an opportunity for newer fans to get the old stuff in high quality all at once.

Recently you also released the EP “IMMERSED”, a split with OFFICIUM TRISTE, containing 2 exclusive songs mastered by Greg Chandler (ESOTERIC) which is out now on MEMENTO MORI RECORDS. Why do bands do splits after all?

I have no idea, haha. I guess it seems more appealing for record labels, because you can reach fans of two or more bands with one release. In our case, Memento Mori Records asked us, if we were interested in doing a split-EP, and we suggested doing it with OFFICIUM TRISTE. They are very good friends of ours for years now, and we respect each other as musicians. For us, it was an interesting project to do a split together, because we both have a different approach towards Doom Metal, but still bear similar aspects of style. It was just fun! Many fans don’t care much for splits, but that’s not a problem. After all, nobody has to buy them, but we liked the idea.

Do you believe these releases will help spread your name in the underground, considering that you have laid low in these past years?

We did not really lie low, we played live a lot. We played some festivals and did a European tour with Ahab and Esoteric last year. We were active all the time. We did not do these releases just to buy time for the next album. In fact, if we had not done these releases, the next album would probably be finished already.

Ophis have booked a European mini-tour with EVOKEN and EVADNE in June and have a few other gigs lined up already. How excited are you about it? Do you enjoy playing live?

Yes, we enjoy it, otherwise we would not do it. We don’t make a living of this band, so we don’t HAVE to play. We enjoy going on the road a lot. We were in cities we would never have visited otherwise, and met great people we would have never met if it weren’t through touring. So, we are of course excited about the tour, and it will be great to meet our friends of EVOKEN again.

Your home country is huge and there are plenty of festivals and concerts. Would you agree that the German metal fans are “spoiled”? Tell us about the metal scene in Germany.

Spoiled is a too negative word, but Metal fans in Germany are definitely overfed. You can see this very well in my hometown, Hamburg. I sometimes organize Doom shows here for bands I am befriended with. If you don’t bring a famous headliner to the bill, no one will show up. Many people are not willing to travel a distance to see shows. There are just so many of them, so people can be picky. They even have to be picky, because you’d have to be a millionaire if you want to visit all shows here.

What is your opinion on bands that have totally changed their style ever since they entered the metal realm and are not so metal anymore. Do you think it might ever happen to Ophius? Many say it is evolution and experimentation… do you agree?

This depends a lot on how this evolution is going. If they develop their style slowly, in bits and pieces from album to album, I respect it. Because in that case, I can really believe that it is some natural progression. Like Anathema for example. I don’t like their current music that much anymore, but I respect them for progressing into something else, they really evaluated their sound. If a band changes its style drastically between just two albums, I think it is calculated. It is not natural, but for materialistic reasons. I despise this.

Regarding Ophis, we will never move as far away from our original genre as Anathema did. If we find someday that we are not interested in playing Death/Doom anymore, we would change our name and start a new band. The name Ophis is affiliated to Death / Doom Metal. Changing our style and keeping the name would be dishonest, in my opinion.

Comparing to the time in which you started, do you believe there are any differences in society regarding the way people view/accept metal? Why do you think that happens?

Metal definitely became more mainstream in the past 10 years. You can see this when you visit the Wacken Open Air. At least half of the people there (if not even more) are just coming for being cool and hip. Many people there have absolutely no idea of Metal and don’t even know the most popular bands like Slayer or Iron Maiden. It is very, very sad. There are even Metal cruises these days. A total contradiction, if you ask me. Cruises are pure establishment, while Metal is supposed to be anti-establishment. I don’t know the reason for this development. Maybe it is because most people don’t have real cultural artistic values anymore. They all think they can be ravers one day and metalers the other. The media sells it to them. They don’t develop any passion for music and subculture anymore.

In an interview, Philip stated: “Boycot this gay Nu-Metal / Metalcore / Emo FUCKSHITSCUM, which makes a mockery of the real scene!” Did you ever get any good or bad reaction regarding this statement? What’s your opinion on these genres?

Haha, where did you dig this one up? I cannot even remember which magazine this was. Seems that I was in a bad, non-diplomatic mood that day, haha. I apologise for using the term “gay” here. It is not meant as a homophobic statement! Regarding the musical genre mentioned here, I still think the same, though. Metal should not be about hip hairdos and cool sunglasses and facebook-popularity.

The links section in your website includes a few bands. Why those in particular? Are you involved with them somehow?

No, we are not involved in them. It is a list of bands we were close friends with in the beginning of our career (and with some of them, we still are). Thanks for reminding, we really should update our site, haha.

What can we expect of Ophis in the future? Are you preparing new material? Do you have any plans to do a tour that includes the south of Europe?

We are currently writing material for our next album and have gathered quite a bit. The writing itself is already quite far progressed, but the pieces need to be structured and overhauled properly, which is usually the part that takes up the most time in Ophis. So I have no idea yet, when the next album will be out. Not in 2013 anymore, that’s for sure. But we hope to enter studio early next year.

As for touring south Europe, sure we’d love to. It is a bit sad that our tour next month doesn’t come to the south, but we had no influence on this. We hope to make up for this next time!

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If you hate your life, maybe you should live your hate!

Questions by Sónia Fonseca

By: Sonia Fonseca