04 décembre 2022
With a big bang, the light was. At the same time creating darkness. The concept of duality was born. Day and night will follow, good and evil, hot and cold, yin and yang, bad guys and good guys, etc. All these antagonists complement each other to become one. Epoch of Unlight, an American melodic death/black band, have taken the notion of darkness as their playground to tell their stories since the 90s. After having remained in the shadows for many years like orcs hiding from the sunlight, they return to daylight with a new album "At War With The Multiverse" in 2022, 17 years after the album "The Continuum Hypothesis". Interview with Scott Baggett, the singer of the group since 2016, who tells us about this release as well as the extras, accompanied by Tino LoSicco, drummer and only remaining member of the beginnings of the group, who explains the themes of the group.
We had to wait 17 years to have in our hands the new album of EPOCH OF UNLIGHT , a return very well received by the public who do not seem to have forgotten you, what is your feeling about this release? As a reminder, your album “At War With The Multiverse” was released on September 16, 2022 by Dark Horizon Records.
Scott Baggett (vocals) : We really didn’t mean to wait 17 years. We’ve had a lot of the material ready, but we just didn’t have a steady lineup. We’d planned to record for years once Josh Braddock (who played all the guitars on “The Continuum Hypothesis”) rejoined to replace Jason Smith, and the pandemic and the lack of shows really pushed us to finish what needed finishing. We were worried that we’d waited so long and no one would care, or maybe we just weren’t in step with where metal had gone in that time, but we’ve gotten such a great response from reviewers and from fans, it’s just amazing. We really put an emphasis on songwriting and song structures, giving the listener hooks that make them want to listen again, and I think this album does that better than any previous release we’ve had. We’re really proud of it, and we’re glad to have such a great production on it thanks to Alan Burcham, he really worked his ass off on it and it shows!
Everything seemed to be going well for you at the time with three albums released by The End Records: “What Will Be Has Been” in 1998, “Caught In The Unlight” in 2001 and “The Continuum Hypothesis” in 2005, what happened that the band didn't release an album for so long ? The group wasn't really at a standstill since you continued the concerts…
Scott : Epoch’s contract with The End ended with that third album, and while I (Scott) wasn’t around during that time, I do know that the guys were a bit disillusioned about the industry, considering all the time and work they put into the band for so little return. Tino was working on his degree, band members were shuffling in and out, and the band became more like a hobby sort of unintentionally. Epoch never stopped existing – they still played shows, wrote music, etc., but the work of getting the music out took a back seat to creating a life outside of the band. It wasn’t one thing that happened, it was just a matter of priorities and band members coming and going.
You have been productive again since 2015 with an EP called “Foreshadows” (in self-production and released only in digital format) containing mostly songs from the new album “At War With The Multiverse”. You already had the project of an album at that time or did this EP expose you to the offer of envious labels to produce you ?
Scott : That EP was actually recorded in 2012, not long after Jason Smith rejoined the band. They didn’t really promote it much or use it for much of anything, so it sort of just languished on the Bandcamp page. Since those songs didn’t really get the exposure they deserved, we decided to re-record them for the new album, and it also gave me and Josh a chance to put our stamps on the songs since we were not around for the EP. It was mainly recorded to try to generate a little interest in the band after being quiet for quite a while.
Musically, this new album “At War…” is clearly melodic death metal while your first three productions flirted between melodic death and black, whether in the instruments or in the voice. We are even pleasantly surprised by the contribution of effects like on the track “An Amaranthine Line”. Today it is Scott Baggett who takes care of the vocals, similar to that of Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth), and there is also the arrival of John Fortier on guitar and the return of Jash Braddock, already present on “The Continuum…”. Is it the sum of all these musicians that makes EPOCH OF UNLIGHT turn more towards melodic death metal ?
Scott : Ah man, thanks for the comparison to Johan! That guy is one of the best. I’ve sang in this style since 1991, that was just sort of the “classic” death metal vocal technique back then, and I see no reason to change – I think it brought a new dynamic to EoU, mixing those deeps with highs. If you follow the albums, there was already a steady progression from black metal to a more melodic death metal sound, especially on “Continuum.” John’s influence is very apparent in “Amaranthine,” and he wrote the music for “The Mobius Path” and “Beneath a Dying Sun” on his own, and those are probably the most melodic of the bunch. I think my more “classic” death metal growl sort of adds to what may seem like a more drastic change in sound, but strip that away and I think the music still sounds close to what was done on “Continuum.” So yes, you are correct, this current lineup and mix of talents and influences definitely results in us leaning more towards death metal, but it is also the natural progression of the band and likely what you would have heard if this album was released in 2008 instead of 2022.
Now that you have a solid line-up, what is EPOCH OF UNLIGHT 's goal as a band? Are you 100% focused on the project? For example, can you tell us about your working method ? The rehearsals frequencies ?
Scott : We’d like to do some short tours, maybe play some fests. At this point in our lives, going on tour for weeks at a time just isn’t feasible – we have families, jobs, etc. that we can’t just leave behind to do massive touring. But a week at a time, hitting up the occasional fest would be ideal. We are definitely energized by the response to the album and have already begun working on new material (it won’t be 17 years from now when we release it, we promise!). We rehearse twice a week, two hours a pop, and if someone has ideas for a song, or ideas for an existing song, that is when we hash them out. But with technology now, it’s easy to bang out some ideas at home and record them for everyone to add to – back in the day you had to take home a bad cassette recording from a jambox to work on material. Technology has made it an amazing time to be a musician!
We notice a continuity in the albums, for example in the first album “What Will…”, we find the track “The Day The Light Has Died” followed by “In The Absence of Light” on the following album “Caught In… ” then “The End of All” on the album “The Continuum…” and finally “All Light Dies” on the new album. We also note the presence of the concept of eidolon, which refers to several events in Greek mythology (Helen of Troy or the myth of Pygmalion) or in the poem “Dream-Land” by Edgar Allan Poe. Are these concepts that you use in your music to talk about the duality between light and shadow? Metaphor of the journey between life and death? As well as to address the multiverse concept of the new album?
Scott : I will have to hand this question and the next one over to Tino – I wrote the lyrics for half of the songs on the new album, but the concepts you mention are from his lyrics so …
Tino LoSicco (drums): That is a good observation and it means a lot to me personally that you took the time to appreciate the lyrics in addition to the music compositions.
I've always tried to mold the lyrics around stories or "scenes" that would a) entertain my dark, science fiction and fantasy predilections as well as b) function as allegorical tools for weaving those very concepts you mention of light and "Unlight" throughout the body of our work.
In regards to the science fiction and fantasy passion of mine, I've been a huge fan of the English author Brian Lumley and it is fair to say that my writing in this respect is heavily influenced by his work. (Which you can draw a line back to authors such as Lovecraft, Belknap and Howard.)
The concept of light and dark are embodied by the characters in these stories. The Multiversal aspect is another common thread linking my past literary influences to the current writing of the band, One point I can expand upon in this particular influence is that a huge part of my educational background was focused on higher level mathematics. This has been a fertile ground for applying some of those real world, theoretical concepts to a darker, imaginative scenario. [For example, The Mobius Path on the new album and the Continuum Hypothesis from the 3rd release.]
Besides, regarding the notion of multiverse, what is your point of view on this subject? Does this seem real to you ? And if so, you have a more scientific and rational approach or a fictitious approach as we can read in Clifford D. Simak’s book “Ring around the sun” which later inspired the concept of multiple universes in the uchronic work of Philip K. Dick "The man in the high castle" or the design of the 52 earths in the DC Comics universe ?
Tino : Referring back to my previous response, the Multiverse is a fascinating concept to me. Both my exposure to set theory and quantum mechanics in school as well as the many comics and novels I read during my "formative" years has kept my interest in a Multiversal concept constant. And until science proves otherwise, I have no reason to doubt it. With such a fascinating concept to use as a springboard for darker tinged science fiction I'm sure it will continue to be a backdrop for future writings from the band. As examples that I enjoy from the fictional approach, I strongly encourage everyone to read the Necroscope series from Brian Lumely. The Eternal Champion from Micheall Moorcock is an interesting read as well.
“At War With The Multiverse” has been released on CD only on Dark Horizon Records as a limited edition for now, just like your previous releases were CD releases on The End Records. What role did Dark Horizon Records have in the production of this new album ? Have you ever been interested in other formats ?
Scott : Dark Horizon is our partner in getting the album distributed, and Typhus (owner of the label) did an amazing job with the packaging, he just really put a lot into it to make it special. We had already recorded the album, commissioned the art, paid for the mastering at Fascination Street, everything out of our own pockets, and it just seemed most labels were not interested in the financial arrangement we wanted for this particular release, which in hindsight was understandable – we could have done things differently. Dark Horizon was agreeable to it and Typhus was really into the album, and his passion really swayed us to work with him. We’re not signed to any label at the moment, this agreement was just to release this album, but who knows what the future will hold? As for formats, we have cassettes available right now, and maybe vinyl in 2023 at some point.
Being on an American label, it is difficult to export to Europe and distribute the album, were you able to have partnerships with European distributors for the release of “At War…” ? On previous albums, this was already the case and your third album “The Continuum…” was reissued on Candlelight Records, an English label, in 2015. A European version is planned for “At War…” ?
Scott : Yeah, that is the only drawback with the Dark Horizon arrangement, that we can’t easily get the CDs overseas. We are working on that, and DHR has done some trading with non-US labels to make small quantities available elsewhere, but there really isn’t a timeline at the moment. If anyone reading this interview wants to enter into a European distro deal with us, we’re open to it. The CDs were actually manufactured in Poland, so it probably would not be difficult to get a Euro-exclusive batch made. I suppose the problem is that non-vinyl physical media doesn’t move as well as it used to. We have a vinyl master of the album, but the wait time is so long and it’s so expensive to produce at quantities appropriate for us, it doesn’t make sense until we get a better idea of how it will sell.
Ultimately, we own this album 100% and can do whatever we want with it, and getting it distributed elsewhere is just a matter of finding the right partner, as we did with Dark Horizon in the US.
You already have a few dates planned in the United States, moreover you never really stopped touring during these seventeen years between “The Continuum…” and “At War…”. Have you ever performed in Europe in the past ? If the opportunity arises, is it something that would interest you ?
Scott : Our only non-US shows have been in Mexico and Canada. We would of course love to play elsewhere! It can be difficult for a band at our level to get such offers without management, so we are also tentatively working on that as well. But even without management, we will of course listen to any promoter that wants to book us. Not to toot our own horn, but our live show is a massive ball of energy, even as old as we are, and we’d love to bring that wherever it’s wanted!
Here is the end of the interview, we leave you the final word
Scott : Thank you for the interview, you really came up with some great questions! We also really want to thank everyone who remembers we exist, and we can never apologize enough for taking so long between albums. But the way we felt after this was released and saw so many people loving it, it really has fired us up to get more new music out sooner than later!
Le Mexicain October/November 2022
https://epochofunlight.bandcamp.com/
