Interview – Serpent Venom

Recently released and recently blown many pairs of speakers, ‘Of Things Seen & Unseen’ is a real game changer for London based doom outfit Serpent Venom. I feel especially motivated by the genuine urgency of this release having been a fan of the band from their first live show. But fan boy attitude aside, this is one hell of a doom release. Therefore, I spoke to vocalist Gaz Ricketts and guitarist Roland Scriver about this new momentous album; this is what they had to say…

AN: ‘Of Things Seen & Unseen’ has got some fantastic reviews thus far, have you been overwhelmed by this? Does this make you feel proud that your hard work is greatly appreciated?

Gaz: I have to say I’ve been blown away by some of the reviews we’ve had back so far, we all felt that the album was a lot stronger than ‘Carnal Altar’ but you never know how it will be received upon release, it was certainly a nice feeling when the reviews started coming back and on the whole were so positive, but saying that, I would still have been proud of the album even if it had been torn to pieces.

AN: Now you have Roland on board in the studio for the first time, did you change the way you wrote the material for the new album? Was it a blank piece of paper?

Gaz: We had to change the writing process completely on this album due to the fact that Pete wrote all the riffs on Carnal Altar, he would bring complete songs into rehearsal for me to write lyrics over, as a result we never really jammed on ideas that much, when Pete left we had no new material so it was like starting fresh. With this album we had a few basic ideas born out of Roland and Nick meeting up, having a few gins and bouncing ideas off each other, when these ideas were brought into the rehearsal room we just jammed the fuck out them until we had a solid set of songs. This time around everyone had their own input, I think there’s more light and shade in the songs now, we’ve stayed true to our roots but with a looser more organic sound.

AN: Do you have a song writing “team” in the band, or do all members have their say?

Gaz: Everyone has their own part to play, like i said Roland and Nick will come up with the initial ideas and these are really brought to life once Paul is involved, I think his drumming is a really important element to our sound, I generally just make stuff up when we’re jamming in terms of melody lines for parts and wait until the songs are more structured before starting on lyrics.

AN: So, Chris Fielding, what’s it like to work with him? What was the single most beneficial contribution or piece of advice Chris gave you in the studio?

Gaz: It’s always a pleasure working with Chris, after recording our first album with him he was the only guy we wanted to work with, he truly understands heavy music and how to get the best out of a band during the recording process, it was good to have a little more time in the studio this time around, which meant he and Roland could experiment with different amps and so forth and we didn’t have to do all our parts in one go, which really helped. Skyhammer studios is an amazing place as well, Jon and Chris have something really special there!

AN; Did you learn anything new about the recording process this time around?

Gaz: I wouldn’t say we learnt anything new as the process was similar to ‘Carnal Altar’, I think we realised it suits us better to try not to cram everything into 4 days which we did last time.

AN: Your vocal range has developed immensely between albums, has there been a particular drive to do this, or is this a pure coincidence? Maybe the new songs give a little more space to grow?

Gaz: Thanks for noticing, although I didn’t really make a conscious effort, I guess it just happened after 3 years of gigging and a lot of practising, I’m definitely a lot more confident with my voice these days. The music has also really helped, when the riffs were in place I definitely didn’t want to let anyone down with what I came up with.

With the album artwork being rather special, painted by Roland (Guitars) and so was the perfect person to speak to about this: –

AN: What was the influence behind this piece of art? How long did this take to produce?

RS: The idea behind the piece works with the album title. The scene is a Garden of Eden scene but the characters are the older archetypes from the Egyptian mythology that predates and probably insured that story. Adam is both ‘Atum’— the sun god, ‘Geb’ — the earth, and Osiris, the three being interrelated fertility gods. Eve the counterpart is Nut — the heavens, and Isis. Even the apple in the tree is a fig. The point is you need to look to what is unseen for the truth.

The painting took a while to produce; maybe 25 hours of continuous painting, not including preparation over three weeks. I wasn’t really counting the hours with this, it just had to be right.

AN: I assume you are hard at work re-painting this so that every band member has a framed piece right?! Seriously, have you thought about maybe releasing prints of this officially in a larger format?

RS: You have to be kidding! Ha ha! There will be prints of all the artwork available to buy shortly, along with artwork I’ve created for other records and for the hell of it in a couple of places. The original canvas will also be available for sale at some point.

AN: I understand following the CD and special edition CD release, a vinyl issue will come out. Will there be any changes to the artwork for this? Is there an expected release date for this?

RS: Without giving the game away, yes there will be subtle artwork changes for the vinyl. There has to be something different to each format we put out because we want them to be special. There is no release date as yet, but we have said later in the year which we aim to stick to as long as The Church Within release schedule will allow.

AN: What was the idea behind the special edition CD package? Was this influenced by Serpent Venom’s input?

RS: The first Carnal Altar CD album was in special packaging. This time we tried to take it further but as it was expensive we produced a standard CD too, which is still pretty cool. We wanted to produce a book format package, properly bound in buckram with illustrated pages. I worked on this with Church Within, the band really didn’t want to go the route of a jewel case after the finish on the last book. I guess we will have to get creative for the third album! Ha ha!

AN: Do you guys have any favourite tracks from the new album? Whether to play live, or just listen to them/the writing process?

Gaz: ‘Death Throes at Dawn’ was probably the song I was least sure about yet I think it’s turned out to be my favourite, it’s full on doom misery, we haven’t played that one live yet but I’m sure we will. Pilgrims of The Sun is always a live favourite of ours, the main riff is crushing, we’ve been playing new stuff almost exclusively for the past 18 months and I’ve got to say Sorrows Bastard and Let them Starve always get people banging their heads!

AN: Is it fair to say you gained a lot of experience touring with the likes of Trouble, Goatess and Pentagram? If so, what and how? Did this influence your writing process for ‘Of Things Seen & Unseen’?

Gaz: I think I speak for all of us when I say that flying out to Barcelona and playing with Trouble and Pentagram was pretty mind blowing, we’ve been hugely influenced by both bands and to get to be on the same bill and then hang out and drink and make friends was something that will live with me forever. We flew out the day after we’d finished recording the album which made it that bit more special. We did a mini tour earlier this year with Goatess and Sigiriya, two absolutely killer bands, three days of drunken madness with some of the best people you could ever meet. We’ve been pretty lucky to have toured and played with some great bands over the past few years.

AN: In my review, I mentioned a bottle vibrating across the stage at one live show, speaking of live shows, are there any shows that have really stood out for you over the past couple of years?

Gaz: Haha! Yep, that’s happened a few times! Like I said we’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some great shows in the past, obviously the Day of Doom show with Pentagram and Trouble stands out, Cuerno and Horn of the Rhino also played, it was a fucking heavy night, the organisers Jose and Sami really went out of their way to look after us and those few days are among my best memories! We were also lucky enough to play the final Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany, a two day doom fest in an old chapel, such a shame it’s not going anymore.

AN: Do you have any immediate touring plans in support of the recent release of the album?

Gaz: We were looking at getting out for some shows in Europe in October, unfortunately this isn’t happening now, we’re playing the garage in London with Pentagram in September and then we’re looking to be out early next year in both the UK and Europe.

AN: I know, you know, a lot of other people know what to expect with ‘Of Things Seen & Unseen’, to those not quite there, what can people expect from the album?

Gaz: Pure doom done the old way!

Thanks for your time as always, I really enjoyed this release and will see you “on the road” at some point!

Thank you for the interview Paul and thanks to Ave Noctum for all your kind words and support!

Interview by Paul Maddison.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Serpent-Venom/109942092371705