Exclusive Interview: Varius talk “Concordance”!
When someone says Melodic Death Metal, Niagara Falls, Ontario isn’t necessary the first place you’d think of but Varius aren’t about to let that hold them back. The quartet dropped their sophomore EP “Concordance” not so long ago and in creating it gave each musician the role of producer for one cut which they themselves brought to the table. The result of that being a not only diverse but intriguing offering. We had the pleasure of a chat with bassist Joel Tassillo which went something like this…
How have you found the reaction to “Concordance” so far? “So far the response that I’ve personally seen and heard has all been very positive! I am thankful that people from all over the world have been streaming the songs”
What were your favourite moments on the EP? The Jazz influenced part in “Lament of Dissonance” is amazing! “Thanks! We do love that jazz-inspired part. That was fun and different for us! I also personally love the transition to the slower tempo, more doom-inspired part near the end of the song “Gut Shoveler”, which then also eventually becomes an acoustic part before fading out and ending the album. That part sounds awesome and recording it involved a lot of improvisation from the rhythm section. Plus, we threw some organ sounds on there under a great guitar solo from our guitarist Pat. I think that whole part is a great sequence”
One of the things that’s really striking is how lyrically diverse as well as musically diverse the EP is while hanging together nicely on common treads. What would you say your influences were that helped build the backbone of the lyrics? “We are inspired by a few diverse lyric directions. It has been a little bit of a Varius tradition to do songs about hypothetical apocalyptic scenarios, like “Rape of Nature”, “Red Messenger”, “Unity by Warfare”, “Til the End”. With Concordance, the song “Gut Shoveler” carries on with that theme. It’s tongue-in-cheek take on a terrible future in which humankind resorts to eating each other due to the lack of food. So, it carries on with some of the apocalyptic themes we’ve explored before. The humorous nature of it is something we’ve explored before as well, such as with our song “PISS”. Sometimes it’s fun to take a less-serious approach to lyrics. That being said, there are some other, more serious topics on Concordance like themes of loyalty and brotherhood on the song “Golden Crown”, demonic magics on “Concordance of the Legionfall”, and mental pressure on “Lament of Dissonance”. Some of those other themes come from our band’s interests in things like history, horror, fantasy, the supernatural, and pop culture as well. Just like with our music, we feel free to experiment with lots of lyrical concepts as long as they fit the heaviness of the music”
You’ve previously shared stages with Beyond Creation and in our review we suggested Nekrogoblikon as a possible inspiration; if you had the choice between a European Tour with either of those bands or a one off festival appearance at Bloodstock (United Kingdom), Wacken (Germany) or Hellfest (France) next summer, what would mean the most to you as a band? “Wow, those are some great choices. The festivals would be amazing, and it would be fantastic to play with Beyond Creation again, but for now I would take the European tour with Nekrogoblikon. That band would be hilarious to tour with and watch every night, and I think a lot more people would be introduced to Varius, given that it’s a tour. That would be an awesome experience!”
Which is the lesser of two evils; being forced to record a Christmas song in order to get a major label deal or recording a Metalized version of a pop song for a well known compilation series? “I’d go for the metalized pop song, for sure. There’s a lot of ultra-catchy pop songs out there that you could make ultra-heavy as well. I think that would be a fun creative challenge, honestly”
What’s next for Varius? “We are working on some more video content which I think may surprise people, sometime soon. Also, it won’t be long before we start going over some new material and figuring out what we want to do for our next release!”