Interview

Dysrider Talks New Album "Bury The Omen"

A death metal outfit utilizing both harsh and clean vocals, Dysrider just dropped debut full-length album "Bury The Omen" through Tenacity Music.

Formed from the ashes of Trophallaxy, this Swiss group combines orchestral / symphonic elements with the aggression of death metal and is coming off a long live hiatus to support the debut with record release shows.

As the "Bury The Omen" launch festivities are just getting started, front man Jonathan Pellet checked in to share a little history on the band and discuss shooting music videos and the state of the metal scene in Switzerland.

xFiruath: Fill me in on the history of the band – I understand you used to go by a different name?

Jonathan: Dysrider was originally named Trophallaxy and was created in 2007. Under that name, we recorded a four track demo in 2008, “Unfairytale,” and two studio albums: “DawnFall” in 2009 and “Resilience” in 2013. Over the years, we managed to create our own sound, combining elements from symphonic/power metal with a more aggressive approach, closer to melodic death metal. “Bury The Omen,” our new release, follows this evolution.

xFiruath: What's your personal history in music like – are you self-taught or professionally trained and been involved in non-metal music?

Jonathan: I took some piano lessons for seven years when I was a child, learning the basis and playing mainly classical stuff. When I was a teenager, I began to mess around with keyboards and tried to do some covers from bands like Sonata Arctica. So I learned a lot alone, simply listening to songs and trying to play them. Some illness when I was twenty year old put me in a hospital room for two weeks and this is when I started to compose my own music – on a shitty program on my old laptop! A few years ago I started to play drums, learning again on my own.

xFiruath: How are things in your local metal scene today?

Jonathan: I think the local metal scene in our part of Switzerland is pretty good. There are a lot of excellent bands playing different types of metal. We see many bands working hard, touring a lot inside and outside the country and releasing great albums and music videos. I’d say that the Swiss metal scene is well worth discovering! There are several metal-friendly venues so a motivated band can usually always play shows near its hometown.

xFiruath: Where did you record the new album “Bury The Omen” and what led you to choose that studio?

Jonathan: “Bury The Omen” was recorded at Conatus Studios by Vladimir Cochet. This studio is located near Montreux (Switzerland) and this is where we already recorded our previous album, “Resilience.” Vladimir is an awesome guy, very professional, who is also a great musician. If you’re into symphonic black metal, you probably know one of his projects, Mirrorthrone. We discovered his studio by listening to others bands that had worked with him. For “Bury The Omen,” Vladimir also played the guitar and the bass (we had no guitar player nor bass player anymore at that time) and he did an amazing work.

xFiruath: What's happening with the lyrics and themes on this album?

Jonathan: The main theme around this album is resistance, or resilience, a topic dear to my heart after which we named our 2013 release. The lyrics speak of different life events that everybody goes through someday, and the questions that we ask ourselves about life, death, illness, loss, madness, aging, beliefs… To resist and go on without losing ourselves or giving up is something we all need to keep doing everyday and something inspiring to me. Fatalism is not the key to me and I tried to express that through the lyrics of the album.

xFiruath: How and when did you get hooked up with Tenacity Music?

Jonathan: Well we were looking in October 2014 for some help with the release of “Bury The Omen” and with the booking, and I just asked them if by any chance they’d be interested in working with us. We’re fortunate that they were indeed! And it’s been a pleasure working with them so far.

xFiruath: You guys released a music video recently for the title track. Tell me about how that was shot and what's happening in the clip.

Jonathan: Bury The Omen’s music video is almost a family story. We were looking for the best solution to shoot this video: having a great result that wouldn’t look amateur, without losing too much money doing it. It would also require to be focused on the singers, Joëlle and me, because the band wasn’t complete then. So we decided to shoot on the rooftop of the building in which we rehearse, and add studio shots with Joëlle, Théo, Vladimir and me. Roger Simon, my brother-in-law and also great friend, worked hard with me to direct and shoot this project. Martin Bousson, another great friend of us, piloted his drone with neat skills for the aerial shots. Other friends and family members helped us in different ways. Then I spent a huge amount of time for the editing. We’re pretty satisfied with the result but then again we’re not very objective!

xFiruath: Do any of the Dysrider member's have any other projects going right now?

Jonathan: Théo, Damien and me are also playing in a melodic deathcore band called Nodafreth. We released an EP in 2013 and we’re about to record our first album, again with Vladimir Cochet. Joëlle recently recorded cello parts for the new album of CardiaC, a hardcore/stoner metal band from Geneva.

xFiruath: Will you be doing any touring in the near future?

JonathN: We will! It’s been some time now that we didn’t play live with Dysrider, nearly two years, so we’re looking forward to playing live again next Saturday, for the release party of our album. We’ll do mainly Swiss dates the next months and hopefully we’ll have shows in other countries soon.

xFiruath: To finish off, what metal albums are you really digging these days that you'd recommend?

Jonathan: I’ve been listening a lot to Kalmah’s albums lately, like “12 Gauge” which is really good. My highlights of the moment are also Starkill’s “Fires of Life” and of course Arch Enemy’s “War Eternal.” Thanks a lot to you guys for the interview and the support! I hope you’ll enjoy our music!