Kataklysm's J-F Checks In From The Studio

BW&BK recently returned from an exclusive studio journey in Quebec’s north country with Canuck extreme saviors Kataklysm. Wildsound Studio is located in Saint-Zénon, two hours north east of Montreal and is home to famed producer Pierre Rémillard. But Kataklysm guitarist and rising knob-twiddler J-F Dagenais is in charge on the band’s forthcoming album, Serenity In Fire, due out through Nuclear Blast on March 8th.

Dagenais describes his dual role: “It has a downfall and a big advantage to it,” he explains. “The advantage is I’m in the band, I know how I want it to sound before we go into the studio. Before we used to use other producers and it’s hard to describe in technical terms exactly what we want and how we want it to be done. Now being in the band I’m responsible for the budget and choosing the studios. I’m responsible for the whole project from a to z. So it’s done the way we want it done and everybody in the band is happy. In the end what people hear is what we have in mind. The downside is that sometimes I’m not as objective as I am working on another project because I’m part of the band and I always have a question in my mind.”

Dagenais breaks the recording down further: “We recorded everything at Victor (Studios in Montreal) on two inch analog tape. With old pre-amps and gear to get that better feel. Then everything was transferred. I clean some of the tracks at home in my studio. Then I brought it here to mix. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Serenity In Fire will contain the following tracks (not in order): ‘The Ambassador Of Pain’, ‘The Resurrected’, ‘As I Slither’, ‘For All Our Sins’ (featuring Hypocrisy/Pain leader Peter Tagtgren), ‘Blood On The Swans’, ‘The Night They Returned’, ‘10 Seconds From The End’, ‘Serenity In Fire’, ‘The Tragedy I Preach’ and ‘Under The Bleeding Sun’.

The album will also be released as a limited edition double-CD, containing the following video clips: ‘In Shadows & Dust’, ‘The Awakener’ and two new video clips from the new album: ‘As I Slither’ and the movie theme song ‘The Night They Returned’, filmed in Montreal on November 20th. The clip (the band’s first “gore track”) contain band shots in the studio and movie excerpts. The bonus CD will also contain goodies as wallpaper, screen saver and pictures. The artwork duties have once again been handled by acclaimed artist Thomas Ewerhard (Hypocrisy, Amon Amarth).

Watch for a major studio report in the next issue of BW&BK (#77 - out early February) along with scattered updates here!

Source: bw&bk