1. Tell us about the new album and why call it “Become Death”?
CEDRIC: When we started writing the album we knew it was gonna be really heavy yet still very melodic which is what we make sure we do when we write our music. The first month we started writing material death was just a topic that kept on coming up I mean death is just such a part of life as it is. Andy, our singer, has always written the lyrics and everybody in the band asked him about death and the fears everybody has when they think about such a topic. I wouldn’t say “Become Death” is a concept album but it surely has a common theme lyrically throughout it. Musically you also still have the faster heavier songs, slower ones, a couple that are more emotional too. There are death metal style and American hard rock type riffs on this record, blues solos mixed with melodic chorus’. This record is the next step after “Godspeed”.
2. Most bands say with each release say it is a progression from their previous records. Do you feel the same about the new album?
CEDRIC: Yeah I mean we always have a progression always from album to album I think of course we grow up as people and as players plus Symphorce as a band never was afraid to try new things in our music. We have always been influenced by different sounds and new styles of music and that becomes part of our music sometimes.
3. Even though Symphorce is a German band, your music has many similarities to American metal sounds from band’s like Godsmack. Would you agree with this comparison and was it a conscious decision to have this sound in Symphorce’s music?
CEDRIC: Of course Germany is always compared to bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Edguy, a lot of those real melodic metal bands come from Germany….. and when I have been reading a lot of reviews of the new cd they say we sound pretty much like an American band. Yeah I think it has to do with the modern aspect in our music, you know we try to mess around with certain grooves in our music even loops sometimes which add some different colors to the music. I really like newer American bands like Nevermore, Disturbed, and even to Forbidden and you can hear the influence from that in our music.
4. Tell us about the name of the band and what it means?
CEDRIC: Symphorce’s music has been a reflection of its name. You have the melodic symphonic elements mixed with the forceful guitar and rhythm sections which create a symphorce sound. The sound of the band has always been a reflection of our music we write.
5. Compare the new record to your older ones.
CEDRIC: Well a lot of people are telling us that “Become Death” is definitely heavier than our older records and I would say after “PhorcefulAhead” we changed our direction a bit, started using seven string guitars which gave the music a darker atmosphere. I don’t think the new one is not too far away from our last record “Godspeed”, its more or less in the same direction as that, maybe we did too much thinking on “Godspeed” when we wrote those songs. I think the new one sound’s a little more natural and fresh in a sense.
6. How was it playing ProgPower USA and how come touring in the States did not follow?
CEDRIC: Man playing that festival even to this day, is still one of our biggest highlights in our careers. You know when the day came everybody was so excited then and thinking about it now I am as just excited as I was when we played there. It was great to be in a place where the people knew the lyrics and your songs. You know the further you get from home the more exciting it gets. There was even a guy that came up to me and said he bought the same guitar I played it was crazy. I mean we would love to have played more dates when we were there but it always comes down to the question of whether the label wants to support more dates or not. Symphorce has never really played much live before unfortunately but I hope we can come back to the States as soon as possible.
7. Do you have any plans at this point to return to the U.S. for the new record?
CEDRIC: As of now no unfortunately although we are in touch with our booking agent here in Germany to see what is possible. Like I said it all depends on the labels support and we are hoping Metal Blade is willing to pay us a little bit to do some dates. We will do a couple festivals over here in the summer so far.
8. Recording any shows for a DVD?
CEDRIC: I don’t know if you have this in the States but over here (Germany) there is a limited edition DVD that comes with “Become death” but its bootleg quality I have to confess and I am not too happy with it. It all comes down to money really when you think about it. We would really like to shoot a show with a great production but that is not our decision.
9. Shooting any promo videos for the new record?
CEDRIC: Actually we were thinking of doing for “In the Hopes of a Dream”. We have one for “Cause of Laughter” off “Twice Second” but that was more of a project done by a friend of ours.
10. Symphorce’s plans for the rest of 2007?
CEDRIC: Future plans are we want to try and play live as much as possible. We are really proud of the new record and its going to be interesting once we go into the rehearsal room to see what songs will work out when we play live. I could imagine a song like “In Hopes of a Dream” may be hard to recreate live because we don’t really want to have any playbacks during the show. Since this is our last record on Metal Blade we have see where our future takes us next.
Official website: www.symphorce.net
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