Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Evgeny: Intaglio was born in late 2004 as a one-man band. At that time, I was seriously involved in funeral doom metal and wanted to make some music in this genre. Debut album was written & recorded during 2004-2005. In 2005 I met Maxim Mazin (now known as Nezz Black) who did the lyrics for the album and recorded vocals. There wasn’t any opportunity to make professional production at that time, so the album was mostly homemade.
In 2020 we released a 15th anniversary remix of the debut album. All source files were carefully restored, the album came with newly recorded drums and absolutely new sound which gave it a new life. And now the new page in bands history is the new album “II”.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Evgeny: Intaglio did the first funeral doom album release from Russia. It was not something unique, rather minimalistic, but it was a very important step at the time. As it turned out later the album had a great influence on some other artists and served as a source of inspiration. There were also cover versions of the tracks, and the music was even used in one art-house movie.
Now we moved to neoclassical doom death metal with new album, which of course contains some funeral doom moments.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Evgeny: Very different. Some people really like the stuff, others don’t understand anything. Usually, each new music thing just needs some time. The new album is also had its own specific and we are waiting when people will check it our and understand it.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Evgeny: Intaglio means the engraving on the stone. Everyone knows that it is always a hard task to take a band name. As far as I remember there were a few things during the decision. First of all – the name should be unique (it was already possible to check this on the internet). The name should mention something serious and fundamental. I think it was the main idea. It’s hard to say more now since 16 years have passed. For now, I’m absolutely satisfied with the name and think that everything was done right and the stories behind the band’s albums are really serious.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
This is the line-up for the last album:
Evander Sinque: Lead Vocals
Evgeny Semenov: Acoustic, Baritone, Electric Guitar, Bass, Korg MS-20
Alexey Batrakov: Double Bass, Bass
Nadia Avanesova: Cello
Roman “V”: Drums, Percussion
Tres Hunter: Bass Vocals
Andy Grig: Tenor Vocals
Reverend B.: Spoken Words, Baritone Vocals
Maria Balakina: Soprano Vocals, Chimes
Artur Shaura: Basso Profundo
Dmitry Litvintsev: Baritone Vocals
Anna Semenova: Spoken Words
Alexander Tretyakov: Additional Guitars
Aleksey Samoschenkov: Flute
Sergey Sevastyanov: Mouth Harp
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Evgeny: At this time, we’ve released 2 full-length albums and 2 singles.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some of the songs on the latest CD?
Evgeny: Midnight Sonata
The first and the longest composition on the album is written in sonata form and consists of the three main sections that make up this classical musical structure: “Exposition” (The Night Sky), “Development” (Melting Like Ice…) and “Recapitulation” (Always Return). The track introduces the philosophical opposition between the dark and light essences, which is the primary theme of the album. The contrasting sections of exposition and recapitulation are performed with groups of clean voices, while the central part of the piece is performed with growled vocals.
Subject To Time
This is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, but it has an unexpectedly light and melodic ending. The lyrical idea here is that everything in this world has its logical end, but this ending is neither a positive nor negative event. It’s simply the nature of our time-based reality. Growled vocals are dominant here, informing us that everything is subject to time, and nothing is eternal. Clean vocals are used as an opposition to the growls throughout this track (as well as throughout the rest of the album) and inform us that light actually IS eternal.
The Memory of Death
This piece continues the lyrical theme of the previous compositions, but with a focus on the tragic aspects of death. While death is the final stage of existence as we know it, its looming presence is also one of the driving influences during human life. This idea is conveyed through lines like “The memory of death puts everything in its place”, and “You can take with you only what is in your soul.”
Depths of Space
This is one of the most experimental and philosophical tracks on the album, and it gives the impression that all of the previously discussed questions and problems of humanity are minuscule in the larger context of the universe. The most avant-garde track on the album, it blends funeral doom riffing with mouth harp sounds to create a unique and cosmic feeling.
Everything in its Place
The final track on the album sums up all of its themes, stating that everything in this world is and always has been in its correct place. The presence and confrontation of light and dark, positive and negative, is a fundamental part of our reality, and to obsess or over-inflect in either direction will disrupt the balance. Our task is not to ruminate on which side of the coin is “good” or “bad”, but rather to maintain this order. The song ends with some of the same lyrical lines from “Subject to Time”, but this time the addition of vocal melody changes and brightens the meaning.
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Evgeny: Most of the lyrics was written by vocalists. With some help and corrections from my side.
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Evgeny: I think that lyric ideas some from world outside us. Nothing special here. Just put the things which are important for us. The main concept for the new album’s lyrics was started by Evander Sinque who has written the darkest parts. It is philosophical, touches upon the issues of life and death, aimed at understanding our location in the context of the universe. While experimenting and understanding the sonata music form I’ve had an idea to make clean vocal parts which will be opposite to the growls. We expanded the lyrics to the whole conceptual story which goes through the album. I think that the result is very interesting and the vocal performance really fits the lyrics. In the end, we understand that neither death nor life are dominant, and they are both necessary parts of the world. It was somehow unexpected for ourselves, but we think that it turned out quite interesting
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Evgeny: Yes, everyone have some other music interests. Evander Sinque is a leader of Who Dies In Siberian Slush. It’s his main project and Intaglio is a side project for him.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Evgeny: Back in 2005 all these pioneers of funeral doom metal inspired me alongside Esoteric, Evoken, Mournful Congregation and Shape Of Despair. It was a really great time. And there were many people involved in this kind of music. But I have to say that no one of them influenced me during the last songwriting sessions, and I’m not into the last works of those bands. I think only Esoteric did a great job during the last decade and brought some fresh and interesting releases.
But I can’t say that any other bands were an inspiration. I found it really interesting to collaborate with other people who even don’t know anything about funeral doom. They have their own vision. On a new record there’s a huge line up. Around 20 members were involved. Each one made his own contribution and this is unique. This is the rare doom metal album which you can hear with people who are not into doom.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Evgeny: We don’t play live. Theoretically it’s possible to make a live performance, but it can be a hard task to bring all the musical elements to the gig. There should be a big scene which can include at least 10-15 people, but as we know usually bands play in clubs or small venues and less people in the band = less problems on scene because of easier setup. Nowadays in Russia metal music is not popular at all and we don’t see any opportunity for live performances.
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Evgeny: In other band but not as Intaglio.
Blackened Horde: What do you think about the underground scene?
Evgeny: I think that all new cool things was born in underground. The bands which improve their skills and grow up sometime goes to another level. But underground always have some hidden gems.
Blackened Horde: What are some of your new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Evgeny: Don’t think I can tell any new band in those genres.
Blackened Horde: Since the Covid Pandemic has that hurt the band in making music at all?
Evgeny: When we did a release of our demo single “The Memory Of Death” in 2019 we expected that the new album would be out in 2020. But pandemic messed up all the plans and there were problems with vocal recording which caused big delays. It’s the bad side. But the good side is an unexpected free time which was used to restore and remix the debut album. I’ve had to individually work on each track. It was good luck that the original multi-track recording was saved. So we decided to restore everything from the source and record new drums, which were originally programmed. Everyone who has checked the new version liked it.
Blackened Horde: What advice would you as a musician give to a fellow musician just starting out?
Evgeny: Be ready that you’ll have to prove to people that your music worth it and always stay creative.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Evgeny: Don’t know for now. Just made the new record. And it took a lot of personal resources. Hope that we’ll have a strength to make the album which will be better than the new one.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Evgeny: Think that we’ll take some break and will see how our last album will go on and what feedback will be. After that we’ll see what to do next.
Contact them at:
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UChahc1nog4092-fVcLxfJ_w