Summon: How did the band get started?
Frederic: Obscurcis Romancia was formed in 1998 by 4 of us, Sylvain – vocals (he left the band in 2005 and have been replace by Francis in 2006), Rémi – Bass, Pascal – Piano/Keyboard and I (Frederic) Lead Guitar, to make our own dark and brutal music. At that time, our goal was to create a mix between brutality, heaviness, aggressiveness, dark atmosphere and extreme music to powerful, symphonic, classical, melodic and technical music. Later join Jean-Drum and Stephane-Guitar to form the actual line-up since 2002.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Frederic: We originally played Symphonic Black death Metal mainly influenced by artist as: Hecate Hecate Enthroned, Dissection, Slayer, Death, Emperor, Old Man’s Child, Pink Floyd, J.S Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Obliveon, Neuraxis, Days Of Yore, Mystic Circle. Some current bands influences are: Behemoth, Dark Funeral, Sigh, Naglfar, Nile. With the years, we have found our own sound among all these influences and start working on some of Neo-Classical Black Death Metal (Theatre Of Deception).
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Frederic: To be honest, back to 1998 to 2006, the fans response was really good in Quebec and France and overseas event if we choose to stay in the underground Montreal metal scene for years. We have tour with well known bands like: Unexpect, Augury, Despised Icon, Blackguard, Quo Vadis, Kataklysm and co-headline with Ensiferum first North America Tour in 2007 and a lot of obscure black metal bands from our country: Neuraxis, Magister Dixit, Wolven Ancestry, Rostrum, Blinded by Faith, Descend Into Nothingness, and many more… We have self produced Theatre Of Deception and are not support by any major. We have choose the darkest path to work on our own. Support us!
distributors, labels, booker you can contact us infobooking@obscurcis.com
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Frederic: The name of the band came from the concept of the beauty of darkness, It is a metamorphose of french (obscur romance) into darker sound à la latin Obscurcis Romancia. It reflect the exact opposite side of the mainstream of romantic, inspired by Dark Romanticism often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism, it is a literary and artistic movement sub-genre of the XVIII decade. Some of the great actors are Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, Guy de Maupassant and Edgar Allan Poe. It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. The natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Thompson sums up the characteristics of the sub-genre, writing: Fallen man’s inability fully to comprehend haunting reminders of another, supernatural realm that yet seemed not to exist, the constant perplexity of inexplicable and vastly metaphysical phenomena, a propensity for seemingly perverse or evil moral choices that had no firm or fixed measure or rule, and a sense of nameless guilt combined with a suspicion the external world was a delusive projection of the mind.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Frederic: I (Frederic) write a big part of the songs, but there is no way to write music in Obscurcis Romancia. In Memoriam was composed by Pascal, Le Quatrième Act was composed by Stephane and sometimes we write together. The lyrics came from me (Frederic), Francis and Pascal, everyone bring their ideas.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Frederic: It came from the Dark Romanticism concept that I mention earlier. The main theme is generally the struggle within: beauty and grotesque, evil and goodness, sanity and insanity , an ode to the beauty of darkness, the flirt of mankind with the sins and everything that god forbid us.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Frederic: We believe on mankind and what he can do on his own. When man decide to believe in something or to connect to something whatever you call it, he is capable of great things.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Frederic: We have 3 releases:
Le Regne Du Seigneur De Perdition (2001)
Obscurcis romancia (2003)
and Theatre Of Deception 2012
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Frederic: While Obscurcis Romancia (2003) represent dark poem atmospheres, Theatre Of Deception represent the mighty of darkness. These songs are our first step into the Neo-classical Black Death Metal Genre. We can say that Awakening In Spiritual Madness is the Entrance in our realm, this song have every elements that we want in Obscurcis Romancia (dark parts, aggressiveness, infernal drum, slow and dark atmospheric parts, guitars leads and furious classical piano). In Memoriam is the more complexical piece, it is an ode to the classical music, from Within The Fire Of Eternity is the tribute to the Black Death Metal genre dedicate to band like Hecate Enthroned (The Slaughter Of Innocence, A Requiem For The Mighty, Dark Requiem… And Unsilent Massacre) while Seasons Of Infinite Sorrow is purely our Black Metal side.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Frederic: Obscurcis Romancia is the only and main project.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Frederic: 6 Metal heads doing extreme metal.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Frederic: We never played in another country and are open to it. It will depend on the circumstances and the offer.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Frederic: Depend on the venues, between 100 to 500 here in Montreal.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Frederic: The crowd usually give positive response to our prestations, you can go on youtube and watch some live gigs that we have played through the years.
www.youtube.com/obscurcisromancia
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene? And what do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Frederic: As we never played outside our own country it is difficult to say something about that. But a lot of good bands and metalfest are emerging out and growing up since the mid 90′. European scenes seem to be the place to tour as every countries are near and there are too many metalfest there. Here in Quebec, we have a very good metal scene in Montreal and we have the Trois-Rivières Metalfest every year.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Frederic: Fleshgod Apocalypse, Necrophagist, The Black Dahlia Murder.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Frederic: We are already writing. We know that 9 years has passed between our last opus, but we never stop writing during these last past years. A lot of events happen during these last 7 years that put the band on the side for a while for studio recordings but we never stop playing few gigs a years in Quebec. We have material for other recording projects.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band?
Frederic: We will concentrate our effort on the process of the materials for the next album.
Special thanks to Blackened Horde Zine! Hail from Montreal!
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/obscurcis
http://obscurcisromancia.bandcamp.com
https://www.reverbnation.com/obscurcisromancia
https://soundcloud.com/obscurcisromancia
https://www.youtube.com/user/obscurcisromancia
