Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Enrique: We started with this lineup (except for the vocalist) in 2010. Most of us come from a band named Dracko (2002-2009), a Mexico City-based group as well. The band split and then there were two parties: one consisting of us (both guitarists and the bassist), and the other one, just the singer. Both ‘bands’ would share the drummer for some months… until we decided to hire a new one, for everyone’s sake. It’s always been important for us to balance the ‘brotherhood’ with the individual capabilities. We are close friends in the ‘real life’.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Enrique: We are melodic but not strictly tuneful nor “sweet” or necessarily “catchy”. We like to refer to it as simply “metal”. For a die-hard thrasher, we play “heavy metal”. Before we hired Lorena on vocals, José (gtr.) used to sing and we sounded “thrashers” for some ears. For younger listeners, we play “power metal”. For listeners above 35, we sound as “speed metal”. According to some recent reviews, we play heavy metal with some elements from thrash metal. On the other hand, our lyrics have taken two main ways so far: one is personal, introspective, based on topics as madness, mental illness, looking for spiritual freedom; the other one is about social issues and war-related. So, we guess we may match between heavy metal and thrash metal, although we have some elements, the main vocals for example, brought from some other rock and roll ‘domains’. Examples? I’d say “Wanton War”, 2nd track on the album: put a bluesy, zeppelin-esque vocal line among contemporary heavy/thrasher riff structures. You get something slightly different from others, and that’s a great achievement! It is funny to find that our style have been criticized a couple of times for “not-respecting” some tacit and kind of quintessential patterns of power metal, heavy metal or even thrash metal as genres. “Strange mixture”, we have been told.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Enrique: It’s been generally good, some times very good; some close fans give us a lot of feedback. Of course, we’ve also had not-friendly comments, but they obviously don’t come from the fans. We are open to every comment, every opinion.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Enrique: It all began as a joke: that is the name of the street we rehearse at!
We liked the way it sounded, but we always preferred it with the visual extra strength of the double T we added, different from the original word. As Triton and in this case Tritton has the same meaning at least in English and Spanish, it worked fine. We had already picked that name by the time we read about its meanings: Many dudes think it’s about the tritone, that musical interval known as ‘diabolous in musica’, which is made by three adjacent whole tones. It’s also known as augmented fourth, like the one we can find in the opening riff of the song called ‘Black Sabbath’. Some other have given it a mythological root: Triton is a Greek god, messenger of the sea, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Tritton is also a moon of the planet Neptune; the only large moon in the whole Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet’s rotation. We started considering those three ‘possible meanings’ by the time we were discussing the name of the band, and we liked all those connotations. We may use one of them as the ‘real’ root in the future, not now.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Enrique: The band was founded by Victor Varas (bass player), Enrique Torres and José Mojica (both guitar players). The three of us came from Dracko. Then Yohann Torres (drums) entered the band. Lorena Cabrera (vocals) is our brand-new member, since she joined just five months ago. José sings some songs as well; he used to sing before Lorena joined the band.
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics? And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Enrique: The music and lyrics on this album were written entirely by Enrique and Victor, although there is new music already written by Lorena and José, being prepared for the second album. As soon as we have our drummer writing as well, we’ll be claiming that here’s a place where everyone plays… and everyone writes.
Blackened Horde: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Enrique: We like them as alternative points of view of this world, although most of us (if not everybody) prefer agnosticism. However, we recognize that we have different levels of spiritual beliefs. We respect Satanism probably at the same level we respect Christianity or Buddhism, doctrines we don’t actually practice; all of them may make you a better person, or even better: a person you may like the most. By the other hand, Occultism is much more interesting. Occult science, paranormal magic, alchemy… mysticism are interesting since they are not religions or dogmas laid down by any “authority”. We have always listened to music with lyrics about the occult. Loads of metal band manage to write interesting lyrics about that. One of the most interesting bands in rock, the Chicago-based band of the late-sixties Coven, was completely into the occult. We listened to them again when we hired Lorena and her voice reminded us of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick. Well, Coven sounds like the Airplane-meets-Sabbath if you mix the sound (mainly Jinx’s singing) with the lyrics subject. Their fist album is amazing, and it even features a black mass as a track. Even more: the ‘Black Sabbath’ song written by Coven is lyrically superior to the one written by Black Sabbath. Conclusion: we’ve not been into that in our lyrics so far but are rather open to it.
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Enrique: This is the debut album of us as Tritton, but we have recorded some others with the previous bands.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Enrique: Martyr, the opening song, it’s a fast tempo heavy metal track with lyrics about unchaining, facing the manipulation, resisting against the ambition of the factual powers of the economic system. Wanton War is an “anti-war” heavy song with thrash-metal influences in both music and lyrics and groovy, almost bluesy vocal lines. Face of Madness is the title-track, a fast tempo song in the late eighties speed/thrash vein under a melodic vocal line and the insanity and illness as the subjects. Insurrection is pure hard rock musical arrangements with heavy metal mid-tempo rhythm and introspective lyrics highly influenced by readings about psychoanalysis. Flash of the blast features pure velocity, different rhythm sections, harmonized lyrics, fast rhythm picking and classic heavy metal guitar melodies played up-tempo. Asphyxia brings back the introspective side of the album, lyrically, claiming for emotional freedom after having felt asphyxiated by routines and other spiritual prisons. It’s a fast number with a slow/mid tempo interlude for seven brief and pretend-to-be dynamic mini guitar solos. 33 degrees recovers the war and social issue. It recalls the war in Iraq which began ten years ago. Talking about geography, 33 degrees parallel north, by the way, is about the circle of latitude that crosses Iraq very, very near Baghdad.
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Enrique: We have had them, but at this point most of us are concentrated in the band, musically.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Enrique: It’s hard to tell within a few words, but if we had to recognize them, we’d have Luzbel and Raxas (MX), Malón and Rata Blanca (Arg), Maiden, old Van Halen, Accept, Pantera, pieces of US (Megadeth and Anthrax) and German thrash metal, as well as melodic speed and power metal (Helloween, Gamma Ray, Angra, Stratovarius). We also like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Kiss, Judas Priest and AC/DC and even classic rock like Queen, Yardbirds, etc.
Blackened Horde: Which current bands?
Enrique: What a difficult question! We like many bands from different genres and aforementioned, every one of us has influences from different sources. Masterplan, Rage, Grave Digger, Axxis, Iced Earth, Virgin Steele, White Skull, Candlemass, as well as Children of Bodom, Davin Townsend Project, All Shall Perish, Jag Panzer, Halstorm, Soilwork, , In Flames… every genre of metal, mainly melodic no matter if it’s thrash, death, power, groove, etc.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Enrique: It is important to have a lot of fun. We enjoy sweating the shirts, giving an energetic show. We try to be natural, and we like to offer a direct sound which can represent the recordings, that’s why our production may be found quite simple. Not atmospheric effects, no keyboards, no overdubbing, extra layers, no dozens of voices. We might try some of it in the future, but we rather feel like rocking in a raw way, nowadays.
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Enrique: Not yet. We expect to do it soon.
Blackened Horde: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Enrique: It depends on the venue, but since we are playing in clubs, let’s say… two hundred assistants may be an average. We have played in theaters also, and that’s when we do it in front of bigger audiences.
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Enrique: They’re very receptive, and although sometimes many audience members mosh in front of the stage, this is not a rule, since we’ve played in small underground clubs but also in medium-sized theaters. We have played in front of quiet and euphoric crowds as well.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Victor: Well, I really liked old days of death metal music in US, and definitely it forged one of the most important scenes in the world, until these days. The American sound is still recognized everywhere in the globe, and names like Death, Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Possessed, Rigor Mortis, Terrorizer, Obituary, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Incantation, and thousands more are huge influence for today’s death metal music. These days I have had contact with bands like Kommandant (Chicago), With Burning Contempt (Virginia), Wes Weaver (ex- Imprecation, now in Blaspherian), Dirigiri (Texas), Sathanas (Pennsylvania), Unburied (Virginia), Terror Caput Mundi (Missouri), Necrot (California), and some more I can’t remember right now.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Victor: Seems, like almost every place in the world has a metal-head dude, no matter how remote is or how solitaire lives. The cool thing is when guys decide to take a guitar and practice some riffs. Believe me, I have seen young kids playing basic heavy metal riffs with passion and ferocity, and they deserve all my respect; more than some “famous and successful bands” out there. I admire metal bands coming from places you wouldn’t believe there is a metal band. Also, I think that every band in the world should create its own sound and personality, and stop copying others sound. As the song says “It’s a Long Way to the Top”
Blackened Horde: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Victor: As aforementioned, although I play bass guitar in a heavy metal band, I really like death metal in the vein of old school. Right now I’m listening to some new releases from a Spanish Label called Memento Mori, like Ataraxy, Solothus, Symptom, they all are killer! Also, I like bands like Necroccultus, Slugathor, Necrovorous, Zombiefication, Funeral Whore, Engulfed, Festering, Deathcult, Death Invoker, Into Darkness, Acid Witch, Imprecation (new album is killer!!!), Burial Invocation, Bombs of Hades, Deserted Fear, and some more.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Victor: Right now we are in the process of composition, and we have at least two songs almost finished. We are going to have a release party in August 31th, and maybe we will play the new material there.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band?
Victor: I’d like to have a Crystal Ball to see what happens in the future!! Well, I think time shall tell anyway. We are a solid team of motherfuckers who are looking for promotion for our music. People who listen to our songs will decide what happens then. Meanwhile, we stand here on the ground and will still practicing, rehearsing, composing, drinking like cave men, etc.
The band appreciates this space, Blackened Horde Radio for metal music promotion. We hope you keep the flame of metal music alive for a long time.
Contact them at:
https://soundcloud.com/tritton-metalband
http://www.reverbnation.com/tritton
https://www.facebook.com/TrittonMetalBand
http://trittonmetal.bandcamp.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/TrittonMetalBand
E mail: trittonrocks@gmail.com
Zombie_ritual_fanzine@yahoo.com.mx
