Kevin Heier
Diabolic Night
Hello. Everything is fine on my side, thank you.
Absolutely. Especially when you notice the interval between my last release nearly 4 years ago and the upcoming debut full length. The expectations are high and I want the listener to get the record as a full experience without releasing half of the record before.
I started Diabolic Night more than 6 years ago. It has always been my ambition to write down my very own vision in a musical form. My inspiration for this are without doubt my favorite bands and records which have accompanied me since my earliest youth.
The concept behind Diabolic Night doesn't fit to the typical band structure where everyone brings in their ideas. It wouldn't be the same in the end. With Diabolic Night I enjoy the freedom to express my own vision exactly as I feel it. In a full-time band, it's usually the case that everyone wants to contribute their ideas in some way, which is completely justified, but not for Diabolic Night. Anyway there is a live line-up created, ready to perform the songs live (again). The live events will begin next year.
I couldn't have found a better collaboration than with High Roller Records. In the past I released my discography by my own label "Mortal Rite Records", where I was able to gain a lot of experience. Due to the growth of Diabolic Night, it's no longer possible for me to distribute this as a one-man label, so I'm happy to have High Roller on my side. The promotion and advertising are going absolutely well and since the official announcement that I signed the contract, lots of people became aware of Diabolic Night for the first time.
To sum it up, "Beyond The Realm" symbolizes the never-ending fight between good and evil which lasts forever, even after death. A few songs are closely structured into each other and can be read as story, although I don't see the album as a pure concept album. In this case the content of some songs stands too much for themselves.
"Beyond The Realm" has become a very personal album, with which I also immortalized certain experiences of the past years. I want to give the listeners the opportunity to create their own vision without going deep into the content of the lyrics now. But I can say already, there is no reference to a current topic in our society.
When I started to work out the concept for "Beyond The Realm", I already had my final vision in mind, right from the beginning – How the record shall sound like, what the lyrics shall be about and what it should express visually. I deliberately chose the same artist who already painted the "Infernal Power" artwork back then. He is able to realize my idea exactly as I had it in my mind. Musically, it is obvious where the influences for Diabolic Night come from. It starts from early German Speed Metal to classic NWOBHM leads, continues with Eastern European Heavy Metal and ends with Scandinavian second wave Black Metal.
The "red line" of Diabolic Night still is and remains the same of course. I do the songwriting with the same enthusiasm as I did it for the first demo 6 years ago. But over the years the whole concept has been developing steadily. With every song I write, work out and refine, I set myself the target to take the whole construct to the next level. Very important for me and to emphasize on "Beyond The Realm" is, as you mentioned before, the memorability of melodic leads that you can find on almost every song on the album. Furthermore, the bass also plays a very important role and stands out continuously due to its partly concise bass lines.
It's almost impossible to relate to a particular band as an influence. The songs I write reflect exactly the music I listen to since my earliest youth. I don't limit myself to one genre, I let flow everything into my music that has always inspired me – besides of extremely speed structures, it's also a melody that sticks in your head.
The magic unfolds every time anew. When I put on a record that always had a huge impact on me, you discover and understand the power every time again and again. It starts with the unmatched guitar playing, goes over to its concise songwriting and ends with the final sound of the respective album. I could write novels about specific records. By creating your own sound and your own concept during the years it's definitely possible to recreate the same sensations for yourself as it was back then.
The first step is that I build the basic structure of a song and gradually go into the details after. There are songs that are written within a few hours, while other songs last months until they are finished, especially due the fact that I write everything melody line by myself. I write pretty much the number of songs needed for each release, so there is no semi-finished material that I sort out in advance. I devote my full attention to each song until it is fully worked out.
In addition to this I have to add that I don't deal with modern sounding metal at all. For more than 15 years now the same albums ended up on my turntable. If you still get the same emotions as when you listen to these records for the first time, I think it has an enormous influence on the music you write by yourself. You automatically get back to the same kind of music – you build up your own world and sink into it.
Each song on the album stands for itself and has its very own characteristics. I define "Beyond The Realm" as a whole thing – one song can't go without the other song, so it's not possible to highlight one track. The fact that every song is so unique, makes it interesting in my opinion.
I don't limit myself to specific genres and don't care for stereotyped thinking of playing only kind of genre. Of course it's clear that the "cornerstone" of Diabolic Night has its musically structure deep in European Metal (Especially from Germany and Scandinavia) like it was done 30-35 years ago.
I started to write "Beyond The Realm" at the beginning of 2016 already. It was directly clear for me that I want to have a very unique sound that express my music in the most powerful way possible. Although the whole writing process until the final recordings took such a long time I am really satisfied with the final result. For weeks I sat with Mario in the studio to work on the Mix which I had in my mind, until we finally made it. The last step (Mastering) was done by Patrick, who took the final Mix on the final level and made it to the result as you can hear it now.
"Infernal Power" was already released previously as a 7"-Single back in 2015 and marks the oldest song on my debut. It's a very special song. Back then it was the summary of my complete discography since I started this project. It contains the traditional trademarks for what Diabolic Night is standing for and even its lyric lines "beyond the realm…" defined the album title of my debut now – So, you can see this track as the "hour of birth" which sees the light of day four years later. For the album I re-recorded the song to let this piece fits together with the other tracks.
Chris (Christhunter) is a very good friend of mine and we know each other for several years now. I was always impressed by his way of playing drums because he has his very own technique. A variable playing was very important for me – someone who doesn't play the same beat for five minutes. His drumming gave the whole album a very special dynamic – I couldn't have imagined it in a better way.
"Statistics" like these show how much this kind of music has become into the focus of everyday life – of people who don't listen to it, but simply try to entertain the masses with dangerous half-knowledge. I'm not going to discuss something like that any further.
I can't say much about such statements either. As long as you do your own thing and hold on to it, I think the question is largely answered.
First song structures are already written down and a rough concept is already in development. But my main focus at the moment is still 100% on the upcoming album and live shows.
Thank you for the interview and your words, I wish you all the best.
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