From the powerful Quebec underground emerge what will become a strong contender in the international death metal community. Quo Vadis, after several positive reviews for their self-titled demo have recently released an independent CD titled _Forever..._. The CD demonstrates Quo Vadis' strength at playing music that is at times fast but at other times melodic and emotional. Guitarist/vocalist Bart Frydrychowicz took the time to answer all of my questions about the band, the music scene in Quebec among other interesting topics.
One of the first questions that came to mind was what the band's name meant, so it would be one of the first questions I would ask. It was indeed Latin and meant "'Where are you going?". He went on explaining how the name really suited the band. "The name suits us perfectly as we really have no pre-defined musical direction. We try to capture our feelings and transcribe them into music and our new album reflects that philosophy perfectly. You never know where you'll end up in life - bitter, sad, angry, or calm or serene... we'll see where all this takes us".
I then turned our conversation towards their previous work, their self-titled demo which helped them get the band's name out in Montreal and also around the world. Bart explained that they were still in the process of focusing their sound. "We recorded a demo which was released as an EP on cassette last year. The reaction was very positive. We were still searching for direction at that time, experimenting with keyboards and femme vox. The music is much more focused now as we have found our sound". Comparing it to their new album Bart continues, "_Forever..._ is much more aggressive then the EP was, it's much more melodic and intricate. That may sound like a contradiction but that is the case. I think we had more to say as musicians this time in the studio as well. Our objective was to keep the aggression and not to loose our edge. I think we captured that quite well, at the same time setting free our artistic side. It's pretty weird. You have to listen to both (the EP and CD) to really understand.
With Quo Vadis from the ever-growing Montreal scene, I asked him on his thoughts on coming from that scene and it's place in the overall Canadian metal scene. "Actually the Montreal scene is geared more towards "brutal" stuff", he begins. "Suffocation can get 900 people here for example. Bands that we'd like to play with, like At The Gates, In Flames or Dark Tranquillity don't come to Canada. The scene in general is very united in promoting Montreal, and it's working. We have more metal shows by international acts here then any other city in Canada and there seems to be little backstabbing etc. with the exception of two black metal bands that were spawned from the same original outfit and are now enlocked in a firm grip of hatred. Maybe we'll have our own murder and church burnings here. As for our shows we should be hooking up with Monstrosity/Vader for a few shows [which awaits confirmation on behalf of Lee from Conquest Music] and Suffocation will be doing a show on March 1st, that is already confirmed, I think. We'll be quite busy in the upcoming weeks".
Concerning lyrics Bart has a hard time describing them, but they definitely aren't the silly gore-type. "Everything on the album is based on reality. It's either our perspective on the world or an introspective look at ourselves. The topics on the album are what we're all about, the music and lyrics say it all. Really it's very difficult to answer this question as many of the things can not be put into words, the poetry on the album expresses the answer quite closely". "There are always little details one would want to change", Bart begins talking about the production of _Forever..._, which was produced by Pierre Remillard (Obliveon, Cryptopsy). "But we're extremely happy with this album and it's production. We asked Pierre Remillard who is the local sound guru and that certainly payed off. That is not to say that the recording process was easy and without stress, we took about 3 weeks for recording. I'd like to work with Pierre again for our future effort.
With only one listen to _Forever..._, one will hear not only technical musical ability but also a lot of emotion and soul. I asked Bart how exactly important it was to have emotion in Quo Vadis' music. "Music without emotion has no meaning to us. Music has the ability to transcend language and words. It is a perfect medium to convey emotion. In my mind the two are inseparable. Music without emotion is uninspired and misses it's purpose. I also find vocals to be very expressive and an integral part of any song. I suppose my fascination with voice is what keeps me listening to choirs all the time".
Bart also informed me that labels have expressed interest in signing the band. So you may soon be hearing from one of Canada's finest and latest metal exports!!
Demo _Quo Vadis_ -- $6 US Independent CD _Forever..._ -- $12 US
Contact: QUO VADIS, c/o VomiT Productions
P.O. Box 44, NDG, Montreal, Que., H4A-3P4, Canada
mailto:quovadis@axess.com
WWW: http://alcor.concordia.ca/~b_frydr/index.html