Interview with Hail Spirit Noir

Hail Spirit Noir, the Greek progressive black metal band known for their genre-blending sound, has once again pushed the boundaries with their latest album, Fossil Gardens. This new release marks their most extreme effort to date, incorporating more black metal elements while maintaining the psychedelic and experimental flair that has become their signature. In this interview, the band delves into the inspiration behind their intense new sound, the philosophical and scientific themes that shape the album, and the collaborative process that brought Fossil Gardens to life. 

"Fossil Gardens" is noted as your most extreme effort to date, incorporating more black metal elements while maintaining your signature psychedelic sound. What inspired this shift towards a more intense and chaotic soundscape, and how did you approach the songwriting process for this album?

Like all our records, it's never been a conscious decision. Things usually turn out the way they do of their own accord and more often than not totally different from what we might have had in mind. We are surprised ourselves, hah. To my ears, it's a natural progression from Eden's sort of mellower approach, not a reaction but a continuation as there are elements from all our albums plus new ones. The process was the same as always; Haris comes up with the basic structure, and then Demian and I add the guitar parts and change things around to finalize. Sakis and Foivos add their own touch with their suggestions.

The album explores philosophical and scientific themes, particularly the struggle to unravel the secrets of the universe and transcend space and time. Can you elaborate on the lyrical and conceptual inspiration behind "Fossil Gardens"? How do these themes influence the music and the overall atmosphere of the album?

The album title is a way to describe the universe, basically. We were talking about the album theme with Haris and had an image of a museum of dead concepts as their exhibits, or concepts that are about to become obsolete but still provide the world with meaning, fuel if you will, just like fossils do. Because in time everything will perish and every idea or concept we cling to today will morph into something vastly different. It might even end up with a different meaning altogether. In the vast expanse of the cosmos, it's a garden from which all things stem and everything goes to die. It sounds bleak, but every song is almost triumphant as we discuss these topics as a celebration of every fault and failure that makes us want to explore and expand our senses. To be honest, lyrics come almost after the music's done or at least when we have an idea of what it's going to sound like. Usually, the music informs the lyrics, but we have a basic concept beforehand.

You worked with Dimitris Douvras and Magnus Lindberg on the production of "Fossil Gardens." What was it like collaborating with them, and how did their expertise contribute to the final sound of the album?

Douvras has been working with us ever since the final Transcending Bizarre? album. It was a no-brainer that he would record and mix the album as we can't think of anyone else at this point to put up with the amount of work our projects require. He also possesses a keen ear for sounds, and his suggestions have proven invaluable. We were looking for someone with a different approach to mastering this time, which is why we opted not to use Alan Douches. We particularly love Lindberg's work on the Cult of Luna albums, and generally, he has managed to augment the sound without sacrificing the tones Douvras slaves over. Not an easy feat, let me tell you.

The visual side of the album, crafted by George Baramatis and Dimitris Katsenos, plays a significant role in portraying the abstract vision of "Fossil Gardens." How do the album's visuals complement its musical and thematic content?

There's a little of the lyrics of every song in the cover artwork, both by coincidence and by design. When we first saw Baramatis's artwork, we were blown away as it encapsulated everything we felt the album's sound should project. Looking at it while listening to it, you should feel like you're taking a dive deep into that void through sea shells and bone alleys. Katsenos managed with his artwork to give a visual representation for each song, and this makes the booklet even more immersive.

"Fossil Gardens" is seen as a continuation of the journey started with "Eden in Reverse," but with a more aggressive and extreme approach. Can you discuss the transition between these two albums and how your music has evolved during this period?

As I said, it wasn't a conscious decision. I mean, some people thought we were going to go full synthwave because of Mannequins, but that was a one-off experiment. "Eden...." was released right around the time COVID put a halt to everyone's plans, so maybe that made us a bit frustrated. Well, it obviously did, and I could blame that for the album's sound. Or maybe we spent a lot of time listening to albums of '90s black metal and even new releases that kind of had a '90s vibe to them, like the new DHG album, which was breathtaking, and the impressive Stormkeep album. Fans have commented that with every album we jump forward a decade, so this time it was bound to be the '90s. I can't really say if our process got more sophisticated or if it's exactly the same. If anything changed, that's probably our tastes and current influences. Even the so-called return to our previous sound doesn't seem like that to me. Simply because black metal vocals are the majority on the LP, that shouldn't in itself mean that. "Eden..." didn't require them, and the new songs called out for them.

Haris mentioned that the album has a solid yet abstract sound production, aiming for the listener to perceive the music as a whole rather than the sum of individual parts. How did you achieve this cohesive sound, and what challenges did you face during the production process?

The idea was to create a wall of sound that you would crush against, but a wave that would carry you towards the source. Massive yet immersive. Haris, being the main composer, had a pretty clear vision of what he wanted the album to be, so he guided Douvras towards the end goal. But it was Douvras who managed to get out of us the required performances and then added his ear to the mixing process. I can't think of any challenge in particular other than proving a real challenge for me to record vocal-wise as I hadn't done that in quite a bit and I didn't know how they would turn out.

Order the album here: https://hailspiritnoir.com