Interview A Rising Chapter

A Rising Chapter's "Forlorn Hope" EP delves into societal struggles, personal battles, and haunting fears, blending diverse metal influences for a unique sound. Let's explore their journey.

1. Congratulations on the release of "Forlorn Hope"! Can you tell us about the themes and inspiration behind this EP?
Ok, here we go:
Hated Society:
This song is a shoutout to people who want to bring you down and bring negative energy into your live.
„The Chosen One“ stands for pure motivation, if you have to fight against your inner bastard. It doesn’t matter if it’s because of sport, music, work or family things.
System of the Damned:
This one is about corruption, manipulation, crimes of governments and social problems of today.
Nightmare:
The title of the song describes it really well. True fear, the deepest fears you get when your nightmares come true. Face them or get broken by them. This is where the EP title "Forlorn Hope" get's real.
„Everything“ is for our loved and lost ones. Especially for the father of jakob (vocals) and alex (drummer). We‘ve honored them too on our first ep with the song „Never Forgotten Ones“ and still miss them.
2. Your music blends elements from various metal genres like death metal, black metal, and deathcore. How do you navigate these influences to create your distinctive sound?
I would say we take all elements that we like the most, from each of those genres. We want to create a really brutal sound, but something that is not like everything else and has recognition value.
3. "Hated Society" starts with a lofi guitar intro and evolves into a heavy, aggressive track. Could you walk us through the creative process behind this song?
This Song is one of our favourites. The rhytmic parts with the heavy stomp chorus what have a little Rammstein influences in the synth is different. The breakdowns hits hard and there you have a really nice banger from our EP „Forlorn Hope“.
4. The EP features a variety of tempos and moods. How do you approach songwriting to ensure each track stands out while maintaining coherence across the EP?
We often try to keep the chorus more melodic in comparison to our heavy breakdowns. We think that this is what keep the songs in the heads of the listeners and the blast parts seem even more brutal.

5. You've mentioned balancing explosive rawness with modern production in your music. How do you achieve this balance in the studio?
This is a development which comes automaticly in the writing and mixing process. When we start with new songs, in the most of the time there is no concrete plan. We´ve started everytime and our 2 EP`s „I N A N I M A T E“ & „Forlorn Hope“ are the results.
6. What role does each band member play in the creative and recording process? How do your individual experiences in the metal scene contribute to A Rising Chapter's sound?
First of all, as a band every member has his own influence and style what makes it to our special sound. But especially for the creating and recording process, our drummer has written 90% of all songs and he mixes them too, so he is the main part of why we sound like this. Our vocalist writes the lyrics and the vocal parts and the rest of the band is there to look good (litte kidding J ).
7. A Rising Chapter is known for intense live performances. How do you translate the energy and complexity of your recordings into your live shows?
Our claim is to sound as good as on our records and because of this, we have a lot of samples in the background. All the synths, guitar layers and this stuff creates all the energy of the sound on stage. And besides this, it´s easy: If you love your own music, you will perform automaticly with all what you got to bring this into the crowd.
8. You've recently started working with "Sounds From Hell Records".How has this partnership influenced your approach to releasing and promoting your music?
SFHR managed the publication of "Forlorn Hope" which went really well. They also helped us a lot to finally get our new merchandise. We also work on getting in contact with a few booking agencys to get more and bigger shows. We are excited to see what the future holds.

9. Could you share a memorable experience from your recent performances with Omega Diatribe and ALPHA WOLF?
Oh yes. Especially the show with Alpha Wolf was intense. Backstage munich is almost one of our favourite venues and at this show there was such a good energizing crowd. You can see it on our live video to our song „Everything“ which will be dropped on 9th July on Slam Worldwide. With Omega Diatribe it was really nice too. We loved to meet other people and bands from other countries and they made a really nice live show.
We hope really that we can get soon more support shows of bands from our genre. This is awesome.
10. What are your thoughts on the current state of the metal scene in Germany? How has it shaped your journey as a band?
We like it. Big Shows, really awesome people and brands like „IMPERICON“ gives our scene a big step up. Besides this in the last years there was a new wave of bands like HalfMe or something like that and these bands show how modern metal from germany can sound. We think we are also an example for bands that sound different and show what germany can bring.
11. Looking ahead, what are your goals for A Rising Chapter in the near future? Are there any new projects or collaborations in the works?
Shows. More and bigger shows. We think that our music especially in germany is very rare and the awesome feedback of all the people at our live shows give us the oppurtinity that we can go way further then we are now. We are open for collaborations and it would be very nice to make a song with bigger names from the scene like Tom Barber, CJ McMahon, Will Ramos and all those guys.
12. How do you see A Rising Chapter evolving musically in the coming years? Are there any experimental or new directions you'd like to explore?
At this time we think we´ve found our style and it allows us to mix it with different metal styles and it will always sound like A Rising Chapter. The sound of brutal breakdowns, blastbeats and heavy riffs mixed with melodic synth choruses and catchy lines is A Rising Chapter.