After nearly a decade away, Ezra Haynes returns to ALLEGAEON, bringing fresh perspective to their new album The Ossuary Lens. We discuss themes of death, technicality, and their upcoming tour.
1.
Welcome back, Ezra! How does it feel to rejoin ALLEGAEON after nearly
a decade, and how has the experience shaped your approach to this new album?
Ezra: Things
have changed a lot over the last decade. The band continued to progress, build
routines, and write to a depth that I haven't really witnessed before. It made
it incredibly easy to come back into the fold. Since we all live in different
states, even different countries for that matter, for us to get together to jam
is pretty much impossible. Since we write our song's mostly via email for us to
get together for a writing retreat months ahead of the studio really helped us
shape the album. Additionally, when we entered the studio to record The Ossuary
Lens we tore up the entire album with Dave Otero for 3 days. Doing that gave us
a goal in mind and made everybody extremely familiar with the material ahead of
recording the album. It was very cool for everybody to be that familiar with
the product prior to, rather than after the fact.
2. The
Ossuary Lens explores different perspectives on death. Can you dive into some
of the themes behind the songs and how they connect to the album's title?
Ezra: Yeah
so The album itself has this overarching theme of death and the different
viewpoints of death. You have songs like Driftwood which is more of a direct
interaction with death. About 10 years ago I was so riddled with alcoholism
that I had no choice but to stare directly into the eyes of death. Where is in
another example would be how we close the album with the song called Scythe.
This viewpoint is a little different as it more or less details my experience
of always having the feeling of death looming. I like to describe it as this. A
lot of people have a little devil and a little angel on their shoulders guiding
them throughout life, where is an I've always had the pressure of an impending
doom forcing my decisions and actions.
3. ALLEGAEON has
always been known for its complex musicianship. How did you balance
technicality and melody on this record to make it your most cohesive work yet?
Well the
song needs to come first. The flow, the way certain parts are set up and hit.
You can be as crazy as you want, but it has to be filtered through the
songwriting lens. Regardless of who writes the song I believe we all have that
filter, and we all arrange stuff as a unit to make things sound like a cohesive
body of work.
4.
You’ve worked with Dave Otero for 17 years now. What makes your collaboration
with him so special, and how has he helped shape the band's evolution?
Dave is a
great friend to us, and it's really comfortable at Flatline audio. Denver has
been a great home for the band for a long time so it's really nice to record at
home. Dave has experienced all incarnations of the band. He knows what
makes Allegaeon, Allegaeon and will straight up say "guys
this doesn't sound like Allegaeon". He's honest but kind, and his
input is always valuable.
If memory
serves, my original impression of the song was that it was super technical and
dense. I knew I liked it but for some reason I thought maybe it was "too
tech" for our the band at the time. When we were gathering songs for this
record, I thought we could use more on the tech side so I reached out to
Brandon about that song. I wanted to see if I could take a crack at rearranging
some parts. When I heard it again, I didn't think it needed much at all.
I guess my ears weren't ready for that song when Brandon presented it the first
time.
6. Over
the years, ALLEGAEON’s sound has incorporated more progressive, symphonic,
and ambient elements. Do you see this evolution continuing, or do you feel
you’ve landed on the definitive ALLEGAEON sound?
I think we will continue to push ourselves in directions that excite us. Now whether that means we will add more new elements in, that remains to be seen. If I'm studying some new technique or style of playing it will work itself in, it's how we improve as musicians. So I dont know if we will ever have a "definitive" sound but there will be technical and melodic parts on all the albums.
7. The
“melotech” label—melodic technical death metal—is an interesting way to
describe your sound. What sets ALLEGAEON apart from other bands in
the genre?
Honestly we
use that to differentiate us. We feel we don't really fit in either category.
We aren't playing crazy enough to be a tech band, and we are a little too tech
for a straight melodeath band. It's a hybrid of the Gothenburg and
California tech genres i guess.
8.
You're about to embark on The Vortex of Violence Tour with Warbringer, Skeletal
Remains, and Summoning The Lich. What can fans expect from these shows, and how
do you approach crafting your live setlist?
The
setlists these days for us are very difficult to craft. 7 albums plus non album
songs to choose from makes it a constant pain in the ass. Obviously we have to
promote the new album, so a few songs from Ossuary will be on there, but then
we have so much territory to cover. You have to play the fan favorites,
and then scatter a few songs that are deep cuts to make it more special. We
want it to feel like you had an amazing experience. I think it'll be an amazing
night for the audience.
Ezra:This
is by far the coolest set list! Since we're seven albums in, there is more than
enough material to evenly portrays the band, it's heaviness, and all the unique
dynamics. I couldn't be more proud of this set!
The prep
for tour is very important. I like to have 2 months to get to that auto
pilot stage. That way I can just focus on the performance part and not what
notes im playing. I don't want to be worried about how to play songs with
all the distractions that live performance throws at you. We wanna put on
a great show, and be as active as we can, so for me that means doing cardio
before tour starts.
As for
warm-ups. I like to have an hour where I can get my finger independence dialed
in and make sure I'm playing right on the tips of my fingers. It ensures I have
more control over the strings.
10. ALLEGAEON’s
lyrics have often been rooted in science and philosophy. Are there any specific
influences—books, theories, or personal experiences—that shaped the writing of
this album?
Ezra: Honestly
it starts with day-to-day life. Whether It's from browsing the internet or
having a casual conversation with a friend, relatable or topics of interest
naturally come up. From there I just jot it down.The Ossuary Lens is different
in the sense that this would be my first time really writing more personal
material than just full-blown themes revolving around science. I find this to
be particularly great as I find a deeper connection with the material itself.
It's what music is all about!
11. The
album is coming out via Metal Blade Records. How has your relationship with the
label helped ALLEGAEON grow over the years?
The Ossuary
Lens is our 7th record with Metal Blade. Metal Blade is family at this point.
We love the staff, and really appreciate all the hard work they put into the
band. When you see how many bands the label has, and how they work for you it's
really an amazing feeling. Like all relationships they change over time,
and honestly we are really happy working with them.
12.
Finally, what’s next for ALLEGAEON after this album cycle? Do you
have any long-term goals or creative directions you’re excited to explore?
Right now
we are very focused on growing outside of the North American market. Europe has
been very good to us over the years and we want to start visiting more often,
as well as looking into Asia and the South American Markets.
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