Interview Hteththemeth

Romanian avant-garde act Hteththemeth returns with Telluric Inharmonies, a conceptual journey through chaos and transformation. We dive into their unhuman music, cinematic storytelling, and ambitious saga of Adoriel.

1. First of all, congratulations on Telluric Inharmonies! Can you walk us through the concept behind the album and what the title means to you?

Thank you very much! We are very excited for things finally coming together for this album and also for the opportunity to work with Layered Reality Productions!

"Telluric Inharmonies" is actually part of a bigger story, as conceptualized by Läo, the story of the archangel Adoriel and his transformational journey towards becoming an archdemon and taking the name Hteththemeth. The entire saga is supposed to spread through five conceptual studio albums, covering all planes of existence, but focusing mainly on the celestial and the telluric ones. The archangel's destiny becomes intrinsically linked with one character, "the Guy", who becomes very much the alter ego of Adoriel/Hteththemeth in the earthly world. As the name implies, "Telluric Inharmonies" is focused on the events in the telluric realm, a world filled with inharmonies: lies, deceit and all other flaws humans were "gifted", and it will all eventually lead to the transformation of Adoriel.

So far, we have released one other album from the saga, titled "Best Worst Case Scenario", so we're almost halfway there.

2. You describe your music as ‘Unhuman Music.’ How did this term originate, and what does it signify in the context of your sound and artistic vision?

As explained in the first question, the saga of Adoriel/Hteththemeth covers a lot more than just the human events and stories, so, at least at a conceptual level, we feel Läo's definition of "unhuman music" is very fitting. Also, from a musical point of view, we don't actually care about specific musical genres. We try to paint the images and feelings from the story, creating the soundtrack to our imaginary movie. This way, you can find all kinds of musical elements in our songs, like bossa nova, blues, even pop, ambiental and orchestral parts, hard rock, heavy metal, and also more aggressive parts, bordering djent, death and even black metal. We couldn't find an already existing genre to encompass everything we do, since even avant-garde or progressive didn't feel like covering all there is to the Hteththemethian sound, so we call it unhuman music.

3. Compared to your earlier work, how does Telluric Inharmonies evolve or expand the Hteththemeth universe, both musically and thematically?

Things have definitely changed since our past materials, in many regards, and that is also true regarding our music. Given that "Telluric Inharmonies" is meant to be a part of an entire saga that was already envisioned, another fifth part of the grand story is unveiled in this album, focusing on the earlier events, this album being actually the first one, in the chronological order.

You can also hear a clear shift in the musical direction as well, with a slight departure from the more extreme metal influences as compared to "Best Worst Case Scenario", but that is also due to the shift in tone in the events portrayed, since it doesn't have the urgency and the doomed, harsh atmosphere of our 2016 release. We also explored new musical avenues and diversified our means of expression along the way. Nevertheless, we feel the Hteththemeth imprint is still there and there is a clear coherence between the two albums, but on "Telluric Inharmonies" the audience can experience even more flavors.

Of course, this shift happened also after Bob (Robert Cotoros) left the band, meaning we had to settle into a new dynamic when it came to composing our music, since he was a great contributor to our overall sound.

4. The album is rich in cinematic and theatrical elements. How do you approach the storytelling aspect of your music, and how important is narrative in your creative process?

Everything starts with the narrative, since we are actually telling stories with our music. In fact, in 2013, when Läo decided he needed a full band lineup in order to express the universe that had lived in his head and soul for over a decade, he gathered us all and we ended up spending a long evening together, during which he revealed the entire story to us, or course, followed by a lengthy discussion on the subject.

Naturally, everything we compose is meant to portray the stories we want to tell. Our creative process doesn't really follow a strict path, it usually starts with a theme that one of us comes up with and the others just fill in the remaining musical space. At times, one of us comes up with more than just a theme, or we just happen to jam at our rehearsal studio and things just click. Some songs just flow along seemingly without any effort, while others torture our musical senses until they manage to come to a final form.

Of course, this also means that some of the music we create doesn't fit our current scenarios, so we'll either keep them for a later release or they will remain hidden for the general public forever.

5. Your influences include Arcturus, Anathema, Vulture Industries, and Pain of Salvation’s 'BE' era. What aspects of these bands inspired you most, and how do you make sure your sound remains uniquely your own?

We wouldn't necessarily state these are our musical influences, they're more like artists with similar musical vibes to our own, and there are two sides to this statement.

First of all, we all have very diverse tastes in music and we actually are each very different when it comes to it. This is actually one of our strengths, since in this way we manage to come up with such variety in our music, but still managing to keep the overall Hteththemeth sound, without it feeling forced. This is indeed who we are as artists, it is a sincere expression of our souls, not a deliberate search for diversity.

The other side of the coin is that we don't try to steer our music towards other artists or certain genres. Although it's clear that our individual musical ways of expression are definitely influenced by the artists we each enjoy, we're trying to create our own path, our own vision, painting the soundscapes where Läo's concepts and stories come to life.

6. The sonic landscape of the album is incredibly dynamic—shifting from haunting melodies to erratic rhythms and avant-garde chaos. How do you strike a balance between structure and experimentation?

We definitely experiment a lot with all aspects of our music, including during production, but we don't necessarily abide by a certain structure. Of course, we have a certain way of doing things, especially when it comes to recording, but from a musical point of view, we kind of let things flow at their own pace and in their own direction. There are times where we're going for a certain sound or atmosphere from the start, but music always has a way to surprise us. When inspiration really kicks in, we all know it and we trust the creative process to figure itself out, delivering a raw material that we decide afterwards how to polish, if we feel that's actually needed. A particular aspect of our songwriting is that we seem to be unable to compose short songs and we barely have any that fit in the 3 minutes radio standard.

7. Tell us about the production process for Telluric Inharmonies. What were some of the most challenging or rewarding moments during its creation?

Our relation with this album has been a very tumultuous one, since it took a long time to get from start to finish. Given that our previous material was released in 2016, we actually started working on the new album in September 2017, when we got together for a prolonged creative weekend and we rapidly put together some songs, at least in a brute state. Not long after, we put the composing sessions to a halt, in order to prepare for the big ending of our "Best Worst Case Scenario" tour: a series of concerts together with 4Tune Quartet, a classical string quartet from our hometown, in the spring of 2018, while also filming a video with them.

After that it should've been smooth sailing, since we already had more songs and ideas and we actually recorded and released our first single from "Telluric Inharmonies" în December 2018. But soon things started spiraling out of control, first with the departure of Bob (Robert Cotoros), who was our guitar player, second vocalist, sound engineer and main producer at the time.

We had to adjust and reorchestrate everything to just one guitar and we took up the task of recording this album on our own, since we had no label to support us. It took us quite some time to get the hang of things, but when we finally thought we were really making good progress, the pandemic hit.

We had to put almost everything to a halt, since for some of us it was a very difficult time, and although we kept on recording and even releasing some songs, it was a very slow process, that we only managed to finish in 2024, plagued with all sorts of delays and even health issues. But nothing could've prepared us for the blow of Bob's sudden death, during the pandemic. It was very tough to process and to handle.

We also had to find a different sound engineer for the mastering of the album, right in the middle of things, and we also had CJ joining the band to fill Bob's place, reverting everything to the two guitars setup.

The delays also had their benefits, since they gave us the time to add extra layers and orchestral parts to our songs, and also to perfect the scores for Alexandra's cello, which you can hear on the album.

Of course, we played a lot of songs from "Telluric Inharmonies" in our live shows and, based on our live sets experiences with poetry mixed with musical bits, we set out to record all the intermezzos on the album right at the end of the recording process, that being a last minute add-on.

After all, the story has a happy end, since in 2024 we signed with Layered Reality Productions and finally, on the fourth of April 2025, the very long awaited "Telluric Inharmonies" hit the streaming platforms for everyone to experience.

8. Romania has a rich and diverse underground music scene. How has your local environment influenced your sound, and how do you see Hteththemeth’s place in the wider progressive/avant-garde metal world?

Yes, we do have a diverse and rich underground scene in Romania and we took whatever experience and advice we could from everyone that we collaborated with so far, especially on the technical side of things. There is always something to learn, even from the young bands.

Some might say, and perhaps there is some truth to it, that each country or region has a certain way of making music and therefore each brings a distinct specificity to the musical landscape. We don't think this actually applies to Hteththemeth, since we consider our music to be rather unique, in Romania and also worldwide, both in concept and execution.

Our place in the wider progressive/avant-garde world is clear and very well defined by the very phrase that usually ends our official messages: WE ARE HTETHTHEMETH!

9. Live performance seems like it would be a powerful extension of your theatrical sound. What can audiences expect from a Hteththemeth live experience?

We've always felt that a Hteththemeth concert should be more than just a concert. We want to provide an entire experience, as you put it, we want to immerse the audience in our world. That's why we use theatrical elements, poetry, props of all kinds, projections and even actors to visually bring our characters and stories in front of the audience. Of course, each venue and each event have their limitations, but we try to make the most out of each opportunity.

In a way, this is already our trademark, since we've set a pretty high bar for ourselves even from the start of the "Best Worst Case Scenario" album launch tour. We had curtains and we split the entire show into three acts, each with a specific attire and, furthermore, everything that was happening on stage had to have a reason, a link to the concepts behind the music. Nothing was random and everything had to follow the storyline. Of course, things have evolved and we have a different show for our "Telluric Inharmonies" tour, but the credo is the same: nothing is random.

With all that in mind, the focus still remains on the music, everything else being just a catalyst for the audience to abandon their imagination to our stories and to venture with us in our musical journeys.

10. Finally, what message or emotional journey do you hope listeners take away after diving into Telluric Inharmonies?

We believe each form of art speaks to each individual differently, since we all resonate to different emotions, messages and we all have our personal inner truths. Of course, we hope a lot of people enjoy our album, but also that it reaches some inner, deeper levels of their souls and that it moves them in any way. Since composing this album was such a fantastic journey for us, we hope they get to experience at least a fraction of all that and, wherever the music takes them, we hope they connect to some parts of their true selves at the end of this musical journey.

 Acasă - Hteththemeth