Interview: The Seven Gates: Sheer Willpower! - STALKER MAGAZINE inside out of rock´n´roll

The Seven Gates: Sheer Willpower!

The Seven Gates debut album “Angel of Suffering” hit shelves Tuesday May 12th and has been a big hit thus far, also impressing me as the STALKER reviewer. In a short email interview with Vincent Urbain of The Seven Gates, I got the low down on the band´s current situation and history. Let’s see what Vincent had to say…

Where are you all from? What “type” of music do you play?
We are from the middle of France and play True Death Metal

Who are the band members, and what instrument do you play?
Michel: lead guitar, Adrien: guitar, Kevin: Drummer, and Me (Vincent): Bass/Vocals

As a band, who have your major musical influences been?
Hum, we’ve listened to death metal for quite a long time now! Our influences are the origins, bands like Deicide, Bolt Thrower, Slayer or Morbid Angel. We also listen to black metal, thrash metal or classical music. My fave one is original sound from the movies.

Do you have a record label? If so, which one?
We’ve just signed with HEAVY ARTILLERY records from New York, for our 1st album “Angel Of Suffering”. The 2000 first copy will be release with a live bonus DVD! We are very satisfied with them! Heavy Artillery are real metal fans!

Do you have any upcoming shows?
Heavy Artillery prepared a European tour with Exmortus for this summer. And a French tour in October/November! We are really happy about that, we play death metal also for the stage!!! You can find the dates on: http://www.myspace.com/thesevengates

Do you ever plan to play any cover songs?
Never, we fuckin’ don’t care!

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of them?
Me and Michel. Our album is a concept, speak about our emotions from of our own suffering; unfortunately its necessary to our own development. Our songs involve our own experiences of terror, pain, physic like morals…, and we try to imagine these situations…We can also deject our hate to the face of the world, hehehehe.

Could you briefly describe your music-making process?
Me or Michel bring some riffs, or sometimes a complete song. We work together, taking or rejecting the idea of each…in general we take a moment to fight over the best idea! We finish the song and test his groove and aggressiveness on stage!!

What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice?
It’s difficult to say at this moment, there is a story of keys ;-) ahahah! But generally each week.

How has your music evolved since you first began playing together?
We play together since 15 years ago with Michel; We evolve into a music that we like because we like the riffs, the real one, this one that you recognize! Also the new formation is more aggressive and technical, but we keep our dark ambiances. Our sound is also very much better!

What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome these?
Becoming from some gigs very well….washed!

What are your ultimate goals as a band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
AHAHAH Just eating because you win money with your own music is already a miracle NOW!! It should be cool!

What advice do you have for people that want to form their own bands?
Stay Yourself! Fuck the trend or whatever people could say..! Just Do it! Stronger will remains!

Any last words?
Very thanx to you, really hope to coming to the US this summer to burning all the stages! Seven gates for seven sins, listen to the song of the dead!

All right, thanks for your time guys!

Special thanks to Vincent, The Seven Gates, and Heavy Artillery Records for being so helpful with all of this. The review of The Seven Gates’ debut album “Angel of Suffering” can be found here

Author: Cameron Field, transl. K. Weber, photos: The Seven Gates
Date: 2009-05-16

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