It has been four years already since my colleague, Rana Atef, spoke to Catharsis, as she was convinced that the influence of their music would have a rise for doom music in Egypt. In fact, she was right, I was pretty amazed when I found their distinctive sound while listening to their album, A Journey Of Rememberance. Well, let the journey begin…
● Hey guys! Tell me more about how you gathered up and shaped the idea of the band.
First of all, we would love to thank you for giving us such an opportunity for such a prestigious magazine to interview us the idea started with a dream and our love for doom death metal back in 2014 it started off with just amateur riffs then through ongoing years it has become the entity that is catharsis now.
● Catharsis is a very strong word indeed. How did it come up?
The main theme and the main topic of catharsis is to get rid of all the negative emotions and the purification of the soul and mind of all the dark emotions. a funny story when we were looking for a name for the band we actually looked through a vocabulary book to find a name that suits our theme.
● ” A Journey Of Remembrance” what quite a name! What’s the album concept about?
Actually, a journey of Remembrance was an article made by Rana Atef, who interviewed us back in 2017. And called she called the article a journey of Remembrance. to honour the first interview we decided to call the album the journey of Remembrance. the name itself holds a very deep place in every single one of us as we explore an adventure through our pasts and letting go of our past either toxic or moving on.
Rana Atef – Catharsis; the Rise of Doom in Egypt!
● It seems like ‘KoldHavenson’ had a huge impact on the album production and vision. Can you please elaborate more about his role?
Not only was he a huge impact on the album but also he is considered a hero for the whole album! We needed someone with composition experience to influence us into creating epic music that can reach out to everyone – either they are metalheads or not. Definitely, he is a hero, and you will hear a lot of his influences in the upcoming releases.
● I noticed that mixing and mastering processes were at Silver Steel Studio in France. Was it just a coincidence or it was planned?
Silver Steel Studio was planned out ever since the start of the studio, we talked to Yass who is the founder of Silver steel studios multiple times and we reach a perfect agreement for not only releasing this album but for future releases as well. And the reason why we chose a foreign studio because with respect to a lot of Egyptian studios we needed the expertise in mixing and mastering when it comes to our type of genre and the studio delivered it perfectly.
● You mentioned guys that the album reflects from personal experiences of the vocalist to the effects of depression. Can you please tell us more about it?
That is true. The album talks about relationships, either family or lovers, about people that caused suffering to one’s mental health. It talks about remembering and letting go of the past, letting go of everything that a person can hold, -either negative or positive. The album talks about depression in a narrative way, about a man that subsided to the voices inside his head that let him into a phase in which he can never come back. So our message from this album is you’re not alone, and we are all here together so do not be afraid to shout and scream if you need help or assistance.
● All elements were pretty stunning in your record, you choose to add some orchestral melodic elements in your tracks. Do you think this is a normal evolution for the early 90s death-doom sound?
Of course, everything has its evolution and what we try to present is the evolution of the genre that we hold dear as we try to make the album Audible to everyone who listens. We want to reach all levels of musical approach through heavy riffs medium-paced drums directed by grand majestic orchestration.
● Kudos to your selection of the session musicians, guys! Was it planned or just came during the recording process?
It was all planned out indeed. We seek to find musicians that share the same passion and love for the genre so that their influence can not only change the direction and the course of the music but also direct the music in a manner where it reaches the international standards of the music industry.
● I was expecting to find a music video, are you aiming to publish one soon?
We are aiming to make a video clip of one of our favourite tracks which is 1.11.11.
● Since there’s no active live scene, how do you plan to promote your album guys?
Actually one of our plans is to revive the metal scene back to its good old days through a live show very soon with one of Egypt’s biggest metal bands we’ve been in contact with them and we will try to revive the metal scene back to its glorious days apart from that will be promoting our music through Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and a lot of other musical outlets and we will try to reach out to global music and metal magazines.
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