Anthropomorphia has been among my favorite Dutch metal bands for years. The records the band released after their resurrection in 2009 are extraordinarily good, simply overwhelming. And when I saw them perform once at the Netherlands Deathfest years ago, the connection was forever. Especially ‘Evangelivm Nekromantia’ (2012), ‘Rites Ov Perversion’ (2014) and ‘Sermon Ov Wrath’ (2017) still regularly find their way to my turntable. The combination of rock solid Death Metal with clear musical excursions into Black Metal always tastes for more. And that’s what we got, the band never sat still and regularly presented us with a new album. Until that suddenly stopped after ‘Merciless Savagery’ (2019). To my luck, the band had not called it quits, but was “just” dealing with some setbacks. About that and the brand new album ‘Devoid Of Light,’ I spoke with founder, vocalist and guitarist Ferry…
Hi Ferry, welcome! Thanks for making some time to talk about AntropomorphiA and your new record ‘Devoid Of Light’. Before we go into that new album a bit more, I am wondering: what took you so long? This new record appears about six years after ‘Merciless Savagery’, while there were two or three years in between your previous records…
‘Merciless Savagery’ was having some momentum, we for the first time we made plans, shows/tour etc. as we normally don’t plan too far ahead because life always has a way to fuck things up… and what do you know? Life came into play and fucked up things, with the pandemic marching in and shooting it all down.
During that whole period I tried to find some creativity but I felt no connection it all felt lethargic. I also was still in a state that connected to ‘Merciless Savagery’ and there was also no urgency. We are a band that needs an album to go on tour/play shows, at that point nobody knew when this shit would be fully over.
After the pandemic became background noise, we were able to do some shows, from these shows, watching the herd mentality and the chaos during this pandemic, creativity presented itself. Having found this connection I started working more intensively on these new musical incantations.
Then another time consuming factor presented itself. Due to personal tribulations, I won’t go into the specifics because its quit personal, I wasn’t able to write or record anything new for almost a full year.
I guess somewhere early 2023 we continued on this journey which ended in July of 2024, that’s when we finished all the recordings. The album was done for quite a while but with the whole finding a new label and the time it takes for a label to plan a release adds another 10 months to the process.
In a way you were surprising me with the choice of labels. First up I was surprised to see AntropomorphiA return after so many years in 2012 with ‘Evangelivm Nekromantia’ on Metal Blade Records, a label that is known for a focus on commercial success. Then another surprise came in the form of you leaving Metal Blade Records and returning on Testimony Records. What’s the story behind this? How did you end up on Metal Blade Records in the first place and was it just a matter of having fulfilled the contract and looking for other opportunities?
We recorded a demo with 3 songs in 2010 and we shopped that around, like in the old day. Several labels showed interest, Metal Blade being one of them. At the end we decided to go with Metal Blade as it was a good offer.
The business side of things has changed drastically over the years and specially since the pandemic most labels have another way of looking at and working with their product. For a underground band like us that means that you are one of the many, many acts on such a major label that gets lost between other releases and even though we have always been treated very fairly by Metal Blade, a full focus for this release would be more beneficial for the band. After talking to several labels, major and smaller, Testimony came out as sincere and willing. So we decided to sign with the label that commits to us and this release.
Following up on the previous question. Of course this is just your first record for Testimony Records, so it will be hard to judge anything about your cooperation with them at this point. But do you already notice any difference from being on a major/bigger metal label like Metal Blade and a smaller independent label like Testimony Records? Is it the cliché things like a smaller budget for recording and promotion but a more personal and closer contact?
I think it’s too early to make a conclusion. It’s some of the cliché things that are noticeable, which in this case aren’t negative. The contact with the label is more intense. The business side of things stayed the same.
Let’s now dive into the new record a bit. As a whole, to me it seems ‘Devoid Of Light’ is quite a bit more melodic than your previous four records. Although ‘Merciless Savagery’ already showed a bit more of a melodic side, but in general that album was still very much in line with its predecessor. Was it a conscious choice or did these more melodic parts creep in the music more naturally? Did this also change the way you compose/write the music?
This is not something you predetermine, like you said, even though still being in line with its predecessor ‘Merciless Savagery’ was already a darker and a more melodic album.
The writing process of an album is an artistic journey, a journey that has an inevitable path of natural progression. The palpable darkness and dissonance that haunts this album is part of that progression, it’s what presented itself.
No, it didn’t chance the way I write or compose but with each album and over the years, Jos and I have developed a certain way of working and co-writing. During those years he has become a bigger influence in the process and he knows exactly how to fill in what’s missing and what a song needs.
On the more cosmetic matters of the album, It once again amazed me how massive sound you have had ever since the recordings of your ‘Evangelivm Nekromantia’. Usually Marco Stubbe, your drummer, is taking recording matters in his own hands and Dan Swanö or Tore Stjerna were hired for mastering. I think the same approach is used so that ‘Devoid Of Light’ sounds almost identical to its predecessors? Can you tell something about the way you work to get this crushing sound?
This would be a question for Marco, my involvement stops with the guitar sound(s) that I present and want for the album. We leave everything up to Marco, we’ve founded this band and he knows how exactly this band should sound, he knows what he’s doing and there has never ever been an argument on that. For this album one thing changed, we recorded the vocals in another studio, one closer to my home but all other steps are the same; Marco produced and mixed the album, Swanö mastered it.
AntropomorphiA is unmistakably a Death Metal band, but also one that clearly lurks in the darkness. I always felt that the band had a rather evident Black Metal atmosphere. Not only in terms of sound, the eerie melodies, but certainly also in the aesthetics, the blood and occult imagery. On a musical level I think that Black Metal feeling is even stronger on ‘Devoid Of Light’. Can you relate to such a statement? And does Black Metal has a conscious influence on you as a musician?
I can relate to it, although I do not actively listen to other bands in search for inspiration. Our music to me is boundless extreme music and since I listen to many types off music Black Metal being one of them but so does 70’s rock, heavy metal, dark wave and 80’s wave, I would not say that it’s a conscious influence, I think ‘Devoid of Light is an amalgam of all these ‘genres’, and not just one or the other.
Although I wouldn’t call ‘Devoid Of Light’ a Death/Doom Metal album per definition, but many of the melodies that I already called “eerie” before, are evoking quite a doomy touch as well. That is already there from the opener ‘The Withering Stench Of Hope’, a title that in itself is already quite telling. And it can be me, but the pace also seems a tad slower. This all is a little departure from your earlier musical formula, isn’t it?
I never saw our music in a formula, we have a certain signature which comes from the way I write and play but like I said in a previous question, this is the music that presented itself…and I certainly wouldn’t say it’s a slower album, I would say it’s more balanced.
But, before we’d think that ‘Devoid Of Light’ is not a Death Metal album through and through, it surely is! There is just a lot more dynamics and diversity found on this new album. As a whole, how do you look back at the creative process leading up to this new record? If I am well informed ‘Devoid Of Light’ took two years and a half of diligent work. Are you satisfied with the result?
Something like that, spread out over a longer timeline though. It was taunting at times, my personal situation made it sometimes difficult to follow our desired path. But we knew where we this journey could lead us and with each new track our fires started to burn higher.
We are all very proud of the album, I personally am convinced it’s the best thing we’ve ever presented to the world, and yes I know all artist say that about their new album but I honestly feel that way..for me it was self-fulfillment, a cleansing and gratifying process.
Around the recording of ‘Merciless Savagery’ long-term companion Marc van Stiphout left the band and was replaced by Jeroen Pleunis (ex-Villainy), but I guess ‘Devoid Of Light’ is the first album that has come about entirely without Marc. Did his departure change anything in the chemistry in the band or on a creative level?
Jeroen played bass on ‘Merciless Savagery’ and we’ve been friends far before he joined the band and I always wanted to start a band with him and we made several attempts to form one but unfortunately the attempts where never fruitful.
So when Marc left there was no question within the band about who would replace him. As far as chemistry goes, Jeroen brings in a different fire while on the other hand it feels like he has always been part of the band.
‘Devoid Of Light’ is a title that makes a good fits to that darker side we already discussed. I haven’t been really able to dive into the lyrical content of the album, but since there’s no titles like ‘Nekrovaginal Secretions’ (from ‘Rites Ov Perversion’, 2014) I am guessing that this is an album that revolves around other topics? Can take me with you on what this album is about and what the inspiration was on a non-musical level?
The lyrical content changed over the years, when I was a 18 year old kid I thought it was sick to have female characters doing all this depraved killing and roaming around graveyards to fuck corpses… ‘Rites Ov Perversion’ was still deeply rooted in that past, which is okay but I wanted to be more connected to my lyrics, not tell the same type of horror stories. So with each album I slowly moved towards more personal themes in my lyrics.
‘Devoid of Light’ is like an open wound, it has a retrospective view and some is what you’d could call autobiographical, it’s bleak and dark, it deals with doctrines that behold this cesspool of excrement we call earth, it carries loss, depression, has a diabolical, nihilist and misanthropic side, most of the time open for interpretation because my meaning will probably differ from yours.
It’s the music that asks for a certain lyric, for example in the case of ‘Unending. Hunt’ when the music was there I knew where I needed to go lyrically and I wrote several parts but I couldn’t find the right narrative, until I heard a sentence in a lyric in a song from The Eagles and that provided the inspiration. In fact I have used some sentence structures into the song.
Then something that I always admired about the Antropomorphia records, at least of those from your Metal Blade Records era: the artwork. Especially ‘Evangelivm Nekromantia’ and my favorite ‘Rites Ov Perversion’ have splendid artwork. Judging from the art and the layout of the records, I am quite sure that the presentation is quite an important part of the band. Can you tell something about the way you look at and experience artwork in combination with records in general and Antropomorphia’s more specifically?
Art has been a part of me for most of my life, in one way or another. I’ve been designing merch/flyers/posters since the late 80’s. Regarding the visual aesthetic of AntropomorphiA, for me it is as important as the music, it’s connected to each other.
I’ve always been fascinated by the Iron Maiden covers, how they would tell stories, have hidden references incorporated in the artwork and how well it’s connected with their music. Music and artwork are important, this was already the case with our demo’s. Back then I drew the artwork and did the lay out and till this day I am responsible for all of that. Although, we sometimes hire other artist for covers, it has to be coherent with the music for us.
For this interview I went into my archives of magazines and fanzine and found a review of ‘Pure’ (1998) in the most well-known metal magazine Aardschok. At first I didn’t even think about including anything like this in our conversation, but it actually got me quite intrigued about the musical development. How did you go from the rather solid but basic Death Metal of your demos to the modern and groove-laden Machine Head-like stuff on ‘Pure’ and back again?
When you listen to our second demo ‘I have my Way’ you’ll hear that ‘Pure’ is a natural progression from what’s on that demo. It would be our version of a ‘Into The Pandemonium’ but it didn’t came out the way we liked and we didn’t want to release the whole thing but since the label paid a bunch of money and owned the master-tapes it got released anyway. What you call going back wasn’t an issue, we weren’t that far from our roots, while the original line up had crumbled, Marco and I kept writing and the music that presented itself was an early version of what later would become a part of the ‘Evangelivm’ album… for instance the track ’Nekrosophia’ was written in early 2000 under a different title.
We already touched upon this a little before, but the same as the musical shift from ‘Pure’ can more or less be said about the topics you address in your music. Although ‘Evangelivm Nekromantia’ was also partially banned in Germany for being too explicit on certain obscenities, Antropomorphia’s second coming hasn’t much to do with the sexual-tinged subject as displayed on ‘Pure’ with tracks like ‘Vibrator’ and ‘Masturbate’ and a cover that shows woman’s genitals – the preceding demo tape had the same imagery. Was this just a creative aberration, or are these topics still finding their way into your music?
The reason for the ban was not the explicit themed songs it where the occult, the satanic current and misanthropic subjects, specially the track ‘Fleisch’ that triggered the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien. It was seen as cruel and a danger to the youth of Germany. As far as the current topics go, I like to refer to a couple questions back.
Something I always wondered about is that, although you have played basically all major underground festivals in Europe and released four album on Metal Blade Records, you don’t seem to get a lot of recognition from the Dutch audience. Maybe that is something typical for the Dutch metal scene, but is that something you experienced yourself as well? Or doesn’t it bother you in the least?
It is something that we are somewhat aware of, although we don’t really are bothered by it. I see it as a Dutch thing, where for instance the German or Belgium audience’ takes pride in their acts, here there’s always a percentage of the ‘audience’ or metal scene that has a certain restraint towards Dutch acts no matter the musical genre.
To be honest, I personally don’t care or give a fuck. Our music and expression comes from a genuine place and we will keep following that path, regardless on how the scene views us.
When I am writing this you are preparing yourself for the “release party” of ‘Devoid Of Light’. Personally I have only been able to catch you on stage once, that was in Tilburg on one of the editions of Netherlands Deathfest. I was really impressed by the sound quality and stage presence that includes occult artefacts and lots of blood. Your release party is in your hometown of Tilburg, what can I expect of the band this time? And will there be more shows or touring now the new album is coming?
We’re going to play ‘Devoid of Light’ in its entirety, that’s all I can say about it. Things are in motion regarding shows but I ‘m not allowed tell about it at this moment.
Already Ferry, that was it from my side. As usually the case, I am giving you the last words to round off this interview. Thank you very much for your time!
Thank you.
