“Playing music that is this extreme is not an easy thing to do.”

Based in Los Angeles, the symphonic black metal band Sothis was formed in 1999 and the founders searched for some of the best musicians to be a part of this lineup. Five years later, a complete band was formed and went into the studio to record their first self-titled demo. It proved to be a masterpiece that would catapult the band into major magazines such as Revolver and Pit magazine and received stellar reviews across the board. With several tours and a couple of DVDs under their belt, Sothis is looking to dominate the world yet again with their newly released album De Oppresso Liber. Soaked with black metal and a very dark and haunting atmosphere, Sothis will soon be the biggest thing to come across the black metal scene! Sothis' drummer, Dross, was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions with Fourteeng! Pick a copy of their new album De Oppresso Liber and check them out at www.sothis.us and www.myspace.com/sothis 

Kate Wilcox: Thank you for taking the time to interview with us, how has feedback for De Oppresso Liber been so far?

Dross: The feedback from reviewers has been pretty damn good to tell you the truth. You never know whose hands your music will fall into though. If your reviewer is nineteen and has been into Metal for a whopping three years and doesn't like polished Symphonic Black Metal or is such a fuckin uneducated dip shit that they only know of DIMMU BOGIR and CRADLE OF FILTH (as far as Symphonic Black Metal goes) than you might be in trouble.

You're shooting a new video for "De Oppresso Liber" how has that been going?

We've shot all of the footage and the video is now in the post production/editing stage. I was able to see some of the footage from both days of shooting and I've got to tell you; I think this video is going to come out very pro. We are trying to make the video different from what has been done before in our genre. It is very challenging though, because in a way, they are trying to make the album cover come to life.

What did you learn about yourself and your band mates while making the first full length?

I think that I learned at lot since I was the tracking engineer and producer of the record. You learn as a producer that you need to change your attack depending on the different personalities that you are working with. The tracks of our two guitar players is very different for instance because they both have two very unique and different personalities. Each of them need different things to pull out the best in them. So, in that sense, I learned a lot about each of them and about their strengths and weaknesses as musicians as well. Playing music that is this extreme is not an easy thing to do.

Did it turn out the way you wanted?

I'm the most self-critical guy in the world but I also need to sell albums (laughs).  What should I say?  What should I say (laughs)? I think that people are going to really, really like what they hear if they are into polished Symphonic Black Metal. Is the album everything I wanted it to be as an engineer and producer?  No. I think that I'll do better next time because I've learned from my mistakes.

Was there a lot of pressure surrounding the release internally speaking?

I think we went under much of the typical pressure a band goes through when they are recording an album. Any abnormal pressure was just on Drogoth (our vocalist) and I, since he handled all of the artwork for the album and I handled the audio production.  In the end though, I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome of everything.

Knowing that this band definitely runs deep through your veins, case in point Dross painstakingly creating the amazing artwork for the album, please explain the concept from the artist’s point of view. What are you hoping for the viewer to take away?

Well, I came up with the title De Oppresso Liber some time in 2008 I think. I suggested the name and concept to Drogoth as a song title at that time. Drogoth handles all of the lyric writing for the band and ran with the concept. Later when we needed to decide on an album title we decided to use that concept for the album art. We all discussed the fact that we wanted a cover that had a lot of detail like IRON MAIDEN's Number of the Beast album that you can just stare at for hours. We discussed how when we were young we had bought albums just based on the cover alone. We discussed great album covers such as AUTOPSY's "Severed Survival" or DIO's "Holy Diver" and how the images made such a big impact that you were willing to take a chance and buy the record just to hear what was inside.

Do you foresee relinquishing control over art direction in the near future or is it something you are too connected to, to give to another?

I honestly hope that Drogoth and I can continue to have our hands on the production of each of our upcoming albums.  It is kind of cool to know that we did everything on the album.  Hopefully one day we'll be able to keep the mixing in house as well.  That having been said, we'll do whatever we think is best for the band and its fans because that is what matters in the end.

What have been some of your past influences music-wise and have any of them changed?

We have a million influences to tell you the truth and I think that each one of them has changed.  That is the problem really; you cannot stop time.  The bands change, the musician themselves change and we all as listeners change as well.  Think about it; you aren't the same listener that you were five years ago.

What do you feel are some of the differences between the black metal scene in the U.S. compared to the black metal scene in Europe?

Well, if we are just talking about known signed bands from each of these territories I'd say that in general European bands tend to sound more produced and US bands sound more "raw and hateful." The reason behind this is very simple though; money. Since it is just unthought-of that a US Black Metal band can compete with a Scandinavian band, no one is willing to dump the same kind of money into them. It will be up to the US bands to prove themselves in order to get the same kind of budgets and therefore be on an equal footing with those bands. The European bands had the same issues in the nineties trying to compete with the Florida Death Metal scene. It was hard to be taken serious as a Death Metal band if you weren't from Florida or at least the States.

Was it a dream come true to be able to master the CD in Sweden?

We actually mixed and mastered the CD in Sweden. The mastering process was done through the mail and over the internet but we were in Sweden for two weeks during the mixing session. We took advantage of our traveling to Sweden for the mixing and made sure to see Ireland, England, Norway and Sweden. They were of course all incredible places to visit as we all love adventure.

Are you planning on touring soon?

Yes, we are planning on doing some touring soon. We are going to do a West Coast Mini Tour here in the US [with Abysmal Dawn] in December if everything goes according to plan. That mini tour will take us through California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. We will do ten dates in ten days for this tour. We are also working on a much larger tour where we'll be an opening act sometime in the middle of 2009. This will be a full US tour and will hit some parts of Canada as well.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for that one.

How did Sothis come together?

I met our guitar player Scathe in recording school here in Los Angeles back in 1999. We started jamming and then before you know it we started forming the band.  It would end up taking us several years to find all of the members though because we knew we wanted a recording contact and to release several albums. We knew we needed to find musicians that were worth it and had their shit together enough to make that happen. 

Are you still on the search for a new bassist?

No, I think we've actually found our man to tell you the truth. We tried out five guys from California, one from Alabama and even one from Mexico City if you can believe that. In the end though we found someone here locally that we think is the best fit for us. There are some incredibly talented guys out there though.

How’s life on Candlelight? Must be nice to be on a label that embraces black metal!

It has been pretty cool being on Candlelight to tell you the truth. It is very cool having a team of people behind you. It is also very cool to be working with a label that supports Black Metal and that isn't involved with way too many bands and so forth. I think that Candlelight was a very good fit for us as a band.

What are some future plans for Sothis?

Our basic plan at the moment is to try to do at least one full US and European tour before we pack things in to work on our sophomore release.  I don't foresee us doing anymore videos for this album even though I'd love to do one for "Beneath A Black Boiling Sky."

Do you see the black metal scene being even stronger than it is now in 10 years?

Wow, ten years is a LONG time and a lot of things can happen in ten years.  I think that Black Metal will be bigger and stronger within Metal in ten years than it is now. The question is where will Metal be in ten years from now?  I hope that Metal is stronger in ten years than it is now but you never know what will happen.

Any words for your fans out there?

Thank you so much for your support and your encouraging words to us. You cannot imagine how much your encouraging words can mean to us sometimes. I hope to meet as many of you as possible when we are on the road. Stay Metal my brothers and sisters, if the Metal Gods will have us, we going to take this thing farther than you could have ever imagined!

Thank you again! We appreciate your taking the time to do this!

We would like to thank the band and their camp for making this interview a possibility.