Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? Yes, all of the members have supported other bands from the South of Ecuador. The 5-strings player (Bassner) was a member of a Death Metal band from Loja, called “Inphectus”; the drummer (Henry) is supporting a Gothic metal band called “Lago Gris”. And the second guitar and songwriter (Darío) is vocals and bass player in a Heavy-Thrash metal band called “Abstracto”.

How is it that you started playing music? I learned music in a conservatory of music in my city at the age of eight years old. In the beginning time I learned classical music playing the violin, then, at the age of 13, I started learning guitar

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? My name is Darío Veintimilla and I play the second guitar. The other members of the band are: Henry González (drums), Jorge Luis Torres (lead guitar), Bassner Cueva (5-strings), and Bolívar (vocals). We have more than 20 years playing metal music in our city. We all are around 36 years old.

Have you had other previous members? Yes, there were at least five members performing different instruments since 2006, but, for many reasons (mainly for moving out to the town) they had to leave the band. Sadly, now we have a conflict with our ex-vocals member, but it is a too long story to tell…..

Did you make music even when you were young? In my case yes, I started making my own music at the age of 17.

Where are you from? I come from Loja- Ecuador.

What year did the band form? The band was funded in 2006 by Henry González.

What's your style of genre? We think that our style is melodic Thrash-Death Metal

What inspires you? Personally my music is inspired by Chuck Schuldiner (Death) and Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). The other members have similar musical tastes, some more inclined to the Death Metal, others a little more Thrash metal, anyway, that makes our music have different influences.

How often and where do you reherse? We rehearse only once a week because of our jobs

How have you developed since you started with the music? The musical development that we have experienced is quite noticeable. When we started playing the first covers, the challenge was always more complicated because the genres we prefer are very demanding in terms of interpretive technique. Later when we started creating our own music, all the effort to play songs from our favorite bands such as Sepultura, Kreator, Carcass, In Flames, Benediction, Death, etc., made the compositions incorporate many technical elements.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Yes. We have different jobs outside the band, for example, in my case I am a Forest Engineer currently doing mi PhD in Silviculture. The other members are teachers (Bassner), trademakers (Bolivar) empiric sound engineer (Henry) and agricultural engineer (Jorge Luis).

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? At the moment we are working independently….

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We have had some offers from independent record companies, but at the moment we do not intend to sign for any. Personally I would like to work with independent labels, not with major record labels, since somehow the bands lose the freedom to do several things that, when they were independent, they could do it.

What made you decide to make this music?  I don´t know, sometimes I´ve stopped to think why I´ve chosen this kind of music, instead of commercial music such as Pop or something like that. The answer is that I was born to play metal music, this kind of music flows through my veins and it doesn´t matter what happens around my life, I never stop to listen or play this music.

What are your songs about? Mainly rejecting injustices, describing post-apocalyptic events. Or simply denouncing how bad the world is. I also try to report environmental and social problems. It's a bit of everything

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I am the writer of lyrics for the moment. In the past, there was a joint work of all members of the band. But after we fired the ex-vocalist, who claimed that he was the only one who wrote all lyrics (which is a big lie) we decided to avoid as much as possible sharing the composition of lyrics and songs in order to be free of legal problems in the future, if some member decides to leave the band.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? I prefer composing the music first. Is easier for me to match the lyric when I have the whole structure of the song already done

Do you compose in a certain environment? I don´t have a special environment to compose. Just I start playing some riffs and then I attach several phrases. The environment around me doesn´t play a role in my inspiration. But I need to have a clear idea of what I want to express with the song.

Have you done any covers live? We have played in the past several covers of bands like Sepultura, Carcass, Kreator, but now we play in our presentations only songs of the band

What language do you sing in? We sing in spanish, but we planned to sing in English some songs in order to have more acceptation, especially of people from other countries out of South America

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? In my hometown the metal movement is not very big. In our shows we have an audience of around one hundred or one hundred and twenty people. However, people are very supportive and that motivates us to move forward. There is also the possibility of going out to the big cities like Guayaquil, Quito or Cuenca. There the audience is more numerous

What ages are most of your concert attendants? There are people of all ages, from teenagers to people over 45

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Now we play only our music. But we vary the songs that we perform during a concert. Normally we share the stage with three or four bands in the same concert, and the time to perform our music is around 30 minutes. So, we play six or seven songs. When we are the principal band, usually play twelve or fourteen songs.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? There are no many places to play Thrash Death metal unfortunately. The repression against metal music in my city doesn´t permits to organize concerts. There are too many taxes, regulations and so on that makes difficult to organize concerts.

What was your first gig like? It was exciting, with anxiety and many nerves. It was around 2007 during a huge festival in my city. The people were really crazy during our performance because our music was new at that time

What was your latest gig? It was not a big concert, sadly. We were invited to support a band from Brazil (Torture Squad) which was on a tour of South America. The concert started two hours later and the main band had to play before our performance in order to not to lose the trip to Peru. Obviously, play after Torture Squad it was not a good idea, the support of the people it was not huge that we expected.

Have you had to cancel a gig? No. I hope not to cancel any gig in the future

Where have you played live this year? Only in our city.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? We planned to play in a big festival in the capital city at the end of this year (Quito Fest). Of course, we would like to play out of our country.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? At the moment we are planning to sell t-shirts with the logo of our band. We had a legal problem with the previous name of our band (long story to tell, again), which is why we had to change the name to the current one. That made the material with the old name can no longer be marketed and therefore we are starting again.

Where can people buy your merchandise? At the moment we are offering our merchandise in one store in Cuenca city (Círculo Musical). We don’t offer our merchandise online, but we are working on it.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? The world and technology has changed a lot and very fast. I grew up listening to Thrash Death metal with the 60 minute tapes and acetate discs, then came the compact discs, and then the technology of the Mp3, Mp4, etc. I think that downloading music allows musicians to spread their work mostly, but unfortunately, piracy means that profits are not great, mainly in my country. If the rights of the artists are respected and the profits to download are fair, I would have no problem with that. But in Ecuador, everything is corrupt and we practically make music because we like it, we do not have any hope of receiving profits for it, unless we sell merchandise from the band, or they hire us to play in big concerts.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Yes, of course. But the artists must be like animals: either adapt or death

What do you think of my work? I think that is important and helpful in order to support bands to spread their music.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Helping to getting connected with many people around the world. If you do not write something about us and share it to people in your country for example, our work probably must be unknown

Do you have any role models or idols? Chuck Schuldiner and Dave Mustaine

Why do you think that they exist? They exist because their musical legacy will remain in our hearts for generations. Chuck is no longer here but his music continues to inspire many until today

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Is easier if you grew up listening to the music from older bands.

What have been your biggest obstacles? The biggest obstacle has been the rejection by society towards our music, mainly religious aspects. That has made spreading our music something less than impossible. The radio stations only broadcast horrible music (regueton, pop and stupid music for stupid minds like Justin Beaber)

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Create music for you, for people and forever…..jajajaja

How do you get psyched for a gig? I just take one glass of beer, and also I like to share with people before and after the gig

Do you have any new material? We are working on our new material. Unfortunately the first album (recorded in 2009 under the name of Furia-Forajidos) was a pretty good job, but because of the stupidities of the former vocalist we had to stop marketing it. Now we plan to release our second album with music more inclined to Melodic Death Metal, with powerful riffs and good lyrics. We hope to release it in a few months.

What are your web sites? This is the link for our website: https://infernalyell.wixsite.com/infernalyell. At the moment we are improving this website, but you can find some information about us there. We are working in order to show the information in English also.

How can people reach you?

instagram _infernalyell; twiter @infernalyell and facebook: Infernalyell Infernalyell Fan page of facebook Infernalyell; You can also listen to our first single on our YouTube channel with the next link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2WHScQiKsI

whatsapp pone: +593 939954342 (Bassner Cueva); +593 984485657 (Darío Veintimilla)

What are your plans for the future? The plans for the future are to launch our new album and play in many concerts, inside and outside the country.

Do you have something to add? Thank you very much for the interview. It is the first time we have the pleasure to answer questions from the other side of the ocean. Thanks for the support and we hope that our music is liked by the people there, and why not, see us in a concert.