Aug
20
6.07pm

CAPITAL ENEMY // Real Sound, Real Sentiment


Citing a whole heap of influences, Capital Enemy lean toward a lot of different genres in their debut album Knowledge Of The Wicked.

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There’s an overriding sense of frustration, a voice for the voiceless whipped up by the Melbourne boys in a cohesive serving of hardcore, thrash and groove metal, and the concoction is pretty good. “As a vocalist,” begins frontman Jason Rowe, “Lyrically, especially when it comes to hardcore, 99% of vocalists sing about common things—struggles, positivity—but with Knowledge Of The Wicked I wanted to write about real things people could relate to, the less positive things.



“On a broad scale the album is about government movements, decisions made over the last 100 years like during wars, famine, poverty, all that kind of thing, rather than writing about breaking up with your girlfriend. Nothing against people writing about that but that’s not what I wanted to put forward.

“At least with the way I think I write, it’s aggressive but for the people who will read into the lyrics and discover what the album is about, I feel people can share in the frustration in a sense.”

Side note; 2018 marks the 100th anniversary since the end of World War I, and it’s only mentioned because of Capital Enemy’s nod toward such topics in their album. “What I was aiming for was basically to let out my thoughts on what I perceive [to be] the downfall of humanity,” says Rowe. “I know that sounds really broad but, you know, from the last couple of months with things going on with Kim Jong-un, and decisions that were made by Hitler in the war, and even now with different political movements disagreeing with other political parties and stuff like that, it’s like the album itself is my opinion on poor decision-making.

“The last song is called The Capital Enemy–we wanted to name it after the band because when we started, the name Capital Enemy, there was a little sense of rebellious in it but it was more about what the world’s fighting against. In my opinion a lot of the time us as normal people going to work every day, we’re battling with the decisions of our government. Knowledge Of The Wicked is almost about the aftermath of what happens when these bad decisions are made.

What I was aiming for was basically to let out my thoughts on what I perceive [to be] the downfall of humanity …
[ Jason Rowe ]

“Whether it’s an exaggerated amount like [in] Grindstone, or the title track being about us realising what maybe the government is keeping from us and if we were to discover what these things were, it would send the world to a rot.”

As Rowe says, these were his thoughts, his grapples, but at the same time he wanted to throw a bit of controversy into the mix. “People are gonna agree with it, people aren’t, but it’s about what I wanted to say and what I had to say in the album, is completely relevant.” By the same measure, it’s four years since Capital Enemy’s formation and they’ve had that time to watch and become educated as to these things they sing about so ultimately, they’ve been able to create a well-informed album.

Capital Enemy have been biding their time, cultivating knowledge and power to build toward a massive explosion of sound. “This is exactly what I want listeners of this album to do,” says name. “As a vocalist, you want people to actually be interested in what you have to say, and whether it’s understandable or not given the vocal style, I also feel other vocalists that like the sound of the album will do so, because there are so many messages in this album about so many different things under the tree of aggression, I want people to look at that and realise things from my point of view, because I really feel like there are a lot of people around who are gonna listen and will think the same thing.”

Ultimately, Capital Enemy wouldn’t have executed their leanings in this way if they didn’t feel it was going to be a sentiment shared. Rowe agrees, saying, “A lot of people sing about real stuff, and that’s the most effective way, in my opinion, to be a lyricist.

“You’ve gotta relate to people, you’ve gotta put yourself in their shoes, they’ve gotta sit back and say, ‘Man, I know what that’s like and because I know what that’s like I love this song.’”

Order Capital Enemy’s new release Knowledge Of The Wicked here.





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