EQUILIBRIUM // Finding Your Happy Place

With their sixth studio album Renegades just released, German folk metallers Equilibrium have pushed themselves to new levels of experimentation within their music, introducing electronic elements, dystopian samples, rap, and clean vocals.

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While guitarist and clean vocalist Rene Berthiaume admits that musical direction isn’t necessarily something the band sits together and maps out in the writing process, he acknowledges that such change can often be beneficial to a bands sound.

“Every song is a little bit different from the others but in the end we just have ideas and we try them out and we don’t really think ‘can we do it’ or ‘is it possible to do it’,” he laughs, “We just try things out and when we like it we keep it.”

 “On the first album, we have more progressive kind of song structures where there are no choruses so they were more instrumental and longer. I think we had nine and ten-minute songs on there so there is a huge difference but I think the essence is still there. We have melodies that are inspired by folk music and we still have the growls and we still have the heaviness.”

“It’s probably more trial and error,” he says. “For this album, we started writing last Autumn – so around September – and we did it in one run so we took some months and worked on the album continuously with no breaks which I think helped glue it all together. Every song is a little bit different from the others but in the end we just have ideas and we try them out and we don’t really think ‘can we do it’ or ‘is it possible to do it’,” he laughs. “We just try things out and when we like it we keep it.”

While the experimental components of Renegades will more likely be a talking point, Berthiaume insists that the new album will appease long term fans.

“Musically it is a typical Equilibrium album,” he says, “but we have a lot of new elements included. We have more modern stuff but still keep the folkish melodies and of course the gross screams and heavy guitars, but we introduce more modern elements like electronic sounds and also the clean vocals. We are always interested in experimenting and trying out new stuff with each album. I think each release is a little different to the last so we were curious to try new things. Lyrically we started with German tales and mythology and such things but with Renegades, we changed to more personal lyrics and an up to date direction so the music is also more modern. In the end, we are just doing what we want to do and this is what came out.”

While previous album Armageddon dealt lyrically with German legends, mythology and sagas, the shift on Renegades to darker, more personal themes. Berthiaume agrees it’s possibly their most personal album yet.

“Overall I would say it is, yes,” he said. “We started with more personal stuff on the last two albums but this time it is almost 100% personal. We just felt that we have done enough about fantasy things and tales in the past and with so much going on in the world nowadays we thought it would be nice to put it to music. I also think it fits for us and for the band to keep everything in balance. It doesn’t mean we need to forget the old stories but bringing things more modern makes a nice contrast.”

We just try things out and when we like it we keep it.
[RENE]

Another surprising innovation employed on Renegades is that it’s sung in English.

“I think we had our first English lyrics two albums ago,” Berthiaume says. “We had one song on that album then we had four or five on the next. There are two reasons for this. The first one is that we tried to choose language according to the song so whichever language fit better, we used. On the Renegades album, we only have one song with German lyrics and that is because that particular song is a little more old school so the German lyrics fit better. All of the other songs sound more modern so we felt English was more suitable. Of course, the other side is more people can understand and speak English over German and we really like people to understand what we are singing about and not have to use Google translator,” he laughs.

In the 14 year period between debut album Turis Fratyr and Renegades, Berthiaume says Equilibrium not only made monumental changes to the way they approach music, but their sound has grown with them to the extent he doesn’t even rate the early material to what they’re doing today.

“The difference between that first album and Renegades is huge,” he says, “but if you take the albums in between you can see there’s almost a transition from one album to the next. If you compare the first to the most recent there is a lot of different things. You could almost think that it was two different bands! On the new album, we have much more electronic sounds and we have more clean vocals, and I think also the songs are a little straighter. On the first album, we have more progressive kind of song structures where there are no choruses so they were more instrumental and longer. I think we had nine and ten-minute songs on there so there is a huge difference but I think the essence is still there. We have melodies that are inspired by folk music and we still have the growls and we still have the heaviness.”

After making such groundbreaking advancements on Renegades, Berthiaume admits he has no idea how far the experimental nature will take the band with future albums.

“We never know ourselves which direction things will go but I expect for the next one we will continue to use electronic sounds but maybe also combine them with other stuff. At the end of the day, we don’t know ourselves but I am pretty sure we will try even more new stuff. I like the electronics but maybe we will also put other new sounds together but I don’t know right now.”

Purchase Equilibrium’s new album Renegades here.