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Darkness, pain, loneliness, and loss; these desolate emotions can manifest in many forms. In the multitude of sounds that convey these barren sentiments, one finds Interitum.
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Formed in Launceston, Tasmania in 2015, Interitum have stormed onto the international heavy music scene since the release of their debut EP Conformed Suffering in 2017.
From haunting blues to gritty old-school doom and the fresh energy of metalcore, an eclectic mix of musical influences inspires Interitum. Diverse as these influences may be, the Tasmanian dark rockers have harnessed a sound that is powerful and unique on their debut album, poignantly titled Forever. Silent. Broken.
“They all have their own personality,” says Interitum’s vocalist Kel Barrett of the tracks on Forever. Silent. Broken. “They all have their own words, they speak their own language. They are all are Interitum. I do all the lyrics and stuff like that, so you get a bit of a taste of my brain sometimes,” she laughs.
One of the notable features of Interitum’s sound is Barrett’s harrowing blues-inspired vocals, that somehow meld perfectly with doom-influenced heavy rock and moments of metalcore. On how where this variety of influences come from and how they pull it all together, Barrett says, “We take so many elements of our own personal things, they morph into what interitum has become, all of us listen to different stuff, I definitely love the blues and jazz, I listen to like Ella Fitzgerald, so that’s where that jazz sound comes from, it’s one of my major influences. So everyone has their major influence, you’ll probably see a bit of ‘core in there, that’s Jared’s influence, like he loves metalcore, those little elements, we wanted to keep everyone’s personality in there, so could hear eveyrone’s individuality as a whole, to make Interitum. We took out time and made sure the songs were exactly what we wanted, we just wanted to make sure we were giving our best for this one.”
We all feel the music. We wanted it to be that when you listen to it, you can feel each word, each strum of the guitar, each beat. A complete storytelling rollercoaster.
[KEL]
The overall sound on Forever. Silent. Broken. is gritty and visceral, indeed very dark, which as Barrett explains, is a big part of their process as well as their central message. “The darkness,” she says, “You can really hear it in the music, lyrically as well. With that we really wanted to base our sound on the rawness of it. So it was recorded really raw, with the drums it was done in the shed where we jam, and we literally jammed along while we did the drum tracks. So we wanted that rawness, we wanted it to be so visceral, wanted it in there to create the feeling of not just playing, but the feeling of the music to come through …take the recording process as part of the sound. That live sound, we wanted as well. We sound very similar recorded to live. We didn’t want to put out music and it doesn’t sound like us, we wanted it to be authentic.
“The darkness I guess we really wanted to showcase, the rawness of the lyric really affected the way the music is played, we wanted that darkness to creep in as sadness, that needed to be a thing that came through, not only on the vocals but also the boys’ playing. We all feel the music. We wanted it to be that when you listen to it, you can feel each word, each strum of the guitar, each beat. A complete storytelling rollercoaster.”
There is a lot of variety on Forever. Silent. Broken., from heavier tracks like Suck My Humanity, to raging tracks like Fatal Life, through to doom-laden numbers like Poison Tears, and Wasted Away, a mournful ballad. According to Barrett, there is a thread that binds the songs in grim solidarity, and this is loss and anger. “Its in every aspect of every song, they’re everywhere, just approached differently, I guess. I’m not in to happy songs! I draw power from those emotions. At the present moment in time, where I am emotionally, I guess that’s just my outlet. I guess that’s what’s coming out of me artistically at this moment. I didn’t want to sing them happy, I wanted to tell the story as the content was made, so the angrier songs are angry. You can feel the anger in some, the loneliness, the sadness. That’s really what it was, I wanted to show vocally how the lyrics were written.”
Fans are loving the open hearted and relatable approach that Interitum have embraced. In mid-2019 they toured in Canada, and as 2020 gets underway, Interitum are set to battle in Melbourne for a spot a Wacken, before heading to Windburn Festival in New Zealand. Discussing these developments, Barrett is super excited. “It’s been amazing!” she says, “Canada was last year in June and July. Where that stemmed from was this craziness of applying for a festival over there, and we got it! And I was like, that’s awesome! We travelled around in a caravan, and drove seventeen hours some days, it was completely intense and amazing and I had a great time doing it, it was beautiful, it was an experience you could never take back. Then Wacken came up, like the battle, over the moon for that! It’s an opportunity that is beyond amazing! We are battling some amazing bands, they are intensely amazing. I am just in awe of all of them, I’m just really happy to be part of it.
“Then New Zealand…we’ve never been to New Zealand before so we’re super psyched about that, and it’s an amazing festival so we’re looking forward to playing with the bands at that festival. Definitely, lots of exciting stuff coming up.”
Sounds like Interitum are a band to watch, if sonic expressions of pain and suffering speak to you. On whether Interitum’s sound gets darker from here, Barrett offers, suggestively, “Possibly, I do like that aspect of it, I like that imagery of it. There is a possibility of it getting darker…”
Forever. Silent. Broken. will be released independently on 23 March 2020.
