"Self-Realization Never Sounded So Good" - An interview with White Arms of Athena
MID-MAJOR MAYHEM
By: Geoff Teach
When it comes to metal, most bands can be broken down into two categories: Bands that stick to a certain formula, and bands that don’t. While acts like Slayer or Goatwhore are content to stay in a particular groove, others such as Tool or Between The Buried and Me seem to be in a constant state of metamorphosis. In the case of Dallas, Texas’s White Arms of Athena, chalk one up for the latter.
Recently, the progressive metal quintet from the Lone Star state released their second full-length album, “White Arms of Athena” (Prosthetic Records), and I had a chance to chat with Thomas Aaron Sifuentes (bass) and Josh Everett (vocals) about the new effort, the recording process, and their band’s beautifully amorphous sound. “The goal is not to ‘be metal’ or stick to a formulated sound, but to do what comes naturally to us,” explains Sifuentes, and when the new, self-titled album is compared to the band’s 2011 Prosthetic debut, “Astrodrama”, it is immediately noticeable that Thomas Aaron isn’t kidding. While certain tones and songwriting hallmarks haven’t changed, the overall feel of “White Arms of Athena” is audibly different, and according to Sifuentes, this is precisely the point. “The main goal [during recording] was not to lose the natural performance dynamics that make this new music special.” After just a few listens to the fresh material, and your humble music critic can only say, “Mission: Accomplished.”
White Arms of Athena (L to R: Vocalist Josh Everett, bassist Thomas Aaron Sifuentes, drummer Austin Rupp, and guitarists Colin McDonnell and Andrew Swinson)
The new, self-titled effort marks a departure from White Arms of Athena’s ties to the sound and feel of the Jamie King-produced “Astrodrama”. The drums were recorded and the album was mixed with Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studios in Salem, Massachusetts, while the rest of the instruments and vocals were laid down with Travis Kammeyer at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee. The decision to go with Ballou and Kammeyer was ultimately made necessary by the revised ambience and tone of the band’s new material. “With this new direction, we just knew there were some things we couldn't get with King’s type of production, so we just had to be honest about it and choose a production style that would suit the music best,” explains Sifuentes, and the production style that he refers to is distinctly more organic and natural than Jamie King’s highly polished and über-clean approach.
The end result is an album that sounds almost as if it was recorded entirely live - and ultimately, this was how White Arms wanted it, as Sifuentes says, “The vocals are treated as little as possible. It wasn't planned, but after listening to [some] takes without any amount of pitch correction or Auto-Tune, we felt natural was the way to go. If there are inflections or mistakes that come along with that, we appreciate them and embrace them. Along with drums and guitars, the vocals were recorded with a natural approach in mind.” Summarily, the choice to change studios proved fruitful, as Sifuentes credits Kammeyer with helping round out the overall sound and feel of the album, saying, “Travis really helped us search high and low for tones and for special effects, which caused a lot of ‘Aha!’ moments. Travis also helped us rework some vocal patterns and harmonies that blew us away.”
The cover art to "White Arms of Athena", in all its splendor and glory.
Consequently, “White Arms of Athena” comes across as richly warm, yet also decidedly dark. A balance between these two extremes seems to jump right out of the speakers, and Sifuentes explains that while this outcome is welcomed, it is more a product of conglomerating the tracks together than of trying to cram everything into each song, saying, “We didn't worry about including this much heavy or having a certain amount of clean [in each track]. It ultimately came down to the song ideas we had. Since we were treating these ideas with that ‘traditional songwriting’ type of mind frame, the balance isn't really in the songs themselves, but [rather in] the album as a whole. We like to think each song is its own monster, and all of them together create that balance.” Yet while the album itself has an audible equity in composition, vocalist Josh Everett surmises that it is the ebb and flow of the music itself that most influenced his lyric writing, saying, “This album has a very personal albeit sometimes veiled theme of self-realization that is meant to be viewed loosely from the perspective of [the goddess] Athena. This idea wasn't so much in place while writing the lyrics as it was in the arrangement and placement of them, as we want the album to be the soundtrack to her self-realization and theophany as much as it is ours personally. The record comes at the listener in waves, much like an emotional crisis, anxiety attack, certain psychedelic trips, or even Athena herself waging her strategic love-war on your brain. Incidentally, these are all real and imagined situations I found myself in while writing and obtaining ideas for the lyrics.”
McDonnell, Everett, and Rupp as photographed in their natural habitat.
Whatever the inspiration or message may be, though, White Arms of Athena have created an album that is beautiful, bedazzling, and wholly different in feel to their debut - and according to Sifuentes, this divergence in sound was precisely what WAOA was aiming for, saying, “We just wanted to show ourselves and our fans that we can grow.” And grow they certainly have.
Keep It Metal! \m/
To check out the official video for “Heavy Sleep” off of “White Arms of Athena”, just press play below!
Finally, to check out White Arms of Athena on the web, please click the following links: