ENCOMIUM #8/2022: Beneath The Void

Technical death metal and ethereal soundscape dealers from Hungary – Beneath The Void – liberated a totally mind blowing debut album in the middle of the last year. I forwarded my questions to their guitar player Ákos Olt, who quickly sent back his answers. Now it's your turn to revise our talk-over!

Hello Ákos! 2021 marks the official start for Beneath The Void, although we all know it was only a transformation of your previous band with its members that was Kill With Hate. Tell us a bit about this transformation and the main differences between the two.

About the transformation: We wanted to change the name basically from the beginning. Kill With Hate sounded too unserious and from the first EP ("Evolution of the Beast", 2010), we thought about changing the name before every release. Before "...Into Oblivion", we felt that the lyrical themes and some aspects of the music have gone so far from the early Kill With Hate days, that we just cannot release this album under the same name.

Lyrics are handled by our bassist/vocalist Patrik Pornói since our second EP ("Grief", 2015), which is kind of a transitional fossil between KWH and BTV. He started writing much more personal, introspective themes, which carried over to the new album, but now they have a spacey backdrop. The music is just natural evolution over the years, also the influence of Attila Kovács, who is a metal veteran in the Hungarian metal scene.

Your debut album is called "...Into Oblivion" and it was issued by Metal.hu on June 11th, 2021. They've released the stuff in CD, LP and MC formats. How did you hook up with Metal.hu and what are the selling numbers from a year's perspective? Personally, which format do you like the most and why?

- Tamás Forray, chief of the label, is a longtime friend of our singer Krisztián Gyémánt and also Attila Kovács. We've managed to do a much more personal deal that we could with other labels.

I can't tell you exact figures, but CDs and LPs are around 100 each (out of 300 and 200 respectively), MCs are probably around 10, lol.

My favorite format is the MC, the idea to release the music on tapes too was mine. I saw how big of a comeback vinyl made, I thought the same about the cassettes, but it's apparently not the case!

I grew up with cassettes in the 90s and early 2000s, I have a uniquely nostalgic feeling towards them, that I never had with vinyl and CD.

Nowadays, when I want to support a local or touring band, I still prefer the MC, they're way more convenient, and also very durable. You just put it in the side pockets on your cargo pants, and you can still go to the mosh pit!

- Perfect observation! Me and our drummer Bence Turcsák are huge Cryptopsy fans! The other huge influence from the beginning was Origin. I think the speed of the drums and the sweep picked arpeggios make it obvious, lol!

The cover artwork became simply fantastic. How does it connect to the lyrics? As I've understood you've started to deal with futuristic, sci-fi and horror-incited themes. What books or movies have inspired you during the writing process of "...Into Oblivion"?

- The album cover reflects on the cosmic horror aspect. I can't tell much about how the lyrics came to be, but some of the inspirations are definitely the sci-fi horrors of the 80s and 90s, such as Event Horizon, and also the cosmic horror of Lovecraft.

You've made a video clip for the song called "By the Seventh", which was filmed, directed and edited by Máté "Bobby" Blazsovics, who in large part is responsible for the lyrical content of "...Into Oblivion" too. Tell us a bit about your ties with Máté. Is he the hidden 6th member or "weapon" of the band?

- I wouldn't call him a 6th member (on the one hand, because 6th and 7th is already taken already by our merch girl/manager Szandra and our sound guy Zoli), but ever since Patrik has become our bassist, he's been close to the band. They're childhood friends with Patrik, their history goes far back. He directed in our first video to "The Beast Within" in 2012, he also helped with the live recording of "Fuck Humans" in 2015. It was just natural and convenient to ask him for help once again for this album.

Since July 2021 you have played with a new guitar player, namely Tibor Szokán, who replaced Attila Kovács. What should we know about him? Is he playing in other bands/projects as well?

- I actually met him in late 2015, because he started working at the same place I did! Later it turned out that he also played the guitar, a big fan of many of the same bands I am. He started out playing with the band Fire Conspiracy, later he joined the band Symmetry of the Void. That band broke up around the time we were searching for a replacement for Attila, so right nothing serious besides BTV.

You have already played a series of gigs in support of "...Into Oblivion". How do the metal fans like your new stuff? Where do you play next? Any gigs abroad?

- On February 26th we had our official album debut party where we played the entire record for the first time. The show was sold out, and we had a very warm welcome from the crowd. Thankfully the show was recorded by a professional crew from multiple camera angles. We've been planning to release it sometime at the end of the year, but editing it will be a hassle, lol!

By the time this interview comes out we will have played as a support for my favorite local band Akela in Barba Negra, then we plan to play on the A38 ship and in Dürer Kert early next year.

No exact plans to go on tour yet, but the will is there. We did a self-organized tour before, but while it was a pretty great experience, we want something more serious this time.

Your drummer, Bence Turcsák, was responsible for mixing and mastering "...Into Oblivion". He did a great job! What other materials has he mixed and/or mastered so far?

- He definitely did! What started out as a preproduction demo, slowly turned into the sound you can hear today on the record. So far other stuff he did was demos of certain bands I cannot name. He rents out rehearsal places as a living, so he meets a lot of bands.

I am sure, you are already having some new stuff written, right? Where will you go musically for your next release? When do you plan to record your next stuff?

- There are a lot of riffs here and there and a couple of songs I could call finished, but there's a really long road ahead. Musically we'll lean in more towards the spacey atmosphere. No exact plans on how and when we record the next album, we will start out with the same preproduction demo method as before, but at the end, we'll see if we want a professional studio and get the mixing out of our hands. As to when we'll record it, given the long gap between the two albums we put out so far the most optimistic date is probably late 2023/early 2024.