Duzl: Hi Kornel, first of all, thank you so much for featuring Symbtomy in your zine, we really appreciate it! And now let's go to your questions... The current line-up of the band is Dejvy (guitar – main brain and composer, Sectesy, ex-Despise), Duzl (bass), Jaroslav Šantrucek (guitar, ex-Despise, ex-Heaving Earth, ex-Imperial Foeticide), Martin Horcic (vocals, Trahir) and Zdenek (drums). As for the name, it is nothing complicated, it is a combination of two important words for Dejvy, Symbolic (the festival he organizes) and Sectesy (his second band). Dejvy likes symbolism and this was the first thing that came to his mind, we tried other names of course, but nothing was better than Symbtomy. As far as sound is concerned, that's a question for Dejvy...

Dejvy: I've always wanted to bring my musical ideas to life with the legendary Boss HM-2. It's a terrible box, but that's what I love about it. Since the beginning of my musical journey, I've gone in the complete opposite direction of the HM-2 sound. I tried to find a clean, yet brutal sound using VHT, Mesa Boogie, ENGL or Peavey. With Despise and then with Sectesy I settled on the VHT Valvulator GP3/VHT Two Fifty Two + 2 x Mesa Boogie RoadReady. Perfect for death metal, which I alternate with ENGL Fireball 100/Marshall 1960A. However, I was tempted to try something new – a different kind of music composition... yet staying with old school death metal. All of us at the age of 45 grew up on records like "Like an Everflowing..." or "Left Hand...", that's just the way it is and it's stuck with us. So when I decided to form a new band thanks to Duzl, it was clear from the beginning that we would go back 30 years to Sweden and everything that goes with it. Sure, the way we perceive music and songwriting has changed over the years – but we don't plan to make any calculations. We play what we love and it will always stay that way.

Dejvy: My plan was to go through the natural evolution that bands went through in the 90's. I experienced that time – my first bands also released demos on cassettes at first. It was amazing how we enjoyed every reaction that came in the classic written form, i.e. a letter in the mailbox. I wanted to revive that time – of course everything could be released on CD right away, but I didn't want that. The only thing I wanted was for the tapes to be available both in America and Europe, and thanks to the fact that we were approached by the Frozen Screams Imprint label (USA) and we approached my friend Juraj from Immortal Souls Productions it happened. Everyone released their own edition, which was sold out almost immediately. The second demo I released myself on my label Souls of Underworld Records (unfortunately Juraj passed away last year) and we are currently waiting for the release on Frozen Screams Imprint, which should be out this autumn. However, we were contacted daily by fans who don't own a cassette player saying that the demos should be released on CD as well, so I asked Sectesy publisher Peter from Metal Age to produce a couple of CDs – the great thing is that these CDs are almost sold out as well. We'd like to release both demos on LP and then we'll just concentrate on releasing the debut CD, which we'd like to start working on as soon as the festival season is over.

Duzl: It may be surprising, but it was absolutely simple, I got contacts, wrote a message to the guests we chose, described to them our plans and vision, sent them our material and they all agreed, communication was then easy and the guests did a great job and we are very grateful for that. I guess there's not any special story behind it. Only that John Walker (Cancer) was supposed to be on the first demo, but due to strict restrictions at the time of the COVID in Madrid, he was not able to get into the studio, so we had to wait and he became the guest on the second demo.

Dejvy: Originally we didn't want to play with Symbtomy live at all. I'm quite busy with Sectesy, but with the coming of new band-mates recently we opened this question again and agreed to play sometimes. So far, this has happened 2 times only at the Symbolic event organized by us. Last year at its small version and this year at its bigger version. Now we are going to perform again at the smaller "Back to the Symbolic". We're still in the process of getting together musically, because we haven't rehearsed together for a long time, on top of that everything is complicated by the distances between our homes + other musical activities we have, but it can all be overcome and we can play a really brutal show. Our set so far consists only of old songs that can be heard on both demos. Hopefully soon we will present the new songs live as well. I already have three songs written for the upcoming MCD, so I expect that this winter or next spring at the latest we will expand our playlist with something new.

Duzl: It's not easy, that's true. But there are a lot of international bands that have it the same way, isn't it?! I fly to the Czech Republic quite often, so we try to plan a rehearsal every time I am there and usually it is really intensive all-day or even two-day rehearsals. When I'm not in the Czech Republic, the guys meet together for a rehearsal without me. As you mentioned the third show is still to come... so I'm practicing at home, because I can't make the rehearsal before this show at the moment, but the guys will meet before for sure. And then we will focus on the new material.

Duzl: Damn Kornel, this is going to be long, but I'll try to keep it short, haha... Well, Deadly Storm zine was founded by Jakub Asphyx and me after we contributed some time to Fobia zine, but we didn't like how it works there, so we decided to start our own zine (I think it was sometime in 2015), Jakub is the main redactor and reviewer and I take care of the English version of the web, so most of the translations and I also write interviews myself. Then on the basis of my interviews for Deadly Storm I was contacted (in 2019) by owner of Metalegion – Ricardo Azavedo and he offered me the cooperation and a year later same story happened by Paul from Soulgrinder zine, where I also started to contribute, it's nice to see my own interviews not only in internet form where they soon "fall into oblivion", but in physical printed paper form. I am a mags/zines collector myself, so this makes me very happy, I think that as a redactor of your own zine you know this very well. As for the festival, I met Dejvy (in 2019) and he was looking for someone who knows the death metal scene and could help him with booking foreign bands for Symbolic Open Air. So I started as a booking manager there, but nowadays I do everything from booking, promotion, accounting, communication, ... to beer tapping, hahaha. Dejvy fulfilled my dream and founded a band (Symbtomy) for me, and his dream was to start a label that would archive music recordings of the "Czechoslovak" scene that never came out on CD, but only on cassette in the 90's. So I helped him fulfill this dream and found him a company that presses CDs in limited editions of 100 pcs. And then Souls of Underworld Records was founded. I am basically the "grey eminence" of the label haha, I take care of the social media, bandcamp, promotion and communicate with world, I handle foreign orders, trading and I put music into production, so I am in touch with the factory, etc. and Dejvy is in charge of the Czech and Slovak market and preparing all visual and musical materials for production and communicates with the bands we release... simply "face of the label". Hopefully I have somehow included all the activities you asked in my answer... and we have some other new stuff and activities planned... but let's talk about that some other time, because it's still in the "discussion phase" at the moment.

Dejvy: Yes, the cover of our second demo shows the line-up that recorded the second demo, including guest vocalist Martin (Sectesy) and drummer Štepán (Poppy Seed Grinder, ex-Despise). I'm really glad you like this idea of mine. I love 70's zombie movies, I'm a really fanatical fan of 70's zombie, cannibal or giallo movies. On the second to last CD Sectesy, I was playing with the idea of incorporating the people involved in its creation into the cover and something incredible was created... same with the graphics of our t-shirts (Sectesy and Symbtomy) or most of the Symbolic visuals. I can promise that the cover of our upcoming MCD Symbtomy will again feature the band in some way. I love to come up with graphics that my friend Jakub will then breathe life into. He is great to work with – so much that I haven't approached anyone else for my projects for years. Actually, Jakub is kind of my Derek Riggs. I want to keep it that way forever, because I don't know anyone who could not only render my visions so precisely, but who wouldn't think I'm completely crazy, because of those visions.

Duzl: It's possible... and then "Demo #4" and "Demo #5", hahaha. No, we plan to go into the studio in the autumn and record five songs and release a MCD. So it looks like our fans will have to wait a bit longer for a full-length album. But we also plan to do it, of course. But I can reveal that each song will be again enriched with special guest vocals and there will definitely not be any unknown names, but they remain secret for now.

Duzl: It's true that I visit quite a lot of festivals every year, but this year will probably be unforgettable due to the last edition of Netherlands Deathfest, where after many years I could see Dismember, which is one of my top bands, and then another great bands played there like Sacramentum, Unanimated, Autopsy or Obliteration, etc. ... also it's always a meeting with friends that I see once a year only there. So such a great line-up, great atmosphere, relaxation, just amazing. Another highlight for me is Symbolic, because seeing Candlemass in such an intimate atmosphere was something absolutely incredible and I don't think it will ever happen again.

Duzl: Thanks again for this interview and great questions, Kornel! I would like to thank you for your work on the Ukraine scene despite the hard times you are facing now in your country! And of course we greet all the fans and supporters... go to concerts of your favorite bands, don't be afraid to discover new bands, buy their merchandise and spread their music, these days it's needed more than ever...! Take care Kornel and I hope to see you soon play at Symbolic with your band!

Dejvy: Thanks for the interesting questions. I'm always very pleased to see that the interviewer has taken the time to research a band before sending them questions. I have a lot of respect for people like you who keep the scene alive and give it the power to grow and be strong. I really thank you and I'll look forward to maybe meeting you at a show over a pint of good beer.