Hi! So far we've been getting a lot of very positive feedback, which of course makes us really happy. The album has already appeared in a few year-end lists and "best of 2025" nominations, so it seems this material has definitely been noticed.

When it comes to physical formats, alongside the standard CD we decided – for the first time in the band's history – to do a vinyl edition. We prepared a gatefold LP in three variants: gold, silver and classic black. The numbers aren't huge – it's a limited run of a few hundred copies, aimed mainly at people who really value having music on this particular medium.

We've been active in the music scene for quite a few years now, and over that time – especially with our previous releases – we've had the chance to see how different labels approach promotion and distribution. That gave us a pretty good idea of what actually works and what doesn't. These days the internet plays a key role and allows you to reach much further than, say, 15 years ago, which definitely makes things easier.

As for distribution, we started with Poland. Besides our official Creative Music Records store, the album is available through Mystic Production's distribution network, which basically means you can find it pretty much anywhere in the country. At the same time, we're in talks with several labels on three continents about wider overseas distribution, but I can't share any details just yet.

In terms of advantages of running our own label, the biggest one is definitely the freedom to make our own decisions. We can plan the budget for videos or artwork much more flexibly. For example, we were able to release the first vinyl in the band's history at a really high level, using 3D spot UV varnish. I honestly doubt a standard label would have agreed to that.

On the other hand, the downsides are also obvious – a lot of things land on your shoulders. Besides the music itself you need to keep an eye on tons of organizational, promotional and logistical issues to make sure everything stays at the right level. It's simply a very time consuming job.

We entered the studio in mid-February 2024 and, with a few breaks, the session lasted until the end of April. As far as I know, we ended up being the band that spent the most time there – in total it was exactly 30 recording days. When Przemek later sent the tracks to Canada, he joked that the longest sessions in his studio usually result in albums that later become classics. We really hope that'll be the case this time as well.

The cooperation itself went very smoothly. The studio is located in the mountains, basically in the middle of nowhere, where you hardly get any phone signal. It's a perfect environment for tracking and calmly refining ideas. Przemek has been based there for over a decade and a lot of great records have come out of that place, so we definitely felt we were in good hands.

Regarding the sound and mixes, for some time we'd been wanting to change something in the production. Ever since we stopped using keyboards live, we were looking for someone from abroad who really knows how to dial in modern death metal. The main person behind the idea to send the material to Christian Donaldson was our bass player Andrew, who had been following his work for a long time. Looking back now, it seems like it was absolutely the right call.

When it comes to Fear Factory, they definitely played a certain role in our development about two decades ago. I'm mainly thinking of the "Neurotic World of Guilt" era from 2004 and "Rat Age" from 2006. At that time this kind of style was very close to us. Over the years that enthusiasm naturally faded and we started following our own path. On the new album those influences are practically gone.

Decapitated, on the other hand, are good friends of ours – we've done quite a few tours together and we really respect them, both as people and as a world class band. If someone hears some similarities to their sound on "United We Fall", we take it more as a compliment than as a "direct influence". We simply operate in a similar subgenre, so some elements may naturally overlap.

Overall, I feel like as a band we've kind of come full circle. We've gone back to certain ideas and energies from the past, but presented them in a modern, much more refined form. It's still industrialized, precise death metal, but delivered with our current mindset and today's production.

Lyrically, "United We Fall" is mainly a comment on the crisis of modern civilization. We touch on topics such as dehumanization, mass manipulation and mechanisms of power that, instead of protecting the individual, are more and more focused on controlling them. It's a vision of a world saturated with propaganda and fear, where a human being becomes just another cog in a soulless machine.

When Daniel was working on the cover art, he was looking for something that would reflect this darkness in a less obvious way. Besides the lyrics themselves, he was heavily inspired by Aghori culture – an ascetic branch of Hinduism known for its extreme and controversial rituals. This clash of modern moral collapse with the primal, raw spirituality of the Aghori created a really powerful contrast.

The figure on the cover symbolizes a kind of transcendence or persistence in a world that is literally falling apart. I think this artwork perfectly matches the weight and coldness of the music you'll find on the album.

As I mentioned earlier, as a band we've kind of come full circle, and a natural consequence of that was also the decision to go back to our roots – to a traditionally drawn logo, instead of something generated from fonts or heavily tweaked on a computer. The original idea was simply to slightly refresh our very first logo.

We asked Christophe Szpajdel – better known as Lord of the Logos – to work with us. Before he even started sketching, he listened through our entire discography (dozens of times, including the new album!) to really understand where we're heading. And to our surprise, instead of suggesting tweaks to the old version, he sent us a completely new concept. He said this is how he sees the band after all these years and after hearing what "United We Fall" represents.

This logo immediately captured the spirit of the new record – it's raw, distinctive and feels more "ours" than ever before. That's why we decided to go with it. We see it as the beginning of a new chapter and we hope it'll stay with us for a long time.

Since the album came out right at the end of the year, we have to be realistic and accept that it won't translate into a huge number of festival appearances in 2026. Most line ups are usually closed by summer, or early autumn at the latest, so this season we can only realistically expect a few individual festival slots.

As far as club shows and touring go, our main activities are planned for autumn 2026. We're already in concrete talks about a European tour as well as shows in Poland. We want it to be a consistent, well planned campaign to promote "United We Fall".

For now, we're using this slightly quieter period to focus on media promotion – doing interviews and trying to get the album out to as wide an audience as possible before we fire up the full live machine.

Both videos were shot in Wroclaw, in the same industrial hall complex, although we used completely different rooms to give each clip its own atmosphere. It was already our next time working with Grupa 13 and once again we were reminded how amazing – truly world class – a team we have here in Poland.

For us it's always a kind of privilege to work with people who on a daily basis make videos for some of our own idols. We've known each other for a few years now, so the whole process went very smoothly, with practically no downtime. Dariusz knew exactly how to capture the character of our first singles and how to present them to the world in the strongest possible way.

Looking at the younger generation, I get the impression that in Poland the black metal scene is currently developing much more strongly than the death metal one. It's natural that the biggest bands tend to set the general direction, and here in our country it's been Behemoth holding the leading position for years, which obviously has an impact on the overall interest in that particular style.

When it comes strictly to death metal, there aren't that many new bands emerging lately – or at least they haven't broken through to a wider audience yet. Of course, there are some young acts out there working hard and trying to push their own material, but I wouldn't say we're experiencing any sort of big "boom" for new death metal bands at the moment. Maybe it's just a matter of time and natural generational rotation.

Thank you as well for the interview and for your time. I think we've covered most of the important topics, so all that's left is to invite everyone to check out our new album "United We Fall" – and see you all at the shows.