Sydney dark symphonic outfit Carmeria are a band unafraid to embrace the lesser known sides of metal and shape them into a musical landscape that many admire but few venture.
By harnessing their love of gothic orchestral sounds and combining them with heavy guitars and powerful vocals Carmeria continue to push the boundaries of acceptance with successful results.
With the recent release of their single “Relinquished” the band has set about the final stages before unleashing their latest album Advenae upon the world, with vocalist Jordan Von Grae catching up with HEAVY earlier this week to talk about the single and more.
“That was one of the last songs we actually wrote for the album,” he said, “and considering we’d spent quite a bit of time constructing the overall sound of the album and the other singles we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted it to sound and where we wanted it to go. Recording it with Lord Tim and him adding his special touch was the icing on the cake. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted it to sound like from the get go so we’re happy we managed to pull it off.”
Unlike many lyric videos that exist only because of limitations imposed by COVID, Carmeria have produced an accompanying video to “Relinquished” that is as moody and atmospherically enchanting as the song itself.
“We got it made by Wayne Joyner and he’s this incredible animator and visualizer. He’s done a few big bands – I think he did Sabaton and Ayreon so he’s done a lot of those Euro bands that we look up to – and I sat down with the boys a couple of months ago and basically pitched my idea for it, trying to make it moody and atmopspheric and playing to the things that were relevant in the previous singles as well. Really wanting to make the four singles a cohesive unit so I had this idea of being moody in this gothic study and its got writing through this book and the boys were all into that and then I pitched it to Wayne and he pressed the awesome button on it basically. I had this idea of what I was looking for and then we got it back and it was like fucken hell, that is so much more than we envisaged and we absolutely loved it so big shout out to Wayne because he was absolutely fantastic to work with.”
In the full interview, Jordan talks ore about the importance mood and structure play in Carmeria’s music, the single cover and how it ties in with previous singles and the album, the previous singles and their reflection of the overall sound of Advenae, the musical direction of the album, replicating the orchestral elements live and more.
Watch “Relinquished” below:
