We caught up with Slava to find out more about his band Descenery, and also reviewed the band’s debut album Stillborn Monolith! Get involved below…
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little about the band?
My name is Slava and I’m the man behind the Hadfes Oblivion alias. Descenery is not exactly a band in the usual sense of the word but it’s also difficult for me to call it a one man band. I mean, the only permanent member of the band is me, but our debut album Stillborn Monolith has 12 musicians from 8 different countries involved. Descenery also has some live performance experience with 5 men on the stage. To me, it doesn’t sound like it’s a one man band, so let’s say Descenery is a weird formation related to the world of metal music.
How did you get started?
I spent my teenage years dreaming of being able to write & record my own music. I was really eager to discover this form of self-expression. In 2011 I started to do my first experiments of writing both music and lyrics along with learning how to play guitar. Three years later I bought my first audio-interface and it was M-Audio M-Track. I was extremely happy to be finally able to begin discovering how to record stuff. Tracking my first demos, I noticed that I wasn’t good at playing at all!
Of course, I’m not the first to say it, but recording your playing, listening and analyzing that is one of the best ways to improve your playing. No matter what your instrument is even if it’s your voice. It works perfectly anyway.
Where do you draw your influences from? Are there any bands/artists who inspire you?
I think most of the stuff I like inspires me more or less. Dan Swanö, Devin Townsend & Daniel Gildenlow are my biggest musical heroes ever.
You’re soon going to be re-releasing your debut album Stillborn Monolith in CD form. What prompted this decision?
I’m not actually re-releasing Stillborn Monolith. The album was released last summer. Our first limited edition of 42 CDs was sold out this January and at that moment I honestly didn’t want to release this album in the physical form again. But time by time people asked me if there’s still a chance to get Stillborn Monolith in CD form. That made me start thinking of what I can do for them. I decided to make another bunch of CDs with booklet’s design totally reworked. I didn’t want to use the same old design so people who bought our first CDs may have something rare and special. I also wanted to give something different but still special to the people who’d buy our new CDs. That’s why I put two previously unreleased tracks as bonus tracks. I hope people will enjoy this.
Can you tell me about the writing and recording process for the album?
Both take too much time! Many musicians are able to write good songs working really fast. I have no idea how it’s happening. I may spend some months writing just one song and when it’s written it doesn’t mean I like it and it will be ever released.
As for DAW for recording, I’ve been using Reaper for years. This soft seems to be created for those who are too lazy to discover Cubase and things like that. Perfect to me!
Did you run into any challenges whilst creating Stillborn Monolith, or did it all go to plan?
Lots of them! First of all, when I started recording the album I had no recording experience at all. I hadn’t been involved in any other bands at that time and my first attempts to record something were kind of disappointment as I already said. Everything sounded dirty and out of rhythm.
Also, working with musicians on distance is not the easiest thing. All our singers had different equipment and when you hear more than just one vocalist in our songs you may notice that one voice sounds better than another one(-s) recording wise. They used different microphones and it’s the reason why.
Also, sometimes I had to ask singers to rerecord something. Recording your musicians being in the same room at the same time is easier – if you don’t like something you may fix it during the recording session. But when you’re unable to be present at recording session, it makes you come up with a list of changes to do and send it by e-mail. It happened and happens time after time. But I think it’s a fair price for being able to collaborate with musicians from any corner of our planet. Thanks, internet!
So how did you get everyone involved with the album, and what were they all like to work with?
The first person I offered to collaborate was Stephan Kobiakin. I discovered one of his keyboard-covers of Children Of Bodom on youtube, contacted him and asked if there’s a chance to get some of my keyboard parts recorded by him. Luckily for me he was up for that, I sent him what I had written for keyboards, he recorded that and also came up with some unique stuff. Both were used on the album.
Igor Plotnikov is my good friend, he also helped me to choose my first audio-interface, gave me lots of good advices how to record guitars properly and I’m really glad he recorded both guitars and vocals for one of our tracks. By the way, I considered him as the only lead-guitarist on the album some years ago – at that moment my playing wasn’t good enough to record lead-guitars. Rhythm sounded OK though. Igor was too busy with his own stuff and that’s why I asked my friend Leon if he’d like to join as the lead-guitarist. It was good to me that we lived (and still live) in the same town and I might record his playing on my own the way I wanted it.
Having Dan Swanö on the album is my dream come true. I’m a huge fan of Nightingale and when I contacted him and asked if he’d like to come up with a solo for Descenery’s song he said: «sounds cool, let’s do it». To say I was shocked is to say nothing at all!
When I was looking for a singer for our first single, I discovered polish prog-rock band Hellhaven. I liked their singer’s voice and the music sounded nice to me since I like complex & progressive stuff. I contacted their singer Sebastian and told him that I wanted him in my band. He joined us and record the vocals for some Descenery’s songs. He also took part in shooting a music video for No Way this year. And now we have a video filmed both in Russia and Poland. I also want to thank Arthur Lesnitsky and Andrey Bulgakov for such a great experience.
Which track are you most proud of on the album?
Hard to say. I think all the songs are far from being perfect, I’d correct lots of things on the album right now. I like how the vocals and guitars in Divided sound, and the mixing is also nice. Let it be this track.
Moving onto live shows, what can one expect from a Descenery show?
You may see me dropping my guitarpick down to the floor while having no other pick in my pockets during our gig.
What’s been the best show you’ve played?
The best show I’ve ever played happened with Erase The Edge (pre-Ode Sakura) in 2016 at BSB Club. Descenery have only played a couple of gigs at this moment and that’s not enough to point out the best and the worst ones.
Have you got any live shows in the pipeline?
No gigs are really planned at this moment. I want to focus on working in my home studio.
And what’s in store for the band for the rest of the year and 2019?
I plan to release a new Descenery EP next year and complete writing the material for our second full-length album. Let’s hope it will be released somewhere in 2020. I’m also writing the songs for my newborn retrowave/electronic project Synthapex. The debut single will be released soon!
Review of Stillborn Monolith
Stillborn Monolith may only be Descenery’s debut album, but it’s a well-polished and engaging piece of work that shows a lot of promise and potential.
The aforementioned Divided is a personal highlight for me as well; the gritty vocals bring an extra bit of heaviness whilst the guitar solo brings the melody to keep the song moving. Another great inclusion is the title track, which shows off some excellent musicianship with some fantastic solos and instrumental lines, and when coupled with the half-yelled, half-sang vocal approach, it’s a winning combination.
As a whole, there’s a nice bit of variety to it all, due to the different guests on the album who bring their own unique style to their inclusions. Admittedly the flow is a little jerky at times due to the vast differences between some of the tracks, but on the other hand, the uniqueness helps to keep the album engaging because you’re never quite sure what to expect next.
Stillborn Monolith is a good, solid foundation for Descenery. It’s a very tight and streamlined release with plenty of excellent tracks to contend with – and if this is anything to go by, then we definitely need to look forward to the next release from the project!
