I’ll introduce you to the The Chasm with an excerpt from their bio: “The Chasm came to be in December 1992, in Mexico City. Daniel Chorchado left his old band Cenotaph to embark on a dark journey: the procreation of an unique form of obscure and bizarre Metal of Death. Chorchado carried with him the inspiration of the ancient masters: Celtic Frost, Slayer, Black Sabbath, Sacrifice, Destruction and the pure essence of traditional heavy metal plus an infusion of more contemporary acts like Carnage, Winter, Autopsy, early Mayhem and Dismember.”
Since then The Chasm has gone a long way to earn the attention and respect they deserve. A path that wasn’t always easy to walk, but The Chasm battled on. With The Spell of Retribution they made an instant classic metal release that should not only appeal to Death Metallers, but to a much broader metal audience. In my review I made it clear The Chasm isn’t a band to ignore as it has been a long time since I’ve heard so much genuine and intriguing metal. Daniel Chorchado is answering the questions and it has become an interesting interview. Hail the Metal of Death!
First of all, congratulations on your latest effort “The Spell of Retribution”! It’s not that often I hear an original Death Metal classic nowadays and you’ve pulled it off…It seems things fall into the right place for The Chasm after more than 10 years of hard work. Can you give us the major landmarks of those years and your thoughts on what has changed since your on Wicked World?
Yes,it seems that finally, after a long hard journey, things are getting better now, I believe that the main points in our career have been when we released any of the past albums, as well as the demo, each and every one is/was an important step in the creation of this entity known as The Chasm, it was another step in the creation of this style of ours, and each one proved to be a completion of a small battle in this war and crusade we started in late 1992…so far the changes we have experienced in Wicked World are very positive, we were able to get a decent recording budget, meaning a stronger production, and now the cd is pretty much everywhere, the promotion is been immense too, for a band like us, very underground, this is something very special and it gives us some hope for the future.
Somehow I got the feeling your two previous albums suffered slightly from the production. Although the compositions have quality, the sound of the harmonies on the guitar and some leads got a bit too dissonant for my taste, which made it hard to listen to. All that is gone now and all compositions just shine through a very decent production job, even better ideas and handling of the instruments. What has made the difference?
I think it was a matter of experience, good equipment/studio and being able to have enough time to get the right sound, when we signed to Wicked World we knew that we were gonna have a very decent recording budget, so that made us feel more comfortable and relaxed in the studio, another very important factor was that I was able to get all the tracks to do the final mix in my own place (lux Inframundis), that was a comfortable thing too, even if it put some extra pressure and stress on me, in the end it was all worth it, i think we came up with our best recorded sound so far…past recording were not very optimal, I agree, but in one way they gave that very special aura to the past albums…
To respectfully use old school elements and blend it with an own identity isn’t new of course, but to create an original approach to Death Metal unheard of previously is. You have been called pioneers, but you’ve worked for about 10 years to reach this level and already released a couple of albums. How do you look upon this?
I only can look at our achievements with face towards the sun, proud of what we have been able to do as musicians and fans of this extraordinary Music entity called heavy metal, sometimes I hear our music and even if we have this traditional approach to it, I know and that we play every note from the heart, we believe in what we do, since day 1, that was the purpose, to create music to fulfil our souls, and I think that has been the most important factor in the creation of The Chasm’s sound.
All songs seem to be like great epic stories with many twists and plots. Who is the main force with the biggest imagination behind it all?
Lyrically speaking, I have to say that I’m responsible for the creations of this tales/stories/poetry, it always been like that, my main influence is my inner temple, my own visions and ideas of another dimensions and existence, the search for the other side, sometimes very hard to really understand by some, but with a lot of meaning for me, with the music, is something similar, but in this case we have 3 minds working at once, and we always had this thing for creating/arranging unconventional songs, is hard to explain, but that is the way we create and feel our music, it doesn’t matter if it’s long or short, or fast or slow, we play what we really feel, and if we like it we’ll use it, but overall as you can see, we always prefer to write longer, more epical songs, in order to create something more memorable for us.
Taking the concept behind the album, which is explained on your site, what exactly has gone wrong in ancient heritage and in underground metal in your opinion?
Well, I cannot go too long for this matter, it will take me hours to go in detail, but in brief, I can say that as Mexicans, we are totally disappointed in the actual state of our culture and country, is really annoying and depressing to see a country lie in such a state of misery and corruption and non -identity, when you look at the past and know that this was the same land where the mighty Emipre of the sun once ruled everything, ruled with wisdom, strength and honour…in the case of the Metal scene the feeling is very similar, if you look back to the 80’s, early 90’s, the grand majority of albums had something very special, a feeling that is very hard to find this days, of course things have to change, is a sign of the times, but sometimes I just cannot believe how trendy, empty and at some point, idiotic, some bands are carrying the name metal within them…I cannot go further, since there is nothing we can do about it, as long as we play our music with personality/identity and respect for the tradition of years past, The Chasm will be fine….
The Chasm is all about “feeling” and how to change it into musical energy I think. It seems loads of (death) metal bands have lost it and are chasing dragons in the form of big productions, blastfests and image building don’t you agree?
That’s what we were talking about in the last question, there are no real feeling in the majority of bands, it’s all a pose, or a hobby for them, if I remember well, Death metal as a musical form, was supposed to carry this dark feeling of destruction and strength, nowadays so many bands are copying each other, and the creative factor is getting very buried, fortunately there are still some carriers of the burning flame, and that is what really matters, as long as there are believers, not everything is lost…
Which bands are the major inspiration for your music and do you still listen to?
Our taste for Metal is very wide, but we have always been more obsessed with the ways of the old masters, we are not young kids, we grew up with the might aura and essence of the mid 80’s and early 90’s, that’s where our inspiration comes from, arcane masters like Black Sabbath, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Kreator, Exorcist, Saxon, Dio, Infernal Majesty, Winter, Priest, Maiden, Accept and so many more…and yes, of course we all still listen to this bands and more…
On to religion; do you believe in ancient gods or are you a purveyor of the heretic beliefs and in what way does it affect daily life?
With time I have learned that whatever I do and create/destroy is because of myself, I believe in only my own essence, I’m the one who controls my destiny, and I believe in using reason as well as emotion to create this fate, for my ancestors it was different, they were more into pagan worshipping and stuff, and I respect it, but i also see that in the end they created their own destiny too, I believe there is a strong occult force that everyone carries inside, but the majority of people do not realize they have it, this force is what it makes an individual being just that “an individual”, not a sheep or a faceless anybody in a sea of shit…
How do you look upon life and death, considering your heritage?
Considering my heritage I definitely think and believe that after this life there must be another one, a place where a new journey begins, to a place where the spirit will dwell in peace finally, converting the experiences of this life into the ultimate answer to the big question.
Are your albums going to be re-released? Or is your whole catalogue, incl. vinyl versions, still available?
Our first 2 albums are sold out completely, I think the vinyl versions of the last 3 still can be found somewhere, I’m not really into the idea of re-releasing our past albums, as much as I respect them and like, I think they accomplished their mission when they were released, this is a difficult decision since it involves my own principles but also it involves those who are interested and support the band…we have this idea of re-recording some older tracks and is still active in our minds, but we just have to find the right time to do it, 2005 maybe that right time.
When can we expect you over in Holland for some live dates? Maybe I can give you a hint for the support? Mortem and Inquistion would be great!
Yes, those bands would be killer to play with, especially the demons from Mortem, of course we have plans to go to Europe, but it all depends on how the new album does, sales wise, If we have a strong reaction, I’m sure we’ll have tour support to do this, let’s hope for that, time shall tell.
Do you expect any trouble in reproducing all those riffs live? I mean, the structures of your songs are miles away from being simple.
Well, yes, is gonna be complicated but not impossible, I agree, our riffs and structure are getting harder to play, but that is something we looked for, to become more bizarre and fresh, at the same time, darker and more destructive, in The Chasm’s way…
Thanks for the interview and good luck for future endeavours! Your final words for the readers?
Thanx a lot for your time and support, good luck with VM and hopefully we’ll be thrashing Holland in 2005…Utter death..
