INTERVIEW: Phrenelith

Danish Death Metal titans Phrenelith have now unleashed their third album! I decided it was well overdue that I spoke to SD from this band who have been a favourite for many years…

1. Hey man! How are things in Copenhagen? Can we do some unpleasantries and introduce yourself and the band?

SD: Hey man – things are good in Copenhagen. It’s winter here, as I write this, but the weather has been surprisingly mild lately – I wonder why that is! For those not familiar with the band and myself, Phrenelith is a death metal band formed in late 2013 by a group of friends who felt the dark urge to create some more somber and sinister death metal than what was around in Copenhagen back then – which also makes Phrenelith the longest consistently running band I’ve been a part off. My name is Simon Daniel and I’m one of the vocalists/guitarists in the band. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s false to say that I have been the main songwriter and lyricist for the band since the start.

2. Right, let’s go back to the start. You put out a series of smaller releases such as demos, splits, EPs and the like. I think this is always how a metal band of any form should start out. What was the importance of these early demos and how did they come to life (or death)? Do you feel these shaped the sound of the debut album?

SD: I think all the smaller releases proved very valuable in us trying out different things and learning how to play together. I think we needed to figure out how we wanted to sound and which approach we were aiming for on the recordings. To begin with, things were moving pretty slow with the band – I guess it still is – however, back then it was because we spent a lot of time hanging out as friends and indulging in various recreational substances – as opposed to now where other, more formal, obligations seems to get in the way of us playing music. Initially, when we started out, we had an agreement that we would never do a full-length album, but instead only do demos, splits and EPs – but somewhere along the line that sentiment changed. Considering we are about to put out our third album, I feel that maybe we have done what we wanted to in that format, and I wouldn’t mind returning to focus on some shorter releases that are more compact and intense.

3. Speaking of the debut album, 2017’s “Desolate Endscape” is a beloved LP in the Death Metal underground of today. Can you tell us about its creation, inspirations and execution in as much details as possible? What went into this masterpiece?

SD: I think the initial reaction to “Desolate Endscape” surprised us with how much praise it garnered. The band was still very much in its infancy and I think we had a much more naive approach to everything surrounding the band. Looking at it from a distance I still like the songwriting a lot – although there are still things that are very grating to my ears all these years later. I think we were just lucky to capture the energy and musical enthusiasm we had at the time. I remember us spending a lot of time rehearsing and generally just talking about the album in the months leading up to us entering the studio.

The album was recorded in May 2016, where we only spent 5 days recording everything in a small studio down the hall from our rehearsal space. The whole process felt very natural and unforced, in that we just came to the studio and did our parts, and then had a couple of beers afterwards and did it all again the next day.

Inspiration came from a broad variety of places, but there are 3 bands that come to mind and really stood out. One was the Finnish band Mythos and their demo “Moulded in Clay”, which I also think was the impetus for starting the band, originally. Another release David and I, in particular, worshiped back then was Disciples of Mockery’s album “Prelude to Absolution”, which had that dark and sinister approach to death metal that we were looking to create in Phrenelith. I guess that’s also where the Incantation influence, that people seem to point out, comes from, considering Craig Pillard fronted both bands. Lastly I would say I’ve been a lifelong fan of Morbid Angel, and I circle through being obsessed with each of the first six albums. I seem to remember that I listened a great deal to “Covenant” around the time of writing “Desolate Endscape”.

4. Aside from the killer “Ornamented Dead Eyes” 7”, you had a quieter four years with output until the monumental 2021 LP “Chimaera”. As we did for the debut, can you give us some history and information on the creation of this superb sophomore?

We recorded “Chimaera” right after coming home from Japan, where we had played some shows – one of them being Asakusa DeathFest. While working on material for the ‘Chimaera’ album, we also recorded a 3-song tour promo, the 2-song “Ornamented Dead Eyes” 7” EP, like you mentioned and a track for a 4-way split, titled “Tetralogy of Death”, so in that regard I don’t think it was totally quiet for us on the studio front. However, we had focused a lot on touring and playing live in general since the release of “Desolate Endscape”, so we had put less energy into writing new material than I had hoped for. Coupled with the fact that every member had other musical endeavours and personal obligations. This resulted in the fact that one of the songs got written quite late in the process and thus had mostly been rehearsed by me and our old drummer. Still we had managed to rehearse a lot, so I would still describe us as a tight and well-oiled machine upon entering the studio to record “Chimaera”. This time we took 8 full days to record the album, since I was very adamant about wanting to take more time in the studio to experiment. To be totally honest I think the cracks were beginning to show considering some problems internally in the band – this also resulted in us taking a short hiatus from the band, where we also changed drummers in the process. I’m not sure if we really knew at that time if we wanted to be a band going forward, but ultimately the hiatus only lasted around 6 months and even during those months I was writing music for the band continuously.

I think most will agree that “Chimaera” is sonically a departure from “Desolate Endscape” to a certain extent. Looking back we seemed to have incorporated a lot more doom/death influences, as the album is a great deal heavier, slower and a lot more melodic than its predecessor. It also always seemed to me to have a near melancholic sound in certain parts. This was mostly intentional, since we didn’t want to repeat ourselves, and simply rehash the ideas we had explored on “Desolate Endscape” – which all came from this deep fear of artistic stagnation. We wanted to move forward as a band and explore new sounds instead of just continuing on people’s expectations – which is something that is evident on all our releases in my opinion.

5. Before we start talking about the upcoming third LP, Phrenelith seems to be a band which plays live very selectively. Your shows are usually part of really killer lineups! Can you give us some cool anecdotes from the road, and what you think a fan should expect from seeing you live if they have not already?

SD: As established earlier all the band members have very busy schedules which impedes our live activities at times, so I’m happy that you see it as being more selective than anything else, haha. In regards to what someone can expect from a live show with us, I think what we lack in technical proficiency, we usually try to make up for with the live shows being a phrenetic outburst of unfettered energy. I usually find our shows to be a chaotic ordeal, that is barely holding together. But at the same time the feeling is always good and we seem to tap into something enjoyable on a very primal and primitive level.

Not sure about what anecdotes to tell – things always get pretty dumb on tour. The only one I can think of that’s not completely incriminating was when we were on a European tour with PISSGRAVE from Philadelphia. We had played a show in Slovenia and at the show someone came up to the merch stand and asked if he could trade some of his homegrown weed for some merch – which seemed like a good idea to me at the time. The day after, early in the morning, we were on our way to Prague, when we got pulled over by a cop car lying in wait. The police officer got out and after a quick conversation with him about who we were and so on, he insisted on us following in our van behind his car to a highway police station where they would search our van. Right at that moment I remember the bag of weed that was in my jacket. It didn’t seem viable to try to throw it out the window since we were staying right behind the police car while they were keeping a close eye on us in the back mirror. When I pulled the bag out to ask the rest of the gang what to do, panic soon erupted, with the two brothers from PISSGRAVE yelling at me to eat the weed like we were going to be executed on the spot. Indeed that seemed like the only option, so I ate the whole bag of weed and washed it down with some stale beer. At the police station we got escorted into what I can only describe as a big warehouse. They lined us up in a straight line beside the van and 4 police officers proceeded to empty everything out of the van and brought in the narcotics dog to sniff our luggage and around the van. The whole ordeal took forever, since they couldn’t find anything, and the cop with the dog kept saying that the dog could smell something in there – while they asked us all sorts of questions. All the while the weed was starting to take its toll on me and things got kind of surreal from there. Ultimately, the cops let us go and we were on our way to Prague. I just remember being the highest I’ve ever been for a good 10 hours, but luckily the buzz had warned off just as we were about to play that night!

6. 2025 will see “Ashen Womb” released into the world. Your third album is certainly heavily anticipated. You know the drill, give us the information on how it was crafted and what we can expect from this new opus!

I think once again “Ashen Womb” is a departure from its predecessor, which is something the early reviewers of the album seem to agree with me upon. I feel that “Ashen Womb” is in many ways the culmination of everything we have learnt on this decade-long journey for the band. The whole timeline between the two last records is a bit mixed up, since even though we recorded “Chimaera” at the end of 2019, the album wasn’t released until the very end of 2021 (and the vinyl wasn’t released until late 2022), because of reasons that I feel are a bit tedious to talk about – but the longer turnarounds at the pressing plants due to Covid, meant that the vinyl ended up not being released until a full year later.

I think after our short hiatus we entered what I would define as a very creative and productive period for the band, with a renewed enthusiasm for writing songs. What made the recording process of “Ashen Womb” considerably different from previous albums was that we allowed ourselves to take a lot more time in the studio than we had ever done before. I’m not actually sure how many full days we spent in the studio, but my guess would be 12-14 days total. The album was also recorded in sessions over nearly half a year – which was a new approach for us as well. I think the fact that the whole process had a lot less sense of urgency made it possible for us to immerse ourselves much more in the recording than we had done before.

What separates the new album from the ones preceding, would also be the fact that it’s the first album recorded with our longtime friend, Marcus, in his “No Master’s Voice” studio, who was a great help in shaping the sound of the album and giving input when we were stuck on some parts. I think I would rather just let the album speak for itself instead of building up any certain expectations. I am, however, very curious to see how people will perceive it.

7. All of you are very involved in the Extreme Metal world, that cannot be disputed. So I would like to quickly take a break from Phrenelith and ask you about your various other ventures and those of your bandmates. What do these other entities offer that Phrenelith can not and are there parallels?

Personally, my currently active bands would be ASCENDENCY, where I’m the vocalist and guitarist. The band was initially started as a solo project many years ago but morphed into an actual band with changing line-ups and different constellations with well-known individuals from the Copenhagen scene. Other than that I play drums in the band LESION, which is a long running band that is hard to pinpoint musically – sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but always very sinister. We’re working on a new record that people should keep their eyes peeled for. Our drummer, Andreas, is a busy man that is active in both CHAOTIAN, SEQUESTRUM and his solo project, MORGELLONS. He actually also played on an ASCENDENCY track, now that I think about it. I think most people will be familiar with David’s work since it’s pretty extensive. However, I think he mostly just stays active with UNDERGANG and SEQUESTRUM right now. Our bassist Jakob is also involved in different bands and runs some labels – all of which I’m under the impression he prefers to keep separate from PHRENELITH.

As to what these other entities offer that Phrenelith can not, I can only speak for myself. I started ASCENDENCY because I had ideas that didn’t fit into PHRENELITH and I wanted a sort of “fresh canvas” or “clean slate” to work on – if that makes sense. Even though I want PHRENELITH to be this ever-changing entity that can do a variety of musical approaches, I still think there are limits to what kind of beast I want PHRENELITH to be – and that’s where my other musical endeavours usually spring forth from. It is not something we have ever talked about but I imagine that the reason Andreas and David started a band like SEQUESTRUM – beyond a love of CARCASS and goregrind – was to have an outlet where the concept was less rigid and where ideas were maybe flowing a bit more freely. Phrenelith, in contrast, is somewhat conceptually deep in a way that can be a little more strict. A lot of time and thought is put into shaping a specific musical narrative, so in that sense, realising ideas and shaping songs can be a drawn-out process.

8. Phrenelith has some amazing visuals, can you give us a bit of history on your album
covers, what inspired them and what they depict or represent for the band?
Additionally perhaps some lyrical insights to give us the full scope would be really
helpful if you can share some!

Thanks! The visual side of things has always been very important to us. I think a release should stimulate more senses than just the auditory sensory system, and I personally like to see when bands put an effort into the packaging their music comes in – especially now that streaming is such a huge part of the musical landscape – I think you should make the physical version into something extra enthralling. Elaborating on the previous question, we also put a lot of weight on the visual aspects of our releases so they are coherent with the music and overall narrative as well – which in turn can be a long process to get right. Each cover represents something that aligns itself perfectly within the microcosm of the record. I’ll maybe save the semiotic analysis of our covers for another time, since I’m afraid it would take the interview into a tedious length. In the same way, the lyrics usually have a consistent continuity within the boundaries of the album – and if a lyric doesn’t fit the overall concept of the album, it’s either discarded or saved for a larger project. Again, the lyrics have gone through different eras and this would turn into a dissertation if I had to go too in-depth with them at this point. However, everyone is welcome to buy me a beer and hear me rant endlessly the next time they see me, haha.

9. Finally, last words are yours! Forewarn us of what storms are coming from the Phrenelith camp!

Thanks for doing the interview!