Circle of Silence: Reconquering the crimson throne

Note: this interview was done in 2018. 

It took 5 years for Circle Of Silence to release their third full-length album “The Crimson Throne” but it was worth the wait by any means. The new CD is perfect and the band has improved every aspect of their music: songwriting, performance, sound production, visual representation. So I decided to talk with the band closely about this masterpiece.  Guitarist Christian Sommerfeld answered the questions.  

Congrats with the new album! It’s been five years since the previous one. What caused such a delay?
Thank you! After our previous album “The Rise Of Resistance” we wanted to have a short break and start songwriting for the next album one year later but I think this break was a bit too long so it was a little bit hard to go over to the songwriting mode again. On some songs we worked at lot of time and some other ones were written very fast. At the end we had also some struggles with the recording process and finally with the release itself. The album was finished around 9 months before the final release date.
Did you take an advantage of such a long break between albums improving new songs or was it a kind of a problem which affected your motivation?
I would say the last one. At the end we were a little frustrated as the songs itself in the demo stadium were finished 1 and half year before the release date. Just imagine you just want the songs to be released in the public but you can't, hehe. And as the songwriting itself took such a long time it was a little frustrating that the whole recording and release process was still before us.

When did you start writing songs for this album? Didn’t you feel that some of them became dated when you started recording them?
As mentioned previously we started with the songwriting around one year after the previous release. The first finished song was “Destroyers of the Earth” and I don't think the song was dated with the start of recording. As I think “The Crimson Throne” is our best album so far, I'm still very satisfied with the songs.

As far as I can hear, there are some Maiden influences and more melodies overall in the new songs. Is it a natural progression for you as a band?

Yes I would say this is just natural progression. The only think we had in mind for the new album was that we initially wanted to improve the thrash influences but as we had written such a song like “Race To The Sky” or “The Chosen One” which both have the Maiden influences we skipped this plan and just wrote songs no matter how they sound. But at the end it is still our most thrash influenced album so far, haha.

What’s the idea with the title “The Crimson Throne”? I understand it’s named after on of the songs but why this particular song?

I don't write the lyrics. But according to “The Crimson Throne” first of all we thought about an album title and how the cover could look like. With this title we thought it would look cool with our demon sitting on a throne in a cave and a lot of blood. That's it, nothing special. The song itself came after the album title. 

The album sounds really killer! Tell me please about your collaboration with Sinja Muller. Did you have a certain idea or a plan of how the album should sound or was it all up to Sinja?

Thank you very much! After our two previous records on which we worked together with Vagelis Maranis we wanted to try something new. As the studio of Sinja is near our hometown and with this we had the chance to record songs in the evening the decision was easy and we gave it a chance. But Sinja did just the recording. The album was mixed and mastered by Kai Stahlenberg.

Sinja is such a beautiful looking woman so wasn’t she a distraction from playing and recording? 

I think if I would say it wasn't a distraction I would lie, haha. It is definitely a difference whether there is a man or a beautiful woman. You're more nervous because you want to show what you can. But this last only the first few days then it was no problem anymore.

Let’s talk about the lyrical content of the album. What are some themes and topics you touch in the songs? Is there a song about “The Dark Tower”?

I'm the wrong guy to talk about lyrical stuff as I just write the music. Björn our bass player writes all the lyrics but he got married this weekend and has started his honeymoon so no chance to contact him, hehe. But yes there is a song about “The Dark Tower”, it is “Wild Eyes”. Björn is a big fan of Stephen King or also DC Comics, especially Batman so very often these are main influences for the lyrics. By the way the song “Endgame” is about Batman.

By the way, don’t you want to write a song about your native city Heilbronn and the events of the Peasants War of the XVI century?

Heilbronn is not worth it to write a song, hehe. It is not a very nice city and also it is very hard nowadays to find some good locations playing some concerts. Also we are neither political nor medieval band. Most of the songs are about fictional science fiction topics like “Endgame” or “Wild Eyes”. Other ones are socially critical and some other very few are just fictional songs about something which came into Björn's mind.

The winged demon on your covers becomes stronger and stronger with each release. Is he your mascot or your alter-ego maybe? Does he have a name?

We thought it is a good idea to have a recognition value with each release. And as we worked with “The Crimson Throne” the second time with Fransico Garces we we're able to illustrate the exact same demon in a different position. We think we go on with him also on the next release and then the demon will be again a little bit stronger, haha. Maybe finally he will be emperor about the whole universe. Band internally his name is Engelbert and I would say he is our mascot like Eddie for Iron Maiden. Maybe someday when we are very famous we have a 3 meter demon walking on the stage. But I think this will never happen.

Tell me about your collaboration with Massacre Records. If the album was financed by crowdfunding why did you need the label then?

We need the label for the whole publication and promotion process and the worldwide sale. Even if we don't earn much money with it as Massacre does all this stuff we save a lot of time. Also we don't have all the contacts as Massacre has to promote a new release.

Do you have any certain expectations with the new albums (certain sales, a new record deal, invitations to bigger festivals etc.)?

According to sales we hope that we can sell at least more than we sold for “The Rise The Resistance”. But mostly we hope that the album becomes a positive echo and we maybe have the chance to play bigger festivals or also a tour with a bigger band. That would be very cool.

I understand that the new album was released only a few days ago but have you already started thinking about the new one? Will it take another 5 years to record it?

Hopefully not! We've already written the music for four new songs and also there are around 2-3 other ones for which we have partly written the music. For several reasons now there will be a small break about 3 or 4 months but the plan is to completely finish the first songs before the end of the year. The plan is not to take again another five years, hopefully at most 3 years.

What are your touring plans in support of the album?

Currently only single shows in Germany during 2018. But maybe at the beginning of 2019 we will have the chance to go on tour with a bigger band. But there is nothing finally planned yet.

What were some weird or exotic places/cities/countries you played in? What countries would you like to visit?

Until now we didn't played at some exotic places. First of all we would like to visit some European countries. Maybe Eastern Europe someday or the North as I think the fan base in countries like Sweden or Norway is higher than the southern countries.

How do you view power metal scene today? Would you say that the genre is as strong as it used to be in the first half of the 2000’s? What young and upcoming power metal bands can you recommend?

All in all I think the whole genre is, of course next to the classical ones heavy and thrash metal, in my opinion still one of most popular ones. But of course the European power metal style is much more popular than the US style which we play. My last discovered young power metal band is Savage Machine from Denmark. Their new album “Abandon Earth” is absolutely great and has a lot of classical influences like Metal Church or Judas Priest. It is a little bit sad that such great bands don't become the recognition they deserve. You should check them out if you don't know them yet. There are really a lot of great young heavy or power metal bands. Let's just mention Denied, Dendera, Ambush, Night Demon or Air Raid. 

The band has never changed the line-up. Would you say that the chemistry you have makes you stronger with years?

We are all friends and also spent a lot of time together in our free-time. So I think this is the reason why we still have the same line-up over all the year. It’s not just about the music all the time, it’s also a friendship that connects us and holds us together. I can’t say, if this makes the Band stronger with the years but of course this is why the chemistry is most of the time very good.

How do you view the records “Your Own Stories” and “The Supremacy Of Time”? Are they proper albums or are they more like demos?

They are just definitely demos, especially regarding the sound which was just home-recording at this time. Of course, there are some good songs on it but at this time we hadn't found our style and a lot of songs we're mixed up with many different styles from melodic death to classical power metal. On each flyer at these days were different styles written below the band name. As far as I remember one of the funniest ones was something like “epic aggressive metal”.

Don’t you want to re-release them or maybe re-record some tracks off these releases?

We already talked several times maybe to re-record some songs as bonus tracks for upcoming releases but there are no plans to re-release them.

Feel free to say a few words to your fans.

First of all, we would like to thank you for the interview! We thank all our fans for the big support and that they like what we are doing and hopefully our fans will like the new album, too!