On the 6th of April this year, Labyrinthus Stellarum released their second album, Vortex of the Worlds, we wrote a review about this great album. Now it’s time to ask the gentlemen from Labyrinthus Stellarum some questions. So sit back and enjoy the read.
Finding our way through the cosmic maze:
Firstly, thank you for the opportunity for this interview. Can you introduce yourself and the band to the audience?
We are a cosmic black metal band from Odesa, southern Ukraine. Our band was formed in 2021 by Alex Andronati and his friend Oleksandr Kostetskyi. Later in 2022, the band was joined by Alex’s brother, Misha Andronati. The first album, Tales of the Void, was released on the 24th of March 2023.
You released the first album in 2023, which was well received, did any of you had previous band experience?
None of us had any previous band experience. Moreover, the band Labyrinthus Stellarum initially was just an experiment. We wanted to release music for the first time, and we were really impressed by the community response on the album.
2024 a new year, and a new album released, can you tell us something about the creative process?
The process of creating our new album was different from the way we created the first album. In a band, the responsibilities are strictly divided: Alex writes all the music, lyrics and records vocals, Misha records the guitar and does the mixing and mastering.
The reason I like the album is the heavy space/cosmic influences, any reason why the band chose that style?
Since childhood, we have both loved sci-fi: films, books, games, and TV series about space and extraterrestrial creatures. But the first impetus that pushed us to this theme was that we stumbled upon an old drawing by Alex Andronati, which later became the cover art of Tales of the Void.
Are there other bands or genres that influenced you?
When we were writing and recording our first album we were influenced by bands like Lustre, Eldamar, Mesarthim, Windveill. However, the situation with our second album, Vortex of the Worlds was different. We wanted to create something new, something unique. Regarding the sound of the album, we tried to make it heavier and more diverse than Tales of the Void, while not losing atmosphere and melodic elements.
In addition, the album is more dynamic and saturated. The album contains many experiments with sound and elements of electronic music. For example, the album opens with a synth that is based on a sample of the vocalist’s voice, the song From the Nothingness uses a cowbell as one of the synths, and the chorus of Downfall uses a vocoder.
The band is from Ukraine, due to its difficult situation currently, how hard is it to make a new album under these circumstances?
Due to the War in Ukraine, Misha Andronati moved to Germany and is currently living there. That’s why it was much more difficult to write the second album. Which is the least problem compared with what is going on right now in Ukraine. The best way anyone can help us is to support Ukraine to win this war (donations, spreading the information, etc.) That is very important.
There have been some changes in the lineup, can you tell us more about that?
Oleksandr Kostetskyi left the band a couple of months after the release of Tales of the Void. The second album was written without him. Currently, there are two lineups: studio lineup that consists of Andronati brothers, Alex and Misha. And the live lineup that consists of vocalist Alex Andronati, bassist Kirill Kurtev who is also the creator of gore grind project Shit Rotator, guitarist Vladyslav Kyndiuk and drummer Dmytro Bokhan who also plays drums in Cheshires. Moreover, Dmytro helped us with drum programming for the album Vortex of the Worlds.
Are there any plans for a tour? And with which bands would you like to tour?
Currently, we don’t see any possibilities to tour outside of Ukraine due to the martial law. Although, we’re planning a tour in Ukraine supporting the new album in summer. We think that it would be really cool to tour with bands like Darkspace or Mesarthim because the concerts would have a special cosmic atmosphere.
One of the questions we asked the band is their vision of the black metal scene in their home country, so can you tell us a bit about the scene in Ukraine.
We are proud of the black metal scene in Ukraine, there are plenty of bands that are not only known in our country, but also are popular around the world.
Is there anything you want to add?
Currently, we are working on our third album and already have a couple of 90%-ready songs. We hope that it will be released next year.
We would like to thank the gentlemen from Labyrinthus Stellarum for the interview, you can list their latest album by clicking the YouTube video below
Your thoughts on their latest album
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