T: Why the name of Syphor for the band, which means?
Syphor: Well it might sound a bit cliche but we wanted a name that meant something about the message were trying to convey and Syphor the way we spell it “Syphor”, was the old way to spell the modern word “cipher” which is like a cryptographic code, you might know the the term in English “decipher a code”. Well the cipher is the code itself. And Syphor is the same thing but through the mutation of language over hundreds & hundreds of years it's now “cipher” but we like the old spelling “Syphor”. So basically, we liked the word and meaning so that's how the name came about.
T: This CD. “Stained Glass Blasphemy” is his first work that such comments? How about the distribution?
Syphor: With the type of metal we're playing, Ireland is a small country and as a unsigned band, really we didn't get any help from the scene at all, even now we have to go to Germany to get any recognition or help with promotion. So for us there was no way to distribute the album either national or internationally. So we went down the route of digitally distributing the album through the likes of Itunes and Amazon. It was the only way for us to get our music out there.
T: You make a death thrash metal style heavily influenced by big bands like Death, Kreator especially the latter reminded me of the Kreator CD. "Coma of Souls" What do you think?
Syphor: Musically I would say we're influenced by a lot of bands but your right especially by the likes of Death and also by thrash bands like Kreator, even though we never really noticed the Kreator reference but your not the first to mention Kreator so there must be a comparison somewhere. But other bands like Carcass and Massacre (Although you probably wouldn't hear it) are big influences on me personally and of course the classic bands like Slayer, Megadeth & Testament but really anything we're listening to.
In the band we all listen to different genres within metal. Black metal, Thrash, Death metal and this has an effect on what we put into the band musically. That's why I think when you listen to Syphor you hear all different Styles in there because we all are different and bringing our own thing to the band.
T: The cover is excellent seen many images if you look closely though it is central Baphomet, Who created and whether the band which is its meaning?
Syphor: I actually designed the cover. Dan gave me 3 words to words “ Stained Glass Blasphemy” and no more information then that. From that we came up with some ideas and eventually hit on an idea which suited what we wanted to say and the theme of the album. There's a running theme of anti religion throughout the album. Tracks like God Fearing Lunatic was written about the situation in the middle east and highlighting those who suffer in the name of religious difference. Loss of Faith divine, deals with religion head on and speaking about casting off the religious shackles that holds the whole world back and keeps us not that far away from the dark ages. I won't bored you or your readers by going through the album track by track but I'm sure you & they know what I mean. And that's where the cover came from. Religion is meant to teach understanding and peace but yet is used as another reason for people to hate & kill each other. So the altar and the demon coming it represents the evil that is done in the name of religion and all the other images that people see, thats just eyes playing tricks on you. or are they??, hehe.
T: Now Syphor is one of my favorites bands for this style death/thrash metal old school, Do you define the style as the band? and the underlying lyrics?
Syphor: It's good to hear that we're a favorite. Thanks man. Really at the start we wanted to do something different then what was on the scene in Ireland and because of what we listen to, that's where the “Old School” Thrash/death metal title came from. In Ireland , because of the success internationally of Primordial we have a lot of bands on the scene that are basically copying their style and going down the route of Celtic/pagan metal. We don't listen to Celtic traditional music or pagan metal, we listen to every other type of metal. We have no need to copy off others which are doing it much better than we ever could. But as I said there's a lot of bands here that do. We call them “Diet Primordial” or “Primordial lite”.
And about the meaning of the album, Religion, money , greed & hate, this is the way things are now, people are celebrated for being greedy & ruthless and they do unspeakable horror to each other everyday in the name of religion or money. And that's why we speak about subjects that are on our TV screens. Everyday when you look at or read the news there's something new going wrong with the world. This is why we don't have to talk about a mythical evil figures because theres nothing mythical evil figures all around us. Working in governments. Church's and in banks and large corporations. And all they really want to do is make money from the poor and keep the rich , rciher and the poor, poorer. We wanted to say something about this and many subjects with our music. To tell a story, it's what all musicians and songwriters try do and the world is bent enough out of shape that we get a lot of inspiration from reading the news or listening to whatever is going in the world.
T: Tell me that was when they released their demo "Zombie Moon" was how the advance CD. “Stained Glass Blasphemy”?
Syphor: Yeah really the Zombie moon E.P. as it was known, was just a demo disc we put together to send to radio stations & webzines to try get some feedback on weather our style of metal was going to work and really it was only for Irish/English radio stations but really it was only the demo of the album to try generate interest in the band and maybe a bit of money to try help with the rest of the recording.
T: How is the scene of Ireland there are other bands, styles tell us more please.
Syphor: There is a lot of great bands on the scene here. Bands like Mael Mordha, Sirroco are very good bands. We also have the likes of Abbaden Incarnate & the legends Morphosis who are together nearly or over 20 years now and were one of the first extreme death metal bands to come out of Ireland. I could also mention the likes of Mourning Beloveth, Killface and Cursed Sun, Llenkus who are all very, very good and creative bands. The scene here is rich with a lot of talent. Which is the way it should be. We're Irish , we have a rich musical history and there's no reason that shouldn't come out in metal too.
T: I read somewhere that prepared a concert tribute to Chuck Schuldiner of Death with some bands of Ireland.
Syphor: Yeah well we put together a charity night in aid of a group we have here in Ireland that helps children with autism/Special needs and just by chance that date we booked was 3 days before the 10th anniversary of Chuck Schuldiner's passing. So we wanted to mark this day by including some of the great mans work into our show. Just by maybe each band playing 1 or 2 Death tracks as a tribute cause I know for me, if there was no Chuck & Death, the world would be even more of a darker place. His message was always positive, pointing out things he seen in the world to be wrong. Not that much different then our own ideology about music and the world. .
T: How is Syphor concert, have made some tour now with his debut CD, I have played with bands from other countries?
Syphor: We have not toured yet but played individual shows both in Ireland and Germany. We opened the “Way of Darkness” festival in Germany , we are back in Germany to play a show in Berlin on the 11th of November and we're planning a tour of the U.K. Early in 2012.
At Way of Darkness we played with Obscura, Sodom, Morgoth, Milking the Goatmachine and it was great to play with and meet all these bands. Here in Ireland we've played with Dasaster, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Decapitated to name just a few. So we've been around a bit.
T: Something you want to add, for me 100% recommend the CD. "Stained Glass Blasphemy" for all the people who listen to good death / thrash metal. Tell me where you can buy your merchandise.
Syphor: Thanks again for liking the CD , your readers can get the album in digital download from Itunes or from Amazon. You can also buy a hard copy of the album through Paypal for 11 euro (Incl.P&P). All you have top do is contact us at Info@syphor.de with your postal address and when we receive confirmation of the payment we'll send it out. All other merchandise (T-shirts etc) can be seen on Reverbnation and bought this way, by contacting us directly.
T: Thanks for all my bro and visit the official page of the band Syphor http://www.syphor.de/ and support this great band!!
