With Gichigami, The Crypt crafts metal symphonies inspired by the Great Lakes, blending classical grandeur and extreme metal into an ambitious, atmospheric journey shaped by nature, complexity, and fearless experimentation.
1. Gicghigami
is described as “metal symphonies” dedicated to the Great Lakes—what inspired this
concept, and how did the idea first come to life?
The biggest
part was where I live—I'm from a small town on the shore of Lake Michigan. Our nature, and especially lake has been an
enormous influence and inspiration for me in every realm of my life. Also, listening to Norwegian bands like
Enslaved, Ulver, and Immortal scream about Norwegian wilderness made me think
about my surroundings and want to do something similar. I made a trip around the Great Lakes in 2019
and the other four—they're all quite different, and inspiring in their own
ways.
2. This album
took over a year to compose. What made the writing process so demanding compared
to your previous releases?
The idea
was to make a “symphonic” metal album, but better than what others have done;
I've always been super bummed when it's the usual chugga-chugga bullshit
verse-chorus-verse-chorus songs just with a shitload of layers all playing the
same thing, so I wanted to be more “classical” in arrangement and
structure. That means lots, and lots of
different parts, lots of different moods and movements. The guitars are the focal point, so just
writing them involved tons of fine tuning—absolutely tedious and at times
frustrating.
3. The fusion
of metal with complex classical arrangements is striking—how did you approach blending
these two worlds without losing The Crypt’s identity?
Very
simply! Lots of my favorite bands like
Metallica and Morbid Angel have complex “classical” influences, and there are
lots of super dark composers from which to draw inspiration. Apart from the first two movements of
“Erige,” it's all shades of dark, minor keys which are perfect for metal!
4. Were there
specific classical composers or influences that shaped the sound of Gicghigami?
Chaikovsky,
Smetana, Dvorak, Bach, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Wagner, Holst, and
Vivaldi. Chaikovsky has a huge influence
on me, because I lived in his native city, and actually saw a really cool
performance of Holst's Planets suite there (at the famous Mikhailovsky Theatre,
if I remember correctly)—which was the biggest influence for doing Gicghigami. I thought of doing one suite for each
lake, just as Holst had done with each planet.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons likewise presented a similar idea, as did
Smetana's Ma Vlast (“My Homeland).
I have to give credit to my dad for introducing me to classical music, and to our former guitarist Mike Fellner and Trey Azagthoth for teaching me it was cool to like it. Also, in my village we have a classical music festival each summer, so it was part of my childhood.
5. The Crypt
has never shied away from experimentation. Do you see Gicghigami as a natural evolution
or a deliberate reinvention?
Very
deliberate, although it was a natural progression of all the complicated music
from Lux Libera Me. I knew I
wanted to do something unusual, and “the classical album” seemed like the most
exciting thing to do next. The lyrics of
Lux Libera Me were kind of challenging to write, so I wanted a break
from that. No lyrics makes everything so
much easier!
6. How did
you handle the instrumentation on this album—did you work with live classical musicians,
digital orchestration, or a mix of both?
It's all
real, live, classical musicians! I tried
to work with several people about doing some “digital orchestra,” but it turned
out to be more expensive and complicated than just hiring musicians. In the end, there's certainly not an
orchestra, just different instruments used depending on the mood of the
song. Much easier! But the process of working with them was not
easy at all. Given the complexity of
some songs or the bizarre modes we used, a lot of musicians flat out refused to
even try it.
Also, HUGE
credit and thanks to our sound dude, Daniel “BMNO” Pavlov for making this turn
out as cool as it did! I don't take
particular pleasure in tormenting him with strange instruments, but he's proven
time and again to be adept at handling our difficult music.
7. The album
feels deeply atmospheric and almost cinematic. Did you have a visual or narrative
concept in mind while composing it?
I can
visualize different parts of each lake, depending on the movement. The second part of “Hauregane” just feels
like the soaring bluffs of the Bruce Peninsula, those triumphant horns and
crushing riffs of “Mishigami” could be the imposing sand dunes, and the choir
part on “Kanadario” sounds like the water trickling through the Thousand
Islands as it flows to the Atlantic Ocean.
The track list moves through the lakes in the order the water
flows—Superior first, ending with Ontario.
Having visited and swum in each of them, not to mention having read a
lot about them, and stared at pictures of them since I was a child, it was
simply a process of translating them into music.
8. Compared
to albums like Istrebitel or Lux Libera Me, how does Gicghigami differ emotionally
and thematically?
The lack of
lyrics gives it a real “feel,” more than any other album, and I think it is
much more emotional than any of the others.
Without words, the music hits much harder. There's plenty of violence and destruction,
as with Истребитель Istrebitel, as the lakes have killed lots of
people and sunk hundreds of boats over the years, but there's also that sense
of mystery from Lux Libera Me, and some of the solitude and somberness
of Embers of Limerance.
9. Your discography
constantly shifts styles, sometimes challenging listeners. Do you think this unpredictability
is essential to The Crypt’s identity?
I certainly
try to keep it like that! It definitely
gives me a lot of focus and direction when I'm composing a new album. I secretly love to piss people off who want
us to make another version of a previous album.
I create so much music and have written quite a lot that I really need
to do something different all the time.
As much as I love Deicide's first two albums, I would go batshit crazy
if I had to write such a narrow scope of lyrics with every album...especially
after 30 years!
10. What
role did Adam Haste and your collaborators play in shaping the final sound of this
release?
Sadly, Adam
didn't get to do too much on this. He
and I worked really hard on Embers of Limerance and Рудий Лiс (Red
Forest), but he
just didn't have time for this one.
Plus, the music was exceptionally difficult and specific, so it was just
easier for me to do it all myself. Our
drummer, Dan Smrz, had a huge role, however.
Especially with “Gichigami,” (aka: “Lake Superior”), where I had all the
instruments except drums. I gave him
some guidelines, but his drum parts were completely his creation.
As far as
the other musicians, I gave them the tempo, the mode, and a basic idea, and let
them do their thing. So they deserve a
lot of credit for their parts, which are every bit as essential as the bass,
drums, and guitars.
11. With
such a complex album, how do you envision translating Gicghigami into a live setting?
I
don't...the Crypt isn't a live band, mainly because we lack the metal musicians
necessary for such a concert. The cost,
both in terms of time and money, would be extensive for the type of music we
play, and it would take away from writing and recording. However, a classical conductor I know has
shown some interest in making some arrangements of these songs. If he wants to put something together, I'll
totally play bass for the concert!
12. You’ve
explored everything from acoustic to ambient to extreme metal—where does Gicghigami
sit in your personal artistic journey?
It's a definite high point: the most complicated, mature, and accomplished thing I've done—yet. I don't think I'm going to do anything nearly that complicated again for a while, maybe ever, so it's my Mount Everest, so to speak.
13. Alongside
this release, you’ve been revisiting and re-recording older material. How does looking
back at your past influence what you create today?
Well, it's
been a real relief after Gichigami and Lux Libera Me! Those two albums and one acoustic EP date
from as far back as 1993, so they're much simpler and straightforward. I just had to listen to the old demos (on my
Tascam 4 track) and find the lyrics—very little other than a bit of fine tuning
had to be done to both the music and lyrics.
That entire process took less than five months—for two albums and an EP,
compared to well over a year for Gichigami.
The most
satisfying thing about doing that old material was reconnecting with long lost
friends. The first album, Corpus
Hypocrisy, and the acoustic EP, Horizons over the Phenomena, feature
some original Crypt members and old friends from high school. I also managed to get every member of our
local metal band, Darcade involved in some way or another. For the second album, Pristine
Visualization, a lot of people with whom I corresponded back in the late
90's/early 2000's were able to participate—so you'll hear some familiar voices
of some real quality underground international metal bands! The second lead guitarist for that one is
Kishan Kamal, from Bangladesh, who I met when we were studying together at
Lawrence University.
There are
so many great memories of those times, and even though a lot of the music and
lyrics are slightly naive and immature, they take me back to good times I
enjoyed (drinking way too much in college, tape trading, rehersing in barns),
and some hard times (getting mugged in France, losing cherished girlfriends,
and Metallica's Load {of Shit}) which I overcame and grew. It's really inspiring to look at the road
behind, and see how far this has gone for almost 30 years!
14. Finally,
what do you hope listeners take away from Gicghigami after experiencing these “metal
symphonies”?
The main
thing would be that they would get to experience the Great Lakes without having
to visit them. A lot of our fans and
listeners are from distant lands, so this way they can experience some of these
awesome bodies of water. And for those
listeners who have visited them and love them as much as I do, this should be
another way of connecting with them, the same way I read the book Mysterious
Islands (a chronicle of interesting stories from each of the lakes) or look
at my picture book of Lake Superior (which I ironically found in a bookstore in
Appleton the same night I bought the Metal Maniacs issue with the Litham
advertisment!).
The best
way to experience the album would be to shut off all your lights, consume your favorite
substances, and give the album all of your attention...hopefully it will
transport you far, far away.
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