By Andrew Bansal
Thrash metal outfit Angelus Apatrida is undoubtedly one of the most popular bands in their home country Spain, but to the outside world, they are a relatively unknown entity. Having started out more than 11 years ago, they put out two demos that played an important role in creating the band’s initial fan base, and then went on to release two full-length albums in 2006 and 2007. But they achieved a major breakthrough by signing to Century Media Records in 2009, subsequently releasing their third full-length album “Clockwork”, and becoming an actively touring act within European circles, sharing the stage with the likes of Arch Enemy, Slayer, Megadeth, and many others.
They are now ready to release their second album on Century Media, “The Call”. After giving it a listen, I felt obliged to do an interview with this band and introduce them to Metal Assault readers everywhere. Today, on March 14th 2012, just an hour ago, I had a detailed chat with frontman Guillermo Izquierdo, and we talked about the new album, past tours, future plans and other things. Read the conversation below, and visit the band’s website and social networks by using the links at the bottom of this post.
Your new album is coming out next month, on April 30th. What can your fans expect from it? Musically, is it much the same as what you did in the previous three albums?
Well, the main way for us to work on this album was to not think what to do, just let our minds compose new riffs and songs. We just try to do our best in every new album, on every new song, and not think about whether to make it more thrash or speed metal. I think the main difference between this album and the three previous albums is, this one is the most professional, most mature, and the heaviest album we’ve ever recorded. We’ve been on tour for a year and a half, and this album has been composed almost on the road, and because of that, I think we’ve put all the power the band has on the stage, into this album. Our producer also did a fantastic job on this one.
You said that you wrote almost all of it on the road. What was that like? You must have been really busy on tour, even on off-days.
Well, it wasn’t exactly like that. It’s difficult for the four of us to be in the rehearsal room, because David lives in another city, Victor is a drum teacher and I’m a guitar teacher too, so sometimes it’s difficult to have free time together to be in the rehearsal room. But it’s not all composed on the road. Of course, we had some time to work on the material at our homes with our computers, and then to fix all the small details to get ready with the ten songs we wanted to record. Then we moved to the studio and tried to fix some more things and change one or two parts here and there. But I think it’s the most natural album we’ve recorded because of the experience of being on the road for so long.
This is your second album on Century Media. You signed with them a couple of years back. How much did things change for you once that happened?
Everything, man. Everything was different, because we financed the first two albums by ourselves. It’s very hard to be in the Spanish heavy metal mainstream, but with our second albums we reached that point. We weren’t one of the best or most important bands, but one of the upcoming new bands. We played in important festivals just on the strength of our second album. Because of that, Century Media here in Spain contacted us and offered us a deal. Everything changed. We were used to work ourselves for promotion, for selling the album, recording, etc, and to become part of a label like Century Media, it was a dream come true. It was the first time for a Spanish band that this happened. Everything was new for us, for our manager, and even for the fans and media. Everybody from the label was getting in touch with us and helping us out, saying that we need to put the band on the international stage. We were a little worried about the first album on the label, simply because we weren’t used to working like that, but for the new album “The Call”, everything went a lot easier.
Because you signed a worldwide deal with Century Media, do you think you are slowly becoming more popular outside of Spain?
Yeah, as you said, it’s going slowly. Right now, we are one of the biggest bands here in Spain. We play in good festivals, with good time slots. If we go to Madrid and Barcelona, the bigger cities of Spain, we play in huge venues with lots of fans. But for Europe and the rest of the world, we are a new band. We have toured Europe twice, and the popularity of the band has grown. We need to gain a foothold in Europe, and we’ve never been to the USA, so I think in the USA we’re just like a point on the map (laughs). We’re nothing over there. But, we’re still young and we have all the time in our lives to show our music to the world. This new album “The Call” will really show who we are and what music we play. If people like metal, they will like our new album.
You have a long European tour coming up, with 3 Inches Of Blood, Goatwhore and Havok. You must be really excited to tour with these bands and promote this new album.
Yeah, we’re really looking forward to this tour. This might be the best European tour so far. The first time we toured Europe was with Skeletonwitch and Warbringer, and that was fucking awesome. The second one was the Bonecrusher fest with Dying Fetus, Carnifex and Keep Of Kalessin. This time, the other three bands are our favorite new bands. They have killer new albums too. Havok is one of our favorite thrash metal bands. So it’s going to be awesome playing with these bands and going back to Europe again, with a better position on the bill. We’re not opening the shows, but the second band on the bill. So I think we’ll have a great time, and it’s a very good thing for our popularity in Spain because gaining foothold in Europe makes us bigger in our own country. This tour is the best thing that could happen to the band right now.
It’s great that you are fans of those three bands, but are you confident that fans of 3 Inches Of Blood and Goatwhore will like your music?
Yeah, why not. I Iove all kinds of metal. As I said, I love those three bands, so there is no reason why fans of these bands won’t like our music. May be we’re not an extreme metal band, but it’s a great opportunity to show our music to their fans.
The European tour with Arch Enemy was your first after signing with Century Media. You must have been extremely nervous on that tour, sharing the stage with such a hugely popular band.
Yeah, of course (laughs). We’re huge fans of Arch Enemy, and everything happened so quickly, within two or three months. Just after signing, the label told us that we’ll be touring with Arch Enemy and that the tour was very important to them. It was the first time for us touring with an international band. Sharing the stage and a few words with Michael Amott was just fantastic. Even the guys from Abigail Williams are great, and we became friends with them. Their touring is very different to the shows we do here in Spain. We can do two or three shows per week, but they play five or six dates a week, and that was really new for us. It was just incredible. It was the first great footstep for what would follow in our career, the next European tours, with Slayer and Megadeth for example, and playing in Sonisphere. The Arch Enemy tour was the first great experience for us. We didn’t know what would come after that. It was fucking amazing.
You have recorded a cover of Judas Priest’s “Hell Patrol” for a bonus track on the deluxe edition of “The Call”. What made you choose that particular song?
Well, it’s just because we love classic heavy metal and grew up with bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. We like to play covers in our gigs too. We already recorded an Iron Maiden cover, “Be Quick Or Be Dead”, for the Clockwork album. We thought that if we had the chance to record a cover for our new album, it would be better to choose songs from the very beginning, from our very first influence. So it was like, why don’t we do a Judas Priest cover? And as for the song, we chose “Hell Patrol” because we think it will go well among heavy metal fans, but also with thrash and extreme metal fans. We love Judas Priest, we love the Painkiller album, and it was like, “Let’s do it!”
Check out Angelus Apatrida by visiting:
www.angelusapatrida.com
www.facebook.com/angelusapatrida
www.twitter.com/angelusapatrida