Meet the French blackened symphonic metal band, Etwas!

French blackened symphonic metal band Etwas took time to answer a couple of questions linked to their record “Enochian Keys - Chvpter I”. Learn more about this release and the band itself in the following interview!

Hey ETWAS! For those who might discover your band via this interview, would you mind introducing yourselves and your sound?

Hello, Distrolution! We are a french quartet symphonic metal band with black and death influences. Silver is the composer and the guitar player, Florian is the bass player, Clément is the drummer and me, Victoria, the vocalist and lyric writer. The most of us played music for a long time. We all like several kinds of metal music and we wanted to create something unusual and unique. A dark ambient, with occultism touches, allied to fast rhythms, riffs, and big orchestrations. We wanted a music that reaches the heart and the soul, something that touches the listener in his feelings.

What’s the meaning behind your bands name? Is it related to the German word?

Indeed, it is related to the German word meaning "something". It was pretty easy to find because we wanted a short name that everyone can remember at ease. And maybe, among all these metal bands all over the world, we are "something".

You released your record “Enochian Keys - Chvpter I” last year. How long have you worked on it?

Well, we started the composition during the first pandemic lock down. It was a very dark era for us all and we decided to exploit this time to compose with new thoughts. We wanted an album completely different from our previous EP. We invested in new material to record. So, approximatively a year and a half. It is short and long at the same time, because there are several levels on working on an album from the first composition to the final distribution of the disc. And we took a lot of pleasure to work on it. https://open.spotify.com/album/3RpO1HoozKf2e40Hzy3hsy

How would you describe your writing process for this record and where did you find your overall inspiration?

We wrote the songs together with Silver. We wanted a dark and occult album with different themes in each track. We documented a lot, watched videos and documentaries, read books about the thematics we wished to talk about. We wanted to tell gothic stories, dark tales, in a kind of romantic Victorian poetry turned into music. The lyrics deal with witches, ghosts, necromancers, vampires, and are inspired by the greatest Bram Stoker, Charles Baudelaire, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe… Without saying their names or their artwork in our songs, their spirits soar in our music.

The title of your album makes us think that we’ll hear a Chvpter II. Is that correct?

Yes it is. We are slowly preparing the next album and we are doing our best to make it even better than Enochian Keys.

Please share with us your upcoming tour dates!

We have the great pleasure to play with Sleeping Romance and Milsys on the next February 25th in Nice (France). And the incredible luck to open the stage for Visions of Atlantis and Autumn Bride on April 7th in Montpellier (France). We hope to have another opportunity like these ones in 2023. We are working hard for it.

The last words are for you. If you have any other projects in the making or a message to convey, here's your chance!

Support the local scene when you can, go to shows even the bands are not very famous, give them a chance to perform with a great audience. And listen to our album, whatever the way (physical disc, streaming platforms, YouTube or any other way), enjoy it and be prepared for what will come!