When technical metal and Gothenburg metal come together, you get a band like Gods of Eden. A Australian band with little buzz in the UK, the band nonetheless proved to be of interest to Nemo. We decided to take the time to ask a few questions to the band to learn a bit about their forming and a few details related to their debut EP and recently released album, which vocalist Ian Dixon kindly took the time to answer for us.
What encouraged you guys to form Gods of Eden?
Well, Gods of Eden initially started out as a solo project of our main songwriter, Danni Perez. Then, when the band that him and Mike were in at the time ended, they decided to see what they could make of the songs that Danni had come up with. I joined the band after they spent some time trying out different singers.
How did you choose your band’s name?
Well the band’s name was taken from a book entitled The Gods of Eden by William Bramley. We were fascinated by the book and thought that the name and the content of the book suited the direction that we had decided to take with the themes of our lyrics and music.
Your first release was your self-titled EP in 2012. How did you go about the songwriting for it and what were the recording sessions for the EP like?
The songwriting is always very involved. Each song takes a couple of months to complete as all of us go through various stages of development and redevelopment with the songs. Danni will lock himself away while he writes the songs and will send out snippets to us for our thoughts. Mike then helps Danni with the arrangement of the sections before the completed piece of music is handed to me to come up with the main melodies and lyrics. The recording was actually done at Danni’s house and mixed and mastered in the box.
What stood out to you the most when touring in support of the EP?
Well the thing that stood out the most was just how much of an impact that EP made. We had come out of the gates as a fresh band and played some very big shows right away. That was a hell of a surprise for us.
Two tracks from the EP would make it onto From the End of Heaven (‘Shiva’s Dream’ and ‘Gods of Eden’). Was this purely to allow a larger audience to hear the tracks?
Yes it was. We really enjoy those songs. We enjoy playing them live and we know there are people out there who enjoy them as much as we do. We thought they deserved to be reworked with better orchestration and a larger atmosphere for the album.
What would you say was the most interesting thing about recording From the End of Heaven?
The most interesting thing about recording the album was hearing the fantastic job Jens Bogren did of mixing the album. It came out sounding far better than we could have been able to achieve from our set up and there is a perfect balance to all of the elements.
What song are you most proud of that you’ve written so far?
I would have to say ‘Overseer’. And that’s funny because it almost didn’t make the album. But I am also very proud of ‘Shiva’s Dream’.
What are you looking forward to most about touring in support of From the End of Heaven?
I am just looking forward to playing the shows. I love getting up and playing the songs live. I like to see the reactions in people and have that interaction with the crowd. I enjoy every moment of it.
One thing I am really looking forward to is opening the Abbath show at the Manning Bar on the 16th of October. I have always wanted to play the Manning and we are all very excited about playing the show.
From the End of Heaven is available on iTunes and Gods of Eden is available on bandcamp at http://godsofeden.bandcamp.com/. The site’s review of From the End of Heaven can be found here.
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