DIVINITY IN EXILE Interview

Genre: Hardcore/Metalcore

Country: Netherlands

Questions by: Nick Parastatidis

Answers by: Chris Incarnate (Composer)

Site: Facebook

1. Hello. How are you? How the things on the DIVINITY IN EXILE camp at the moment?

I am fine, thank you. D.I.E. just finished 3 songs for a 7” titled “The Death Within”. It will be available in a very limited run of clear lathe cuts and of course in digital format. The release is scheduled for mid August, but preorders have started a couple of days ago already. For those interested, you can pick up a copy at divinityinexile.bandcamp.com  

2. When and how did you decide to form DIVINITY IN EXILE? Does the name have a special meaning for you?

I have always been a huge fan of Integrity and the name is taken from an Integrity song featured on their split 7” with Lockweld in 1998. I think it was the last Integrity song with the Melnick brothers involved, it marked the end of an era you could say. So in that way it has a special meaning to me. The song title always stuck in the back of my head ever since I got that 7”. But at that time I was too involved in other bands that the idea for a project under this name never took off. It wasn't until 2019 that I actively started working under this name.

3. DIVINITY IN EXILE will be a solo project or will participate in other musicians too? If yes, can you tell us who they are and their experience with previous bands?

It started out as a solo project, with me writing the music and recording, editing and mixing everything from my home. But also with the intention to collaborate with other musicians, graphical artists and film makers through the internet. I mean nowadays we don't have to be in the same rehearsal room every week to write music. With the current state of technology we can do that with people all over the world. In addition, I didn't just want to put out audio, but wanted every song to be accompanied by video for a full on experience.

Since I am no singer, I approached Heath Crosby (Days of End, ex-Stamping ground) to do vocals for a new song I wrote. I already knew we shared the same musical interests and I reckoned his voice would fit very well to the musical direction I had in mind. So I sent him the song and he immediately liked it.  Then things started moving and we released this song as "Cult of the Apocalypse” in August 2019. Currently we are working on our fourth song.

As mentioned before, I always had the idea of working together with other artists, be it musicians, graphical artists or filmmakers. Luckily people are interesting in doing stuff with and/or for us. The first video was post-produced by Dwid Hellion (Integrity) and for our third track “Gods of Darkness” we teamed up with Rob Ceus from Terrorvision Productions for the production of the videoclip. He is an upcoming artist in the horror (short) film genre and is doing an awesome job so far. This song also features a guitar solo by Blaze from In Cold Blood.

So, as you can see we try to work together with a lot of different artists.

4. In the bandcamp I saw that so far you have released a couple of songs. Why did you choose to publish 2 songs and not a full length album or a demo? Do you want to see what kind of reaction you will receive from the fans in order to decide if you will continue the project?  

D.I.E. is a project and we started from scratch without any fanbase. And since we don't perform live (yet), it would not be easy to built one. So, it doesn't seem very logical to write a full length, right? We chose a different concept and write one song at a time. Each song is accompanied by a video and is released through social media channels. Basically each song is a project on itself. And we decided to release a 7” in August.

5. How would you describe the sound of DIVINITY IN EXILE to people that hasn’t listened to it yet?  Which are your influences?

It shall be no surprise that D.I.E. is very much influenced by Cleveland hardcore bands, such as Integrity, In Cold Blood and Ringworm. We are also inspired by Dwid's noise project Psywarfare. On the upcoming 7” you will definitely hear those influences. 

6. How do you compose the songs? You write the music first and then you add the lyrics or vice versa?

Yeah, I write and record all the songs in my home studio. When I have recorded a basic song structure I send the file to Heath and he writes his lyrics to that. He records his vocals at home also. We ping pong the song a couple of times back and forth until we are happy with the result. Since Heath lives in the UK and I am in the Netherlands, we do everything by the internet.

7. What kind of lyrics do you like to write? From where do you draw your inspiration?

Heath writes all the lyrics and basically draws inspiration from the darker side of humanity.

8. By the way when you create music do you have the anxiety of creating something original and innovative or do you act more based on your instinct and emotions?

Well I don't think our genre is the most innovative, but that's not the idea. We write music in a genre that gave us so much inspiration and that we've always loved. And indeed it's mostly driven by mood and emotions.

9. What kind of reactions did you receive so far for your music? Is there a specific one that you would like to mention?

We didn't choose a popular genre. For us this a musical outlet and a way to put out music that we like and in a pace that we set for ourselves. However we notice more and more people appreciating what we do. That's great and a nice reward for all the energy and time we put into doing this.

10. When do you plan to release a full length album as DIVINITY IN EXILE? Will you release it on your own or through a label?

I don't think any time soon, but as mentioned earlier we are doing a limited run (35 pieces) of 7”s. It will be all DIY, just like our music. For the near future, we are also considering a split with some other bands.

11. Thanks for your time answering my questions. I wish you all the best. The epilogue of this interview belongs to you

Thank you for giving us the chance to explain who we are and what we do. Stay tuned for our next song and video “Gods of Darkness” and of course for the upcoming 7” lathe “The Death Within”. Check it out at divinityinexile.bandcamp.com