UN: Being that I am new to Altars, can you possibly go through a history of how the band came together? Were any of you in bands prior to playing in Altars?

Lewis/guitar:Greetings Mike, first and foremost I'd like to thank both yourself and Unbound 'Zine for the opportunity in conducting this interview, we're honoured to have your support. In answer to your question, the history of Altars dates back to late 2005 when I first approached Cale about starting a Death Metal band. Previously both Cale and myself had been playing together in another band for a brief stint, unhappy with the direction the band was taking we both left and the band quickly disintegrated. For a few months we got together on weekends and wrote some songs; at the time I was using a 6 String guitar but was toying with the idea of a 7 String so we experimented with some alternate tunings. Cale came up with the idea of detuning the top string of a 5 String bass to A to emphasise the bass note of power chords otherwise unplayable on a 6 string in standard tuning. Within a few months I'd finally got my hands on the 7 String guitar I'm still playing today, and it wasn't until then that the first few Altars tracks came into existence. Around the same time we finally found a drummer in Alan and we played these first tracks as a band for the first time. We spent a long time working on the songs together and writing new ones, and even then it wasn't until 2007 when we finally established a full line up with the addition of Jon (who also plays in Sarsekim) on bass. Finding the right members was an extremely long and arduous process, but it was well worth the wait. Alan is a very dedicated drummer and upon meeting we all instantly clicked on both a musical and personal level. The addition of Jon was the missing link in this chain and all of a sudden, Altars had been pulled from the afterbirth of this seemingly perpetual state of dormancy.

UN: Was there a concrete idea of how you wanted the band to sound from the very beginning of the band? Listening to the band it is apparent that you guys weren't trying to play in a more typical style of death metal.

Lewis: I don't think there was a concrete idea of how we wanted the band to sound, but there was a definite path we wanted to take in terms of our music. From the very beginning we were adamant on not being another typical Death Metal band. I had somewhat of a lucid vision of what I wanted the band to sound like; we wanted to play a breed of Death Metal that didn't banter about on modern trends and showed somewhat of a reverence to those who had come before us. At the same time, we wanted to twist that music on its head once again, and in thus doing so, take our music in a different direction to that of our predecessors.

UN: How has the response to your self-titled demo been thus far? Have the reviews been favorable? With only 500 copies being pressed have you been sending out many to get reviewed or are you holding on to a lot of the copies to sell?

Lewis:So far we've had a wholly positive response across the board which has been great! It took a while to get any reviews back at all but it's great to finally receive some responses. I've mailed out a lot of copies of the demo so it's reassuring to see that all the effort and time put into doing so has received some sought of reward. I've slowed down sending any more CDs out for the moment because our first priority is being able to afford recording for our upcoming split releases, once we've covered those costs however I know I'll be sending out even more CDs to 'Zines, radio shows and the like. At the end of the day, the purpose of the demo is primarily for promotional purposes. Most of the CDs will be sold but against the amount of discs I've mailed out it balances up pretty evenly. As an independent band as long as we break even and our efforts propagate our name further into the metal spheres I think the demo will have achieved its purpose.

UN: The demo has a raw sound yet you can still hear everything clearly. Was it tough to get the demo sounding how you had hoped being that you guys were probably recording for next to nothing?

Lewis: As far as a demo goes I think we are all pretty happy with the end result. We recorded the CD in a weekend and we were indeed recording for next to nothing. Nick Seja who plays in both Juggermath and Tzun Tzu recorded it for us and this was actually his first professionally released recording so it was a big learning experience for all involved. Contributing to the factor that Cale was homeless at the time in between moving houses, I think we got the best out of everything to our disposal at the time; as much as I'd love to have got that beautiful clean, crisp Decapitated style production it simply would never have been possible.

UN: You guys have a few other releases in the works right now. Do you guys have the songs written for the upcoming releases yet? Is there any change in the Altars sound on the new songs?

Lewis: We've been in hibernation from the live realm but by no means have we been on hiatus, we've drafted new material and are all really excited to record the new music. There are some subtle changes but the Altars sound is still there. I have always admired bands like Morbid Angel in the way that on each album they've changed things and played around with their sound, but each and every MA album is still MA. Each and every Altars release will still be Altars. The new music has given us opportunity to bring in even more influences from outside the realms of metal, but this experimentation will only result in a faster, heavier, tighter, slower, and even more atmospheric Altars. Following on from your previous question these two split releases will also give us a great opportunity to try out a couple different studios for the recording process. We will be aiming to get that clean, crisp production so whoever is easiest to work with and gets us the best sound will most definitely receive our business come full length.

UN: How does the songwriting process work within the band? There seems to be a lot of layers and lot of effort put into making the riffs all have unique elements. Does it take a long time to get a song to the completion stage?

Lewis: Sometimes songs undergo a pretty lengthy writing process, sometimes they come a lot quicker, but a lot of effort always goes into the music and each song undergoes the same scrutiny. Unfortunately I'm a perfectionist so it usually takes a while haha. If I've got ideas for new material I'll usually bring in my bag of riffs and the parts of the song I've already written and use that as a basis for constructing the rest of the song. We'll base the drum parts around the riffs and start putting it together in the jam room and we bounce off each other; Alan's drum parts will spark off new riffs and my riffs will spark off new drum patterns and drum patterns will spark off ideas for vocal phrasing until eventually we have a fully constructed song the way we want it to sound.

UN: Would you agree that Gorguts is an influence that the band shows? While I wouldn't go as far as to say the band sounds exactly like Gorguts there are a few riffs where you break the conventions of death metal in similar ways.

Lewis:Thanks very much, it's an honor to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Gorguts. Both Cale and I have been big Gorguts fans for years, as well as Negativa for that matter. They're definitely an influence and I've always loved Luc Lemay's style, Steve Hurdle as well. Actually all the members of that band were just phenomenal musicians... Obscura will always be a favorite of mine. We're both big Canadian Death Metal fans and Luc Lemay is somewhat of an idol or inspiration to me. While they are one of my favourite Death Metal bands of all time I'd never wish to emulate their music but I think you can definitely hear that influence creep through in our music from time to time.

UN: While the all too typical influences question is a bit clich, other than Gorguts, what other bands would you say have been an influence on the band? I definitely hear a bit of old school Swedish death metal at times.

Lewis:As far as Swedish Death Metal goes I couldn't name any one big influence, but playing with Dismember in Adelaide was a greatly influencing experience in itself. I think its one thing to play local shows and what not, but then there is that step above and beyond that. That's just another step (and a vital one at that) in a bands growth. Other than Gorguts I'd have to mention Morbid Angel and Mithras from a Death Metal perspective, but there's a lot of influence in Altars that comes from outside of the world of Death Metal. Arnold Schoenberg, Olivier Messiaen and Bla Bartk have all had a huge impact on my own style, composition and what not. All of these composers were so pioneering and redefined music with their work; I've dabbled with Schoenberg's Dodecaphony in Altars music, as well as a lot of Messiaen inspired isorhythmic patterns and the like. I'm also a big fan of bands like Neurosis, Rosetta, Kayo Dot and a lot of the post-genre type stuff. There's plenty of Doom, Drone and a few ambient bands I'd say have had a profound effect on the music too.

UN: Australia is certainly a country that is known for metal music, at least on an underground level. Is it easy to find gigs? How often does the band play live?

Lewis:I think as a band we've decided it would be more beneficial for us to not perform live as regularly, a lot of bands tend to play far too often and Adelaide is a relatively small city. I personally wouldn't want to go out and see the same bands play every fortnight, and in this way I think we can make each Altars performance a unique and intense experience. It's not hard to find gigs; I just prefer to be on the organizing side of things a lot of the time because so many people tend to be unreliable. While there are a number of brilliant bands who reside in this city, there exists an even smaller number of active bands I'd be really eager to play with. Our local brethren Tzun Tzu are doing great things and it will be a pleasure to see Stargazer return in live-force when they rear their head once again. On an Australian level Obsidian Records is doing great things for the underground scene up in Brisbane at the moment and they've been stretching their tentacles further lately. Unfortunately Adelaide has stagnated somewhat in general in regard to underground music, but I don't think it will be long before this city rises again.

UN: How active has the band been in trying to find a record label? Is that even something the band is looking for at this point and time in your career? Honestly Altars is so much better than most of the death metal being released by bigger labels right now, so if you don't find a record deal in the future there is definitely something wrong with the world.

Lewis: Thanks for your kind words. At this stage I'd have to say completely inactive; seeking out a record label just isn't on my mind at all at the moment and I don't believe that it's the appropriate point in time in our careers to do so. If something was to be thrown on the table we deemed suitable I'm sure we would consider it, but I'm enjoying putting in the hard yards off my own back for now. At least then when it comes to that time and place, each of us should be fully prepared. I know I've picked up a world of knowledge already in the life span of this band, and there's plenty more to be done before we take that plunge. By the time we have these two split releases on the table I'd imagine we will shift our focus towards finding a record label as we will be pushing onto our full length, but for now we are content remaining an independent entity.

Upon ending this interview I'd like to once again extend thanks to both yourself and Unbound 'Zine for the opportunity, it's great to receive a response such as yours from the wider metal community. Hails,

http://www.myspace.com/altarsofficial