2017 is going to be a big year for Replacire. The Boston-based metal outfit is set to release their sophmore LP, Do Not Deviate, on March 17th via Season of Mist, and the band will be kicking off an east coast tour–sweeping their muscular riffs and sinister doomscapes across the Atlantic seaboard. We sat down with guitarist Eric Alper to talk about the album and to get an exclusive taste of their track "Act, Re-Enact". Of the new song, Alper remarks, "Out of all the songs on the new record Act, Re-enact is the most straight-ahead. This song combines consistent grooves and a catchy song structure while maintaining the eccentricities and rhythmic stabs that make a Replacire unique." See below for the full interview and track stream.
For new fans, who is Replacire? Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Replacire is an extreme metal band from Boston Mass, we formed in 2009 and have recently signed to the label Season of Mist, who will be releasing our new record in March.
The new album, Do Not Deviate, is about to drop. Your last release was The Human Burden in 2012. How has the band grown since the last album, and how does the new release represent who the band is today?
We’ve definitely gotten heavier. With this type of music, you’re always trying to push yourself as a musician. The tempos go up and the riffs get a little trickier. Something that was hard to pull of on the first record is your new comfort zone so you need to step out of that to progress. During the recording of The Human Burden I discovered that my strength was rhythm playing, mainly in my picking hand. So a lot of my contributions include string skipping and fast downpicking. In short, the band is more extreme.
The album is full of impressive technical musicianship, while at the same time keeping a strong emphasis on the integrity of the songs. Is it a challenge trying to strike that balance?
Thank you, thats something thats very important to us. Once we come up with the material that makes up the song we spend most of the time on arrangement, making sure the song winds up and releases in a pleasing way.
Can you describe what your creative process is like? Does it change from song to song? And do you find that lyrics or riffs come first?
The music has always come first for us. We all contribute riffs and have this big pile of material to draw from. Once we start working out ideas new parts are created through brainstorming. We then move on to arrangement, we come up with a name for every part and lay it out on a whiteboard. We try different arrangements until we have it flowing like a song. We try hard to avoid being linear or just riff sandwiching parts together. If you analyze the parts, often they’re all connected in some way, some are more obvious than others. Lyrics are the last step.
What are you hoping people take away from the album? Is there a central message/concept?
The lyrics are fairly metaphorical, often dealing with existential dread and the power of the mind. But honestly they’re very open to interpretation. Like most art I’m hoping the fans can find their own way to interpret and enjoy it.
In three words, how would you define your sound?
Weird, cerebral, metal.
What can we look forward to seeing/hearing from Replacire in the future?
We’re hoping to play shows and tour as much as possible in support of the new record. Hopefully some playthrough videos as well.
If you were going to go on tour, what dream artists would you love to be playing with?
Man there’s so many great bands its tough to choose. All the bands on the Season Of Mist roster are sick and it’d be an honor to tour with any of them, especially Gorguts! Outside of that, Behemoth and Meshuggah put on such amazing live shows, I could see that being a lot of fun. Also, I’m a big fan of Cattle Decapitation, it’d be amazing to be able to watch those guys every night.
Are there any artists in the NE area that you’re really excited about?
Fuming Mouth and Lord Almighty are a couple really great bands in the area right now. Scalpel, Obsidian Tongue, and Pathogenic are also some amazingly talented metal bands.
What are your biggest non-musical influences?
Mostly the need to create….and whiskey.
For more info, including upcoming tour dates, click here. -Brian Varneke
Photo credit: Tom Couture