Obsidian Mantra and his “Minds Led Astray”
Three elements have given the basis for its foundation: emphasis on heavy groove, ambitious composing attitude and expressing the overwhelming loneliness and fragility of mankind
Hello Obsidian Mantra! How are you? It’s a pleasure to interview you.
Hello Metal Por Tus Venas, thanks for your invitation! I’m really happy to answer your questions.
How did the pandemic take you?
The pandemic so far wasn’t that bad for us. Of course, we struggle with it more or less, as everyone, and we’re waiting eagerly for it to end, but we managed remain healthy so far. As a band, as Obsidian Mantra, we were never playing much live shows, so we weren’t affected that much in this area.
I understand that the band emerged in 2014, so you have been active for a few years.
How did the idea of creating the band come about?
Probably as most of emerging bands — a bunch of young guys just wanted to play the music they love. We founded Obsidian Mantra in high school with Mateusz Witan and a former guitarist Rafał Porwich and a former bassist Maria Ewa Krauze. Also I played my first live show, consisted of Metallica, Guns’n’Roses and Alice in Chains covers, when I was about 13, as a drummer then, with our current guitarist Jan Grzesiak.
Who are its current members?
And here we are today: I, Kacper Kajzderski on vocals and bass guitar, Mateusz Witan on guitar, Jan Grzesiak on guitar and we have a session drummer Mateusz Wróbel.
How would you define your musical style and your main influences?
It used to be a little easier for me to name our style and influences. Our main influences were Meshuggah, Opeth and Gorguts, but the fact is you usually incorporates tiny elements of every band or artist you love or loved. Since the beginning we used a lot of complex rhythms, grooves and had a progressive bent, and I’d say that hasn’t changed, but today we also let a lot of black metal and old-school death metal air in our music and we started to appreciate simplicity more.
Let’s talk about your second musical work “Minds Led Astray” which was released in November last year. How was the process of editing and recording?
We recorded “Minds Led Astray” at Zed Studio with Tomasz “Zed” Zalewski. He’s incredibly awesome producer and took part in recording of dozens of heavy metal albums (and not only of course). As far as I know he’s responsible for producing the un-released yet Decapitated’s new album, so you can listen to his work soon if you didn’t before.
How many songs does it include and what is it about?
“Minds Led Astray” is consisted of 10 tracks, 2 of which are just short ambient interludes. Lyrically it’s about superstition and supernatural beliefs, in general. That’s why we sometimes call our music “anti-supernatural death metal”.
Any audio-visual material?
About audio-visual material — yes, we got our first guitar play through video we produced ourselves, I’m very happy with it. Also I’m very proud we released it via The Circle Pit.
How did you do to promote and promote it, as I understand you are an independent band?
Since the beginning we’re focused on the Internet promotion. In the beginning it was searching in the dark, but year after year we’re getting better at this. Still, personally I never felt “naturally” talented in self-promotion, and that’s why we to seek the support from promotional agencies. Currently we cooperate with Hard Life Promotion and Heavision and we’re very happy to have these guys on our side!
How was it generally received, both by the public and by the specialized press?
Maybe it’ll sound a little immodestly, but “Mind Led Astray” gets great reviews to this day. Virtually in a moment there’ll be the first anniversary of its release, yet it got a fresh review a few days ago! Critics generally approve the sound and atmosphere of the album, as well as technical and song writing prowess, admitting that “Minds Led Astray” is rather
demanding album for the listener. About the public, we got awesome feedback for our first live show in years we played at Black Waves Fest. We played mostly our new songs, so I believe they’re doing the good job live.
Where is it possible to obtain a copy of it?
We offer all our Merch via Bandcamp: https://obsidianmantra.bandcamp.com/
So far the band has 3 musical works. In a general way, what topics do you deal with in your lyrics?
In earlier works, I write mostly about “inner struggles”, a popular term. That was the case with “Burden Brought by Whispers” and “Existential Gravity”, and by the way I suppose the titles of these albums speak for themselves. In the case of “Minds Led Astray” I wanted to write and speak about something different than just me and my feelings. That’s why I wrote anti-supernatural, pro-skepticism “Shield of Disbelief” and then the next songs.
Do you include elements of Polish culture in your songs?
No, we don’t include elements of our culture in Obsidian Mantra. Not in a straightforward way for sure.
As I said before, you are an independent band and I might add from the underground scene.
How is it for a band with these characteristics to get ahead?
I can speak only for Obsidian Mantra, but I believe we just have to keep doing our best at what we’re doing, keep doing it, getting better at it and do not be shy about it. And never count on the luck. There’s a lot of great bands and incredibly talented musicians and no one has guaranteed “success”, whatever this could mean.
Do you receive support from any agency or government institutions?
No, we don’t receive any support.
On another subject.
What is it like to be in a live show of the band?
How is the audience reaction?
As I said earlier, we had just one occasion to present our new album, but the audience reaction was great! We sold the most CDs and shirts ever, and I think nothing speaks better about sincere feelings than buying the CD immediately after a band’s live show. So that was really awesome!
Back to the band. What are the most immediate plans?
Currently we have booked one live show in Warsaw on November 26th, with doom/death metal Death Has Spoken premiering their new album and post-metal Backbone. Cool guys, hope it’ll be great show!
Can we expect a new album soon?
We’re always working on the new songs, but before releasing them we need to answer ourselves what we want to achieve and what we want to express. So new music — for sure, but not soon.
Well Obsidian Mantra, this is it. Thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck in your career. Before we finish, something you would like to say.
Thank you once again for your invitation, keep doing your great work! Thanks everyone reading this and greetings for Cuban metal listeners! Stay safe and don’t you dare go hollow!
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