Sophicide (Adam Laszlo) - Interview

•        By personal experience, when it comes to one-man bands I’m really put off because most of it is just crap (95% being trve necro black metal recorded in the guys basement). However, Sophicide is a completely different matter. First of all, congratulations for such an astonishing album. Tell us a little bit about the whole process (composing, recording, production). Did you play all the instruments in “Perdition Of The Sublime” or did you have some help?

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! On this album I did everything on my own, the drums are only sampled though. The songs emerged over a period of about 3 years, ever since I released the "The Art Of Atrocity" EP in 2009, which I produced on my own as well. Things went down very well before, so I decided to take the production in my own hands again. So noone helped me throughout the production really, I basically learned all those things through tutorials and just trying around a lot over the years that I've been doing this.

•        As far as I know, because I don’t have access to the lyrics, “Perdition Of The Sublime” deals with an interesting theme. Can you lead us into the lyrical concept of the record, including the name of the project Sophicide?

The main topic of POTS is the intellectual decay of society. A big part of this is religion in my opinion and more generally speaking every institution that tries to impose a certain belief system on others claiming it to be the only true one. People seem to have a propensity for not thinking for themselves and letting others decide. Obviously other people exploit this characteristic and I think especially in our times it's more important than ever to be sceptical and question everything.
The name "Sophicide" can be translated to something like "murder of wisdom", which pretty much coincides with the meaning of the album title.

•        Although this is, basically, a Technical Death Metal record, there are lots of other influences, ranging from Neoclassical Metal to, lets’ say, score soundtracks. Which bands do you listen to that actually influenced your work in Sophicide?

I listen to a lot of bands and actually I believe that all of them somehow influence my songwriting in general, even if only subconsciously. But to name a few big influences, I love Opeth, The Faceless, Necrophagist, Periphery, but also John Williams for instance, who is a genius obviously.

•        How did you come in touch with Willowtip / Hammerheart?

After I released the first Sophicide EP it got about to some degree through some underground metal blogs, stuff like that. Some weeks after that, Willowtip contacted me and offered me a deal, and I signed it. I was pretty stoked about the whole thing, I didn't really expect anything like this to happen.

•        Is this a studio only project or are you planning on recruiting some musicians and play some live shows?

I'm actually looking for musicians right now. My friend Sebastian Bracht already joined me on guitar and backing vocals, I will be playing guitar, as well as the main vocals. So we're still in search for a drummer and a bassist, but we already have some candidates.

•        What are your plans for the nearest future? A new Sophicide record or a different project?

The next big goal is definitely to complete our lineup and play live as soon as possible. We're really anxious to hit the stages!

•        That’s all for now and, again, congratulations for such an astonishing record. Do you want to leave a final message to the Portuguese metalheads?

Thank you! I usually take these opportunities to cite the great Charles Chaplin: "Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness!"

Hammerheart Records / Willowtip / Sophicide (Myspace) / Sophicide (Facebook)