11/20/2013 16:13

Darkside

Darkside: new album 'Inferno' out in December

Austrian death metal band Darkside's sixth full length album 'Inferno' will be released on December 20th, 2013, via Noisehead Records.

Track listing:
1. Slaves of God
2. Black Halls of Infancy
3. Baptized in Fire
4. Madeleine
5. Ghosts in the Convent
6. Inferno
7. Father
8. Hosts of Depravity
9. Sacrificial Blessings
10. The Blood of Golgatha
11. Intrusion
12. Crowned in Torture
13. Ardent Justice
14. Aix 666
15. Demonic Fornication
16. Malleus Maleficarum
17. The Burning II
18. Where no Life Dwells
19. Intermezzo 5
20. Calm before the Storm (bonus track)

Storyline:

The album is monothematical and features an adaption of the true story of Madeleine de la Palud. The events occurred at the peak of accusations in France's witchcraft hunt, during which time the cases involving demonic possession, priests and nuns, often dominated by sexual themes, were particularly common.

The principal victim was Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud. Madeleine was a 17-year-old Ursuline nun with a history of emotional instability, and who was often returned to the care of her parents to recover from attacks of depression. Father Louis Gaufridi was a friend of Madeleine's family, and it is believed that he started to abuse Madeleine around the year 1609.

Words were conveyed to Father Gaufridi that his attentions should cease immediately, and Madeleine was admitted to the Ursuline convent at Marseilles, under the direct supervision of Mother de Gaumer. There, Madeleine revealed the full story of her relations with Father Gaufridi, and in order to prevent further damage and to halt any further association with Father Gaufridi, Madeleine was transferred to the distant convent at Aix.

Two years later in 1611, at the age of 19, Madeleine fell victim to what those around her considered to be unmistakable demonic possession. Her body was contorted, and in a fit of rage she destroyed a crucifix. An exorcism was prescribed to banish the demons, but initial attempts proved futile and further attempts brought damning accusations from Madeleine that Father Gaufridi was a devil worshiper who had copulated with her since she was 17.

In a now familiar progression of hysteria, three more nuns were soon found to be possessed by demons, and by the end of the year that number had risen to eight. Sister Louise Capeau was considered to be the most extremely afflicted, and her ravings and bodily contortions were more hideous than Madeleine's. With the situation at the Ursuline convent gradually getting out of control, Father Romillon enlisted the aid of the Grand Inquisitor, Sebastien Michaelis, while the Flemish exorcist, Father Domptius, continued his attempts to remove the demons from the possessed nuns.

Father Gaufridi was then accused of causing Madeleine's possession, and he was summoned from his parish to help exorcise Sister Louise Capeau, who promptly denounced him as a sorcerer and cannibal and accused him of having committed every imaginable form of sexual perversion. A search of his rooms found nothing incriminating, and he was released. However, he demanded that his name be cleared and that his accusers be punished, and he was brought before a court in Aix in 1611.

The court proceedings saw both Sisters Madeline and Louise behave in a fashion typical of an advanced state of possession, and Madeleine in particular swung maniacally from violent denunciations of Gaufridi as a devil worshipper, sorcerer and cannibal to complete retractions of her accusations. She twice attempted suicide after the courts found the Devil's Mark on her body. The case was the first in which the testimony of an allegedly possessed person was taken into account.

After physical and mental torture inflicted on Father Gaufridi during his time in prison, a pact with the Devil was produced in court, allegedly signed in Gaufridi's own blood. A signed confession was also produced, extracted under torture, in which he admitted celebrating a Black Mass in order to gain power over women. Father Gaufridi strongly recanted the confession extracted from him by torture, but the signed confession and alleged pact were evidence weighty enough to sentence the priest to death by fire. At the end of April 1611, after the torture of strappado and squassation, Gaufridi was dragged through the streets of Aix for five hours before arriving at the place of execution, where he was granted the mercy of strangulation before his body was burned.

Immediately following Gaufridi's execution, Sister Madeleine suddenly appeared free of all possession, although Sister Louise Capeau continued possessed until she died, and both of the sisters were banished from the convent. Two years later, the possession hysteria spread to Lille, France, where three nuns claimed to have been bewitched by Sister Marie de Sains in a near carbon copy of the Aix case. Thirty years later, in 1642, and again in 1652, Madeleine herself was charged with witchcraft, and despite being found to have the Devil's mark and being sentenced to imprisonment, she was eventually released to the custody of a relative and died in 1670 at the age of 77.

Source: http://www.witchcraftandwitches.com/trials_aix.html

Comments vocalist Wolf:

"We have quite a retro vibe on this album, without explicitly going for it from the start, the same like a lot of things for this album came together on coincidences. The story of the album is based in southern France, Kewin, our graphics designer, has roots in southern France, Darkside has had some of their best shows in the south of France, we were signed to Season Of Mist, who are situated in Marseille a.s.o.

So, having our recording roots in Czech Republic, we thought it would be a cool thing to record parts of our album back there where everything started over 20 years ago. It was in Bzenec, where the studio is situated, where Darkside played four times the Attack Of Fire Festival, more often than any other band, without being a Czech band. It was in this part of Czech Republic, that Krabathor came from, the band we played well over 70 shows together in the first years of Darkside's existence. We know the guys from the Shaark Studio, them being part of the band Shaark, a classic thrash outfit from this area, part of them playing in Master these days. Putting all these things together with the fact, that we have this retro feeling on some songs of the new album, which means that there are songs that reflect the first albums of Darkside a bit, it was a logical step to go back to where it all started.

'Inferno' is going to feature 14 songs and five instrumentals, so there was pretty much work to do compiling all the stuff, but Darkside managed to put everything together in a quite short period of time. Opposed to previous information, all drum tracks on the new album have been handled by Alessandro "Urmuz" Vagnoni, renown Italian drumming artist, ranking amongst others in the line-up of bands as Infernal Poetry, Dark Lunacy or Resurrecturis. Alessandro has recorded the drum tracks in Italy during December 2012. As far as the recording line-up for 'Inferno' is concerned, Darkside would also like to announce the addition of Jaroslav Lukac, guitarist for bands as XXXX, Recode The Subliminal or Faustinus. Jaro will provide leads for most of the songs.

I know Alessandro for quite some years now and I knew he was the right man to give this album the extra push it needed in terms of groove, skills and rhythm. I am very glad he took this responsibility and I must say he did an excellent job, Alessandro, you rock!

Jaro was actually a suggestion from our graphics designer, Kewin Miceli. We were talking about a few things with Kewin and he suggested to ask Jaro about that, who agreed on stepping in and being a part of this project.

Darkside is also very pleased to announce a few very awesome collaborations on the album. Otto Jezek, classical guitar player and teacher, will provide classical guitars to a song called 'Madeleine', an instrumental track, which describes the main character of the album, but there is of course more to it.

Otto was actually the guitarist of my very first metal band called Metal Daze back in 1983. I think we didn't speak with each other for eons, when I had the idea for that instrumental track that should describe the character of Madeleine, her passion, her belief, but also her doubts and fears and the impact the abuse was leaving on her. I contacted Otto and he agreed and judging by the first demos he sent me I can only say, it was the right choice!

'Madeleine' is also going to feature a second guitarist from Darkside's hometown, Wiener Neustadt, namely Alexander Kodnar, guitarist for Austria's uprising new force in metal, Devastating Enemy.

I always wanted to have this kind of shred guitar wizzardish solo on some Darkside album and so my mind was swaying around, whom to choose for this endeavor and often, you don't need to search far away, cause the good stuff is right at hand, haha... Contacted Alex and asked him to join us on that track and he agreed, which I feel pretty lucky about. Funny enough I went to kindergarten with his father back in the days, haha. Alex has sent me some demos of what he conceived for 'Madeleine' and it blew me away in the way he figured out exactly what I was looking for."

For now Darkside can confirm one more prestigious collaboration. On 'Sacrificial Blessings', a member of one of the most influential European death metal bands, Pestilence, has provided a lead guitar track. Patrick Mameli has laid down a solo, that sounds very "Pestilent" but being a perfect part of the song itself fitting in perfectly in terms of mood and composition.

Wolf commented: "This is something very special to us indeed. When we started out with Darkside in 1991, we were influenced by bands such as Voivod, Slayer, Paradise Lost and Pestilence as well as Asphyx, Nocturnus and Morbid Angel. Listening to 'Sacrificial Blessings' for some days I had the impression that it had some Pestilence-sounding chords and melodies in it so I gave it a try and asked Patrick if he would go for it and luckily enough for us he agreed. He recorded his lead during the last days of December last year and I just say – this really kills!!!"

(source: Darkside)