Bilde, fotograf: Ukjent

Thrash metal fra Israel er ikke hverdagskost her på berget, derfor er det litt eksotisk å sjekke inn intervju med gjengen i Sinnery. Det går i aggressiv thrash som grenser til litt mer extrem metal, og det er høy kvalitet i alle ledd. Jeg fikk fatt i 
Alon Karnieli, som tar oss litt gjennom historikken og metallen.

Bilde, fotograf: Ukjent

Sinnery@Facebook

Not too often I get to check out bands from Israel, so, welcome to Norway! How’s life?

«Hey man, thanks! It’s great to be featured here and hopefully, we get to play Norway someday!! The Sinnery crew’s working hard on our upcoming tour in the UK and Romania and our new EP Below The Summit which will be released this September.»

I was getting the files for your upcoming ep from British promoter Tom@Polymath, and I didn’t know what to expect. Was Israeli thrash oldschool, effective and modern? I had no clue. But Sinnery delivered a modern edge, with top notch production. How is the metal scene where you live? Is it just a matter of me picturing you guys having a harder time than what is real?

«Thanks for listening man, I don’t know if old-school is the right title for us, or even Thrash metal, we try to put anything that we like into our music and it always comes out a bit out of tune with different genres.

The Israeli scene is great, actually a lot of good bands and a very supportive crowd. Since its beginning in the 80’s the Israeli scene has been mostly extreme, so we’ve been introduced to a lot of heavy bands from when we started.

In Israel, we don’t necessarily have a harder time playing metal, again the scene here is great and multiple metal shows are happening every week but it’s harder to get out of here logistically since you can’t tour by bus from here to any other country.»

And politics, I don’t know anything about Sinnery, except for what you write on the single/video recently, which was about social media and the lovely brainwashing it server us. What topics are on the meny in general?

«We usually try to keep Sinnery’s topics away from politics since we’d rather talk about very personal things and have introspective songs about self-exploration, the journeys we go through, and expressing what we feel towards ourselves and towards the world. 

It’s much more personal for us and we think it’s more relatable rather than politics.»

In Norway we have people in support of both Palestine and Israel, I’m pretty much one trying to see the good in humanity, and all bad people is bad no matter where they come from or looks like. And vice versa. Is the fact you’re from Israel in any way a negative aspect? Or do you feel people treat you a bit extra ‘cause you’re from Israel? Is it an advantage when you are trying to establish yourself in other countries?

«Up until now, we haven’t sensed that someone treated us differently just because of where we’re from. Our agenda on this topic is that people have to remember that citizens are not their governments and while we are from Israel we don’t necessarily endorse everything that the Israeli government does. Especially at these troubled times.

We ourselves have Palestinian friends and we don’t really give a fuck where you’re from as long as you’re a decent human being.»

You sound mean, the thrash metal is hard, and the press note I got sited Metallica and Trivium as a bands people could connect you to. Is this a correct assumption? Or do you feel Sinnery is a couple of steps more aggressive than those two?

«Maybe a bit more aggressive and leaning towards the Death metal sound but we were heavily influenced by Metallica growing up, and we feel like it’s still there. And of course, as our journey continues as music fans we keep on discovering new musicians that are influencing our sound, every month we might think a bit differently musically depending on what we’re into at the moment, there’s a lot going on and we try to mix as much as possible from each of us into the music.»

The Anti Tribe, would you please elaborate? :). Love of metal, hatred for anything else, that’s quite harsh.

«The AntiTribe is a concept we got pretty much after we finished writing the Black Bile album that came out last year.

The whole idea behind Black Bile was that we are aware of the bad things in us and that we use them to make ourselves better, like how we would write songs about our deepest thoughts so in a way we use those bad feelings to make something that we love.

The AntiTribe is just those types of people like us, who are sick of their own bullshit, that are aware of the fact they’re not perfect and they want to be better and not give in to themselves.»

New label, Existus Stratagem Records, an American label. How did this come together?

«We were introduced to EXSR when we were looking for labels to release Black Bile, since the very start of our conversations with them we found a team of hard working people who want to go to war with us and with our record, they strive to maximize the impact we can pull off and that was exactly what we were looking for. 

We are very happy to be a part of the EXSR family, we are proud of what we already accomplished together and we have many things that are still on the way.»

I know Pitch Black Records, your former label, why did you choose to leave? Was it limited what they could do for the band?

«Pitch Black Records was the first label we ever talked to. The guys there accepted us when we were very young and taught us a lot while releasing our debut album A Feast of Fools together. We loved our time there and we cherish the people there. We didn’t leave for any bad reason and we are still on very good terms.»

Your debut album came out in 2016, now its time to release the follow up, the EP Black Bile. What is the thought behind the title?

«Yeah the gap between A Feast of Fools and our 2nd LP Black Bile was a pretty big one (6 years) but it had a lot to do with covid and with us growing up musically.

After AFOF was released we didn’t know what kind of a journey we were walking into we just knew we wanted to sharpen and really discover the Sinnery sound. We believe that on Black Bile we did manage to refine it and capture the energy that Sinnery has on stage as well as the sound that we wanted ourselves to have.

After Black Bile was all written and recorded Covid started and we couldn’t release it properly so we started to work on our new EP Below The Summit. This gave us a second chance to sharpen everything we did on Black Bile more and we believe that we created a very strong and precise version of Sinnery into those 4 songs.

We love the outcome and can’t wait for everyone to hear it!»

And the producer is Matt Hyde, known for his work with Slipknot and earlier mentioned Trivium. What was/were the biggest difference(s) in working with Matt vs the local producer Eli on the debut?

«Matt entered the project at a very crucial point when we had everything recorded and we had some kind of idea of how we wanted it to sound. He worked with us to get the best out of that album and we think that he did a fantastic job doing it. We learned a lot from him and it was the first time for us to work with a producer who did so many fantastic albums!

The difference between working with Eli and Matt is that Eli entered the studio with us when we were kids. He believed in us and spent tons of hours & many nights in the studio trying to record our first album. He taught us a lot about making albums and we wouldn’t be where we are without him. He was patient with us and got us doing the best you can get out of the 17 year old version of Sinnery.

When working with Matt we we’re already much older with an album behind us and many hours already spent in the studio. We had demos for everything and like I said we had an idea of what we wanted as opposed to the AFOF recordings when we just knew that we wanted to make a record but didn’t know exactly what we had to do.»

What’s in store for the band? Any major tours, is the media feedback strong?, and will you keep your base in Israel, or relocate to America or a more business heavy country regarding metal to easier get access to the big stages?

«Well, we have a lot more in store in terms of new music and new live shows waiting to be announced right now. We are excited for the tour we have this coming September in the UK with our friends Sworn Amongst. After that we will head back to Romania to play Metal – Gates festival in Bucharest with Rotting Christ, Katatonia and many other great bands!

We are planning a lot more shows outside of Israel but we will surely do something special for our home crowd to celebrate the Below The Summit EP.

As for relocating – we are always thinking about going to new places and if chances lead us to live somewhere else to get Sinnery on new stages we might just do that. Right now we still operate out of Israel and are eager to get every chance to play in a new place!»

I hope it was an ok ride, greetings from Norway, and please feel free to leave any links to merch sales, music etc. here. And if any final words, here’s the spot to leave’em :).

«It was a blast man! Thanks for having us and to everyone reading this, give us a spin over at Spotify or Youtube and join the AntiTribe! We welcome everyone and hope we will come play Norway soon and meet ya’ll!

Thank you very much!»

Spotify

YouTube

Bilde, fotograf: Ukjent