With their technical riffery and venomous delivery, Belgian quintet Suasion deliver a beastly assault with their new single – ‘Horizon’.
Formed in the Liège area of Belgium in 2013, Suasion released their debut EP, ‘Islanders’, the following March before playing shows alongside Animals As Leaders, Stick To Your Guns, Hundredth, Being As An Ocean, and Vanna for the remainder of the year. However 2015 proved to be a transitional year with vocalist Steven Rassart and drummer Louis Jassogne joining the band. Nevertheless with ‘Horizon’ and the previously released ‘Mirabilia’, 2016 looks set to be an exciting time for Suasion with more new material set to be released along with a visit to the UK for Tech-Fest in July. It’s safe to say we will be hearing more about Suasion in the coming months.
To get yourself introduced to them, we spoke to bassist Julien Dejasse to tell us how the new members have settled in, ‘Horizon’ and their yet-to-be-released new material.
AH: Last year you bought in two new members (vocalist Steven Rassart and drummer Louis Jassogne). How have they settled into the band and what do they add to the Suasion’s overall sound?
Julien: Louis clearly brought us a new touch with songwriting and producing because he’s a very talented drummer and sound engineer. He also came up with his own ideas concerning the overall band organization and this can be very helpful. Steven brought us great lyrical content. His lyrics are really deep, personal and everyone can understand them their own way. He also provided us with the possibility of integrating clean vocals in the new songs, along with all kinds vocal techniques, including mixes between scream and clean vocals.
AH: ‘Horizon’ is the second of two new songs you recorded in Berlin last year. What should our readers know about the track?
Julien: This song is about the fear and pain we can go through when we are dropped in a new environment. The fact of being left alone in an unknown city with total strangers can make you re-think your choices twice. I’m sure everyone has already felt like this once.
AH: The first of those two tracks was ‘Mirabilia’. Is there any connection between the two songs?
Julien:
In terms of lyrics, they both speak about past experiences from Steven’s life. He likes transmitting what he feels through romanticized lyrics. In terms of music, both songs were written using the same scales, but it’s funny how different they turned out to be.
AH: You worked with Pavel Trebukhin (Tre Productions) for the video for ‘Horizon’. How did the concept come together?
Julien: At first, we had to find a cool place to shoot the video. So I “Googled” a lot of different stuff and I found out several places to submit to Pavel. The place we ended up picking for the video inspired him right away. It was an old, huge, beautiful cinema/theatre which was abandoned for at least 20 years. It was a pretty dangerous place to shoot too, especially during the night. We felt like everything in there was about to break because of how old everything was. And the place was also risky because of its location within the city; we had trouble with a group of guys who tried to get into a fight with us.
AH: So with two new songs out there, do you have plans to record any new material soon? If so, can we expect it to be similar to ‘Horizon’ and ‘Mirabilia’?
Julien: We do have other songs and they are already recorded. If you enjoyed ‘Mirabilia’ and ‘Horizon’, you will like these ones too. We tried to keep uniformed sound between all of them but it’s interesting how they all differentiate in a way, especially with songwriting. It’s because every song has their own theme. Of course we also added our “touch” too. I think people who listened to us earlier, will enjoy them more than the previous EP. There is this one song though that is a bit slower and more melodic than the other ones. It has this super long guitar solo at the end. We are already working on new songs, but let’s release these ones first!
AH: We know through festivals like Groezrock Belgium has a strong punk scene but how is it for bands like yourselves?
Julien: Groezrock welcomes other metal bands too. In fact, the “Impericon Stage” is partly dedicated to metalcore and deathcore bands. We also have other festivals like Graspop or Dour, but the second ones welcomes all sorts of music. The latest addition to Belgian metal festivals was one at which we played for its 1st edition in 2014 called Miner Fest. We don’t have festivals specifically dedicated to prog like UK Tech Fest or Euroblast.
AH:We’re familiar with Belgian bands like Partisan, Bear and the defunct Now, Voyager. What other bands would you recommend from Belgium?
Julien: Atmospheres, Wolves Scream, Giant As Mountains, Reach The Shore and Concealed Reality.
AH: Having built a following in mainland Europe, do you have any plans to come over to the UK?
Julien: Yes the UK Tech Fest in July!
‘Horizon’ by Suasion is out now.
Suasion links: Facebook|Twitter
Words by Sêan Reid (@SeanReid86)
