Tel Aviv, Israel based band Dim Aura does a great job here with deep darkling-depths Misanthropy, Hatred filled black metal along with the robust introduction to the band's style and theme in which the protagonist vocalist summons dark forces to embrace him and transform him through ritual. Dim Aura is a whirlwind of aggression wrapped in the cloak of the occult. Off-kilter, dissonant guitars force themselves against the ears, harsh, raspy barks are terrifying in their aggression and rawness. Their infectious and eerie melodies demanding to be heard.
1. Well, Hello, how are you doing today? Warm greetings from India.
Dim Aura: Cheers Souvik!
2. Dim Aura was formed in 2010, so, Can you give me a brief history of how the band formed? Had you been in any bands or musical apparition before Dim Aura?
Dim Aura: Well, Ofir, E.F.F. and I know each other from youth. We had a Black Metal band named "Sitra Achra", but aside for some local gigs, nothing progressed with it, I guess it was an initial experiment playing together. After several years we grew apart from each other. In 2010 we decided to give it another go, and began writing music again, kept it simple and pure, nothing fancy. H. joined us after a few months of progress. I have known him from mutual interests that we had within the Black Metal scene, and we shared a split album of our solo projects (Crux Infernum and Infernal Nature). Since then we are a united Quattro sharing the same ideas and ideology that is expressed out as Dim Aura.
3. What bands inspired the direction that Dim Aura took and motivated you? Writers? Visual artists? Movies? Books?
Dim Aura: Actually, we are all influenced by different genres and forms of art, and with that said, we are all fascinated with Black Metal, as the black light shines brightly within us. Personally, I'd say that the source of inspiration may change, naturally, with experiences during different stages of life, it can be either visual paintings, documentary films on serial killers and mental illnesses, and also locations - ancient ruins and desolate places.
4. There are two basic ways of looking at music. In the first, there is a mechanism for the arrangement of certain tones, musical style.in the second, a narration occurs where a story is told or a poetic function completed. In your view of compositions, which is more important? Where were you when you first thought the project had the longterm potential for you?
Dim Aura: In my opinion, it's more important that the music will have some sentiment, and that it will be attached to true emotions, true experiences, rather than just being technical and "empty". So, in case you present only two options, I would suggest the more poetic option is the one that should guide us. I think from the very early rehearsals, I had the feeling that Dim Aura, in its form, would be a long term commitment. Due to our early acquaintance, similar perspectives and ideologies, naturally we became good friends, and as we say to each other, Dim Aura is family.
5. What for you is the significance of the name, “Dim Aura”?
Dim Aura: I remember that when we thought of a name, E.F.F. suggested Doom Aurora, I liked the sound of that, but wanted to give it a deeper meaning, eventually, I offered a minor change to Dim Aura, and we decided it suites us, as a descriptive of an aura that is slowly fading away, from light to darkness, holy to unholy, life to death and so on.
6. If you could tour with other bands in metal, who would you pick if you were looking for bands similar to Dim Aura?
Dim Aura:There are plenty of bands that would be a great match, I don't suppose name dropping would be appropriate here. Personally, I'd be interested in Scandinavian bands, but surely won't rule out other bands, as there are plenty of great musicians out there.
7. Since starting year Dim Aura released 2 full-length album till date, EP, etc and shaped the style of music. How do you maintain this consistency yet keep developing with each release? How do you write your riffs, songs? What is the most difficult part of composing songs as you do?
Dim Aura: I wouldn't say it is consistent, but we do hunger for more, new songs, new releases, new musical ideas to explore. Usually, riffs are written solely, then we bring it to our studio and run ideas around them, trying to glue them together, in a manner that would be beneficial to the structure of the song, later we work on the song production wise, thinking which part to elongate/shorten/move or remove. Lyrics are mostly written by H, and sometimes Ofir and more rarely myself are involved with some additional ideas. In our recently released album "The Triumphant Age of Death", H managed to do amazing work on the lyrics, which are the best we've had so far, in my own opinion.
I would say that the most difficult part is the discussions and arguing that goes on when a song is still incomplete and several options are on the table. Somehow, we manage to go through with this process, evolving together with our creation.
8. Do you have a preference for the type of equipment? In your mind, how important is equipment to the production of music?
Dim Aura: I would say that overall, we are not too much enthused by gearing up with massive stocks of equipment. Personally, I like to keep it as simple as possible, "plug and play", trying to avoid as much from numerous effects and pedals. With that said, E.F.F. is up to date with gear and equipment, so if there's a need, his knowledge is useful.
9. Well, now I’m going to the main point about the new album. On 22nd March Dim Aura new album “The Triumphant Age of Death” released which sounds extremely promising and rekindle my affection for Black Metal. When were these
tracks were written, and how does Dim Aura go about the writing process?
Dim Aura: The tracks were composed over a pretty long period of time, even before our Negged 7" EP. Naturally, we took our time with them, working to perfect them.
Our writing process remained similar as in our first album. We bring riffs, bring in ideas to our studio, and we work through to mold it together. As mentioned previously, this process can be very frustrating for all of us, it is usually accompanied by arguments which can be very irritating, as each one has his own vision on what's the best option. Aside from that, it's highly time-consuming, but in the end, it works out and seems to be the right path for us.
It should be mentioned, that the one thing that did change in this album, is the recording process. We decided to give each other the space to do our thing, I think that we've learned to trust each other. Ofir was the only one who stayed in the studio to oversee the entire process of the recording, lending another set of ears that criticize which take is good, and which take could be better achieved. He was also deeply involved in the mixing, and mastering of the album. The end result met our satisfaction.
10. You are extremely potential. so, what's going on as far as lyrical themes on
“The Triumphant Age of Death”?
Dim Aura: As we all have a misanthropic nature, we are overall pessimistic, anti-social and anti-religion (extremely secular and apart from the religions that are practiced in our country), the lyrics are a result from these experiences. H managed to express it well, ink on paper. His lyrics blended perfectly with our music.
11. I’ve categorized Dim Aura's significant genre. As well you have extends your talents far beyond mediocrity. so, How did you get into this style of music and explain about this music genre?
Dim Aura: Personally, through my teen years, like many others I was a big fan of Metallica, I got familiar with other metal bands down the road. I guess I've started with the more extreme bands during '94-'95, and my taste in music developed in this direction. I found myself drawn to Black Metal, rather than technical death metal. Up to these days, that would be my "go to".
12. How would you describe the sound of Dim Aura to someone who hadn’t heard it, and what distinguishes your music from any other act in the same genre?
Dim Aura: I would not go to verbal descriptions of sound, I'd just say you got to give it a go, you may either like it or hate it. I'd be satisfied either way, as long as you're not indifferent to it.
13. Already Dim Aura unveiled the album. Do you have any Official Video or playthrough videos coming out soon?
Dim Aura: After the album was released, we focused on live gigs. We will, of course, consider having a new video out, but as for now, there's nothing in the making. We do however have some ideas for further plans, but at the moment, these should be kept between the four of us.
14. Who came up with the album cover? I personally cherish each
and every released artwork because those are truly indelible, remarkable, appreciable and meaningful too.
Dim Aura: The artwork was done by ANIMVS, H. came across it and we all liked it on the first glance at it. The artwork for the "The Triumphant Age of Death" album is more minimalistic compared to our previous full-length album, which has a lot of details. I guess this was a natural turn, as the artwork done for Negged by Alona Dee of DarkArtworks, was less bombastic than the artwork done for our previous full length, keeping it more simple, yet, with no compromises on the artistic side.
15. Let's talk about your early memories. What's the first gig you ever went to? Have you been to any killer live shows lately?
Dim Aura: I've been to several gigs in my teen years that are memorable; some were of local bands and some of the bands from abroad. I especially remember that Ancient played in Tel-Aviv which was special, since it was not too common at that time, having Black Metal bands from abroad here, same goes for Dark Funeral that also played in Tel-Aviv. Lately, I guess some memorable gigs were in Festivals, such as Party-San (Endstille, Urgehal, Carpathian Forest), Steel-Fest (Satanic Warmaster, Sargeist, Dark Funeral, Cosmic Church), Speyer Grey Mass (Acherontas, Archgoat, Svartidaudi, and many others – the lineup was outstanding), Throne-Fest (MGLA, Gorgoroth, Taake). Locally, Marduk, Bolzer, Aosoth, Sargeist, and Watain (most recently) were here with great live performances. Again, so many great bands out there, I can continue on with name dropping, but I don't suppose it's really interesting – since every gig is unique and stands for its own, you can see a band several times, and it is a different experience every time.
16. In before you had performed a lot of gigs so, Which show was the most memorable to you so far? Do you get a good crowd response? Did you get offers to play in other countries or anything like that?
Dim Aura: I remember our first gig, which was the first strike when we were not much known, we got a great response. Later on, we had some other intense gigs at the "Black Metal Opposition" night, you can call it a mini-fest, that we organized having other Black Metal local bands at our side. The release shows for both albums are also memorable, playing new stuff for the first time. Usually, the feedback is great; I guess if the gig sucks, we just won't have any feedback at all. We strive to evoke some emotions at these gigs, not to keep it dull, with just 4 guys playing on a stage.
I guess, the most memorable show for me personally, is the one we had in Steel-Fest 2015, first time on Finnish soil, which is the capital of extreme metal from my individual point of view. Regarding offers, there are several that are on the table, but I can't disclose this info at this time.
17. Do you study other bands music to come up with ideas?
Dim Aura: Well, other bands that we listen to can leave an imprint, leave a mark, if their good enough and influential. So, their impact can be made subconsciously. We do strive for unique riffs and musical ideas of our own and we discourage rip-offs.
18. How do you prepare yourself before the studio or especially for live performances? Did any band, in particular, inspire you in the shrieking department?
Dim Aura: No special preparations, we enter the studio or the stage, plug in, and after a few technical adjustments, darkness descends and manifests itself through our instruments and through H vocals. Chaos and negativity takes a sonic form and is unleashed upon the crowd.
19. Is there a difference in the band’s sound as compared to the Full length, EP
you’ve released in the past?
Dim Aura: Every release is unique and has its own hallmark. It is always Black Metal! we avoid having the same sound for every release. Music has such a wide spectrum of sounds, so I don’t see any reason to repeat the same sound, as long as we are satisfied with it. We never compromise on that.
20. You are from the Tel Aviv, Israel so, how much have you discovered about the extreme metal scene and how much of it were you aware of before the band started?
Dim Aura: We are familiar both with the local scene, as with the Black Metal scene abroad. Being located in Israel doesn't really change our exposure to music, overall, the secular people here are liberal, bands from abroad come for gigs, information flows. Even before the internet and globalization, most record stores had a metal section, you could trade with bands or labels abroad. As teens, we used to introduce extreme bands to one another. We visited metal festivals and got familiar with other bands through these channels.
21. What do you do as individual band members to relax, when not working on music? Do you have jobs or business?
Dim Aura: We all have our day jobs and daily routine, but I guess this is not much of an interest for your readers so I won’t go into details.
22. What albums are you listening to lately or just the bands and albums, in general, you're really digging right now and tell me about your anticipated album of this year?
Dim Aura: New records that are spinning these days are Mare "Ebony Tower" and Sargeist "Unbound". I am looking forward to the new Advent Sorrow record "Kali Yuga Crown". Besides that, I am certain that during 2019 other releases will see the light, our label Saturnal Records will probably release on vinyl Sacrificed Carmen "Hermetica", which I really appreciate.
23.last one question, what are your future band goals & tell us something about an upcoming tour. Lastly, lots of teenagers aim to be full-time musicians. Many of them might be without any proper guidance, any words of wisdom for them?
Dim Aura: We just had 3 gigs, supporting Sargeist in their first show in Israel, opening for Watain (also for their first time here), and we had the release show for "The Triumphant Age of Death". We are looking into new gigs, and also have some discussions regarding a tour abroad, but it's too soon to disclose any information.
For the teenagers, I'd say that if you have talent, and if the Black Metal flame shines bright in your heart, you will find your way. It would be very patronizing by giving any additional advice.
24. That's all I've got right now.best of luck for the future. Looking forward. thanks a lot for enduring this torture haha. Any final thoughts, comments for the readers? Always welcome to India. We are keen to see you play live. If I forgot anything, please insert it in here.
Dim Aura: Support the underground, and be loyal to yourselves, no one else will.
Interview Done By Souvik Basu. Published on 10.05.2019
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