Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days) don’t know everything, Decibel brings you Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack.
It can occasionally be difficult to discern whether or not a band will have a sense of humor regarding their music. We’re not talking sensitive singer-songwriters, here. Metal tends toward the über-serious, which is simultaneously, like, really serious and easy to poke fun at. (Examples of the spectrum: Karl Sanders of Nile – totally laid back about his shit; Horror Illogium of Portal – impossible-to-overstatedly less so.) But when a band’s website kicks off its bio with “It all started with lady on scooter who was so hungry for chocolate cake…” you can relax a little bit. And when said band’s groove-laden tech death widdly-chugs all over your face, you can relax a lot more knowing that you’re in for an enjoyable trip. Pronostic’s first offering, Deviated Inner Spectrum, wields a cat o’ nine battering rams in its rhythm section, complemented by an active and formidable guitar attack. There’s sporadic catchiness and an undeniably punchy metal spirit in these songs, allowing you to settle into a comfy half-hour in air guitar wonderland. Bring a towel. You’ve got widdly-chug on your face.
Your bio said something about a lady and some cake… How did Pronostic get going? How did you meet and start playing music?
The fat lady who loved chocolate cake got Charles to contact Alex. Both having a passion for music, they decided that it was their turn to bring out their creativity to the people. They were two dudes who grew up and evolved within a universe of Rock’n’Roll so the metal influence was there and the path traced in front of them. Unfortunately, the two metal heads knew no other musicians sharing the same vision as they did, until the day Charles contacted Nicholas (Le Fou), a friend of theirs from high school.
After a jam, the guys could feel Le Fou’s interest and devotion. With his presence and open mindedness, Le Fou took Alex and Charles guitar compositions to a whole different level.
The guys had never played with anyone as CRAZY as Le Fou and adding his own personal taste to the mix was exactly what was needed to create the ideal recipe that was long awaited for.
The three musketeers, who were finally ready to face the recording session, decided to grab the bull by the balls. What was supposed to be a 4-track demo turned into an 8-track album. “While we’re at it, let’s go all the way!!” the guys said. It’s just after the release of the album that the band [sought] to fill the bass player spot. Mathieu is now part of the Pronostic story.
What kind of music have you been into, and how has that influenced the direction you took with Deviated Inner Spectrum?
Deviated Inner Spectrum is a gathering of all our influences because it projects what we discovered within all the bands around the world that we listen to. We don’t play a certain style because we find it amazing to use all the colors of the rainbow to make our music. That is our strength and is what’s going to make each of our albums different.
We listen to a lot of bands who stand out in their style, but when you listen to an album and every from track 1 to 10 start and end exactly the same or the metronome is always at 300000 BPM, it becomes repetitive and boring… Pronostic wants to avoid doing that. So we think that with a larger inventory of colors in our music, it will bring us more fans, while allowing us to show the world our way of seeing things.
Is the best melodic tech-death made by Canadians, or are the best Canadians made by melodic tech-death?
It’s like a story I know about an egg and a chicken. Which one came first is a great question. Good eggs make good chickens I guess, which make good eggs in return. All I wanted to say is that Charles cooks good eggs!
We think that whatever style, many bands emerge from many areas. Canada has a lot of great bands like anywhere else, but each one of them distinguish themselves by their culture. But of course, our passion for melodic technical death made us work harder and harder to get the skills to play it, so in a way, technical death make better Canadians and the other way around!
Where did the album art come from? Why do you like it for this particular group of songs?
The design comes from Marco Harmman, a professional designer in Italy. He has worked with many big names such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour Of Penance. This artwork reflects the complexity of our music and the madness that naturally occurs in our minds.
Was the album fun to record, or was any of it particularly difficult or frustrating?
It was our first real recording experience so, obviously, we were stressed out like college girls at their first time, but were also devoted and passionate. We were in studio with Mathieu Marcotte from Augury and we all worked really hard on this album. This experience was very revealing to us. It allowed us to realize how hard we had to work. We had to learn from our mistakes, which pushed us to constantly get better and better to make our future as crazy as it can get!
How much preparation time did these songs have before they got recorded?
Almost 2 years of experiencing, listening, practicing and more. 10,000 tons of tasty sweat later, we were pretty damn proud of our accomplishment and ready to give birth to our first baby. So we can all say that we felt the pain of labor.
What has your stage experience been like?
On one of our first show[s] when we were 14, we went into a shithole town for a contest. Everything was so miserably organized, we played against a Nirvana cover band and we totally destroyed them. Our bassist played the entire set unplugged, faking awesome sweep because he was so bad we unplugged it after the first song. And after the show, the judges were so impressed by him that we won a demo recording in a studio. The engineer (if we can call that an engineer) was an old pothead, totally incompetent. We could hear the singer heavily breathing on the final master on every track, before the songs was even started! But after that experience, we changed the band’s name [to] Pronostic, kicked our bassist out and we started doing more serious shows.
What do you tend to write about in your song lyrics?
Madness, emotions, instincts… we try to explore the human mind and link it to different themes. And also explore some of the darkness and demons inside us.
What does the future hold for Pronostic (or the past, if you’ve already been to the future…)?
We will continue to do what we do, through there will be ups and downs, because music is what we love and is a part of us. Already the second album is almost complete, so Pronostic will be entering the studio very soon with a new demonic sound. We are more than ever putting energy to get our name out there. Whatever the challenge, there will always be a flame burning within Pronostic, because we are passionate brothers in arms. And of course now we know…we will never turn down a fat lady on a scooter with a cake!
