Interview with Darkology, January 2010 

‘Altered Reflections’ has just been released in some regions; most of us have to wait a few weeks. I think it’s one the best debut albums of 2009 and given the opportunity to ask Darkology a few questions I jumped the gun.

What kind of expectations do you have for ‘Altered Reflections’?

Darkology – We are hoping first of all that the response will be very positive worldwide (which it has been so far!) We’d love to do some touring to support the record, and play some fests with some other cool bands.

If you had to choose one song you feel represents Darkology, which song would you choose and why? Personally I would pick “Aura of Xhad” a song I feel captures the essence of the band pretty well.

Darkology – That’s very cool that you have a favourite track. We all agree with your choice of “Xhad”. Nobot” would be another great example, as both the opening riff and lyrics are very “sci-fi”, plus it shows our musicianship and dynamics, as is both heavy and has an acoustic section in the middle.

The songs have been written over a long period and must have grown like little babies, but how does the final result compare to the idea you had going into the studio?

Darkology – The initial idea we have for a song is just a seed, and it grows from there, many times ending up quite different than the demo. You can never hear in your head exactly the way your band mates will interpret & execute a song.

Kelly Sundown Carpenter was the last addition to the puzzle. How big an influence did he have on the final result, and with his involvement on the next album, do you think you will continue down the same path musically as well as stylistic?

Darkology – Although the music was already written before we found Sundown, his vocals were a huge influence on the final result. He wants to be more involved on the 2nd record, and we insist on that! Yes, we will take pretty much the same path on the 2nd record, but it will probably be less progressive and more metal, with both Mike Neal and Sundown writing the bulk of the lyrics.

How did you come up with the title for the album – is there a deeper meaning behind the title?

Darkology – “Altered Reflections” is a phrase from the lyrics to our song, “Eyes of Argus”. There’s no deep meaning there – it just seemed to fit with both the music and John Holland’s incredible artwork.

Can you give us a brief introduction on the lyrical concept behind Darkology?

Darkology – Michael Harris wrote all the lyrics, with the goal right from the start being mostly (but not all) fantasy & sci-fi. Here are the lyrical meanings of each song:

VIOLENT VERTIGO - Space fighter conquers enemies for his home, Hydrus 7.

I BLEED – The pain and anguish suffered from losing a loved one.

DARK ENERGY – A strange marriage of the invisible energy that must exist because of Einstein’s “cosmological constant” and the invisible energy that exists as a result of loud music.

NOBOT - A futuristic mechanical master race evolves and threatens humanity… In the distant future, a series of man made “humanoid” robots were created for the purpose of executing high risk and covert missions for the US military. Several years into the project, it blew up in our face, as our metallic ‘friends”, succumbed to the one emotion we should have not programmed into them : the human EGO, and formed a “silent conspiracy” to overtake their creators. Using the scientific knowledge and “human intuition” we had programmed into them, they confiscated even our molecular and DNA structure and took it into the laboratory to perform mutations far beyond human knowledge in a successful quest to become more human themselves. Hence, they became NOBOTS: the new master race.

EYES OF ARGUS - Hypo-schizophrenic and multiple personality-ridden man, Argus, stays musically insane for almost 6 minutes.

AURA OF XHAD - Fantasy ghost battalion raids towns and disappears, but wizard Xhad perishes them all with a spell.

ALONE - The illusion of internal fear, mind tricks, fear of the dark, etc.

REVITALIZE - Crawl out of your box and revitalize your life, dude!

TRANCE OF THE GORGONSis based on the mythological story of the 3 Gorgonian sisters - chiefly Medusa, who could turn a person to stone with her stare. So what if she stared in the mirror and turned herself to stone?!

Tell us a bit about the artwork...

Darkology – Here’s John Holland’s description of his art layout (mistymountaingraphics.com):

The basic concept of the cover art reflects the science fiction themes of the songs and the album title itself. The machine on the cover is a portal to another dimension. Unfortunately, we are on the wrong side of the portal, in a very dark and alien place -- somewhere you do NOT want to be. And of course what lies on the other side of the portal might be infinitely worse. The machine has some guitar references built into it  -- the device on the lower left looks somewhat like a headstock with tuning keys, there's an amp tube on the left side of the main column, etc. The inside booklet is meant to look like an ancient tome containing long forgotten science, far beyond that of present day.

Darkology – any special story behind your name?

Darkology - It just sounded cool to us and since the suffix –ology is a science, we take it to mean “the science of dark music”.

What tasks lay immediately ahead of Darkology – any touring plans, single shows or…?

Darkology – By our label’s suggestion, we are going to wait 2 months or so before we play to allow some time for our fans to purchase the disc and get familiar with it. So for the time being, we are writing new material for the 2nd record (some of which we want to feature in our live show).

You are signed to a relatively unknown label worldwide; do you see this as an advantage?

Darkology – Definitely – we wanted to sign with a smaller label that would make us a priority rather than being a tax write off for a larger label. And it is working out quite well!

Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last rants for our readers?

Darkology – Thanks to all the fans who have bought the full CD and we hope to see you on tour! In the meantime, our official website is www.darkology.com.

Interviewed by Kenn Jensen

Darkology - Altered Reflections

Album available on Rock-a-holic Records.

Webpage: www.darkology.com.