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Terra Relicta web magazine has teamed up with Portuguese extreme/symphonic metal project Caedeous for an exclusive premiere of the brand new single and video "Tormentis Aeterna". We also interviewed the mastermind, composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Paulo J. Mendes, who founded this musical project in 2014. Caedeous will return on the 22nd of March with a new album entitled Obscurus Perpetua, a follow up to the 2017 released masterpiece Domini Tenebrarum. The now premiered single "Tormentis Aeterna", and as well the first revealed one, "Obscurus Perpetua - Tales Of The Dark Prince", showcase a different approach from Caedeous. The music has become more aggressive and bleak. It's now even closer to black metal than on the first album but still maintaining the special symphonic/dark metal vibe with an avant-garde compositional touch. Caedeous shows a lot of originality, certainly a thing that is difficult to find these days, especially when it comes to metal or any kind of rock music. Somehow their mix of symphonic elements, black metal, theatrical and horror ambiences is unique, and Paulo J. Mendes is a bright-minded genius behind all this. Paulo revealed to us many background things about the new album, the new video single, line-up changes, the past and future of Caedeous. Obscurus Perpetua will be a new stepstone for the Caedeous project that embraces a new sound and project philosophy marking a new era moving forward. We talked also about Paulo's other projects and much more. Check out the video for "Tormentis Aeterna" below, and read this interesting interview.
Interview with: Paulo J. Mendes
Conducted and edited by: Tomaz
Tomaz: Hi Paulo, it's nice to see that you returned with Caedeous after three years since the album Domini Tenebrarum. The first single, released some weeks ago, was "Obscurus Perpetua - Tales Of The Dark Prince", and I find it even more aggressive than anything you did before. What can you tell me about it?
Paulo: Hello Terra Relicta, and Tomaz. Thank you for having me again in your magazine and for the continued support of my musical projects. Indeed some time has passed since the previous album. This album, as you described, is a much darker place and aggressive than the previous one. Since the release of Domini Tenebrarum, whose musical style was described as a gothic/symphonic black metal, the "metal" production on it was intentionally done to resemble an old production of the "garage sound". I knew and wanted to follow a new direction with the future second album. In that idea, Obscurus Perpetua, in terms of musical composition and artistic directions, explores a new vision with added modern metal elements, and even the style of recording and music production is modern. I wanted it to be deliberately more aggressive in terms of sound and even more obscure to describe a darker story in the lyrics. All of the songs structures and riffs follow a strong vibe. As you dive into the album, you will start noticing those strong melodic tunes combined with aggressive and crazy obscure themes that Obscurus Perpetua tries to describe in its lyrics. The fall and decay of current society are associated with crazy times we live in and have lived in the past. Each song emotionally was composed to explore the dens of where the seven deadly sins live. The album will feature an intro, seven metal tracks, and its orchestral counterparts, pretty much as we have seen on the already released Domini Tenebrarum.
Tomaz: And what everything else can we expect to hear on it, or it'll be more or less in the style of "Obscurus Perpetua - Tales Of The Dark Prince"?
Paulo: The entire album follows the same mood of "Obscurus Perpetua - Tales Of The Dark Prince". There will be exceptions with lots of surprises between songs. Some will swap out with the female vocalist (Josephine HW), taking the lead role vocals, and male vocalist (D.M.), taking a duet following the concept of "Beauty and the Beast", making a more melodic approach making a recess on those aggressive tunes, to equal balance the album like the previous album conceptually had achieved. It will be a kind of an album that people will need to dive into and listen carefully to the inserted surprises and listen closely to all those tiny details in the songs and lyrics that these three years managed and gave me time to implement on the album.
Tomaz: Now we are premiering the second single, "Tormentis Aeterna". It's maybe one of the most extreme symphonic metal things ever released, yet it has an avant-garde feel. You certainly like to do experiments., don't you?
Paulo: Yes, most definitely. I mean, the entire Caedeous - Obscurus Perpetua album is an experimental type of sound that I have been working for a long time since Domini Tenebrarum. I blended crazy musical ideas full of scale arpeggios on piano with intense dark and creepy orchestral vibes typical of a horror movie. At the same time, I inserted a crazy vocal concept between Thomas Blanc (D.M.) and Josephine WH to sound like a duet of vocals like the beauty and the beast concept to make it more melodic. Also, the bass and guitars are heavily aggressive in terms of tuning. I can define myself as an experimentalist. I love to make new stuff and sound different from what others are doing if it makes sense.
Tomaz: There's a video as well for this track. What can you say about it? Tell me more about the story and choreography.
Paulo: "Tormentis Aeterna" video concept was an idea that I had about the darkness inside of us in perpetual torment. While I was looking for a video director, I had the pleasure to meet Helen Thomson. She's a very talented video director and choreographer. I have to confess that I love her videos and portfolio, and she loves this kind of musical concept and sound. We sit down together, we spoke about it, and I gave her some ideas, which she complemented in such a great way. She's the one who came with this video and with such an amazing choreography. Helen Thomson and her team did a wonderful job for which I am so grateful. There will be more Caedeous videos from her very soon. Stay tuned.
Tomaz: I see that the line-up has drastically changed as well. The press sheet mentions you as the main composer and the new vocalist D.M. I guess that there will be more guests on other songs? Can you reveal a bit more?
Paulo: Yes, like on the previous album, I am the main and only composer, however on this new Obscurus Perpetua, I assumed all recorded instruments, while in the past, I hired session musicians to play and record the bass and second layer lead guitars. As mentioned before, D.M. is the new male vocalist. He is known for projects as Helioss and Celestial Swarm. Josephine HW assumes the female operatic and lyrical vocals.
Tomaz: So, what is the reason you didn't continue with the line-up from Domini Tenebrarum?
Paulo: When I decided to boot Domini Tenebrarum to the album we know, I hired session musicians and vocalists I had worked with in the past. It made sense to return to Domini Tenebrarum for live performances only, and with new acquaintances, I made over time. Back then it made sense due to the "live format" that I was pursuing and trying to achieve. Despite appearing to be the best choice at that specific time for the Caedeous project, it became clear that this is not the path that I want to follow with Caedeous in the future. Personally and professionally speaking, I wanted to pursue further and achieve other things in terms of sound and artistic direction. A project like this has tons of personal investments (money) made, in terms of studio time, recordings, mixing, mastering, paid promotion campaigns, PR, logistical means, hired musicians and vocalists. There weren't any returns of that personal investment, made only by myself. Let's be honest here, they are made on a great sacrifice of my personal life to achieve such dreams that I have and wanna pursue, that I love to do, such as playing metal and pushing the Caedeous sound further to a new artistical direction. The choice was simple, abandoning Caedeous live format line-up to be financially viable to push the project to another studio sound level as we can listen on Obscurus Perpetua and further upcoming albums. The other way was to deal with bankruptcy and ruin the project forever, closing doors. With previous musical experiences that I had, especially with Elementia saga and In Noir, I already knew that I needed to make a change. The way the project was envisioned by myself when it booted it in the first place had to change. Leaving the live format out of the equation for the time being and keeping that option for special streaming events or special time only concerts. Keeping it simple, and short as much as possible studio wise with myself as the main composer and all album instrumentalist like on my previous albums and hire vocalists as long term investment and assets as a stable hired line-up as I currently do for all my musical projects such as Elementia, In Noir, Zodiacus which is the correct business model format that I want to follow with my investment. If the opportunity shows up again to upscale the project for specific reasons, let's say for one time only special live performances and streaming events like I have planned and laid down already, it will happen but they need to have at least the investment returns to happen, so I can keep the project alive and kicking, thinking otherwise is a project killer without being financially viable like it was with the previous iteration with Domini Tenebrarum "live format line-up". Caedeous like all my musical projects is a huge undertaking that involves a lot of planning, time, dedication and money investment, in practical terms I am not saying the investments have to be fully paid off, I do accept calculated losses but the projects need to be financially viable to continue for further albums, and for the project's stability, continuity and further expansion.
Tomaz: Will you self-release the album? After the very positive response that you had with your previous album, I expected that there will be some labels interested to release new stuff? Were there any showing interest, or do you prefer to be on your own?
Paulo: After the first album was released there were several interesting label proposals for the release of the next albums. However, since I had to recruit new vocal talents for the ideas I had in my mind for the second album Obscurus Perpetua and it took me three years from planning to execution (official studio recordings), the label offerings that I had, needed to be put on ice for some time until I had the product finished and perfectly executed. Those contacts with labels, magazines and promotion agencies that were put on ice before, were returned, and fortunately, some doors do never close and they were still open for the Obscurus Perpetua album demo that I did some years ago, and when business talks, bullshit goes away, so I am currently pursuing those previously established contacts and therefore negotiating the terms that I need for the project to move further as I hoped for before. Hopefully, this will work well and more news about this will soon be announced as well as we approach the scheduled release date.
Tomaz: I was surprised that soon after releasing Domini Tenebrarum, everything around Caedeous went silent. Why didn't you try to promote it further? Such a musical creation is a good starting point to achieve greater recognition?
Paulo: It happened due to a mix of several variables, one to start with Elementia I album which was seeing a re-released edition (Celebratory edition) and Elementia II album with the renowned award winner vocalist Alexa Ray was being released and it went viral, with almost 500000+ streams in two months, and several awards of best musical month act from several musical outlets of Epic Music Promotion Channels. My focus turned away from the project Caedeous, which went silent for a little while. However, I already had the Obscurus Perpetua album fully composed as a demo and ready to be recorded but it needed the optimal time for its debut. After the dust of Elementia II settled down, I started the official recordings and knew 2021/2022 would be the ideal time window for its release. Currently, either Elementia IV or Caedeous have my full attention for the next years which no interruption will be made to those projects. I can even say in this interview that Caedeous' third album (Mallum Supplicium) is already laid down and recorded for a 2023 release, and the first single will be debuted in January 2023.
Tomaz: Do you have intentions to present it live on some shows? Is this even an option for a project like Caedeous?
Paulo: Yes and yes. The format I now have on Obscurus Perpetua is a small size operation and extremely viable option and it is an ongoing and developing idea. Due to COVID unfortunately happening, and due to extremely volatile everyday changes to how the pandemic is being addressed in every country, the live performance streaming option which was already viable during Domini Tenebrarum however did not happen, is now a reality for Obscurus Perpetua. I released some month ago a live guitar and bass performance, as an experiment to see how people would react. There is much more happening in the background as we speak in that approach.
Tomaz: From 2018 you've been very busy with other projects, Elementia and In Noir. You already said some words about both, but can you tell me more about them. In Noir is a special project, far from what you usually do, and I wonder if you have any intentions to continue with it?
Paulo: Yes, my Elementia saga which is comprised of my already released Elementia I, II and III albums are an orchestral adventure between fantasy, epic and trailer music which saw several guest session female and male vocalists, it even had a Metal Edition since the songs were so powerful to make that approach. All of these albums have reached moderate success and their reception has been overwhelming since they have performed to this date more than one million streaming plays combined on all digital retailers and digital streaming platforms. To be honest I am very grateful for this and also overwhelmed with gratitude to the magnific team that was and is behind it, to vocalists, agents, playlist promoters and promotion agencies. In Noir is more of an approach to the synth-wave eighties sound, and a virtuoso playstyle like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai, that I performed in the keytar and synths instead of a guitar. It was a different path that I wanted to explore. It was not very successful if we compare it with Elementia saga or even Caedeous. There are some musical projects that I do just for fun. In Noir delivered that to me. Fun and a return to myself as an instrumentalist and live performer. That pushed me to other play styles and even to diversify my keyboard/piano playing, and even guitar. As for Elementia saga, yes it will continue to volume 4 as Elementia IV which is currently being worked on and composed for a possible release in late 2022 or the initial first trimester of 2023. In Noir will also saw, not a direct follow-up project, but a re-imagination in the metal format of the same songs, pretty much as I did previously for Elementia Metal Version.
Tomaz: Thank you, Paulo, for taking your time to explain many things about Caedeous, the new album, and also about other projects of yours. Anything that you would like to say at the end?
Paulo: I would like to thank Terra Relicta and Tomaz for their continued support of my person and the musical projects that I lead. Also, I would like to send a big thank you to all the metalheads out there that have supported and listened to Caedeous first album and that are now making their inception to the first two singles of the second album. Stay tuned brothers and sisters! Metal on!
Caedeous links: Official website, Facebook, YouTube
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