Exploding Into the Void of Animus

Foto: Marcel Peter & Dennis Herbert

Exploding Into the Void of Animus

Meet Void Of Animus from Bavaria, ready to rock and rage your world with their dynamic debut EP entitled The Essence.  Presenting explosive alternative metal that is both hard-hitting and superbly catchy, Void Of Animus is destined to detonate your senses and set the imagination on flight.  With standout songs such as Enjoy My Happy Ending and Stab That Bitch garnering the band a good deal of attention, Void Of Animus unleashes compelling artistry for these modern times that is well worth seeking out.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed singer/guitarist Mad Dias to find out more about this amazing band on the rise.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Void Of Animus, and how long the band has been together.
Hello, I’m Dias, I’m the singer and guitarist of Void Of Animus. With the original members, the band is about 10 years old, but since our last new member René just about 2 years.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
We’re based near Augsburg in Bavaria and actually got a pretty big scene for metal in general. A lot of small festivals, many bands and even alternative clubs we hang out sometimes. Like I’ve said we’ve been around for some time, but even newcomers get their chances and people are really enjoying the smaller projects and don’t hesitate to support them.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title The Essence?
The album doesn’t have a concept, nor a story. We just like to write songs and experiment with songwriting itself and decided to put our favourites songs together to one album. But we were actually thinking of a full concept EP with an ongoing story throughout the songs, since we’ve never done anything like that.

Select two songs from The Essence and what inspired the lyrics?
The lyrics are heavily inspired by the sound itself and I think “A Ruthless Serenade” and “Stab That Bitch” are a perfect example. A Ruthless Serenade is basically a story about a guy who lost his mind through a never-ending tinnitus, which kind of describes the sound in the intro. We already imagined a video in a padded cell and just going insane, just fit’s perfectly. Stab That bitch is a story about a guy who lost the love of his life through a car accident by a drunk and drugged hooker. The guy obviously wants to get his revenge and to the stomping rhythm in the song I immediately imagined someone being stabbed in a very dramatic and theatrically way.

Who produced The Essence and what was it like working with them?
We produced everything by ourself. We just had one guy for mixing and mastering. His name is Basi and he’s such a nice and patient person. We really got on his nerves several times, but he always took the time to get the job done exactly how we wanted it. He also had some good ideas, since he’s way more experienced than we are and we’re very happy about everything we could learn from him during the mixing sessions. It surely will help us with our songwriting in the future.

How did the worldwide pandemic affect the production and writing of The Essence, if at all?
Actually not affected by it in any meaning. Stefan and I mainly write the songs alone at home and just send the complete song to the other members when it’s finished. From there it’s just small fixes to the instruments of the other members and the song is done. Still takes a long time to get one finished, but since covid lasted longer then we all could imagine, time wasn’t a problem at the time.

What could one expect from a live Void Of Animus show?
A lot of energy for sure. We go insane from the first note and don’t stop until the final song is done. This is very important for us and the main thing we’re very proud of. A lot of people also enojy the variety of the songs and the different instruments we included in Enjoy my Happy Ending or One more Song. For now it’s only the banjo and tambura, but we didn’t even scratch the surface of unlikely instruments in metal.

If Void Of Animus could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
If I could pick I’d probably choose Gojira, Trivium or Orbit Culture, because they were very inspirational in my past years. Also it’s like the only bands I could imagine our songs matching their songs in someway.

Has Void Of Animus ever played here in the States and is this something you would like to do in future days?
No, we had never played in the USA and yes, of course we would love to do it, no hesitation. But we need to grow bigger a lot to get the opportunity and make it possible. For now we’re happy about the gigs around our area, but hopefully someday we get the chance to prove ourself abroad.

What’s up next for Void Of Animus?
We want to focus on writing more songs and releasing them, instead of playing as many gigs as we can. Since we’re all working full time, we can’t to both and as much as we love playing live shows, we think it’s more important to get our songs out there and reach people all over the world.

Any final words of wisdom?
Go and support your locals bands. We know not every concert will be a fulfilling experience, but some of them put so much work in their songs and live show that even makes you think, why they’re playing in your local Denny’s instead of sold-out arenas. Thank you very much for your time and to the one who’s reading this right now. Yours Dias.

LINE-UP:
René Müller • Vocals
Matthias Behringer aka Mad Dias • Vocals, Guitar
Stefan Pschenitza • Guitar
Johannes Schultheiß • Bass
Tobias Guggenmos • Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Void Of Animus on Instagram