Parius Interview

We invited the young crushing band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Parius, for a friendly talk. They have a big occasion now – their second full-length album “The Eldritch Realm” is set for release on just today, 20th of July. And what better opportunity for Blessed Altar Zine to present these talented young musicians! My brother in arms UHF already reviewed the album, but now I have Louis, the vocalist of the band with me, and he will have the tough responsibility to stand our curiosity and tell us about everything which Parius is about.

– Hello, Louis! Thank you for accepting our invitation for this interview! How are you just around the release of your second full-length album “The Eldritch Realm”? I guess very much excited and busy…
– Hey guys! Thanks so much to you, Vladi, and Blessed Altar Zine for the interest in the band! We’re all really excited to get this stuff out there. Things have been chugging along in preparation, and I can’t wait to hear what people think of it!

– Please, tell us more about Parius, some history, background. Present the band to our readers.
– We started this band when most of us were around 15/16 years old. I (Louis) had been into metal for a few years at that point and had always wanted to front a band. Two friends of mine in highschool knew that I could do harsh vocals and asked me to form a band. Neither of those two guys are still around, but our guitarist, Ryan, was friends with one of them and joined around the same time I did. We’ve had some line up changes, but we’ve been chugging along ever since playing the occasional local show and writing music. We’re in our early 20’s now and it finally feels like we’ve hit a certain stride as a band, so it’s more fun than it’s ever been!

– Why “Parius”? What does it stand for and behind?
– Sorry to break it to you, but as far as most people are concerned Parius is basically just a nonsense word! We started under the name Epitaph. After a while we didn’t really care for it and thought it was a bit silly considering there was a record label with the same name. We moved to Pariah for a very brief time until we realized there was another local band with that name. After that we kind of just landed on Parius because it still sounded like Pariah, but it was different enough. I’ve grown to like the name because I like single word band names that you can come to “own”. Kind of like our brother band also based in Philly, Alustrium. I’ve never been a huge fan of [adjective] of [noun] style band names. I am told, however, that Parius is part of a Latin name for some sea snail. What can ya do?

– What is to be a very young musical band in this grinding digital era? How do you see the business and the scene?
– Honestly, it works great for us. We’re not a touring band and play piecemeal shows locally, so the fact that we can drive our music out into the world through the internet is a great gift for us. It allows everyone around the world to listen if they can find it! Luckily, we don’t see the band as something that will ever make us money and do other things to support ourselves, so we don’t stress about sales or anything like that. Although it is humbling when someone does spend their hard earned money to buy our music! We usually funnel it back into the band or buy emergency beer.

– You are still an independent artist…
– It’s true, we’re independent! We toyed with the idea of sending our stuff to labels, but we don’t want to get stuck in contracts and most of us can’t commit to touring, unfortunately. We decided to handle it ourselves. It makes it a little more complicated when we do it, but it’s always rewarding.

– I personally find Saturnine more melodic, more into melodic death metal spectrum, but how would you describe the differences between Saturnine and The Eldritch Realm, then and now?
– Saturnine was an album written by a couple of teenagers and, in my opinion, it shows. We wore our influences heavily on our sleeves and it doesn’t take a metal whiz to tell who we were listening to at the time. The main difference between the two albums would be the musicianship and the sound. What I mean by that is that we tried to make something that sounded like us. Not us trying write songs that sounded like bands we like. It was also a more collaborative effort as a band to work together to write the songs. You can disagree, but this is the most genuine Parius album thus far. We’ll always strive to hone in on our sound, but this is the best effort yet!

– Are three years long period between the two albums?
– For a band that doesn’t tour, you bet! We did have a short EP Let There Be Light in between, but the stretch was a long one. The kicker is that Saturnine was actually recorded at least a year before that. I would love to pump out more music, but we’re picky with what we let through and life can get in the way. The recording process took quite some time to complete, much to our producer and engineer, Chris Kelly’s, dismay.

– What can we find in those tales about Eldrich Realm? What do they retell? What is the concept behind this album?
– The Eldritch Realm started with me wanting to make a Twilight Zone-style story (hence the name). Since each episode usually is tied to a theme I wanted mine to be the idea of being caught in a circle and stuck on the day to day grind; finding it hard to break out.
The story follows a man with eternal life as he journey’s to retrieve his mortal soul guided by the Black Moon, Lilith. He begins by contemplating the nature of his situation and sets off to see what lies beyond this realm and into the next; dealing with the answers he finds while being hindered by a cosmic force.

– The cover art is very interesting. It’s not the usual stuff you can expect in this genre. What’s the story there?
– Since this was the first time I had attempted to write a concept for an album I was very intent on have a thematic and grand presentation. One day our guitarist, Ryan, suggested it might be cool to have a 1930s style poster for an album cover. Boris Karloff style. I immediately fell in love with the idea and I thought it would go great with the themes. I looked at a ton of old movie posters really trying to understand what made them so iconic and appealing. One day I stumbled upon Stephen Andrade’s (the artist) work on Reddit. I knew immediately that he was that one that brings what I had in my head to life. He was a breeze to work with, very attentive and professional. I couldn’t be happier with his work.

– What is there between the hell and you – fresh graves, old tombs or galactic termination?- Definitely fresh graves and old tombs.

– What are your inspirations in music? Favorite bands, artist, styles?
– Some of our big inspirations are bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, The Faceless, and The Black Dahllia Murder just to name a few. Most of us listen to a decent spread of metal as well as many other genres. I, personally, try to find inspiration in many different kinds of music.

– If you can choose only one band to tour with, which one will it be?
– That’s a tough one! I guess it’d have to be a band we were prepared to listen to every night. I think most of us could do that for Opeth.

– And speaking about tours – what are your actual plans after the release of the album?
– Sadly limited. We’re playing a release show on the 19th of July, and we’re playing a few small shows and a show at St. Vitus in New York in late August/early September. The rest is yet to be determined! Stay tuned!

– Did I miss to ask you something important? Or is there anything you would like to add or share exclusively with us?
– Thank you to everyone at Blessed Altar Zine and thanks for taking interest in the band! The Eldritch Realm comes out July 20th! Happy Listening!

– Thank you once again for your time and this interview. It’s been a pleasure. From all Blessed Altar Zine team, I wish you good luck with the new album and the goals set! Stay heavy!

Interview by Count Vlad

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