Antre Interview

Antre are an Extreme Metal band from Nottingham, England. Hard to classify, their music contains elements of Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash, Sludge and Hardcore. All excellent ingredients for an intense musical experience! Back in 2019 the band released their excellent debut album “Void” and earlier this month saw the release of their latest EP “Dark Spectrum” (you can read our review here). Bassist Dan was kind enough to answer some questions. Check out the interview below.

Hi Dan,Thanks again for agreeing to be interviewed for Blessed Altar Zine. I’ve been enjoying Dark Spectrum a lot over the past week, so it’s cool to be able to learn more about the people making the music. First of all I’d like to ask, who are Antre and what does each member contribute to the band?

Dan – Antre is a Black Metal band from Nottingham, UK. Chris & Donny (Guitars), Baz (Drums), Pat (Vocals) and myself (Bass). As a predominantly DIY orientated band everyone contributes in different ways. We tend to record as much of the music ourselves (with outside help of course), we have filmed and edited all of our visual media, self-released our music through Donny’s own record label as well as design and distribute our own merch.

The latest EP seems to be a very personal and emotional release. What experiences have you channelled into these songs?

Dan – We’ve each had to deal with personal issues in our private lives over the last few years, which has been rough. Then with the added effect of a pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns imposed on everyone, the frustrations and general negativity we’ve dealt with collectively was inevitably channeled into Dark Spectrum. I suppose in a way it served as a bit of catharsis for some of us in the band.

Antre’s music seems to be a blend of different styles. What have been the biggest influences on the band’s sound?

Dan – It’s difficult to narrow down to just a few specific bands because we all have a multitude of different influences of music. Antre is rooted in Black Metal but we try not to pigeonhole ourselves to just that sub genre. Especially within this band, creating music is a lot more satisfying when we aren’t constricted to boundaries.

I’ve read your bio on Bandcamp and I can see there’s a significance to the band’s name. Could you say a bit about that?

Dan – Antre is an old English word for cave or cavern and I believe is meant to represent the darkness that lurks within every individual.

How did Antre come together in the first place? I think I’m right in saying you were all playing in various bands before you all started playing together?

Dan – The band was started by Chris and Baz after the dissolution of their previous band. Donny and Pat joined soon after, knowing Baz and Chris through the scene and gigging together in different bands. I think they played one gig together as a 4 piece before switching Donny to 2nd guitar.

I happened to see their bass audition advert by chance, through a mutual friend, and Nottingham based promoter Phil Core. Having known Pat through gigging together with our old bands and hearing the 2 demo songs for the first time swayed me into auditioning.

What is your song writing process like? Do people bring fully formed ideas to the band, or do songs more come out of rehearsing together?

Dan – A little of both. Ideas whether they are riffs or full songs will be brought to the practice space by someone, where we will jam through it altogether to see what works as a unit. We build off of and expand ideas together at practice until we’re satisfied with the end result.

What’s the music scene like in Nottingham? Do you feel like you’re part of a scene with other like minded bands?

Dan – Even though I’m not from Nottingham myself, I’ve been drawn to and consider myself more a part of the Nottingham scene since starting out in bands then I would my own town of Derby. It’s always been very strong in all manners of metal, and has produced a lot of incredible bands over the years. I’d say we are very deeply rooted in the scene as the band was created through that very pool of talent.

How has the Covid situation impacted on what you’ve wanted to do as a band?

Dan – The obvious obstacle of not being able to play live or even rehearse together has been pretty challenging. Rehearsing more so as we intended to start the writing process for album II.

After the first lockdown ended we had a small window to reconvene and start jamming together again, which is when we decided to put the E.P together.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to mention or promote?

Dan – Thank you to everyone who has checked us out so far and stuck around! A massive thank you to Blessed Altar Zine for these questions! And lastly to anyone who enjoys gaming go pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and check out the track ‘The Accursed’ we contributed to the game! Find us on the in game Ritual FM radio station under the moniker of ‘Dread Soul’

Thanks again to Dan for the interview. Follow the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with news and new releases. “Dark Spectrum” is available now on limited edition CD and digital. Click on the bandcamp link below for a copy or go to their website.