Dark progressive metal band BLACK SEA OF TREES has released a debut single "Through Sky" back in 2020, as well as a cover of an Opeth track, with them currently hard at work upon a new concept album expected out in 2023! The band discusses this album, wanting tour and other plans in the works!
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
We formed in 2018, I had half an album written and started learning how to sing when we got together. I’m from Melbourne but the guitarist Tanil is from Turkey, the drummer Jan from Norway and the bassist Francesco from Italy. Tanil and Jan had been in a rock band together previously and I found them separately so it was a funny surprise to find themselves in a band together again. Francesco is also in a death metal band Neptune from Italy and Tanil has his own solo project under his own name.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Black Sea of Trees comes from a Japanese novel about two lovers that commit suicide together in a forest called Aokigahara or Jukai which means Sea of Trees. This is a real place at the foot of Mt Fuji and it’s infamous for being a suicide forest. I’ve been in the forest myself (not to commit suicide) and it’s an absolutely beautiful place, which is a big reason as to why people want to commit suicide there. But it holds a dark burden and the locals believe it to be haunted. Once I heard the name I immediately had to have it and then finding out the back story just drew me in even further, so dark!!
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We’re based in Melbourne, Australia. There’s heaps of music here but I find the prog/metal scene to be very underwhelming, there are some very skilled musicians but a lot of the music lacks artistic soul. Having said that there are bands like Bear the Mammoth and Myriad Drone that get it. Amazing performances and excellent songwriting, I always find myself having an introspective journey at their live shows.
4. How would you describe your style?
Dark Progressive Metal. We go from brutal death metal sections to acoustic passages with clean vocals and plenty of weird atmospheric stuff too.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We released our first single ‘Through Sky’ in 2020 along with an Opeth cover to see if we could do the production by ourselves. Since then we’ve recorded our album ‘The Spiritual Beast’ and released two singles in build up to the album launch on 25th March. The titular track came out with a video that we produced ourselves and the album will come out with another video too. It’s all very witchy/occult inspired, the album goes from death metal to abstract atmospheric to folk and everything in between, so it’s a mixed bag.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We’re about half way through writing a new concept album, hopefully we’ll start recording end of 2023.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We’re looking to organize our album launch but other than that no tours or shows are booked as of yet.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We’d love to tour Europe, I think our music would be more popular there and 3/4 of us are from there! Other than that, more albums and more accompanying films.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to us on Spotify and YouTube, all the usual places and you can buy our merch from Bandcamp.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
The darkness for sure. For me Black Sea of Trees is about being in dark places and overcoming darkness (or not), so I hope that comes through for other people.
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