METALLIAN - [in Mute]

Gea – 2017 – Art Gates
Chaos Breeder – 2019 – Art Gates

Members

Vocals

Steffi Garcia – Sollaertia, Sandmist, Martyrium>>Vanja ‘Obscure’ Plavsic>>Sollaertia, Sandmist

Guitar

Pejota Perez - Tu Carne>>CRISTÓBAL GALÁN – Wrath Within, Aethyr, Agathos>>Mike>>Wrath Within, Aethyr, Agathos

Bass

Acriter, Hädes>>PEDRO ‘PITO’ SAZ

Drum

Opera Magna, Eye Cluster>>ADRIAN PERALES>>Opera Magna, Eye Cluster

History & Biography

The band was founded in 2003 and issued a demo called Aeternum in 2009. Singer Alberto left in 2010 and was replaced by Steffi Garcia. The band played at the Female Fronted Extreme Metal Fest in Belgium in 2015. Art Gates Records signed Spain’s [IN MUTE] in 2016. The band was in the recording process for its new album, which was expected to be released in the first quarter of 2017. Pejota left in 2017 and was replaced by Mike. Garcia left in 2018. [IN MUTE]’s 2019 album was entitled Chaos Breeder and due out through Art Gates Records worldwide on November 15th. Vanja left in 2020 and returned to Martyrium. Mike took over the vocals.

Reviews

IN MUTE – CHAOS BREEDER – ART GATES
In Mute is the type of band we at Metallian Towers do not favour. You know the type. The band is a little groovy, a little technical; there is a little bit of Meshuggah in there and unfortunately a bunch of boy band chanting. It just goes with the territory and the type of monicker the gang has picked.
The band did surprise on the upside however. The background chants are there and they are as unnecessary and clichéd as any other band’s. Fear Factory should suffer a thousand deaths for the vomit they introduced. The middle song Depth Of Suffering sounds like a tune where the band ran out of songs. Unhallowed Divination closes the album, and while being an overall good track, does have a poppy melody to it. The In Mute guys could well be on their way to being the next Dark Tranquillity.
With the above said, the rest of Chaos Breeder is not half bad (if one likes the groovy technical metal thing, that is). For one thing the band is harsh and can be both heavy and fast. The guitars are distorted and by that we refer to both the six strings and the bass. There are moments of genuine brutality on this disc and the lead guitarist can solo if he chooses to. Unfortunately he does not bother too often but the solos on EcceTorment and Calibrated Face leave one longing for more.
Seventy is the mark of a good album and, as such, Metallian thinks this one is a good one. – Ali “The Metallian”

Interviews

IN MUTE, stylized as [IN MUTE], is a harsh death bash metal band that is based out of the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. That is coincidentally the home base for Art Gates Records, which issued the band’s Chaos Breeder record in late 2019. The album was awarded Album Of The month status here at Metallian Towers and so it was time for the band to sit down for an interview with Ali “The Metallian.” The band was initially scheduled to fly in for an in-person interview at Metallian Towers, but based on the advice of the medical team here drummer Adrián and singer Vanja Obscure called in to answers questions for our readers instead. The band is rounded off by guitarists Mike and Cristobal, as well as bassist Pedro. – 01.05.2020

It is good to speak with both of you. Could you introduce the band to our readers? As well, is there a conscious interest behind the band or is it simply to make music and entertainment?
ADRIÁN: IN MUTE was born in 2003 by a bunch of guys who wanted to play some of their favourite songs and make ones of their own, same old story. It became more serious when we started to play all around our home city, but with no big goals, apart from recording Aeternum in 2009. We managed to have a stable band after a few line-up changes and with the incorporation of Steffi on vocals in 2010, a new era for the band began with the release of the One In A Million EP. Our first singer was a man. Then, in 2013 we missed our chance to be at Wacken Open Air so we started working hard to bring the band up. We were determined to try again at Spanish Wacken Metal Battle and give it our all. We all quit our jobs in case they didn’t fit the band and started playing everywhere and developing our own sound. The reward was being the Spanish band fighting in Germany, which eventually led us to the victory there in 2014. After a few years of playing around Europe and Spain at the most important festivals, we released Gea in 2017. Mike joined the band as guitarist to complete the Gea Spanish Tour. Two years later, we decided to split ways with Steffi and were lucky to find Vanja. We started working with her and Mike to compose and record Chaos Breeder, an accurate representation of what IN MUTE is nowadays.

METALLIAN: I am curious, what happened that made you miss Wacken? Also, which cover versions did the band play in the early days?
ADRIÁN: We missed our first shot because we did an ordinary gig. It has to be special. We weren’t fit as a band, we needed more stage, attitude and focus. We felt like we didn’t do our job properly. Trallery, the band that actually won, did an awesome show - as always happens with them. They are now friends of ours and one of the most interesting acts from Spain. Check out their last album! It’s simple, we had to try harder. It was a nice warning for us to realise our place and that things had to be done better if we wanted to rise. It happened to be a mind-changing experience, you always derive good things from these situations.
We used to play Colony by In Flames, Fixation On The Darkness by Killswitch Engage and Crisis De Fe by Ktulu, which is a ‘90s’ Spanish metal band at first. Then, a few years later we used to end our shows with Domination by Pantera and after that we kept Imperium by Machine Head and Vacuity by Gojira in our set list for a couple of years. We always tried to pick not the songs we like the most, but the ones that can work live and sound properly.

METALLIAN: No offense meant, but the band’s sub-genre is not my personal favoured style. However, IN MUTE actually became Metallian’s Album of The Month for March 2020. Congratulations. How do you describe yourself?
ADRIÁN: None taken (laughs)! We don’t expect everyone to like our music, obviously, but we write every note from the heart. We have diverse influences, both in and out the metal scene, and each and every one of them leaves its imprint. The band started as a kind of Nordic melodic death metal act, with some groovy parts, but with One In A Million we started to explore more extreme paths. Then with Gea we get to the most brutal and dark sound we ever had. It felt natural with the new line-up to explore a less extreme style fitting the new colours we had to play with. To sum it up, we currently are a melodic death metal band with Scandinavian influences, but willing to explore new ways of making metal.

METALLIAN: Can IN MUTE exist without a female vocalist? Is the choice of singers intentional? What happened with Steffi? How did you and Vanja meet?
ADRIÁN: The first time with Steffi wasn’t planned. We were looking for a new singer and she was up for it. We tried and it worked. After so many years, kms and experiences together, it was time for a change and we mutually decided to split our paths because of the different interests and mindsets. We wanted to keep the feminine energy in our band. It felt natural and necessary, but the truth is that Vanja was by far the best option we could ever find. She has the experience, the voice, the willingness and she also happened to live in Valencia. From the first moment it was clear that she was meant to be part of IN MUTE by being a lovely and hard-working person.

METALLIAN: Given how she lives locally, how did Vanja and team meet?
ADRIÁN: We met her in 2015 when we went to the Female Fronted Extreme Metal Fest in Belgium. She was with MartYrium from Malta and we became good friends. A few years later they invited us to Malta to play in a fest they were promoting and we strengthened our friendship. They are really nice people. After that, Vanja came to Spain and almost a year later, we needed new singer and she was there for us. The twists and turns of life!

METALLIAN: The one thing we did not appreciate about the new album is the clean vocals. Do we have to blame Fear Factory for them?
ADRIÁN: [Laughingly] you only have to blame us! It wasn’t a hard decision to dive into clean vocals. Until this moment, we didn’t have anyone in the band that was able to sing clean vocals so it was off the table. As the new songs were coming up, we felt that they could use some clean vocals because Mike had such great ideas and the ability to bring them to life. As the pre-production was recorded, it was so clear for all of us that the clean vocals had to stay. It’s just another step in the band’s evolution. For sure it isn’t new to find metal with growls and clean vocals, but it was for us, and to have a chance to play around these ideas was very exciting. We try to do something new and challenging with every studio work. We get to the extreme part in Gea. It was the moment to experiment with less complicated structures and melodic stuff.

METALLIAN: Does this imply that clean vocals are here to stay?
ADRIÁN: It’s quite likely, but it’s not decided yet. Maybe on a new album we evolve in another direction and try something new. Maybe we try a different approach with the clean vocals. It’s the nice part of having a new colour to paint with. And it has to do also with what Mike wants to do as a guitarist. We are a metal band, but aren’t attached to a defined style. We aren’t a thrash metal band, but we listen to thrash since the childhood and it’s the same with heavy, death, black… And we also like to discover new bands and styles, such as prog - in the way it’s going now - , djent, metalcore, hardcore and more. Our way of doing music can absorb all that and take it into a part or whole song. It’s nice to have fewer frontiers in these matters.

METALLIAN: Vanja, you have been quiet so far. Let me ask you, what is the song EcceTorment about? The title itself is intriguing.
VANJA: Ecce means ‘Behold’ in Latin, so the denotation is ‘Behold The Torment’. It is a song about going forward, literally taking some path which is unusual, redirecting from the mundane or some duty. Like between the silhouetted shapes of the night, living within a moment, being possessed with the absurd conviction that everything is possible, or, in the least, that nothing matters.

METALLIAN: While we are speaking of titles, care to explain Chaos Breeder?
VANJA: The name is very straightforward. It sounds strong, both in meaning and execution. It puts into life the feeling we were trying to create for the title track. It means literally the spreading, or rise of chaos which we think is a suitable foretaste of what the album has to offer.

METALLIAN: One of the things that was intriguing was how the band’s guitarists can play leads and compose quality ones at that, but they are so scarce and short. Why is that?
ADRIÁN: Here again we get to the new approach of composing. They showed in previous works what they are able to do. On this occasion we found the need to get straight to the song, to build a solid track without large arrangements. We worked fast as hell to meet our deadline and also be so thorough with every detail. Now see, we introduced Vanja in April 2019, and released Chaos Breeder in November of the same year. You do the math… No summer holidays for anyone! But it was worth it, we are really proud of the results.

METALLIAN: I can only agree. What is new with the act? Has COVID-19 stopped all activity or what is going on?
ADRIÁN: For sure, it has smashed all cultural activity until further notice. We had a busy May scheduled and so many plans in and outside our borders for the summer. They all totally crashed because of this health crisis. We hope it gets better soon, but as always, culture will be the last thing politics care about. And speaking of this, music turns out to be the last in line, and we all know what place metal takes within that world. Even more, in a country like Spain, metal scene is always lacking support. It is a scene built over foundations of really loyal fans, very hard working promoters and unflagging bands. But there is no mass media interest or musical education outside the mainstream. Even so, there’s hope, there’s strength and there will be a huge rebirth. Everyone wants to get on stage again. We live for this. And we are aware that there are lots of people dying to attend to live shows asap.

METALLIAN: Finally, and as you know, Metallian is the world’s best metal website. Everyone agrees. Why do you think that is?
ADRIÁN: [Laughingly] that’s because you waste your time and money supporting meaningless people like us! Now seriously, thanks a lot for spending your time trying to know a little bit more about IN MUTE, and thanks so much for making us band of the month on your website in March, we are so honoured. Hope to see you some day in person and share thoughts, beers and jokes. Regards from Spain!

Adrián and Vanja were both serious and congenial and it was a pleasure speaking with two individuals who are earnest, but remain down-to-earth. Moreover, the band’s music speaks for itself and needs more attention. Find the band at https://inmute.bandcamp.com and https://artgatesrecords.com/artists/in-mute/.

If you enjoyed this, read Sudden Death

[In Mute]