Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Servator

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

We guys started listening to music at the age of twelve. In my case, I first listened to some Rock’n’Roll, which was the favourite music of my older brother. And I listened to the stuff that my classmates were listening to. When the aunt of a friend should copy me some music on a tape, she added two songs from Iron Maiden. I was instantly addicted to metal and since then my range of heavy music expanded over the years.

How did your passion for creating music begin?

We were just kids who wanted to start a band. There was no masterplan and we went on by learning how to play.. from day one we loved the distorted guitars, the drums and screaming to our songs.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

The songs for “The Dark Triad” were created during the past years. The music was created first, then came the lyrics and at last we built the story around it, because The Dark Triad is a psychological theory of personality, that describes three notably offensive but non-pathological personality types: Machiavellianism, sub-clinical narcissism, and sub-clinical psychopathy. 

Each of these personality types is called dark because each is considered to contain malevolent qualities.

Although The Dark Triad is no concept album about this whole theory, the lyrics deal with conflicts, wars, personal tragedies, and crises – basically everything that’s going wrong in the world and that is often caused by man.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music

before?

In general, we are a thrash metal band with some old school death metal influences, especially concerning the vocals. But we found our niche in between those styles and added some hardcore groove. Some people compared us to Benediction playing Pro-Pain with some Bay Area influences.

What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?

During the pre-production of The Dark Triad, Peter made himself familiar with recording software. So I think for the years to come, we should be able to exchange and develop  ideas between our rehearsals. We hope to become more productive this way.

What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?

Peter uses Ableton live for recording.

The guitars are from ESP, Gibson and Jackson, the drumset is by Pearl. I have no idea which certain software was used by our producer Reimund in Splash’nDash studio. But concerning the drum recordings, we only used trigger for the bass drum. The rest sounds naturally. We don’t like a too sterile and cold sound. 

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?

We think the latest records of Testament and The Haunted, for example. But there are so many great bands out there – too much to mention. The underground is bringing up new heavy stuff every week.

PS: We love the Polish Thrash Metal band Virgin Snatch. Highly recommended.

How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?

There are no personal tragedies that influence our music or my lyrics. It’s just the sound that comes along, when we start a session. And for writing lyrics, you only have to watch the news and realize what’s all going wrong in the world nowadays.

What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?

We just want to throw middle fingers to all despots, haters and psychopaths out there. On the other hand, some songs are just fiction and should make you move in a moshpit…

What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?

It’s all about passion. We do not write music for anyone else, we don’t expect much attention or even fame. But if people like our music and go headbanging in front of our stage, this feels great! And we love the idea that our songs are played somewhere far abroad.

What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?

To be realistic, it should be an underground festival with a great crowd and people who love the music. Maybe the BurningQ festival near Bremen, Germany, would be a great experience.

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

I met Jamey Murphy on a flight from San Francisco to Europe years ago and found out he is a very cool dude and as we know one of the best guitarists with a signature sound. If I could chose someone for guest vocals, I would be more than honored if Chuck Billy would sing some lines.

Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)

We have our little bandcamp store on

and we are happy about every follower on

https://www.facebook.com/Servator.Metal

https://www.instagram.com/servator.metal

Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical

journey?

After our CD release, our drummer Alex had to leave the band for personal reasons. He quit drumming and has to take care for his family and his work. We are still friends, so there’s no bad blood at all. We are looking for a new drummer (we’ve got an audition soon) and we hope to be able to play some gigs in the near future. And then we will start writing new songs immediately. 

What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?

I hope they will like our underground stuff. Everything was created and recorded in our rehearsal room, 16 square meters, second basement level. It’s just honest metal from four guys who are more fans than musicians. Give our album some spins. Support the underground!

If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the

interview 🙂

Here’s Drown in Blood – the opener of our album: