Interview with Dmitry of Illidiance

Describe the origins, formation and history of Illidiance, from the beginning to the present day.
From the origins – we’ve been formed back in 2005, started with a modern BM style, but we moved into cyber-metal in 2008 to have more catchy and original sound, create something new, fresh. Through the brief of our history I might say that for now we have 2 albums released in eastern EU market, played more than 100 gigs as well as toured cis countries many times, played at respectable big festivals in EU and CIS countries, won some national awards. We’ve supported many international bands in tours, like Behemoth, Deathstars, Grave Digger, Rotting Christ, Grave, Sonic Syndicate and many more. Joined some compilations of respectable zines such as Terrorizer, Devolution magazines etc. Signed to one of the most talented and powerful agencies in Europe – The Flaming Arts Agency (Behemoth, HATE, Septic Flesh, Sybreed…) As for now we are finishing the last touches on our third release, which will be entitled as Damage Theory, and preparing the new live show for tours supporting the coming album.

How was the name Illidiance finally chosen for the band, and does it have any particular meaning?
Our band’s name is ILLIDIANCE, it’s an imaginary word without translation, just letters chained together, forming a word sounds awesome, as well in that case we avoid situation when we might be surprised that there is another band with same name))) we just had a brainstorm and finally entitled our band as ILLIDIANCE to have strong name with some kind of intrigue.

Describe your earliest shows and the local clubs where you performed. How well were you received?
Our earliest gigs were like the first gigs of any band – shit and lobster. Really when you first time on stage you focus not on the show and your parts, but not to shit your pants, and you’re growing from gig to gig, as your live show experience grows. Our first gigs were performed on a shitty backline in awful clubs with awful conditions, so I guess it’s common for any metal band, hehe.

Who in the band coined the term “necrobionic tribe,” and what is the meaning of it?
I invented this term, but I dunno if its correct and apt description for our style, it’s more for our fans, that we all are tribe, some kind of a new race evolved from cloning of a human dead cells and biomechanics. So in that case I wanna say that we as the band and our fans are the one tribe, one union, one spawned race, and we are something like shamans of the tribe. Just that image inspired me to add this term to logo, coz our fans who buy our merch, t-shirts may feel that they are a kind of tribe, they are in union. Also on the back of our t-shirts which is available now we have the sentence “JOIN THE TRIBE OR FUCK YOURSELF!”… hehe.

Your music is a unique combination of underground metal, nu-metal and industrial. Was this a natural progression?
Yep, we’re just imaging the ideas and transfer them to a new canvas, without any regrets and thoughts about “which style it will be?” We are just creating our stuff by our own, and we are proud to sound like ILLIDIANCE, to have our own cognate sound and style, not to be paralleled with another bands.

Which bands most inspired you as you developed your sound, and how much are they reflected in your songs?
We are inspired many different bands, such as Fear factory, Soilwork, Suicide Commando and EBM genre, Prodigy, Static-X, Scar Symmetry. Also we are influenced by a high-tech world and relative things such as cyber issues, implants, modified DNA, extra-terrestrials, anthropogenic disasters, cloning.  There are some things that may seem to be reflected in our musical stuff, maybe the powerful rhythmic riffs may seem close to Fear Factory, the progressions and hit structures may seem relative to Soilwork, Disturbed, catchy cleanvoice refrains may reflect the Scar Symmetry, and the electronic parts and samples may reflect the Prodigy, Suicide Commando, Chemical Brothers, Infected Mushroom. But at all – all these bands play so different music, which cannot be combined.

Is there a sizable audience for underground music in Rostov-On-Don, Russia? Which genres are most listened to?
There a lot of metalheads, as well as in other cities of Russia and the rest of the world. We are not the bearded barbarians with bears and instant snowfalls… hehe. As you know the every shit in this world has it’s own shit eater so all styles are listened, but for now the most preferable styles are – Deathcore, Industrial, Nu, Gothic, Modern metal, - all kinds of alternative and modern metal styles.



Describe the reaction to your first two full-lengths Insane Mytheries To Demise and Nexaeon in Russia and abroad. How has the band progressed over the course of these albums?
Our first works as 2 LP “Insane..” and “Nexaeon” were the starting point where we played modern black metal, unfortunately these albums were produced not up to be strong as hell, with EP “Synthetic Breed” we moved to our actual style and we guess it’s the thing we really are. Our mix of industrial and modern metal is a thing we intended to perform for a long time, and now we are doing what we need. So wait for our album Damage Theory, we will highly appreciate if you’ll do the review and promote it in future))) hehe

Illidiance is preparing to work on a third full length. Where will it be recorded and what can we expect?
This album will consist of 11 tracks, entitled as DAMAGE THEORY. It will include 4 songs from EP “Synthetic Breed” as well as new 7 songs in our cognate cyber-metal style. We entitled our work as Damage Theory coz we spent a long of time working on material to make it maximal catchy, so every track is cutting like razor. Our fans and new listeners will enjoy some international guest appearances on this album: there will be  Tony JJ (ex-Mnemic / IconInMe) – he will sing in song CyberGore Generation, Guitar virtuoso from UK- Mick Priestley (The Green River Project) – who is playing solo in “I want To Believe” song, In the beginning we engaged Adam (HATE) to sing his best growls in one song, but he’s really out of time, really busy and time ran out, so another maniac from UK Scott Kennedy (Bleed From Within) replaces him in recording of scream/growl vocals for Mind Hunters song , also one of world's leading Cyber-Punks Kendji Sirotori (Japan) is preparing the narration for New Millenium Crusherz song, it will be done in English and on Japanese is well for Japan release. Our studio diaries are available at our my space page  www.myspace.com/illidiance so our listeners will are able to check out our working process and expect the result, also there is a lot of funny moments.

You recently did a series of podcast interviews with Freyja Awbrey, among several others. How widespread was the exposure these podcast interviews got for the band?
To be honest I need to say that Freyja now is podcasting my recorded interviews done and air played by several stations before, she is unpredictable good in spreading the word and promotional work. As well she is our official representative in UK, and other regions of the world, coz she is dedicated to her work as real royal people of UK!  that’s unbelievable! So I expect we will continue this podcasts and soon I will do some exclusive interviews to her podcast channel.

What are the band’s immediate plans for when the album is released?
After the official release of an album we plan to hit the road, now we are scheduled to play Eastern European solo tour, Russian tour with SYBREED from Switzerland in spring, and solo tour in CIS Countries and Western European tour with Sybreed in Autumn. We surely want to come and play in USA! As well with this album we expect to make a video clip to one song, and it will be surely positive to be interviewed by you in the future, hehe. Going further we are engaging some PR agencies to do more PR work, work with press to spread the word of a Russian act ILLIDIANCE. Finally I might say its seems for us to be married on a band work, and spend a lot of budget on promotion, but we will receive fans, and reach the new shores, as well we will highly appreciate  if you’ll report about our gigs and discover our news in the future.

Interview by Dave Wolff of Autoeroticasphyxium