The War Inside My Head: An Interview with Ὁπλίτης
It's been a while since I've revisited my "musicians appreciating musicians" series, but the coming of a new and utterly brilliant Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites) album is a great reason to get back to business, whatever the fuck that means. I've been following the Chinese one-man, Hexameter-spewing extravaganza since their blasting-out-the-universe debut album, Ἡ εἰκών, of which I had written in the twilight of the merry COVID days (evidence of that statement here). since then, the ear-annihilating one-man show has gone to release quite a few albums, but the new one, Παραμαινομένη, released quite recently, might be the best one yet. As wild as unhinged as the rest of the Hoplites catalogue, but also subdued sophisticated and clarinet-blessed.
So, given the unique musical output and the unique mind that had produced said output, I thought it would be a good idea to bore into that mind and see what kind of musical weirdness abounds. And abound it does. I have no idea what any of this means. Anyhow. Enjoy the interview, and be sure to check out Παραμαινομένη. Now.
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What was the first album you bought with your own money, and where did you buy it?
The Trivium discography, actually, lol (before 2015! Post-2015 albums suck a lot, really but I kinda saw it coming). I’m from a small city near Shanghai, there’s are no record stores here so I had to buy them on the Internet.
What 2-3 albums did you hear the most growing up?
Probably: Trivium – Ascendancy: BEHOLD OUR BELOVED REVELS IN TRADGEDY!
Trivium – Shogun: Probably their best. Basically no bad riffs, and great lessons on chugging while not being completely mainstream-ish sounding.
Children of Bodom – Relentless, Reckless Forever: Chances are a weird choice for most COB fans, but the balance between groovy chugging and good-old COB melodies is just splendid.
What albums taught you the most about the technical aspect of making music?
Music Production
A lot of those so-called “progressive metalcore” bands (with quotation marks because most of them aren’t really being progressive, are they?), which are sooooo numerous now. But I 100% respect their production standards, which are both groundbreaking but applied everywhere. I think that new Hoplites has this “compromise of industrial standards of mixing & INDIE-ness.” Which is good to me!
Probably some post-2010 Children of Bodom influence on tone choices too, because I kinda feel there are some similarities? This just came to my mind, but if this is true, it probably has operated on a subconscious level cause I’m no longer listening to COB. But they indeed were my first metal band.
Thrash & related stuff
The Vektor discography. On the art of riffing (didn’t learn a lot, actually but the concept of making what I call “intelligent riffs” in Mandarin is always influencing me)
Revocation. Same thing. Would be good if they stop Slayer-izing their career by combining some real avant-garde stuff. They are definitely capable of that.
Black & Related stuff
Post-1996 Emperor discography. Tech-black introductory and intermediate courses. Hate me however you want but Nightside is just boring…by no means an oeuvre as interesting as Anthems.
Deathspell Omega – Paracletus. Melodies that twist like serpents on the album cover.
Serpent Column – Endless Detainment. To quote a comment on Bandcamp: “Assault, but in a good way."
Others
Steven Wilson & Porcupine Tree: On keeping moving forward and pushing boundaries as a musician who is, according to himself, not born in the best time for making music (but for my generation it’s even worse XD).
Zeuhl and brutal prog in general: On being free and innovative musically like Dionysus Eleutherios, which roughly translates to "Dionysus the Free-spirited" and has “praised” a lot in Hoplites’ new release through hexameter recitation in ancient Greek.
What is the last album that absolutely shocked you?
I’d like to say Vitriol’s upcoming full-length of which only three songs have been released by now. Basically I’m really not looking forward to “new sounds” in death metal because I think this genre is kinda too much explored and tech-ized already. But this time, though not an utter breakthrough, guys from Vitriol are bringing a relatively newer sound. This is really recent, though we still don’t know the overall quality of the album.
As for a full album, probably Gorycz’s 2022 release. I listened to it about half a year ago. I haven’t listened to too much Post metal, but this album is a good introduction for me [see it on the MM Best of 2022 list].
What album relaxes you or centers you the most?
Oh definitely 佐井好子 – 萬花鏡 (Mangekyō) and Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet !!! I always turn to 萬花鏡 (Mangekyō) whenever I’ve listened to too much fierce stuff. Porcupine circa 2007 is simply their best work, better if they could delete track 2.
Or some synth-punk from Spain like Sistema de entretenimiento.
What are the 2-3 albums you’ve listened to the most recently?
Yeule – Softscars
Health – RAT WARS
Primus – Frizzle Fry (wanted to go over the first track the other day and couldn’t stop vibing with the whole album)
What album is grossly underrated?
Wow, so many. Black metal-wise I wound say all of Kostnatění's and Bríi’s releases. Revocation is also somewhat underrated [Check out my interview with both projects – well, kind of – here and here]
And almost all the Zeuhl bands except Magma. They enriched the genre but basically no one remembers them, which sucks. Younger Zeuhl bands like Le Grand Sbam definitely deserves more attention instead of 100 monthly listeners.
What album would you recommend from your local scene?
I’ll recommend something from the pan-Shanghai scene (江浙Jiangzhe scene is probably a better name)
The R.N.V discography (black/death metal)
AymParch’s upcoming project 枯梦闸 (Floodgate of Withering Dreams)
Holokastrial discography (Death metal)
Demonslaught 666 discography (Blackened thrash)
金猫塔 Golden Cat Pagoda – Mimi (Prog black metal)
尼浊累 on being a great live SSD band
由理生社 on bringing new experiences to live performances by combining drama (I don’t know if this has been explored by other musicians)
