Interview to DEPTHS OF HELL (Poland)
1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
D: Big Hello for all readers of Rotten Pages. I’m sitting in my room at the moment. Nothing special around me except for the typical mess on my desk. Interface, headphones, guitar stuff… Artistic mess one could say :) Anyway, again, hello for all of you!
J: Well Hello, being fran I am currently sitting at my job on a business trip. I'm in the middle of a huge factory producing floor panels, which might be the least metal sentence that will be said during this entire interview but this is what this is. Next to me my co-workers do an honest, undisturbed work while I write replies to my band interview.
2. For those new to Depths Of Hell just explain the format of the band. Is it essentially a quartet, right?
S: Hell yeah, we’re four bastards bangs a maracas… actually bangs 2 guitars, bass and drums, like a classical metal band. We have 2 vocalists who are also guitarists ‚shred till you dead” and we’re switching between songs on mics.
D: Yes we’re a quartet. Szymon is playing leads mostly, and I’m rhythm guitarist. Jakub plays drums and Przemek bass. Przemek joined us around 2023, the rest of us are Depths of Hell from the beginning.
3. As an emerging band in the extreme metal scene, what are some challenges you've faced, and how have you overcome them to pave the way for your future?
D: When we were younger and without any cars it was challenging to just transport all of our stuff to the gig. Fitting the snare, kick, cymbals, guitars and sometimes even amps on the train shelf is not very easy I’ll tell you that :) Now it’s much easier. On the other hand we have our own rehearsal room 24/7. So we have a place to practice together and also record.
J: As a drummer I would still consider packing and unpacking instruments and equipment pain in the ass. In addition you have to be prepared to play on equipment that is completely unfamiliar to you. I can't count how many times I played a concert on drums that fell apart under my hands and feet haha. Now as we have cars more often then not I take my drums with me, even though the organization of transport and disassembly of it takes away an average of 3/4 hours of my life irreversibly.
4. Your debut Demo “Demonished” deliver a powerful, fast, and raw sound. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind these 4 tracks?
D: Mix of different views on 80’s Thrash. Szymon was under huge influence of Artillery, Annihilator, Evildead, Metal Church etc. Lot’s of melodies and complex songwriting. And I was more into Sepultura, Demolition Hammer, Morbid Saint and Possessed. So it’s more aggressive but also more simple in case of songwriting. Put this into the songs and mix this with our sound. Lyrically it's a mix of some social comments and our personal experiences. “Contradiction of Human Existence" and "Wartainment" are about lies that come from the mouths of some politicians and priests. “Dolores” and “Let us Rot…” are more about fighting your own demons, and both winning and losing these fights. “Inspiration comes from everywhere” it's a bit cliche but I believe in it. Because of its sound, metal is good music to leave something from inside of you on the paper. And we did it.
5. Can you give us a glimpse into the creative process behind your music? How do you typically approach songwriting and arranging?
D: Sometimes it’s just a riff. Sometimes it’s part of the song. Then we’re trying to compromise 4 of our visions together. Me and Szymon usually just try to make some “another riff” to push song further and then we think about it in case of songwriting. Go slow next? Maybe faster? Maybe more cymbals (Jakub loves his cymbals very much) or more solid beat. Also we’re trying to record some smaller parts. When you’re playing adrenaline kicks and it’s easy to just bang your head saying “It’s the best riff in the history of music” but it’s good to get the listener's point of view. Cause you can actually hear how it all goes together.
6. Can you tell us more about the recording process? How long did it take you to finish everything?
D: A lot :) It was my first “all band” recording experience. Mostly it was late spring and summer of 2025. Then editing and mixing. I was sending a lot of versions to the rest of the guys and again, trying to compromise the visions. Now I know more, so EP should be easier, also since I’m recording some of my own projects too. The demo was very chaotic in recording, which had its charm, but some moments on the demo are not as good as they could be because of that. But at the end of the day, I think it’s a good demo. Not perfect, that’s for sure. But you can hear our energy from it. And that’s very important.
7. The thrash metal scene has spawned many worth mentioning bands these recent years. On the other hand, there are tons of bands that fit in the “thrash revival” movement that sound similar to each other. What is your opinion on thrash metal and extreme metal scene in general?
D: Thrash it’s very interesting genre. Cause now it’s rare to find it in its purest form. Thrash/Death, Crossover Thrash, Thrash/Heavy, Thrash/Black. It’s usually something like that. It’s a good “base” for creating your own sound. Sometimes i havea problem with how to call us in this context. It’s Thrash for sure, but with something. Proportions of “something” in our music are hard to define from my perspective. Inspirations come for similar places, maybe because of that bands sounds similar. It’s hard to say, it’s a lot of music nowadays. Everyday on Soundcloud, Spotify or Youtube comes lots of metal EPs, demos, albums. Some are brilliant, some are mid, some are not as good. It was always like that, maybe "quantity" of music makes it sounds familiar. Truly, I don’t know
8. What are your views on the Polish thrash/death metal scene these days? Any particular alliances of Depths Of Hell?
P: Polish thrash metal is thriving like never before and many polish bands are trying their best to deliver fast, aggressive and extreme metal. Some of them are adopting unique sounds e.g. many bands in the Silesia region are often adding black metal elements into their music. Speaking of alliances, we share a lot of great gigs with our friends from Mind Enslaver and Metanol. Both are great bands and we hope to play with them even more gigs in the future.
9. How do you define “underground” and where do you see yourself and your band in it?
P: Underground is when you try to keep these 3 people near the stage when you play a live show haha. But seriously, being underground means that you play gigs in small pubs in your hometown, being known only among your close friends, have very few listeners on social media and earn little to no money from live shows. It also can be a lot of DIY stuff like drawing album covers by band members or making patches of old jeans cause you have no money for printing and making that stuff. So according to that we’re pretty much an underground band…at least for now. When we released “Demonished” we gained some attention, and this sudden interest was very uplifting.
10. What do you attempt to capture, express or communicate through your music? What is the goal of your art?
J: It's a difficult question considering that every track has its own soul and message. As Dominik said in one of the previous questions, songs like “Wartainment” and “Dolores” talk about completely different topics, but we always write them in a way that listeners could resonate with lyrics and reflect, be it on themselves or some more distant subject. I would say that our music usually comes with these grounded themes, but it is not obligatory for every track, because we have some up our sleeves that are just fun to play and listen to, without any profound message. From a musical standpoint we of course try to capture a spirit of trash/metal sound that every metalhead, including us, fell in love with throughout their lives, with a little of our own twist to it. The bottom line goal is to just make good music, which will be fun to play, as well as listen to, we want to give a metal scene another bangers like the ones we love to listen to.
11. How has the reception been for your music so far? Have there been any standout moments or memorable experiences you'd like to share?
D: Well, we have interviews, which is completely new to us. Some media interest now is some kind of standout to me personally. We’ve been in one compilation too. I just like the memories from early days. Getting everything to the train (no car times), carrying all of this stuff through Kraków, Katowice, Łódź and other polish cities. Playing gigs, partying after that. We spent the night after the gig in the pub waiting on the train, with all guitars, snares etc. It was very chaotic, but those are good memories. Lot’s of rock ‘n’ rolling, lot’s of good stories, lot’s of fun :) Musically I would say demo. It should’ve been released earlier, but now, as it’s out I would say this is something that stands out.
12. With so many bands coming up these days, how do you manage to keep your material relevant? How challenging is it to come up with newer material?
D: Music is not an office job. I listen to some bands similar to us, but I never think about it in that way. You don’t have to “correct your sales” , let's say. We just try to do our music, without much looking at other bands in case “What they doing and what we doing”. Energy is important and confidence in what comes out from your music. I look at it in that way.
13. That's all the questions I have for you man. I'll let you have the final words by saying whatever you'd like to our readers and your fans out there.
P. Thanks for the interview and for all the fans and readers the message is simple. Take care of yourself, support your local bands, stay metal \m/.
J: I would also like to thank you for having us here, and for everyone that supports us in any way, be it fans, friends or family. Stay tuned for our next tracks, we certainly won’t disappoint with new additions to our recorded playlist.
D: Thank you very much for an interview. Go on gigs, but CDs, explore underground or be a part of it. I hope our words brought some of you closer to the Depths of Hell. Once again thank you very much.
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