ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

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.

PARABELLUM:

We’re doing great, man! It’s an honor to be wanted on your radio show to display our hard work. The best way to describe where you find us is at the very beginning of our lifelong dream. We played our first show on July 15th, 2023 after compiling this band only 2 years prior in 2021. Needless to say it’s been a fun ride ever since. All four of us born and raised here in the Greater Sacramento Area!

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

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?

PARABELLUM:

Playing this older style of music has had its disadvantages. Coming from the Sacramento Valley surrounded by hardcore, deathcore, and metalcore bands alike, many disregard this music as just more kids clinging on to a “forgotten” genre. A lot of our music is not just straight thrash metal, but a mixture of many genres that dominate the music scene especially nowadays and we’ve been, I guess you can say, accepted into this ever-growing metal scene here in Sacramento.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

As a band from California, how has your local music scene influenced your development and growth as musicians?

PARABELLUM:

The local scene here in California, specifically Sacramento has a lot to offer as far as music goes, but many go undiscovered. We want to be that band that came out of the most random towns in the Greater Sacramento Area with some amazing songs and composition. We strive to want the best, do the best, and be the best.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

Until now, you´ve released three singles. How has the reception been for your music so far? Have you read any reviews regarding the album? Do you care about what critics have to say about your work?

PARABELLUM:

The reception has been everything we could’ve wanted. People very much love our songs and are anticipating this album which will be out late February or early March of this year. The reviews that we’ve received have been nothing short of remarkable. All of them praise the music that we’ve put our heart and souls into and it’s truly a proud thing for all of us reading those appraisals. We all need creative criticism in our lives and it’s good for us to learn and do better in areas that could propel us into stardom. The hate we get is just more motivation to kick ass even harder.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

You have a new album coming out entitled “The iron Curtain”, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recordings? Can you give us a glimpse into the creative process behind your music?

PARABELLUM:

We all have our own styles that we compiled together so every song has our own unique twists compiled into one heavy song to the next and so forth. Fast, heavy, and powerful is the best we can describe the creative process. Taking those elements and combining those with our drive to be the best we know we can be, gave birth to songs such as “Corridor of Rage” that we heard on Episode 10 of your awesome radio station.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

When you write music, is it a group thing or is there someone who writes all the music and someone writing the lyrics individually?

PARABELLUM:

Everytime we write we all get together as a group and put all of our input into every track. The group thing makes everything super easy to do instead of just one person writing it and everyone just goes along with it. Lyrics on the other hand are written once the whole song has been composed. Our vocalist, Emre Aube, prefers to write his lyrics outside of the group and on his own so he knows what works best for the song and what works best to play live.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

The themes in your music, such as society, politics, religion, and new world order, are quite intense. What draws you to explore these topics and how do they manifest in your lyrics and sound?

PARABELLUM:

The themes stem from the state of the world that we’ve been born into and the faith that we surround ourselves with. It only makes sense that we would consider these topics over the basic ones about death, partying, and among other things. Some may call us controversial or boring but that dark allure gives our lyrics a terrifying reality to them and gives our riffs and drums a more pounding stride.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

Nowadays there are about a million bands playing this throwback style of thrash. What do you think of the retro-thrash movement and why do you think it’s so big?

PARABELLUM:

We think it has to do with thrash being one of, if not the most, revolutionary styles of music in history. It’s influenced pretty much every genre you hear today. For example, the most successful band of all time being a thrash band. Most people love the fast styles of music due to its aggression and the adrenaline it gives you to hop in the pit and start thrashing around (no pun intended).

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

What in your opinion is the difference between old school thrash (first & second wave), “old school”thrash (the revival) and modern thrash (the rest)?

PARABELLUM:

The difference between all three I guess we could say is the bands that influenced the previous wave and so on. One example could be Iron Maiden influencing Slayer, Slayer influencing Havok, and Havok influencing us. The list goes on and on and many bands influence and continue to influence each other and the music that is thrash metal still lives on.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

You’re still at the beginning of your career, how do you see the term “underground” in times of pay-to-play festivals and the like and what significance does it have for you?

PARABELLUM:

We think of the term “underground” as being more of a mindset than anything. Every band dreams of being on the big stage but continue to live in the “underground” scene because they may lack the work ethic or overall drive to get to that position. The significance it has for us is that I guess we never intended to be just an underground band, or a “scene band” as we call it. We’ve always wanted to excel with anything we did musically since we were kids.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

With what you cannot make compromise – in your music and in your life?

PARABELLUM:

Most of us have faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. He’s helped us with every step of the way and He gives us the strength to keep going forward. Another thing is that we will never compromise our youth, that’s for sure. Our vocalist just turned 18 in January and the bassist and lead player will be turning 18 and our drummer is only 15! We started this very young and early, so that’ll never go away for as long as our career goes.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

You have played some really cool shows previously. How does the band’s live performance translate the intensity and energy of your music to the stage?

PARABELLUM:

Our music most of the time is very angry and aggressive. All that pent up energy we’ve had over the course of our lives (so far) has been unleashed in the studio and on stage. It’s almost like therapy, in a way. We make our live performances as though we are choreographing what our music sounds like to people. In some cases, we’ve been asked to play in settings that were not very fond of our angry style of music, so it’s been hit or miss so far.

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

The metal world is known for its intense brotherhood and camaraderie. What’s the craziest and most memorable experience you’ve had as a band so far?

PARABELLUM:

We’ve had many memorable moments in our career so far but the one that sticks out the most was our promo photo shoot we did in downtown Sac. From getting kicked out of a freight yard in Roseville, to searching for an abandoned mansion, to finally taking our pictures while getting yelled at by homeless people. Great times!

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

Tell us a few things about the Underground Metal Scene in Sacramento (Bands, Fanzines, Webzines, Metal Clubs etc.)

PARABELLUM:

Everyone in the Sacramento scene all knows each other one way or another. Everybody is out here watching each other’s backs and what not. Our buddies in Sovereign Suicide, Butane, Crowd Control, City Smog, Unprovoked, Gentlemen of Tragety, Full Metal Hippies, Volrahven, and many others as well. The metal scene out here in our opinion is very tight and affable. There are many great photographers and graphic designers out here putting in great work. Our buddy Rob over at Arachnid Cabinets is doing cab work for our vocalist and he’s got a really stable business doing cab works with some of metal’s greatest. Not a lot of magazines or clubs as far as we know but if there is we would love to work with them!

ROTTEN PAGES MAGAZINE:

That’s all the questions I have for you man. Is there anything you would like to add that I forgot to ask?

PARABELLUM:

Nothing that we can think of as of now, but we’re greatly thankful to have been put on your show and to have done this interview for us! It truly means a lot to us. Keep up the good work and to anyone reading this… keep on thrashing and look out for our debut album “The Iron Curtain” out very soon!