HELL´S FRIENDS ZINE interview with
ZERO VOID guitarist, Daniyar Aktayev.
May 2015.
01. HOW HAS IT ALL STARTED?
ZERO VOID got together in March 2010 following the disbandment of SEXTON, a thrash/death metal outfit known to have been one of the heaviest bands in Astana (Kazakhstan) at the time. Alexei Chichikailo, the driving force behind the band, decided to step down from the position of the vocalist/guitarist and pursue other musical interests. One month later I joined the band in the designation of a guitarist and Ar Best jumped into the band to stand behind the mic. Since several songs of the now defunct band were co-penned by the surviving members (bass player Artyom Khomitskiy and drummer Sergey Shein) who both continued plying their trade with ZERO VOID, it was decided that keeping old songs wouldn’t hurt the newly formed entity, especially considering their quality. Of course, alongside existing pieces of music, new material was composed and immediately turned into new songs.
02. WHY THE NAME ZERO VOID?
I remember back in 2010 we were brainstorming a name for our band, and you know this feeling when cheesy names keep popping up all the time and you can’t break that spell, right? You just can’t escape that. I think we spent like the whole day digging ourselves down in the piles of cheesy names, like
«Mind Cancer» and «Voice Ferrum». Then out of the blue I came up with this well-sounding name that I thought could be… global. Universal. Just think about.
1. Everything starts and ends at zero. You are born and you die. Everything that has a beginning has an end.
2. Absolute zero value in effect means nothing and can be rendered void.
3. Void is hollow like space. Space is endless.
4. The shape of zero is a circle. A circle is a closed loop. An endless cycle in itself. There you have infinity.
So all in all, we have a point where everything begins, everything is laid to rest and amounts to nothing, and where this cycle repeats over and over again. That’s how it makes sense to us. This is something we can think of and intellectualize over forever. We just like the concept of infinity. End of story.
Ultimately, we would think that there is no single-sided, straightforward meaning to it, really. We would absolutely leave it to people to make up their own mind about what lies beneath and look at it under a different angle. The same applies to our lyrics.
03. COMMENT ABOUT YOUR INFLUENCES?
We’re hugely influenced by the classic grindcore, death and thrash metal bands like SLAYER, SEPULTURA (with Max of course), CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEATH, DYING FETUS, CARCASS, SUFFOCATION, VADER, TERRORIZER, NAPALM DEATH, amongst others, but we also love contemporary technical/progressive death metal bands like RINGS OF SATURN, REVOCATION, DECREPIT BIRTH, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, ARCHSPIRE, BRAIN DRILL. Some of us also listen to melodic death metal, some listen to classic heavy metal and classic rock and some listen to jazz and pop music. Our music, however, is a mix of different styles of metal, such as thrash, death and melodic death metal, but for the sake of simplicity we’d prefer to keep the style short – death/thrash metal.
04. HOW`S THE ACTUAL LINE UP?
The most recent stable line-up recently translated into being the most unstable, really. Our strongest line-up circa 2013 consisted of Sergey Shein on drums, Artyom Khomitskiy on bass, Alexei Chichikailo on vocals (who came back into the band for a while) and me on guitar. Unfortunately, about a year ago we took a hard decision to part ways with the guys due to conflicting schedules with their respective bands and jobs. Following that, we asked Ar Best to help us out with vocals once again and recruited Ilya Morozov to fill the shoes of the bass player. In Astana good musicians are few and far between. Reality hurts.
05. WHAT’S THE MESSAGE BEHIND YOUR LYRICS?
Unlike a somewhat cosmic concept of our bandname, our songs deal with a wide span of issues – from inner struggles to social problems and injustice. Most lyrics are personal and bear individualistic vibe, something that a particular person
sticks to within himself, but at the same time feels like sharing with the rest of the world. On the other hand, our lyrical content is quite diverse. For instance, the one track off our album that stands out is «Manipulation Catalyst» which touches upon corruptive practice and exercise of ultimate power over general population. So there you go.
06. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF RELIGIONS?
We are mature. We don’t play their games. Period.
07. HOW MANY CD`S HAVE YOU RELEASED?
Our only album is called «Progression Towards Zero». It was recorded at Cosmos Studio (Moscow) in August 2012 and later mixed and mastered by a well-known Russian sound engineer Arkadiy Navaho (KATALEPSY, FETAL DECAY, SCRAMBLED DEFUNCTS). The album release date was delayed several times for various reasons until it was finally delivered to the general public by Headxplode Records on December 22, 2013. As of now, we are not working with Headxplode Records anymore and are looking for a new label.
08. WHAT MERCHANDISE DO YOU STILL HAVE AVAILABLE?
We don’t have any kind of merchandise to date, but the t-shirt design is in the works right now, and we’re hoping to make several exclusive t-shirts this summer. We are not very popular amongst the metal community and can’t boast a solid
audience. Our fanbase is next to nothing, really, so keeping loads of our merchandise in stock is pretty much pointless right now.
09. DID YOU HAVE PLAYED MANY GIGS?
Many is a relative concept. Throughout our band’s five-year history we had played mostly in Astana, visited 6 cities in Kazakhstan (with some of them playing as much as two times at least), did one gig in Russia in 2014 and one gig at METAL CROWD festival in Rechitsa, Belarus in 2014. At METAL CROWD we shared the stage with bands from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (ARKONA, SINFUL, LITVINTROLL, BALFOR, to name a few), as well as behemoths of the European metal scene – HATE (Poland), SUSPERIA (Norway), THY DISEASE (Poland) and MORS PRINCIPIUM EST (Finland). We had a great time and made friends with great bands like GUARDIANS OF TIME (Norway), DORMANT ORDEAL (Poland), LAST PERFORMANCE (Russia) and EXEGUTOR (Belarus). On the downside of touring, ZERO VOID, alongside the mighty INHUMATE (France) and CRYPTIC IMPLOSION (Ukraine), was supposed to embark on a Ukrainian tour dubbed TOTAL METAL DOMINATION in April 2014, but due to the unstable political situation in the country all booked bands had no choice but withdraw from this tour before it even began. The cancellation of this trek resulted in a massive economic setback for our band. Our prepayment to the concert agency was spent on a huge advertising campaign to promote the tour and since this expenditure was deducted as a sunken cost there was no way our money could be returned to us. But what happened happened. We learned our lesson. On a positive note, we have several t-shirt «left-overs» (pun intended!) with the backprint tour dates that were never played! Proudly worn, ha-ha! )))
10. HOW`S KAZAKHSTAN UNDERGROUND SCENE?
Kazakhstan’s underground scene is even deeper underground than your regular “six feet under” distance beneath the soil :-). Of course, there are bands rooting in their basements, perhaps writing music, but hardly doing any gigs. I don’t mean to say that there are no gigs in Kazakhstan, there are, but after taking a closer look one would think that metal fans in Kazakhstan deserve better. There are very strong bands who don’t compromise their technical abilities and who are constantly working their asses off to take their music to the next level, like ZARRAZA and HORROR SYMPHONY from Almaty, CHECK THE DISTORTION from Astana, DOUBLEFACE from Atyrau, NOISE EXECUTION from Aktau, TISHINA and SEVENSINS from Ust’-Kamenogorsk. These guys work really hard and deserve their fair share of underground success.
11. WHAT´S THE DEATH/THRASH METAL IN YOUR LIFE?
I wouldn’t go as far as narrowing it down to just «thrash/death metal», but I would say about metal in general. For ZERO VOID metal is more than just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. It is not supposed to be a source of income – you just play metal for the love of it. Metal is the music that always keeps you pumped up for great achievements and high spirits. It is also a great catalyst if you’re into sport, fitness, bodybuilding, boxing, you name it. It keeps you working hard and motivated.
12. WHAT´RE YOU FUTURE PLANS?
We’re writing new songs at the moment. This summer is going to be pretty hot, we’re blasting Almaty (former capital of Kazakhstan and the largest city in the country) in the beginning of June, then we’re heading to Novosibirsk (Russia) in July. August will probably see us destroying Aktobe (Western Kazakhstan), but that gig is unconfirmed yet. After that we are going to fully concentrate on the new songs and refrain from touring until new songs are 100% complete and we’re ready to record.
13. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT. ANY LAST COMMENTS?
Thank you very much for the great interview! It was really nice talking to you.
Stay strong and keep it up!
And remember three magic ingredients for a happy lifestyle… Tea, Biscuits and Death Metal! They can do no wrong ))))
\m/
Drop us a line to our FB and VK pages and email:
www.vk.com/zerovoidband
www.facebook.com/zerovoidband
zerovoidband@gmail.com
The most recent stable line-up recently translated into being the most unstable, really. Our strongest line-up circa 2013 consisted of Sergey Shein on drums, Artyom Khomitskiy on bass, Alexei Chichikailo on vocals (who came back into the band for a while) and me on guitar. Unfortunately, about a year ago we took a hard decision to part ways with the guys due to conflicting schedules with their respective bands and jobs. Following that, we asked Ar Best to help us out with vocals once again and recruited Ilya Morozov to fill the shoes of the bass player. In Astana good musicians are few and far between. Reality hurts.
05. WHAT’S THE MESSAGE BEHIND YOUR LYRICS?
Unlike a somewhat cosmic concept of our bandname, our songs deal with a wide span of issues – from inner struggles to social problems and injustice. Most lyrics are personal and bear individualistic vibe, something that a particular person
sticks to within himself, but at the same time feels like sharing with the rest of the world. On the other hand, our lyrical content is quite diverse. For instance, the one track off our album that stands out is «Manipulation Catalyst» which touches upon corruptive practice and exercise of ultimate power over general population. So there you go.
06. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF RELIGIONS?
We are mature. We don’t play their games. Period.
07. HOW MANY CD`S HAVE YOU RELEASED?
Our only album is called «Progression Towards Zero». It was recorded at Cosmos Studio (Moscow) in August 2012 and later mixed and mastered by a well-known Russian sound engineer Arkadiy Navaho (KATALEPSY, FETAL DECAY, SCRAMBLED DEFUNCTS). The album release date was delayed several times for various reasons until it was finally delivered to the general public by Headxplode Records on December 22, 2013. As of now, we are not working with Headxplode Records anymore and are looking for a new label.
08. WHAT MERCHANDISE DO YOU STILL HAVE AVAILABLE?
We don’t have any kind of merchandise to date, but the t-shirt design is in the works right now, and we’re hoping to make several exclusive t-shirts this summer. We are not very popular amongst the metal community and can’t boast a solid
audience. Our fanbase is next to nothing, really, so keeping loads of our merchandise in stock is pretty much pointless right now.
09. DID YOU HAVE PLAYED MANY GIGS?
Many is a relative concept. Throughout our band’s five-year history we had played mostly in Astana, visited 6 cities in Kazakhstan (with some of them playing as much as two times at least), did one gig in Russia in 2014 and one gig at METAL CROWD festival in Rechitsa, Belarus in 2014. At METAL CROWD we shared the stage with bands from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (ARKONA, SINFUL, LITVINTROLL, BALFOR, to name a few), as well as behemoths of the European metal scene – HATE (Poland), SUSPERIA (Norway), THY DISEASE (Poland) and MORS PRINCIPIUM EST (Finland). We had a great time and made friends with great bands like GUARDIANS OF TIME (Norway), DORMANT ORDEAL (Poland), LAST PERFORMANCE (Russia) and EXEGUTOR (Belarus). On the downside of touring, ZERO VOID, alongside the mighty INHUMATE (France) and CRYPTIC IMPLOSION (Ukraine), was supposed to embark on a Ukrainian tour dubbed TOTAL METAL DOMINATION in April 2014, but due to the unstable political situation in the country all booked bands had no choice but withdraw from this tour before it even began. The cancellation of this trek resulted in a massive economic setback for our band. Our prepayment to the concert agency was spent on a huge advertising campaign to promote the tour and since this expenditure was deducted as a sunken cost there was no way our money could be returned to us. But what happened happened. We learned our lesson. On a positive note, we have several t-shirt «left-overs» (pun intended!) with the backprint tour dates that were never played! Proudly worn, ha-ha! )))
10. HOW`S KAZAKHSTAN UNDERGROUND SCENE?
Kazakhstan’s underground scene is even deeper underground than your regular “six feet under” distance beneath the soil :-). Of course, there are bands rooting in their basements, perhaps writing music, but hardly doing any gigs. I don’t mean to say that there are no gigs in Kazakhstan, there are, but after taking a closer look one would think that metal fans in Kazakhstan deserve better. There are very strong bands who don’t compromise their technical abilities and who are constantly working their asses off to take their music to the next level, like ZARRAZA and HORROR SYMPHONY from Almaty, CHECK THE DISTORTION from Astana, DOUBLEFACE from Atyrau, NOISE EXECUTION from Aktau, TISHINA and SEVENSINS from Ust’-Kamenogorsk. These guys work really hard and deserve their fair share of underground success.
11. WHAT´S THE DEATH/THRASH METAL IN YOUR LIFE?
I wouldn’t go as far as narrowing it down to just «thrash/death metal», but I would say about metal in general. For ZERO VOID metal is more than just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. It is not supposed to be a source of income – you just play metal for the love of it. Metal is the music that always keeps you pumped up for great achievements and high spirits. It is also a great catalyst if you’re into sport, fitness, bodybuilding, boxing, you name it. It keeps you working hard and motivated.
12. WHAT´RE YOU FUTURE PLANS?
We’re writing new songs at the moment. This summer is going to be pretty hot, we’re blasting Almaty (former capital of Kazakhstan and the largest city in the country) in the beginning of June, then we’re heading to Novosibirsk (Russia) in July. August will probably see us destroying Aktobe (Western Kazakhstan), but that gig is unconfirmed yet. After that we are going to fully concentrate on the new songs and refrain from touring until new songs are 100% complete and we’re ready to record.
13. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT. ANY LAST COMMENTS?
Thank you very much for the great interview! It was really nice talking to you.
Stay strong and keep it up!
And remember three magic ingredients for a happy lifestyle… Tea, Biscuits and Death Metal! They can do no wrong ))))
\m/
Drop us a line to our FB and VK pages and email:
www.vk.com/zerovoidband
www.facebook.com/zerovoidband
zerovoidband@gmail.com
