Code666 Artist Bilocate Interview is up

Bilocate.net

1. So for those of us in North America please let the fans know about the Oriental Death /Dark Metal Sounds of this Middle Eastern Force know as Bilocate?

Bilocate is a 6 piece band formed back in 2003, released our first EP in 2003 as well and then released a full length album "Dysphoria" in 2005 followed by the masterpiece (named by the international media with more than 80 reviews) album "Sudden Death Syndrome" in 2008 and now released our latest effort in 2012 "Summoning the bygones". Bilocate sound is adopted from our history and culture but we tend to use oriental elements in scales, beats and riffs more than the obvious bely dancing arabic music played on guitars and drums, its more of translating oriental scales into western metal music which gave our sound a good level of a unique sound and the word Dark in our genre came from the variety of Doom, Death and Black Metal influences you hear in Bilocate tracks so combined the 3 genres into one word "Dark" and followed by our cultural scales and techniques with Oriental to form a genre we feel fits our music the best "Dark Oriental Metal" although its still hard for some fans and media to digest as it is but its there and with time it will be known.

2. How did you come to work with Code666 ?

When we finished Summoning the Bygones we did the normal step of approaching labels with our work and it was really impressive how many labels replied back that they know the band very well and they were following our news, we got many offers yet Code666 offer was the best and the label was the fastest in releasing the album… till now we are impressed by their work and speed.

3. What is the Scene like in Jordan are there many extreme metal bands at all there ?

The scene is small relatively and comparing to other scenes its not that active due to metal being banned by the authorities and live concerts are cancelled all the times, sometimes if a rock / alternative band plays they might face problems and get their gig cancelled and them selves questioned by the authorities so you can say we live the work Underground literally in jordan but bands are there they are trying to record and use the internet to reach the world with their music, one of the bands that is really worth checking is BOUQ a one man band by one of our friends and sound engineer who worked with us on both album recording bass with our bassist.

4. Bilocate's sound most reminds me of Edge of Sanity/ Early My Dying Bride mixed with healthy dose of bands like Septic Flesh and Samael in the way its presented . Where did the sound come from for " Summoning of Bygones"?

As i mentioned in the first question our sound is coming from our culture mixed with our individual influences we grew up listening to bands like My dying bride. Opeth, Edge of sanity, paradise lost, old anathema and old katatonia in early 90s and 2000s and that gave a good direct on the band's sound yet we kept our music different any fan of the above mentioned bands will enjoy Bilocate and feel that we gave the music an extra dose of originality, each track is a story and a journey by itself specially the long ones like A desire to leave (20 mins) and Blooded forest (17 mins) you feel that its a full metal dose and the track itself is a complete album with its musical variations.

5. How does the band create the songs in the studio does the music come 1st or  are the lyrics most important ? just wondering?

Lyrics comes first then we compose music to fit the story of the song, is it angry, is it deep, is it sad.. and sometimes each part takes its own identity musically from the idea behind its lyrics.

6. Is there a running theme or storyline on  " Summoning of Bygones" or just a collection of epic songs?

Our musical theme is about War, Life and Death, tragedy and suffering and we take those feelings from our region as you know we are witnessing the longest war in the history of mankind, Palestine is under war for the past 64 years and the whole region is under never-ending sad story, Summoning the Bygones is talking about this story and it tells stories of worriers, families, kids who died young and never had the chance to live a normal life.  

7. What are the members of Bilocate listening to as of late it always tells a lot about a band by what they listen to outside of creating music.

For me am listening now to Paradise lost, moonspell, anathema's latest releases, also other band members have Storm Corrosion, Porcupine tree, Opeth, Edge of sanity, bloodbath in their playlist but all of us tend to go back and listen to some classics by Pink Floyd, Wishbone Ash and other legends.

8. Will we see Bilocate coming to North America to perform at all?

Hopefully yes, we would love to play in North America as we've never performed live in the states before, as you know we played many times in europe and planning to tour there this year or beginning of 2013, but definitely we will come to USA when we get the chance.

9. Your Website http://www.bilocate.net/ seems to be just a portal to social media , do you feel in 2012 Social media, Blogs and Digital media (You Tube etc) and  are the best way to get bands out there ?

We feel that social media is a way to interact with fans and hear their voice, you cannot deny the power of social media echo when you get your music shared on profiles it opens many doors that the band didn't expect. our website is currently being redeveloped but we will always direct fans on how they can interact with us and spread our music.

10. What is a live show for Bilocate like is it just raw rock show or are there stage theatrics?

We enjoy raw rock style with a little theatrics like a slide show, graphics and animations on the backdrop of the stage to give a visual aspect to our music which fans can remember, such animations needs a lot of work and being a self sponsored band with all members working and having a very successful careers its hard to achieve the level of visuals we want but we are working on that slowly.

11. Being this is the 1st real album I've heard from the band how do the two earlier albums  compare to the new one on Code666?

Summoning the bygones is actually taken from Dysphoria (2005 release) we took 5 tracks and recomposed and recorded them again with our new direction and the best production ever from Bilocate, and we took a track "Hypia" which was never released and did it again with Dan Swano, the album also included an adaptation for one of paradise lost tracks 'Dead Emotion" which was never recorded again or played live by paradise lost since 1992, Summoning the Bygones is a new album that delivered old visions we had when Bilocate was formed but with a new outfit, i suggest you also give Sudden Death Syndrome a listen as the album was rated 9/10 by 80% of its reviewers and rest gave it 8/10.

12. Again with a question on being in Middle east is it hard to get shows and spread the word of your music there being more closed off to Europe and Asia?

Yes its very hard, we depend 100% on the internet as a promotion and communication tool, show in the middle east are few comparing to the states, europe and asia but we get a show every month in a different country that keeps the middle eastern metal scene alive.

13. Where do you see Bilocate sound reaching I can hear a more Prog element wanting to come out is this a good ear or am I way off?

It is a good musical ear, prog metal element is clear in our music especially in the drumming.

14. Do the members of Bilocate work with other music outside metal or is this the only musical focus for all members?

All members are having a successful business careers that needs attention and focus we are not a full time musicians so we straggle in keeping both careers alive but we learning from the situation we are in to manage this perfectly, its slowing our progress and releasing album pretty much but we believe that music is timeless as we now put music made in the 70s and enjoy it as if it was released yesterday.

15. Thank you for the time any closing thoughts place here..

Thank you very mush for this interview and we hope that our answers met your expectations and your readers will enjoy reading it.

Interview answered by:

Ramzi Essayed

BILOCATE Vocalist