Form and Fate's new album is not about the moon

• Author: Mike G
• Published: Friday, July 15, 2011
  
  

• I freely admit to being a total sucker for post-rock, so maybe you shouldn't really take my recommendation as being too impartial. But then you should put this vexing ethical quandary aside and check out Form and Fate's new album anyway. After all, it's the right thing to do.
  
  Sol Invictus might actually qualify as post-metal, a spin-off of post-rock that retains the latter's quiet-to-loud dynamics and preference for long, epic instrumental tracks. But post-metal, like the name implies, is more metal. Whereas Form and Fate's previous album, The Form and Fate of Lakes, fits more neatly into the post-rock genre, Sol Invictus definitely does not. It's still got quieter, trippier passages that gradually build into towering monoliths of rock bliss, it's just that those towering monoliths are actually built more of metal than rock. ...

  
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  I freely admit to being a total sucker for post-rock, so maybe you shouldn't really take my recommendation as being too impartial. But then you should put this vexing ethical quandary aside and check out Form and Fate's new album anyway. After all, it's the right thing to do.
  
  Sol Invictus might actually qualify as post-metal, a spin-off of post-rock that retains the latter's quiet-to-loud dynamics and preference for long, epic instrumental tracks. But post-metal, like the name implies, is more metal. Whereas Form and Fate's previous album, The Form and Fate of Lakes, fits more neatly into the post-rock genre, Sol Invictus definitely does not. It's still got quieter, trippier passages that gradually build into towering monoliths of rock bliss, it's just that those towering monoliths are actually built more of metal than rock.
  
  But don't take my word for it (after all, I'm biased): Download the first three songs from the album for free, courtesy of the band's record label, 500 Records.
  
  As good as the album is, the real way to experience something as intense as the post-metal on Sol Invictus is live. So check out Form and Fate tomorrow night at the Hemlock Tavern with Shuteye Unison (who are also celebrating a new release) and Glaciers.
  

  I talked to the band about the album, and I have to say this was one of the most entertaining interviews I've done in a long time. Enjoy.

  
  WTM: What's the significance of the new album's name, Sol Invictus?
  
  Russ: For me it's about the human species' inability to come to grips with the fact that we are insignificant in the face of nature. The idea that ultimately whatever light we as a species see ourselves in, it's only the light of the Sun that makes anything possible. We should all be sun-worshiping treehuggers since nothing else really matters — except Form & Fate of course! The title translates to "Unconquered Sun." The cover of the record is a time lapse layout of photographs taken by the Viking Lander on Mars. All the shots are taken at the same exact location at the same time of day during different parts of the Martian year. The image was chosen partly for its color and rhythmic qualities, but also because it is significant in the way it represents and reminds us we really have nowhere else to go.
  
  Jesse: Just to be clear, Form & Fate is not a cult dedicated to sun worshipping and tree hugging. We do hug things, but usually those things aren't trees. Russ summed it up pretty well, but I'll add that we were genuinely intrigued by the concept of creative destruction in that we seem to get closer to destroying ourselves as we evolve. To me, the album title and all of the song titles deal with ideas of exploration, gradations of power and a sense of loss or incoherence. To paraphrase the brilliant Louis CK, the best case scenario is death.
  

  Antonio: Our last album was about the moon and this time we were like "Fuck the Moon! Let's write an album about the Sun!"*
  
  (*Our last album was not about the Moon.)
  
  WTM: Where was it recorded? How'd that process go?
  
  Russ: Sharkbite Studios, Oakland California. The process was like surfing on a melting stick of butter down an erupting volcano.
  
  Jesse: Adam Myatt. Literally my favorite sound engineer.
  
  Matt: Did I mention Billy Anderson mixed the album? Hey everybody, Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis) mixed the album!
  
  WTM: What would you say are some of the bigger influences on this album, musical and/or non-musical?
  
  Russ: Earth and the sun, mostly. Our previous album was a big influence for me, or the urge to make a better one than before. Somehow "Heavy Metal" influenced us, so much so as the record is "heavy," or "heavier," so I am told.
  
  Jesse: Time was a huge influence. Finding any time when all or even just a few of us were in the same area and available for more than a few hours seemed impossible for about three years. As a result, the recordings were done in short stints with long gaps in between sessions. As trying as the process was on our patience, those gaps ultimately benefited us as it gave us time to evaluate each section of the album and polish anything that felt incomplete.
  
  I don't know if anyone in the band could agree on any specific musical influences. Russ won't take his Beach Boys comp tape out of his truck, Matt eats shit like ISIS for breakfast, Antonio will only listen to a band if its name includes the word "Lamb" or "Castration," Adam lives by some obscure Star Wars code that makes him to listen to Ewok Disco, and I listen to way too much of "Elmo's Song" and "There's a Party in My Tummy, So Yummy, So Yummy!"
  
  Adam: Northern Lights, cannabis indica.
  
  WTM: Were you trying to capture anything specifically, or different from past albums? How'd that work out?
  
  Russ: We tried to make the album more cohesive than the last. As a drummer, I wanted my parts to be simpler, but the compositions for the drum parts to be more thoughtful than on "Of Lakes." I wanted to play less and have it be more meaningful. In fast songs I wanted to leave more space for the drums to sound nice and in slow songs I wanted it to sound heavier. Both results, I think, were achieved by just playing less.
  
  Overall I'd say we knew we were writing a "heavier" record than "Of Lakes". The only real accusation I can make as to how that happened is that Matt (Guitar) listened to only ISIS for about a year and a half, and our bass player is a metal head. If it weren't for those two I think it would have sounded more like Dark Side of the Moon meets Houses of the Holy.
  
  Jesse: I'll admit it — it's a lot easier to just play really fucking loud than to try to compose music that is quiet and still holds a listener's attention. That, and we wanted to write album where the songs were both more concise and more evocative. We mindfully wrote and re-wrote everything with the intent of pushing ourselves away from obvious song structures to find new ways to express ideas. And we just wanted to rock more.
  
  
  
  WTM: What else is on the horizon for Form & Fate?
  
  Russ: The million dollar question. I have tried many times to suggest some covers, to no avail. I would really like to attempt a cover of the 007 Thunder Ball theme, the Tom Jones one. We met a woman who claimed to be the female version of Paul Bruce Dickinson at a party, our CD listening party in fact, and I gave her our MySpace URL so I am expecting her to look us up the next time she needs a backing band... So Iron Maiden and other "old-skool" Metal might be on the horizon.
  
  I also predict that we will release an EP containing no guitars. Don't ask me what instruments will take their place, because I don't know. I also predict that the Ghost of Carl Sagan will rise out of the grave and legalize marijuana on all planets of the solar system but Earth, to spur on a new generation of planetary and astrophysical scientists.
  
  Antonio: MySpace is an apocalyptic wasteland. Why didn't you just tell her to wait in the rain until she died?
  
  Matt: We're planning on touring Japan and Europe, by which we mean we plan on continuing to plan on that plan which will remain a plan about a plan for the planned future. Form & Fate World Tour — Plan On It!
  
  WTM: Anything else you want to add?
  
  Russ: Wolves are people, too.

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