Millennial Holocaust

LYNCHPiN’s new album, Millennial Holocaust, is coming and it’s heavier and more brutal than ever before.

Lead vocalist of the local death metal band, Sievan Siewsarran, explained that the initial idea for the album started in 2014 when the band visited Germany to attend the Wacken Open Air Music Festival.

He said they learned more about the Holocaust and the effect it had on the people of Germany. He and his bandmates – drummer, Aaron Maharaj; bassist, Jiggy Khatri; and guitarist, Gerard Ferreir – also visited the Dachau concentration camp. There he noticed a sign that said, “Here lies the grave of a thousand unknown men.” Moved by the thought, he wrote it down, and decided to write a song about it one day.

When the band returned to Germany in 2016, this time to perform at the Wacken Open Air Metal Battle, Siewsarran brought up the idea of writing a concept album. He said they decided on the idea of the Holocaust, but they did not want to write about something they had not personally experienced because it felt inauthentic.

However, while travelling, he and some of the band’s entourage were detained at various airports because of their appearance. He said, especially in Miami, he noticed all the detainees in the room had the same look – they were brown-skinned men with goatees.

He said he felt the new barriers being created by countries, and that in this era, especially in America, there was segregation and persecution at different levels including skin colour, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. “I started to feel as though things were coming full circle. It’s a different kind of Holocaust now. It feels as though the world is becoming enslaved, not racial enslavement but political correctness is becoming a really big issue now. People are more sensitive about everything. There are so many movements and it feels as if everybody is against everybody. It is starting to feel as though the world has reached that point where communication is supposed to be at and all-time high, yet human-to-human communication is at an all-time low.”

The songs of Millennial Holocaust reflect this feeling with titles such as Graves of a Thousand Unknowns, Detained, Primal Instinct, and Blood on the Ground.

Siewsarran told Sunday Newsday each band member wrote the music for their own instruments, creating the heavy, driving sounds that moved listeners.

He said at Wacken, people started calling their music Caricore because of the Caribbean beats and rhythms fused with deathcore, progressive, and groove metal. He said the new album still had that feel but the music had evolved since their last album, God Complex.

He said from the time they started writing Millennial Holocaust they realised the style was different with a more personal and articulate writing style, more brutal music, and harsher vocals.

He explained that the band members received endorsements after playing Wacken, and so had better quality instruments, which changed the sound. In addition, he said the music was more technical thanks to producer Christian Donaldson of The Grid Productions, and the Canadian band, Cryptopsy. He added that Donaldson was someone who understood the market and the sound they wanted to achieve, and they were very happy with the results.

“He mixed and mastered the album, we recorded with Maarten Manmohan of RDS Studios, and it was like we were doing something, not just producing this work of art that we were real excited to bring out, but we were working on bringing out an international production for international consumption.”

When asked about the lyrics, which were written by Siewsarran, and the fact that most people did not understand what he was singing, he said the band published them and many fans ensured they got their hands on the lyrics.

“People get the lyrics and learn them because they want to be a part of the music. As an artist, the one thing that brings me the most joy is playing in a show and people are singing along. Yes, death metal is a darker genre but it brings people together in a different way.”

Millennial Holocaust is scheduled to be released on October 13 at Club Reign, Valpark Shopping Plaza. Also performing that night would be local bands Mindscape Laboratory, Beyond the Animus, and Alter Rootz. The album, as well as merchandise will be on sale at the event.