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If there is one thing that the man behind the progressive-death metal band Æthereal has never lacked, it's vision; “there are so many bands that just don’t have a vision of what they’re really working for, you know? So many well-intentioned bands that are fairly talented but can never cut it. I’ve seen that so many times and even experienced it once where it was just so tough to pull everyone together: that’s when I said ‘never again, I’ll do it myself if I have to’.”
In early 2008, Phil—the man behind the music and vision—began working on two songs that had been kicking around since he split with his first band, the well-respected Wisconsin death metal band Dumah. “Well, I’d been writing some acoustic stuff and going to school and had really checked out of music for a while,” he reflects, “but one can only stay away for so long, you know? Metal is in the blood. Even when you’re old and ‘sold out’ and working for the man everyone who’s really into it is still going to break out their Iron Maiden records. For me, I can’t imagine a time when I won’t be listening to Opeth or Vintersorg, these bands that changed my life musically. They opened my eyes to so many possibilities.” It’s that lineage that inspired Phil to begin re-writing these songs and to start working forward with his own vision.
Quickly, Phil pieced together 55 minutes of music and decided to record it independently--a record called Premonitions--which will be released on the 15th of August, 2008 via Black Goat Records. The aptly named record gives a taste of what's in store. “Well, I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to record a demo or a full length and I got word that Black Goat would release my record if I did a full length, so I went that route.” But the real culprit here is aspiration: “I want people to get the whole story and to sort of see the extent of my vision; sure the recording is a little weak, but the whole picture is there and it shows what I'm capable of with no support--what would happen if I had label support?”
Finally, while vision and desire to play drive him, the expression is what’s behind the band. “In the end, Æthereal is about doing whatever I want to do. It’s about playing metal without being bound down to one specific genre or anything. If I had named the band "Fetus Hockey" or "Coat Hanger Abortion" or something, there’s only so many places to go. But Æthereal is exactly that: ever-changing and amorphous. It gives room for progression and experimentation and that’s what I want. The best metal bands never slow down—they’re always experimenting, changing and growing. That’s what I want. That’s my vision.”
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