Six long years have passed since UK’s symphonic metal warriors PYTHIA unveiled their last album “The Solace Of Ancient Earth”. But now, finally they have broken the silence and return with a stunning brand new 5-track EP titled “V Pt.1: Unhallowed”. Three songs have been released already as a single with a video: “Path Of Decay”, “Unhallowed” and “A Curse Of The Blood”, time to meet the other two as well. We reached for our swords and with trembling knees we followed singer Sophie Dorman into the Unhallowed Lands…

PYTHIA haven’t released anything since “The Solace Of Ancient Earth” in 2019. What took you so long except Covid?

“Life gets in the way, unfortunately! Most of the band members are juggling work, family commitments and other musical projects, so it can be tricky to fit everything in. Our way of writing also tends to be a bit time consuming as we let each band member have as much time as they need to write their own parts – it works well as it means inspiration can come naturally rather than trying to force it, but it does mean that things can take a bit longer.”

You took over the baton from Emily Alice Ovenden a decade ago and PYTHIA’s latest EP “V Pt. 1: Unhallowed” is your second feat with the band. Did you listen to the earlier three PYTHIA albums before you joined them?

“I’d been aware of PYTHIA since the release of their first album and knew a couple of tracks, but I didn’t sit down and listen to the albums properly until I got a message from them asking if I’d like to audition to be their new vocalist. I liked what I heard, and the rest is history! Time flies when you’re having fun so it’s amazing to think that it’s been a whole decade already.”The title of the new EP asks for clarification. First of all, what does the V stand for and “Pt. 1: Unhallowed” indicates there is a concept in the five tracks?

“V is the roman numeral for five, and it’s our fifth release. We had the idea to split our ‘fifth album’ in half and release it as two EPs instead, so there will eventually be a part 2 as well. The reason behind that is actually more ‘tactical’ than a creative choice, as shorter and (ideally!) more frequent releases tend to lend themselves to streaming services a bit better. The subtitle was just chosen from the title of one of the tracks but I think it sums up the darker themes of the EP quite well.”

You wrote all the lyrics for the songs on “V Pt. 1: Unhallowed”. Where did the idea come from and what came first, the music or the words?

“A certain amount of the music is always already written by the time I start writing, so I always have the drums, song structure and rhythm guitar parts to work with, and then I’m given free reign over the lyrics, melody and any backing vocals or vocal harmonies. I usually come up with a rough melody to work with at first, then write the lyrics, then go back and amend the melody.It doesn’t always work out that way – in particular with the verses for “Path Of Decay” the melody came very naturally the first time I heard the song. Lyrically the EP has a loose theme of people being driven to do unthinkable things, sometimes as a result of their own actions and other times as a result of generational trauma or curses. I’m often inspired by very old stories, and this EP took a lot of inspiration from Greek tragedies in that sense. When I’m writing the lyrics I don’t usually actually set out to have a specific theme for all the songs, but I find myself drawn to wanting to write about certain things and then realize they’re all thematically similar afterwards.”

In the meantime you have released three videos, one for “Path Of Decay”, another one for “Unhallowed” and recently for “A Curse In The Blood”. In all three videos you wear clothes that seems especially designed for the EP.

“We’ve been wearing the armour since our second album and it’s become a key visual element of the band. For the rest of my outfits for photo and video shoots I try to reflect the theme of the release a bit. For example, our previous album “The Solace Of Ancient Earth” was very nature-inspired so I wore green (which also matched the album art) – the new EP explores some darker themes lyrically so I went with all black this time around.”

“V Pt. 1: Unhallowed” was mixed by Ollie Roberts and for the mastering you hired the famous Jacob Hansen, with whom you have worked before. Did you produce the entire EP yourself as a band?

“Yes, we generally record our parts separately either at home or in a local studio, so we each kind of produce ourselves and then send the separate parts off for mixing and mastering. The band lives all across the country so it’s easier that way, and we’d consider each other to be the expert in our own parts in terms of knowing what we want.”

The cover art for the EP is based on the lyrics to the song “Path Of Decay”. The song itself is loosely based on the video game “Dragon Age – Inquisition”. Did you play the game a lot, or perhaps even finish it?

“Yes, I’m a big fan of fantasy RPGs (and fantasy in general) and I’d played through all of the Dragon Age games that were out at the time shortly before we started working on the EP so it was still fresh in my mind. “Inquisition” was my favourite of them, and parts of Solas’s story in particular went on to inspire the song. It’s not a direct retelling though, and I’d rather listeners create their own interpretations of the lyrics rather than me dictating what the song is about.”As stated, the EP holds five tracks. Let’s talk about the last two, but first the most recent single “A Curse In The Blood”. The title suggests it’s about a family with a tragic history. The song is also different (slower) than the first two that have more Nightwish elements in them. “A Curse In The Blood” gives PYTHIA more… your own face.

“Musically we wanted to experiment with the dynamics of the song, both in terms of the tempo and the quieter verses with the heavy chorus. It also meant that I could approach the vocals differently to how I do in some of the other tracks so it was a nice change of pace. I wanted the ‘curse’ in the title of the song to be very open to interpretation – it could be a literal curse or it could be a family history of trauma or just learned behaviours that aren’t healthy. The protagonist of the song is determined to put an end to it, which could be read as hopeful or ominous.”

On the info sheet you describe the penultimate track as: “Muses Of The Night” unleashes thunderous riffs and rhythms as the wonderful vocals of Sophie Dorman soar effortlessly above through a storm-tossed sky.” True, the shredding guitar solos and heavy riffs are memorable, and you put so much lyrics in this song (and the others too, for that matter) that it actually sounds like a storm is coming. Haven’t you been gasping for air during the recordings? 😁“When I’m rehearsing or recording songs which are lyrically fast-paced like this one I definitely sometimes find myself thinking “why did I do this to myself?”! I think it pays off though for making sure I can tell the story of the song as thoroughly as I want to. That being said, my favourite parts of this song are the parts at the ends of the choruses where the vocals slow down and just sit high above the heaviness in the instrumentation – I really like the contrast, and it gives a chance for the guitar parts to shine through.”

In “Bright Flame” it’s drummer Marc Dyos who takes the lead with his heavy inventive drum rolls and well placed fills. Was he part of the writing process when this song was created?

“Yes, Marc writes all his own parts so the drum writing is entirely down to him, although it was actually our guitarist Ross’s idea to start the song with the drums as it wasn’t something we’d done before. I think it works well, it gives the song a sense of foreboding. This one is probably the most experimental of the tracks in terms of playing around with different time signatures and having more dynamic range similarly to “A Curse In The Blood.””Finally, the EP has “Pt. 1” in the title, that means there will be a successor. Have you already written / recorded new songs for “Pt. 2” and what will be the subtitle for that one?

“There will indeed be a successor, but it’s not written yet and we haven’t yet decided on the subtitle. I’ve already got a couple of ideas for it though so I look forward to getting started!” ■

Henk van Nieuwenhoven