Oculum Dei Interview

1. For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band? We started out as a studio project but the desire to perform live and the tour couldn't be contained and after some member changes we were able to lock down our unique style and have started hitting the local scene as hard as we can.

2. You have your first album coming out towards the end of February, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording? All of us in the current line up has a huge past of being in both black and death metal bands so we wanted to be more black metal but show that we can certainly mix the two genres to grab more of an audience.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored so far with the music? It ranges, the main focus of our lyrical content is to express the struggles with oneself wither it be from a religious standpoint of growing up in the bible belt as we all have had to do. And we dig to darker deeper battles with life in a whole basically battling demons of our own.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Oculum Dei'? It is basically an altered Latin phrase meaning "through the eyes of godless" Basically all of us growing up in the southern bible belt and having forced Christianity upon us in our youth which turned us against it.

5. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the album cover? We had searched for a while for the perfect cover and shopped many resources but just couldn't find the darkness  and "shock factor" we were trying to represent so we went back to Kenny Kivett who shot our band pics for the album and he was able to help us lock down the image we wanted with some live models and it was a great collaboration with Landmine designs who did some extra editing to it as well as our entire album layout

6. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance? Hands down the best so far was having the ability to open up for Carach Angren, Wolfheart, and Mors Principle est., it was very close to being a sold out show and the front of the stage was packed during our set. We slapped on our corpse paint and stage props and received an overwhelming cheer of joy from the audience along with a big movement of merch sales so id say we were satisfied with the results but were always pushing to do better and were very grateful for Mick the owner of the venue to have given us such an amazing opportunity and for the upcoming one in April  we get to open up for Aborted, Hideous Divinity, and Cryptopsy on their current North America tour. 

7. Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released? Absolutely We have a good bit of local and close out of state shows lined up and being set up and we have a mini-tour booked this summer heading from Washington DC and ending in Brooklyn NY. and we have another tour we are setting up as well.

8. Currently, you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?  We are certainly interested in getting to that in our career and we do have our sights set on one in particular but open to discuss with any that may have interest in what we do.

9. On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal? It has been surprisingly awesome. We have been shared on multiple radios both online and their local airwaves and we have even had fans from other countries discover us through that.

10. Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future/ Touring out of the states its one of our main goals and were pretty headstrong on making sure it happens and creating more albums.

11. What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays? Influences are wide range among us members but I'd say the ones that predominantly stick out would be Emperor, Behemoth, Belphegor, Immortal.   Currently listening to new Immortal, Swallow the Sun, Behemoth, Wolfheart, Rotting Christ

12.Does Occultism play any role in your music? There could be some showing through our imagery but its nothing set in stone

13. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts? We would like to first thank you for taking the time to interview us and we would like to say thanks to our fans and family for the support and just make sure Friday 22nd you check out our album streaming worldwide on all known platforms and hope to meet new fans at the shows!

Bandcamp

Facebook