(In late January Me Saco Un Ojo and Memento Mori co-released a new album by the Japanese death metal band Invictus, and that led our contributor Zoltar to reach out for the following good interview with guitarist and vocalist Takehitopsy Seki.)
While the Japanese grind and death scene has granted us some of the wackiest, most disturbing bands over the last twenty-five years or so (we dare you to try to listen to GORE BEYOND NECROPSY or CATASEXUAL URGE MOTIVATION for 24 hours straight and not want to murder everyone), they also know a thing or two about recreating note-perfect tributes to their American elders. Unsurprisingly, the sound of the early ’90s Floridian mob left an obvious mark on many, including Nagano’s own INVICTUS, whose second album was released on vinyl by Me Saco Un Ojo and CD by Memento Mori.
This trio may be obvious MONSTROSITY fans but their extremely tight musicianship, powerful drive, and thrash leanings truly set them apart from the clone pack, and guitarist and vocalist Takehitopsy Seki does obviously know what the fuck he’s talking about, based on the following answers…
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I suppose you are well aware that the name INVICTUS is quite common among metal bands. You nevertheless still decided to pick it up. Why? Because the concept ‘invincibility’ mattered to you the most?
Actually, when we first formed the band, there was a member who stayed with us only for a very short time. He really wanted the band to be called INVICTUS. I didn’t have any strong reason to oppose it, so we went with that name. He left the band pretty quickly after that, but we just kept the name as it was. To be honest, there isn’t any deep or philosophical reason behind it — that’s really all there is to it. Haha.
The band has been around for a decade yet this is ‘only’ your second album. Is it because you never felt the urge to speed things up and you’d rather let them mature or was it simply because you struggled as a Japanese old-school death metal band to let your voice be heard?
The main reason it took us so long to release the album was the impact of the COVID pandemic. Right after we released our first album, everything came to a halt, and we weren’t able to get the kind of start we had hoped for. We decided to wait and see how things would develop, but as a result, time just kept passing. On top of that, the writing and recording process didn’t go very smoothly for a while, so it took us some time to regroup and get things back on track. Since it was the very first album of our lives, I think we may also have had a bit of emotional attachment to it, which made it harder to simply move on quickly.
Actually, is it fair to call INVICTUS an old-school death metal band?
Yes it is. Many of the bands that influenced me the most are old-school death metal bands, and we’re also strongly influenced by thrash metal, which probably makes our sound feel even more old-school. This being said, our influences actually come from a very wide range of metal, regardless of era, and those elements naturally find their way into our music as well. Because of that, we personally just consider ourselves a death metal band.
Music-wise, you seem to mostly draw influences from the early ’90s Floridian scene. Does it make you a retro band?
You’re absolutely right — we’re heavily influenced by the Floridian death metal scene. It’s simply a style we truly love, and we wanted to express it in our own way. So if that makes us a “retro” band, I honestly don’t have a problem with that at all. We’re just playing the kind of death metal we genuinely enjoy.
You are a power-trio. Aren’t you sometimes missing a second guitar on stage, as there are indeed a lot of solos on our records?
I really enjoy shredding, so I naturally end up wanting to include guitar solos. There are definitely moments when having a second guitarist would be nice. This being said, if we were to add another member, we’d want it to be someone local who we can actually work with on a regular basis, and that’s not always easy to find.
Would you agree that there are still a lot of thrash influences in your riffs? Does it come from your influences? Or maybe you previously played thrash in other bands and that kind of stuck?
I definitely think those influences are still there. I’ve never actually played in a thrash metal band, but I’ve always loved thrash metal and been heavily influenced by it, so it naturally comes through in my riffs.
When did you start working on this new album?
I think we really started to seriously focus on the album around October a couple of years ago. Still, some of the songs on this record are much older — the oldest ones go back about five years — so the material actually spans quite a wide period of time.
Your debut The Catacombs Of Fear featured a very reddish vivid cover. Is this why you decided on a green-dominated cover artwork this time around?
We wanted to use a completely different color from the previous album this time around. We told (cover artist) Juanjo Castellano Rosado what kind of color we had in mind, and he understood it perfectly and translated that idea into the artwork in a really effective way.
Were you looking to evoke the same kind of morbid and gruesome landscapes Dan Seagrave conjured back in the ’90s with his artworks?
We were definitely conscious of capturing that ’90s death metal atmosphere. To me, death metal has always been inseparable from artwork that conveys a strong sense of world-building and depth. I felt confident that if we asked Juanjo again, he would naturally understand that atmosphere and create something that truly fit the music. And in the end, that’s exactly what happened, so I’m genuinely very grateful to him.
You ended up doing two demos after the release of Catacombs, although one could have expected you not needing anymore to showcase what you were capable of. So what was the purpose of those? To score a new recording deal?
It’s true that part of it was the hope of eventually securing a new album deal. But more importantly, a lot of time had passed since our first album, and we felt we needed some new recordings to reassess where we were as a band at that point. In that sense, the demos were very much about trial and error and figuring things out again. On a personal level, I also just really enjoy recording demos, so who knows — we might suddenly release another one someday. Haha.
If I’m not mistaken, out of those six new songs displayed on those two demos, you only re-recorded ‘Persecution Madness’ for this new album. Why?
When we decided to release the album, it was agreed that we would only re-record one song from the demos. We chose ‘Persecution Madness’ simply because we really like the song, and also because we felt the album needed a fast track to balance the overall flow. To be honest, I like all of the songs we put on those demos, so it wasn’t an easy decision at all. Haha. It’s possible that we might rearrange and re-record some of the other tracks in the future.
Have you had the chance to play outside of Japan yet?
Last year, we did a two-week tour in Europe. We’ve also had the chance to play in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, China, and South Korea. If the timing is right, we’d definitely love to continue playing outside of Japan in the future.
Last but not least: can you name-check your three favorite ’90s Floridian death metal albums and why you choose them?
It is an incredibly difficult question, and I really have to think hard about it…
- Millennium/ Monstrosity
I absolutely love this album, and it’s one that simply can’t be left out.
It presents something very close to a completed form of the riff style I idealize — combining the sharp edge of thrash metal with technical elements — and it had a massive influence on me. The guitar work in particular is outstanding, and it’s the kind of playing that always makes me think, “I want to play guitar like this.” The first time I heard ‘Dream Messiah’ it completely blew me away. - The Ten Commandments/ Malevolent Creation
I was torn between this album and Retribution, but I think this one had a stronger influence on our overall style. Death metal with strong thrash elements is a core part of what INVICTUS is about, and this album feels like a perfect blueprint for that approach. It’s a record I truly love. - Screams of Anguish/ Brutality
I also really love their follow-up When the Sky Turns Black, so this was another tough choice, but this time I went with Screams of Anguish. The way the band constructs slow, evil riffs is ideal to me, and the explosive transitions into blast beats are exactly the kind of dynamics I’m drawn to.
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