artist: Prey For Nothing
genre: Melodic Death Metal
label: Massacre Records
band members:
vocals – Yotam „Defiler“ Avni
guitar – Eyal Glottman
guitar – Yaniv Aboudi
bassguitar – Amir Salomon
drums – Iftah Levy
Time for Metal / Hellania:
I am very glad to interview you guys from Prey For Nothing and greet you with a kind „Hallo“. Thank you for taking the time answering some questions.
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni
It is our pleasure, really. Thanks for the kind words and the opportunity.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
At first I want to congratulate you to your second album and I have to say Against All Good And Evil has really taken me under its spell. What’s the feedback about it until now?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni
All of the feedbacks we get are from overwhelmingly astonished to mild positive. We did got some cold shoulders from 3-4 magazines, who described our music as intelligent but soulless, but that’s true only about me, the soulless guy in the group (hehehe). Over than that – the web is quite flowing with good to excellent receptions, and the fans in Israel, who got this album only in past 2 weeks – are even more positive than the rest.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
I guess you already got some fine reviews back, but how interested are you in those? Or are they not that important?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
VERY interested. We won’t change our music just because a guy from Holland thought we are talented but lengthy, or just some Italian magazine didn’t get passed the 3rd track, but we do take notes from what the metal community has to say about this album. I always thought that Prey For Nothing was formed as a metal band by metal fans to metal fans. We do love metal – not just some several bands here and there. I personally try to keep up with what the metal music market has to offer each passing month, and I try to get down to the fine prints of young bands as upcoming promises, in order to know what bands are worth keeping track with for the coming years. I hope that magazines and metal reporters around the globe feel the same about my music.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
How is the metal scene in Israel? Not many bands are known from there and of course it would be quiet interesting to hear how metal is developing.
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
That’s something that is hard to pinpoint in words. The scene is growing, no doubt. We get serious metal bands signed on the leading metal records companies out there, and leading this folk are of course Orphaned Land, followed loosely by bands like Betzefer, The Fading, Eternal Grayand Arafel. In the past 5-6 years we too were washed by the American trend towards metal – and I mean the whole metalcore and deathcore musical genres. Though they are some metalcore bands I like (and Israeli metalcore is as good as any other metalcore band) I personally like the traditional types of metal better – and we lack in that in the Israeli metal scene. Putting aside Desert, Dark Serpent, Edgend, Metal Scent and a few others – most of the metal scene in Israel is either extreme or modern metal, which is sweet and all – but we don’t have an Israeli Megadeth orJudas Priest, and without real foundations – no real concrete scene can evolve around things that aren’t fashionable. The first signed Israeli metal band, and probably the oldest that still exist, is Salem, who played back then in the late 80’s a blend of Death metal and Grindcore (and later changed to Doom metal) – and with Salem as the metallic founding father in Israel – we all got a bit more ‚extreme‘ when it comes to our music. Well – Israel is an extreme place to live in, so it’s understandable.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Our readers don’t know that much about you yet. Maybe you’d like to introduce yourselves and tell a little bit about your carrier until now?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Sure – We’re Prey For Nothing from Israel. We play metal, extreme and melodic metal – somewhere between progressive metal and melodic death metal without really been just one of them. We were formed in late 2005 after we joined forces to salute the master of Death metal – the late Chuck Schuldiner – in a big tribute show, and then decided that we should we pushed it into a real band, not just covers, and this is how it all began. In 2008 we released Violence Divine – our debut album which was sold out in 2 prints. In 2010 we decided we waited long enough and recorded our second album – Against All Good And Evil. Beside Death we all big fans of bands like At The Gates, Megadeth, Metallica, Testament and Nevermore.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
How about the songwriting? Is it teamwork or do you have a single lyrical genius?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
We used to work in a method, we achieved from the first album songwriting process. Yaniv(guitars) used to write all the songs alone, and I wrote the lyrics. When we added Tal, our 2nd guitar player almost 3 years ago – they both gave some full songs and some half songs. Unmake You is the only ‚organic‘ song in the album – that was equally composed by both Tal and Yaniv, though from time to time, Iftah – our drummer – who also very skilled with guitar playing, adds a riff or two to the mixture. But in the end of the process we all give some tones to the music. About the lyrics – I usally write the lyrics alone, but in 2 songs, I was aided by my lovely girlfriend Ronnie Spandorf, because I couldn’t phrase the right words I was looking for in English – and she’s really natural, when comes to that, and with a good friend of mine, Vidi Dolev, who also the vocalist of international prog-metal band Reign Of The Architect and the singer of experimental metal actOf Marble’s Black.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Your kind of death metal is technically well developed. How long have you been making music? Do you have any projects besides Prey For Nothing? If yes, what genre(s) are you playing there?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
We all played in several bands before – some of us even from the mid 90’s – so it’s almost 20 years, or at least 15. Almost all of us have side projects. Yaniv is playing guitar in the heavy metal / hard rock band Metal Scent, Tal is the founding member and guitar player of Groove Metal band calledVipress, Iftah plays the drums with the Stoner Rock band called Pig and I usually write the lyrics for other projects, like the already mentioned Reign Of The Architect, and also Amaseffer, and also doing some guest vocals when needed.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What does music in general and especially death metal mean for you? Is it your way of expression or just for fun or some serious matters?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
I see Death Metal as one of the purest essence of metal music. The term ‚Death metal‘ is not quite correct – because we don’t write songs about corpses or zombies of evil murderers. But since it’s early musical and thematic approach – Death metal became much more than just that. Death themselves gave it almost philosophical meanings with Symbolic and Human – and were followed by Atheist, Cynic and many modern bands. So these days – Death metal is much more intelligent and aesthetic than the past, for better or worse. When it comes to self expression – I personally think that Thrash metal is the best way to vent out musical anger – because in many ways it’s much more raw and primitive and lack the cookie-monster vocals which never were really emotional, unlike true hardcore or thrash metal shouting (that until Thomas Lindberg gave us all the chill with At The Gates, of course). I just find ‚Extreme‘ metal to be the right platform of what I wanted to share when it comes to lyrics. Questioning authority of both society and self, raising the bar with the musical warfare on world’s ethics – and debating philosophical whims that no mainstream music dare to debate. I don’t think of Prey For Nothing and Extreme Metal in general as the Nietzsche of modern music. I do think that it fits the genre though – the entire nihilistic accent of his methods.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Have you ever been discussing to put an end to this project?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Nope. We all realize we won’t last forever. Nothing last forever and none of us is as genius asMozart – so we probably will lack the immortality needed to go down as legends. But we enjoy the music, as I said before. We try to write the metal music as metal fans, and for metal fans. I know it won’t for every metal fan – but we try to keep it intelligent and coherent, so we won’t get bored ourselves. As long as we enjoy it, and we still got fans that enjoy it (fans is such a harsh word… let us use ‚listeners‘ instead) – I don’t see it turning off the switch anytime soon.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Since we’ve just celebrated the new year, how was your new year’s eve? Wild parties or the traditional family dinner?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Well – we need to remember 2 things. First and foremost – we’re from Israel – the only Jewish country in world. Though none of us is any close to been traditional Jewish people, we don’t quite celebrate the new year. We got ‚Rosh HaShana‘ – a holiday that comes at the beginning of the Jewish calendar, around mid September. But we can’t bullet proof ourselves from the rest of the world, right? So we only slightly celebrate it, mostly at bars and parties, but for us it’s just like celebrating a birthday in weekdays. Fun and all – but need to get to work early tomorrow. I celebrated New Year’s Eve with my girlfriend at her place, watching Simpsons episodes. Not quite the ultimate thrill – but I’m a genuine party-pooping straight edge myself – so I was no fun to begin with.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What are your plans for 2012? More live action and maybe a visit in Germany or maybe another album?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Oh Yes, yes please! Touring Europe – especially Germany – is one of our goals. It is our main goal actually. We are currently looking for tours around Germany and Austria, maybe Holland or Denmark, for the summer of 2012. Other than – we plan to release 3 more videos (the first one is already our – be a dear and check it out on Youtube, it’s called My Final Relapse) and tour Israel a bit (It’s not really a tour when you go home to catch some sleep, isn’t it?) No thoughts about 3rd album yet – though we might start working on something when we’ll get more clear view on our touring plans.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
How about your live experience? Have you guys played a lot of gigs yet? Maybe some festivals, too? If yes, where have you been? And where would you like to play some time?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
We never left Israel for live shows. Not yet, anyhow. It’s harder than we thought to get into a nice tour and perform more vitally in front of different audiences every night, and we need to save some money for that. But in Israel we perform on regular basis. We also supported Paradise Lost, Aborted and Finntroll in our short 6 years career, so it’s not too bad.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What about the many tools on the World Wide Web? How do you communicate with your fans and what is your opinion about the modern communication tools?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Mostly through Facebook and Emails. Myspace used to be the thing for it 4-5 years ago – but this time has long gone. We found out we have a small fan base in England, some neat following in the U.S. and even Japanese fans were interested in our music, which is just awesome.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Last but not least, have you anything to say to the readers?
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Don’t judge a band by its cover, and definitely do not let politics or ethnicity do the judging. To me – a metal fan from Iran is more close to me than the orthodox Jew in Jerusalem, it’s not about the country you come from – it’s your way of thinking, morals and understanding the other. So in conclusion – fuck politics and rock on !
Time for Metal / Hellania:
I have to thank you once more for all the information you have given us and I wish you all the best for 2012. I hope to listen to some new stuff soon and maybe a concert in Germany, too. Until then you have my best wishes and greetings, Hellania.
Prey for Nothing / Yotam Avni:
Thank you again for this opportunity ! Iron Up !