ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 15 JANUARY 2014
After more than a decade and a string of acclaimed releases across a range of formats, including highly-praised latest album Flesh is Heir, The Amenta will be playing their final live shows this weekend on the HeavyFest tour with Rotting Christ and Terra Australis. Keyboard player and founding member Tim Pope insists, however, that this does not mean the band is finished.
“We’re not splitting the band up,” he says. “We’ll just be drawing a line under that aspect of the band. We’ll continue writing – Erik and I have been writing for about six months or so. Whether or not it comes out as The Amenta or not depends on how things come out in the writing sessions. We’re allowing things to come out very naturally. If something we’ve recorded or written feels like it should come out under The Amenta, it will be. We’re open to the idea of releasing stuff under The Amenta, but we’re not going to force anything.”
As if to prove this assertion, Pope goes on to reveal that he and guitarist Erik Miehs have put together the bare bones of several songs that may see the light some time in the future. Just when that might be and in what form they eventually surface will depend upon the vibe they create. The Amenta isn’t interested in releasing just anything.
“We’ve got skeletons of stuff. I’ve got a massive amount of lyrics, which I’ve never had before, which I’ve written for the new Amenta thing. How we approach it and how it actually turns out is another thing that will be judged on how it sounds and if it feels right to release under the name,” Pope explains. “One consideration is that I think we have built up a really solid body of work with The Amenta, and we don’t want to do anything to disturb it by releasing something that might not work in that context. So it’s a bit of a balancing act I think.”
This is not the first time the band has considered pulling the plug on live performance. Pope admits that they have given the idea some thought more than once during the course of their career, but with no new material to present and probably none for the foreseeable future, The Amenta simply don’t see any reason to continue as a live band.
“We got to a point where it just didn’t make sense for us to book anything else for the Flesh is Heir stuff. We’d got to the end of what you’d call that album cycle” he says. “Touring without a product to sell is a little bit mad. We don’t make money. We’ve never been a profitable band in terms of touring. So just doing it for fun, as a holiday, just doesn’t work for us anymore. I’ve got kids and a house and all that sort of stuff. I can’t just take these drinking holidays all around the country and around the world.”
He reiterates his earlier assertion that The Amenta will only record and release again when and if they come up with material they deem worth of their reputation. Pope is adamant that they have no wish to sully their legacy by creating new music for creation’s sake, and he isn’t about to hold back about what he thinks of some other acts he believes do just that.
“We’re not motivated at the moment,” he admits. “If we sat down to write, it’s hard to go, Ok, let’s write another fucking death metal album. It’s not enough and to force it out isn’t right. To force something because you have to have material, which I think a lot of bands do and to me it’s a little bit sad and a little bit disgusting, is something we wanted to avoid. We wanted to make sure that the work we’ve done stood on it’s own – a strong, solid body of work. If the focus wasn’t on writing something like that, it didn’t make sense to play live anymore. We certainly do reserve the right to, when we write something, to release it as The Amenta, but we’d rather not leave the expectation open that that’s gonna happen.”
Whether the band will one day re-emerge on the nation’s stages or not, the physical form of The Amenta seems likely to remain the same.
“If we decided to do anything as The Amenta, it will involve Cain (Cressal – vocals), Dan (Quinlan – bass), Dave (Haley – drums), Erik and I,” says Pope. “No one else. That’s the Amenta. We’re not stopping live because of any one person – it’s not a personnel thing. Those guys are the band. We’re the band. It’s important that anything that comes out as the Amenta is those guys, that group of people.”
That group of people will be performing together live for three more shows only before The Amenta disappears into the studio-bound aether, possibly for good. There are no plans for any special theatrics or spectacles, just the usual intensity of their regular show. Tim Pope promises that their final shows will not be a disappointment to the fans who have supported them for so long.
“We’re not going to have a thing where we stop and sing ‘Kumbaya’ and hold everyone’s hands at the end. We’re gonna go as hard as we’ve always played it, as rough and hard as we can. We’ll give it our all. One thing that I think it’s important for people to know is that even though playing live has never really been the focus of the band and it’s something we’re cutting out now, it’s something that we’ve always given everything to and something we’ve always made as important as possible. We’ve enjoyed our time on the live circuit. We’ve met some great people and we’ve had some great support from people so it’ll be cool to share it for one last time with people that matter to us.”