Death Metal wizards Dååth are back on the road after over a decade on hiatus, and they have reached new bold and deadly heights. The immensely positive reception of their first album in the new Dååth lineup, The Deceivers, set the bar high for their first tour as the “most focused version of Dååth to date.” MetalTalk caught up with Sean Z, Dååth’s force-of-nature frontman, to discuss life back on the road, what he will do differently this time around, and how he preserves his sanity and clothes while on tour.
After thanking Sean for bringing the sun, I dove straight in with the question on everyone’s minds, the question Dååth’s guitarist Eyal Levi has been pestered with ten times a day, and asked what it was like being back on tour.
“It feels like we never left,” Sean said, “It also feels surreal at the same time to look out and see people singing the words more than they ever sang the words before. In the beginning, it wasn’t like that: we struggled a lot just to get people to recognize us.
“So the hiatus kind of did something. Now it’s like a resurgence, and people are really excited.” Sean said the crowds have been amazing, especially the Paris show. “Even opening the show, we look out, and it’s empty, but then I look back five minutes later, and the place is packed.
“It’s the opening band’s job to wake people up.” Sean went on to say that, especially when you open a show, the gauge for how well it went is how much the crowd is cheering by the end and if you managed to convince them to expend energy so early on in the night.
To confirm or correct my image of bands getting off stage and immediately downing shots of hard liquor, chomping on a juicy burger, or engaging in some other instantly gratifying rock ‘n’ roll activity, I asked Sean what the first thing he did when he got off stage was. He said, without an ounce of hesitation: “Change clothes.”
“I like to smell good when I go on stage. Having the band come out and smell good is a big thing because you’re on top, the air’s blowing into the crowd, so they are going to get a whiff of you.” We should all be very grateful for bands who get their stage clothes off immediately to preserve them for the next show and bless us with not only how good they sound and look but smell too.
“I’m like the black sheep, the one who doesn’t have all the talent; I’m just up here screaming.”
Only two Dååth members remain from the pre-hiatus lineup: vocalist Sean Z and guitarist Eyal Levi. I asked Sean how the new guys, drummer Krimh, guitarist Rafael Trujillo, bassist David Marvuglio, and orchestration/synth/guitarist Jesse Zuretti, were faring and the key considerations for choosing them.
“It was ‘do you know your stuff’, and these guys all know their stuff, so it’s a lot easier to explain things to them; they pick up on things right away and are all very creative in their own little circle, so it’s been really cool. I can’t say enough good things about them: great energy, great attitude, phenomenal players.
“I’m like the black sheep, the one who doesn’t have all the talent. These guys on guitar, the drums, and even the bass player, I’m like: jeez. And I’m just up here screaming.” I quickly asserted that he very much does have the talent and screams like a god – or, more appropriately, a demon. Sean said one of his original inspirations for screaming was Limp Bizkit’s rapid-fire and powerful screams, even though everyone makes fun of him for it. 
“And then, obviously, I went to just about what everybody else did: Slipknot. The first Slipknot album really helped me mould that fry, and I’ve always been a fan of Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel, so I’ve always tried to emulate those guys.” After I pointed out that now people are going to come up, or are already coming up, trying to emulate Sean Z, he said how crazy it was to think about that.
When he isn’t busy preserving his clothes, I wanted to know what Sean could be found doing backstage on tour. “So, the bass player and I, we are actually magic nerds. I told him before we came on the tour to bring some decks. I brought two, he brought two, and the first week of practice we basically just played magic every night. It was so awesome.”
I followed this admission up by asking what his best trick was and if he would be whipping bunnies out on stage, to which Sean very respectfully cleared his throat and informed me it was the “way cooler” Magic: The Gathering he was referring to. “Not magic tricks,” he continued, “that’s not my thing.” It is good that I moshed like a demon on steroids at Dååth’s show, so my coolness rating wasn’t completely in the toilet.
“No Rest, No End really describes where we are going: never give up and persevere.”
Having already released what many are calling their best album yet, completely rejigged their lineup and channelling all the things they “felt were missing in the past,” I asked Sean what he was doing differently this time around. “Trying to preserve my voice and learn better breathing techniques; there’s so much screaming in this new album in particular. It’s been quite a challenge because a lot of the stuff I did in the past was more like fry vocals, and a lot of this stuff has a lot more death vocals involved and the rapid fire stuff, so it can be intense.
“I’m really just trying to pace myself and nail everything, enunciate all the words and not get ahead of the beat because sometimes I just want to fly through it because it’s so fast.” Of all the fast and fantastic songs on The Deceivers, Sean said his favourite lyrics to write was No Rest, No End. “It was the first song that came together and that we had a title for. It really describes where we are going, you know, never give up and persevere.”
What’s next for Dååth, you might be wondering. Sean said: “Obviously, we’re always looking for tours and festivals, and we’re also going to be working on the next album as well; we’ve got a few we’ve got to make, so…there’s always writing going on.” When I asked what the dream festival was, Sean laughed and reeled off a list of all the big festivals. “Like any festival, honestly. At this point, we just want to get our feet wet and get back in the game.”
The Deceivers is chock full of monstrously epic collaborations, including Spiro, Dan Sugarman of Ice Nine Kills, Per Nilsson of Scar Symmetry and Mark Holcomb of Periphery. Sean promises that we can expect more. “I think it really helps push the album and the brand,” he said, “and it’s nice to work with people we’ve always wanted to work with.”
I tried to tease out what might feature on their next album. Sean said: “I’d like to do some vocal stuff, but I guess it really depends because it’s hard to bring other vocalists in. I mean, I love the thing we do with Paul, and I think we did it just right.”
Dååth’s latest single, Run, features Paul Masvidal of Cynic and is a song they had dreamed of covering since first hearing it. I asked Sean if it was everything he had hoped it would be since he first heard Paul’s vocoder vocals whilst on tour with Cynic in 2009. “I would have maybe done a little more screaming,” he said, “but after listening to it enough times, I like that it builds and builds and builds. I think it came out pretty darn good.”
It is a beautiful, “surreal” thing that the first iteration of Dååth’s The Deceivers tours is with Cynic since their first iteration of The Concealers tours was also with them. Sean had not one bad thing to say about Cynic, Beyond Creation, or Rivers of Nihil. “They’re all so funny and so loving,” he said, “and there’s no egos. Everyone helps, and everyone contributes. That’s the way it goes, man.”
“It’s a lot of controlled chaos and then one smooth ending; I feel like that’s a perfect description of how the band has gone.”
Sean told us that not only does he love theme parks, but rollercoasters are his “favourite thing ever.” So, of course, I had to ask the only sensible follow-up question to this statement: “If Dååth were a rollercoaster, what kind of ride would it be?”
“The Hagrid’s motorbike one, I would say one a lot like that. It’s chaotic and then very controlled, and then you’re going up, and you’re almost flying off the track, but then you’re going backwards and then the track drops. And so it’s basically just a lot of controlled chaos and then one smooth ending, so I feel like that’s a perfect description of how the band has gone.”
To old Dååth fans, Sean said: “Thanks for sticking around and being here through all these years and the lineup changes. The music really speaks volumes, and you know, to see the support still be there; we can’t thank you enough.” And to the new fans, Sean said: “Welcome aboard! It’s gonna be a long ride because we’ve got some really good stuff coming down the pipeline. So thanks for also being here and seeing us through the next chapter of Dååth.”
