With:	Pedro Salles [Gutural Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards]
Conducted by:	Undercraft
Published:	25.10.2004
Band profile:	Avec Tristesse
Album info:	How Innocence Dies

01. I Am But One
02. All Love is Gone
03. A View Of The End
04. Escapism
05. Through My Eyes
06. Presence Ignored
07. Lost In Your Complexity
08. Of Emotions
09. As Years Pass By
10. Avant Les Ténèbres
11. Angel After Dark
12. Sceptical And Gone

The album How Innocence Dies flows in one unique direction and follows a specific theme be it in the artwork, the lyrics or the music. We are talking about the negative side of love and the consequences it may arouse. The majority of what we have written is based on our own experiences, so you will find the point of view of three post-teenagers, with ages ranging from 18 to 24, which are ages when we have endless questions unanswered and everything seems to be our fault, although we never assume the blame. But let us not stray too long into philosophy and talk about the album instead, track by track:


01. I Am But One
This was supposed to be an introduction to the next track, but we preferred to include some vocal lines to introduce the whole album. It's like a pre-conclusion to everything that will be said subsequently.

02. All Love Is Gone
Maybe one of our heaviest songs yet. The Satyricon/Slayer-ish guitar lines were not deliberate, but as my friends love to point out bands and songs that are very similar to the music I write, it became aware to me the clear similarities layed down on this one. I can't deny it, I'm a huge slayer fan. Regarding the mellow part in the middle, it sort of came naturally as the song was being composed. I think we became too much insecure being straight heavyand fast, so we decided to calm things down. I'm not really sure why, maybe it's some lack of musical maturity. Notice that there are no clean vocals throughout the song. The intention was to create a high contrast between heavy parts and soft parts. We even managed to squeeze in a whole poem by Lord Byron, which might seem a bit opportunist, but it was alot of fun, as this is one of my favorite pieces from Byron and no one would expect a metal band to read a whole poem out loud right on the first tracks.

03. A View Of The End
A mid tempo song, straying away from our ultra-varied music structures. I wrote this tune by the request of drummer Nathan Thrall. He said he wanted a song to put on some words he had written and explained to me more or less how he wanted it to be. So out of the oven came "A View of the End", which I dare to say is our most catchy song so far.

04. Escapism
This is a typical Avec Tristesse song. Full of different atmospheres and constant changes of tempo, speed and instrumental arrangements. Actually, this was the first song from this album to be written. The first album was still being mixed when it was molded. The lyrics are directed to me and every other human being who insists on running away from all problems. Well, some problems you have to run away pretty fast, but many of them, or should I say, the most important ones, you really have to stay put and face them, no matter how hard it is.

05. Through My Eyes
Written by Rafael Gama, our bass player, we changed it alot from the original idea to the final version. It was supposed to be a whole song, but none of us, including Rafael, liked the rest of it, but the beginning was pure beauty. It reminded me of epic movies. I wrote a poem exclusively for this short track, with clear shakesperian influence, which I would say every doom metal fan has.

06. Presence Ignored
This is a very experimental track, so don't throw pointy things at us please! We have a friend who does electro/techno music and we invited him to participate on the album. This song is where he appears the most and we really liked the results though we'll probably not use electronics on the next album. The vocals are done by my friend Raquel Antunes who also sang on the first album. She isn't very much into metal as she prefers classical and pop music, but she does like Avec Tristesse!

07. Lost In Your Complexity
Another heavy one. The foundation of this song lays on death metal riffs. The addition of keyboards to it just gave a different feel that we can't describe in words. The lyrics are the best on the whole album in my opinion. It talks about the complexity you find in the person who you're with, or who you like/love. Specially when the relationship between you and him/her goes wrong.

08. Of Emotions
This is a great song. One of my favorite tracks on the album. Maybe because I limited myself to the arrangements as the lyrics were written by Nathan Thrall and the music was composed by Rafael Gama. Its structure is intricate, but seems to flow very naturally. One could notice quite alot of influences coming from bands such as Opeth and Katatonia, but then again, these are bands who influence us alot. We wouldn't be human beings if the music that we listened to didn't appear in our own compositions.

09. As Years Pass By
Our largest song so far. It was quite exhaustive to write it, because of our typically never-ending structure changes. Riffs in this song don't repeat themselves and don't last long, so you'll find many, many different riffs and harmony parts that could easily create an entire album. As in "Through My Eyes", we tried to give a music score feel to some parts and even cogitated the possibility of calling a whole choir to record some epic chants, but the idea soon turned into a joke after 3 minutes and we just used synths instead.

10. Avant Les Ténèbres
The major shocker on the album. I bet no one expected to hear anything like this song. It has a lot of traditional french/portuguese music ambiance to it. In fact, its mood should resembel one of harmony and balance as it introduces a story told in a trilogy formed by the last three songs on the album. "Avant Les Ténèbres" represents the past times, when everything seemed peaceful and well between two lovers.

11. Angel After Dark
Pure Doom Metal with all of its characteristics: agony, despair, suffering, sadness, oh yes, and self pity too. This song represents the present times on our trilogy. It's when the lovers break-up, but one of them (the first person/author) doesn't accept the situation. He/she falls into a depressive state and ceaselessly nurses his feelings towards the loved one whom he judges a mean heartbraker. Never forget that there is a fine line between love and hate. This is the key string to our trilogy, and probably the whole album.

12. Sceptical And Gone
The last song from the trilogy. It represents a possible, but not definite, future. Listeners are free to interpret what is being told as they wish but it is clear that our caracter goes to speek with his/her loved one in a last attempt to reconciliate and, after the response, gun shots are heard. The question is: who got shot?