ABLAZE - A Necessary Evil... (Portugal - Post HardCore/MetalCore - Interview with André & & Hugo).

Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you — your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music?
André Cardoso: Hello, first of all, thank you so much for having us (You're welcome, very welcome ! - Ed.).
Personally, I got into this kind of music through several influences. As a teenager, I listened to a lot of punk rock and alternative rock, and at some point it naturally shifted into hardcore and metalcore. I remember being in my first band (Genoflie), and our bassist at the time introduced me to heavier bands like Hatebreed, Madball and Strife. That was my first real contact with the underground — bands that weren’t mainstream and had a completely different attitude.
There were two moments that really shaped my musical language.
One was discovering Converge on Headbangers Ball — “Fault and Fracture”, to be precise. There was no indication of the band name or the song. I remember watching it and thinking, “what the hell am I seeing and hearing?” It was chaotic, aggressive, and unlike anything I had experienced before. It triggered something in me.
The other was the first time I listened to Poison the Well’s The Opposite of December. I remember thinking, “this is the perfect mix of genres.” It had the emotional depth of bands I was already into, but without feeling overly dramatic, combined with the chaos and heaviness of more metallic sounds. That record has stayed with me ever since — I still consider it one of the greatest of all time.

Tell me about the band... How you met — the current line-up — past experiences — and above all — WHY the need to form THIS band?
Hugo Martins: In 2020, when the world suddenly stopped, I found myself reconnecting with something essential: music. During the pandemic, locked at home with too much time and too many thoughts, I started writing guitar riffs. Slowly, I built songs that reflected the atmosphere we were all living through — introspective, tense and raw. What began as a personal outlet gradually evolved into something heavier and more structured.
Once the instrumental base felt solid, I reached out to Igor Esteves from Larkin/Pledge to record the drums. Igor brought weight and physicality to the songs. His playing gave them pulse and urgency, grounding the tension already present in the guitars. At that point, the tracks finally felt complete — but life moved on, and the songs were left aside for a few years.
Everything changed when I reconnected with André Cardoso from Death Will Come, a voice from the Portuguese hardcore scene of the early 2000s. André hadn’t been behind a microphone in over a decade, but when he heard the tracks, something immediately clicked. He didn’t just record vocals — he gave the music meaning. His delivery transformed those instrumentals into something far more confrontational and personal.
The current line-up is myself, André on vocals, and Igor on drums — three people with different past experiences, but a shared history within heavy music.
There was no master plan behind forming this band. It wasn’t about strategy or ambition. It happened out of necessity. These songs needed a voice. They needed to exist in a complete form. Ablaze came naturally from that need — a project rooted in our past, but shaped by who we are today.
"Slow Death" is the result of that process — years of reflection and emotional weight brought to the surface.

Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all costs?
Hugo Martins: Our sound is intense, urgent and emotionally charged. It carries the chaotic precision and raw aggression of early 2000s metalcore and hardcore, but filtered through the weight of lived experience.
If you connect with the emotional catharsis of bands like Poison the Well or Converge, you’ll recognize that same tension — but this isn’t nostalgia. It’s not a revival project. It’s a continuation of that spirit, seen through older eyes and heavier scars.
What sets us apart is honesty. There’s no aesthetic construction, no calculated trend-chasing. The music came from a very real place — isolation, frustration, introspection, unresolved emotions that refused to fade.
You should listen because it’s unfiltered. Because it’s heavy without being empty. Because it’s aggressive without losing depth. And because sometimes the most powerful music is the one that wasn’t even supposed to exist.

Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences? How important are the lyrics for you? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics?
André Cardoso: Lyrics are very important to me. They bring focus to the concept behind the music itself.
When I started writing for this project, I didn’t follow any specific approach. I simply wrote what I felt. And at that moment, I realized I hadn’t written anything in a long time — so there were a lot of unresolved issues that needed to come out.
What I needed was for the listener to feel what was going on inside my head. That meant being completely open. Catharsis works like that — you have to spill everything that’s burning inside you.
“No” deals with struggles with addiction. “Life” is about personal growth and the effort to move towards a more positive mindset despite your circumstances. “Today” reflects on the evolution of society and how it restricts our sense of freedom. “Martyr” explores the idea of living as a martyr within a toxic relationship.

About your latest release?
Hugo Martins: This EP was recorded in different stages over time. I recorded the guitars, bass and synthesizers at home using Logic. Later, I showed the songs to Igor and, after a few years, we went to Amadeus Studio, where Nuno Teles handled the production. Igor recorded the drums in a single night.
After that, we sent the tracks to André, who recorded the vocals in his own space, Mindset Studios.
Nuno Teles was also responsible for mixing and mastering the EP, shaping the final sonic identity of the record.
The artwork was created in collaboration with Mia, a friend of ours based in Porto, who helped bring the visual side of the release to life.
The EP is available in CD format and digitally on our Bandcamp, where it can be downloaded for 5€. We’re not trying to turn this into a business — we simply want the music to reach as many people as possible, so the price is symbolic.
André Cardoso: When I joined the project and heard the tracks, it immediately transported me back to the 2000s. It’s less about groove or melody, and more about tension, release, and unpredictability — a kind of controlled sonic violence that defined a crucial edge of heavy music at that time.
I started writing about themes that had been buried for years. From that, the concept of "Slow Death" emerged — emotional overload, visceral reactions, something intense but intentionally difficult to fully decode. The themes revolve around anxiety, inner conflict, collapse and guilt.

Future plans?
Hugo Martins: At this point, there are only two certainties.
The first is that we’re not going to play live. Ablaze is a studio project, and for now it will remain that way. Igor and I are both fathers of young children, and life demands presence. On top of that, Pledge is our main band — the project that carries most of our creative and logistical energy. André is also involved in several other projects, such as Doink, NoPath and others, so his time is equally limited. Realistically, there’s no space to take Ablaze into a live setting without compromising something else — and we’re not willing to do that.
The second certainty is that we will write another EP by the end of this year.
This project allows us to create without expectations or constraints. There’s no pressure, no calculation — just instinct. The riffs come out raw, the structures are organic, and nothing is shaped by external expectations.
That freedom is addictive. And that’s exactly why a second EP is already a certainty.

Your most insane dream with the band would be?
Hugo Martins: Honestly, the most insane dream would be to keep doing exactly this — to continue writing EPs and albums, to reach as many people as possible, and to do it all without ever playing live.
It sounds ironic, but it actually feels true to the nature of this project. No expectations, no traditional path — just music existing on its own terms.

Some words on your local scene — bands you’re friends with and would like to mention?
Hugo Martins: The Porto scene is going through a very strong underground phase right now. There’s a real sense of movement — a lot of active projects and new bands constantly emerging. It feels like a bubble, but in a positive way. Creative, restless and alive.
A big part of that comes from Stop — an old shopping center that has become a cultural hub and rehearsal space for countless artists. It’s chaotic, raw and far from perfect, but it’s also where a huge part of the scene breathes and grows. Hundreds of rooms, hundreds of bands — almost like its own ecosystem.
At the same time, there’s a clear contradiction. While creativity is thriving, the city is losing spaces to actually play live. There’s a lack of venues, and places with history and identity are disappearing — like Barracuda, which is now closing or at risk.
It raises an important question: how can a scene truly sustain itself without spaces to exist physically? You can have all the creativity in the world, but without places to share it, something is always missing.
Still, maybe that tension is part of what keeps the underground alive — adapting, resisting, and constantly finding new ways to exist !