CONVICTION - Healing Wounds Through Raw Catharsis... (France - Traditional Doom Metal - Interview with the whole band).

Hello – Could you introduce yourselves and tell us how it all started for you? Your first encounter with this musical universe, what attracted you, fascinated you, and made you want to make music?
Olivier (Vocals/Guitars) : As far as I'm concerned, Music has always been part of my life, since my very early childhood. My parents always made me listen to music, and they played music themselves—my mother played guitar, my father played clarinet—and we listened to classical music, Jazz... So I have been immersed in music all my life. I started playing piano at the age of six, then guitar at twelve after discovering Rock...
As for Metal, Iron Maiden was the trigger, specifically the album Killers. I HAD to play Metal. Then came the initiatory path towards the extreme with the discovery of Metallica, Slayer, Deicide, Darkthrone (I'm only giving you the key milestones here!). All of this happened very quickly. I would say that between 1992, when I returned to France after nine years in Egypt, and 1994, I consumed Metal like a madman, catching up on the classics I had not yet discovered (it was difficult to find Metal albums in Egypt, apart from a few major names such as Maiden and Metallica), and then diving into the entire Underground Metal scene.
In the middle of all that, I first started discovering the British Doom Death scene, My Dying Bride and so on... I wasn't really into it at first, but one day, on a compilation, I came across Cathedral (Ride and Midnight Mountain taken from...), and then... love at first sight. As it happens, Carnival Bizarre came out a few months later, I think, and I saw them with Deicide, Brutal Truth, Sinister and Fleshcrawl... At that moment I had a revelation: I KNEW that one day I would form a Heavy Doom band.
It took the time it took, but in the meantime I did many things, of course: Black Metal with Temple of Baal, I was part of one of the very first Celtic Metal bands, Bran Barr, long before Folk Metal became fashionable... I also spent some time in Antaeus, which was clearly the most brutal band in the entire Parisian scene...
Today, Music is at the centre of my life; in fact, it is my whole life. It is one of my means of expressing the ineffable, it is a catharsis, a support for reflection and meditation, a gateway to other worlds, a path towards transcendence... It has made me what I am. My entire life.
Teepee (Drums) : Hello, I'm Rachid, aka "Teepee", drummer for Conviction. I have always been in contact with music from a very young age, but my first encounters with Metal and Hard Rock dat back to the beginning of my teenage years. I was curious about this universe, and what first attracted me were the album covers because I am a fan of comic books. That's how I started listening to it. It took me a few years to go from being a simple music fan to becoming a die-hard Metalhead and eventually a musician, because it is a world that very quickly makes you want to become an active part of it. Nearly 35 years later, I can confidently say that it wasn't just a phase!
Fred (Guitars) : Music started when I was very young. My grandparents taught music at the conservatory, and very quickly I was enrolled in a special music programme focused on classical music. Then adolescence arrived, and my entry into high school coincided with the beginning of the grunge wave and the release of The Black Album and Use Your Illusion. It was James Hetfield who made me want to take my father's acoustic guitar out of the cellar where it had been lying for years. Metallica was the first Metal band I quickly became a fan of, but I soon discovered a whole new universe by trading cassette tapes with the long-haired guys at school.
The power of the music spoke to me, as did its epic dimension, and of course the non-conformism conveyed by Metal resonated strongly with my teenage heart. I quickly wore my parents down asking for an electric guitar, which I eventually obtained through patience, savings, and proving that this desire was not just a passing phase. A few months later came my first high-school band (back then, simply owning a guitar was often enough to get you involved in one!).
The years went by, as did student life, until I received a phone call asking me to join Ataraxie. At the same time, I discovered a musical style I barely knew, but with which I immediately developed a strong affinity. It was as if everything I loved about the various styles I had listened to up to that point had been synthesised into a single musical genre. Twenty-five years later, Doom Metal remains my preferred means of artistic expression, my catharsis, and a great source of joy in my life—which is quite paradoxical considering the music I play!
Vincent (Bass) : At the beginning of high school, I came across a species I had never encountered before: long-haired guys wearing Metallica, Slayer and even Morbid Angel back patches. A whole universe opened up to me. A good friend made me a few cassette tapes, and I spent all my pocket money on CDs chosen solely because of their covers... A few disappointments, but ultimately many albums that are now considered classics.
A summer job pushed me towards the bass guitar, along with a few jam sessions with friends. The British scene was the setting for my first encounter with Doom (Icon by Paradise Lost; Like Gods of the Sun by My Dying Bride), but that wasn't the emotion I was looking for at the time. I was searching more for a fast and violent outlet. Slowness came later, through a great deal of extreme Doom of the kind the era knew how to produce, and then, as my tastes became more refined, through "traditional" Doom. The only one, ultimately, that truly deserves that designation.

Tell me about the band... How did you meet? What is the current line-up? What are your previous experiences? And above all, WHY the need to form THIS band?
Olivier: As I was saying, I've known since the 1990s that I would one day create an old-school Doom band. The musicians in Conviction are longtime friends; I've known Fred and Vincent for about twenty years. Rachid is the most recent person I've met, but we immediately got along. So they are all close friends.
Why form THIS band...? There were several signs. The discovery of Cathedral, then Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Godsend, Serenity, Serpent, and all the great Doom Metal classics... (I realise I haven't mentioned Black Sabbath yet, but let's say it's so obvious that it goes without saying—Tony Iommi is the master of us all, regardless of the style of Metal we play, isn't he...)
There were also traumatic experiences that left me with deep wounds, some of which will never heal and that only catharsis can soothe—through Music, in my case. And then there was my first visit to the Collegiate Church of Gisors, where I came across this transi that was a revelation. When I saw that face, I knew it would become the artwork for the first album of my Doom project, which didn't even have a name yet.
Above this transi is written the phrase: "Do now what you will wish to have done when you die." ... Inevitably...
And then one morning, I got up, plugged in my guitar, and composed and recorded the demo in a single day. It was spontaneous, immediate, direct. The culmination of all those years—pure, raw, genuine.

Describe your sound and explain why I should absolutely listen to YOUR band?
Olivier: Conviction's sound is rooted in old-school Heavy Doom. To me, it's Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Pentagram, all blended with the truly extreme dimension of 1990s Doom Death. We've all listened to My Dying Bride, Anathema, Paradise Lost; we've gone through Funeral Doom, Morgion, Skepticism...
There are also influences from music outside the Doom sphere. I'm thinking of Queen, for example. You can catch a glimpse of that influence in the vocal harmonies we enjoy using, particularly on Outworn and My Sanctuary. On My Sanctuary, Fred also plays guitar harmonies that are definitely influenced by a certain Brian May !
Why should you absolutely listen to Conviction? First of all, because you love Doom, and because there are relatively few bands playing this style of Doom in France. In any case, among the bands that play Doom Metal, I think we are the only ones to possess this truly extreme, slow and funereal dimension while still maintaining clear and melodic vocals.
There is a very interesting scene in France with Barabbas, Dionysiaque, Witchorious, and the return of Rising Dust... They are all excellent and each has its own distinctive style. But I do not know of any other current French Doom Metal band that is as crushing, slow, heavy, and therefore fundamentally Doom as Conviction.

Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences? How important are lyrics to you? Are there any specific messages or ideas that you try to develop and share through your lyrics?
Olivier: As far as musical influences are concerned, I think I already answered that question earlier: Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Pentagram, Black Sabbath of course, and to a lesser extent My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema (I'm referring to the Doom era of those bands), Morgion, Skepticism, but also, in the background, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Healey, Pink Floyd...
As for myself, I would even say that some of the sonic textures I try to create with guitar effects such as phaser, tremolo and delay come from a period in the 1990s when I listened to a lot of electronic music, such as Lunatic Asylum's Trancecore and Liza 'N' Eliaz's Hardcore... Even the music from some of the cartoons of my childhood (The Mysterious Cities of Gold!). That mainly concerns the work on the SOUND itself. For me, the search for sound is just as important as the work on songwriting, melodies and riffs.

Tell us about your latest album.
Olivier: We recorded our first album at the home studio of our guitarist, Frédéric Patte-Brasseur, between 2018 and 2020. It was released through Argonauta Records in January 2021. The cover artwork is a reproduction of the transi from the church of Gisors, redrawn by Kax Arts. We are currently putting the finishing touches to the compositions for our second album, which should be released... as soon as possible within the next 12 months!

What are your plans?
Olivier : To finally release this long-awaited second album, play as many shows as possible to promote it, and then quickly release the third one!

What would be your wildest dream with the band?
Olivier : Oh well, we've already experienced something completely surreal the day we replaced My Dying Bride at Hellfest, so it's a bit difficult for me to imagine something even crazier than that. Well, let's go all the way: a Cathedral reunion, playing in France, with Saint Vitus on the bill as well—and them asking us to open for them! Hahaha !

Your BEST & WORST concert as a band – and why?
Olivier: Best concert... Hellfest, where we replaced My Dying Bride, as I mentioned earlier, because it was absolutely insane. We played at the exact time Guns N' Roses were performing on the Main Stage—just imagine that.
People kept arriving throughout our set, and quite a few of them were actually coming from the Guns N' Roses show, which had disappointed them. They heard us while walking past the tent... and they stayed! It was incredible. A lot of people discovered us that night. But each concert has its particular own special thing. At our last concert at Grand Paris Sludge Fest, we had such a strong emotional connection with the crowd...
The worst... Now that's a tough one. I don't have any bad memories of concerts with Conviction—at least not so far—so let's hope it stays that way!
For me, performing live is a true ceremony, a genuine act of giving ourselves to the audience. As much as I love the studio for its "sound laboratory" aspect (using this or that amplifier, this or that effects pedal, adding this or that instrumental layer louder or softer at a particular moment...), live performance is something else entirely: immediate, direct. Feeling the energy flowing in a virtuous circle between us and the audience is unique and irreplaceable.
I see people singing our lyrics. I see people internalising and experiencing our music with incredible intensity. I've even seen people cry during our songs.
That's why I make music: to transcend emotions and personal experiences, so that people can make them their own, integrate them into the scale of their own lives, and send that energy back to us. I know of no feeling comparable to that one.

Upcoming live appearances?
Olivier: We have just played at Grand Paris Sludge. The set was powerful and the chemistry with the audience was particularly intense, and before that, we played at the Little Devil Doom Day in the Netherlands, another awesome night... For the moment, our next scheduled show is the Auberock Metal Night, headlined by Mortuary.
However, our current priority is to focus on the album in order to finally complete it. Nevertheless, if we're offered incredible opportunities... I don't know, imagine being asked to open for a Cathedral reunion! (I know, I'm dreaming.) Obviously, we would jump at the chance!

A few words about your local scene – the bands you're friends with and would like to mention?
Olivier: I'm thinking particularly of Barabbas, Dionysiaque, and Rising Dust... People who play music that truly moves us, but who are also friends, genuine human beings whose honesty and values are real. We should organize a tour or some kind of travelling festival together, which we could quite clearly call "The Four Horsemen"!
At the Little Devil Show, we also played with Iron Void (UK), who have just released a very fine album that I strongly recommend, and with Metalus (Poland), really nice and rather crazy guys, very much in a Reverend Bizarre kind of spirit, with their own unique dose of personal madness.

The last word is yours...
Olivier: Thank you, Fabien, for this interview. See you soon on stage, and we are truly looking forward to delivering our second album to you.
Doom on, brothers and sisters !

Credits : 
Live photos : Eve ov Beer Photo