Slice of Sorrow. Interview with Roman Nemstev

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Slice of Sorrow are a cool band from Moscow, Russia. Andrew Stanton talked to Roman Nemstev about the new album.

Hello and welcome to Inside the Darkness.

"Hi, thank you."

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

Slice of Sorrow is a Metal band from Russia, it was founded in 2015. The style is hard to determine, we just call it atmospheric Death Metal but after our second album I don't know how to describe it. It's a mixture of Melodic Death, Heavy, Gothic, Industrial Metal and even a little bit Blues. We've released two albums and two singles so far, played in different cities of Russia and outside of it, opened for Cradle of Filth.

- How do you get time to manage so many bands?

"Well, my main secret weapon is a calendar in my phone. It really helps to keep things in order and not forget anything important."

- Does singing in English stop you from gaining local fans?

“No, I don’t think so. Of course, there are some people who prefer to listen to songs only in Russian but the majority of people listen to bands in any language. For example, there are plenty of fans of Rammstein here and their songs are in German, Iron Maiden’s songs are in English. I think it’s just a matter of taste regardless of what country you are in.”

- Do people expect your style to be completely different from Instorm? Slice of Sorrow isn’t to show fans what else you can do?

“Yes, very often people tell me that they like Instorm and don’t like Slice of Sorrow and the other way around as well. So, yes people expect something completely different from my bands and they get it. Slice of Sorrow is heavier, more melancholic and experimental, also it’s less neoclassical. I think the music of SOS is a little bit simpler for understanding.”

- Why is it very rare for great Russian bands to make it big outside of Russia?

“Oh, if I only knew I would make my bands big worldwide. Frankly I don’t know and I could cry about hard life in Russia but I’m not that kind of a guy. I can tell you this - there are plenty of very talented and professional bands in Russia that could be equal to the famous bands. So, it’s not due to the lack of talent or professionalism. For example, Russian Heavy Metal band Aria for my taste is better than Iron Maiden, actually they both are in list of my favourite bands. So why Aria is not so famous as Iron Maiden? I don’t know, I think in the end it all comes down to finance and management.”

- What do you think of Grindcore?

“Oh, I don’t think about it at all. I listen to very different styles of music but Grindcore is just not for me.”

- Do you think Cannibal Corpse gives Death Metal a bad name?

“I don’t know, what did they do? I don’t follow the news and gossips at all. I just can say about this band that they have a huge number of fans and it means that the band is very professional and they have my respect for it.”

- What can fans expect from your new album?

“They can expect very diverse album with 12 different songs. You can’t listen to one song and think that you heard the whole album. You should check out every song. It’s a mixture of a bunch of different styles, Melodic Death, Gothic, Industrial, Heavy Metal. It has fast songs and also has some slow ballads. There are extreme and clean vocals, very atmospheric keyboards. And the lyrics are not the usual “I hate the world” type of stuff. It has much deeper meaning. The album is about egoism and how it affects people and the world itself. There are themes about aging which is also a story of countess Bathory, sopor, hypocrisy, human negative impact on nature, horror on Chernobyl nuclear power plant, social media addiction, harem. Also, it has one instrumental composition. Well, just check it out and pick something for yourself.”

- Do you have a message for our readers?

“Thank you for reading this interview, I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to support us listen to Slice of Sorrow on Spotify, buy our CDs or simply share our music with your friends and family. It means a lot to us. Live with passion and fire! \m/”