1. To kick things off: Tell our audience a bit about the origin story of your Band.
Annihilus Mundi started as a solo bedroom project somewhere between 2016 and 2018. Initially, I just wanted it to be a studio project and never planned for it to turn into anything bigger than that. I released the first album more or less into a void with zero promo or support in 2019, then let the project languish in the writing phase for album 2. I pikced the whole thing back up in 2024 with the ambitions of building the project into a live band, with the second album being a hard relaunch of the band into a live touring ensemble.
2. Tell us about your new project?
We’re in the middle of releasing our second album, The Dead Sea Scrolls, which is a 77-minute concept album based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.
3. If you had to describe the sound of your Band to someone who hasn’t heard you yet: What would you say?
I generally call us a progressive metal band in order to avoid explaining all the nuance and disparate genre influences. More specifically, we sound like what would happen if you combined Dream Theater song structures with Avenged Sevenfold riffs and Deafheaven atmosphere.
4. How has the songwriting evolved with the band over the years? What does that process look like for you lately?
The first album was the culmination of me learning basic production techniques for the first time. Basically any time I learned to do something (automation, synthesizers, sampling, drum programming, etc.) I would find some way to throw it into a song. The first album as a result is all over the place and spends a lot of time sitting in vibes and soundscapes, since learning to create those sounds was most of the fun of the album. This second album was very different. I decided from the beginning that I wanted this to be a concept album, so I wrote out the outline, determined how many tracks I’d need to tell the story, then spent most of the writing process fitting riffs to the outline. This second album is much more cohesive as a result, and features much more intentional instrumentation.
5. Outside of metal, what books, Video Games, movies, or life events leave a mark on your music?
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the obvious answer since the new album is based on it. Beyond that, I am a huge fan of horror movies of all subgenres (psychological thrillers, slashers, supernatural, B-movies, gore, etc.). I am also a big fan of fantasy books, with things like Wheel of Time and the Stormlight Archive making huge marks on me.
6. What are some of the recurring themes or messages you find yourself exploring in your lyrics?
Lots of the songs deal with my relationship to religion, plus the lasting psychological impact it had on me. At a very early age, I considered myself a practicing Catholic, though I always struggled with my ability to truly believe in God. Eventually, I came to consider myself an atheist, and I still struggle with some of the fear instilled in me as a child by all the talk about eternal torture and damnation in Hell.
7. What is one song you’ve written that you feel captures the absolute core identity of the band?
There’s lots of different sides to this band considering the number of influences we have. If I absolutely had to pick one, I think it’s either the title track of our new album (The Dead Sea Scrolls) or Scene Two, Anger from our first album. Both of these songs feature some pretty drastic tonal shifts, with both having some very heavy, jagged death metal riffs next to long sections of quiet ambience.
8. Do you find your energy translates better in an intimate club style venue or a massive festival setting?
The largest show we’ve played so far had a few hundred people in attendance, so the true large festival experience is still yet to come for us. I think we did a pretty great job at that show and we’ve had people come to our smaller club shows since that learned about us at that larger show, so I think we’ve got a pretty good track record when it comes to scaling our energy to match the room.
9. Which Artists or Band inspired you to be in a Band?
My first and oldest love is Linkin Park. They were the ones who first showed me that music could be a truly resonant, emotional experience, not just some sounds you hear on a radio. They inspire and influence me to this day.
10. If you could sit down and collaborate with any Artist or Band right now, who would be at the top of your list and Why?
We’re fortunate to have one of my biggest modern influences already appearing on the album. Alex Haddad, guitarist of Dessiderium (a band that got me through a depressive episode I hit in 2022) and Atheist (one of my favorite death metal bands ever), has a guest solo on King of Thorns. Outside him, I would dearly love to feature Tim Charles of Ne Obliviscaris on a future song. John Petrucci or Jordan Rudess as well.
11. What’s the current Pulse of the Metal Scene from your perspective?
We’re in a very interesting place now with the onset of AI. I think that for the last decade or so, metal has been continuously been facing a sort of gentrification that simplifies it down into TikTok-friendly sound bites. The sudden explosion of popularity of a band like Angine de Poitrine shows that people don’t really want clean, cookie cutter music anymore. They can just go to Suno for that now. There was a time where I thought I might have to tone Annihilus Mundi down to match the trends of the industry, but nowadays, I feel like I have to get even weirder as an intentional rebuke of the plague of AI. I also feel the metal scene at large is very much on the same page. Things are getting less polished, more weird, and more authentic, and I’m fully on board with that.
12. Are there any endorsements or gear brands you’re currently working with that you’d like to shout out?
None at the moment
13. What does your tour calendar look like? Any big shows or festivals we should be made aware of?
We’re in the midst of planning a short northeastern US tour in November in celebration of our album release. Currentl;y we have no festivals booked, but will be actively pursuing them in 2027.
14. What is your very first Metal album you ever bought ?
It was either Death Magnetic or Hybrid Theory, I don’t remember which I bought first. Both were somewhere around 2008 or 2009, when I was 10/11 years old.
15. What was the very first metal concert you ever went to?
If you count them as a metal band, Trans Siberian Orchestra. If not, it was Avenged Sevenfold in 2013 just before Hail to the King released.
16. What is your LinkTree or Online Link ?
