Event Horizon

Event Horizon is a progressive death metal band from Los Angeles, founded by guitarist and composer Max Sindermann. 2013 brought the release of a debut EP The Emancipation of Dissonance. The EP was fully written by Sindermann, with the help of vocalist Brandon Leigh.

Event Horizon returned this February with the release of sophomore EP titled A Nightmare of Symmetry. This time in a full band line-up comprised of Sindermann as guitarist and singer, guitarist David Cortes, bassist Vincent Medina and drummer Jacob Alves, the quartet has made a step further in what was the original mission of the band: creating progressive death metal with tons of classical influences. It has to be mentioned that Sindermann is trained in classical music, so that also speaks about the influences that can be heard in the music.

A Nightmare of Symmetry showcases more complex riffs and more originality due to the fact that the band is made of entirely permanent members. Many of Event Horizon‘s songs here enter incredibly melodic acoustic passages and give the listener a break from the huge metal riffs that pound eardrums. Sindermann screams intense, powerful metal growls and still shows his ability to sing clean, beautiful vocals when needed. Jacob Alves never falls into the metal stereotype of relying on double bass. While he does kick the double bass sixteenth in the climatic moments, he knows how to make a great metal drum feel without it. However, he and Vincent Medina serve as background and an undercurrent for the guitar riffing, which is nearly always the instrumental theme.

Event Horizon

As far as the death metal section of the Event Horizon formula goes, the riffing is original, powerful, and tight. Often, the bass will follow the guitar riff if it isn’t a chordal riff. Lead guitar parts harmonize and create an extremely evil and dissonant aura about them. The harmonizations are mixed much better and often sit on top of the guitar riff, not heard unless the listener tries to find them. Typically, Event Horizon allows the riff to be heard by itself for a few repetitions with the lead guitar soloing before Sindermann enters with his powerful metal growling. When it is time for a full out guitar solo, whoever is soloing lets all hell break loose. He covers the entire fretboard and plays tastefully. Unlike so many metal guitarists, both guitars know how to make an enjoyable solo rather than playing as many notes as possible within 3 seconds. They usually extend the color tones (3rd, 7th, 9th, etc) of the chords and create jazzy melodies, or as close to a jazzy melody that a death metal band can get.

The melodic acoustic side of Event Horizon is in some ways better than their metal sound. The guitar patterns, again, are the instrumental theme, but the bass often creates a hidden countermelody with the guitar. Vincent Medina makes a much better bassist in this style than the metal, holding his own melodies and never succumbing to the guitar lines. Sindermann sings beautifully, and if Event Horizon produced an album entirely made of these dark, brooding acoustic passages, he would never be expected to be able to scream, let alone scream well. His tone is dark, warm, and round, like the perfect euphonium or tuba sound. The chord progressions are often dissonant and dark. The passages are reminiscent of riding horseback in a dark, quiet night.

Putting these two formulas together creates a full, epic release that sets the stage for the follow up and breakthrough album. There are no long songs on A Nightmare of Symmetry; two tracks clock around two minutes, and three songs are between 5 and 8-minute marks. Each song comes with a new energy and aura about them. Song formats never follow anything typical, and listening for the first time is often mind-blowing because of the unexpected climaxes, transitions, and virtuosity in every second of the EP. The acoustic passages make a much larger appearance on the record, being mostly the entire song in opening “Assymetrical” and “The Light That Carries Me.” Prog Death Metal mini-epic “Beyond the Fourth Wall” opens with a series of riffs, just to be intersected with another acoustic passage in the verse, followed with the opening melody.

“The Red Waltz” comes as yet another acoustic interlude. “First World Phenomenon” builds up to a sweet metallic end, but it has extremely gripping vocal lines, especially the chorus.

A Nightmare of Symmetry has a potential to put Event Horizon in the direction of becoming one of the greatest metal bands in the coming years. My recommendation would be to treat the EP as a single unit, under which circumstances it plays best, although individual songs can be satisfying. Each time I listen there is something new to discover — all in all, a story worth rereading. - Prog Sphere

Los Angeles-based Event Horizon was founded by guitarist Max Sindermann with the mission to “bridge the gap between classical guitar and modern death metal.” In 2013 Event Horizon put out a debut EP ‘The Emancipation of Dissonance,’ and back in February this year the band released their sophomore EP release ‘A Nightmare of Symmetry.’

Event Horizon is one of the bands in Prog Sphere Android app’s playlist for March 2017. You can download the app and vote for their song “The Light That Carries Me.” In the interview below, Sindermann tells us about the writing and recording processes of the new EP, its message, and more.

Tell me about the creative process that informed your second EP A Nightmare of Symmetry, released in February, and the themes it captures.

I started developing my creative musical approach when I was 19-20 years old. I was in a local death metal band here in LA called Norazzah. We had been getting some positive feedback in the local scene, but eventually things fell apart due to personal and financial reasons. I didn’t really have the self-confidence at the time to think I was capable of writing solid progressive music. I was in music school at the time and doing a lot of theory homework. I got this idea to try and take the classical approach of creating harmonic structure within music and using that in a metal context. The first song I wrote was “A Lapse of Sanity,” which was on our first EP, The Emancipation of Dissonance. The whole thing just exploded from there. I started writing more music while taking this approach, and eventually my classical guitar playing started taking a front-row seat, to the point where I had to stop playing with a pick entirely.

A Nightmare of Symmetry is a further exploration on that compositional approach. I was really trying to push the bounds of where I could go, and I also wanted to show that even with the strong classical influence, the music could still be really heavy and punishing. I wanted this to be a pure expression of my love for all these different styles of music, and I think as a full band, we were really able to accomplish that.

What is the message you are trying to give with A Nightmare of Symmetry?

I’m not sure where the message really lies in our music. Much of the music I write is very personal. More often than not, I take an approach that’s pretty introspective. Lyrically speaking, I’m usually dealing with subjects like mental illness, existentialism, fear of the unknown, etc. Musically speaking, I’m always about creating something that stirs deep emotions within the listener. I guess that’s what the message is all about in the end, reaching out to my audience and handing over a piece of myself to them. Sometimes all you need your music to do is create a small bond with a stranger you might never meet.

A Nightmare of Symmetry

How did you document the music while it was being formulated?

I’m definitely a pen-and-paper kind of dude when it comes to writing music. Since the music is all grounded in complex harmonic structures, I always need to see it all laid out in front of me. I don’t really like recording riffs or jamming it out. I need to have it in the form of blueprints in front of me, where I’m able to see all the moving parts within the music.

Is the dynamic flow of the pieces carefully architected?

I like to think of my approach to writing music as a storytelling process. The music is all about taking the listener on a rollercoaster ride of different emotions. So in that sense, the dynamic flow has to be carefully articulated in order to make that process work. I spend a lot of time making sure the music is carefully transitioning so that the listener is being guided through the experience. I think sometimes prog bands get a little out of hand and let the music become a sporadic mix of jumbled-up parts. I look at Event Horizon songs as having an exposition, development, climax, and resolution. Those all need to be firmly connected together in order for the piece to work as a whole.

Describe the approach to recording the EP.

We had a pretty simple approach. I handled the guitars, bass, and vocals much like the first EP, right out of my apartment. The difference this time was everyone got to contribute. Jacob wrote some amazing drum parts that almost sound like Neil Peart meets death metal. Vincent Medina, our bass player, got to lay down his own tracks, as well as a few bass leads. There’s an excellent improvised bass solo at the end of “First World Phenomenon” which is a great display of his virtuosic abilities. Our other guitarist, David Cortes, handled all the orchestrations on the intro track “Asymmetrical.” David’s background in classical composition really helped set the mood for the whole EP. The big difference in our recording process this time was around is that we were now functioning like a full unit, and not just a solo project. It really feels like a complete product this time around.

Max SindermannHow long A Nightmare of Symmetry was in the making?

Actually quite a while! I started working on the songs shortly after I released The Emancipation of Dissonance in 2013. At the time it was all just a bedroom project. I had been handling all the compositions and instrumentals myself, and then working with a Belgian-based vocalist named Brandon Polaris. He did an excellent job on the first EP, and had this really booming, powerful voice. When I started working on new music, it became hard for us to coordinate it. For a while it felt like it was never going to happen.

Fast forward a bit, I’m hanging out at a dive bar in K-town wearing a Dying Fetus shirt. I get approached by a drummer who wants to jam. I had nearly given up on getting new music released at that point, and I met so many flakey musicians that I didn’t expect much to come of it. Next thing I know, I’m getting hit up constantly to get into a rehearsal room and play some music. And of course, that ended up being our drummer, Jacob Alves. He really helped push things forward. We started putting together a live band, and with everyone’s input and hard work, we were finally able to get new music rolling out.

Which bands or artists influenced your work on the release?

On the metal side, I can say my two biggest influences have been Opeth and Cynic. There’s a lot more than that obviously, but those two really inspired me to get into creative progressive music. Each of them has such a unique approach to metal, and they each use different sounds and flavors to create something unique, not to mention how deeply emotional and layered their music can be. A lot of my other influences though come from the classical side. I’m really into Romantic and Twentieth Century era composers like Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Debussy, Tarrega, etc. Those are the composers that had a lasting impact on me, and really helped me to shape the sound for Event Horizon.

What is your view on technology in music?

Ha, that’s never an easy question to answer. I think when we start talking about the merits of the analog versus digital ages, the conversation gets really convoluted. Since a lot of our music is rooted on metal and classical music, most people would probably assume we’re grounded firmly in an analog approach to our creative process. But personally, I don’t fear technology at all. In fact, I love it. I think people have this big fear of new technologies coming in and stepping over everything, when that’s not totally a grounded way of thinking. I oftentimes joke that when the remote control was invented, there were a bunch of old people sitting around going, “I hate these new fangled television remotes, I really just like the feeling of getting out of my comfortable chair and feeling those knobs between my fingers!”

I guess it’s a touchy subject in the music world because technology really grants people without the talent or skill the ability to come in and create. I can see the fear in that. When technology makes things easier, there’s less incentive to want to learn or put in the time to become good at something. But on the flip-side of that, there’s opportunities for skilled, talented people to use that technology to their advantage and create things that are wholly new. Not to mention technology gives artists like us the ability to record and distribute our music without the need of expensive equipment and a fancy studio.

I think as the world changes, there’s valuable relics from the past that can get lost if we aren’t willing to preserve them. However, sometimes there’s things that don’t serve a purpose anymore that we need to learn to let go of. It’s hard to tell which is which sometimes. The world is changing so fast for us that we’re all so overwhelmed with it to really figure it out. We have to strike a balance in there somewhere. I think as long as there’s passionate, dedicated musicians who genuinely care about their craft, we’ll end up being fine in the end of the day.


Do you see your music as serving a purpose beyond music?

I think all art really serves a similar purpose, and that’s trying to communicate to the audience. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to communicate, it could be a thought, feeling, joke, idea, or whatever it is you want to get across. It’s kind of easy in prog to sort of nerd out and make it all about making the music more complex. But sometimes if you do that you forget the real purpose at the center of it all, which is to make a connection with the audience. So I guess I feel like music should always really be serving a purpose beyond just being music.

What are your plans for the future?

Right now our plan is to keep putting ourselves out here and hopefully put out more music. Our plans aren’t full concrete yet. We’ve definitely learned through our experiences that life throws a lot of curveballs and we make a lot of mistakes we need to learn from as we push forward, but we always have plans to keep creating. Personally, I am really into the idea of going back to The Emancipation of Dissonance and re-recording it from scratch. I feel like things have changed so much since I pulled that little EP together in my bedroom, and taking another stab at it with a full band could really show how the whole group has evolved. Whatever we end up doing next though, I have high hopes for it! - Prog Sphere

If you listen to the AMP podcast it’s easy to get the impression that my music diet consists solely of gritty death and black metal, but to be honest I spend a lot more of my personal listening time on the proggier side of metal, with the likes of Opeth, Steven Wilson, Soen, Symphony X, and Nevermore. I like having a lot to chew through when I’m absorbing music, and the ever-changing song structures and dynamic in prog give the biggest bang for the buck in that area. One such band recently is California’s Event Horizon, who you may remember from Episode 44. They have a new EP out called ‘A Nightmare of Semmetry’, and composer/band leader Max Sindermann took a few moments to talk about it.



What’s the history of the band? How did it come together?

Back in the late 2000s I was fronting a death metal band called Norazzah. We were getting some pretty good feedback in the local scene, but we were also dealing with personal and financial issues. I had been getting into progressive music at the time but really lacked the self-confidence to think I was capable of writing music up to that level.

Once the project fell apart I was sort of trying to regroup. I had been slowly incorporating some of my classical guitar playing into Norazzah while it was still together, but never really fully fleshed it out. I was in music school at the time and stuck doing harmonization homework for my theory classes. I got this idea that instead of sitting around and writing metal riffs, I could apply all these harmonization techniques into my music and start creating metal that was more based in classical-influenced harmonic structure. The experiment led me to write our first song, “A Lapse of Sanity,” which was on our first EP, The Emancipation of Dissonance. I was really proud of it at the time, and all I could think of from there was, “Can I take this concept any further?”

So I gathered up all my metal influences and started applying all my knowledge of classical music to start tying new ideas together. A lot of times when metal bands do classical, it tends to be old stuff from the early Classical and Baroque periods. I was super into Romantic and 20th Century music. I loved how dark and experimental it could be. That was really where I took a lot of influence from. Then slowly, my classical guitar playing started bleeding more and more into the music. Eventually I was fusing my right-hand finger-picking techniques into more than just the acoustic sections. I had to start figuring out new techniques in order to play some of the shit I was writing. I could see I really had an idea taking shape, and I just kept running with it.

I recorded The Emancipation of Dissonance in 2013 with a vocalist from Belgium I met online named Brandon Polaris. He was a killer vocalist and it came out pretty good, but it was tough to get it any traction. I started working on some of the new music that came out on A Nightmare of Symmetry in 2014, but there were a ton of roadblocks along the way and it wasn’t until now that I was able to get it all out. In that timeframe though, I met the amazingly talented group of musicians that I play with now.

What are some of the common influences between the band members that led you to your sound?

There’s definitely a common love for metal and progressive music in the band, but what makes it interesting is the major differences between everyone. Jacob, our drummer, has these very strong foundations in death metal and progressive rock. He’s equal parts Rush and Cannibal Corpse. It gives him a really dynamic playing style that works very well with the music.

Vincent, our bass player, actually doesn’t have much of a background in metal at all. He’s a jazz and classical guy. He knew a little metal coming into the project, but he was mostly just into the progressive aspects of the music. I saw his intense passion from the first day I met him and I knew he was the right guy. He’s a monster on his 6-string fretless bass, and he really brings a whole new dimension to the rhythm section that wasn’t there on that first EP.

Our other guitarist, David, is probably most similar to myself in terms of influences. We both love metal and classical music. He’s a big Opeth fan like myself, and so we hit it off right away. He’s got a lot of experience not just as a player, but as a composer. He’s got some more years on me, so he brings a lot of ideas and perspective to the table that really help solidify the compositions.

Event Horizon definitely sounds like a studio version of mad scientist’s chemistry experiment, but is any of the music born in a rehearsal room with everyone jamming?

Actually not so much. I tend to do my best writing when I’m locked away in my studio, grinding out ideas and fleshing them all out on paper. I’ve certainly had some good ideas over the years when I’ve jammed things out with people, but I’m definitely a pen-and-paper kind of dude. I need to see it all laid out in front of me so I can take a small idea and then build up on it. I like when music is laid out like a big blueprint upon which I can build up my ideas.







You’re classically trained in music, which definitely comes across in the music, and you obviously like to mix elements and cross genre boundaries, but do you have to consciously reel yourself back in when you’re writing to stop from going down too many rabbit holes? In progressive music it’s easy to lose your way and not see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Yeah, that tends to be a huge issue in the writing process. Overthinking a good idea usually tends to be the first mistake I make. I’ll be sitting down with a good musical idea and trying to flesh it out, and my first instinct is to think, “How can I make this something that’s more complex?” Of course, the first questions I should really be asking are, “Is this captivating? Will it resonate with the audience? Does it connect with people?” Sometimes there’s this desire to want to nerd out and go big with every idea, but then you start making things overly convoluted. When you’re writing progressive music you get so caught up in being a music geek that you can bury a good idea in too many layers. The most important thing in the end of the day is that you’re taking a feeling or idea born out of your heart and communicating that with the audience. Obviously I want the audience to be as excited about all the nerdy shit as I am, but most of the time they’re not listening to the music and focussing on all the rhythmic/harmonic complexity, they’re just looking to feel something. What I hope most for the listener is that the music moves them.

Tell us about the recording process of the EP; who’d you work with and where did you lay everything down?

Working through the EP was definitely a nightmarish process. I started working out the ideas back in 2014 and laying down some tracks back then. It was originally going to be just a bedroom project, like our first EP was, but everything kept going wrong. I lost our original vocalist, and that put the project on a long hiatus. It was shortly after that I met Jacob Alves, our drummer, in a dive bar out in Koreatown. He approached me because I was wearing a Dying Fetus shirt and he had been looking for other people to jam with. I meet a lot of musicians that are pretty flakey though. I had quite a few drinks that night and honestly wasn’t sure I’d hear from him again. But I underestimated how passionate he was, and within a couple of weeks we were in the rehearsal room together.

Jacob is a highly motivated guy, so the two of us really start pushing things in the right direction. We got our bassist, Vincent Medina, who is a real beast on the instrument. He’s got a strong background in classical and jazz, and so I decided to really utilize the bass more on the songs. I even started letting him improvise his own lines and really put his own feeling into the music. Then we got David Cortes on guitar, and he had a really strong classical background as well. He was actually responsible for all the orchestration on the opening track “Asymmetrical.” So now we had another classically-trained member who had a lot of his own composition experience and perspective to bring to the table. Once we all got together I just decided to take up the vocal mantle myself. I had to take lessons for quite a while before I was really ready to lay the tracks down.

We actually wrote an entire album’s worth of music, but so many things went wrong along the way. When you’re doing a DIY project, you tend to make a lot of dumb mistakes. I don’t even know how many times I had to record and re-record the guitar tracks. But the team really came together throughout the process. I’m really fortunate to be working with a group of guys who are not only talented, but also incredibly dedicated and hard-working. We spent just one weekend laying down all the drum tracks in a small studio, and worked Jacob to death. I did most of the guitars and vocals right in my project studio. When we saw how long things were taking, we shortened the record down to an EP, because we were more concerned with getting the music out. The mixing and mastering was down at Perdido Studios in Spain, and they did a really killer job on it. We were super proud of the final product.

What are the plans for the immediate future? Is there a full album in the works?

I certainly hope so! Right now our biggest goal is to get out and do some more shows around Los Angeles, and continue growing our fanbase. We get a lot of great feedback from people online, and we’re hoping we can keep expanding that.

Personally I really want to go back and re-record The Emancipation of Dissonance. I feel like the band has grown so much since I did that EP out of my bedroom, and I’ve noticed a huge change in the music after getting everyone to play those songs together in the practice room. Putting everyone’s talents on the table has really brought some of that music to life, and I think we could benefit from getting the whole band involved and re-releasing it. I also have a strong emotional attachment to some of the music on that EP, as it really set the foundations in place for everything I’ve done since then. There’s still also some unreleased material sitting on my hard drive, and I think people will get really excited about some of the ideas floating around in there. Who knows? Maybe we could extend it into a full-length!

Of course, it’s always tough to say what we’re going to do in the future. One thing I’ve learned doing music professionally is that nothing ever goes how you expect it to. Plans always change and ideas always evolve. But with constant persistence, you work through all the roadblocks and end up coming out with something better than you expected. So whatever ends up happening, I have high hopes for it! - Another Metal Review Blog