Black Orchid Empire’s new album, Tempus Veritas, out now via Season of Mist, is a gorgeous, flowing record that is awash in melodic guitars, soaring vocals, and complex rhythms. And it was a long time in the making.
“The writing for Tempus Veritas started in 2020, before (previous album) Semaphore was even released,” explains vocalist and guitarist Paul Visser. “Initial riffs and ideas were being thrown around remotely for a fairly long time, and then we sat down together to flesh out the ideas and crystalize the concepts. We have a super collaborative process with all three of us working on every part, even the lyrics. That way, we can all remain objective about our own ideas, which is vital to fully serve each song.
“I think it really helps that we all regularly produce other people’s music, so we can make more impartial decisions about our own songs in the same way. We record everything ourselves at our studio (The Recording Studio London), and then I work on the mixes. The final mastering is done by our friend Ermin Hamidovic—He’s a truly brilliant engineer and the only other person who has a sonic impact on the record.”
When it comes to how this differs from previous records, Visser feels Tempus Veritas is the most satisfying when it comes to melody.
“It definitely leans towards the more soaring and epic side of our sound. Having said that, it pushes hard into the technical and heavy parts, too. I feel like we found our feet with Semaphore, and Tempus definitely builds on that tonality. Label-wise, we’ve been really lucky to have had great experiences with our previous label, and working with Season Of Mist has been fantastic so far as well. Fingers crossed for the future!”
Conceptually, the album leans into historical themes, unlike the sci-fi themes of Semaphore.
“This album has the concept of historical fiction —hi-fi to Semaphore‘s sci-fi. We looked for little pockets of fictional narrative in historical stories and found new ideas amongst the events we all think of as facts. In doing that, we are able to talk about a wide range of subjects from really unique viewpoints.”
Photo courtesy of Black Orchid Empire
