Coming from Ottawa, Canada, the band Recondite is trying to get its place in the death grind scene (this is extremely difficult to do). We talked with bassist Topon Das about the band, other projects and things like that.

Do you consider yourself a death /grindcore band or is there another
definition that you prefer for your music?
Ya, I'd say the best description of RECONDITE would be death / grind. We do
use a lot of melodic and harmony riffs, and we're total speed grind junkies,
but it's all brutal.

How was the show with Criptopsy on December? Are they a band that
influenced your music?
Criptopsy is a band that everyone in Recondite really likes, mainly there
first 2 albums, so it was awesome to play a show with them. I got to talk
with the singer and bassist, and they we're really cool guys. they also
really enjoyed our set, and have said some good stuff about us in Montreal
which resulted in us getting a couple of phone calls and offers for future
shows.

Do you have plans to edit the show from September 2000 that you recorded
on CD or tape?
No, we just wanted to put those 2 songs up on mp3 cause it had been awhile
since we recorded and we thought the sound was decent from that show, those
are also 2 of our newer songs. We will be going to record a couple of songs
this weekend that might end up on a split 7" with Mortuary I.O.D. (holland),
depending on how the recording turns out.

Can you tell me about the history of the band?
Well, Bill (guitar) and Jay (drums) started the band about 2 or so years
ago. At the time I was also playing with Jay in a band called Vile Intent,
he asked me to come down and jam with them, so i did. Over time Vile Intent
fell apart, so Recondite ended up being our main band. I knew Matt (vocals) a
bit, and asked him to come down, and that all worked out. Finally we added
Ron (guitar) who also used to play in Vile Intent.

Are there any plans of touring to support the material when you finish
the recording?
We probably won't really tour until we have a full lenght CD to support.
Until then we'll just be playing out of town, and here once in awhile. We
still don't have concrete plans to record a full lenght, but it's something
i hope will happen fairly soon.

How different is the sound of recondite now that you have added a second
guitar?
Ron is a great guitar player and really adds lots to the band. Our 2 guitars
really complement each other. We also have alot of guitar harmonies now, so
i guess our sound has changed slightly.

Is Matt a fan of growling vocals or maybe we will see some clean vocals
in the future?
I'd be really surprised if Matt started doing clean vocals. If anything,
Matt's vocals just keep getting deeper. He's really into bands like
Disgorge, Nile, and Broken Hope, etc...so, I'd expect alot more deep stuff
from him.

Which are the bands main influences?
There is a wide variety of stuff we listen to, we're all different. I said
what Matt's into, but as for the rest of us; Ron doesn't listn to much music
at home but he's into brutal american and melodic euro death metal, he's big
on the harmonies. Bill likes brutal death metal, probably mainly the euro
stuff, and he's also into that crazy underground black metal like Enslaved,
etc... Jay like everyone else is into the brutal american and euro death
metal, i guess we all like the brutal shit!! as for me i'm more into
grindcore and i love the experimenatl shit. i also love the brutal death
grind, but i'm really into bands like Naked City, Mr. Bungle, Discordance
Axis, etc...

How are the songs in Recondite composed?
Bill and Jay are the main song writers. they pretty much put the songs
together, and then show them to us. We all give our ideas after that,
sometimes Ron throws in a riff here and there, and i think he even wrote
most of one song. Matt and Bill do the lyrics and then Matt just figures the
vocals on his own. We're not the fastest song writers, but we make sure
we're happy with every song.

Interviewed by Federico Marongiu