The Total Sound Of The Undergound

Lelahel Metal

Fabulae Dramatis defies genre boundaries with their progressive metal infused with Latin American rhythms. Their upcoming album 'Violenta' explores personal experiences and cultural reflections in a cathartic journey.

1. Fabulae Dramatis has been described as a band that transcends traditional genre boundaries. How would you describe your musical style and what influences have shaped your sound?

Our musical style is progressive metal and now with more Latin American rhythms in it. You can say that for this album we focused more in those 2 styles. In general we describe our music as a Metal act of heavy world music.

2. Your new single “Fábula Violenta” chronicles a childhood during war. Can you share more about the inspiration behind this song and its significance to the band?

This song is based on one of the situations I experienced in my childhood during the Colombian drug’s war in the 90’s. The context in our new album “Violenta” is because we choose to address personal topics in a way to express ourselves in a cathartic way. Every song refers to a personal experience of the band members. In the same way were the previous singles “The City (Translucent)” and “Lead Astray | Indigo, were also based on personal experiences of our band members.

3. The upcoming album ‘Violenta’ appears to be deeply personal and reflective. How did the process of creating this album differ from your previous works?

The concept of “Violenta” is to tell stories as we usually do. This time these are situated in the actual time and our reality and based in our personal perspective of the world. Every song refers to a personal experience of the band members.

4. You’ve received numerous awards for your music videos, including the Cannes Film Awards. How important are visuals in your storytelling, and what role do they play in your overall artistic vision?

Fabulae Dramatis is a project that includes different artistic disciplines besides music. Such as video art, dance, theater, costume, fire arts, etc. So the visuals are also an important part of the whole concept. We want to take the audience to a unique world of creativity where they allow themselves to experience the different paths that we have to offer to them.


5. Classic Rock Society magazine mentioned that your music has “the spirits of Zappa and Beefheart”. How do you feel about this comparison, and what other artists have inspired you?

When we come together to create music we don’t consciously focus on projecting our music influences. If they happen to appear in our compositions it’s definitely in a subconscious way. It’s funny but none of us really listened actively to Frank Zappa or Beefheart,  but we understood what Classic Rock Society meant in terms of being experimental. Those artists didn’t really care about music genres. They just enjoyed music creation without limitations and labels. Those were examples of how we sounded back then. Now our music is more directed to 2 genres. You may call this new album “Progressive Latin Metal”.

6. The new album ‘Violenta’ is produced by Martín Furia and Gustavo Adolfo Valderrama. How did their involvement influence the sound and direction of the album?

They helped us channel our music direction to this Progressive Latin Metal style we were initially composing. You could hear the first ideas with The City (Translucent) which was released in 2020. With the rhythmic influences from the Balkan and Bulgaria from our drummer Teo Dimitrov we could find a lot of similarities with the Latin American percussion patterns. So given the fact for him it was so natural to play, we just let our roots talk through our music in each personal way and be ourselves surprised that we have much more in common than we thought. So Furia and Valderrama are both Latin American producers specifically from Argentina and Colombia and they have a wide ‘music vocabulary’. So they put their own vision towards music structure, harmony, lyrics and even band projection. It has been an honor to work with both. In the process we have become very good friends and we will continue the same workflow with them for future productions from now on.

7. Your music often deals with intense and dramatic themes. How do you balance the heaviness and intensity with moments of intimacy in your compositions?

This depends on the mood. We can manage to incorporate several types of sound,  So sometimes we can sound very soft and intimate and use different singing techniques; vocal ranges and balance instrumental and vocal parts in order to evoque a specific feeling of emotion. We also sometimes mix languages in our lyrics to give a special touch.

8. Can you tell us more about the personal and intimate experiences that are reflected in ‘Violenta’? How do you hope these stories resonate with your audience?

We want to project ourselves in a very humble and human way. No fantasy and legends this time. We present this album just as human beings like you and me and our vision about the world where the audience hopefully can relate to our music and message.


9. Looking back at your discography, how do you feel your music has evolved since your debut album ‘Om’? What are some of the key changes and developments you’ve experienced as a band?

It evolved in all perspectives. The debut album ‘Om’ meant literally the first syllable we pronounced in our music carriere as Fabulae Dramatis. It was raw, no planned, no channeled, we were a studio project back then. “Solar Time’s Fables” collected fables/stories from different cultures and times. It was kind of a split in two parts where you could find some world music and some other progressive/avant-garde songs.

Now “Violenta” has a specific music direction Progressive Latin Metal, exploring lower tunings and time signatures.

10. What are your plans for the future after the release of ‘Violenta’? Are there any tours,        collaborations, or new projects on the horizon that you can share with us?

We are working on our album release which is going to be September 7th 2024; followed by a festival day in October and a “Violenta-tour” for 2025.

Fabulae Dramatis | Avant-Garde/Progressive Metal

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