German metalcore band Coma-Taj flips the script on the genre with their new brutal and grisly single "Infinite Void," inspired by the Doom Eternal videogame soundtrack.
When looking at German metalcore band Coma-Taj, nothing will strike you about this band as conventional. Dig through the genres and there is nothing really that technically explains their musical heaviness and style, unless you listen to Doom Eternal soundtrack from start to finish and live in the atmosphere for a while, there is a good chance you could live and breathe this band's musical conviction.
“The first time I heard Mick Gordon's Doom soundtrack I was completely blown away! It was right around the time we started figuring out what we wanted to do with the band, and I remember telling everyone: "I want THAT".”
Brutal and imposing, Coma Taj's new single, "Infinite Void," thrives off that energy while its lyrics engagingly take us into the atmosphere of nightmarish terror. While the band is just starting to come into their own sound, the future looks positive for the new German powerhouse metallers.
What started Coma-Taj? What inspired the name behind the band?
Christian Hendges: We're all good friends. Some of us played in different projects. When those came to an end, we wanted to start something new. This was heavier than anything we had done before. Coma-Taj was supposed to be a band that was just about being extremely heavy! We got our name from watching the Doctor Strange film. The city from which Dr. Strange gets his powers was called Kamar-Taj, which we found cool, and changed to Coma-Taj!
What are your musical influences? I know there is this massive metalcore vehicle you guys ride under, but there are other heavy influences that tie into this.
Christian Hendges: Metallica's Black album is one of my favorite records of all time! I was always really drawn to that super-heavy simplicity and loved those mid-tempo bangers on there. Other than that, we are really into bands like Bodysnatcher, The Acacia Strain, Emmure, and Darko US.
I know this new single, "Infinite Void" is video game-inspired! One of my favorite topics to cover, haha. Especially when it comes to the collaboration of both topics of videogames and rock music. What made you guys want to make this the creative focus around the Doom Eternal soundtrack for this single?
Christian Hendges: The first time I heard Mick Gordon's Doom soundtrack I was completely blown away! It was right around the time we started figuring out what we wanted to do with the band, and I remember telling everyone: "I want THAT". I don't think I'm much of a gamer (like you haha), but that soundtrack was so good. I had to play both of the games.
Every song we have in our set is inspired by that soundtrack. We want to continue to bring stuff forward that sounds like a beatdown version of the Doom soundtrack.
Lyrically where does "Infinite Void" stem from? Can we touch on that?
Christian Hendges: Sure! As far as I know, the song is about night terrors. One of the guys in the band suffers from that, and we wanted to do something with that subject matter!
How would you say this single was different from releases you have worked on before? You guys had a few singles that were released from 2018 through 2020.
Christian Hendges: I think "Infinite Void" is the most "melodic" song we have written. The other tracks are more chromatic and dissonant. This one has a hook with like an actual melody in there. We're going into the studio pretty soon, and none of those tracks are that melodic. We want to get back into recording and releasing stupidly heavy music!
What is next for you guys this year?
Christian Hendges: Well, we have played our first two shows since the pandemic, and we are scheduled to play a couple more shows down the road, which is always great. Also, we're going to be recording two new singles, which we will drop throughout the year and hopefully find an audience and more people that like what we do!