Interview with Chaney from ENTHEOS!

Entheos is a young progressive American band that for the last 10 years had created waves in the world of well-crafted and aggressive modern metal. Currently they are in Europe supporting their new EP An End To Everything. The package for this tour also features Born Of Osiris, Ingested and The Voynich Code. 

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Chaney Crabb frontwoman for Entheos. We talked about the tour, and the EP.

To talk about the experience of seeing Entheos live is to talk about the unleash of raw energy on stage and a shockwave that hits every single member of the audience, their live show is a testament to their craft and history. We had the opportunity to experience that at the very first date of this tour at Melodka in Brno. They delivered a great set with tracks from almost all their discography, but the new material coming out from their latest EP was amazing to listening to it live.

Miguel (Metal Heart Radio): Hi Chaney, welcome to the Czech Republic. Welcome back to Europe. So you guys are doing a this run with Born of Osiris, Ingested and The Voynich Code.

What are the expectations for this run? 

Chaney: I just expect that it's going to be a little wild honestly, like, we were talking about this earlier. We're playing a lot of what I would call B market cities places that don't get shows often and I find that. When people do not get a chance to go to shows, especially metal shows very often. They kind of go crazy when metal shows do come through. So, I think it's going to be a bit of that. 

MHR: I think it was 2018 since the last time you visited Czech Republic. What do you remember of that show in Nova Chmelnice? 

CC: I don't remember where that was. But that was actually that was the first time we visited here, we were here two years ago in Prague and I can't remember the name of that venue either. But the showers actually and that venue I remember quite well because it was like just a door to a shower room and then you were in a hallway. So you were in the shower or you were in a hallway.

MHR: Last February, Entheos finished a long North American tour. How did that go for you guys? 

CC: It was fantastic, It was just it was with Born of Osiris as well, they're good friends of ours and it was a really good tour I mean, It just make sense for them to just to bring us on over here. 

MHR: Last October you guys released an EP called An End to Everything. How has been the response from the fans to the EP? 
CC: I think it's been fantastic, I mean to me it's the best material that we've put out so far as an EP, and the response has been great. I mean, I can't complain. It was kind of a little warm-up because it was the first time that we fully worked with Mark Lewis who is our producer right now. We're working on a full-length with Mark Lewis, so it was a little secret that will be out I'm guessing early 2026. I as soon as we got home from this tour, I’ll record vocals. 

MHR: What is your favorite song from the EP to play live? 

CC: An End to Everything because I like it's very vocally challenging, specifically there's like this breakdown part that's super-fast and choppy choppy that goes into singing very hard to pull off live very hard to be able to breathe in order to pull that off live. So I like a good challenge.

MHR: So we will see that tonight. 
CC: You will see it tonight.

MHR:  Your voice is definitely one of Entheos identifier literally from the start.
What is your care routine for your voice? 

CC: You know, I just I kind of talk in like a softer voice. I don't employ a loud voice very often. I eat cough drops a lot. I have this Vocal zone thing that's kind of like a humidifier that I use, I just try to get a lot of rest, that's really the biggest care and keep my voice moist and stay away from others, you know, anyone who's sick on a bus, it can be more challenging because I'm breathing in everything.
So I honestly try to drink a little less when I'm in Europe than in the States because in the States It's just contained to my own band, and I know what those guys are doing with their health, here I have no idea. 

MHR: If I ask you. What's on your Spotify playlist at the moment and what are your five songs on repeat, what can we find out?

CC:  My five songs on repeat? 

MHR: Yeah

CC: Let me check, so on the plane I like listening to like instrumental metal on the plane because I have this weird OCD tick where. If I hear any lyrics about crashing or anything like that, it freaks me out. That's my anxiety. So, I was listening to Jean-luc Ponty who played with Zappa. Let’s see what else is on in my library. I Was listening to Marissa Nadler. She is one of my favorites of all time Joni Mitchell, I was listening to Emma Ruth Rundle and Drab Majesty Those are my five. 

MHR: If I ask you five bands that people should be start listening right away. 

CC: Well, if you don't listen to Depeche Mode already, I would say you've made a huge mistake I mean something's wrong with your life. I would say them if people haven't heard of Fredrik Thordendal who is the guitar player of Meshuggah's and his solo project Special defects the album Sol Niger, I would listen to that Marissa Nadler, I'll always say to listen to that circa survive, converge. So, there we go.

MHR: Touring in Europe also gives you the chance to travel around a little bit here and there. What city or town are you most excited to see from during this run? 

CC: You know, I'm really excited. This will be my first time in Athens, and I'm very excited to go there. But really I'm excited to go everywhere. You know, we're far away from the States. I've seen every part of the United States so many times that I'm a bit jaded by it. So, I'm just excited. It's nice to be somewhere new, you know, where things are not as familiar to me and this is my first tour in Europe where I'm not doing merch so I get more of a chance to walk around and explore and you know, see more sites. 

MHR:  With everything that is happening in the states at the moment including the visa waiting time going up prices going up on admin fee, and now some countries advising people to not to visit the USA at the moment.
How do you think the US market

would be affected as foreign bands would prefer skip the States rather than lose money or a go through a costly process? 

CC: I'm not sure how it will affect it because as you probably know It's all already very hard for bands from outside of the states to tour there, they have to have visas for instance. We do not have to have visas to tour the rest of the country and it costs a lot of money to get those. So touring is already very expensive. So, I don't know. I have no predictions for it. I'm sure that we'll see people touring there less unfortunately, but I'm hoping that there's some kind of turnaround and that that's not the case.

MHR: Right after this tour what is next for Entheos for the rest of the summer and fall you guys have any plans for like summer festivals? What's going on?

CC: Like I said, we're going home and finishing our album and then we get the summer off this year and then we're doing our first headlining tour of the States in the fall. Can we can you tell us who's gonna be with I can't tell you but I can tell you that. We hand-picked what I believe is probably the strongest like progressive tech tour of the year. So it's very exciting and I'm very humbled that our friends agreed to do the tour with us to help us make our first Headlining tour a very very strong one. 

MHR: Thank you, Chaney, for the time, we looking forward to see you live again after such a long time and good luck with the rest of the tour. 

CC: Thank you so much.

Foto: Arrakis Art