ANA KEFR frontman Rhiis D. Lopez discusses the band's forthcoming album, The Burial Tree, in a new interview with That Devil Music. An excerpt is available below.

Q: In a recent review of The Burial Tree that I wrote I ended up making a few comparisons to early OPETH. Did you guys draw any inspiration or influence from that band or am I just talking out of my ass?

Lopez: "Actually, most of us are Opeth fans! I wouldn't call Opeth an influence, but they're definitely an inspiration. I see an 'influence' as someone whose body of work has affected the way you approach writing music, whereas an 'inspiration' would be someone whose work has somehow lent hope to you on your own path towards a goal. The influence helps paves a path while the inspiration is the lamp that lights it."

Q: The Burial Tree was a fascinating listen with so many nuances on each song. What is the song writing process like for you guys?

Lopez: "The process is a lot like evolution and natural selection, actually; survival of the fittest riff. For most of the songs on The Burial Tree, it began with Kyle (Coughran) and I sitting together, he with his guitar and I with my keyboard. One of us would throw out an idea, the other would take it and tweak it, add to it, and we'd bounce back and forth until a full song emerged. Then, we would bring the song to Brendan and Fonzie, and they would also throw out more ideas, tweak more bits, remove some parts, add new things, and then Shane would be brought into the mix and we'd hash it out as a full band until we were all happy with the final product. Some things just happened by accident in the moment - 'Fragment' was a short jam session the full band did one rehearsal, based off of a riff Kyle threw into the open; 'Thaumatrope' was originally an orchestral song I wrote with no intention of it being used for Ana Kefr. I played it for Kyle just to show him what I'd been working on and he convinced me that we could make it heavy and retain the epic feel. I have a feeling that there will be more group contribution on our third album. With The Burial Tree, the guys were getting used to the way Kyle and I approach music and, now that we've reached an understanding, I have a feeling the music machine will work a bit faster."

Q: Many bands claim to be progressive when in fact they’re either a carbon copy of other bands or some other genre. Do you forsee Ana Kefr being a part of a new wave of prog metal where the prog is actually prog?

Lopez: "That would be such an honor! We all feel like music is becoming a very stale parody of itself these days, there are too many bands and almost all of them suck. It's all about image, not so much about ingenuity. Progressive music seems to be getting more relevant, maybe people are getting sick of the same old thing, but even progressive music gets kind of predictable after a while. The real challenge is to never repeat yourself, to never repeat an idea, but to present something fresh with every album. We haven't even released The Burial Tree yet and we're already discussing what should be the next step for the third album."

Go to this location for the complete interview. Click here for That Devil Music's review of The Burial Tree.