Los Angeles-based extreme progressive metallers ANA KEFR are featured in a new interview with Progressive Bale discussing their latest album, The Burial Tree (II). An excerpt is available below:

Q: What would you say was the most important influence on the album and how does affect the song writing process?

Shane Dawson (drums): "Well, it's hard to say. We all have different influences. For me, my influence was just playing the music with these guys. When the writing process was happening, we were all just feeding off of each others ideas. There were so many ideas that it's really hard to say what was the primary influence. We just wanted to put out an album that we wanted to hear and I am quite pleased with what we recorded, and I'm sure others will be as well."

Q: How did you construct the sound you did without falling into the trap of making an unstructured and un-original album?

Alphonso Jiminez (bass): "We dodged all the traps by going on a different path. We aren't saying we are originators, but we never said,'We can't do this, no one does this.' Music needs to be seen as well as heard. So our imaginations were free to paint a picture using different types of genres as well as time signatures and instruments. Add the lyrics and you have yourself a tasty treat that we will force feed you."

Q: Evidently there is a political and philosophical side to your music, how did these interests make their way into the music you play now?

Rhiis D. Lopez (vocals): "I've been an introspective kind of person since I was young, and growing up in a hardcore religious household piqued my interest in religion in general. In my early teens I found Nietzsche and general philosophy, but traveling and living abroad really did the most for my political and philosophical ideas. Forcing myself outside of my comfort zone into a totally different environment (Egypt, for the most part) kind of galvanized all these thoughts and theories that had been floating around in my subconscious for years. You think you have a good grasp on what humanity is and what life is all about, and then you get outside of your own culture and mindset completely and it's pretty difficult to hold onto those ideas for long. Everything we hold dear as 'true' and 'good' and 'treasure' is truly someone else's 'lie' and 'evil' and 'trash'. Almost everything is relative and subjective. I've always enjoyed writing philosophical rants and essays for my own amusement, but with a full band behind me I have a vehicle for putting a message out. Music is already a universal language, when you put lyrics and themes into it that somehow complement and strengthen the atmosphere of the music I think you can end with something truly remarkable. Music with meaning is like having your cake and eating it too."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Ana Kefr's new album, The Burial Tree, was produced and mixed by Ana Kefr and David Franklin, engineered by David Franklin. The cover art ("The Watcher") was created by Dutch artist Bianca Van Der Werf. Check it out below:

The official tracklisting:

'Ash-Shahid'

'Emago'

'Monody'

'In The House Of Distorted Mirrors'

'Thaumatrope'

'Bathos And The Iconoclast'

'The Zephirus Circus'

'Jeremiad'

'Apoptosis'

'Parasites'

'Paedophilanthrope'

'Fragment'

'The Blackening'

'The Collector'

Check out the band's new website at this location.