Ash wasn't in the mood when he answered this. Well, i don't know if he is in the mood sometimes ? Well, after all, it's a real Black Metal mood so...Thanks to him to answer all these questions and all apologies for telling too much the B.... word (Burzum !) I understand it can be annoying ! Enjoy this interview with one of the biggest and greatest band of the whole genre ! Le Scribe
Nargaroth was raised in 1996, twenty two years ago. Can you
tell how this beast came to the world in Germany back in the days?
I was musically active a long time before NARGAROTH was founded. I am
fully aware that quite some people question my musical past over some
bullshit I wrote in 1998 and 1999 and that's quite regrettable.
Anyways, I started to make music end of the 80's but it was rather
classical music in the course of my mothers intention to teach me
piano. When I inherited a Bass guitar and a distortion foot switch as
well as a speaker combo from an old blues guy who immigrated to West
Germany short before the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall fell end of
the 80's, I actually started my musician path. I founded OKKULTIS and
later EXHUMINENZ in the early 90's with some local friends. I'd
describe these projects rather as raw Death Metal and we didn't see a
problem with it as almost everything brutal and extreme was called
Death Metal back then. The sub genre Black Metal formed a little bit
later as a brand name. We were nothing but a teenager rehearsal band
with more ambitions and dreams than actual skills. We recorded with
EXHUMINENZ a Demo Tape. After my friends suicide I renamed the band
into NARGAROTH in 1996. After some Demo works the first album
Herbstleyd, whichs concept was ready since 1996/97 was recorded and
released in 1998. Many people often say no one knew me before 1998
etc. and that partially true. Until then I was simply a metal fan who
went to shows, met with same-minded people to go camping in remote
areas and to live our admiration of BM, that was quite mystic back
then, in our juvenile way. So I was not the known musician that I
became later, but was 'known' to some other metal heads in my area.
I'd say that's quite typical.
Your first album Herbstleyd was released in 1998. What was the
signification of that title?
I had and have a preference for Autumn as season and when my album
was about to be released, I felt we were in the Autumn of the Black
Metal that I felt drawn to. Many things changed, BM became partially
commercialized, and many of us had a hard time to accept that. The
album title « Herbstleyd » (Autumn Woe) should express
that.
You choose to begin that album by a long intro (more than 16
minutes) What was the point of that long atmospheric piece?
The album took a long time in the making and therefore its concept
developed quite thoroughly. As I had seen it as a story book I felt
the intro is a vital part of the story. Like opening words to a long
book, it was about to drag the willing listener into its own world.
Back then, with that album, you were playing a very
melancholic and sad version of BM. Were you influenced by Burzum? And
what were your influences?
I understand where you are coming from and its an generic assumption.
But – if you or others believe me or not – its false. I liked
BURZUM, yes. But I liked it rather for what BURZUM stood for than for
the actual music even though it is a basic foundation of Black Metal.
Until today I see BURZUM rather as a different way of approaching the
modern world, a philosophy you live your life according to and not so
much as 'band' or sole musician BM project. BURZUM made clear that
Black Metal was more than just another music genre, even though that
is what it became today. But back then, we appreciate the thought
that we are separated from the shiny metal magazine business wheel
and have our own Underground thing going. Music with attitude and
actions – and BURZUM was this ideological project to me and many
others. But that's about it. BURZUM was rather a ideological stance
than a 100% fulfilling, inspirational music project for me. You see,
my favorite BURZUM album was and is « Filosofem » as well
his two keyboard albums that he released after it. That gives you
quite an idea were I actually stand with BURZUM and that my so called
'involvement' with BURZUM is not as deep or obedient as so often
assumed, alleged or implied by many who are against NARGAROTH.
In
fact: when my fist album was about to be recorded and released, my
biggest influence was GRAVELAND and this passion I had nonstop since
5 or 6 years by then. On my debut album I actually wanted to sound
like GRAVELAND's « Thousand Swords » album which was my
(un)holy grail since its release. I even had the booklet of that
album on me every day to read the lyrics over and over again. I would
not say that I 'managed' to sound like that album, what is probably
good that it didn't, but you might find some similarities in the drum
works of the song « Karmageddon ». The last song of my
album is explicitly dedicated to Rob Darken of GRAVELAND and is
mentioned in the booklet: « Dedicated to the Black Druid of
Darkness and Warrior of the new eon Rob Darken. 'Thousand Swords'
helped me to survive over the years !!! ». You can check
the authenticity of my answer anywhere. So, you can see that
GRAVELAND was most definitely my inspiration over my 90's Black Metal
devotion, not BURZUM as so many others
claim.
With a demo title like «fuck off nowadays Black Metal»
released in 2000 the message is clear! Were you really pissed off
with the new bands or the evolution of the genre?
Both. And I still am. Even though my stance is seen as juvenile
behavior, I am what I am. I simply only like the old era. Its simply
a preference. I like what I grew up with. Its not about trueness of
being cult. Its about what Black Metal stood and now stands for.
Black Metal doesn't provide anymore what I was looking for in my life
when I felt drawn into it. And most of all, knowing who is now
listening to BM takes away all magic for me. Black Metal was back
then an rather exclusive art that you didn't share with too many.
That was something very important to me. Today people from all walks
of life listen to Black Metal and bring their deranged new-age
mindset into the scene. And I despise any of that.
In 2001, you put out the classic «Black Metal ist Krieg»
Were you aware of release a future BM classic album back then ?
No I wasn't. And it shouldn't be the album defining NARGAROTH.
The album is very much rawer and aggressive than what
you did before. Was it a « back to the roots of Evil »
Album ? Again, were you in a form of opposition versus the
« evolution » of BM ?
This
provoking and multi controversial album was the result of the
desolate state of the German Black Metal scene at the turn of the
millennium. The “old days” were gone and many of the once
respected bands had wimped out, had crossed a commercial Rubicon and
weren't worth following. I think it was the time the third generation
in Black Metal had to set course and define their new goals – and
such never comes easy and without blood
spilling. Just as it is said in the
outro of my first album: “the future
is always born in pain”. In my
memories, these times were marked with musically and ideologically
emptiness, so called “trueness” discussions as well as petty wars
between bands. I considered this album as 'soundtrack' of this period
in German Black Metal and as an opposed outcry against this
deterioration, even though I, myself was not the most constructive
element in those times.
I
recorded this album over a long period in the Czech Republic and in
an extremely cold former BND/FIS Bunker in Germany and I finished it
on the 30th
of December in 2000. For a long time people intended to misinterpret
the concept of this album and were more interested into discussing or
gossiping over eventual and non existing political contents or about
melody similarities to other songs. And although I wish I would have
written some of the explanatory notes to every song in a less
provoking and adolescent manner, what suffered most from this
behavior of the German Scene of that time, was the only thing that
should have always mattered: the music and the art. In the end, this
album has it's legacy and became for many people the first touch with
Black Metal and – together with some other very few examples – a
worldwide known example for the sound of German Black Metal style.
If i tell you Post-Black Metal what do you answer
me ?(don't hit me too strong, please!)
I don't want to waste my time with this degenerated garbage that is
nothing but a violation of Black Metal.
Your German Hateful Black Metal did some effect, don't
you think ? When you sang « When Burzum Killed Mayhem »
it seemed that, for you, like for many others, the act committed by
Varg against Euronymous was like the end of the golden age of BM.
What is your position 25 years after the facts ? This album is
kind of homage to that days, was it like a necessity for you ?
This
song deals with one of the most tragic occurrences within Black Metal
history. It was supposed to remember the tragic events that occurred
with the murder of Øystein
Aarseth, but the scene back in
2001 took it again as a tool to divide the scene – just like the
original event did once back in 1993. Even the guys of MAYHEM itself
misinterpreted it, as I had to learn. This song never was a homage to
Vikernes nor a glorification of the murder, although everyone around
in these days in 1993 must admit, that it had a huge impact and was a
kind of statement, that Black Metal was more than just another Metal
genre. I personally saw this song more as a tale to tell on, that
described the several happenings during this tragic and its aftermath
among the scene. But maybe this topic’s nature was meant to divide.
For many Black Metal followers nowadays this event is nothing more
than a far, distant happening in the fading and often denied Black
Metal history. But for some of the elders it was something that
changed and even redefined the perception of an art.
Your Geliebte des regens (for « mistress of the
rain ») album in 2003 is very different from Black Metal ist
Krieg (this is kind of logical, because BM ist krieg seemed to be an
homage and so a one shot). You get back here to deeply melancholic
atmospheres with « burzumesque » landscapes. The titles
are very much longer too. Can you tell us more about that special
album ?
In
June 2001 recorded the instruments, the music reflected perfectly my
emotional state up to that time. Unfortunately I had to wait 2 years
until I gave the songs a voice in form of vocals. My feelings were
different to the time of 2001. I had somehow to connect the past
(music 2001) with the present (lyrics and vocals 2003). So my
relationship to this release was more ambivalent, than to any other
of my releases. But in fact, besides of some mixing failures, I see
this album as strong monument of feelings. Sure the melodies got
continued over and over again in the songs. So it could get boring
for a guy who just wants to listen some music. But for this I have
not created this album! I made this for the hours of thinking, for
moments of longing for visions.
I
made the experience that when I listen to some music that makes me
think or daydreaming, that in the moment where I start to enter
deeper spheres of my mind or I get close to a solution the music
changes into melodies which disturb my thought process or, and that’s
even worse, is over. What I need is that the melodies which help me
to conquer my mind to islands of solutions do not change during my
mental journey or while I looking for answer. This monotony which
lead my into a trance has to continue as long as I need it. That’s
why I played some melodies so often. This album is, just like many
others of mine, not for a background noise while you cleaning up you
apartment or even have a party. I could imagine that it could destroy
the party mood.
Some said back then you were playing « Depressive
Black Metal ». What do you think about it ?
Its probably true. I was quite melancholic during this time.
Something I really appreciate with Nargaroth (with the
quality of your releases, of course) is that you're a real
unpredictable band. After the depressive act of Geliebte des regens
you did release Prosatanica Shooting Angels. It was at first made for
a side-project called Prosatanica. This album is for the first time
filled up with satanic lyrics. Why did you finally choose to publish
it under the Nargaroth name ?
I struggled quite some time with the idea of realizing a side
project, because I thought – and I still think – that there were
too many bands out there and too many musicians did too many side
projects. Its my personal stance, that whatever I do is undeniably
me, no matter what name it bares. It did not seem necessary to
release the songs as a side project as NARGAROTH's releases are very
diverse anyway. So no reason to exclude an album only because it was
different in style and message. And by the way, for me that album had
a rather anti-islam message what I thought would be reflected through
the first verse of the first song. The figure Satan is quite
universal and not solely related to Christianity. But that's just a
side note.
You said fans were divided with this one. Is it because
of the lyrics ? The more « straight to the point »
kind of BM ? Something else ?
Not everyone was ready for the sound of the album I guess. It is as
it is with every album of NARGAROTH. It has its lovers and its
haters. Either ways are fine with me.
On your full length Semper Fidelis you turn to a one
man band. What was the reason ?
I had all the songs recorded in the same time as the Mistress of the
Rain Album. They were just waiting to be finished and that is what I
did while realizing the unconventional Semper Fidelis Box Set.
You used titles from the Black Metal ist Krieg sessions
in 2001 on that one, right ? The cover is old school like BM ist
krieg, was it a follow-up to this latter ?
It was rather an album that started to sound similar to the Black
Metal I usually listen to. I was frustrated with the BM Scene and
where BM was heading for. So it was kind of a lash out of
frustration.
On Jahreszeiten (seasons) in 2009 you're back to long
format songs (more than 9 or ten minutes). The titles here are
illustrations for each season. There is a real vivaldiesque feeling
on « Frühling » (spring) which is almost joyful. It's a
unique concept and again a great and original release. Can you tell
us a little more about this one ?
This album is not a satanic or typical Black Metal
album and, therefore, cannot be regarded with the same criteria. It
is the attempt to reflect, musically and in the lyrics, the
characteristics of the four seasons as well as the sensations of the
(mental
illness state of mind of) love in a
classical notion and its changes. In the album booklet I expressed
this by writing that “the emotional
peculiarities and mental representations of which [are] reflected in
the musical-melodic progression of the individual songs”.
The melodic beginning of each of the pieces is meant, thus, to
represent the characteristics of the respective season but also the
momentary emotional state of love, which sometimes has been achieved
by Black Metal-unorthodox melody lines, in order to do justice to the
endeavour of capturing the emotional moment. For the illustration of
these complex dynamics, my lyrics contain classical elements, which
should be familiar to everyone who ever
dealt with the classics and literature. In
the musical part of the album, I am dealing with seasonal changes as
exemplified by the seasons of the year, the emotional peculiarities
and mental representations of which reflected in the musical-melodic
progression of the individual songs. As for the lyrics, it deals with
the dynamics of dyadic human relationships, which essentially
influence – if not outright cause – mundane fates, single
tragedies but also the destinies of entire world empires. I dare say
that I’d be surprised if not the one or other willing listener is
going to find himself in one of the poems of this album. And I
express regret for that creature who can not – or tries to
repudiate it!
Spring as
season is the return of life. Everybody who grew up on farmland might
understand it very well. I grew up on an old farm in the poor East
Germany. No flowing warm water, oven just in 2 rooms, old
field-stoned house and the typical mass-snowing, frosty winters of
the East in the 70’s of the last century. The larks singing,
introducing the spring’s arrival was deeply cheered from the heart.
Even the animals on the farm seemed to feel that life is returning
and the barn which was so silent and dark over the deep winter months
got laud and busy.
Regarding Love, my song spring represents the first months after
falling in love. There is no time in relationships which are so full
of silly thoughts and behavior. Every day seems bright and all past
problems bearable. In the past it was the daily rush to the post box
if a letter arrived. Nowadays it’s the constant look into the cell
phone if a sms arrived. Silly, almost magical connections get created
to the other loved ones which seem for an outstanding person as
strange thing. It’s just the lightest time of a fresh grown love.
As was to be expected, the initial melody of “Spring” caused the
strongest controversies, because its a fist punchinto the face of all
this Neo-BM-Kids, which never experienced the old spirit of Black
Metal and violate him with their adolescent short-time Ideologies!
Anyway, my german-rooted great-grandparents from my father's side
were farmers in Bessarabia, to where they emigrated to in the
18th/19thcentury. Everyone who is able to imagine the harsh winter in
the southern branches of the Carpathians or who, like myself, grew up
in the rural countryside, can certainly measure those people's
expectation of spring, which, as the envoy of new life after needful
and icy, stormy weeks and months, was accordingly greeted in spring
festivities with dances and songs. In order to honour my ancestors
and my bessarabian roots, I employed a bessarabian folk-like melody
for the introduction in the song “Spring”. In consideration of
the earlier mentioned subject of the songs: everyone who has ever
been freshly in love should know how “silly”, as the English
language aptly has it, or in the farthest sense nearly
pathologically, one might behave in this early stage of love. Or how
liberating it can be to fall in love again after long biographical
periods of desolation and despondency (winter), and suddenly
everything seems possible, just as if life had returned into oneself.
This is exactly what the introductory melody reflects! I do
understand that this folkloristic bessarabian melody is regarded as
Black Metal unorthodox, but I do not, with respect to the subject
this album deals with, understand the incomprehension about it. When,
however, some are amusing themselves in getting excited about it, are
reminded of “beer tent music” or similar infantile sounds, the
energetic effect of this melody is revealed, for they, too, are
coming close to the intention of a joyful feeling.
Summer is the
natures high time. When you have a walk in the forest it’s a giant
concert of all sounds of plants and animals. The young animal makes
their first roams through their new world and the bitterness of the
winter are long forgotten.
Emotionally it’s the high noon of relationships. Sworn to love,
both lovers dwell in their own world of their imaginations of each
other. Good pairs are able to stay there, even when old images of a
(perfect) partner changes into a more realistic, but still lovable,
person. Weaker pairs can break in this level very fast. When they
still hunt for the ideal of a partner or relationship instead of
taking the reality and the beauty of this reality into account. But
nevertheless it’s the time of warmth and the feeling of “coming
home” after a long odyssey of life.
In Autumn
the nature takes a deep breath out. Melancholy sleeps in the woods
and the first dark thunderstorms shakes the silence. The spiders
create masterpieces of art between old trees and the fields provide
the fruits we’ve grown. Its harvest time – and some get indeed
what they have sown.
Regarding the autumn of love, we also get what we have sown. The
scars of old lies are too deep to heal. The stolen kisses are too
bitter to forget; and the new kisses not sweat enough to erase the
bitterness of heart. Some pairs still make plans, in the hope to
“save” the relationship. Some plan a child to glue what is
already thorn and so not yet see that “their dreams already die in
the wind”. 80% of all relations worldwide “dwell” in this state
– I assume.
Winter is calm
grimness, if that exists. It covers the earth which needs to sleep
now, after giving life for so many months. Live is hard now. For farm
side humans and animals in the forest. Hunger roams the hills.
Freezing winds bites into the skin until it breaks and forces the
life to stand still. And in the smoky hutches then people tell
stories of the past summer.
Towards love and relationships in marks the time
of hate, anger, reproaches and accusations. Often after a fresh split
up, partners are not (yet) able to see their own part on the broken
relationship. Mainly the other gets accused for. It’s the time of
bad words
and bad thinking
of the once loved other. And it’s the time of justification of the
own bad feelings. But then, suddenly, without warning, in the silent
hours of the night, when the anger sleeps in the wooden corner
underneath a heavy carpet, we feel somewhat we might call sorrow.
Sorrow for what we’ve lost, what we’ve had. Sorrow for the things
we said, the things we did – and more, the things we didn’t said
and did. This moment is reflected in the slower end-part of the song
“Winter”….”… for at times and
every now and then the memory of it is aching…”
Being
a man means waging a daily war with ones ideals against the
background of the demands of reality. Thus I dedicate this album to
two persons who escorted me on this difficult way of Dying
and Becoming,
and whose disciple I have been. Forging such a way on one’s own I
consider, on grounds of my own experiences, as insufficient and
impossible. Being a man, my way consists of constant self-experience,
permanent calling-into-question and analysing, the perpetual
quarrelling with myself and the despair about my former way of life.
But it also consists of the courage to give room to these
misconducts, in order to rearrange the way lying ahead of me every
day, just like described by Goethe in Seelige
Sehnsucht
(Blessed Aspiration). A man who does not know this inner struggle, or
worse, who is not interested in it, is for me neither relevant nor
worth of honour.
Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare in 2011 is, again, another kind of
record. You talk a lot of mental struggles somewhere in between
depression and madness. Is it some kind of therapeutic record?
Well, I am a psychoanalytical Psychologist. The album reflects my profession and my mindset. During the recording of the “Jahreszeiten” (Seasons) album, I borrowed a synthesizer to work on the spheres in the beginning of the song “Herbst” (Autumn). I now had this synthesizer and, as always, it distracted my attention to finish the “Jahreszeiten” album and I started to explore the possibilities of the synth. I quickly gained understanding of how this specific synth worked and started to compose songs on it within a short time who ultimately became to core songs of the album you mentioned.
I always had a weakness for synthetic atmospheric sounds. Since my early lifetimes I like the experimental works of the 70`s in this musical genre. I grew up in East Germany, a socialist country with many boarders and boundaries. I only had my books and music to “escape” and travel far away in my fantasies. I lived on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. Actual traveling was a privilege and limited to political people, so that other countries were simply out of reach. They could have been on another planet so to say – unreachable. Yet I always felt the desire to wander and was very interested into space, what was back in the '70s due to the state of knowledge of that time just another mystery. My parents collected Vinyls and some of the albums were of electronic sound nature. Also songs like “Oxygen 4” from Jean-Michel Jarre have been quite popular in my country. One band from my home country I still listen to once in a while was called Stern Combo Meißen. Their interpretation of Vivaldi's composition “Frühling” (Spring) on their Synthesizers contains elements that really took me far away in my day-dreams when I was very young and I actually recreated these elements for some songs on the “Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare” album. Until today, whenever I hear a sound characteristic called 'sweeper' or similar sounds, it takes me back to my early years and into day-dreams of gliding through space. When I decided to become homeless in 2014 and started to wander around the world, in my darkest hours I was constantly listening to a keyboard/synth Demo Project called EINKEHR. His (I believe its a one-guy-project) works helped me often through the night and to cope with what happened to me. It just comes to my mind that I never mentioned that important role of this Demo Release in that difficult time.
The album “Spectral Visions of Mental Warfare” deals with the hard and sometimes bloody emotional fights, the Faustian struggles and mental antagonism of contradictory strivings of the human nature at the crossroads of madness, when, like rusty cancer, the insight of eternal circles of repeatedly failing to achieve better fates, which we believed we had to pursue during hard times, is eating through our souls’ labyrinths. The particular songs deal with the desperate attempts to close oneself to one’s own truths and contradictions and with mental meanders veiling the self-reflexive quest for the causes of our genesis. Those take shape as perpetual ponderings, life-draining resignation, depression, and self-mutilating deeds, and their disdainful laughter sneaks into our dreams even in tranquil times, and as ancient phantoms they haunt us through the labyrinths of our souls, where some of us remain missing forever. I have created the synthesizer songs in fidelity to the ideals and values of Black Metal as well as in honoring its traditions, to which I feel committed since I started! All the synthesizer pieces were traditionally played by hand and not, as it is common nowadays, generated by computer software programs, which create all those soulless sonic worlds today. Synthetic sound spheres like the ones on this album have from its early beginnings been elements of Black Metal in service of the sacral and transcendent. As the antipodes of the rather mundanely oriented guitars they – not only in the spiritually-mystical sense of an absolute reality – complete the sound which makes Black Metal unique among the musical genres.
The ambient structures
remind me again of Burzum. Were you here back to your musical roots?
And
there we go again with the never ending BURZUM comparison. In
relation to Black Metal I think I don't really have to stretch, that
the keyboard works in early Black Metal, which you can find in almost
80% of the demos and releases in the 90s, really hit my nerves.
Spherical ambient elements had been a part of Black Metal since the
beginning. And I do not mean just BURZUM. Awesome strong intros or
atmospheric songs had been on almost every demo in the times between
1993 – 1997. And I always loved it! Since early days we have the
influence of spherical atmospheres, like the ambient songs of BURZUM,
MORTIIS, old SETHERIAL or on the first album of IMPALED NAZARENE and
many many other bands. I wanted to honor these bands times with that
album you mentioned as well. Even in NARGAROTH I consistently created
keyboard songs since the first demos. These spheres create the rather
magical side of the art, while guitars reflect the brutal or
sad/weeping periods. I
composed much more ambient songs in the past and at the moment.. As
known already, I do not necessarily release all songs or compositions
I recorded. I did keyboard based songs before and after “Spectral
Visions of Mental Warfare” and never intended to release them. Some
of compositions I created during the writing process of “Spectral
Visions of Mental Warfare” where released as bonus on the vinyl
version of the album. So, I wrote
and composed more songs during the time of NARGAROTH's existence,
including electronic or keyboard songs, but won’t ever release or
share them. On one hand they are just mine to keep and on the other
hand I grew tired of constant comparisons to BURZUM and according
plagiarist accusations.
Rasluka I & II is
a dedication to a deceased friend of yours. Ash/Kanwulf, you are the
only permanent member in Nargaroth since 1996, can you tell us if
Rasluka was a kind of mix between two eras of Nargaroth (the « raw »
and the « melancholic » one if i can tell it like that) ?
The Rasluka works are probably
my best releases. They sound like what I admire when it comes to
Black Metal. The melody lines and the German language poems complete
the two releases nicely. I think the Rasluka series gave an outlook
where NARGAROTH will head to in future. Away from the mostly hateful
emotions towards the the rather human side within us and the daily
struggles with ourselves and the world we try to adapt to.
Era of Threnody,
released in 2017, is made of a really melodic kind of BM. It got
clean vocals and guitars, which is such very new. Do you agree if it
tell you it's like an Avant-Garde BM album ?
F***
no. I don't do avantgarde. I heard that before with my “Jahreszeiten”
album. I disagree. You see, the
albums I do sound exactly the way they had to sound to express and to
help me cope with the background story which ultimately lead to
composition of an album. And that's the purpose most of my albums
serve:
an opportunity to communicate with my inner self and give sound and
word to the things who are hard to express. And that's the case with
many hard life events. In 2014 I decided myself to become homeless
and I started wandering the earth, because I lost all my focus and
will. Sounds extra-dramatic, but that's exactly what happened. I sold
all of my belongings and started walking. I lived and worked in many
countries. I worked as Life Guard, Cowboy, Forest Ranger and many
professions more. I enjoyed the most my time in Mexico and Canada. In
both countries the majority of the albums concept got developed. The
album in question allowed me to express the hardest struggle I had to
overcome in my life so far. Therefore I am grateful and satisfied.
Does the album sound like something I would privately listen too? No.
And that's the case with most of my albums. Not because I screwed it
up or failed to do so, but because the feelings which are the
foundation of the album and the cause of its creation urged me to do
the album the way it sounds in the end. That's the big challenge as a
musician and what so many nowadays Black Metal bands fail to master:
not to copy a band or musician you like, to step aside and don't let
your vanity dictate your creation process. As the foundation of most
of my albums are real life events that made me stumble, hurt or
shatter my life, the according emotions more or less dictate the
composition, the elements I use, the sound and the lyrics. Until the
very last day of the mastering of an album I actually do not know if
I personally like what I created. Only in the very end, when I
finally have the album in my hand and after some time has passed
since the studio work, I can actually say if I like the album or not.
And often I am rather satisfied with the final outcome (when it
reflects the real life events and my way to cope with it), but it
doesn't sound like what I usually listen to when it comes to Black
Metal. Almost none of my albums do. Its’ unfortunate, but I am
willing to take it. I am rather authentic in what I do, even it
causes mockery in the beginning than creating an empty vanity-shell
just to please the vast majority or, to use everyday words, to be
cool. Therefore I repeat: the album allowed me to express the hardest
struggle I had to overcome in my life so far. Therefore I am grateful
and satisfied. Does the album sound like something I would privately
listen too? No and its its no avantgarde crap.
What do you think of Avant-Garde BM in fact ?
Again, I don't waste time with such liberal degenerated approach when
it comes to Black Metal.
With your incredible career you played almost all kinds of
BM. What do you think of such « new » genres as
Post-Black or Blackgaze?
I am a german, white, cisgender male with rather old, very
conservative values and I am not sorry for it. I think that makes
very clear whats my stance on such deranged, disgraceful aberrations
of liberal minds. Like the recent LoCh movie its utter garbage.
What is the next step for Nargaroth? The next plans?
I have plans, but I am quite limited in my abilities to bring my
ideas to life, so I rather restrain from telling my plans and then
not realizing them.
Can you list us your 20 favorite records ever, in any genre?
GRAVELAND “In the Glare of Burning Churches”
GRAVELAND “Thousand Swords”
GRAVELAND “Drunementon”
IMPALED NAZARENE “Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz”
GORGOROTH “Pentagram”
WARLOGHE “The first Possession”
BURZUM “Filosofem”
OBITUARY “Slowly we Rot”
LORD FOUL “Killing
Raping Burning”
DE VERMIS
MYSTERIIS/AZHUBHAM HAANI “Split Demo »
AZHUBHAM HAANI « Total
Evil »
VELES « The
Triumph of Pagan Beliefs »
AUTOPSY « Severed
Survival »
EINKEHR « Self
Titled »
STABAT MATER « Above
him 1 & 2 »
FROSTMOON
« Tordenkrig »
LORD WIND « Forgotten
Songs »
SARCOFAGO « Rotting »
WARNING « Watching
from a Distance »
STRID « Strid »
ANDRAS « Das
Schwert unserer Ahnen »
MOONBLOOD « Blut
und Krieg »
SUMMONING « Minas
Morgul »
MYSTERIES « In
the Dark and Sodomy »
KATHARSIS « Watchtowers
of Darkness »
CELTICMOON « My
Illusion of an enternal Winter »
Many more to name, but
thats a small list of releases.
Free speech: tell us whatever you want
I am not in the mood for that today.
