German thrashers Ravager have recently released their third full-length album "The Third Attack" (read review here). Up to this release it was a quite unknown band but with this album this may change because the band plays old-school thrash everybody who likes this style of music will probably love. I asked guitarist Dario Rosenberg about the writing process and production of the album and the background behind it. Have fun reading and support the band!

Michael

Hi Dario, how are you doing? I hope all is fine with you and the rest of the band.

Hi Michael, thank you, everything fine so far. Philip has some struggle with his wisdom teeth right now, though. But he will be back on top of his game soon.

This summer you have released your third album "The Third Attack". Did you choose the title because of that fact or is there another reason behind it?

The song 'The Third Attack' was written before we decided on an album title but in the end, we did not have to think about it for very long because that one did just fit. Nothing too fancy, easy to remember and somewhat cool sounding.

You got a lot of good responses for the release. Are you a little bit surprised about the feed-back?

During the process of creating an album the focus shifts away from the whole thing towards all those little struggles you have to overcome to finish the record. So, the result always is a little surprising when you finally can take a step back from your work and then take a first "real" listen. We are especially surprised about the super-positive feedback of many of the smaller magazines/websites. Many of them really took time to listen and put a lot of thought into it and into their reviews. Those guys rock!

How did it come that you recorded in the Soundlodge Studio? Did you know Jörg before? He is quite a busy guy!

Our friends in the meanwhile split-up band "Skulled" from Bremen recommended recording with Jörg after having recorded their album "Eat Thrash" with him. We then went to record Thrashletics at his studio and since we were very happy with the result, we returned for TTA. In my opinion the overall result is even better this time. Maybe because we did not tell Jörg what we wanted the sound to be like and just let him do his job :D

How did it work with him in the studio? Did you had a clear vision how the sound should be or did he influence you a lot?

For Thrashletics I think we had some examples of what we wanted our sound to be like but this time I cannot remember having any talk about that topic. A good sound engineer will work according to what is provided to him by the band I guess and this time it seems we did a good job of not talking Jörg into something and let him do his job (which we are very happy with by the way).

When you are writing a track, do you do it as a team or do you have one or two members that do most of the parts?

Most of the music is written by Marcel. He comes up with guitar-only versions of the songs and we then add all the other stuff to it at our rehearsals. During that process parts are changed, added, deleted – depending on what ideas we then come up with. Some songs are created in more of a group effort, though. For example, most of 'Planet Hate' and 'Destroyer' was written when André, Marcel and me spent most of the rehearsals as a three-piece during the months just before we hit the studio. Although we felt the pressure of having to have them done quickly, they turned out to be two of my favorites.

You have a lot of very old-school thrash tracks but in some cases, you also combine them with very melodic and catchy parts. In my review I said that your influences are clearly Exodus, Slayer, Onslaught, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden – am I right with that suggestion and which else would you mention?

With that suggestion you are pretty much on point! Although I personally do not like Slayer very much (apart from "Show No Mercy"), this kind of old-school thrash metal is what we originally agreed on wanting to play. With Marcel having something going with death metal and Philips and my passion being that classic heavy- and speed metal all those nuances may eventually find their way into our songs.

Lyrically you deal with social and religious criticism (as on 'Planet Hate' and 'Priest Of Torment'), personal struggle ('My Own Worst Enemy') but also partying ('Back In The Real World'). Having a look at the cover, I thought you would go more into Sci-Fi topics.

For the cover we wanted something matching the album title, but we did not plan on incorporating much of the lyrical themes of the album into it since they vary a lot and we did not write a concept album. So, we agreed on the cover telling another part of the story of that alien-lizard, which first appeared on our second record. A space-setting is always cool, and it fits the title-track.

Besides, are you Sci-Fi fans?

I kind of am but prefer future-mankind and dystopian settings or space horror movies over the really fantastical stuff. I guess it is similar for the other guys. None of us are Sci-Fi "Nerds".

Coming back to 'Back In The Real World' – is this and 'A Plague Is Born' your 'fuck off' Corona tracks? What were your experiences during the pandemic? Were you more resigned because you couldn't perform live or did you get more motivation to write more stuff?

They kind of turned out to be but the intention was a whole different one. 'Back In The Real World' is meant to tell about that "party is over"-feeling when you just got home from a show or festival and have to again deal with "real world" struggles. When Marcel wrote 'A Plague Is Born' there actually was no global pandemic yet. There was just some news about a virus "somewhere in Asia" which most likely triggered the idea of writing a song about a global pandemic. That it turned out the way it did was a sad coincidence.

In the start I mentioned Jörg Uken, which leads me to a broader question. He is playing in Temple Of Dread and Slaughterday and I could mention many more bands that originate from Lower Saxony. Is this the new hotspot for metal in Germany?

I do not know if there is still a hotspot for metal in Germany the way the Ruhrpott was in the 80s, and if there is it is probably still just there. Lower Saxony may have a couple of bands, but it is all very wide spread and there is not much of a scene here. It feels like further north (Hamburg for example) or way down south in Bavaria there is a lot more going on.

Your band lives in a quite remote spot of Lower Saxony. What else than visiting the bird park and the fun park" Heidepark Soltau" can you do there if you don't want to drive about 60km to Bremen or Hannover?

You can also visit the animal park "Serengetipark Hodenhagen". Jokes aside, you either have some hobbies and friends around here or leave. The fact that you are able to be in Bremen, Hannover or Hamburg in less than an hour is a big plus, though.

A lot of Corona restrictions will be cancelled in the next time so that concerts and other events will be possible again. Do you have any plans for touring or playing at festivals so far?

No dates set yet. Right now, we are practicing to be back on track to theoretically be able to hit the stage in late 2021/early 2022.

Finally, the last words belong to you!

Stay safe and healthy out there, see you soon!

Thank you very much for the interview!!!

Demonical recently released a new album named "Mass Destroyer" which may be best in their career. Once again they perform superb old-school death metal without any compromises and it is a top candidate for the death metal album of 2022. I had the chance to chat with the mastermind behind the band Martin Schulman via Skype about the album, line-up changes and some other things concerning Demonical's interesting history. Enjoy the read!

Michael

Hi Martin, how are you doing? I hope that your business wasn't affected too much by Covid-19?

Yes, it was in the way that there weren't any shows and anything I had booked and planned was canceled. But I didn't really have any financial loss and I'm not making a living out of the money I earn from the bookings so it wasn't that big of a deal but of course it was a bit frustrating when everything I had booked and planned first got postponed and then canceled. As you never knew when Covid would end – I mean it is much easier if you know a day when there is an end to it and you can plan your activities based on that – but when it was going on month after month it wasn't nice. But it was also a good two years where you could concentrate on writing music and doing other stuff in life. Also as you may know the Swedish approach towards Covid has been a bit different than in several other especially European countries. We didn't have any hard lock-downs or restrictions, it was everything about recommendations. They recommended you to wear a face mask, they recommended to keep your distance and to wash your hands…and also because we are living on the countryside like a two hour drive north from Stockholm you didn't even realize that it was the Covid thing. You only realized it when you went to the supermarket and there were some signs on the floor saying “please keep your distance” but apart from that there wasn't a big difference. We were able to travel inside of Sweden and everything so life went on pretty normal with only the exception that we couldn't travel abroad and do live shows.

You were pretty busy with Centinex and Demonical since you've just released an EP with Centinex and the new album with Demonical. Was it because of the pandemic?

Well partly yes because with both bands, especially maybe with Demonical when we released the previous album World Domination in 2020 – we were planning the recording of the album in spring 2020, Covid had started but basically everyone thought that it would be over in a couple of months, we were planning to do shows and promotion of the album for 20/21 including summer festivals. But when the album came out we realized that the Covid thing is here to stay for a while and no one really knows when it's going to end. So there were two reasons for this: first we understood that there wouldn't be any tours for a while so we decided instead of just sitting around and waiting for things to get back normal we used the time in a good way and some more music and record a new album. The second reason was that when World Domination came out, I had a lot of ideas for new material. I had a boost of inspiration and was really eager to get a new album out because also the tracks on World Domination, when we recorded them, were really old – they were written a year more earlier, so I had a lot of ideas for new material. Those were the reasons why we decided to work on new material and also due to label politics stuff – we recorded Mass Destroyer one year after the release of the previous album but it already took nine months to get it released because of the long waiting time for the vinyl pressing and stuff.

The new Demonical starts with the track'Conquering The Throne'. Is this a statement for the death metal scene?

Haha! Well, maybe in a way. We have always preferred hard hitting titles, titles that are easy to remember, easy to spell, not too complicated. When you see the title on the paper you will basically understand what the track is all about. We named the track before we decided that it would be the opening track.

You got some more epic stuff again on "Mass Destroyer", such as 'Fallen Mountain' or 'By Hatred Bound'. What are the influences for writing such melodies?

I don't really know. I just get the feeling. For Mass Destroyer I wrote all the music but I'm not a guitarist. I'm a songwriter. I mean, I play guitar, I write riffs on the guitar but all these extra melodies and stuff are added by our lead guitarist. Usually I just have an idea – for example for 'Fallen Mountain' I wrote the track and I wrote the rhythmics and the chorus and painted a picture in my head how I would like to have it with the guitar melodies and stuff. So I told Eki (Kumpulainen; M.) our lead guitarist that I would like to have some melodic stuff on the chorus. He is really good in understanding both – how Demonical should sound and also what I'm looking for. So we really have a good collaboration and even if we write all the riffs and everything the band puts a lot of effort doing together and everyone is contributing with their ideas. But I write what I feel what's good and when I wrote those tracks I was in that kind of mood, not fast death metal but more mid-tempo. And for 'By Hatred Bound', the idea for that track came up when I was listening to more normal heavy and power metal and I had this idea about having a track where the same drum beat goes through the whole track. That's something we have never done before and this was also experimental in a way. We weren't planning this on purpose, it was more that I wrote this drum beat and felt it was cool and so it became a Demonical track.

Is it more difficult to write such melodic stuff or the more brutal death metal tracks?

Well, basically it's more difficult to write the melodic stuff. I mean, I have been doing death metal for so long so writing brutal death metal riffs is something that I can do even when I'm sleeping (laughs). The challenge is to make a track which has a bit of everything. Demonical, even if we label ourselves as old-school death metal, we are not so strict to that category. In today's scene there are a lot of bands who play old-school death metal and Swedish sounding death metal but most of these bands are very strict and very limited to their songs. They like doing this particular style without any other influences. For us it has always been about creating good tracks and doing something that we like. And if the chorus is maybe still old-school death metal we are not afraid about other influences and other ideas. As I said, I listen to a lot of heavy metal and stuff so I like melodies (laughs). Okay, they shouldn't be completely cheesy like some circus music – it's good if they have some kind of mood or darkness in the melody but I wouldn't like to have Demonical as a pure old-school death metal band. For me it's more pleasing to have melodic influences as well – it's a combination of the styles.

Who had the lyrical idea for 'Wrathspawn'? The rhymes are quite cool!

(Laughs). You should ask Christofer, our vocalist. He wrote the lyrics. I wrote the lyrics for 'We Conquer The Throne' and he wrote all the other lyrics. First of all, it's a very good thing that he came into the band and it's a very good thing that he likes to write lyrics. In the past the vocalists haven't been so much into writing the lyrics so it was my responsibility and for me, lyrics is just something you have to do because you have to have some lyrics on the tracks (laughs). I concentrate more on writing music. With Christofer, he is really into writing lyrics, he is very good in the English language and has much knowledge about words and sentences. When we write a new track, I usually make a rough demo of the track and then I give it to the other guys and together with Christofer we agree where to have lyrics and about the verse, chorus and stuff like this. And for 'Wrathspawn' there is a good rhyming song (laughs) and it turned out really great with the drum beat and everything. It's like a punch in the face.

In my opinion there are only good tracks on the album. I have to say that I wasn't fully happy with the last one, "World Domination", mainly because of 'Slipping Apart' which was too soft for me. What do you think about this track now in retrospect? And is there anything that you would change concerning an old Demonical album?

(Laughs) I still like everything on World Domination. I'm a bit disappointed with the production, I wouldn't say it couldn't have been better but a little bit different. Of course I like Mass Destroyer more but World Domination is a good album. It reflects the band at that time and you have to keep in mind that some of the tracks were quite old when they were recorded. We had a new drummer and a new vocalist but it reflects how the band sounded back then. But of course I would maybe re-record it. I would still record the same tracks, maybe do some things different but in general I'm satisfied with the tracks including 'Slipping Apart'. I knew that including that kind of track, especially with the guest vocals, would make some people love it and other people almost hate it (laughs). We did it because we wanted to do it. The idea for the track is from the 80s hard rock ballads (laughs). I'm into that shit and wanted to do a track like that in a death metal version and we wanted to have some guest vocals to it. Again, we knew that people might have some complexes or opinions about it but we don't give a rats' ass about it. We do what we want but we know that it raises some reactions. There are too many bands today that only play safe and do what the fans or listeners are expecting them to do and who are too afraid of thinking of themselves and doing the same album over and over again and taking the same formula. That has never been the case with Demonical – we're doing what we want but of course we enjoy it if somebody else likes the albums as well. But again, especially with that song we knew that people are going to react but I mean all promotion is good promotion and if people are talking about the band it's good.

I think it's the second time that you've recorded a second album with the same line-up. Do you think that this line-up will be stable for the future?

Haha, hopefully! Yeah, this is the ultimate line-up. Of course every time you have a line-up change you hope that is the last one but you never know what happens. So people say that we have a lot of line-up changes in Demonical. Yes, maybe we had more than many other bands but on the other hand there are bands that had even more changes during a quite short period of time. Very few of those members that have been in the band have been fired, they have mostly left the band by free will because they lost interest or had other priorities. I mean if you are in a band and you lose interest and you want to do something else, I'm not stopping from doing it. Of course it's often a pity that they are leaving but you can't force anyone to stay. If they don't wanna do it then they shouldn't do it. Line-up changes are always like a pain in the ass because you have to find new members and to learn what kind of people they are if you didn't know them before then you have to work together and they have to learn all the material…so it can be a bit tough but as long as you try to keep in mind that you turn the band to the better it's a good thing. World Domination was the first album with the new members so it was a bit of a trying period but now the band has grown together to a tighter unit.

From the future to the past – in 2018 you've changed your logo. Why did you do this?

We didn't really change it. We are basically using three different logos so it wasn't an official change. In the beginning when the band started we had this old-school spider-web kind of logo (laughs) and in 2015 we changed to this other logo and now we are just using letters. So we have these three different logos but mainly the two latest ones we are using. It depends a bit on what content they are used. On an album cover where the artwork should be more in the focus it's better to use the font logo with those letters but on a festival poster where you have one million unreadable band logos, it's good to have a bigger logo which is a little bit more visible. So it depends a bit on where it will be used.

You went on a small album release tour with only dates in the Czech Republic and Germany. Why didn't you travel to other countries?

Basically bands do a release show in their home town or something like that. We wanted to do it a bit differently. So we planned a short release tour. The first idea was to do only German shows but then we got this offer in Czech Republic and accepted it as well. Germany is our strongest market. I mean we have followers all around the world but we have been doing pretty well just like most of the metal bands in general. So we wanted to do a short run in Germany to promote the new album. That was the main idea and reason behind this. But of course we are hoping and planning to do some more proper touring worldwide during this year and the next.

Finally, do you have some cool record recommendations that one shouldn't miss?

Ehhh….no (laughs). I don't really care about new music and I don't listen much to music. For me it's a bit hard having music in the background while I'm working or answering emails. I wanna have silence or – and that's the maximum - listening to the radio in the background. When I listen to music I wanna lie on the couch and just listen but I don't have time for that. Sometimes when I go out for a walk I can listen to Spotify and I usually listen to those old albums like heavy metal and hard rock albums from the 80s. I'm really not following all the new albums coming out which maybe is a pity. Of course I keep updated with the bigger and more well-known bands but there are so many albums that are released today so it's really hard to follow. But I mean a band like Kreator or Destruction are releasing new albums and I listen to a single or check a video and it is good stuff but it doesn't give me much. I much rather put on "Pleasure To Kill" or one of the old albums.

I discovered Cauchemar sometime back in 2014 by means of browsing the internet for horror themed metal and by the stroke of chance a streaming service displayed 'Étoile D'argent'. I listened to the song and fell in love with it to the point of purchasing the vinyl record "Chapelle Ardente". Spun it on my turntable and was immediately blown away by the atmosphere Cauchemar was able to conjure; far ahead of many new wave traditional metal with the added mysticism of 70's horror films. Annick Giroux's vocals caught me by the balls, both raw and trance inducing; and the music Francois (guitars), Andres (bass) and Xavier (drums) created waltzed with Annick's vocals. Today MetalBite managed to catch up with the ¼ of the Canadian modern heavy doom metal masters Annick Giroux.

Alex

Thank you for welcoming MetalBite into your abode, how have things been within the camp as of recent?

Hey, thanks to you for taking the time to interview me! Things have been doing pretty great – I just came back from Ireland, where I went to see the best US Black Metal band Negative Plane play in an old gothic church. It was really a special evening, and they did their best set I've ever seen in my life. I told them I never needed to see them anymore, haha! Besides that, I've been keeping busy with my day to day job doing graphic design, and also taking care of my label and my label bands.

How is the energy within the band currently?

Pretty good, especially since the short-but-incredible tour we did in late August/early September. We have such a great chemistry between all band members, everything feels very much natural. They are like family to me!

How has your relationship with Nuclear War Now! been thus far?

Great, the good thing with NWN is that they are open with whatever crazy idea we have for the layouts, as well as having a good distribution both in Europe and in North America. Yosuke is an old friend and he's always been very much supportive to us.

After hearing 'Comme Un Poignard' off the Trapped Under Ice compilation released through Temple of Mystery Records, I was more than pleased. Thus; it's been awhile since the release of "Chapelle Ardente", is there a new full length in the works or even better, is it completed? I hope there is one on the way soon because I assume many of your supporters are getting impatient including myself.

Haha! I'm sorry, we had a lot of changes since the release of "Chapelle Ardente" – we left the big city for a quieter life in the countryside and have been busy with our small label. But we have been working hard with Cauchemar – the fire is still burning, and we aim to have the writing of our next full length completed by the spring.

What is 'Comme Un Poignard' / 'Like A Dagger' about? 

It's about taking revenge using black magic. Giving intense suffering to an enemy using the dark forces. "Like a dagger… in your heart!"

The lyrics to Cauchemar's music are sung in French, which by the way adds another ominous layer to its tone, hence, will you share some insight as to why the French tongue is used in Cauchemar's music? Is recording Cauchemar's music in French a means of honoring heritage or something of the sort?

We are all fans of French Metal – especially the huge wave of French-speaking 80's metal bands. It made me think of my own scene; French is the first language in Quebec, yet barely any Quebec heavy metal bands sing in their native tongue! I know that in France, a lot of bands used to write in French because they had such limited English, it was the only way for them to sing – which is not the case in Quebec (most people speak pretty good English). Anyway, we wanted to be different, and to sort of honor our heavy metal heroes. Oh – also, we are huge fans of Paul Chain and Dead Can Dance – and in both you can't really tell what they are singing about. It adds another layer of mystery, which I believe helps creative a dark atmosphere.

What awoke your liking and passion for heavy metal?

It was a pen pal friend of mine from Belgium. She sent me copied cassettes of X-Japan's Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood! I was still in elementary school and listened to those tapes every day for two years, until the tapes stretched and wouldn't play anymore. Those albums were burned in my memory and soon I tried finding everything about metal and especially bands that sounded like them! I have a lot of fondness for Japanese metal for that reason. 

How did you meet the rest of the band?

I met François, the guitarist, at a New Year's metal house party in my hometown of Ottawa. He was a friend of a friend, and he had a solo folk project that I thought was really cool. We kept in touch and eventually started seeing each other, and he's been my husband for 9 years now! We founded Cauchemar together. Andres (bass), I met him when he was still just a guitarist – I believe he played guitar for Violentada who I thought was amazing, especially due to his guitar work. We were actively looking for a bassist (my skills were too limited on bass) so we asked him if he could play bass for us. Fun fact – I showed him the very basics on how to play bass with your fingers, but he became better than me after a day, haha! He's been in the band since 2010. For the drummer, Joel – he's been a close friend for a while. The first time I met him was in 2011 at a Black Metal festival – he stayed at my place in Montreal along with three other friends. I've always followed his bands Aube, Occult Burial and Asile (the only other band where he plays drums), and eventually we asked him if he could be our drummer. He officially joined in 2017.

How did you arrive at the decision to be part of a heavy doom metal band? And what inspired you to take up the role of vocalist in Cauchemar?

The music of Cauchemar has always been the reflection of our own musical tastes. We actually wanted to do a pure doom band from the start, but we could only write what you can hear on our records. It's in our blood, I suppose! As for being vocalist – it just happened naturally. I was originally only going to play bass, but we couldn't find a singer, so I decided to learn to sing and take on vocal duties. I never really found out how to sing, haha! That's why my vocals are so unusual!

You were responsible for playing the organs and synth on Chapelle ardente, I thought you did a fantastic job particularly on 'Nécromancie', 'Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit' and 'La Nuit Des Âmes', therefore summoning a near perfect atmosphere for the opening and closing of the record; it was like spectating a 70s horror flick. Which brings me to ask, was that your initial goal on "Chapelle Ardente"? To conjure an almost theatrical feel?, or maybe I'm entirely wrong.

We wanted to build a gothic atmosphere – something dark, funeral-like and very much mystical. A bit like a dream-like fantastic film. Thanks for the touching words – I'm glad you enjoyed my work on the synth and organ!

The occult is also a lyrical theme explored throughout Chauchemar's music and notably on "Chapelle Ardente". Where do you gather inspiration when reflecting on such a topic? Also do you subscribe to any philosophies or branches within the field?

We use occult symbolism in our songs mostly to talk about personal experiences that are hard to convey in everyday words. About the way we see the world and we change as human beings, slowly getting some kind of wisdom about it all. I'm not sure about the other guys because we don't talk much about it, but François and I, we don't adhere to any set philosophies. We just take whatever fits with our life experiences. We like to keep an open mind and not reject anything outright.

I have seen some of your live performances online, more lately a 40-minute set at Saint Vitus on August 30th, 2019; the energy Cauchemar brought as a unit was magical, more specifically yourself as frontwoman of the band, absolutely phenomenal. The way you take command of the stage is impressive. Tell me about your pre show preparations; is there anything special yourself and the guys do?

Thank you Alex! Whenever I play live, I try to live my lyrics through my performance. It makes me alive and go a bit wild, like you saw on that video, haha! Our pre-show rituals are simple; we like a bit of quiet before we go on stage, but we always have a few beers to really get in the mood, hehe. To loosen up enough to get completely into the music.

I have also noticed some theatrics being used, from the chiming of bells to, holding chains in both hands and the use of a ritual knife of some sort. Please elaborate on what those gestures represent.

Yes, using these objects help me get more in the state. The chains are for calling spirits, and the ritual knife is for the invocation in 'Comme Un Poignard'. At the Saint Vitus show, I had an extremely sharp knife and it felt even more …poignant on stage!

Let's move away from the metal a bit; I understand you are a mechanic in the kitchen, having engineered many tasty recipes in honor of the bands and musicians you respect in metal, and even going as far as penning 'Hellbent for Cooking'. I would like to own a copy sometime, as I am myself a bit of an enthusiast of unique dishes; what sparked your interest in culinary art?

I've always been really into food, but I truly became a foodie when I moved out of my parents place to Montreal, in 2005. I became obsessed with food and cooking it, buying cookbooks and learning the culinary arts by myself. I'm not a chef at all, but I like to cook (and eat!) a lot. Haha!

What are some of your favorite dishes that yourself 'Morbid Chef' has crafted.

Perhaps one of the best dishes I have done is a cream of chanterelles soup – made with a bit of cider and a lot of butter. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten!

Are you given any assistance prior to or during the preparation of the dishes?

Most of the time, my husband assists me by doing the dishes and sometimes cutting vegetables. But I do everything by my own. If I don't know how to prepare something, I research it of course.

I'm assuming a-lot of money and other valuable resources play a great role in the crafting process of these exotic delicacies. Thus, what happens should a project fail to manifest the results expected?

I usually am pretty thrifty with my recipes – I mostly buy things that are on sale at the grocery store, and then cook around that. But it of course happened in the past that my recipes failed. If it's not burnt, I will eat it, or re-craft it into something else. Haha! No waste here.

What is the most resource-consuming dish you have ever crafted? Did it turn out as projected?

Once I was really obsessed with making a recipe that was all black and had the darkest, blackest ingredients. I bought some black garlic for it, fresh trumpet mushrooms, squid ink pasta and blood sausage and tried to make a recipe out of it from scratch. I paid quite a lot for that garlic and trumpet mushrooms (it was before I learned how to forage!) and the results weren't very good – ha! I'm still learning to cook with black garlic – it has a very particular taste.

What is the most difficult recipe you've created thus far? Also, what results did its spring?

I don't really cook extremely difficult recipes unfortunately – I prefer simple with fresh ingredients than complicated and time consuming. I'm a fast eater, so it's kind of bums me out when I spend hours making a dish and I eat it in 20 minutes, haha! But perhaps the most difficult recipes have been the traditional French-Canadian ones that take two days to make – like Pork Feet and Meatball stews. I'm going to be making one of these next week for Xmas.

What recipe/s are you working on currently, if any?

Right now, I am making homemade buckwheat bread and it is slowly rising – I will be baking it tomorrow morning. Then, I will be making pizza from scratch with sauce made of tomatoes from my garden. I got some organic carrots and cabbage fermenting, and crabapple wine being brewed. I had a taste this morning (I need to rake it every 45 days for 6 months and add honey every time) and it was really delicious – although really mild in alcohol just yet. It will be ready next fall only!

It would be great to watch you cook sometime; have you ever considered starting a channel to exhibit your culinary skills?

When the cookbook came out ten years ago, a Montreal company approached me to do recipe capsules – we did a pilot of two recipes in a real TV kitchen. They turned out really cool actually, but no TV channel was interested to buy them. You Tube existed of course, but it was nowhere as massive as it is today. I still have a DVD of the episodes but can't put them online due to production rights.

Are there any chefs you draw inspiration from? 

No, not really. I mostly want to replicate recipes I've tried before, so I watch "how to" videos or look at images for inspiration.

All this talk of food is getting me hungry, back to metal. How was the name Cauchemar contrived?

Back in those days and since childhood actually, I was having really intense nightmares – a lot of them finished with me dying in some sort of strange circumstance. It's in French, but I wrote a small piece about it in the CD booklet of the first Cauchemar EP. Oh yeah, Cauchemar means nightmare in French! And in other languages as well.

'Freedom' is cited as one of your lyrical themes; in what context is that word explored and used with regards to Cauchemar's music?

Free will, free to travel, free to do whatever we want musically.

I take it since the English translation of Cauchemar is 'Nightmare' much of what is written and recorded takes prominence in occult horror tales be it folklore or even movies; thus, what are some of the tales and movies and periods in time most influential to the band music?

We have many influences; from French esoteric authors (like Fulcanelli) to animist spirituality, French mythologies, traditional horror and the culture of death worship.

Where Cauchemar's lyrical concept is concerned, does the term 'nightmare' transcend what some consider dreams and hallucinations, does it touch base with reality?

The songs are written in a cryptic manner, full of symbolism and double extenders, which keep the songs vague, like in a dream.

Would you be willing to share some of your own experiences that may have been a contributing factor to Cauchemar's nightmare thematic?

Beside my nightmares being the source of the band's name, we don't really have a "nightmare" thematic. But the name has the right feeling to it. The songs are mostly spiritual in nature, but we are not afraid of exploring the dark corners of life through them.

Do you see Cauchemar adapting a darker sound and exploring themes more macabre in the future? I ask because you do a splendid job projecting beautiful passages in capturing a true occult doom experience.

Thank you so much! We already have five songs written for our next full length, and so far a few of them explore French mysticism themes. But of course, the macabre will always be very much present in our music!

Is there any country and/or event you would like to play live in the future that you have not played before?

We'd love to play in Japan, Greece and in… the Great North! It is a bit of a dream to play in Igloolik – perhaps to open for the Inuit Heavy Rock band Northern Haze. Who knows!

It has been a pleasure speaking with, Annick 'The Morbid Chef Giroux'. MetalBite wishes Cauchemar the best in all future musical efforts, and seasons blessings.

Thank you! We appreciate your well-thought questions, which also made me quite hungry, haha!

In closing, is there anything you would like to add?

We are taking a break from doing concerts in 2020 – and will be returning to the stage once our new record is out. Looking forward what the future will hold…

Italian Winterage have recently released their third full-length album "Nekyia" which became surprisingly much gloomier and darker than its predecessors. Also the classic influences were driven back and instead of this the band used some more cinematic elements. I had a very interesting chat with their major songwriter / violin player Gabriele Boschi where he explained a lot about this different approach of songwriting and his vision of music.

Enjoy reading and "Nekyia"!

Michael

Hi Gabriele, how are you doing?

I'm fine and the band is fine. We're at the end of our summer concerts where we played in Italy for the last months and in England.

With your third album you have a quite more heavy approach than on the predecessors and also the cover is much darker than before. Why did you choose to go this way?

Everything started with the main concept of the album. We are not used to creating concept albums but maybe Nekiya is closer to a concept album than the other albums were. We have a main theme which is the descending. The darker sound and the darker images, also in our videos and photo shootings, are because of the thematic. We decided to enrich the orchestral stuff but also the metal influence. Our previous albums were symphonic metal where you sometimes had to choose which side to emphasize -  metal stuff or orchestral parts. It's not so easy to put these two aspects and mix them together. We grew up a lot and with this album I guess both parts are dealing together much better. We had the space to emphasize both parts, especially the metal influence, following the thematic of the album. Even the orchestral stuff is much heavier and more bombastic. The dark tones of the album are because of its topic and we wanted to create a world around these themes we followed from the images, the cover artwork and from the music.

The title "Nekyia" originated in Greek mythology and it means like you said "to descend". What is the idea behind it?

The Nekyia is an ancient Greek ritual where the person who spells these rites descends into the underworld to speak with the spirits and to get advice for the future and more knowledge from them. We took this idea of descending and used it to express the idea of descending also into ourselves, to the inner depths of our spirit. I discovered that also Karl Gustav Jung, the philosopher and psychologist, took this ritual with this idea of descending into yourself to get to know better the unconscious and the visions he had. We wanted to do the same. The main idea of the album is the descend. We wanted to descend into ourselves to get to know better our feelings, all the emotions that  a human being could feel, the good and the bad ones. On The Inheritance Of Beauty, our previous album, the main topic was to discover the beauty which is hidden inside the human being. Now we wanted to focus on the totality of the emotions in the human beings, knowing and accepting them so that you will be able to overpass it and to cope with sadness and other negative emotions. The main theme of the album is about that and all the songs are connected to the main concept.

When I have a look at the song titles, I don't get any connection between Simurgh which is a fable animal in Persian mythology and Hecate who originated in Greek mythology. Is there some connection between all the songs except that they deal with ancient mythologies?

We love to tell different stories and we like to take different spots to make the songs different from each other. We decided to connect all the songs to the main concept, using different stories from different times. As you said, Simurgh is an ancient Persian story where a swarm of birds are looking for their god. They start to travel, following among seven valleys while each of the valleys represents a part of human spirit. They have to pass all these valleys and at the end of the journey they see a giant shadow representing a giant bird but suddenly they discover that this shadow is made by them. The main topic of the song is that you are the leader of yourself if you know yourself. A song like 'The Cult Of Hecate' is more related to the Greek word "Nekyia" because the goddess Hecate was traveling between the surface and the underworld to bring people there. 'Dark Enchantment' is related to an Italian philosopher Piero Ferrucci, who wrote a book called "The New Will". There he said that when you are feeling down and go through some really bad moments, all the reality becomes dark and it's like a spell is cast upon you. I particularly love this song because in the middle there is this ritual with some choirs which is like being in a temple where the crowd is casting this spell. 'La Fonte D'Essenza' which is in Italian is a very abstract song (laughs). The title means fountain of the essence. From that fountain water comes from and this water represents the totality of the emotions of human beings. These emotions stayed the same since the beginning of mankind; we just changed the way how we feel them and the variation in our reality. But love and hate are the same feelings the ancient Greek, Romans or whoever had and we have now. In this fountain you can have a bath and so you can get to know yourself better. This is related to the last song on the album, 'Resurrectio Ad Mundum', which means resurrection on earth - there you will be reborn as a human being because you know yourself better.

In the past you had much more classic influences than you have on "Nekyia". Was this planned right from the beginning?

I don't know if this is correct. Maybe this album is more cinematic than classic. We decided to put out symphonic influences more into cinematic stuff. Actually in one of our last songs, 'Metamorphosis, A Macabre Ritual', a song which is divided into two parts, the second part is totally taken by the "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens who was a classical French composer at the end of the 19th century. We arranged it in a metal way. So I guess in Nekiya there are even more classical parts than on the previous album because there we took only small parts into the songs. For example in 'The Amazing Toymaker' we used "The Nutcracker" by Tschaikovsky or in The Harmonic Passage in the song 'Awakening' we used "Swan Lake" by him.

So what would you say for which movie could be your music the perfect soundtrack for?

Well, I became a film composer a few years ago and I am influenced by "Lord Of The Rings" and all the John Williams stuff in "Star Wars", "Jurassic Park" and "Harry Potter" but I also love newer soundtracks like "Dungeons And Dragons", "Dune" or "Interstellar". In my vision we play metal but my musical vision is to create a giant ensemble where the band is just included in the orchestra.

Did you have a classical musical education so that you are able to write such impressive arrangements?

Yes, I play the violin and almost everybody in my family is a classical musician. My father plays in an orchestra and I grew up in classical music. Actually I started my first lesson at the age of 2 (laughs) where I played a viola instead of a cello because there aren't such small cellos. I started my classical studies with the violin at the age of 8 and I graduated from that at the conservatory around 20 years ago. I also played in many orchestras. That was great for my skills to write and compose for the orchestra. If you just study and you just can play all the instruments it is one thing but if you spend hours and hours in lessons and concerts with different repertoires from classic to soundtracks to even pop music, you can feel and absorb the music. I always had an extremely active listening in the rehearsals and you get to know how to work with the instruments to make them sound perfect and also the intention of the composer. So you become able to reproduce it.

I remember that you put some Easter Eggs on the last album the fans had to find. Is this also the case here?

Yes, these Easter Eggs are just from classical composers. As I said, we took "Danse Macabre" in 'Metamorphosis, A Macabre Ritual' but there is also another one which is hidden and I guess nobody ever noticed it. It is in the first track 'Apertio Ad Profundum' – there's a little quotation of "Dies Irae" by Mozart and it's in the brass section.

When I remember some old Manowar interviews, it always comes to my mind that Joey DeMaio stated that Richard Wagner was the first person who played heavy metal. Would you agree that some classical music has many similarities to heavy metal?

Surely he was right but in my opinion he wasn't the first. You can also feel rock and metal in Vivaldi, for example "The Storm". Another early rock star was Niccolò Paganini as violinist because he was the very first who put himself on stage with other people accompanying him. And he was a virtuoso of his instruments who made variations and improvisations of his songs. I think that classical music and heavy metal are extremely connected by rhythmic, harmony and melodies. They can fit together very well.

And what are the biggest metal influences on you? Were you inspired by Ghost a little bit – listening to "Dark Enchantment" I somehow get reminded of "Spirit" not only because you are singing "Spirit Of Darkness" but also because of the melody there….

Well, not really by coincidence. I don't know this song but I will listen to it, you made me curious. Our main influences are Rhapsody Of Fire, we grew up with their songs and with their use of harmonies and combining orchestra and metal. They forged our way. I am also extremely inspired by Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Symphony X and also Dimmu Borgir.

The last words belong to you!

Thank you so much for this interview, Michael! I also want to thank all the people who will read the interview and who are curious to listen to our music. Please get into the depths of our lyrics because everything is going to be more superficial but if you dive deeper into the topic you can emerge yourself into a new universe.

After a seven-year hiatus, Satyricon is about to return to Brazil, with confirmed shows in São Paulo (11/13) and Brasília (11/14). In the interview you are about to read, drummer Frost expresses great anticipation for this reunion, highlighting that the band brings a "better and more intense" version of itself, ready to offer the South American audience, known for its passion and intensity at shows, a unique experience.

Speaking of unique experiences, in 2022, Satyricon also embarked on a bold artistic and musical project with the album "Satyricon & Munch," inspired by the work of Edvard Munch. Frost shares that vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Satyr conceived this work after a strong connection with the dark and disturbing atmosphere of the iconic Norwegian artist's paintings. For the drummer, this unique, entirely instrumental album marks a new creative phase for Satyricon and leaves a lasting influence on the band's trajectory, which is already projecting a next release.

Marcelo Vieira

This will be Satyricon's third time in Brazil. What are your expectations for this return?

Yes. I think that Satyricon is the type of band that doesn't really stand still. Since a lot of time has passed since the last time we were there, we also feel that Satyricon is quite a different band now. It's always exciting to see how people react to our music, especially since time has passed since we last visited a certain place. The fans are going to be, to some degree, different. There will be some people who have seen us before, but probably many who have never had that chance, and some who were too young to see us the last time we were around. We have new music, and I guess we sound a little different, and we have a different lineup, too. So my expectation is that we will see a crowd that is typical of South America, meaning probably the best fans in the world. We hope they will enjoy the way Satyricon sounds and feels today, and we think we are bringing them the best version of Satyricon that has ever existed. We always strive to get a little better. So our expectations when going out live are always very high, and as I said, South American fans are really special to us. That means we are definitely looking forward to this one.

Do you have any memorable memories from when the band came in 2011 and 2017?

We've had a good time every time we've been to South America, and that goes for these previous tours as well. What we perhaps wanted most of all now that we'd brought the live band back on its feet again was to experience South America. We haven't played live since 2019, so it has been quite a long time. It's even longer since we were in South America the last time, so we are particularly excited that we can go back there because we've always had a good time there before.

What was the creative process like for it?

This was something completely different from anything else we've done. The whole idea for that piece of music was also connected to the exhibition that was done at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. Satyr said that he was out walking in the woods sometime in 2018, and we were done with the touring cycle for Deep Calls from Deep. I guess he was pondering what he wanted to do next, and for some reason, he felt this very strong connection with the painter Edvard Munch and the feeling of his works—especially all the darkness, anxiety, twistedness, and weirdness in all those paintings. He also felt a strong connection to Munch's legacy and perhaps most of all to his spirit and the kind of person he was. It dawned on Satyr that he wanted to create a musical piece that was very connected to Munch—not only in terms of inspiration but perhaps with an even stronger connection. He started to toy with the idea that perhaps he should try to set up an exhibition with some hand-picked Munch works and let that be the foundation for a piece of music that he would make from scratch. This would be very different from anything he had done so far, but which would somehow resonate with Munch's expression and all the sorrow, darkness, and weirdness that lie within those paintings.

He told me that when he got that idea in the first place, he intuitively felt he had to do some work connected to Munch, but he wasn't sure at all what kind of music it should be or how he should proceed. He just trusted that if he gave this little time and put effort into it, he would somehow succeed in eventually coming up with a very fine piece of music that would be enriching for him and possibly for the listeners as well. I also know that he was a bit uncertain whether it should be a Satyricon work or something just by him, you know—a personal piece of music like Storm or Wongraven as opposed to Satyricon.

I think that when he actually started making music for this idea, he was still uncertain. He had been working for at least a year or a year and a half before he realized that this was actually going to be Satyricon's next work. He felt that even if this is very different from anything that Satyricon has done, he connected it to Satyricon's spirit as much as Munch's spirit, and he felt that this was beyond something that was just his private musical project. He felt that this should be integrated into the Satyricon world and perhaps contribute to taking Satyricon in a rather different direction, adding something to the Satyricon universe that belonged there but which also expanded it quite massively.

So when you understand that kind of beginning, you can also see that this has a lot to do with Satyricon's ideas. Nobody else was really that involved. I was invited to lay down some drum parts on a couple of occasions, which I did, but most of all, this was Satyr's own work. I was invited to take part in that universe much later when most of the music was already created and most of the ideas were in place. Satyr had been working day and night on this project, partly on his guitars and partly on Moog synthesizers and other instruments. He had been inviting guest musicians to come help him out and basically found a very different model for Satyricon—one that I must say I'm impressed by. When I heard the music he created and they started making these first demos, I felt it was fantastic stuff. I understood very well that we couldn't have conventional drums or anything on this album, and we ended up having no vocals on the album, which also makes it stand out quite a bit. But I feel that Satyr is correct in saying that you can really feel the Satyricon spirit in that album, and I think it will also have a great effect on the music that we are currently making for a new album now. So the Satyricon & Munch piece has meant a lot for Satyricon's development and where we are going after it as well. I now think it's an integrated part of Satyricon's legacy as a band and of our musical history.

Can we expect new material from Satyricon soon?

Well, we have made a lot of music over the last year and a half—or perhaps even more than that. I guess we have more material than what could fill an album at this point, but we aren't finished with it. I guess that we will start recording material for a new album pretty soon. The thing is that prior to this summer, the new album was basically our main project. Satyricon and I usually meet up at the rehearsal space several times a week to rehearse new material. We had come pretty far in that process, and then it turned out that we got a lot of interest in having Satyricon perform at various festivals. We also understood that we needed to establish a live band again because we didn't really have that after 2019 due to the history with the pandemic and what that meant for the possibilities of playing live. We felt we needed a live band at the time, so we wanted to concentrate on other things, like the Satyricon and Munch work that I have been talking about.

Following that with a new, shall we say, more conventional album as well was not part of our plan. So we didn't really think we should concentrate as much on doing live music, but since there was so much interest and since we started to establish a live band again, we saw that this would also take a lot of time and resources. It would also involve so much activity that it would make it more or less impossible for us to just continue making this new album. We needed to get the live band up and come and bring it up to speed because Satyricon today needs to meet very high international standards. We have brought in some high-profile musicians to be part of Satyricon's live band again, so all of that meant that at the end of spring, early summer this year, we started to focus on doing the live business instead. We decided that we should just put the new album a little bit on hold because when we work on that, we really need to concentrate. We can't do new album rehearsals one day and then rehearse with the live band the next day because it kind of ruins the workflow, and the two different tasks do not really help each other. So we are slightly back in that process again now, but since we're also going to South America, we will continue to focus on touring for a little while, and then we will get back to work on the new album as soon as we're back from Latin America.

Norwegian black metal was marked by tragic events that occurred in the 90s. In your opinion, did these events overshadow the music and art behind the genre, or, on the contrary, contribute to its myth and popularity?

Yeah, I think it's difficult to say it is one or the other. I think perhaps it's more than the latter. To us, music has always been the main priority and focus. Satyricon has never been about sensationalism; it has not, you know, been about crimes or tragedies. We have always tried to make good music, to become better and better at what we do. We try to learn, observe, and improve, and we strive to bring resources into Satyricon that can help us evolve and become a better band.

As for the legacy of the Norwegian scene, I guess that the early 90s were very vibrant times, and some rather extreme personalities were part of the scene. A lot of those extreme incidents that we experienced were part of that. Perhaps it had something to do with the spirit of the times and the very explosive nature of what was going on. The fact is that this was a rather painful and violent birth of a music scene that was to become very potent. That's how I see it.

Sometimes these births are very painful, but what remains is a fantastic style of music that didn't exist before the Norwegian scene was introduced to the world in the early 90s. To me, it's very special that so many bands from such a small country have made such a mark on the world. I feel that music is still very much alive today, and in Satyricon, we feel that the spirit is as vital now as it was in the early 90s. We have tried to carry the flag onward and ensure that the flame burns within us as strongly today as it did when we were kids in the early 90s.

That means that no matter how we regard it, it is a very vital and outstanding musical genre, and I'm proud to be part of it. I'm still connected to it in a way that means I have more or less dedicated my life to this style of music.

If you could go back in time and give younger Frost some advice, what would it be?

Probably, I mean, there's so much advice that I could offer because I know many things now that would have been helpful to know when I was younger. But on the other hand, one must also be given the chance to learn and evolve; you cannot really learn everything at once, no matter what. Trying to learn the basics before attempting to do the most extreme stuff is always a good idea. It's also important to understand what it means to be part of a band. You shouldn't only pay attention to yourself and your own instrument but also pay a lot of attention to those you are playing with. Try to understand how you can contribute to making the music better.

That often means that instead of doing a lot, sometimes it's better to do less and let other instruments shine. During the first years, I had no understanding of that at all, and I feel that my drum playing suffered because of it. I wish I had known a little more about it when I was younger.

What message would you like to leave for Satyricon's Brazilian fans?

I hope to see you at our shows when we come to play. We travel a very long distance to get to you, so I hope that you will come to our shows when we are there. We're going to have some magical experiences together. It might be a long time until the next time we turn up there, so seize the chance, come see us, and share some fantastic moments with Satyricon.