01. Salut! How are you? What do you think about this hard winter around here? How are the things going on for Vokodlok now?
>>> Hailz!!! We are fine for the moment, just released the album and are preparing for our future concerts in Timisoara with Krieg & Negura Bunget, in Budapest and Novi Sad. And we like winter, so the tones of snow were just O.K. for us.and it was all white, shiny & cute, we created a lot of snowmen, had snow fights, rode on the sleigh, finally we were very happy.Hahahaha!!!
02. Vokodlok is an old Romanian term of a Slavic origin, describing a creature (werewolf) close with the vampire? Why did you felt this would be a good symbol for you band? Why do you think immortality is such a present concept in Black Metal?
>>> Well, we felt the werewolf is a mythological being which through its ferocity and sadism inspires fear, perfectly describes the messages that Black-Metal transmits to its fans.Immortality is one of the present features of all the creatures that inspired the Black-Metal movement, and it is one of most desired things by mankind. The search for immortality is considered a search fo 15215k1015p r the truth and the answer to the question: "is there life after death?" Maybe the people involved in the Black-Metal movement are trying to answer it in a way or another. We see that the only way to get all this answers is death.
03. Let us know some details about the band. What were your intentions when you started it?
>>> It all started in the winter of 1999/2000 with Gardrak-guitars, Blestemat-bass, Strigoi-vocals and Claudiu-drums. Every man has the right to express and to release his thoughts and energy the way he wants; Black-Metal is the way we chose to do it. After a few concerts, Claudiu decided to leave the band and he was replaced by Freak. We released the demo in the fall of 2000 as a MCD released by Beauty of Pain prod (Rom) and as a split tape by Axa Valaha (Rom) and Eclipse of Life promulgation (Ger) along with Bloody Harvest from Germany. Finally, in March 2003 we released at Beauty of Pain prod the debut album called Mass Murder Genesis.
04. Your new album Mass Murder Genesis is just being released by Beauty of Pain Records. What can you tell us about it? How do you see it compared with Unchain the Wolf?
>>> Mass Murder Genesis's style is a little different from the Unchain the Wolf's style. It's much more powerful, faster and not as melodic as the demo. The main subject of this album is death; we are trying to describe it through the ways people are trying to reach it, what comes after it and the implications of death in the Christianity. Blestem is about a curse which is the invocation of a creature of death, Decay is about the fall of god and the way he uses death for his own purposes, Infinite Path of Unreality is an image of life after death and Names on the Pyre is about the murders that the church made by burning people with different ideas. Basically it is about one of the most common methods the religions used to gain many adepts and to punish those who opposed to it: murder.
05. Where did you record it? Are you satisfied with the final result?
>>>It was recorded in "Taboo" Studio (the drum parts) and the rest in "Dreamsound" & "Apocalypse". Mixing and mastering were done by Tubi in "Dreamsound". Well, having in mind what the Romanian metal scene has to offer, it sounds quite good, and we are satisfied. But anyway, there is plenty of room for a better sound.
06. This is your first official album, and it's also the first official release of The Beauty of Pain Records. What do you hope this will mean for Vokodlok? Are you satisfied with Alex's work so far? What kind of contract do you have with Beauty of Pain?
>>>Both us, the band and the label are new in the underground and we decided to unify our forces to make ourselves heard in the metal scene. Alex promoted our demo incredible well, it was sold in 650 copies, almost all of them outside Romania and hopefully that's what will happen with Mass Murder Genesis, too. That's the way you can stay alive in this country and in this domain considering the lack of support that the metal scene is giving to its bands.
07. We, the 2 editors of Negura Magazine, see the Black Metal as a unitary movement that crosses all frontiers and borders. All lyrics intertextualize and all sounds intersect, eventually unifying in one main concept. Therefore, each band brings something new to the movement's identity. What is it that Vokodlok brings to the Black Metal scene? What is your contribution to the genre's meanings?
>>> What we are trying to realize is to revive the true Black-Metal style, that has been modified, deformed and mixed with some musical styles that have no connection with metal, only with the purpose of inventing a new style and to achieve their personal wishes. How are we refreshing the Black-Metal? With new songs, new ideas, new perceptions and feelings that the old Black-Metal had and have been forgotten for a long time. With every album concepts, the band is moving forward to it's own specific style, and in time our style will change, but it will be only under the flag of Black-Metal.
08. What do you think about the local Metal Scene? Is there such a thing? Why do you think there are only a few Black Metal bands coming from these lands that offer so much inspiration to others?
>>> The Romanian scene is dry. Few festivals, few concerts, this is the reflection of the Romanian shit economy that affects both the organizers and the metal fans and Romanian people's stupidity. Of course, there is also the fans' disinterest towards the metal scene. Romania's history has a lot to offer but we don't take advantage of it, we don't exploit it like some bands from other countries do. That is why there are only few Romanian Black Metal bands.
09. Which are, in your opinion, the Balcanic elements that influence the attitudes and ideas of the Romanian metal scene (please refer to both bands and fans)?
>>> First it's the country's history that formed the Romanian spirit and gave it's people hope and courage to move forward.And then it's about the people's culture, the people's ability to make the difference between real and fake music and I think here is one of the flaws, that's why the Romanian metal scene is weak and vague.
10. After being around for quite some time Negura Bunget and God are still considered the leading acts of the Romanian underground. Both bands have just released new studio albums: 'N Crugul Bradului and Aura. Could you please comment upon these two albums in terms of musical approach, concept, presentation, production, sound.?
>>>In the first place, we do not listen to "god". Well, this Negura Bunget release was not a surprise to us at all.Their direction was contoured by their previous album.The CD cover is awesome, simple yet full of meanings. Musically speaking, this style is not on my taste; the style I like is the one on Zarnindu-sa. The songs on this album seem to me a little uninspired, too long and I can sense their wish of doing something different but with not much success. The production is good, not extraordinary, but their conceptual background is very complex and this is what makes them different of other bands.
11. It is known that the dream of many underground bands is to sign with a major label that would produce and promote its album professionally. But at the same time the Black Metal underground put some stigmata on bands that by signing a better label began to change their music and attitude. What do you think about these options? What would you compromise in order to be on Nuclear Blast, let's say?
>>> It's every band's choice to make compromises with their music or not.But this is not what we would rather do. We don't play in the idea of getting rich. We would be glad to sign with Nuclear Blast but without changes of style, image and whatever they think will get them a lot of money. What we like at Nuclear Blast and other big labels is that their bands have a lot of fucking gigs, all fucking year; playing live is one of the most pleasant part of what we do. However, Nuclear Blast is out of discussion, 'cause they prefer bands that are a sure source of money and it's not our case.
12. Please identify one regional/local feature of the Romanian spirit which might be considered to have crossed geographical borders, transcending towards the universal. Once you picked it up, please establish an evolutionary or devolutionary trajectory it had through time.
>>> One Romanian historical figure that comes into my mind, that crossed the borders of our country, is Vlad Tepes. He became an international image, by the name of Dracula.We, Romanians, should thank Bram Stoker and Hollywood for deforming and manipulating a part of our history, a Romanian legend, only for their interest in money and fame.
13. And since we mentioned time, I have to tell you that we also interviewed Primordial whose latest album, Storm Before Calm, is centered, ideologically speaking around the idea of writing/re-writing history. This is, of course, a key-concept and we see it transforming on a regular basis. How would you define history?
>>> I didn't listen to this album, but what I can say is that history may repeat, because of human's talent of not listening carefully to what history can teach us.this is a proof that the human lives are guided by a cycle of events that keep repeating.like birth, diseases, death, that keep happening until one day when we will find our reason of existence, and thus we will discover immortality, that we were talking about.
14. That's it! Thanks very much for you time! Anything to add in the end?
>>> Thank you for the interview, and let's hope we will meet at many concerts.to support the Underground!!! Hailz!
|
