Friday, March 20, 2015

Revealing The Conscience/Time Will Reveal/WormHoleDeath Records/2015 CD Review


  Revealing  The  Conscience  are  a  band  from  Slovakia  that  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  power,  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  album  "Time  Will  Reveal"  which  was  released  by  WormHoleDeath  Records.

A  very  symphonic  sound  starts  off  the  album  bringing  in  a  classical  music  feeling  and  after  the  intro  melodic  progressive  metal  guitar  leads  start  becoming  a  huge  part  of  the  recording  while  also  keeping  around  the  symphonic  elements  and  after  awhile  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  are  used  on  a  regular  basis.

  You  can  hear  a  great  amount  of  melody  in  the  guitar  riffing  at  times  while  the  power  metal  influence  is  mixed  in  with  the  musical  instruments  and  the  vocals  stick  to  a  more  aggressive  style  and  as  the  album  progresses  the  songs  start  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  and  one  of  the  later  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  before  return  back  to  a  heavier  direction  while  a  small  amount  of  spoken  word  parts  can  be  heard.

  Revealing  The  Conscience  takes  both  black  and  death  metal  and  combines  them  together  with  symphonic  metal  and  the  melody  of  power  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  metaphysical  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Revealing  The  Conscience  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  and  symphonic  mixture  of  black,  death  and  power  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Hellbinder"  "Struggling  Within"  "Farewell"  and  "God  And  Satan".  8  out  of  10.

https://www.facebook.com/revealthecon
http://www.youtube.com/revthecon  

  

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Augurs/Deathgrave/Sentinent Ruin Laboratories/2015 Split 7 Inch Review


  This  is  a  review  of  a  split  7  inch  between  Oakland,  California's  Augurs  and  Deathgrave  which  will  be  released  by  Sentinent  Ruin  Laboratories  on  March  17,  2015  and  we  will  start  off  the  review  with  Augurs  a  band  that  plays  a  mixture  of  black  metal,  doom  and  crust.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  off  with  a  very  dark  and  heavy  sound  that  starts  to  speed  up  a  few  seconds  later  and  bring s in  elements  of  crust,  and  black  metal  screams  along  with  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  you  can  also  hear  a  small  amount  of  doom  and  post  metal  in  the  bands  musical  style  as  well  as  some  deep  growls,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  depressive  themes and  towards  the  end  the  music  gets  melodic  and  also  incorporates  a  brief  guitar  lead.

  In  my  opinion  Augurs  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  black  metal,  doom  and  crust  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  band.

  Next  up  is  Deathgrave  a  band  that  plays  a  brutal  mixture  of  power  violence,  crust  and  grind.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  a  very  heavy  guitar  sound  and  high  pitched  screams  before  speeding  up and  adding  in  blast  beats  that  also  take  their  music  into  more  of  a  brutal  grindcore  direction  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  a  small  amount  of  growls  being  added  onto  later  songs  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  hateful  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Deathgrave  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  grindcore,  crust  and  power  violence  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Hugged  In  Half".

  In  conclusion  I  feel  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  split  and  I  would  recommend  it  to  fans  of  black  metal,  doom,  grind,  power  violence  and  crust.  8  out  of  10.

https://augurs.bandcamp.com
https://deathgrave.bandcamp.com


    

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Northland Interview


Northland / interview answers by POL LEMAIRE (keyboards) and PAU MURILLO (singer-guitars) / A Different Shade Of Black Metal / 2015

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Well, as you can imagine we've been very busy preparing everything related with the release and promotion of Downfall & Rebirth. We've been working hard on promoting it through the world, and also have been looking for gigs so as to spread our music around. It's been really nice to finally release the album after almost 3 years of hard work (the recordings started in March 2012), so we are really happy!

2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

The musical sound from the new album is definitely more diverse. We've taken more time for composing the songs, so everything sounds more refined and filled with details. Of course we love our first album, but since we've matured a lot in the last 5 years, so has done our music. We hope people will enjoy the different touches we have given to our new music!

3.This is the first album to be released in 5 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time frame?

Well, during these 5 years we’ve been playing around Europe (festivals and some tours), which has been a really great experience. There have been as well some line-up changes, but finally we’ve managed to reach stability. Our drummer Jose also had to endure a hard recovery from a bike accident, which took him 8 months to get recovered. Hopefully he’s so strong and if fine again!

Of course, we've also been busy composing and recording for half of the five years, but we mainly got focused on playing anywhere and spreading our music.

4.The lyrics cover some Pagan topics, how would you describe your views on Paganism?
Yes, that's right! We do inspire our lyrics on some pagan cultures but we also add a little bit of fantasy so that we don't follow a particular pagan religion or way of thinking. We create our own pagan way of understanding the universe. We might use some shades of the Viking and Celtic culture, but we are not saying "Hey, we are Vikings or Celts". We try to give a personal point of view and we want the listener to think about it.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Northland'?
Well, it is indeed a quite strange and funny story. The origin of the name takes place in 2004, when Pau Murillo (singer and guitars), along with some friends from the high school, decided to create a band. One day, one of those friends proposed to call the band "Northwind". All of them liked that name, but after investigating a little bit they realised there was already a band called like this, so they decided to turn the name into Northland. That's it!

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We always enjoy any show we play in! We're always finding incredible people anywhere we go, and this is something that we enjoy so much. But to name some, the best shows might be the ones at Ragnarök Festival, Vagos Open Air, Wave Gotik Treffen... We also enjoyed a lot the Black Trolls Over Europe Tour we did in 2010, we hope we can do an European tour like that soon!
Regarding our stage performance, over time we've got more experience, so we can focus more on the contact with the audience. We've always been told that we have a good live performance, and we want to keep this so people can enjoy each and every gig we perform in!

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Well, we have plans for performing around Spain (and Portugal) during this spring (April, May and June). The tour will consist of around 10-15 gigs, and we will play in many cities we haven't played in before, so we are excited about this! We hope we'll have good feedback from these places, and we are promoting the tour so as many people as possible can come. Besides, we are also planning some international tours for the second half of the year, but we still have details to manage before we can announce it.
Of course, we are eager to play in as many places as possible, since we wish to bring our music to all the people around the globe!

8.The new album was self released but the band has been signed to a label before, are you open to working with another record label again in the future?

Of course! We don't discard any possibility. We had some problems with our previous label, so in the end we thought the most practical way to release our second album was self releasing it. If we got a nice proposal in the future, we'd be glad to work with another label, so it's just a matter of time.

9.On a worldwide level, how has the feedback been to your newer music by fans of viking, pagan, folk, and death metal?

Overall, the reception of our new album has been pretty good. We've been working hard on the promotion of the album, so it can reach as many metal fans as possible, and the feedback we are receiving by now is positive. We usually read the comments from Youtube and the social media, and we are happy to see that many people like Downfall And Rebirth. We are also receiving positive feedback from the magazines, fanzines, blogs, and other media that have reviewed our new album. We hope our music can be enjoyed as many people as possible!

10.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Some members are really busy with their other musical projects. For example, Vic (the bassist) is working hard with his band Moonloop, because they are recording their new studio album. Jose (the drummer) is also busy with his band Aggression, and will also record a new album soon, as well a perform in some gigs. Some of the other members play in other bands as well.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
First of all, after the long time it has taken to finish our second studio album, we will get focused on playing live in as many places as possible. We want to spread our music around the entire world, know new bands and people, get more experience... We still don't know where will our music head into in the future, but we are sure it will get better, because all the experience we get on our lives (both musically and non-musically talking) is something that we can transfer to our music. We think this is something that makes music richer, and will of course be important when we decide to record our third album.

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

We've been listening to a lot of new stuff. The older you get the more open-minded you become and we are 6 people in the band, so imagine the wide range of music styles we listen to. To resume, I would say that we mainly listen to folk music such as the masters Luar na Lubre, Assambly Point and so on. We also love to listen to epic music: Two steps from hell. Immediate music and a lot of modern composers. That's more or less where we get our inspiration from nowadays, a part from thousands of bands that we might listen to particularly.

13.What are some of your non musical interests?

All of us have different interests.

For example, Pol (keyboard player) likes Japanese culture and speaks Japanese, and also likes hiking in the mountains and playing videogames. Vic (Bass player loves Photography, Sound engineering, board games, Magic the Gathering, Sociology, Travelling, etc. Pau Murillo (Lead vocals and guitar) also loves Videogames, sports, traveling and so on! We all have different interests but of course some common ones!


14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We want to thank you for helping us promote our music around the world by giving us the chance to share our thoughts we all the A different Shade of Black Metal community. To all the people reading this interview, we hope you enjoy our music and come to our gig whenever we play in your country!

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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Aegrum/The Arrival/Narcoleptica Productions/2015 EP Review


  Aegrum  are  a  band  from  Indonesia  that  plays  a  very  symphonic  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  ep  "The  Arrival"  which  was  released  by  Narcoleptica  Productions.

  Dark  sounding  keyboards  start  off  the  album  and  slowly  start  to  evolve  into  more  of  a  symphonic  direction  and  after  the  intro  the  music  starts  getting  a  lot  more  heavier  while  still  having  the  symphonic  sounds of  the  intro  as  well  as  bringing  in  grim  black  metal  screams  along  with  a  few  blast  beats  being  utilized  at  times.

  When  spoken  word  parts  are  utilized  they  give  the  music  more  of  a  ritualistic  feeling  and  the  riffs  also  utilize  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  as  the  album  progresses  clean  playing  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  there  are  also  a  couple  of  instrumental  tracks  and  the  symphonic  elements  are  more  related  to  the  mid  90's  era  of  the  genre.

  Aegrum  plays  a  style  of  symphonic  black  metal  that  is  very  dark  and  closer  to  the  original  style  of  the  genre,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  while  the  lyrics  cover  Darkness,  Mysticism  and  Satanism  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Aegrum  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic  black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  ep.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Eternal  Whisper  Of  The  Dark  Forest"  and  "The  Ancient  Ov  Cult".  8  out  of  10.

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Friday, March 6, 2015

Revogar/Vale Dos Suicidas/Narcoleptica Productions/2015 Cassette Re-Issue Review


  Revogar  are  a  band  from  Brazil  that  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2010  album  "Vale  Dos  Suicidas"  which  was  re-issued  in  2015  on  cassette  by  Narcoleptica  Productions.

  A  very  fast,  brutla  and  technical  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  a  great  amount  of  melodic  leads  that  dominate  throughout  the  recording  and  after  awhile  blast  beats,  grim  black  metal  screams  and  deep  growls  are  added  into  the  music  and  after  awhile  clean  playing  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording.

  A  good  portion  of  the  riffs  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  as  the  album  progresses  there are  some  acoustic  guitars  added  onto a  few  of  the  tracks  along  with  a  different  song  that  uses  a  small  amount  of  spoken  word  parts  while  the  main  focus  remains  more  on  a  melodic  black/death  metal  sound.

  Revogar  plays  a  style  that  mixes  the  melodic  death  and  black  metal  sounds  of  the  mid  90's  and  the  music  has  a  heavy  Swedish  feeling  to  it,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the lyrics  are  written  in  their  native  tongue  and  cover  Anti  Christianity,  Occultism  and  Death  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Revogar  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Hipocrisia  Crista"  "Solo  Maldito"  and  "Vale Dos Suicidas".  8  out  of  10.  

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Monday, March 2, 2015

Wrathage Interview


1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?
Scythe:
Well first of all thanks for the interest and the review, it was great after seven years of absence to read the first DISCIPLINE review \,,/
After the album was finished we of course started looking for labels for possible collaboration on the release and finalising the booklet designs and all the promo materials, shirts etc. and since we're a pretty much do-it-yourself band it all takes it's time to get things done. Also as we're not rehearsing nowadays for live performances we're already planning the next release and choosing the song drafts on which to work on. Also we're in the process of making a music video for the song "Walking to death" from DISCIPLINE.

2.You have a new album coming out in March, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Scythe:

There's a lot of that good old late 90's second wave black metal atmosphere combined with really cool guitar work and Finnish harshness. I think we complicated things a bit too much on Crawlspace antipathy just to make it sound more progressive or unusual, this time we weren't pushing to make everything sound unique or difficult, we just let the music take it's course and let it go where it needed to go and how we enjoyed playing the songs. So I think the song structures have a more constant feeling to them and thus propably a bit more accessible. Also we haven't been that big on guitar solos earlier so now with H.Beast and Viha on the line-up there's a lot of magnificent guitar porn on many of the songs.

3.This is the first album to be released in 7 years, can you tell us a little bit more about the gap between releases?

Scythe:
We have never been really efficient in producing material, we get a lot of ideas and drafts but a lot of good stuff never gets made into a song and released as we can't finalise them. Also this is the first full lenght album we have done and this time we recorded everything by ourselves and that was a learning experience. Next time I think it will go a lot more smoothly, I promise it won't take seven years this time :) There's also some really old stuff on this album, on "Distortion" there is a couple of old D.V Grim riffs from his 1999 song "Into the holocaust" which has never been properly released, I just really thought they went well with the other parts of the song and put the final song together, also "Walking to death" first draft was done in 2003 with a really heavy and slow sluggish touch where as the final version is a whole lot of different than what originally planned.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
Scythe:
I could give it a go but I'll let Koba who writes all of our lyrics tell you about his take on Black metal and things.

Koba:
For me the reason I work in the medium of Black Metal is that I see BM still, though it's not a new thing anymore, in the frontline of cultural evolution. BM is a force driving progress, since it hasn't stagnated into a doctrine and it continues to challenge new boundries. Of course there was this misunderstanding that true BM is set thing, but that too was challenged. Rebellion is to me what drives humanity forward. This could be traced back to Albert Camus and his collection of essays titled the Rebel (originally in french: le'revoltee). Camus's philosophy of the Absurd is also close to my thinking.

Death in Black Metal is dominant as is Darkness and desolation. They all are imagery and symbols of the soulscape. Death is a part of life as evil, or whatever one decides to call it, is of the whole of being human. Religious and moral hypochrisy is to me appalling, and the cry for death and absolute annihilation is not: it is a real sensation, even if it is infantile and selfish. Most feelings are everything but exulting. This is not how I thought in the beginning or earlier on, but this is how I see it now.

The political aspects are new to BM, but I see it as a natural progress of evolution within BM to take on new areas and enemies. BM has nor a BM artist doesn't need to shout out the hidden death yearns or to showcase a prayer for destruction: destruction and death of the palnet are evident and humanity as a mass is working directly towards those ends. BM can move on to pin point the hypocrisy of polithcs and other codes of human conduct that are as absurd as dogmatized religion. Maybe politicians should come out in the open with their real intentions and the effects of their decisions on the course of all existance. 248 million years ago 99% of all living organisms were annihilated. Politicians have a way to go to achieve this, but they're on the right track.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Wrathage'?
Scythe:
A bunch of immortal angry youngsters from Northern Finland gettin' drunk and playing metal music:) I came up with the name when I was like 16 years old and you know teenagers are always angry at something and it sounded cool so it was chosen as the band name. I think the original work in progress name was a really cheesy and cliche one called "autumnal dusk", it sounded nothing like us and thus wasn't chosen.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Scythe:
The first one is always huge and we were lucky to be opening up for DISMEMBER with DEATHBOUND as our first ever gig so there was a good crowd there and all went really well. However the best ever respond has been in Jalometalli Winterfest 2007 with a lot of young metalheads banging their heads out and a couple of great moshpits emerging occasionally, it was an amazing feeling to perform to that crowd (cheers to everyone who were there \,,/). But what it looks like? I think a Half a dozen good looking fat metalheads from Finland :) HAHAHAAA!!!...\,,/ Well not that fat anymore. We enjoy playing live, I like both the making and performing of the music, however now as we have spread the band all over Finland we're not actively rehearsing and thus propably we'll be releasing new material more frequently.

7.Do you have an any or show plans once the new album is released?
Scythe:
Nothing now, we'll first see how well it is received and whether we receive any good offers, we haven't rehearsed in a couple of years at all so in order to get the live-performance solid we'd have to rehearse quite a lot and that needs a good motivation to get the crew together.

8.On the new album you did a Morbid Angel cover, what was the decision behind doing one of your own versions of their songs?
Scythe:
Actually I was thinking of doing Emperor's "With strenght I burn" but untill that was rehearsed Kuisma had already recorded the drums for the Morbid angel song and since it's a really bad ass song we decided to do our intepretation of it. It was also nice to hear and see H.Beast playing Morbid angel solos \,,/.

9.The new album is coming out on Maa Productions, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Scythe:
Well there isn't actually a lot to tell, the communication has been limited to facts about the release. But how we came into co-operations is that I noticed them releasing the latest "As light dies" album so I took contact to them and since they were interested in releasing the album and what I had heard from others they seemed to handle their business really well so we took their offer. And what I've heard Japan is one of the few markets nowadays where people are buying more CD's where as pretty much everywhere else the sales are plummetting.

10.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by both fans of black and death metal?
Scythe:
Based on our previous releases I think Sweden hates us:) HAHAHAA!!! (Please someone prove me wrong?) A lot of good feedback mostly, some of the more underground true black metal circles haven't been too fond of our style which can be understood but in overall we're really pleased to see how well people from across the globe have understood our vision of the Metal extreme.


11.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part off?
Scythe:
Kuismahc plays drums in Kalmah which is currently composing new material for the next album and they're doing their first gig in Norway this year at may in Karmøygeddon Festival (http://karmoygeddon.no/).

I have actually been ramping up a new international online collaboration of sorts with some really cool people, stylishly we're doing a kind of a Jazzy-Avantgarde-post-metal-
rock-thingie, a lot of Ved buens ende, Virus and Yurei influences with maybe a hint of Arcturus to accompany the weirdness, really excited to see how people receive that material. This project goes by the name of "Selcouth" and will be made public soon. Currently we have people participating from Finland, France, Spain and Russia.

Also I participated a little on another online collaboration called Hécatombe Humaine with a couple of songs, I think the release will be mosly ambient but I made a couple of metal songs, one in the vein of Cadaver - Necrosis in 280Bpm \,,/. This will be a more underground release.

Tero:
I also play bass in a band called Liverbox.
We are a bunch of old men, (I´m the youngest and I´m 34), playing rock´n´roll. Currently we are mixin our forthcoming Ep, playing gigs and planning the future of the band.

12.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Scythe:
Onwards, there's a lot of new songs already being composed for the next release and no drastic changes on the style anticipated, maybe even better songs \,,/

13.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Scythe: The biggest influence over the years is definitely the second wave norwegian black metal from late 90's, grew up on those albums and still listen to them on a regular basis. Currently really excited of the new Dodheimsgard album "A Umbra omega", the one sample song they've released "Aphelion void" is just fantastic piece of art. I try to discover new interesting bands all the time, recently discovered a lot of great French avantgarde metal bands like Spekt, Igorrr, Smohalla, Pryapisme, Stagnant waters and Deathspell omega. Also I've acquired the entire Adversum catalogue - only quality releases there like Yurei, Delirium bound, Alpha obscura, Manimalism etc. I actually made a list of my favourite 2014 releases so I'll share it here:

Bloodway - Sunstone voyager and the clandestine horizon EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMb5Sf-TaiU

Deconstructing Sequence – Access Code EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqgRaMx7co

Bölzer - Soma EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qYVNcmZyLc

Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w9TbulMd70

Execration - Morbid dimensions
https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Manimalism - Manimalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbmEtfDBNOI

Mayhem - Esoteric warfare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d7cr-zdm1Y

Kampfar - Djevelmakt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtifXWB3IQQ

Thy darkened shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6pqbDMKBt4

Necrophagia - WhiteWorm Cathedral
http://necrophagia.bandcamp.com/album/whiteworm-cathedral

As light dies - TLA vol1.
http://aslightdies.bandcamp.com/track/nemesis

The Deathtrip - Deep drone master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ijl7crxqkg

Philm - Fire from the evening sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoBuFewYMs

14.What are some of your non musical interests?
Scythe: I've been into Ashtanga yoga for a couple of years soon which balances the extreme metal side nicely.

15.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
It feels good to be back! \,,/

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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Synkvervet Interview


1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Synkvervet started out as a one-man studio project by Ingemar in the fall of 2011.  Originally Synkvervet was supposed to be a pure instrumental project, but it didn’t take long before he realized that the project needed vocals. Not being much of a vocalist, he called in his friend and band colleague Truls. Together they created the mysterious, trollish and aggressive folk sound that is SYNKVERVET. Synkvervet's debut album (Vår Avmakt) was released in the winter of 2013. A few months later Truls and Ingemar started working on a new album. They decided to bring in a drummer and a guitar player. The decision fell on Rino and Espen. With the new sound that Ingemar created, it opened new doors to inspiration for Synkvervet. During the
recording of the new album, Christina and Niclas was invited as guest vocalists on a few tracks. Later they became permanent members of Synkvervet. The band now consists of six permanent members. And the new Synkvervet album "Trollspeil" was released in December 2014.

2.So far you have released 2 albums, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings and also how do they differ from each other?

The first album was much more black metal inspired, while the second album is more melodic and atmospheric. Also adding two new vocalists on the second album contributed to changing the sound a bit.

3.Originally the band started out as an instrumental solo project, what was the decision behind adding in vocals and bringing in a full time line up?

Ingemar felt that the music needed another element, and the choice fell naturally on vocals. On the second album Ingemar and Truls decided to take the studio project to a possible live performance act. Therefor
they decided to bring in some new musicians.

4.The bands name and some of the lyric come from Old Norse Sagas, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in Nordic Paganism?

The name "Synkvervet" means illusion, and this describes both the music and the band. Hearing stories about folklore, norse mythology and fairytales is a normal part of growing up in Norway. And when we started
to make music, this was the natural path to take.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

We started out as a studio project therefor we have not been able to play live. And since we just recently became a full band we only had a couple of months to rehearse.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We hope to do our first gig in the autumn 2015.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

We`we had some offers, but for now we are happy to be independent. But if the right deal comes along you never know.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of both black and folk metal?

The feedback has been amazing from both black and folk metal fans.

9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the bands members are a part off?

Greyzone and Blindfolded are currently playing gigs, PelleK are rehearsing, and Twisted Autumn Darkness are in studio making a new album.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

After working on Trollspeil, we think we found our sound. And that's is the sound we are going for in the future.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

A mix of all kinds of genres. But we are striving to create our own sound.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

History, reading, gaming, cats and of course beer.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thank you so much for reviewing our new album and taking interest in Synkvervet.

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