Azaghal is a raw black metal band from Finland. This interview was conducted with Narqath with questions about his label and other bands. This Interview was carried out on 15th August 2002.
1.) Gegroet! Would you introduce yourself? As you go by so many names what does one call you? And how come there are all the different names rather than just using one name amongst all your projects?
Hails Parasite! I am Narqath from Azaghal / Wyrd / Hin Onde & I also run the Dragonthrone prod. label. As far as I can remember I have only used the names Narqath and Nrq which is just short of Narqath.
2.) The title of the new album "of beasts and vultures' when compared to the older album titles "nine circles of hell, deathkult, etc" sounds like it'll be a tree hugger's album, is this so? or will we expect the same kind of anti xian hatred?
Aye, we are all hippies now hahaa! Nah, it will be a straight continuation from "Nine Circles of Hell" but with more variation in song writing. Pure Black Terror Metal!
3.) How are you feeling about working with Evil Horde once more? I heard one of the reasons for the delays on the release of "Of Beasts And Vulture" was the fact that they didn't like the production. Did this affect the relation between the band and the label in any form?
Evil Horde is OK, atleast so far they have handled everything brilliantly. The problem is the fact that they are located in Brazil and corresponding etc. is sometimes very slow. Ok, next about the production thingie: EH wasn't satisfied with the mixing of the first version of the album and originally we were supposed to just mix the album again, but when we phoned the studio they had already removed the recordings from their hard drive.. So we ended up re-recording the whole album which of course delayed it a lot. There was also some problems with the promo photos since the first ones got lost in the mail on their way to Brazil, so we had to take those again too. Yes, I was quite pissed off with the label for awhile, but in the end the second version of the album turned out much better than the original version, so all went OK in th end.
4.) When i think of your band Wyrd it reminds me a bit of a blend of azaghal and hin onde, the raw force of azaghal and the melodic viking/folk side of hin onde. is this your aim? or was there something else you were trying to gain with this band.
Wyrd is my solo project where I don't have to make any compromises & it's perhaps the most important project for me personally. And I don't see any connection to Azaghal in Wyrd's music. Some of the folkish melodies might remind one of old Hin Onde though, but if you've heard the "Songs of Battle" album from Hin Onde you know that there isn't much folk melodies left in Hin Onde nowadays.
5.) Wyrd reminds me a lot of burzum both musically (filosfem era) and the art + lyrics remind me of how varg desires to get back in touch with the pre xian days, does wyrd have this same yearning for the old days? and is burzum your main influence?
Yes, there is no denying the Burzum influences (altough they were mostly present on the demos). I don't have any special yearning for the old days. The lyrics of Wyrd are just tales from the ancient time, I am not preaching any pagan religion or anything like that. In Wyrd I write the lyrics to fit in the atmospheres of the music.
6.) What was the reason for changing svartalvheim to hin onde, as i dont see much change in the musical direction between the two demos.
Well, Svartalfheim is a very cliche name (as there are already bands called Jotunheim, Vanaheim and Helheim atleast). Hin Onde simply sounds much better & more original. Obviously you don't hear much difference between the 2 demos, since they both feature mostly the same songs, the Svartalfheim demo was just a rehearsal tape that Elven Witchcraft wanted to release (for a reason unknown to us, since it's quite horrible haha). The second demo "Ahti's Depths" features the same songs in much better form.
7.) Due to the similaries in hin onde/wyrd/azaghal i wonder, are you the main music writer behind these three projects? or do all three bands share other members than just yourself?
First of all, I think the projects are VERY different from each other. Anyway. I am the main song writer in Azaghal, the only song writer in Wyrd and for Hin Onde I used to write about 50% of the songs, but fex. for our up-coming album I have only written 2 songs. Wyrd is my solo project like I stated before. Azaghal and Hin Onde are both full bands.
8.) Tell us about your lesser known project valar, do you have any other projects as well which you'd like to tell us about?
Valar was a Tolkien / Fantasy inspired ambient / metal project. It released a bunch of demos in 97-99 and one full-lenght album "Magic and Wyrmfire" in 01. Valar is now dead and buried. I also had a project called With Hate I Burn with which I recorded 1 demo in 99 or 00. The music was industrial / black metal. This project is also now dead (atleast for now).
9.) Finland has many great bands like Pest, Clandestine Blaze, musta surma, warloghe, azaghal etc, why do you >think this great bm scene is over shadowed by such shyte as CoB, amorphis and what not?
Maybe because they are on big commercial labels and sell 100 times more records than the ug bands that you mentioned? Anyway, if you one is truly interested in ug black metal the releases of the bands you mentioned shouldn't be too hard to find.
10.) You started a label, Dragonthrone prod. did you decide to start it due to the ignorance which the black metal world offers the finnish scene?
Started the label / distribution in 96 or 97, originally under the name Stålhammar. I certainly did not start the label because the finnish scene was not known well enough. Let the world be igronant, the less people known about the scene the better. I originally started the label to release the first couple of Azaghal demos.
11.) We hear so much about the black circle and such in Norway, has there ever been such a strong movement within the finnish scene causing church arson and what not?
Nothing really worth talking about. Well, here in Hyvinkää took place a so called "satanic" murder couple of years back but that's all.
12.) Place yourself in the land of middle earth. who are you? why?
Obviously I would be Azaghal, altough he might not have been quite as evil person as the name suggests.
13.) To close of this interview, would you tell us about future plans of your projects, contact infos and place any last words?
Thanks for the intie. Some up coming released from my projects include: The second Hin Onde CD "Shades of Solstice" (september 02) and with Azaghal were doing a 3-way split CDR album with Misanthropy and Vultyr. I can be contacted though the Dragonthrone website at: http://dragonthroneproductions.cjb.net
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