Dark Fortress is probably the strongest name in the contemporary german black metal scene, and slowly but inexorably, they have been gaining ground and adepts. Their two latest records came out under Century Media which has garnered them a good share of global exposure, but make no mistake, the attention and mainly the positive response from the audiences is not because of their label only. Elite of the german black metal is just one of the adjectives used to describe them, so we hope this is enough to call the attention from some. Morean, the new vocalist of the band talked to us about their latest and next album, and even about how to experience a horrific astral episode with a mirror. Readers of metalicos.com we give you Dark Fortress.
1-METALICOS: Hello there guys! This is Mauricio from www.metalicos.com in Costa Rica, thanks a lot for this opportunity, how have you been lately? Any band activity or you've dedicated to other stuff?
MOREAN/ We're pretty busy at the moment, since the production of the new album is about to kick off. We've been writing like crazy, the songs are as good as finished and from next week on we get down to business. In the meantime, we'll play a few gigs, as we have been doing on and off since Eidolon came out.
Besides that, every one of us also has really a lot to do, some of us are about to graduate from university, others are working overtime all year round with all kinds of different jobs, bands and projects. A 21st-century disease, it seems.
2-METALICOS-It´s been around a year and a half since Eidolon came out, and we all know about the mainly positive response from the fans and the media (I in fact reviewed it 92/100). How do you feel now about what you accomplished with that album?
MOREAN/ We're certainly happy with the album and how it was received by public and media. All concerts we have played since, as well as countless reviews, have confirmed this every time.
The intention was to make a straight, aggressive, in-your-face black metal album on a high level, and we feel we've reached that goal with Eidolon. And because of this, we have now space for new and different things in the future - we are not interested in repeating ourselves.
For me personally, since this was my debut as singer of the band, it was important to see if I could grow into the role as quickly as I had to. I had no clue what to expect, neither did I know how I was gonna sound when we started recording the vocals. Now, in the process of the next production, and many concerts later, we are seeing that the songs haven't lost their power and emotion for us. In short, I'm really proud of it, but I'm also excited to take the next step.
3-METALICOS-The quality of the band is simply enormous and it clearly grows with every new record, but in terms of black metal, eyes are often centered only in Scandinavia so, as a German black metal band, do you think you receive the attention you deserve from both the label and media?
MOREAN/ Thanks a lot for the compliments! We do have an active interest to keep growing and developing, and we look forwards rather than backwards. We cannot complain about the attention we get. The collaboration with Century Media is very satisfying, they always take us seriously, they treat us well and do amazing promotion work. Eidolon gave Dark Fortress also global exposure for the first time, and never did I have the impression that where we come from mattered too much. Certainly it would help if we were Norwegian, but hey, what can we do about that? Hopefully we can be seen as a band that is not limited to one single scene, our influences and interests as musicians are anyhow far too diverse for that.
We would have liked to tour much more than we did, though, and many tour plans didn't work out the way we wanted this last year, often for reasons that were out of our hands. But we're working on that; playing in front of screaming crowds is essential to all of us.
4-METALICOS-The subject of astral travel through mirror magic was central to the lyrical concept on Eidolon, and we know that the band has a great interest for dark spirituality and mystical experiences -among other subjects of course- so, could you describe to us what a mirror magic episode feels like?
MOREAN/ You might try this: Sit in front of a mirror, with not too bright light (candles for example work well). Don't move your body except for breathing, empty your mind of all thinking, and stare yourself in the eye with an unwavering gaze (try not to blink much). After a few minutes, you should feel a trance starting, and what you see around your eyes should start moving and changing. (It is important at this point to keep your eyes unmoving throughout everything that happens.) It will be different for everybody, but usually a quickly changing, chaotic flood of faces starts forming around your eyes. This might creep you out at first, but it is essential to persevere and not lose concentration. After a few more minutes, only a handful of recurring faces remain. Maybe you also start hearing faint astral voices at this point. This is the moment when the gate is really opening, and you can go beyond your own mental garbage and projections. Real communication with things from outside yourself becomes possible. From there on, it's up to you and your stamina how far you go. The mirror is just a canvas in that moment to make certain energies visible. Your own everyday image is completely irrelevant in the exercise.
Going to sleep in the same place can prolong this state into your dreams, which can be quite fearsome, but very interesting. To banish anything unwanted, cover the mirror, and do something unrelated (watch cartoons, play football....).
I think having a personal experience is much more interesting than reading descriptions of someone else's, so good luck!
5-METALICOS-www.metalicos.com is not the first site -and surely not the last- to call you the elite of German black metal, how you feel about being described in such terms?
MOREAN/ It's an honour, although I'm not sure if it means much. But we are working hard and take this band very seriously, so I guess it shows us that our efforts are recognized and appreciated. It's great to feel you don't have to start from square one anymore.
6-METALICOS-Séance was a rather experimental album in terms of the untypical elements added like the long dark and creepy ambient tunes (there's some really shocking and spine-chilling material in there!), and this for sure was made to induce certain states and feelings on the listener; what was your intention with that? What did you want to cause on the listener?
MOREAN/ I can speak only for "Incide" (as a collaborator, Morean wrote the mentioned song, while he was not their singer yet). I like to create scenarios in spiritual wastelands, and how I understood Azathoth's (previous DF singer) lyrics which he gave me as reference to create this track on this place on the album were the experiences of a soul that chose to kill itself (on "Stab Wounds", 2004 album), only to find on "Seance" that the problems only got much worse on the other side. It is a deathwish to escape from earthly hells, only to get stuck on the other side without a body to defend you against the demons. I had a fair share of twisted states of mind, so I saw this track as a cool opportunity to try and reproduce the taste of some things I experienced.
7-METALICOS-What are your plans for the rest of 2009?
MOREAN/ Through the summer, we will produce the next album as mentioned, and play some nice shows in Europe. The album will be released some time next year, after which we hope to do some serious touring, and hopefully make it across the pond also. The problem is often to coordinate all our bands, projects and jobs, so we are always limited to certain times when we can work with one band, because this automatically means all other things have to rest, and they are many, altogether.
One thing I'm really looking forward to next year is to play with DF on our drummer's final drum exam at the conservatory of Rotterdam. I graduated from the classical music department there, and I can't wait to return as a black metal singer. Who'd have though it...
8-METALICOS-Are you already giving shape to ideas for your next album, or the process for a new effort has not started yet?
MOREAN/ See above - it's *almost* in the shops already ;-)
9-METALICOS-How about working with Tom Gabriel Fischer of Celtic Frost on Eidolon? How was the experience?
MOREAN/ I didn't meet him then, but when I wrote the text it did give me an enormous kick knowing that I was writing these verses for him. I hope I did the master justice.
10-METALICOS-What do you want to accomplish with Dark Fortress in the future?
MOREAN/
- Find ways to make this great thing last.
- Create more amazing music every time.
- Play everywhere.
- Be accepted as a band in its own right, not as a product of a scene.
- Explore uncharted abysses.
- Find the means to create a worthy visual representation of our music.
- Have running water backstage.
- Get people to understand we didn't steal Dimmu Borgir's name (Dimmu Borgir translates into Dark Fortress or Dark Cities from Icelandic and old Norwegian).
- Find means to bring an own audio engineer, light designer and driver to the shows.
- Get to sleep more than 4.5 hours the nights before and after playing a show.
11-METALICOS-What do you think about the nowadays black metal scene, do you follow closely the work of any bands?
MOREAN/ Shamefully, I have to admit I don't listen to music that much since making music eats up all my time usually. What keeps me going at the moment are Opeth and Meshuggah, but also Portishead for example. And I can't wait for the new Morbid Angel album.
As for the black metal scene: it is unfortunately as stuck in its ways as the rest of the metal scene at the moment. The last Mayhem album was the last truly original work I heard. Even more sadly, it seems that the music itself has lost its importance to a completely backward and misplaced discussion about trveness, in a scene that has its head so far up its own ass that it starts forgetting what it's all about. If you have to cry like a little girl every time someone doesn't sound exactly like your favourite band, you can do so, but keep it to yourself, because the whole discussion is as counterproductive as it is irrelevant. How can a genre that preaches individuality and spiritual anarchy be more dogmatic than the pope? It's like Manowar complaining about posers, but with make-up. The funny thing is that the people and bands that created this whole thing don't seem to have this problem at all - you don't hear Ihsahn, Fenris or Blasphemer whine about everybody else not being like them.
Makes you think. Maybe you can't have a society of misanthropes, anyway... The point is, in real life, it's all fine, but there's always the 10% of assholes that make themselves so important that the world tends to forget about everyone else that remembers why this stuff exists: to enjoy the sweet hellish alchemy you desire and share it with your brothers, and to leave everyone else alone. Luckily, I'm sure that the music will persevere and keep developing, because the trveness police will eat itself very very soon.
12-METALICOS-Do you think you could be able to tour Latin America one day? Would you like to?
MOREAN/ Hell yeah! It's been a dream of mine for a long time. It's a huge thing to put together, so it might take a while, but I'll go first chance I get, rather today than tomorrow.
13-METALICOS-Being a band that rely heavily on atmosphere, can you tell us what is the kind of environment you like to create when playing live?
MOREAN/ We want to combine the fiery, overwhelming power of metal with the magic of a dark spirituality. Instead of denying, or running away from, the abysses in our souls, we feed the fires that burn us even more in order to achieve transcendence and turn horror into pleasure. This is what happens to us when we play, and if we manage to bring this across to our audience we are more than happy.
14-METALICOS-I have never heard of fans complaining about professional production as a sign of decadence or disrepect to the past on any other genre. That discussion belongs only in black metal. What do you think about this underground well spread priciple, which says that black metal is not "true" unless it's recorded on 4 tracks and with the sound of 20 years ago?
MOREAN/ Black metal nowadays is not any more only one thing, it has become a vast and diverse genre with many different faces and aspects that all have their place. One has to differentiate here I think. For Bathory's "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" for example, a neat and clear sound would be a desaster, but would Watain be really that great with a crappy production? Some bands don't need riffs, or in fact any traditional musical talent, to create something intense and unique. But if someone squeezes out a great series of evil notes, wouldn't you like to be able to hear them? Besides, black metal is still metal, not punk, and being metal, it is something that should be ambitious and develop. We're back at the xenophobic individualists here, or the totalitarian anarchists. What's the problem of having a world with both Dimmu Borgir and Endstille in it? Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it has no right to exist. Do What Thou Wilt is the law, not Everyone Do What I Wilt. It's a lesson everyone needs to be reminded of from time to time.
15-METALICOS-Ok guys, you can rest assured that your metal brothers and sisters in Costa Rica and Latin America in general, will be grateful for the time you spared to share your thoughts, please send us any final message you might want to add. Thank you and keep the blackness alive!!
MOREAN/ Espero muchísimo que tengamos oportunidad para destrozar vuestras orejas en directo muy muy pronto. Hasta que venga ese día, os saludamos desde la oscuridad Bávara, y gracias para escuchar nuestra rola. Viva la muerte.
....and hails to Trollkotze, trvest of trve.... |