Kraal: After we had completed the work on Misanthrosophie and the layout was ready we started to rehearse again in 2016. N. (ex - Weird Fate, Avowal) who was playing live guitar for us since the early days in 2004 joined us for the rehearsals. Through him F. (ex - Weird Fate) also joined the band on guitar. He is a highly skilled musician and is enhancing the variability and depth of our music. Since then, we have been playing live again as a complete band.
2.You have a new album coming out during the end of March, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
K.: Apart from the solos which were composed and played by Stefan (Obscure Infinity) and more chanted passages, the album is not differing too much from the older albums. The production and overall sound is different, because we like all of our recordings to be unique. The ideas for some of the songs on Misanthrosophie even reach back to the time we recorded Grenzgänger and Entartet, but needed some time to grow what they are now.
3.This is also your first release since 2014, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time span?
K.: After we recorded Neon Light Bearer. O. and me started to record some demos for Misanthrosophie. While we share our burning for the same spirit of Black Metal, we are equally critical with the music we create. Because we wrote the album as a duo, we wanted to live out our creativity to the fullest and sort out together what was best for the songs. This took a fair amount of time.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer album and also how would you describe your progress as songwriters over the years?
K.: As with our previous albums, the lyrics range from misanthropy, Menschenflucht (i.e. “distancing oneself from the human race”) and contempt, to dealing with questions about volition, consciousness, action and epistemology as well as with nature-related topics.
The experiences we make and the knowledge we gain influences the topics and the way we write lyrics. This is somewhat natural I guess.
The songwriting is maybe slightly leaning more towards catchy songs but this might be our impression only... we love chaotic and wild music as well as atmospheric and wide parts. A song can thus have only 5 minutes and another one may need 8-10 minutes to unfold everything it stands for. We were never afraid of longer songs.
5.Some of your earlier lyrics touched on Satanism, do you have an interest in the dark arts?
K.: The satanic parts did more or less vanish in our nowadays lyrics. The larger amount of those older lyrics came from my side as I was exposing myself a lot to LaVey and ritual magic. In the end it is not about dark rituals, candles and sacrifices in the wild nature which count, but much more the way of life one lives. We do not care much about how other people see us. We live our lives the way we want and the most important is that we feel confident and good about it.
6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Membaris'?
When O. and I founded the band in 1999, we took the name out of a novel, but to be honest I don' t remember its name anymore. Nowadays the name stands for everything we all went through together, for all the time we shared in life and thought.
7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
K.: One way to interpret it may be to see a connection to peoples’ thinking and acting in black-and-white only. Living in times of extremes, shades of gray and thus the many possible ways of interpretation seem to be forgotten.
Another way may be to link the cover artwork to title of the album. The virus called humanity is spreading and extinguishes everything. While there are some individuals that promote a peaceful coexistence of humans and nature, we finally have to realize that the human nature is to behave like a cancerous disease.
8.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
K.: One of the best and most intense shows for sure was in Hofheim, Germany at the Zeremonie der Schatten. It was a very small club there, but the sound and the atmosphere was great! Also the De Mortem et Diabolum festival in Berlin last year was great. We had a very good time with the guys running the festival, the other bands and the show was also pretty sick!
Membaris has to offer a good mixture of fast paced, high energetic outbursts as well as deep atmospheric moments of supreme emotional sensation. We can only recommend to everybody interested to join a Membaris live show!
9.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
K.: When we are asked to play shows, we usually try to make them happen. At the moment, we plan some single shows throughout the year and a European tour with our mates form Chaos Invocation, Streams of Blood and Sköhsla for the end of 2020. Right now, we are pretty confident that the latter could work out.
10.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
K.: Even though we run a facebook profile, we are not actively reviewing how other people like our music - most important for us is that we are satisfied with the music we create and we reached the level of expression we were aiming for.
11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
K.: We have about 15 songs we need to finish. At the moment, we are very creative while rehearsing and changing parts over and over again to explore the full spectrum of possibilities. From a musical and stylistic point of view, there could be some surprises in the future...
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?
K.: We all are fans of the old Setherial, Leviathan, Gorgoroth, Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord and many more. Personally I do not listen to much of the newer stuff as I realized that newer music seldomly touches me in a way the old stuff does.
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