1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical project?
Graal is a project I started out of a desire to explore bestial black metal and war metal on two fronts: 1. I wanted to do something different with the style, take it in a more avant-garde/experimental direction, use odd time signatures and strange tonalities that you don't normally hear in bestial/war metal. 2. I needed an artistic outlet to also explore and express my love for and devotion to Saturn in all His forms and currents.
2.So far you have released a demo and a full length, musically how do they both differ from each other?
Well, the demo was a lot more simplistic when compared to the full-length and I was trying to be more minimalist structurally in the compositions - the songs are all very repetitive, with only a few motifs. I really wanted it to have this hypnotic, trance-inducing quality. In fact, the first song, The Road To The Tauroctony, is the only Graal song that is (and will ever be) written in 4/4 the whole way through. I also think the production is very different, it's a lot murkier and reverb soaked than the full-length, both due to the limitations of the equipment and production knowledge I had at the time and my own creative preference. Ocularchy differs in that it's a lot riffier, there are still some tracks that are very repetitive and minimalist, but overall there's a lot more going on structurally in these songs, more meter changes and a greater emphasis on dynamics between the leads and the rhythm section.
3.The lyrics on the new album go into the 'Saturnian Current' and 'Alchemy', can you tell us a little bit more about the research you have put in your studies and also what do these practices mean to you?
Actually a lot of reading and study goes into the lyrics for Graal, albeit not all necessarily in direct preparation for the writing of this material. I've always been very interested in mythology, the occult and the darker aspects of spirituality and these things have always informed my creative work, both musically and visually, so I tend to spend a great deal of time reading about these subjects in my personal time. There does seem to be a bit of a misconception though about my lyrics and the subject matter I'm dealing with on the demo vs. the full-length. The Saturnian current has been central since the beginning - the Tarot, Astrology, Alchemy, Irish Mythology, the Grail Mythos, etc, these are all just different lenses through which I have both sonically, lyrically and visually explored Saturn as a deity, as a presence in both my own life and the world at large, both now and throughout history. To put it bluntly, Alchemy, the Tarot and the Grail mythos, were not explored in a broad sense on the demo, rather they were brought into the ambit of the central theme in a very specific and particular way - those aspects which pertained to Saturn or something which closely concerned Saturn were the aspects that took on significance in the lyrics. As for what the Saturnian current means to me, I have always had a deep personal connection with the deity that many in the West have come to call Saturn, the Lord of Order and Rebellion, Discipline and Abandon, Self-Mastery and Madness, and it is a connection that has been with me since long before I had the words to explain or understand it - since before I can even remember.
4.On the demo you also covered the 'Tarot', which decks are the ones you mainly use for your practices and readings?
As I explained above, the role that the Tarot played on the demo was very particular - it focused specifically on The Hanged Man, the card that pertains to the Water element and therefore also The Chariot, Death and The Moon, which are associated respectively with Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, each of which, in the system of Vedic astrology, has at its center a 'Lunar Mansion' or 'Nakshatra' that is ruled by Saturn. I have only ever studied the Thoth Tarot and the Rider-Waite deck - I have little interest in the more modern decks that have been produced, most of which don't seem to have any connection with any legitimate esoteric praxis or understanding. I'm also not that interested in divination with the Tarot or using them for readings, rather I am more interested in using the Tarot as a sort of matrix of symbols and associations to reveal (through study and meditation) the metaphysical structure of our reality.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Graal'?
"Graal" is a more archaic spelling for Grail - the Grail here being the Holy Grail referred to in the Arthurian myth cycle. However, I do not see the Holy Grail as a Christian symbol and rather the focus is on the Pagan and pre-Christian origins of the Grail myths, specifically the various magical cauldrons that are found in Welsh, Irish and British folklore and myth which ultimately were representations of a sort of Proto-Grail that would eventually find its way into the Christian imagination. This Graal also relates to the Saturnian current in that the Grail's presence in the Tarot is that of the commonly known, Suite of Cups. The Cup relates to the Water element, which as I've mentioned above is subsumed within the Elemental Trump, the Hanged Man, whose providence includes the water signs of astrology, each of which has a Saturnian heart. In this sense, the Graal conceals a dark secret and it is this secret that my project concerns itself with thematically.
6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
I think I will leave it to the listener to interpret for themselves, specifically the listener who has read the Cath Maige Tuired and has perhaps heard of Lord Shani and his terrible gaze.
7.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you open to expanding the line up or do you prefer to remain a duo?
For the purposes of writing, I have no interest in involving anyone else. I write all the stringed instrumentation, the lyrics, do all the artwork and production (with the exception of a few mastering processes which I have left to the drummer), and J.B. writes all the percussion. Also, for those who are editors on Encyclopedium Metallum, J.B. only plays drums on Ocularchy and was not the drummer for the demo, that was J., another individual who had to leave the project due to lack of time to devote to it. However, if the time comes when live performances become a possibility, I have some people who have already stated their interest in being part of the live line-up.
8.Dop the band members also have experience playing in other bands or musical projects?
I have been in a few bands in the past, though I would prefer not to mention them. I believe that Graal should stand on its own, at least as far as my own musical history is concerned. The drummer however, J.B., is the man behind Ritual Cairn and he's been involved in a number of bands over the years.
9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of war and black metal?
Graal is still quite new and relatively unknown, so only so many people have been exposed to my music, that being said the reactions I have been privy to have all been very positive and it seems that the unorthodox sound I have strived to achieve is resonating with people.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
As it so happens, I have actually already written the next four full-lengths for the project, as well as material for several splits and EPs. I don't know when all of this material will be recorded but I can tell you that Graal is going to get stranger and stranger as time goes on. The next full-length is even more avant-garde, more extreme, more absurd.
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?
I could write pages and pages just listing bands that have had an impact on me. I am a voracious listener and I am constantly immersing myself in new music and getting sucked into albums, sometimes for weeks, sometimes months on end. However, there are still certain records that have become personal classics that I always return to. Bands like Von, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Howls Of Ebb, Ofermod, Killing Joke, The Doors, Void Meditation Cult, Ride For Revenge, Bolzer, Spearhead, early Morbid Angel, Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Mayhem, Watain, Neurosis, Idiot Flesh, Revenge, Jesus Lizard, Queens of the Stoneage, Negative Plane, Alfahanne (first album only), Leviathan, Cocteau Twins (first album only), Funereal Presence, Molten Chains, Portal, Thantifaxath, Sixx, early Slayer, Imperial Triumphant, Death In June, Beherit, Saturnalia Temple and many others have all had a very profound influence on me as an artist. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Prison Hell, Nubivagant and Negative Plane's new album.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for taking the time to send me these questions and reviewing the album. I advise anyone who enjoyed Ocularchy to keep an on Graal's bandcamp page or the Balor's Eye Productions bandcamp page, as I and J.B. are currently in the process of recording a Graal / Ritual Cairn split that I hope to release before Winter Solstice this year. There is also a Graal / Forest Thrall split I'm putting the final touches on that will be released within a similar time frame.
https://graalgnosis.bandcamp.com/album/ocularchy
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