1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
G: Hello everyone! We're Vetrarnott, we come from Corato, a small town in Apulia (Italy), we play Progressive Black Metal with Pagan themes and we have just released an EP called "Scion".
This musical venture started just with me (Gar Ulfr) as a one-man band in 2015 but by the fall of 2017 it was reborn as a regular band. Now there's four of us in the band: me on bass, vocals, keys, and programming; Valar on Lead and rhythm guitars, and backing vocals; Osculum on rhythm and acoustic guitars; Ambrogio on live drums.
2.Recently you have released an ep, what was the musical style you were going for with this recording?
G: Progressive Black Metal, as a music genre, is a melting pot of different styles. We can say that in Scion there's a lot of different things.
There are of course the typical riffs of a Black Metal band, but you can also find more progressive, melodic, thrashing, and black 'n' roll areas. I'd say in its variety of influences there's still cohesion.
This is a musical genre that has a lot of room for anything you can do, rather than focusing on what you must or must not do when writing music, and this is what I personally love about Prog Black.
3.Your lyrics cover a lot of Norse Mythology, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
G: What I really like about Norse Mythology (a characteristic shared among various Pagan cultures) is the participation among Deities and nature in the life of Man.
A set of myths where Gods, despite their nature being different from the one of human beings, breath, fight, bleed, and eventually die: there's a relation between Man and God that goes beyond rituals.
Apart from the cultural interest that I hold dear for Norse myths, there's also the will, in my mind, to oppose Christianity and antagonize the slaughter of non-Christian cultures that was carried out by Christianity over two millennia by giving the spotlight to these ancient populations.
V: What I appreciate the most about Norse Mythology is the particular way men related to gods, that is quite different from the Christian culture. Pagan populations used to rely on deities not to obtain salvation or charity, but for practical reasons, such as strength in battle or a good harvest, because men were capable of their own destiny with their actions in life.
4.I know that the band was named after an Enslaved song, how does this name fit in with the musical style you play?
G: Enslaved has been my favorite band for almost ten years now and through the years I always wanted to play something that could be related to my favorite songs (and therefore to play tunes that would satisfy me 100% as not only a musician but also a "fan").
When this project started for me I had the intention to play tunes more similar to the "Frost" or "Vikingligr Veldi" album and went for the name "Vetrarnott", but as months went by the things I wrote turned out to be more various then what would have been considered pure Viking Metal.
I put in my songs all the things that I picked up listening to music for all these years and considering that the band I listened to the most is Enslaved it's pretty obvious that I ended up writing Prog Black Metal.
Despite the fact that what I wrote couldn't be considered Viking anymore, the band's name stuck both as a tribute to Enslaved and as, I'd say, a fitting name, considering it means "Winter Night" in Icelandic.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?
G: The artwork covers a lot of things. Firstly, it represents some of the themes of the EP: the serpent's skin, the chain (representing Gleipnir), and the skull (Death and Hel). Then you can also spot the plants from our landscape, representing us and our culture. The blank, white spot in the middle of the artwork represents light, all the efforts that went in creating this EP, and the milestone from which we'll start our path.
The artwork was created by the talented artist that is our friend Othala, that I want to thank from the deep of my heart for his beautiful contribution to Scion.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
G: We have yet to play a live show because we wanted to have a recording as a showcase for this project before, and now we have one... so...
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
V: We’ll be the opening act for the release party of Hermeticus, the new album from Dewfall, with Shores Of Null on October 4th. Apart from this, we are planning other shows at the moment… We’ll see what the future holds for us.
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and progressive metal?
G: Having just released officially the EP we haven't received lots of feedbacks, but the ones we got from our fellow musicians have been really positive, both from black and progressive metal artists. I can say that "The Tide", during the 10 days the song has been available, gained a lot of positive reactions in the black metal communities and that makes me very proud. I hope everyone will be as enthusiastic about the whole EP as they were for its first song.
9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
G: At the moment we are wrapping up the writing for our first full-length and we started discussing when we'll be entering the studio again. A good hypothesis for the release would be around late 2019 - early 2020.
The full-length will part from Norse Mythology and will move towards new themes.
10.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?
G: Of course, Enslaved are pretty important as an inspiration. Apart from them, I'd say that bands like Bathory, Darkthrone, Draugr, and Mithotyn have their fair share of contribution to our music. Lately, I'm listening to a lot of Atavicus, Behemoth, Camel, Celestia, Dissection, Immortal, Mastodon, Seven Impale, and Sturmkaiser.
V: Nowadays I'm listening to some progressive rock/metal artists such as King Crimson, Camel, Opeth, Devin Townsend and other various metal bands, for example Immortal, Dissection, Entombed, Agent Steel.
11.What are some of your nonmusical interests?
G: I love Cinema almost as much as I love music. At the moment I'm re-watching some classics from the German Expressionist movement and the Russian Avant-garde movement.
V: I really like reading Horror and Fantasy literature.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We would like to thank OccultBlackMetalZine for the interview and whoever is reading our words. We advise everyone to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram for news, music and everything else.
If you’re curious about our music be sure to check out our Bandcamp, Scion is now available both in CD and Digital release.
'Till next time!
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