1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those who have never heard you before?
1. We are a dutch black metal band that started about a year ago. Musically, we lean more towards the traditional black metal bands from the 90's in Norway. After releasing an EP in the summer of 2009 we started looking for a bass player (I still handled the bass parts on the EP) After a while we got in touch with Vidar and after two try-out rehearsals he joined the band full time. Now we are looking for gigs.
2. How would you describe your musical sound?
2. Our music leans more towards the traditional bands from the 90s that came from Norway. I myself am a big fan of Mayhem, Ulver, Zyklon-B and others and others in the band listen more to for example Marduk or Burzum. I wouldn't say that those are our only influences, but this is what you can hear a lot in our own music.
3. What is the meaning behind the band's name?
3. Weltschmerz (from the German, meaning world-pain or world-weariness) is a term from the Romantic period in German literature. It describes a feeling of sorrow over the imperfection of the world. It was a term used by people who realized that the needs of the mind can never be satisfied by the physical world around us.
4. Have you played any shows yet and if so, how would you describe your stage performance?
4. No, we haven't played any shows yet, though we are working on getting gigs now, as we now finally have a bassist since the last few weeks of 2009!
5. What direction do you see the band heading into during the future?
5. Doing gigs, releasing a full length in the future perhaps. Mainly just enjoying making music and everything that surrounds it.
6. How has your material been received by the black metal community so far?
6. It's been pretty varied. Some people really liked the old school approach of our music, the rawness for example, which was exactly what we hoped would happen. Other liked it less though, saying we weren't tight enough or not well-produced enough, but this was intentional in a way, to keep the rawness, we only used three mics for the drums for example. There have been some reviews though saying that the EP may have been a little premature, and now a few months after the release of the EP it is something we can agree on within the band, so...
7. How would you describe the lyrical content of the music?
7. Well so far the lyrics have been written by Hreim and me (Hræsvelg) and the subjects have been a bit varied. Hunt For Souls has lyrics written by Hreim about christianity trying to convert people who don't want to be converted. The lyrics for Total War were mainly written by Hreim too, but I helped a little bit at the end, and that one's a song about war. Then there's Hymne Til Ulver, which I wrote the lyrics to, because we didn't have a singer yet when we wrote the song. This is about the insignificance of a human life in the face of the earth. While we are now so concerned with humanity destroying the earth, it's more likely going to be the other way around. The last song, Geschrei in der Nacht was written by Hreim and me together lyric-wise and it's about somebody who's about to kill himself, which happens about halfway into the song.
8.What are some bands that have influenced the sound of your music?
8. I am hugely influenced by bands like Ulver, Zyklon-B, Mayhem, Krallice, Emperor and Keep of Kalessin. Valr (drums) is more into death metal and more modern black metal mostly. Hreim is really into bands like Gorgoroth, Burzum, Mayhem and also some more 'mainstream' bands like Slipknot or Dethklok. Vidar is still kinda new in the band, but he listens to things like Manslaughter and Napalm Death, but he also listens to other music, he even plays in a punk band called Sweet Candy Kills.
9. What are you listening to nowadays?
9. Besides the black metal bands I already mentioned, I listen to some classical music like Beethoven, Pärt or Grieg and some more medieval music like Kirksby and von Bingen, but also to avant-garde music (Diamanda Galás, Aethenor, etc.) or old electronica music (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc.).
10. Does Satanism or Occultism have any influence on the music?
10. Not really.
11. What are some of your interests outside of music?
11. Currently I'm studying interdisciplinary social sciences at the University of Utrecht. Besides that, I like to watch a lot of movies, mainly thriller/horror.
12. Any final words or thoughts?
12. Thanks for the interview and thanks to anybody who listens to our music!
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