Griddam Arghamath Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Griddam Arghamath is composed by Vladavhel (all pads and ambient sessions) and Arghvarât (all instruments and voices).
It was formed in 2015 with the intention of recording many ideas that we had dispersed for years.
At first I thought that this project would only last a while and we even thought about the idea of releasing each album with a different name.
Then we realized that the project had more strength than expected and we decided to keep it.


2.How would you describe the musical sound that has been presented on the recordings that you have released so far?
We intentionally look for a raw and dirty sound for the most chaotic moments, and a clean sound for the darkest moments.
The chaotic sound is very important because it represents the stage for the concept, everything that can be heard, seen or read in Griddam has a meaning.


3.I see a lot of occultism and esoteric themes in the lyrics that I have read, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in the dark arts?
I believe that everything in our reality is questionable, even what has an answer; esotericism raises many interesting concepts of introspection, it is a way of looking at ourselves.
We are not practitioners of any kind of magic but we use occult concepts as a means to get answers and express a message.
Behind all the darkness and occultism of Griddam's letters there is always a philosophical concept.


4.You also have an album concept involving the Tarot Arcana, can you tell us a little bit more about it?
The album "Abysmal Hexagram" is the first part of a conceptual work of four albums.
The conceptual work will have a total of 22 songs, each one representing the darkest part of a major arcana of the tarot.
This work of four albums would be like a guide to understand the Tarot, the letters are inspired by the drawings and their meanings, and at the same time they can be interpreted in many ways, from a literal sense, to a more abstract, philosophical or spiritual one.


5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Griddam Arghamath'?
The name comes from "Valakalad", a language created by Vladavhel; Griddam Arghamath doesn´t have a literal translation, they are two compound words using names of rituals and invocations.


6.On the recording you work as a duo, would you be open to working with other musicains if the oppurtunity came around?
Definitely not, we tried to incorporate other musicians repeatedly but it didn´t go well for us.
Our way of working is very orderly and we don´t have much patience; we have found the perfect way to make the recordings as we want them to be done.
We have collaborated on other musicians' projects, but in our personal projects we only work for ourselves.


7.You have also been a part of a couple of splits, can you tell us a little bit more about the bands you had shared these recordings with?
The two Splits that we have are a mixture of our two projects, we found it interesting to mix the ambient music of Valakornag with the sound of Griddam, "Spectra of the Black Beyond" is a conceptual album in which the two projects are perfectly mixed.
This year (2018) we will have finished a new Split; we're not dropping the possibility of creating a Split with other bands, but the opportunity hasn't appeared yet.


8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?
We don´t do much promotion but we have received very good reviews not only from black metal fans, Griddam has influences from Ambient, Death, Thrash, Doom, etc. so it is accessible to a larger audience, the reception has been very good.


9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
That's something I think a lot, the raw sound is something that will always be maintained, and as for the compositions we can assemble an album with more ambient parts; we plan to create at least one album per year, as long as possible we will, so we are constantly creating new ideas, and really the amount of material we have is very large.
I want each album to have a unique identity and at the same time not lose the essence of the previous ones.
We have ready our second LP (Offerings for Witches) that will appear at any time, and we are starting the recording of the third, Griddam is a project that doesn´t stop.


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?
The influences are many, I knew the music through rock bands of the 70s, 80s like Black Sabbath, The Cure, David Bowie, etc.
Perhaps there is some melodic influence of bands like that, but the sound and the compositional form are mostly influenced by black metal, bands like Bathory, Burzum, Marduk, Emperor, etc.
And some things from other styles like Asphyx, Obituary or even Kreator... Really the amount and diversity of bands we listen to is very broad, there are influences from everyone and at the same time we try to create unique songs that do not look like anything.


11.What are some of your non musical interests?
I enjoy my time in solitude, I dedicate my free time mostly to music but I also like literature, especially about mythology and esotericism.


12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thanks for the support and your time!

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