Scarrowscant: Plagurehurst just happened. We are cousins so we have known each other for some time however, this is the first time we have played together. I was in a vengeful place due to one band I was in falling apart, and it was the perfect antidote to all their fragile weakness, apathy and indecision.
Beormingas: I had not played in many years at the time but this all happened, and came to be very organically. There was no pushing, or forcing of ideas, we just came together and things started to happen.
Scarrowscant: This was the majesty of it all, I wanted to be involved in a project that had focus, and Plaguehurst has that in abundance, it is a sword thrust into the earth.
2.Early this year you had released your first album, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?
Scarrowscant: We would just work off each other. I would come up with the back bone, and Beorimgas would add the dynamic elements with his proficient guitar work, and elevate things to a supreme place. It was easy.
Beormingas: We wanted to keep that rawness, so everything was recorded as it happened.
Scarrowscant: I have an old mono Philips valve radio from the 1950’s which I used for all my guitar parts. We just used what we could find when we needed it. The drums for instance was one of the cheapest kits I could find. It was all about getting things down, getting that essence as it happens instead of thinking. Thought kills feeling.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored with the music so far?
Scarrowscant: I write the words to stand on their own. They are incantations, they are ritual verse and it is important to get them recorded in one take. I am not interested in what is meant to be a black metal lyric, what you should or should not say, this is reductive. I am possessed when I have verses to write, and have to get them down then and there. It is hate, total hate, and a constant sense of a vengeful shadow that follows all of the Devils servants. I only take part of the writing credit as at times the words come from another place.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Plaguehurst'?
Beormingas: The united kingdom is littered with plague pits, where they just dumped the corpses of those who died during the black death. A pit just like this was discovered very close to where we record, so it seemed fitting. Hurst is the old English word for hill, or mound.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the album cover?
Scarrowscant: That is a very big question. It is a photo of one of us, but which one is irrelevant. It represents the fact that we all stand in a stark blackness surrounded by the idiocy of hope, and white light faiths.
6.So far their is very little information about the band other than the bandcamp page, is that more of an intentional thing for now?
Beormingas: It is very intentional.
7.Has the band done any live shows or is this strictly a studio project?
Beormingas: I have played live over the years in many bands, and I am looking into this as a potential, and know of musicians who could learn our parts and make performing live a reality however Scarrowscant has always been resistant.
Scarrowscant: For the most part I would like for Plaguehurst to remain a studio band like most of my favourite recording artists. Also, I am reluctant to take to a stage as the feel of the record may be compromised in some way if we performed live. But, I am not thick headed, I am not completely locked to this notion and if I change my mind in the future so be it.
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
Beormingas: We have had many favourable messages and feedback has been good. I think for the most part people feel it is something different yet old and familiar.
Scarrowscant: We made the record for ourselves, so that did not constrain any of the arrangements, we didn’t sound guess ourselves with questions we just played off feel. Perhaps that has come through and is what is engaging people or repelling them.
9.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Scarrowscant: We have recently decided to seek out labels, there are many labels I feel we would suit Plaguehurst perfectly. Time will tell.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Scarrowscant: We do not make plans, we just do.
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?
Scarrowscant: Craft, particularly early Craft is something that unites us both.
Beormingas: Definitely. We listen to a large cross section of music. Clandestine Blaze, Azelisassath, the criminally overlooked and underrated Throneum, lots of stuff is always on rotation.
Scarrowscant: It’s getting colder here in the U.K so some of the rawer stuff that has that perfect feeling, Sanguine Relic, Caverns, also I am listening to a lot of Korium, and Epheles at the moment. Feeling is everything.
12.How would you describe your views on Satanism?
Scarrowscant: I have walked with the devil since I was five years old, he is a part of me as much as my blood and flesh is. To me there is no point in trying to be part of any so called church, or group or sect or seeking out any mystically Satanic tomb. I did that in my adolescence, searched for the knowledge, and devoured the infernal books, but as time ravages and I grow older I know it is something that is unquantifiable, it is as mists or vapours. Like true black metal, Satan is a feeling, a sense, an atmosphere, it permeates everything you do without trying, without posturing, and without effort. That is how we approach the music, we let that timeless entity guide our hands.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Scarrowscant: Support the black flame, support Plaguehurst
https://plaguehurst.bandcamp.com/releases
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