Golgot is Brungard on drums, and me, Wieland, on vocals, bass and guitar. We’ve known each other for several years and we worked together on a split record with our other bands in the past already. Together we now play a sort of style-bastard that is constantly shunted between its old Black Metal mother and its depressed Doom daddy.
2. Recently you have released a demo, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?
It’s not that easy to name particular styles and I think that I have already narrowed things down too much when mentioning Black and Doom Metal in my first answer. When writing Estrangement I: Floodline I had heard and constructed most of the structures in my mind already before finally searching those riffs on the guitar neck. Playing a certain style was not a question or a goal I set for Golgot since I have never been a huge fan of sticking to genre rules. My initial starting point was to manifest these vocal and guitar lines I had in my mind and not to form a Black Metal or Death Metal project for the sake of it.
3. The demo was also released on cassette. Do you feel this format captures the raw aggression of this musical style a lot more than the digital format that most bands have used over the last 10 or more years?
Cassette is an amazing medium for music. Hit it hot when recording and cut some sub-bass and highs and you’ll get musical analog compression and punch. Feed a badly balanced and noisy mix onto it and the tape will diffuse it even further, which can be a pleasant effect but also the reason why many people think it is an inferior medium. You have to work meticulously on the audio source and you have to maintain your recording/playback device in order to get the benefits from tape cassette. Back to your question, many bands still use cassette multitrack recorders or dictaphones but chose a digital rip of it as a means of distribution. Digital format can capture everything, it’s not telling us about the recording quality in the first place. I am fine with digital releases as accompanying medium as long as bands still put out tapes, CDs and vinyl.
4. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
Estrangement I: Floodline deals with a flood motif, as the title suggests. The flood is an archetypical element in many texts of both ancient and contemporary civilizations. In the demo’s lyrics, a fictitious group of people obeys their deity and the symbols they created for it. They take it to an extent where they worship the rotten bodies of their next of kin whom they had sacrificed to their god before. Sickened by their self-centered and power-hungry approach towards spirituality, the deity sends them a flood to wash them away. The survivors of the flood are thankful and continue with their inhumane death cult. The cult & flood plot works on many metaphorical layers, too.
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Golgot'?
The inspiration behind it was to find a name that is both unique and phonetically interesting to me. A little bit influenced also by some French Légions Noires bands and their Gloatre language, I wanted to find a combination of sounds that captured the essence of the music.
6. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the demo cover?
I wanted an ink drawing and I wanted to do it myself although I cannot draw at all. The DIY approach with Golgot is really important to me so that I wouldn’t want to ask outside dudes to draw or produce stuff for us. The idea behind the snake with claw was to depict a conflict, a paradox, a metaphor, a connection to the lyrics and a catchy oddity at the same time by the help of the simplest means available.
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?
I doubled up the number of members already when Brungard joined on drums and that should really be enough now.
8. One member lives in Germany while another lives in the United States, what kind of impact does this have on the musical style with the band members living in different parts of the world?
The impact of me as a non-drummer having written the drums for the first demo and then forcing Brungard to recreate the mess I had programmed lays much weightier on the outcome than the circumstance that we live in different countries. For upcoming recordings I can send all my ideas to Brungard immediately and he can play whatever he likes. Rehearsing together in one room would of course be the best way to interact musically, but it’s just not possible.
9. Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Working with a label would be good in the future. I’d say that’s one reason we have made the self-produced tape in the first place. To me the better way of presenting a totally unknown project is to do some self-made stuff and see what happens instead of spamming labels with emails and begging for support.
10. On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
I really don’t know. It’s just a small tape release, no recognizable reactions. I gave the tape to three or four people close to me and those tapes that sold on Bandcamp shipped to the USA, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Israel, damn, almost every single tape shipped to a different country. So, approximately 30 people spread around the globe happen to know this thing.
11. When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I haven’t thought about the future yet but I will start thinking about riffs for another demo quite soon. I am quite sure that new material is going to be similar to the title track of the first demo.
12. 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 listen to all kinds of Metal really and some stuff from outside the realms of Metal, too. Next to me right now are some recently played LPs as follows: Deathrow – Riders of Doom, Led Zeppelin – II, Blue Öyster Cult – Agents of Fortune, Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Sahb Stories & Next, Zom – Demo 2011, Ulver – Bergtatt & Nattens Madrigal, Undergang – Den Dobbelte Grav EP & Holocaust – Inside the Power Cage compilation.
Stylistic influences on Golgot I would say are second wave European Black Metal for the coldness, twisted US stuff like Von or Goatlord for the brutality and inspiration to experiment with playing and production but also recent bands (Finnish bands in this case) like Ride for Revenge or Oksennus that demonstrate that you can still do something fresh.
13. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thanks for taking time and sending these questions.
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