Durthang Interview

 

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

 

Hails. Durthang was created in 2005 by Ylghanon and me (Nhaarg). We are friends since we were childs and we share the same interests in music, life and philosophy. It is not very common here, because we raised in a small village. We started to write music and record some rehearsals till 2020 that we finished our first EP.

 

2.A few months back you had released an ep, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?

 

It is what we understand as Pagan Metal or Heathen Metal. Just Black Metal mixed with epic and folk influences, but not shitty happy Folk Metal as you can hear in the most bands of today. We do BLACK METAL. It is very easy to sound folkish using a whistle. A simple melody performed with an Irish whistle sounds like Celtic music. But we try to sound epic by using just Metal instruments and an old keyboard.

 

3.The music was written between 2005 and 2009 but you waited until 2020 to release the music, can you tell us a little bit more about the long wait?

 

We have other projects and we have also jobs that force us to move outside for months and it is impossible for us to continue with all our projects from time to time.

 

4.A lot of your lyrics cover Paganism themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?

 

We have a different cosmovision of our environment. We are forced to live in this moment and society, but for sure we don’t take part of the nowadays of the typical citizen. I mean, we rarely use Internet. We hate social media, Facebook and other stupid things like that. We are not in the “Internet scene”. We hate it. We use to live in a small village and we try to continue with this life. It is hard, but we don’t care it.

Pesticum, Durthang, Thangorodrim or Nhaarg projects won’t have any social media. We only support old school scene.

 

5.Both of the band members are also involved with other bands or musical projects, what is it that you bring into the music of 'Durthang', that your are not able to do with your other groups?

 

I have a solo project simply called Nhaarg. Ylghanon has another solo project of Dark Dungeon Music and we both have another Black Metal band called Pesticum, with Xhaarm (Ylghanon’s brother) on drums.

 

Xhaarm (Pesticum drummer) lives in England from time to time. It makes very hard for us to try all our ideas with Pesticum. In fact, we wanted to play a mid tempo Epic Black Metal that doesn’t fit with Pesticum concept, which is raw and faster.

 

We both created Durthang due to this. I know there is some mistaken information in Encyclopaedia Metallum about the year of creation of the projects, but we cannot change this in this fucking web.

 

6.I know the bands name came from the writings of J.R.R Tolkien, can  you tell us a little bit more about your interest in his work?

 

Of course, Tolkien saved my childhood. There is not much to do for a child in the area we raised so we were all the time reading books, playing to rol games, videogames and, after of this, drinking and playing the evil music we were hearing for years.

 

I love even the films of TLOTR. Something that much people hates. We don’t care.

 

7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?

 

It is just an idea I talked to the designer. All the art is made by him with the ideas we considered good for the project. It has the perfect mood.

 

7.The ep was released on 'Crush The Desert Records, how did you get in contact with this label?

 

They contacted us through our Bandcamp. We upload our music to this web to show it. We put it by free download. He heard it and he contacted us very fast, interested in all our projects. He works very fast and, in fact, he did a perfect work. He has supported us very much and it is very appreciated.

 

8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?

 

We have not much idea, really. We are not all the day watching videos in YouTube or looking for reviews. We don’t like to waste our time with it.

 

9.What is going on  with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?

 

Well… we are working in a full album for Pesticum. I think it is the time, after a lot of demos and rehearsal recordings. It is hard to say something about it now, because all is stopped for the moment due to our jobs.

 

About Durthang, maybe we could work in another full album with some better songs and production.

 

I am writing some new stuff with Nhaarg also, my solo project. Not sure what will I record.

 

Xhaarm (Pesticum drummer) is working with a Death Metal band from England too. They are doing something in the vein of Incantation or something like that. Not much info I have, because I have not heard them more than a couple of songs in rehearsal.

 

Anyway, it seems that this year will see some other stuff out.

 

10.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

 

Maybe, we could record something new this year. We are working on it just now and we have renewed our energies thanks to the EP release.

 

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?

 

We just hear old school stuff and 90s Black Metal. The influences of Durthang comes from the very early stuff of Falkenbach to Isengard, Darkthrone or early Summoning stuff.

 

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts? 

 

Thank you so much for your time and interest in Durthang. I hope some other true Metal maniacs can enjoy our epic darkness.

Hails!!!

The Winter Woods @ Bandcamp