For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Hi everyone and thanks for the interview. I’m Aldo, lead guitarist, singer and main composer of Azog and I speak on behalf of the whole band. Azog comes from Italy and plays melodic black metal. After a period of militancy in other bands, I’ve decided to give a second chance to my personal musical project in 2016, at that time in stand-by. I’ve never given up with the the idea of having my own project and for me it was a priority, a way to channel all my musical ideas. The fact to have found a brand new lineup with members who share the same passion and attitude, has given me a new enthusiasm and made the difference.
In December you had released your first full length, musically how does it differ from your previous demo and split?
The main differences are in term of production. As you can see the tracks of the demo are present in both Obscura Liturgia (Split CD containing 2 of the 3 demo tracks) and Ab Chai Ruinis (Full-length CD). This incremental path was clear for us since the beginning, i.e. to play and record the same tracks with an ever increasing technique and production. The demo CD, even though had a cheesy basement production, gave us the right awereness of our work and had positive feedbacks. The split CD was the second step and in that case we want to share our work with other bands and also friends of the italian black metal scene, as a sign of mutual support and respect. With “Ab Chai Ruinis”, the time was mature, we had the right consciousness and 8 tracks ready to be recorded (or re-recorded for the 3 tracks coming from the demo) with professional devices and a better production.
The band split up in 2008 and reformed in 2016. What was the cause of the split and also the decision to reform?
It’s not so simple to find someone who is full motivated and able to share your own passion and attitude with the same intensity. It’s exactly what happened with the first lineup, that had a different name, Vorators. We were at a dead end from a personal and musical point of view and every move of the band didn’t lead anywhere. It was better to stop and freeze the project and wait for better times. In 2016, during a gig, I had the chance to meet the right guys with the right attitude with whom to begin a new path. In that moment, Azog was born as a band. In order to preserve the memory of the very first band’s emanation, still an important phase of my musical and technical growth, I wanted to entitle the demo “…from the Ashes”, as a reference to the band’s rebirth.
Some of your lyrics cover satanic and anti christianity themes. Can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in the dark arts?
Satanism and anti-christian themes are clearly the main topics in black metal since the first wave of this genre of music. Nowadays it’s a sort of clichè for aesthetic and lyrical purposes for the majority of black metal bands. For our point of view, we are not so into the “dark arts” as we aim to focus mainly on the music and the lyrics reflect a nihilistic view of life rather than satanic rituals or tombs profanation. Yes, we have songs named “Satan’s Reign” or “Dechristianize All”, but the lyrics speak of the Great Adversary in a metaphoric way and we take it as an emblem of the fight against religions and their doctrines (mainly Christianity). We think that the mankind could go on without religion at all, and quoting our song “Dechristianize All”: “Better damned than blinded by faith!”.
What are some of the other lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
As said before, a pessimistic and nihilistic point of view on the modern world and its unavoidable process of self destruction, distress, rage and solitude. The inspiration for the writing process comes from a variety of sources: personal thoughts, dreams and even history. For example, the lyrics of “Vae Victis” had been inspired by the historical facts happened in the 1st century B.C. between the Romans and the Gauls.
I know that the band’s name comes form the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in his writing?
You are right, the name comes from “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Azog the Defiler is an Orc Chieftain mainly depicted in “The Hobbit” trilogy movies. Being teenagers when the LOTR displayed for the first time in the cinemas, it’s clear that such saga, together with the passion for black metal, had a strong impact on us. The books have improved and extended our interest in Tolkien’s universe. He was able to create brand new worlds, languages and vocabularies (Elvish Quenya, the Black Speech of Mordor…) and a myriad of characters with charming and exotic names. We found in Azog a simple, easy-to-pronounce, effective and grim name and it represents something that is dark and evil, suitable for our music. It’s not a secret that many famous black/death metal bands borrowed their band’s name from Tolkien’s writings.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
The artwork is a real masterpiece conceived by our dear friend, Franco La Mista. We were sure that he was the right guy, with an excellent drawing technique, able to represent our ideas and visions. And, in fact, we’ve never been disappointed by him. In the cover scene, all is wrapped in a vortex with skeletal angels and a solid, geometrical and esoteric form stands in its center, symbol of the rebirth of a new unspoilt society. The style of the drawing recalls the magnificent artworks of Gustave Doré, the famous illustrator of The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost (we chose a scene from Paradise Lost for our demo’s artwork).
What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We’ve performed only once, at the beginning of 2020, because, soon after, the pandemic emergency started and, after one week from our gig, Italy was in total lockdown. During these 2 years, we’ve tried to schedule some dates but the restrictions here in Italy are still strong for live events. To be honest, our performance on stage is music-oriented and we lack of the usual black metal aesthetic: we don’t use corpse-painting nor wear inverted crosses. We’ve never felt the urge to set up a canonical black metal performance as we think that the music is the main subject to show. We obviously respect the stylistic choices made by other black metal bands and maybe in the future we can work more to create a band’s stage trademark.
The physical version of the album was released on Wine and Fog productions, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
We are in perfect tune with Wine and Fog Productions since the beginning. From the first contacts we built with them a respectful collaboration in order to produce together a solid album. We made contacts with other labels too, both in Italy and abroad, but we chose W&F with no hesitation. Thanks to their suggestions and support during the production phase, we’ve released a product that gives us full satisfaction. The fact that W&F is an Italian label is an added value and ease obviously the communication between the parts. They are smooth operators and their roster is growing very fast. We wish them good luck for their present and future work. The Italian musical scene deserves labels like W&F.
In 2019 you were a part of a split, can you tell us a little bit more about the other bands you shared this release with?
We are tied to that bands through a sincere friendship and we admire their works. The split was a born as a pact of mutual support. Together we wanted to give a meaning to this work and we realized that there was an unexpected concept related to each band’s place of origin. In fact, each band represents a geographic reference of our country: Veratrum from North Italy, Ulfhednar from Central Italy, Azog from South Italy and Angrenost from the Main Islands (Sardinia). For what I know, they are all in stand-by due to the restrictions but I suggest you to follow and support these bands.
On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to yor music by fans of black metal?
For what we’ve seen in the first reviews and from the listeners’ reactions, the overall feedback is pretty positive. We are aware that’s not a mainstream and easy-to-listen genre and on the other hand the black metal fans are often very demanding and attentive. It’s easy to do something wrong or to mess up the final result with bad choices, but the received feedbacks make us satisfied and we know we are on the right path. Our goal is to perform live in the next months in order to spread our music. It’s a matter of time.
Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
As said before, we want to perform live and for the next works the path is clear. We love this kind of music and we are proud of being able to express our passion through our instruments and to be part of a musical scene. We don’t care to follow the musical trends, it’s against our nature. For work reasons, the band’s members are, at the moment, geographically distant but it’s not a big problem. We study, compose and exercise on instruments at home and when we all meet in our reharsal room, we easily put together the pieces. Who can tell about the future? We’ll go on until there’s something to say with our music.
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?
Every member of the band has its own personal taste in terms of music, metal or not. Our influences merge in a constructive way in the creative melting pot of the band. However, the common factor between us is the passion for the old school (90’s-ish) extreme metal. Personally, I love the Swedish black metal school with at the top the band under the name Dissection. Other bands that had a strong influence on me and on the band are Marduk and Naglfar. Someone claims that listening to Azog has found some similarity with Belphegor too. It’s really a pleasure and an honor for us.
Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
In conclusion, I want to thank you again for this interview. Your ‘zine deserves respect and support for the passion you put in your work, helping many bands to emerge and increasing their visibility. Thanks to all who follow us and give us a chance listening to our music. Let “Ab Chai Ruinis” enshrouds you with its chaos. Stay Evil!
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