1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Burnt offering was formed in winter 2013 by Nameless Enemy on vocals and guitars and Blind Idiot God on bass and backing vocals. The drummer Asbath joined in a couple of weeks later. From the very beginning we decided to play raw old-school Black Metal. Our first demo “Besnovanie” (“Daemonomania”) was recorded in summer 2013 but after that the band went on hiatus so the record was released only in 2015. Now the band is active again and we have a lot of plans for the future.
2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
Burnt Offering stays for raw, grim and venomous primitive Black Metal in the vein of the early 90s Norwegian scene. We were recording all the instruments live during a rehearsal, so the output is really straight-to-the-face and unpolished. Also the demo is released on tape which makes the sound even more disturbing and filthy.
3.The band refers to it's musical style as 'old rite black metal', can you tell us a little bit more about the tag?
This moniker is wordplay, referring to both «Old-School Black Metal", a term that would be a good, though trivial, description of our musical output and to "Orthodox Old Rite Church". For those who don't know, "old-riters" or "old believers" are schismatic religious groups that didn't accept the religious reforms of 17th century and existed in isolation and secrecy ever since, adopting strange and macabre practices. The gloomy blend of archaic, almost inversed orthodox christianity, remnants of most dark and primordial pagan beliefs, alcohol-infused madness and the atmosphere of utter hopelessness, very typical for old rural Russia is one of the most important inspirations for our band. That is why we came to call our band "Old-Rite Black Metal".
4.Your lyrics cover Satanism and Slavonic chthonic deities, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these subjects?
We consider ourselves Satanists from rather early age. We feel ourselves inspired by and committed to dark and destructive sides of spirituality and that is what we sing about.
As for the Slavonic deities, we have to say that we have nothing in common with the so called “neo-pagans” who grew in numbers in the Slavonic regions in the 90s. Their pastoral new age nature worship often combined with idiotic political ideas is of no interest to us.
We are interested in primordial chthonic sides of traditional Slavonic beliefs and celebrate the gloomy deities of deadly swamps and rotten pines, of starless nights and spilled blood. We see Slavonic paganism as being akin to Dionysian cults of insanity, drunkenness and of the irrational. Since all Indo-European religions come from the same root we think that such a point of view is more than sound. Even more, seeing the Slavonic reality of the present it is very unlikely that our ancestors were worshiping the Spring and the Warmth.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Burnt Offering'?
Burnt offering is a sacrificial ritual described in the Old Testament. It is called "Vsesozhzhénije" in Russian, and this is how our logo reads. Some of our songs deal with obliteration of life and personality for the sake of higher spiritual revelation, a kind of self-sacrifice. So a sacrificial rite was a good choice for the band name.
6.The band members where originally from Russia, Ukraine and Kyrgystan but now reside in Germany, how would you compare living in Western Europe to Eastern Europe?
We live in Leipzig and this city, let’s say, doesn’t belong completely to the Western Europe. Leipzig has Slavonic name and it’s early history is connected to the history of Slavonic tribes. The Sorbs, a Slavonic folk that populated the eastern parts of modern Germany in the early Middle Ages are still living nearby, and still speak their archaic languages. Also in the recent past Leipzig and the whole Saxony was a part of GDR, a socialist country that came to life after a part of Germany was occupied by the Commies after the WWII. All this has left a deep trace. Leipzig is a gloomy and uncomfortable place and a lot of people who live here have the “fuck you all and die” attitude very common to ex-socialist mentality.
One of our songs is a Hymn to Mokosh’, the Goddess of underground waters and divination, similar to Hecate. The idea of the song came to us when we’ve found out that her sanctuary was located on the territory of nowadays Leipzig’s neighborhood called Mockau. Since the level of underground waters is very high in Leipzig, this seems to be appropriate.
7.Has the band been able to do any live shows or has this been strictly a studio project so far?
We never played live as Burnt Offering up until now, but this can change in the future. In general we have no objections against live performances.
8.The demo was released on Narcoleptica Productions, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Narcoleptica Prod. is an underground label from Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia. The guy who runs it is a real underground fanatic! He still works with tapes, and we goddamn love the tape sound! To produce the tapes he uses the records of sermons and Christian music from some neo-protestant sect and records his bands over them, a great idea! It was our dream to release "Deamonomania" on tape, so Narcoleptica was the best choice. We are really glad to work with this label.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?
Well, there were positive reviews and personal feedback from all over the world, from USA to Indonesia. We didn’t expect the coverage area to be that wide. On other hand, since “Daemonomania” is not a major release, it surely didn’t attract the attention of the broad masses. But it is good that way. We are definitely not planning to become the idols of the silent majority.
Some of the comparisons were really strange, for example with the early Absurd, the band we don’t really take seriously…
10.What is going on with some of the other musical projects or bands these days that some of the band members are a part off?
Asbath is founding member of Epic Shamanic Metal band Darkestrah, a band that started in Kyrgyzstan, then relocated to Germany and is focused on a combination of traditional Central Asian music and Black/Doom Metal. B.I.G. plays bass for Darkestrah since 2013. A new album of Darkestrah will be recorded this month and will be released through Osomose Prod.
N.E.(on guitars) and B.I.G.(on vocals and bass) play in a Post-Punk/Psychedelic Rock band Nietzsche and the Wagners and also work on an album now. The band was inspired by European modernist culture and also explored such topics as insanity in the time of Eurpoe’s lethargic sleep. But then Europe was broken out of the sleep by the Revolution and war in Ukraine, the land where Nameless Enemy comes from, and where B.I.G.’s ancestors hail from. This fact has really influenced the band and it’s concept.
11.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We do have some new stuff and surely Burnt Offering won't stop at this point. However we are not yet sure about the exact format and dates of our future releases.
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?
We were mostly inspired by Norwegian Black Metal scene of the early 90es, early Mayhem, Darkthrone, Isengard, Burzum and such. Also early Eastern European scene had an impact on our music, demo-era Graveland or Ukarine's Astrofaes to name the few. Other important inspiration would be 80s-90s soviet/post-soviet Punk and Hardcore, such as Grazhdanskaja Oborona, Kooperativ Nishtjak or Orgazm Nostradamusa.
In the beginning we considered Burnt Offering more a tribute project than a band. We've started to play our own songs from the day one, but were more focused on recreating the atmosphere of the 90s underground. With the time, however, we've managed to create our own. At least we hope so.
As for our musical tastes, we are surely not concentrated on the aforementioned music, even though it definitely formed us as musicians and personalities. Our musical interests vary from extreme metal to Post-Punk, Coldwave and Neofolk.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for the interview! Stay tuned! And to everyone in the world, who is interested in the events in Eastern Europe, remember that Putin is a dickhead! Don’t get caught by the bullshit!
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