Filthgrave Blitzkrieg Interview

Not long ago I had the Norwegian band Filthgrave and their latest EP release “Necromantic Rituals” on my desk for review (here), so it felt only appropriate to compose a blitzkrieg interview with one of the guitar players, F.

Hey there and welcome to Blessed Altar Zine! Thank you very much for taking the time to answer a few questions. Why won’t you begin by telling as a little about the members?

Well, the lineup consists of 5 people. A usual lineup is two guitars, bass, drums and a vocalist. We started as a 3-piece band in 2016 but there have been many changes in the band`s lineup since then but me and vocalist “A” have been the founding members of the band.

I could say that each member has different influences, but we all converge in creating extreme and evil music. So, each one of us contributes to what Filthgrave is.

You label yourselves as a black metal band; do you feel like such genre has had a strong influence on you since Norway does have a strong influence over all in black metal?

Yeah sometimes not so good influence I must admit, but I do listen to black and death metal bands from early 90s and 80s. It’s not important where the music is coming from as long as it’s done for the right reasons. I don’t listen to a lot of Norwegian bands; I admire and listen to bands from other continents, for example South-America and Australia. For me there is no comparison, bands from that part of the world often deliver in an extremely convincing way.

I could name some bands that have influenced me for example Sarcofago, old Sepultura, Bestial Warlust, Darkthrone, Burzum, Goatpenis, Tormentor, Beherit, Bathory and others.

Your previous demo titled Desecration was released in 2017, what would you say has been the main difference between the demo and your newly released EP?

The soul of the music has always been the same, but I can tell you that one of the main differences is the change in members. We recorded the demo with a different bass player and a different drummer. The style of our previous drummer was very different so that made a difference. Another aspect that changed was the addition of another guitar player, so we managed to throw some solos and a bit more of melody in our songs. I think we are on a path to discover our own sound, and so far, I am excited about how is going, I want to continue the same path as in the songs of the Ep. More extreme perhaps, but meaningful.

Production wise you can hear a big difference in the quality of the Ep. This Ep was recorded in a proper studio with a very competent person behind the mixing board. The demo was that, just a demo. I know the change of audio quality between both releases can throw people off, but we really didn’t have enough resources on the demo and we didn’t want to wait. So, we just recorded what we had and said fuck it! Let them have it! Raw, and unrepentant.

Are there any particular outside influences that have affected your music?

Besides music, I am influenced by the true nature of humans, the world surrounding us, plagues, war anything that catches my interest. From poets to warmongers; from personal experiences to some degree mystical experiences. I like to write songs that are interesting to me, so I take a lot of time to write lyrics. I will often get inspired by a theme, then I start to write my ideas on paper and then deconstruct them.

Finally, now that we have received both a demo and an EP from the group, could you tell our readers about any future work? Perhaps there is a full length album on the way?

We are in the process of writing new material, the idea of a full length is there, but on the other hand we also want to expose the music we already have to more people and of course do more live shows.

 Creating an album should be a long process, I must be satisfied with every riff that I do and that can take weeks before a song is finished, therefore I like to take my time when making music.  I don’t really have a date for you on when we are expecting to go into the studio again. However I’m always writing songs so after all this madness of the virus is over we will see how fast we can go and rehearse the new ideas. It depends on that really, so we will see how productive we can be in the following months.

We have also thought about doing a split album with new material, if we get too restless, but no concrete plans for that either but what I can assure you is that Filthgrave will deliver music no matter what!

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