(Naahz of Blodsrit - Mar 21, 2008 in Salzburg)
As a long-Blodsrit listeners, it has been a great honor, under the zines a few words with the singer and to change the founder of the Swedish black metal band!
Recently when Sweden was staggered to Salzburg, had to learn I know the happiness of the Force, a little bit.
Naahz Hello, first of all I want to thank you for commenting my questions!
Hey! I take the opportunity to give regards in return for the support in Blodsrit this cold night in the beginning of May of the year ayps 2008th
1) You are one of the two guys who founded the band Blodsrit so what was the impetus to launch this horde and what was the reason for Kettil's leave?
At that point of time where Blodsrit was born (or rather "Skuggrike" which was the name given to the band initially) I was involved in a few bands, namely: Primitive Symhpony, Wrath & Demonized. For some reasons I moved and I was from that moment not able to rehearse or create with any of the aforementioned bands. The creative hunger grew inside and the outcome was the need of a new band, hence Skuggrike. Kettil was a guy I met during this time who shared the ideals and views upon life that I had, so we kind of teamed up and recorded a demo entitled "The arrival of Kaos". This recording was anyhow never released in any official way and when I decided to move back to where I left from we went separate ways. My direction was later to be known as Blodsrit whilst Kettil's (aka Rogga) path led to the formation of Paganizer, Ribspreader and some other projects. We have been speaking loosely about a reunion. The plan in that case is just a 7" vinyl or something like that. A recording session is anyhow planned in the nearest future and we´ll see what it will turn ot like.
2) Where do you get the name „Blodsrit" from and can you tell us the meaning please?
The name Blodsrit would easiest be translated as "blood ritual" in English. It is just a name that has been taken from an old heathen tradition where blood was sacrificed in a ritualistic way in order to get your wishes come true. In a way you might say that Blodsrit is my blooddrenched ritualistic gift to the elder gods.
3) In the early years of Blodsrit you had some trouble with "Oaken Shields" which was your label at that time. What was the problem in detail?
Well, the problems we have encountered labelwise was not really in the beginning but instead more recently during these days. What I can say is that the issues we have with the particular label is still an infected wound, so at the moment I will (for certain reasons) say no more until things have been sorted out.
4) You produced the video to „The glorious rise of flames" recently. It is about a ritual or somthing in that way (I hope I understood it the right way!), so can you tell us the plot of this video and your thoughts behind it?
Aye, we got a proposition from some french guy while we were on tour, and he asked us if it was ok if he did a video for us. We said ok, and gave him a few guidelines of what we had in mind but still we gave him a huge artistic freedom to do what he wanted in order to visualize "The glorious rise of flames". We wanted complete nudity and ritual murder in the video (hey, we were young and it was our first video), but it didn´t really turn out like that as you might know. The song is all about the wish to experience the downfall of the earth. To see the end of days and to be able to stand at a high point with a great view of the world and a horizon that burns red as the whole world perish in flames. Imagine the greatness in being one of the last standing humans and witness the earths last dying breath. So the video in a way portrais a person with these wishes that somehow realizes that the day of a dying world is too far away for her to experience and by that she has lost all meaning in life and decides to end the gift of God called life by her own hands. At least that is my personal view upon the video.
5) About what kind of mindset do you preach in your songs? Did the mindset changed in the course of time?
As time pass by you change and grow for every event and turn that life surprises you with for obvious reasons. I would say that in the beginning we had more of a pure antichristian approach to our content, whilst we today have turned into more personal feelings and views nested into what we create. I would definately say that we have matured and everything has alot more meaning now than before.
6) Like you know anyway there exist various types of satanism…To which type do you confess to? Or aren’t you a satanist at all?
I am not really a person that labels myself as this or that. I have my views and ideas upon all various types of directions in life, and maybe someone would say that I am a Satanist, some would claim otherwise. I would say that I am a misanthrope by heart and that is the only thing I confess myself to. I am en extremist and my thoughts are many times not really seen as healthy by the general population, but that is nothing that bothers me really. We are from the day we are born fed with the lie that all humans has the same value while I say that man are born without any value at all. You are worth only what you build. For example I of course have people that means something for me, but that value has taken years to build. And if you view it globally the persons that means something to me means nothing to 99,99999% of the rest of the world, so the conclusion must be that humans are pretty worthless. When you die you are mourned by a few for a while and eventually you are completely forgotten.
In which way does your faith influence your social environment?
To be honest I have never even thought about in what ways my thinking disables me socially. I live my life in a way that pleases me and care not at all of what others do or think about it actually.
7) In Salzburg I saw that you really like tattoos, hehe. So what do your tattoos mean? Do they have a special meaning to you or are they part of a story? Explain them a little bit for our readers!
Every tattoo has a meaning behind it or at least they represent parts of my life where this or that happened. I can look back at my first tattoos and think that if I were to start over again I would have chosen other motives, but I do not regret any of them since they in a way tell a story of the person I was back then and forward. And by saying that they all have a meaning I am definately not at all near the pathetic beings presented in for example L.A Ink and such shows. I try to combine nice art that represents myself and what I do and stand for.
Also, I work part time as a tattoo-artist, and creating something permanent while using human skin as canvas is possibly the ultimate artform one can find.
I see!
8) Are their any bands who are role models to you? You had covered Candlemass and Darthrone, would you count among them as role models?
What we create has lots of different sources of inspiration, but I wouldn’t really say that this or that band serves as role models for what we create. Regarding the covers, we did "Transilvanian Hunger" to fill out the promo since we didn´t have so many new songs at the recording occasion, and the recording was mostly a way for me to see how well me and Fiebig worked together and the cover is very near the original in its recorded form. "Solitude" on the other hand is a song we changed a lot from the original. We took it from slow doom to black metal in a way that at least I see as very much better than the original.
Did they give you direction to music or just to personality?
As mentioned above we have a huge number of inspirational sources, so it is impossible to say that they have done this or that particular thing that in a way and changed and made us what we think or do or are today, and I can´t say that I consider any of the aforementioned bands as something that solely has made me what I am today. I do have a lot of respect for them and what they do anyway.
9) Are there any other bands which do you like personally? Are you in contact with some other bands regularly?
No, we have no intention of making "friends" with what we do whatsoever. We prefer to keep to ourselves and we have no contact on a regular basis with any other bands to this date. We have met some people during the years that we have some shallow contact with but I would say that they are very few and it has never been because of the fact that they are involved in any band that we have stayed in touch with those people.
10) Is there something you hate especially in the society nowadays?
Honestly I believe that I could write a book around this question. Life has made some twisted turns and there are multiple (or millions to be more precise) things that has awakened rage within my being. There are a huge spectra of answers that could be used to answer this. Society is filled with humans, one more the disgusting than the other and human behaviour seems to never stop amazing me with its stupidity. Also we have politics and religion that has built the society and moral grounds on which we have based our lives of today. The list is endless and thus makes the question blurry and hard to answer when it is not specified.
11) You’d playd your first tour quite early… how was it? And in general: How was your first gig ever?
We were given the chance to go on tour throughout France and combine that whilst we were down there to record "Ocularis Infernum", and it was a good experience. At the time we got the proposal it was only me and Fiebig that was in the band, so the first thing we had to do was to find some members to make us able to perform live, hence Saphanoz & Yxmarder. The first gig ever was during this tour in a really small bar far away in a very rural area. It was a rather nice gig, and the following drinking afterwards to celebrate our first gig was extreme. Along with the sound engineers, CRYSTALIUM and NEHEMAH we trashed the location. All in all a very pleasant evening.
12) You were on tour with Eminenz, how did you like them? Do you stay in contact with them?
The crew of Eminenz was really ok to tour with. We have met the singer alot of times before while playing in Annaberg, so we kind of knew him from before. We still have some contact with them and we plan on going on tour again with them in November this autumn for a few gigs. At this point of time I have no dates or venues though, so time will tell where we'll be playing.
13) One station of your tour was Salzburg where we had already talked together, how did you liked this gig?
That particular gig was not really I gig that will be remembered as one of our best. The sound was terrible on stage and we heard nothing of what we did. At some parts we even had to guess where in the song we where. In order to make a decent gig a good sound on stage is absolutely necessary. After a while of not hearing you lose some of the will to perform unfortunately and especially when the one responsible who calls himself sound-engineer seem to don’t care att all or jus don’t understand that something is terrible with his way of working. Anyhow I hope that Austria will be on the list of venues this fall so we can deliver a gig the way it is meant to be given.
It wasn’t the first Blodsrit gig in Austria, will you return again?
As mentioned above we will return as soon as we are given the opportunity. Austria is amongst one of the countries from which we receive the strongest support so going back would be an honour!
14) How do you like the landscape of Austria? Are there any similarities to the Swedish’ territory or is it completely different?
What I like about Austria is the enormous and majestic mountains. Here in the south of Sweden where we live we don´t see or experience this, so the similarities are very few from what we are used to. unfortunately we are always in a car or inside a venue when we are touring so we never actually have any time to spend on experiencing nature from a closer distance than the road. We’re merele observing countries through a windshield of a vehicle which for certain reasons is not much of an adventure.
15) Do you like the nature? Do you go hiking in the forests of Sweden when you are at home or do you get in touch with the nature in any other way?
I have grown up spending a lot of time in the nature and the near surroundings. We live in a very small town on the east coast of Sweden and the nature lies very close to where we live. it takes approximately 10 minutes to walk before you reach the forestlines of this place. Also my family owns a huge part of nature 25 kilometres from my home with deep trollish forests and a lake 30 and that is where I have spent most of my days during this earthly life. There is nothing as peaceful as the silence of the nature at night far away from all that can be called civilization and humanity.
16) It seems like there are many patriots in Sweden... are you a patriot too?
If by patriot you mean a person that loves his country and holds the banner of the nation with pride I would say that I am divided in the issue. I would gladly die defending what is mine and those that means something to me. On the other hand I would never ever, not in a million years go in the frontline of a war defending some fat prick in a suit that calls himself leader over a country to which I happen to be residing. I am proud of my heritage, but Sweden of today as a country has failed in too many ways to be a country taking pride in other than for it's beauty naturewise and historically. We exist in the ruins that once were something. Anyhow, this is a massive question that for sure would need a far longer answer and a complete dialogue in order to get full understanding into what we believe and stand for in this matter.
17) Do you know Black-Metal-Bands from Austria? How do you like them?
Hmmm, I rarely don’t care about bands origins, but I don know that Belphegor is from Austria. After the gig we slept at the place where their rehearsalplace was. Also I know the usual more known bands like Pungent Stench (not black metal though that I was a huge fan of 15 years or more ago. Also I think that Abigor & Summonig must be two of the most internationally known bands that has spawned from your country if I am not totally mistaken.
18) A question about the cover-artwork of your new album "Hinterland": It looks very attractiv almost a little bit confusing...it shows some bird-like shapes and so on... what should it means?
We sent the CD and the titles to Lorenzo Mariani, and the artwork is his vision, or rather a small glimpse of the world that we present as the Hinterland, the land in the far beyond that stretches out in the horizon but yet is unreachable.
19) My last question: What are your further plans with Blodsrit? Are you already working on new matereal?
The nearest future will bring re-releases of our complete back-catalogue in digipak format. All different than the earlier releases. The "Supreme Misanthropy" album has been completely re-recorded. The "Ocularis Infernum" will be released and have the never printed promo "Secrets Unveiled" as bonustrack and finally "Helveteshymner" will be released with three completely new tracks. Also we are currently working on material for an upcoming dvd that hopefully will be given birth by the end of the year, and of course we are always creating new material so we hope to enter a studio again next year for a new fullenght album.
Naahz, thank you for the interview, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you! Maybe I'll see you again at a concert of Blodsrit! (The words are yours last)
I'm sure we'll meet again, until then I salute you for interest shown in Blodsrit.
