RünesyärD RünesyärD, an
up-coming North-American Black Metal band, has recently reissued their debut
MCD Screams From Thy Endless Curses
via Dark Matter Kreations. 666 copies sold in two months was a record figure and
we, at The Grave, combined forces with band and label in order to publish one
of the very first official band interviews – and that is to say a lot. Daemon
kindly answered our questions and they illustrate the band’s essence on a
whole. Here are Daemon’s words for all those to whom the band is still a
shade in the vast musical forest. BBTG – First and foremost, would you please
introduce RÜNESYÄRD to our many readers while looking back at the band’s
beginning and releases? Daemon – Of course I can. RünesyärD was formed amid 2002, born from
the union of now extinguished bands, STRIG [Black Metal] and ASTUR [Dark
Metal] members. After the bands’ demise, we sat down and decided to join
forces with other individuals somehow related into our life philosophy, thus
be, RünesyärD was gathered as a sort of Atmospheric Black Metal elite. We
haven’t released anything else besides our debut MCD via Portuguese Satanist
record label Mydgard Records, entitled Screams
From Thy Endless Curses, now re-issued thru Dark Matter Kreations with
new visual deviations and bonus material. BTTG – Shortly after the band’s foundation,
an opportunity came to sign to Mydgard Records. How did this come to be? Are
you satisfied with the label’s work so far? Daemon – It took place mid
2003, so I would say that it wasn’t that much of a short process between our
formation and the label’s proposal, and no, we are not officially signed to
Mydgard Records at all, we simple agreed on releasing thru them our MCD due
to Dräud’s [label owner] impressive support toward our band and §äer’s
[D.M.K.] determination. Both kept everything that was established for this
release going smoothly and with all due respect, as far as we are concerned,
we rather shoot ourselves than leave them suddenly. Other than that, we are
free to sign any sort of recording deal which may eventually cross our way,
and depart ways with them on a friendly basis. The “deal” with them kind of
darkens my mind; if I remember clearly, we saw something about them releasing
a mail order with CD and requesting bands’ participation. We sent them a
promo-track, and they replied with the mail order, CD and with a proposal,
and we “signed” a pact with them after solving all the shitty releasing
details. If we are pleased with their work? 666 copies sold in two fucking
months might answer this question. BTTG – What is the concept behind «Rünesyärd»? Does
the band name mirror your interest for Ancient Runes and Germanic Philology
(ü/ä)? In fact, one of your songs, Stille
Aus Nord, is written in German. Do you think the impact is deeper when
using the German language? Daemon – Not to restrain ourselves as musicians. We do appreciate
certain Mythological material such as reading; it enlightens us and opens our
mind to a cruel, cold, and premeditate reality. And yes, some Germanic
philology as well may take part of our conceptual interests, but it depends
on which point of view you are referring to… Stille Aus Nord is partially written in German and intercourse
with some Norwegian prose thanks to a friend of ours from the internet who
provided us with some translations to this particular track you are referring
to. Obviously, when a song is written on a language besides our own, it has a
certain essence which cannot be held by making use of our native tongue, the
intention is clear; my mother is German and my father is Californian, and
ever since I had the capacity to understand the meaning of words, I felt that
it was quite easy to transcript my feeling and sorrow dings into the writing
process, wishing not to be accused as a Nazi as it happened before, but to
reach beyond frontiers and touch someone’s mind in a way that some few are
capable of doing without overreacting. Even so, I prefer to relate this song
to my personal inner view to today’s world upon the 3rd Reich
events in a certain physical aspect which I do not feel relevant to mention
in here, I hope you can understand. BTTG – What is your central message and how
do you convey it through the various means available to you (image, lyrics,
layout)? Daemon – This is quite hard to answer, let’s see… we have no image at
all, simply because we hate photo sessions. We tried once and we swore never
to repeat the same experience ever again. Talking about the lyrical side of
things, one must listen to my own words and interpret them as if they were
his own. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t want to print our lyrics in
the first place. The entire layout on both printing was provided by
Diabolical Art Network [www.diabolicalart.net]. We gave a general
idea of what we had in mind and §äer took care of the rest for us, which
perfectly mirrored our need for an extremely decomposing aura. BTTG – According to your biography,
Misanthropy, Vampirism, Malevolence and other obscure domains are the band’s
ideals. Do you not feel these darker realms have somewhat become cliché or do
you hold to the opinion that they still keep the traditional strength and
majesty? Daemon – I never gave attention to what might
be considered as “cliché” or not, in fact, it doesn’t bother me at all. Even
so, such acts as British CRADLE OF FILTH and following clones took these
matters to such a ridiculous and commercial platform, which made them lose
part of their enshadowing ambience. Don’t you agree? [To a certain extent –
M] BTTG – Your music has been described as ‘a
deep piercing attack upon religion’. What does religion represent to you in its
positive and negative aspects? Is there a ritualistic edge to your music and
philosophy? Daemon – Religion weakens the spirit. It’s
revolting to follow a presumingly divine presence which is so “good” as
people believe yet. Look around you. What do you see? Do you see harmony?
People respecting each other? I don’t! The only thing that I see is a “God”
worshiped by millions that do not even stop to think that He at the same time
is letting people die from starvation, murder, rape, extortion, even destroying
everything around. It’s pathetic, in fact. For example, I have a 2 year son,
and I sometimes imagine the following situation: Some devotee follower to a
certain God, be it Alá, Saddam or whatsoever is willing to wear a vest packed
with explosives, walk into a huge shopping mall and fucking explode, taking
as many lives as possible with him!! If my son were on the middle of it, I
would fucking slay everyone around!! Churches for example: I don’t know too
much about Portugal [except from the Medieval era], but in here, if you waste
your time going to a church, you almost feel like forced to leave behind a
“donation for the poor”… Well, they remain poor. They rather starve than wait
for a “Divine Intervention”, if you know what I mean… that’s our philosophy:
have neither religion nor boundaries, fuck that, be your own lord. BTTG – Conceptually, as well as literally,
your pseudonyms (Khaos, Graven, Daemon and Apocalypse) point at a foreboding disclose
of the human race and the planet (and its annihilation). Is this a definite
ending to all life or is ‘Khaos’ the presage of some new world order, a
potential organisation of anti-matter? Daemon – Damn you women!!
Nobody came with a question as deep as this one before!! Well, our pseudonyms
stand for what we believe, and what we believe is that mankind will
eventually die by its own means, that’s it, basically. BTTG – Are you followers of the ‘Supreme BM
Armageddon’ motto? Which bands/ projects do you look up to? Bearing in mind
the everlasting trends in the metal scene, would you say BM is currently
‘fashion’ or is it still the Underground movement it was at the beginning? Daemon – We don’t follow any motto or sect,
we simply follow our ideals. I respect you question, and I agree that some
bands may have said “this and that” concerning the Armageddon motto, but we
prefer to be honest in our answers. Therefore, no, we don’t identify
ourselves with any sort of mottos. We highly appreciate DARKTHRONE, THE TRUE
MAYHEM, SATYRICON, [old] SEPTIC FLESH, MÜTIILATION, JUDAS ISCARIOT, ANOREXIA
NERVOSA, KAMPFAR, CARPATHIAN FOREST, BEHEMOTH, BEHERIT, CANNIBAL CORPSE,
DEICIDE, WINDHAM HELL and a few others more as far as bands go… Concerning
projects, we are visionating the efforts made by Dark Matter Kreations, which
seems to become one of the most respectful and forthcoming strong projects
coming from your scene, not trendy nor boring at all, and I am not saying
this because §äer does all our management and other things for the band, but
for the project itself, which is quite interesting. Black Metal only becomes
a trend if people keep on buying cloned CDs instead of old and primitive
recordings. I believe that the Underground scene is not dead at all, but I do
regret the lack of interest for this supportive world of unionship. People
invest more time buying pro-printed mags than exchanging flyers and reading
fanzines. BTTG – Some claim there is a rivalry between
melodic and raw BM, each of which defending the theory that they are the ones
who play ‘true metal’. Do you agree with this vision? Does your option for
playing it raw fit into the abovementioned category? Daemon – Unfortunately, people always felt
the need to claim “this and that” as other useless opinions that lead to
nowhere, creating a sort of ego-reflection from within their own ignorance.
As far as we are concerned, Melodic Black Metal came in the form of Swedish
Metallers DISSECTION, at least the most recent one, and raw Black Metal was
drawn from early Scandinavian landscapes, by such bands as MORBIUS [?! – M],
MAYHEM, GORGOROTH, TORMENTOR, IMMORTAL, EMPEROR and so on… If there’s any
peculiar rivalry between musical genres, it shouldn’t affect us in any
possible way. The modem “True Metal” nowadays is practically of a
non-existence, as most “True bands” decided to sign with major recording
labels without previously releasing neither one single demo nor one
promotional-track, as we did. It is not up to me to judge other people’s
work, I prefer investing my strength in creating rather than wasting time
contradicting moron-minded people, and as for us to play it raw, it came
naturally and we obviously refuse ourselves to be placed under any category
as if we were meat for the beast. We play Metal, and that’s enough. BTTG – The present dialogue is set in the context of
the re-release of Screams of Thy
Endless Curses. I suppose a re-issue in such a short period of time is
nothing short of success. What have the reactions been to your début? Daemon – Our debut MCD-rom sold out 666
copies world wide in merely two months. We, as a band, we couldn’t be more
pleased with the result as the demand accessed the 666 copies available in
stock. D.M.K. however offered us the opportunity to re-issue the MCD with something
extra, in quest to provide a somehow special edition to its customers, and so
we did the DARKTHRONE cover-version. BTTG – The re-issue features one bonus track, a
cover version of DARKTHRONE’s Transylvanean
Hunger. What do you think of the DT return to active and their present
music in comparison with the early days? Daemon – DARHTRONE’s revival has been one of the most anticipating
releases by us, and I bought Hate Them
as soon as I could manage to get a hold on this recording. However satisfactory,
I prefer their older recordings, such as the remarkable Soulside Journey. BTTG – RÜNESYÄRD play Black Metal and are
American. The phrase “American BM” is rather controversial, mainly because
some people claim that there is no such thing in the USA (not originally,
anyway). Would you agree with this minuscule proportion/ importance or does
reality contradict the polemics? Daemon – We are partially Americans. Again, I
don’t care for what people may say about US Black Metal bands, without
mention that we have the rawest Black Metal bands releasing albums frequently
more than any other country has. BTTG – On that note, have you ever felt that
being American Black Metallers has ever hindered you from further recognition
or is it all a myth? Daemon – No. It’s all a myth. BTTG – What is the scene like in your area
at the moment? Are there very many places suitable for the extreme music war
machines? Is the scene supportive there? Daemon – Our scene is quite hard to sustain,
we have USURPER as a major reference, following WINDHAM HELL, JUDAS ISCARIOT,
WINDS OF THE BLACK MOUNTAIN over the USA constantly fighting for a steady
foundation amid the overcrowded Death Metal scene. In our area, not much is going
on besides Full Moon Productions, BlackMetal.Com and Moribund Records being
extremely supporting allies. The scene in a whole, concerning media press is
more or less opened to extreme forms of Music; in relation to other, not much
can be said. BTTG – What do you think of (broadly
speaking) European Metal music? Do you know any Portuguese band(s)? Daemon – European music, not much. From
Portugal we know MORBIUS, EPPING FOREST, GOLDENPYRE, MORTE INCANDESCENTE,
KULT, VORAGO, CORRUPTED MUTATION, TORMENTVM, OPUS DRACONIS, TEASANNA SATANNA,
CORPUS CHRISTII, NOCTUM, and a few others. We get some stuff online thru
D.M.K. so it’s quite easy for us to know more and more about your scene. We
are aware of UR fanzine [Back to the Grave], Pentagram [is it dead?] [It
probably is, as far as I know – M], Ancient Ceremonies Mag., the Black Plague
webzine, etc… and a few shitty labels that ripped us off from Portugal. BTTG – How about the band members? Do you
have any parallel activities within/ without music? Daemon – Yes, we do. Khaos is handling and
assuring Dark Matter Kreations’ distribution and promotional duties in here,
USA, from now on. He just got some EPPING FOREST info and details upon KULT,
VORAGO, TORMENTVM forthcoming releases via the label. Graven Is working on a
Dark wave solo project much alike to old MORTIIS stuff… And I will be
collaborating as well with D.M.K. webzine sometime soon and in negotiation is
my possible union with Mydgard records as publicist, since §äer has decided
to depart ways from our label… For now, that’s basically all. BTTG – Are there any other important aspects
you would like to refer to before reaching the end of this short interview?
What are the band’s plans for the near to middle future? Daemon – Well, we will be releasing a new MCD mid 2004 thru Mydgard
records or D.M.K., we are not quite sure due to their department, things are
a bit hot at this time to give you any further details. Also, the track The Final War taken from our debut MCD
will be featuring on Mydgard records upcoming mail order CD, shared with OPUS
DRACONIS, GOLDENPYRE, EPPING FOREST, TORMENTVM, KULT and other interesting
acts. I heard that DAEMONLORD were invited again!! Great!! If they
participate, it will be a bombastic sampler CD! BTTG – Right now, I would like to thank you
for your time and answers. This is your opportunity to leave a last message
to the readers of Back to the Grave. Daemon – We are the ones to
thank you. Usually, we don’t give a fuck about answering interviews. They
tend to be annoying to us and the questions are always the same reformulated
over and over again. Lack of imagination, perhaps! To the readers of your
webzine… nothing special to say other than: buy our MCD for 6,00 Euros
available at www.shop.darkmatterkreations.org, and while
we are at it, all pen mates from Portugal are welcome to get in touch with
us, we are not that kind of “rock star” band, other than that, we are
Metalheads as you all are. Thanks for the support and good prosperity with
your work. Sya next time. Cheers.. By Morgana (e-mailed)- Back To The Grave March 16, 2004 |
