Norwegian Vulture Lord is back. With "Desecration Rite" they deliver a hate-filled, pitch-black album of the very first order, which will not disappoint any fan of the band (review here). After the band has been battered by tragedies and setbacks, hopefully this is the long-awaited new beginning for them. I had the honor to ask front man Sorath Northgrove (thanks a lot for this!!!) some questions via email and learn a bit more about this somewhat mysterious band.

Michael

Hello Sorath, how are things?

Fine, thanks, enjoying good reviews, feedback and quarantine.

First of all, congratulations on the new album. "Desecration Rite" was announced again and again in the last years and then not released. What was the reason for the release being postponed again and again?

The main reason is several line-up changes and delays from ex-members that never delivered to set deadlines.

Why did it take so long to create a new album in the first place? After all, "Profane Prayer" is from 2003.

We also had the 4 track Blasphemy EP released in 2006 as well, but the main reason is that Nefas and myself decided to go back to the primitive roots of black metal and created Beastcraft instead. That was our main band together for years. On the side, Nefas and Diabolus still wrote tracks and made demos for a future Vulture album and it's more or less written right after Blasphemy, which was recorded in 2003. 2 tracks from 2003, 5 from 2005 and 1 from 2010, the same time we started talking about starting up Vulture Lord again. It took 5 more years and a death before the plans got in motion and even 4 more years until we started recording. The whole recording process took about 2 years, so we have been haunted by delays from the very beginning.

Apart from you, there is no band member who was involved in the debut. What are the reasons for this?

That is wrong, on the contrary, all the ones from the debut are still involved with the new album. Me and Uruz are still here. Diabolus left but is still playing lead and rhythm guitars on the last track of the album, 'Perverting The Bible', which he also wrote. Everything else is written by Nefas, who died in 2012. Never trust Metal Archives…

Who designed the cover? It looks really great. Can you tell a little bit more about it?

Jorge Vimendy from Sick Graphics designed it. I worked with him from early sketches into the final painting. We mailed ideas back and forth. I wanted an enormous graveyard with a church, all overthrown and enthroned by the Vulture Lord. One can see the church transformed into the lair or chapel of the Vulture Lord, the lord of death, with the vultures circling the sky. The actual Desecration Rite is the figures emptying the graves, unhallowing the ground and throwing the Christians into the Abyss. Really pleased with the outcome, he has the perfect style for it, bringing both new and old cover art styles into the design.

Why did you completely change your logo?

I wanted it old school and showing that it's yet another chapter in the book of the Lord. We had the first one for the demos, the second for the second chapter in the 00s and then the third and final logo in 2020. I got in contact with Benno Meijer after he showed me an alternative version of the Beastcraft logo and asked him to do one for my Deathcibel Productions and Vulture Lord. I liked what he did and decided to merge the wings from DP onto the VL logo.

You call your music death metal, because you think that the lyrics define the genre. I personally feel your music is more black metal, especially when I look at titles like 'Stillborn Messiah' or 'Burning The Kingdom Of God'. Apart from the lyrics, where do you draw the line between black and death metal?

Are Deicide and Morbid Angel black metal? We combine the styles of thrash, death and black metal, we have no set borders and define ourselves as black deathrashing metal. I can easily hear the difference between death and black metal, but it's hard to explain as it's mostly set by feelings.

'The Vulture Lord' is a superb song that goes pretty much into thrash metal. What are your main musical influences?

The decade of extreme metal from 1984 to 1994.

What (apart from the quality of the production), makes the biggest difference between "Profane Prayer" and the current album?

That's the only big difference in my book, but we also had better time in the actual recording process this time.

Are there any plans to perform live, hopefully soon?

Yes, it might happen next year in one form or another….

There are now more metal bands than people in the world. With some of the stuff that comes to my ears, I have the feeling that everyone who can play even one note halfway right is releasing a CD. Quite a lot seems incredibly artificial and not from the heart. What do you think about that?

I understand and share your point of view, but it comes as no surprise in this digital age. You can produce and release your song, album, music, video, whatever, from your own living room. Drum machines can easily be taken for triggered drums. The true metal feeling is compressed to soulless copies of weak plastic.

What principles, what attitude to life do you personally represent?

Stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. Get in my way and suffer the consequences.

You are all also active in other bands. Is there any news to report from there regarding new albums?

Ulvehyrde has just released the debut album, Hagl is working on the next and we just talked the other day about reincarnating Faun again for a proper release.

The last words are yours!!!

Thanx for your support. Stay true to the underground and hail the fire!

They are the leaders when it comes to symphonic albums nowadays. Can't think of any other band that would have such well-matched classical element with metal element. This perfect combination has been recorded live this year in Mexico and I'm sure all fans are as anxious as me to see it. I've had the opportunity to see how it all works live and putting all orchestrations in the same line as the rest of instruments from the band is a fantastic idea. It was an amazing experience and the band gave a fantastic stage performance with Spiros maintaining the contact with the audience at all times and Psychon filling in for Sotiris. Impressive drumming from Krimh and obviously fantastic guitar lines provided by Christos. Also, the setlist was varied, I've heard tracks from "Communion", from "The Great Mass" from "Titan" and obviously most of them were from "Codex Omega". I've been very lucky to spend some time talking to Christos, the main composer in the band, before the show, enjoying sunny weather and sitting outside Proxima club in Warsaw.

Maciek

So, first of all, thank you very much for your time, Christos. How are you feeling after your first show played in Poland on this tour?

Great. Amazing show. It was a bit hot, but was great show, great crowd, great energy, amazing.

How would you summarize your European tour so far?

It's going well, it's a long tour, 7-week-long tour. Now we're on our last 3 weeks. It's tough, but sometimes you have to do some things in order to promote the album. It's going great, good conditions, and when you have good conditions it helps you a lot in tours that are that long.

And after this show how many shows you've got left?

I think we have 18 shows after that. Out of 45. It's nearly at the end.

OK. Now it's an interesting line-up: Septicflesh, Diabolical, Krisiun and Science of Disorder. How did you come up with this?

It was an idea coming from the agency. We don't have much say in who we would like on this tour, we can say if we have some ideas. Krisiun are great guys, we already played a tour with them in the US. Diabolical, I didn't know them before, but great guys, too. It's a good package.

Yes, and different types of music as well.

Yes, it's good to have a variety in the package.

And what setlist have you prepared for this tour?

You know, we aim more for Codex Omega, it's still Codex Omega promotion cycle.

How are you dealing with the orchestrations when on this tour?

Well, we have orchestra playing through the laptop. There's no other way. It's quite obvious, as you can't have the whole orchestra going with you. And I don't think keyboards would be able to reproduce the sound of an orchestra.

Do you have any special line-up, any extra people to help you on tour?

Yes, we're 8-people band, including a crew. The band is still 4 members on stage.

What kind of characterization have you got prepared for tonight's show? I remember you saying in one of the interviews that your costumes are quite heavy and it's getting hot inside...

Yes, I don't know how the ventilation works tonight, but yes, it looks OK. But I'll let you know after the show. (he didn't, by the way - M.)

Do you prepare anything else, apart from your costumes? Is there anything like pyrotechnics or anything like that?

No, unfortunately we can't have any pyrotechnics. But we'll have some geysers (foggers), actually we had four of them, one broke and we'll have to use only two tonight.

Now I'd like to ask about something that is probably big for every band. You have just reached the stage of your career when you suddenly take on a big project. And you have just realized that project in Mexico, your symphonic concert.

Well, it was for sure our biggest achievement, it was a very hectic project, a lot of people involved, you have to be really organized, really focused in order to overpass any difficulties that can appear. But it was a great show, for sure it was our best live experience, until the next one.

Have you ever thought of taking live orchestra to your live shows?

Till now we had only this one in Mexico City. But you never know what will happen next. We might do more shows. You never know.

And after finishing the recording stage, how long does it take before it's released?

It depends. I think after the mix, recordings can take roughly around 6 months.

So, you're planning to release it this year?

We aim for release in 2020, but I don't know when exactly.

How long did you have that kind of idea of recording such show? Septicflesh were using orchestrations for quite a while now.

Since Communion we use real orchestra, and we always had this dream to perform with a symphonic orchestra. We did it and, as I said, we hope that more of that will come.

Are you the person who has the final say when it comes to all arrangements or how it looks like on live shows?

No, we are 3 people that are composers, main composers, at this show it's only me and my brother because Sotiris couldn't come with us. But it's a teamwork.

So, the fact that you are most educated in that field does not make you the main decision maker?

No, my brother is also educated in fine arts, I am educated in classical music.

Do you use that knowledge in your composing, especially at the start?

Of course, if you need to orchestrate you need to know how to orchestrate. You need studies.

How is it when you work in the studio, recording the album? Do you also work on how other musicians express the lines?

I give them specific details and guide on how to interpret the melody line. It's something normal for classical music, you always have the composer giving the guidelines to musicians in order for them to follow the score and reproduce it, in terms of dynamics, color, texture, everything.

Is the band involved in the final mix, the final mastering and what is the final sound reached on the album?

Of course, Jens Bogren did the last album and he's going to do again the new album. He is an amazing producer, but he has to follow some of our ideas, on how we want to sound, how Septicflesh should sound. 

I've recently seen you showing off your ROLI Seaboard. Is it an instrument used to compose or record your keyboard parts?

This especially is very useful when you compose. Of course, can be used for recording, too. It has many possibilities and many ways to express my music using this ROLI keyboard, it has unique glissado effect, you can make a line become alive, in a way. It's very useful.

You've mentioned who will be producing your next album and from what I've checked you have been mentioning new material being written since 2018. At what stage are the new songs now?

Well, we have some ideas, but because we have some tours that stopped our composition progress, it's too early to mention anything. But we have been in the studio, we're going to do it again in the summer, we'll give all of our best, our best efforts to create something that will satisfy our band.

You mentioned many times taking inspiration from Greek history. What will be the subject of your next album?

You know, so many bands take many Greek elements, because the Greek history is very rich. It is something that we should do, too, it is in our veins. Sotiris is in charge of lyrics, he mostly covers themes and subjects varying from Egyptian mythology through Greek mythology, Greek history, Lovecraft and many other ideas. I don't know what will be next, he's the person you should ask. I think it will be in the same pattern in a way, we're more into this kind of lyrics, instead of attacking Christianity. Attacking Christianity is kind of a trend right now, and basically always was. For me it doesn't say anything.

When creating songs, do you usually compose them in the same order that they end up on the album? 

You always have to change, in order to please your ear. Because the final judge will be your ear. It involves a lot of changes to achieve that, it's a long process, sometimes you have to change even 90% of the song that you had in the beginning. But it's how it is, it's the beauty of the composition, in a way.

You also mentioned at some point your dream to create your own opera. How is this project progressing so far?

Well, I have done some work, I might do a concert work in 2021, but I don't have time. Maybe in future I can do something, like an opera or something similar. I try whenever I have free time to compose for my concert works, but it's not easy. It is a totally different world, and it even needs more effort.

Do you do anything else outside Septicflesh at the moment? Any update from Chaostar camp?

Chaostar released an album a year ago, at the moment they are "on the ice", because there's no time. At the moment my main focus is on Septicflesh.

What are the nearest plans for Septicflesh?

The Codex Omega tour cycle is nearly at the end. We might tour in Russia soon, I don't know for sure, but we'll also do some festivals, like Wacken, some others, but not a lot because we have to compose. We will use the summertime to mainly compose new material.

OK, good to know, will keep fingers crossed to hear some of that soon. Any last shout out to the fans?

I would like to thank all of our fans in Poland that have supported the band throughout all of these years and we'll always do our best to not disappoint them.

Thank you very much again and see you on the show.

Thank you, see you there. 

P.S. Huge thanks to Kelly Liza Cronje for support and question ideas.