Time flies and Dutch thrash legends Dead Head (still too underrated!) turn out to be 35 this year. As a special birthday present they offer a new EP called "Shadow Soul" with eight fantastic songs of which some are top notch in their career. Once again, Robert Woning (guitar) and I had a relaxed Skype chat where we talked about the EP of course and the upcoming plans of the band. Oh, and did you know that they once opened a show for Slayer? That was another steep template to go more into detail with actual events concerning Tom Araya and co. Enjoy reading, hope you have one or the other laugh like Rob and I did.

Michael

First of all, congratulations for the 35th anniversary of Dead Head. Unfortunately I forgot to bake a birthday cake for our interview. Did you think that the band would exist for such a long time?

If I look at the friendship between Hans (Spijker; M.) and me, we are playing in a band together since 1986. And I have known our other guitar player Ronnie (van der Wey; M) since secondary school when we were like 14, there would be a possibility. But of course when you're young, you're not looking out into the future that far. Obviously first of all you think you wanna live forever and secondly you have other focuses like becoming famous (laughs). But I see a lot of bands that don't make it and I see a lot of bands that stay with one original band member …I think we did pretty well with Dead Head.

With "Shadow Soul" you are going to celebrate an anniversary with a really cool EP. Were the songs some leftovers from "Slave Driver" or are they new stuff?

We had 2 ½ songs left over that were written and partially recorded. We thought that 10 tracks for Slave Driver would be enough, because for this kind of extreme music thirteen tracks would have been too much. So we did a selection and the tracks that didn't come on Slave Driver were a little bit different. So originally we had the idea to do the Depression Tank reissue with a bonus CD. Because it is the same singer (Ralph) again, we could use the leftovers for it. But we quit that idea, because we recorded too many songs and thought it was a stupid idea. Because 'bonus tracks' implies that these songs had not been good enough for the album and were second choice. And people would just don't look at it like they would with the reception of a regular album. Around the same time we were looking at what we were gonna do with Hammerheart Records and we told them to do this EP idea, and mentioned examples like 'Flag Of Hate' by Kreator or 'Eyes Of Horror' by Possessed. They thought it was a great idea, although they also saw some problems with the marketing because the recordings only spanned 29 minutes. It's like "Raining Blood", but it's not, of course. Even Napalm Records who do the distribution asked how they were gonna sell this. But eventually they said it was a great idea and they would do it anyway. I think with this mini album we offer value for money. But people who are considering it as a full album… they might say it's a little short (laughs). I think Hammerheart is selling it at 2 Euros cheaper than a regular (full) album.

At least my opinion is that the songs are groovier and more straightforward than on "Slave Driver". A track like 'Serpents Of Fame' is a kind of track for what I always loved Dead Head for. Aggressive, groovy, fast and a lot of thrash vibes back from the 80s.

Yeah, for the next one we're gonna write hit songs (laughs). I think if you consider that some of the songs could have been on Slave Driver, that could have been a more versatile album. I don't know. But it's a democratic thing, with four or three people in the band making decisions. Sometimes some guy says "whatever you do, I don't mind". Other time everybody wants to have his, saying things. The same goes with the sequence of the songs on Slave Driver. In hindsight, nobody in the band understands why the second song became the second song. But back then it was like a huge discussion.

'The Age Of Hype' was the first single you dropped. In the song you have lyrics: "Blast information, Useless predictions, Contextual damage, Wake up!". I guess you want to make a statement against the overflowing media on the internet?

It's more from a perspective from people who say that you shouldn't follow the leaders/the government. But actually the title was inspired by the opposite. I know there more and more people who want to be part of something. If something is happening, everybody wants to be part of it. For example AC/DC is coming and is selling tickets for crazy expensive prices. But the shows still sold out. There are a lot of things people want to be part of these days. And you always have to choose. If you're not with them, you're against them. It's a polarization that is happening very much. And we're living in an age of hype, because nobody thinks for themselves anymore. They just follow the trend. That was the inspiration for the title. And Ronnie, who usually writes our lyrics, took his own ideas. He never asked me what the title was about (laughs). We had this title for about a year. And then we put it on this song, because we had already the chorus. It's also a little bit inspired by the fact that we put the instrumental intro to it, with some kind of demonstration noises there. Almost like some kind of Megadeth or Nuclear Assault approach.

You are working for Dutch television, so isn't that song pretty much conflicting for you?

Some media are really trying to influence the opinion, but others are just reporting. Our station reports about the region where I live. We have stories about stuff that's happening there, ranging from accidents to political discussions. I know that these days some people are convinced that the media are being paid by the government to influence the people. And that the government dictates what the media write. I can tell you that, especially in Holland, the editorial staff makes their own choices. And that they are sometimes pretty critical towards the government. I know we are critical towards our local government, because they regularly make bad decisions. Our function is to guard that. If you live in Italy, Belarus, Russia or even the US, the media are likely more influenced by the government. I think it is the first time that Dead Head did a song that touches that subject. In the past we only used to do this "hell, Devil, Satan" thing (laughs).

Yeah, I thought that it is your most political song you ever did. Not political in the real sense, but you have a certain message in it. And I think that it is important to have a message these days.

Well, for us it was more like…  we're seeing Dave Mustaine doing this all the time.

Haha, okay, but I think that he is some kind of goofy guy… Coming back to the lyrics, do you use some things you experience in your job for them?

I wrote just a few lyrics to finish up one song. For us in Dead Head the music will always come first. In retrospect, we're a very boring band. I remember from back in the day, that some bands were really politically motivated. And half the interviews they would do were about that. But for us, it's always been about the riffs, about the ideas and about the experimentation with thrash metal. I think a lot of our songs had lyrics about religion. But I don't write many lyrics. I'm more the coordinator in the band. Keeping track of our archive and recycling some unused riffs. That's my function. We usually gave the finished music to Ronnie. And because he works at a lot of night-shifts and reads books non-stop, he had a lot more inspiration for lyrics than I do. And actually, since Ralph came back in the band, he started writing his own lyrics as well, sometimes together with Ronnie.

'Dark Emptiness' is a very unusual instrumental song for you, which sounds a lot like old Testament on "The New Order" if you ask me. Is this a new darker and more melodic aspect we get to hear from Dead Head more from now on?

Yes and no. On our The Festering demo (1990) we already had a track called 'The Tribulation' which was an acoustic in-between-song. On Swine Plague we had a song called 'The Reformation' with the same idea. I'm coming back to Ronnie, our other guitar player. He is the guy who had lessons on classical guitar when he was 12 or 13. He's the guy that can sit there with his guitar and do these classical themes. Maybe you could compare it with Exodus. Their song "No Love" had an intro like this, back on "Bonded By Blood". It's provides for a break on an album with intense music. However on Shadow Soul we put that break at the end of the mini album. It is the only song that we didn't record in the studio. We did it at the rehearsal place, at our drummers house. We spent a whole afternoon perfecting it. And then the guy from our studio who mixed our albums, Erwin Hermsen, mixed it properly. It was just an idea on which was built on and then we put it on the album. Maybe we should do it all the time, so that we put more variety in our music. In general… for this EP, we had more guts and thought that we could do anything musically.

But this is something that we won't hear more often from you?

I don't know. I mean, if we get together… usually what comes out is stuff like Possessed, Sacrifice or Sadus. We tried different musical things in the past as well, but sometimes we threw away whole songs. Because they didn't fit the concept or whatever. This time with 'Caverns Of Fate' there is a song on the EP which is totally slow. Which is different for us, but we have a lot of those ideas. We still have one piece from our other guitar player Ronnie, which is total Mercyful Fate worship and a total killer. It has been in three songs, but we always took it out. I still want to use it one day. We also have had stuff in the style of Death from the "Symbolic" era. Because that's what we really like. But it's hard to incorporate it. And sometimes it is one riff that we have where you even don't notice that we stole it from Mercyful Fate. It's a wish we have to be more versatile. But we had this whole song called 'Spirit', and it was just thrown away. It was a great song, but it was so different. So we only used one riff of that on our album Swine Plague. Now we cannot use the song anymore, because we used that part already (laughs). It's a creative struggle. We also had one song that was so much like Slayer, that everyone in the band was laughing. "You can't do that".  But it was a really cool intro. I think I could sell it to Kerry King now.

I know that you were an opening act for Slayer in the past – last week the world was surprised by the announcement that Slayer is going to be reunited at least for some shows. Any thoughts about that?

We were support for one time only. I mean, my interest in Slayer died when Hannemann died and Lombardo was thrown out. The punk / hardcore edge that they brought to the band, is what I like most about Slayer. Not to put Kerry down, because he was the guy that was holding it together for almost ten years. And he's also a great guitar player. But then they got Gary Holt, who's been my guitar hero since when I was 15. I must have played guitar along with "Bonded By Blood" at least 400 times. But Gary Holt and Slayer was like…I don't know. He just belongs in Exodus. I understand that they continued, because they cannot bring Jeff Hannemann back to life. But about "Repentless"…  I can honestly tell you that I never heard it. Because I have no interest in that band. I'm more into death metal, listening to Immolation and Suffocation almost non-stop. That's more my interest. But about Slayer – it was a matter of time. Because maybe the money ran out, maybe Tom Araya's wife was fed up with him sitting at home (laughs). It's okay, I think. We still can see Slayer. And that's what a lot of people want. I mean, it is cool how it's played, with all the opinions about it. Tom Araya's wife said 'if you think it's about the money or it's lame', then just don't go. But if you wanna go and enjoy, just go ahead. I think that's the right approach. But the timing is totally weird, with Kerry King just having released that solo album. Nobody will understand. Imagine being in Kerry Kings band. And then you hear the  news about that reunion.

So what do you think about the Kerry King song? I guess it turned out great.

I have no opinion about one song, because I want to hear the album. I think it's cool for him that he can go out and play some old Slayer songs and some new ones. Still… Mark Osegueda, I prefer him to be the singer for Death Angel. I would have rather seen that Kerry had taken an unknown guy.  Because now it will sound like Death Angel and some people say that he is trying to imitate Tom Araya. I mean, do we really need that from Mark Osegueda?

Well, I liked the song but the cover is…

Yeah, there's more discussion about the cover than about the music.

Yes, I think it's the same with the new Deicide – did you see that cover yet?

I heard that there is a similarity. Let's put it that way (smiles). My other band – Beyond Belief, the doom band I played in – we had the same album cover as Six Feet Under ("Haunted") and this was way before digital edit and artificial intelligence. We were first and we had it painted by the sister of the former bass player. Next the album by Six Feet Under came out and it was almost the same. Everybody was like: "hey you stole that!". But we didn't.

What about your upcoming plans in 2024? Maybe some shows in Germany?

That's my main purpose. Of course, we have these places in Holland where we usually come back to, but one of the reasons why I am in the band is to see other places. We played some Belgian shows recently again and that's always nice. We also did this festival in Germany and I always loved to play in Germany. To my surprise, even though we're not that well-known, there are always guys coming over to our shows in Germany. It's almost like we're some best kept secret. Aside from that, we already have five songs written for the next album. Plus we are still gonna do the Depression Tank reissue, which is almost entirely re-recorded and remixed. It could actually be our best-sounding album, which is funny for a reissue. We are gonna add a live bonus CD to that reissue, which is actually recordings from that era. Back in 2008 and we did quite a few shows with Ralph already. He still sound very young on those recordings. (laughs). This Depression Tank reissue will come out at the end of the year.

Black Metal is a widely expanded sub-genre across the globe, but the most contributing factor to that would have to be the existence of various one-man projects that only keep popping up, but never quite manage to gain some attraction even when it's deserved. There are two ways that we as listeners and enthusiasts can look at this situation: 1) There is always plenty of fish in the sea, 2) There's too much garbage constantly polluting the ocean. Whatever you make of it, it's always important to have in mind that not everything should be overlooked in the end, because you never know when you might run into some hidden gems. One of such bands that I was lucky enough to come across is Voha from Croatia, which was around the time when the debut album "Celestial Winter Sadness" was still relatively fresh. Although skeptical at first, I simply had to give it a try out of pure curiosity. Upon hearing the album, I really liked the overall output and the direction which Voha was taking, but I personally fell deeply in love with the "Tama" EP which came out not long after. Soon after I started messaging Grof Vragovzov and the next thing you know, we were sharing some opinions on black metal bands and the genre as a whole, while also talking about various other subjects along the way. For this occasion, I've decided to conduct an interview with the man himself, so I could dive deep to get to know his artistic side better and see what really lies within the mind of this young and passionate individual that is behind the black metal act Voha.

Vladimir

Greetings brother Vragovzov, I wish you a warm welcome on behalf of the MetalBite crew!

Hello, my brother, thank you for giving me a chance to be part of this interview.

I've known you for quite some time ever since I first came across Voha on social media by accident, back when your debut album Celestial Winter Sadness was still fresh. I would like to know more about your musical background and the beginning of Voha. When and how did this idea for a one-man black metal project begin? Have you played in some other bands before settling down to start a band/project of your own?

Well, there is an interesting story. I always wanted to have a one-man project that was supposed to be black/thrash, but over time I realized that old school black metal melodies had much more impact on my musical progress than any other genre and that I am essentially more connected to the melodic sounds of keyboards and cold symphonies. I mostly tried to choose the topic in the circles of Croatian culture, such as the very name Voha, which has its roots in stories from Zagorje.

Many black metal musicians around the world are mostly inspired by nature, mythology or historical events, which help them express their fascination in their lyrics, but since the project is named after a malicious spirit from local folklore that haunts children, what is your biggest source of inspiration beside the legend?

Hmm, interesting. Probably because I have always been connected to my country, its wonderful nature and an energy that it carries with itself. Croatia is a mystery, a thousand-year-old kingdom and a divine country that nevertheless instills certain traits at birth and shows "hey, I'm Croatian". After all, themes in black metal are a very specific term for a genre like it, and they are too commercial. Above all, through my, sometimes ironic lyrics, I seek the beauty of the soul and nature. To give light to darkness, good to man, but to show his dark sides, that he is a mammal who also feels melancholy and darkness, but also feels goodness and faith in a "better man". We all have that feeling of hope, but today it is hard to sympathize with better times. People are the subject of the philosophy of this world, they are a gift and a global disaster, but until the blackness and bad relations with nature that we ourselves have, we cannot expect a better tomorrow. Nature takes and gives back; it is our greatest friend and enemy. That's why my lyrical theme is nature and "irony", although it is sometimes unrecognizable, it is the key to show that darkness has light, and light has darkness. There is a good saying from the mathematician Pythagoras who says: "As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other".

I know that many musicians like yourself would cite the most common musical influences of this subgenre when asked this question, but I would like to know specifically which ones are your biggest influences that you'd really highlight for personal reasons? I.e., which top 5 musicians or albums really helped you build your musical perspective and gave you a strong push to help you go further?

Here it is, I will make two categories in which I will arrange my five musicians who introduced me to music as an art itself.

First category (technical) – playing an instrument itself. 

1) Vegard Sverre Tveitan (Ihshan) - EMPEROR

2) Niclas Andersson (Vassago) – LORD BELIAL

3)Erik Danielsson (E.) - WATAIN

4) Frédéric Chopin (composer) – /

5) Alexi Laiho – CHILDREN OF BODOM

I love classical music, especially romanticism and impressionism, which I adore and think that it is music from some outer cosmical force.

Second category (songwriting) – construction of songs and tone

1) Ville Pystynen (Shatraug) - HORNA

 2) Євген Гапон (Knjaz Varggoth) – NOKTURNAL MORTUM

3) Ludovic Faure (Famine) – PESTE NOIRE

4) Lauri Penttilä (Werwolf) – SATANIC WARMASTER

5) Markus Hartmann (Widar) - BILSKIRNIR

At my teenage age, I fell in love with the Finnish black metal scene. Their tone and riff making techniques are the ones that I am trying to incorporate in my music. Also, the reason that I mentioned Knjaz was because he is one of my first influences in piano and synth songwriting. One of the things I would also mention is that one of my favorite artists is "Neige" or Stéphane Paut. His project Alcest is not considered totally black metal, but when I read his simple lyrics and those tunes remind me where to find my light and my emotions. I also listen to various types of music, such as blues, classical music, hip hop, jazz, techno, synthwave 80s, country etc…

When working on your music, how do you approach your songwriting? One-man projects like yours tend to have a strong focus where they pay close attention that they don't repeat themselves or come up with something that already sounds familiar and thus work more to change for the better. How do you set the goals for each new thing you're working on, what do you think should be the primary objective of every new Voha song?

Black metal is a genre that is based on extremely important knowledge of music, because when composing such melodies, it is important to know all those parts of music theory that are necessary for quality "songwriting", such as scales, rhythm, melodic construction, measures and the most important (technical) details, extremely technically good playing. First, you should know that all these wonderful symphonies hide their charm behind a grotesque and distorted sound, but they are all written in sheet music, where the paper itself can say "this is a musical masterpiece". So, my point is when I create music, it should be written as a symphony of musical knowledge and epic-ness. My music should be triumphal and that is my primary goal that I am trying to achieve also with my upcoming albums.

Could you tell us a bit more about your musical pseudonym Grof Vragovzov and the meaning behind it? Why have you chosen this name specifically and is it something of a Count Grishnackh/Greifi Grishnackh inspired pseudonym?

(Smiled, laughed) – Well that pseudonym was created when I wrote song 'Vragovzov' from my EP "Tama". That nametag was actually made up by my dear friend Mario Bošnjir, ex singer of band Stribog, and it is quite interesting that he made the word Vragovzov and I just added Count at the beginning. Well, my brother, you mentioned Varg, but I had no background to have my pseudonym as Count Grishnackh. The whole concept of Vragovzov is just a dark fantasy story about a lonely count who was once a great leader and gave up his soul to the Devil. He is the powerful and mighty lord of his land, but he is lonely and forgotten. As I already said in the song where "time dust has splattered his tomb".

What is your personal perspective on the modern-day black metal scene and various bands/projects out there? Do you consider it more as a very deep ocean with plenty of fish in the sea or do you perhaps consider it as a polluted wilderness, where too much garbage stands in the way to behold nature's beauty?

Modern scene is not making any progress. While there are many bands in the black metal circle out there, not so many achieve their goals to actually express what this genre actually means. Those satanic crap and devil worshiping moments are so annoying to me, metal used that anarchic impact to show that this genre is not mainstream, yet those bands are still using "satanic" image and somehow, they are becoming more mainstream than ever, which I already said is not black metal at all. Well, you said that beautiful brother (laughs). Our scene is like an ocean where every fish breeds its own project. Too much for a genre like this in my opinion. That is one of the reasons why black metal is "dying" day by day.

Which of the two Voha releases is currently the most preferred one? I.e., which one of the two managed to impress people more, and for what reason do you believe it to be so?

Well, I think that "Celestial Winter Sadness" is currently the most preferred one, cause when I look at the statistics (views, likes and comments) I think that "CSW" had a much more impact on the scene. In my opinion "Tama" is a really good EP, because I improved some of the details on this EP such as new drums sound, guitar tone and better production. Also, vocals on Tama are recorded with higher quality than one on "CSW". I think both impressed people, but when we look through the situation on the scene "CSW" is a cold album and it has those old-school, raw black metal vibes and also one of the reasons why "CSW" is really preferred one, because it is the first album of my project.

What plans have you envisioned for Voha this year? Are you planning on releasing another album in the near future or something else entirely?

Of course, I am planning to release one new EP by the end of September, at least I hope I will do it. There will be good albums in the future, because I am constantly working on something new. I will just tell you a little detail about an upcoming EP, it will be raw and cold, something similar to "CSW".

Do you think that the Croatian black metal scene will someday see its revival and earn more respect from other countries that failed to see its potential?

No, my brother, It will certainly not. Croatia is a small European country, and it can't dominate those huge black metal scenes such as the Polish, Norwegian and Finnish ones. We Balkans are carrying something dark and wild within ourselves. That is the reason why the scene is small but yet so powerful. This music is not for everybody. I don't want to say that I am an elitist, but black metal is a genre which is melodic and disharmonic at the same time. People will say, it's obnoxious yelling and just some crazy guitar tones, but you should reach "cosmic keys to your creations and times" to feel the beauty of this music. What I mean is that you should seek the point that light has darkness which is beautiful and not evil at all. There are many bands on the scene which are just boring, and they misunderstand the point of black metal. People recognize our talents when we create music that is wild and raw but it's not recognizable as these big circles.

Musicians such as yourself have a "burning desire" to be known more and be signed to a major label that will help them achieve a higher status, so which major label would you choose as an ideal one for Voha to be signed to and for what reason?

I always craved for some small labels. Nothing special or big, because in my opinion it is really easy to work with them. It would be great to be under the sign of big labels such as Season of Mist, Osmose Productions and even Nuclear Blast, but I think business with them would be complicated, so I would stick with smaller labels always. In my opinion, I would personally choose Peaceville Records as a major label.

Thank you so much for doing this interview brother and I wish you great success in your further career. Are there any final words you'd like to leave to all the people reading this?

Thank you for your kind words dear brother. Long live nature and Mother Earth. In darkness you can find cure for an irony, and in it you shall find your light. Thank you for this great interview and cheers to MetalBite Magazine.