Vorga's "Beyond The Palest Star" is a small step for mankind but a giant leap for the band itself (read review here). Combining atmospheric black metal trademarks with some death metal parts the band stands out of the scene and found a very unique niche there. Apart from the music, the lyrics aren't the typical "Satan take my soul" stuff you can find around every dark corner but much more philosophical and personal. I had a nice chat with their guitarist Atlas to find out more about them. So, go check out the album and enjoy reading the interview.

Michael

Hails Atlas, how are things going in Karlsruhe, the outer space?

It's very well. Yeah I mean where I am right now is kind of outside of Karlsruhe. I'm actually in Palatine but just across the Rhine but I mean inside of the band everything is very well. We just had the album release and a few shows we had since the album release so we're very happy about all this.

"Beyond The Palest Star" is your second full-length album which was released this March via Transcending Obscurity Records. How satisfied are you with the feedback from the scene so far?

Yeah really satisfied actually. I mean I was very anxious about the release and I wasn't sure how it would be received but it's been very very positive and it's been better than I expected it to be. So I couldn't be happier with that.

Although you are categorized as black metal, there aren't typical black metal trademarks when it comes to the lyrics? Did you choose the cosmic theme because you aren't that limited when it comes to writing the text?

It probably is, yeah. I mean, to a degree. I mean, I don't really mind what we are called, if we're extreme metal with black metal, if black and death metal, people can call us what they like, you know, It's just it's the music. I mean, I think the lyrics don't stray too far from the same kind of themes as black metal in terms of like, nihilism and hopelessness and things like that. I think I just wanted to carry the kind of sci-fi spacey theme along with that, you know, just trying to add something to it. Incorporating both the kind of sci-fi aspects and the black metal together it goes very well in space, you know, it works very well, so you know that was why.

In my review I wrote that the lyrics on "Beyond The Palest Star" are full of desperation and hopelessness. Is this what you want to express with your lyrics?

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, like I said, the kind of the idea of marrying black metal with space was because of the, the kind of the themes in space also worked very well with black metal. The ideas of just the kind of the big death out there, it's very devoid of life and it's a good place to kind of like, metal for me. In terms of the kind of the lyrical themes they're relatively personal, I guess. I always wanted to try to keep that as true as possible. I don't want to go off into super sci-fi territory with the lyrics. I like to try to embellish them with those kinds of themes. They're typical for that kind of genre or the style of music that we're writing. They ́re based around hopelessness or death or the state of the world that we're living in as well you know just kind of the way we're treating the planet and things like that. It's a good format.

Is the title some kind of analogy to the "behold a pale horse and the name that sat on him was death" from the Book Of Revelation in the Bible?

I thought it was an inspiration but "Beyond The Palest Star" was more an analogy for death, reaching the other side. Seeing what's on the edge of the universe and beyond life, embracing that and traveling towards that and seeing what death brings.

Are there some specific books, movies or scientific articles that you inspire to write your lyrics? I mean, there are so many cool things that appear at the moment (big rings of galaxies...).

Yeah, to a degree. I mean the name of the band is from a sci-fi book from the 1950s called "The Star is My Destination" or "Tiger Tiger", depending on which version you've got. It was written by Alfred Bester. It was around the 1950s. It's kind of an old sci-fi classic from that era. So that was kind of the inspiration originally for the kind of the setting of the band, so to say. But I definitely find inspiration from scientific discoveries and I love seeing the new pictures that come back from the new telescopes and stuff. You know, that was happening the last couple of years, they're really also very inspiring. Not just the kind of fiction, science fiction but actually what we're seeing is also really inspiring. It's great to see what's out there.

What do you think is there to come in the next twenty years, if mankind has not erased themselves until then when you consider all the discoveries that are made with new telescopes etc?

Um, I guess anything's possible in that respect, you know, I mean, that's.It's a fascinating one that kind of borders on religion, I guess, and faith and, you know, just trusting in what you don't understand or what you can't comprehend. You know, there's, there's an element of faith to those things. And I'm quite a faithless person in that respect. So, you know, I like to trust the things I know and the things that we've kind of proven scientifically.um and so while those ideas are definitely fascinating and cool to explore there's nothing that particularly influences me deeply if you know what I mean but yeah they're definitely cool ideas.

I recently read about the theory that we might live in countless parallel universes, too or that we are just a part of a computer simulation…any thoughts about these concepts?

I guess anything's possible in that respect. I mean, that's a fascinating one that kind of orders on religion, I guess, and faith and just trusting in what you don't understand or what you can't comprehend. You know, there's, there's an element of faith to those things. And I'm quite a faithless person in that respect. So, you know, I'd like to trust the things I know and the things that we've kind of proven scientifically. And so while those ideas are definitely fascinating and cool to explore, they're nothing that particularly influences me deeply if you know what I mean but they are definitely cool ideas.

Coming to your music, I wrote that you are quite similar to The Spirit, another sci-fi black metal band from Germany. Which bands impress you most and are kind of influential on your song-writing?

I think to a certain degree it is hard to say because it's been a culmination of years of listening to black metal, from Emperor and Immortal and those kinds of classic albums. I was never particularly into Mayhem or Dark Throne, but Emperor and Immortal, Arcturus were big influences on me musically. From this latest record, I definitely was taking inspiration from the band Khonsu, if you know them, they are Norwegian  and also kind of sci-fi inspired, more progressive black metal or progressive metal, but just through the atmosphere that they create in their music, that was definitely something that inspired me a lot. And then some Polish bands actually, like Blaze Of Perdition. They had a couple of really great albums that I was listening to a lot that I was trying to pull inspiration from as well. And then the classics like Mgla and modern scene.

Are there also some soundtracks that have an impact on you?

Definitely the classics like "2001 - A Space Odyssey", but also the series "The Expanse", but the music and the soundtracks from that also just helps you come up with those same kind of science fiction feelings, you know, the space feelings. I really love those soundtracks. There's so many. I mean, even going back, like stuff like Star Trek, just the scores that they produce that help create that idea of travel and space. That's all the kind of stuff that I'm trying to tap into because they do such a great job of creating that feeling and just think somehow ingrained in us through the years of watching stuff on TV, that's the soundtrack to space, if you know what I mean. So you have to kind of take inspiration from that to then have the same feelings in the music.

‘The Sophist' has turned out to be a very cool video in the style of "The Martian" or "Prometheus". Where did you shoot that video?

The band was shot in a studio in Austria, but the location shots were on Fuertaventura.  It's a nice little island, very volcanic and kind of alien looking landscape.

Will there be a continuation of the story in another video, I mean, it actually doesn't have a real end?

I would love to do a continuation of it. I definitely would. There's no plans right now, but I mean that's just down to budget really. You know, it's expensive to make a video like that. But if we have some more money, we can release a new video, I'd love to continue once it's been going there, definitely.

You were lately playing a gig in Oberhausen with Bootes Void and Rotting Demise. Is there a plan for a tour, too?

At the moment it's mostly loose gigs and festivals. We've got quite a few festivals lined up like Party.San later this year and then a few smaller ones. We are trying to put plans together to do a tour of various places, so Eastern Europe maybe in September, October and I'm also trying to plan a UK tour at some points. There's a lot of logistics and also finding partners that we can work with to make that happen. So finding people that can help make the bookings happen, basically. But we're trying to get out as much as we can. So it's just a matter of finding the right people and putting the time in.

Finally the last words belong to you!

I mean, thank you very much for taking the interview. It's always nice to do this. What I would say is if you haven't seen this, come check us out. I think that we bring something quite special to the live shows. And it might not be for everyone all the time, but it's, you know, I personally put a lot of work into trying to make the live experience something that's worth turning up for because it's harder and harder to get people out to shows these days. And so I think people deserve to have something special when they turn out.