The Croatian black metal band Frozen Forest has been around for nearly 2 decades now, and over the years they certainly managed to uphold their well-deserved reputation with immense respect from their local scene, however it's been quite a while since the release of their first full-length album "Ancient Ritual" in 2016 and unfortunately nothing had come out since. In the meanwhile, new bands come and go, but Frozen Forest still remains amidst all the turmoir, hungry, frosty and anti-christian as ever before. I've spoken with their guitarist and vocalist Mihovil "Frost" Konečni, regarding the band's return on Heretic Feast last year, some plans regarding their second full-length and the potential future of the band, and we also talked about the time when he got the chance to meet Erik Danielsson of Watain. Stick around for this one if you are interested, and I hope you will enjoy it.

Vladimir

The music of Frozen Forest is very serious in the sense that the listener can clearly understand and feel the genuineness of the work that you put into what you create in the end. Are there any personal ideologies/beliefs/philosophies that fuel each and every one of you, some idea that inspires you to craft everything with passion and dedication?

Thank you very much for your kind words! I see that you have really understood what we are doing. We like to get into listeners' minds, get them on a trip and let them travel through our sonic journey. Frozen Forest's songwriting starts from lyrics and then we create the first main riff after which we all build and create story, energy and visuals through sound. Every second of our material is carefully selected and that's the reason why we are slow with recording new albums. Frozen Forest is the Unholy Psychedelic Trinity that despises the new modern world and we try to transfer our vision through the filter of Satanism, although we have many different topics. I think that is the only philosophy or belief that should be in this genre. For other ideologies or beliefs there are many other genres.

Many can clearly tell that you put a lot of effort in making a good show in the end, so I would like to know how significant is the overall performance for Frozen Forest? Also, do you prefer when working on new material or working on your entire band performance?

Our performance is actually one of the most important things for us. We put a lot of effort because this is not just the visual stuff or some "show" to entertain people. We perform rituals, transform the energy into the audience and get them into another dimension. Also, on the musical side, we do not use triggers and modern digital amps so our live sound is as vintage as it could be in today's world. I really love doing new material but that's the thing that I'm, in some way, always doing in my free time. The actual recording process is strenuous, exhausting and it takes time to get it done. If we were not from Croatia, this could be our job and we would have 5-6 albums by now because we have inspiration, but we don't have that much time.

This might be a bit of a comedic and dumb question, but I always wanted to know if you have ever been accidentally mistaken for Necro Forest by some people that aren't familiar with the Balkan metal scene?

It's not a dumb question but luckily we were never accidentally mistaken. They have pagan themes so we are different. We've played one show together in Zagreb and I was singing Mayhem's Freezing Moon with them. Nice memories!

When I went back to listen to Ancient Ritual, I noticed that the songs on that album were heavily influenced by the work of Watain and various other Swedish black metal bands. How come the Swedish black metal scene in particular was such an influence in your music?

I was always into Scandinavian BM but when it comes to making music, I prefer Swedish type of songwriting. At the time when we started playing, older Norwegians started playing much more progressive and symphonic stuff which I didn't like and on the other side, at the same time you have Funeral Mist's 'Salvation' or Watain's 'Casus Luciferi' in Sweden. When we started the band, we were, as well, obsessed by Dissection's magic and we started studying teachings by TOTBL. Watain was the only band that seriously continued this magic through music and that was the time I first saw Watain. Only few people in Croatia knew about the band and one friend said to me that she saw people vomit in the venue because of the stench of death. Of course, I went to their next concert in Slovenia and this was the first true underground black magic moment for me. Life changing experience that pushed Frozen Forest more towards that style. For me that was the only true black metal experience so I knew that was the only way of exposing black metal.

Since we've already mentioned Watain, I remembered that you even got to meet them two times in the past. Have you remained in close contacts with any of them and is anyone from Watain a fan of Frozen Forest?

I have met them many times and they are really great guys in private as they are on stage. They are truly dedicated. Many people in Croatia don't like them for some reason. As you can see – they were never here, but they visited Slovenia and Serbia a few times. Croatians are happy when they get gigs by various Mgla clones or plastic bands such as Dark Funeral. I was only in contact with Alvaro but they are busy and live on the other side of Europe but it would be great to tour with them. I have met many other people from the old school Black Metal scene and one thing worth mentioning was when Incubus from Inquisition told me that Frozen Forest is the part of the ancient Black Metal Cult because next year we mark 20 years since we started playing.

You celebrated 7 years since the release of your debut full-length album Ancient Ritual at the Valhalla Festival, but in the meantime, I heard that there is a rumor that a new album is in the works. What can we expect so far from the new album and are you perhaps negotiating with some record label for a potential contract?

New album is almost finished with the writing process and next year we are going to put it out because it's 20 years of the band, as I mentioned, and we have many other plans. It's gonna be on a record label and it's gonna be one long epic Psychedelic Black Metal journey. We are going to put out an epic cover like from the 90s, booklet is going to be interesting as well and we are trying to sound as analog as we can in these modern times. I don't know what's with these new bands that accepted the new modern digital sound and 7-string guitars.

You've been absent for 5 years, but your show on both the Heretic Feast and Valhalla Festival marked a triumphant return of Frozen Forest. How was the atmosphere on both of these shows? Did the crazed fans miss seeing you perform live?

We were only absent from live shows because of the covid situation that fucked up the whole music scene. We have finally got the call for Heretic Feast and Valhalla Festival and eventually got the chance to perform in Split. Every show was great but Zlostavljanje festival in Split was really chaotic and the main reason is that we have had many fans down south since the beginning of the band and this was our first time in Split. Few promoters tried to get us there, but we were only in Trogir 12 years ago and many people from Split came to that show. People there are much more passionate about this kind of show.

From what I've seen you've had no trouble whatsoever during the Heretic Feast show in Kutina, especially amidst all the satanic panic caused by local Catholics that were trying to ban the whole show, including television channels that were also very much alarmed about the whole thing. Were you relieved in a way or perhaps a bit disappointed that not a single one of those angry mobs showed up to your show?

For me this whole situation was really funny. Few small minded persons were trying to ban this festival which was actually a great promotion for this event. On the other hand, the only thing that bothered me was actually that everyone who was involved was denying that this is the Satanic event. Why would you deny something that you stand for? Or do you? We were performing a Satanic ritual in Kutina so that was the lie. If someone asked me about this festival, I would tell everyone what's this festival about. But as I said, it was just a bunch of small minded people who you can mock and it's not ok to mock dumb people! Just ignore them. I saw that this year's edition of Heretic Feast was in Zagreb in a bigger venue but there were not so many visitors. I think that the problem is the high ticket price in combination with many bands that don't fit in this story if you ask me. This was supposed to be a Black Metal open air festival. We will see what will happen in the future.

When the angry Christian mob called you out on social media, did that bring any significant changes to your performance and did it help to better promote the show?

Many people asked me if I'm afraid to perform there, but I was not bothered by any of this. We are always doing our thing - our ritual and with our energy we possess bodies and minds of the people who are there. For example, many people don't even know that we are using real blood on our shows. It's really great when people come to me after the show and say "oh, you spilled fake blood or wine". I just put a smile on my face! So, no more or no less, we are always putting on the same show but we are building it through the years. It's going to be much more massive in the future.

So much has happened since you were on hold between 2018 and 2023, new bands come and go and all of a sudden, you're performing on the stage again. What is your view on the current status of the Croatian metal scene? Have there been any new artists/bands that drew your attention?

Actually we were never on hold. We've had some gigs in 2017. and 2018. with a drummer that played with us at the time and in 2019. We started seriously working on our second album and we've had rehearsals all the time. Then came the pandemic and series of earthquakes in Croatia and some personal problems that slowed things down. Danijel and I were still working on our new material despite everything and started to prepare for live rituals and then Klanje came back. Now the things are finally coming together and we are going to deliver one interesting Psychedelic Black Metal chaos. I was always into the Croatian metal scene, bought many albums/demos and tried to support many bands, some of them I invited to Zagreb to play and never got anything in return so I gave up with new bands. I just see many bands that are using AI covers, digital amp simulators and drum computers. In my opinion, Black metal is not the place for these things. Black metal is a primordial genre, you have to do everything by yourself and analog as much as you can and be totally devoted.

Thank you so much for doing this interview! Are there any final words you'd like to leave for all the fans of Frozen Forest?

Thank you very much for everything! I just want to tell people – beware!