Dutch trio Asgrauw have just released their fifth full-length album called "Façade" (read my review here). I was invited to join Kaos (bas, voc), Vaal (git., voc.) and Batr (dr.) via Skype in their rehearsal room to chat about the band's history, the new album and the good old times. Enjoy reading!

Michael

Hey, thanks for taking the time for the interview. How are you doing?

B: All fine with us! We just had a long period of Covid lockdown shit, and that was a very frustrating time. We didn't have any gigs for about 1 ½ years and now we're happy to play some liveshows again. The lockdown had such an impact on us that we even talked about quitting the band. Though, we decided to put the negative vibe into the new record.

K: Yeah, there were three months in a row that we couldn't see each other face to face. We only had video calls. Even the CD recordings of Façade were postponed.

V: Instead of our weekly rehearsals we were using Zoom (laughs). We used the time to write lyrics together. In the meantime I was just writing new riffs at home. In the evenings I sat down with my guitar and started playing and some things popped up.

K: Yeah, fortunately we do have Zoom and Skype and that new technology we can use these days

B: For Asgrauw that doesn't work. The band-vibe was lacking 'online', and there was a long silence sometimes for ten minutes… We can't write music together online. We need to be in one room.

V: Most riffs are written by me, and during rehearsals we are puzzling our way throughout all our songs together.

Asgrauw has existed since 2010 but you aren't that well-known except for the Netherlands. Can you introduce yourselves a little bit more?

B: Asgrauw is a traditional black metal trio. These two guys (Vaal – git, voc and Kaos – bass, voc.; M.) with another drummer (Takk; M.) started the band about 12 years ago, before I was introduced. But Vaal can tell a little bit better…

V: Those days I played in another band. But we were not on the same page as musicians. I wanted to play black metal and was looking for other musicians to put together a band. I came across the other drummer, Takk, with whom I played in a former band. Also I met Kaos, who was more in the punk scene. I introduced him to black metal, he liked some of it, especially the bands with a straight-forward punk attitude. We also had a second guitar player, but after half a year he quit the band and we went along together. Then Takk went to Austria and we were in need for another drummer. At that time, I met Floris at a party of a good friend of mine. What I didn't know was that he was playing in bands like Meslamtaea and Sagenland, and that he could play drums. Without expectations I sent him some demo tracks. The next rehearsal he visited us and played all our tracks as if he was always there. Ever since he is with us under the name 'Batr'.

You write the lyrics in Dutch. Is there a specific reason for that?

K: I think we can express ourselves much better in our mother language. If we write in English, for me it feels you just have the English phrases everyone is using and I think that Dutch is suited to black metal very much. It's a harsh sounding language.

V: Dutch language fits our band much better than English. We tried English with our first demo-songs but after a short while we thought that Dutch would suit us better.

What do you deal with in your lyrics?

K: Some albums have a strict concept, like Krater, that is about an apocalyptic scene with a super volcano. IJsval is about another apocalypse event, yet to come. The lyrics of this album are not very fictional, and approach reality. Ice caps are melting, viruses break out, wildfires are everywhere. Nature is taking back control and that has consequences for humanity. The Gronspech album is about old folklore from this region. Gronspech is the old dialect for the name of the village we do come from. The new album has a less strict concept. It's called Façade and all the songs, more or less, deal about death. In fact they are about the will to stay alive, or being alive but feeling like being dead (like a liturgy). There are diseases when you are completely numb and it looks like your body is dead but your brain is alive.

V: Some cultures have a very different approach on death. Some people are afraid of it, in some cultures death is more embraced. The lyrics handle death and the thin line between life and death.

Wow, that sounds interesting. Will the lyrics be released in the booklet?

K: No not in the booklet. We never did it before. I think a year ago we released some lyrics from the Krater album but we don't do CD releases with a booklet. For us the music can be heard without the lyrics. It's about the atmosphere from the songs that is important.

What would you say is the most significant difference between the new album and the ones before?

B: We always stepped back to the 90s sound, the 2nd wave of black metal like the first two Dimmu albums, old Satyricon, Emperor etcetera. That sound combined with the punk roots of Kaos, makes Asgrauw atmospheric yet aggressive. One album leans more on atmosphere, and others are more fast and aggressive. Or somewhere in between. The new album Façade is on the aggressive side, because there was a lot of frustration due to the lockdown. The sound goes back to our debut.

V: Yeah on the debut album Schijngestalten we tried some new things, without losing our own identity. We were trying to avoid cliché riffs. It had to sound 90's though, but with its own identity.

B: Well, I don't think it's even a bad thing to play with clichés, as long as a band adds their own DNA to it. We're not the type of band that feel the urge to re-invent black metal, but we certainly give our own twist to the traditional style.

Stylistically I would state that you worship a lot the 90s black metal scene from Scandinavia. Especially these atmospheric bands like Gehenna, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor. What would say are the most influential bands onto Asgrauw?

K: I don't know if there are some newer bands that inspire us much as a band. But I'm listening to straight forward black metal like Luctus from Lithuania or Whiskey Ritual from Italia. They are much more aggressive but old school with a little bit more attitude in the vocal style.

B: As a band we are really inspired by that 90's style and we adopted some of the straight-forward influences from the bands that Kaos mentioned. But in terms of production and mix, those old Norwegian bands are our reference. We want to have a certain rawness in the sound, combined with atmosphere.

V: Batr and I witnessed the 90s when black metal became popular. The music from your childhood sticks and forms the blueprint for the riffs I write today. Kaos comes from a totally different scene and these styles seem to combine well.

K: What I like about some of the praised 2nd wave bands, is not only the atmosphere, but I think the compositions are thought out very well. It has a melody and it's recognizable. Much present-day black metal sounds the same to me. Maybe just because I am an old guy (laughs).

Don't you think that Asgrauw and your other band Schavot have quite a lot of similarities so that it may be quite irritating to have two bands with the same style?

B: I've heard more people asking this. But for me it is something completely different. Schavot is my brainchild, I write, play and record everything myself. While the riffs from Asgrauw mainly come from our guitarist Vaal. He has a totally different style. He is more of a chords type-of-guy.

V: Yeah, I use more chords with subtle changes to put some spheres in the music.

B: …and Schavot is more melodic and has totally different vocals and more keyboards. However both bands are inspired by the same type of bands, they're totally different to me.

The Dutch black metal scene is quite active these days. I have the feeling that every month some good Dutch black metal albums are released. Is there some rivalry between all these bands or is it like a big family?

K: There are a few 'islands' – different scenes - around some big cities like Utrecht and Amsterdam.  There is also a scene up in the north, and where we are living… there is no scene at all (laughter)! There is no rivalry that we know of.

V: During concerts you come across more or less the same people. We know each other and we share a passion for the same music.

K: Many people at the concerts here have been around for many years. We see a lot of young people coming to shows and that's a good thing.

Which bands / albums  from the Netherlands are very recommendable in your opinion?

B: There are quite a number of good bands that play the traditional style that I like. Kjeld for example, is a great band with an amazing drummer. Hellevaerder plays some strong music as well. And Uuntar, which is pagan metal, is really great. A band that we like, close to where we live, is Sammath. They play with the same aggression and intensity like, maybe, Conqueror…

V: Yeah, they have a very fast and aggressive style.

B: I think Holland is most known for atmospheric black metal. But we also have great experimental bands… Grey Aura, Cthuluminati and Murw are really fantastic. We have our own circle of bands – Zwottekring – with some bands like Sagenland, Meslamtaea, Schavot and Teitan. This list will soon be longer.

If you had the option to go back to the 90s – would you like to rather live there or do you prefer the now and here to live?

B: I prefer the 90s, absolutely! I feel really old to say this, but everything was better back then. In the 90s – before there was the Internet in our houses - there was much more mystique in music and in personal life.

V: Those days we rented CD's from the library and we copied it on tape.

B: I bought albums only because I liked the cover-art, or because some printed magazine like Aardschok praised it. At home I listened to it if I liked it or not.

K: I don't know what it's all about – I was born in 1990. I was a kid (laughs) and I just had a PlayStation.

Do you plan to play some live gigs outside of the Netherlands in the future?

V: We have nothing planned outside of the Netherlands, as I speak. But we would love to play in Belgium because we also like the Belgian scene. We would also love to play at the German border. We all have our families and our homes so we need something that is reachable, not too far away.

Thank you very much for the interview!

B: It was a pleasure talking with you, thanks!

Interview with J (guitars) by Kwiecio.

Hi, first question is: what has been the greatest adventure of your life?

That’s a tough first question! I’ll assume it is band related and not personal, which makes the answer a little tricky since Barús has only existed officially since March this year. The whole process of getting the band together, defining goals and recording our first EP has been an awesome adventure… we should have some more compelling stories to tell as the band continues to move forward.

How have the general reactions to the debut EP been so far? Do you think you got the production you were looking for?

Response so far has been great. We have had very positive reviews for the EP so far. It is only available in digital format at the moment; we're working on a CD release somewhere near the end of 2015. Concerning the production - we recorded and mixed the whole thing ourselves. Despite having to do everything on our own time and with a very limited budget, I think that the final sound has a certain charisma to it and does justice to the songs and the aesthetic that we were aiming for. So yes, I feel that we reached the production we wanted, even though we will be able to perfect our sound for the band's future releases.

Your music is sometimes hard tangled and twisted. What about the process of creating songs? Do you write in the practice room or at home?

The creative process we go through is fairly natural. In general one of us starts by recording some demo elements at home, whether it's a couple of riffs or a complete song. Much of the writing process is basically starting from a simple idea, pulling that thread and seeing where it leads, while trying to remain unbiased by external elements and just letting things happen. When it gets to the point where you are no longer hearing a series of riffs but feeling an emotion, a certain atmosphere… that usually means that the song is going somewhere.

Once these demo versions are built we play them together and usually tweak things here and there. The lyrics and vocals on the other hand are almost exclusively written and thought out by Keithan, our vocalist. He takes some time to let the music soak in, and then proposes the lyrical content and vocal placement.

You define your music  as  death metal, but I don't know it's  appropriate for you because you mix many different genres together, I hear some black metal, post-metal, even djent in there and also other styles - does this reflect your personal taste?

I think that death metal remains the anchor of our music, but we definitely draw from many genres. The theme and feelings expressed in our music can be conveyed through many forms of metal or even different musical styles altogether. We're definitely more interested in exploring certain moods rather than qualifying to one genre in particular, and that reflects our personal tastes in music and life in general.

Our music aims to be powerful, grim, aggressive, murky, sometimes nauseating, which we feel is mostly represented by death metal. So even if, for instance, you find some rhythmic work more akin to djent (or experimental metal as it was called before it all went downhill – I’m not a fan of modern "djent") it always integrates into this raw aesthetic, with similarities and influences from the old school death scene.

What is the meaning of the cover of your EP? Who is the author and does that harmonize with the lyrics?

The cover has a strong meaning in regards to what we express in our music. To be more precise, Keithan generally forms mental images associated to the songs during the writing phase. The artwork is a result of this process: it represents something symbolic, difficult to apprehend, magnificent and terrifying at the same time. It was made by Alexander Brown, who we asked to represent this iconic structure with his own artistic sensibility; we wanted the pillar to seem as if it could fall at any time.

What kind of subjects do you write about?

The lyrics are mostly introspective and relate to existential questions. Keithan’s writing deals in an abstract manner about emotional struggles, the sensation of death, self-doubt, and the way these things define us as individuals. But most of all, the lyrics are composed with a narrative structure that ties the songs together. Secular and esoteric auras are mixed together to bring forth something mysterious.

We could go into more detail, but we prefer not to tell too much. Mystery is the friend of knowledge, contrary to what we are usually led to believe.

Being a part of the French scene how do you see it? Are there any upcoming bands that people should look out for?

In the last few years there have been quite a few interesting bands coming out of France, especially in extreme metal, sometimes with an unusual and avant-garde approach. I think the last few records of bands such as Deathspell Omega influenced quite a few people and also put a bit of a spotlight on this kind of thing coming out of France.

I think the French scene is probably the same as everywhere. Quite a lot of average or bland stuff but when you dig a little you’ll find many hidden treasures, sometimes completely unknown to the general public. As for bands, a lot of good stuff is coming out of the French underground label "Les Acteurs de l'Ombre", The Great Old Ones for instance.

How do you look back on the shows you did so far?

We've actually only done one show under the name Barús, as we officially "unveiled" the band when we released the EP in March. The show was great though, and we are getting ready to play a bunch more this coming fall.

Besides Barús, are you currently in other bands? Or you played before your current band?

Most of us play in several bands. Two of us play in Maïeutiste, a black metal band, whose first album will be released via Les Acteurs de L'Ombre this September. Marco, our guitarist also plays in a brutal death band, The Walking Dead Orchestra, and Keithan also plays in the black metal band Caïnan Dawn. Other than these most of us also have some projects outside of metal, ranging from grunge to ambient electronic music.

You live in Grenoble close to the Alps. It is rather a medium-sized town, right? Are there any other bands there? What is the condition of the local scene?

Yes it's a pretty mid-size town, it's quite dynamic but still feels comfortable, it's a human scale where you can get to know people and places, and do your own thing.

There are a bunch of metal bands, maybe not so many which play death metal, but a few notable ones. The black metal scene is going pretty strong lately as well, especially if you consider Chambéry (45mins away, in Savoie) as well. The scene in Grenoble is good, however it can be a little self centered at times, so we're also trying to get exposure outside of it.

France is a very tolerant country, where there is a lot of immigrants. In our country there is a lot of discussion about the various consequences of the influx of Muslims into Europe. Could you tell us what is your opinion on that?

I think that tolerant is maybe a bit of a strong word given some recent developments but I suppose we’re not doing too badly. To be honest as a band we feel no interest in bearing a political message or vision, our music aims for a more introspective or even philosophical scope. What is often seen as "issues" stem from social disparities, cultural differences... people have a very large tendency to make over-simplifications, sometimes scary ones and it invariably ends in hate channeling more hate and so on. I’ll leave it at that.

Do French people pay attention on what is happening in Eastern Europe Are and the condition of the distant countries of the European Union and what is their opinion about that and functioning stereotypes?

To be perfectly honest I think that in times of economic crisis like this people become very much self-centered. You see things from afar in the media, for instance the situation in Ukraine, but very few people (myself included I have to admit) go the extra mile to build their own understanding and find out more than what we are fed on a daily basis, which is more often than not quite biased.

How does 2015 look for Barus?

The end of the year is looking great for us. All being well we should have a physical release for the EP, we have some great gigs coming up, including one with Temple Of Baal and Malmort. Our first full length is in the works, the writing and demo recordings are almost finished so we should be getting into the actual album recording sometime around November or December.

Anything you'd like to add to conclude this interview?

Thanks for proposing this interview and giving us some exposure! For anyone interested in our work, head over to: https://barus.bandcamp.com, our EP is available for download/purchase (name your price), keep an eye out for a physical release sometime late this year!