Hi Lior. Thanks for having me. "Busy" is the word I'd use to describe my momentary situation. Work, the Band, the release, several other projects, medical voice treatment. It's all happening at the same time, but so far I'm still up to it.

Answering this in detail would exceed the scope of this interview, but in short it can be summarized as follows:

The core statement of the album is becoming one with oneself, in absolute unity, a pure existence. Hence the Latin translation of unity, purity, existence: Vnitas Pvritas Existentia

It's always hard, at least for me, to write a new album because at the same time it means the end of something else. A feeling, a certain time, memories, you name it.

This almost therapeutic approach of course doesn't make it easy, because I, probably like most other people, have a hard time separating myself from good things from the past – sometimes even bad ones. But there is no room for something new if you don't break away from the old.

In addition, there is life itself. Five individuals with five different lives who have to become one to write something like a new album. That's not only incredibly time-consuming, but sometimes also overshadowed by other things. These things then have to be overcome and used as a motivation for something new. Catharsis, so to speak.

I knew that this album would have to come in this or a similar form at some point, but not exactly when. That only became clear during the writing process. The timing and the general constitution of everyone involved was just right and here we are.

Honestly, I didn't have Massacre Records on my screen. When the album was finished, we went on a label search and a good friend, who is at home in the music business, helped with the mediation of our "applications". So our album found its way to Massacre Records, who were passionate about it. The resulting negotiations went quite fast and so it came to the cooperation.

It remains to be seen how this cooperation will develop in the future. So far, however, we are very satisfied. Especially with the promo department.

The artwork was created in collaboration with three exceptional artists. The cover is a real woodcut, whose template was digitally created by Dennis Seide (Haervaerk Tattoo) from Denmark according to the specifications of Negator, then converted into a woodcut by Manvfactvs from Germany and ultimately finalized for printing by Irrwisch.Artdesign from Austria.

The idea behind the artwork was the pictorial representation of the album's lyrical concept. To go into more detail would go beyond the scope of the interview.

Vnitas Pvritas Existentia is to us the logical and consequential development of everything we have done before.

None in particular. We wrote the album and were excited to see what would come out at the end. We didn't impose any rules, conditions or other guidelines on ourselves. The album should just come out of a feeling, not out of a plan how the album should sound.

The biggest change in songwriting was the freedom to write anything that came to mind. Most riffs though come from Finnskald and all lyrics are from me. This has proven to be a good starting point so far. But because we included the others much more than we did in the past, the development process didn't only take longer, but also allowed a great diversity to flow into the songs. So in the end it was a joint creative process.

"Rite of the Trident" is conceptually the last ritual that once again takes up the main theme of our Trinity. Fire, snake and lion. The Three is the one constant that runs through the whole album. Musically it was never meant to be a synopsis, but a conclusion of the ritual concept. So it had to be "epic". At first I had a hard time with the song, but it grew into one of my favorites.

My personal favorites are "Temple of Light", "Pyroleophis", "Et Verbum Caro Factvm Est" and "Rite of the Trident". The songs themselves don't have a special influence on me, because the whole album has to be seen as an overall concept. Musically though, these songs unite the spirit of the record for me.

The next album is lyrically, as well as musically, already far progressed, however can and will surely change a lot until its completion. The way is paved, but nothing is carved in stone yet.

Yes. We have already played a few new songs live, but never with the focus on highlighting individual songs.

We want to play as many shows as possible, preferably in countries we haven't played before but booking a show is becoming harder by the minute and if we can't pay the costs, we won't play. It's a fucked up situation, but again, we don't play to make money, but we also won't play and pay money for it.

Come and experience it for yourself. Our concerts are multisensory and will hopefully stay in people's minds.

Thanks again for having me and keep on spreading the flame.
Vnitas Pvritas Existentia

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