Vlad

Necrowretch

Taking a turn from the sheer brutality into the belly of spiritualism, the French Necrowretch strive to elevate their music into new boundaries. However, with the sense towards brutality is still there, unleashing itself into the spirit, messing it up, to be ready to face the beast. With the release of their next in line Death Metal offering, "The Ones From Hell", Steinmetal had the pleasure to talk to the band's leader, Vlad, about the essence that consumes him while writing, the travels to Istanbul for inspiration, development, challenges and more…

By Lior "Steinmetal" Stein

• March 13, 2020

Necrowretch's Vlad: "It's more like to be naked in a darkened room

Hello Vlad, it is great to have you for this interview for Metal Temple online Magazine, how have you been doing mate? I trust that life has been treating you well, yeah?

Greetings! We are now working hard on the release of the album and the preparation of the upcoming European Tour.

Just recently spawned, Necrowretch delivered a massive blow of its bewildered satanic nature, with brandishing "The Ones From Hell". With the album out, how do you find the overall reactions to it, whether from the fans, press etc., especially in comparison to the neck breaking "Satanic Slavery", which on its own was am electryfing wave of aggression?

So far we have very critics from the fans and the press, a lot of good feedback from France of course but also from other countries. "Satanic Slavery" is more connected to the previous era of the band while "The Ones From Hell" is the opening of a new chapter that will consist of 2 or 3 album for the next years, we are aiming to make our music evolve into something more evil and satanic at each album.

To be honest, yesterday, after taking another run on "The Ones From Hell", I took a listen to Venom's debut, "Welcome To Hell". Being reminded of such strong titles of darkened nature, Necrowretch's new album title had me looking back at Venom. What is the nature of this title, which I believe is an influential part of your inner belief?

One can perceive this title from different ways. "The Ones From Hell" can be the death's messengers related in our lyrics, it can be the members of Necrowretch themselves, as well as the fans of its entity... "The Ones From Hell" is about us all...

The album's artwork is quite interesting, displaying a similar imagery of a demon that also can be seen in somewhat of a scale in Chinese or Japanese paintings of old. Who created this artwork and what was the vision behind the face?

The artwork was created by Stefan Thanneur (Chaos Echoes). We didn't want to have a classic black/death artwork which will already unveil the music. We asked to Stefan to craft his version of our music with a preference for the devil in the oriental culture as it's a secret for no one that Necrowretch was always bounded to the East.

In the end this artwork is one of the strongest point of this album, this demon's face is quite disturbing while it's carnal and full of mysteries.

I noticed that you actually travelled to Istanbul to write "The Ones From Hell", which I can only assume for inspiration. How did that come up? It just hit you to relocate for a short period to a new environment in order to get inspired? Did you have a writer's block that you needed to be unchained?

I already had some good vibes with Istanbul after our shows there and I needed some changes to create an album that won't sound like the others. First, I took time to learn more about this country and its culture then I started slowly to write some riffs with a different state of mind. When you are completely cut off from your routine, from your people and from your language you turn completely free to create pure art. It was a very interesting experience and we already have some ideas to combine travels and writing for the next albums.

Talking about Istanbul, even though Turkey is supposed to be a progressive country when it comes to religion, yet showed otherwise at times, in particular in the last decade, it is a kind of an paradox that a person that is far from being connected, rather defiant, to that religion to get inspired. What is your comment about that? What actually influenced you?

There is a vibe in every place of the world. If you're stuck in Paris metro, you will feel deep hate and disgust for mankind. Obviously you won't have the same state of mind if you travel in the mountains of Alps. There is something in the air in Istanbul and for me this vibe was very inspiring, maybe because religion was more present and maybe not. I did not have to complain about anything when I was there. Nowadays there are a lot of talks in the media about this country, such as other places of the world. The best way is to go there and judge by yourself.

How do you find yourself within the lyrical content of "The Ones From Hell"? How do you find the relation between your philosophy and everyday life?

"I would like to burn your body to the ground, so I'll write a song about it". Before all our music is a way to express all the hate that lies inside us. It's like a mass shooting, the artistic way. While our lyrical content is strongly connected with the history of religions and Middle Eastern tales, it's also an invitation to think by yourself regardless your kind or your origin.

Circling the music of "The Ones From Hell", it is bombastic and violent as its Necrowretch knows how to produce, however, there are various elements, such a rising melodic nature that are a sure captivating element. How do you find Necrowretch's musical progression with "The Ones From Hell"? What do you think makes it unique in comparison to the vast sea of albums coming out nowadays?

Our music was always straight to the point, no need to listen 10 times the same riff or chorus again and again. Yet basic, the guitar riffs always owns these memorable parts that allow you to "sing" the riff.

"The Ones From Hell" comes with more maturity, both in the songwriting but also within producing music as a band. The music comes with more space and yet brutal it's more understandable and can express itself way bigger than in the past.

Have you thought about experimenting further within the spectrum of Death Metal, perhaps also beyond the borders of the subgenre, in order to come up as groundbreaking?

Well, I think it was always the case for Necrowretch.

Since I guess that you are the chief songwriter, while writing the material, working on the arrangements of the songs, did you have personal conflicts with yourself about how this album is going to be or it was pretty much a flow, everything came to place smoothly without too much effort?

I have a lot of conflicts within myself (laughs). I worked one year to write the album, alone, without any guitar amp and almost every day. So you can guess how the creation was tough for me.

Listening to the enchanting elementals of "Codex Obscuritas", there is that slightly different Necrowretch face, going back and forth from the roots of Heavy Metal, ending up displaying an interesting track that isn't necessarily rip and tear. What is your input regarding this track's musical execution and development? What can you share regarding this song's message?

This song was actually co-written between Wence and me. That's the first time in Necrowretch's history such co-writing happens and the result is very interesting. I think both our passion for Candlemass made this creation even more exciting. As Necrowretch is mostly about fast tempo I had no idea about how a 100% slow song can work, in the end its one of the most original song of the album and it gives us some ideas for the next album as well.

I believe that a sort of a Middle-Eastern, Arabian, kind of sense can be captured on the instrumental "Through The Black Abyss", judging mainly by its harmonious intro. What was the main influence to come up with this instrumental piece? Was it actually intended to be a song at first?

This was created to be the prelude to the last song of the album. "Through The Black Abyss", is the descent into Hell, but not with a torrent of Fire as usual. It's more like to be naked in a darkened room, lost and without anywhere to hide, surrounded by strange noise yet almost gentle melodies... Before facing the Beast....

Out of the many lyrics that come out through you on the songs, you are screaming for Satan, as if every song is a part of a prayer. What is your perspective about it?

The album aim is to unleash pure satanic death metal, what you see is what you get!

Looking forward into the not so far future, what do you think are the main challenges for Necrowretch, especially with the overblown Metal market of nowadays, which is part of the technological advancements that enables to produce music rather fast?

Necrowretch was never about the buzz but more about growing slowly but surely, gaining fans and support and each release, playing in more and more countries, even the most underground ones.

Surely we will continue in this path, the biggest challenge will be to do better with the next album, but I say this every time so it should be possible.

How do you intend to support "The Ones From Hell" in terms of going live? Will you be traveling to new countries this time around?

We will tour in Europe this March / April. Then play the amazing Hellfest Festival in France this summer. More festivals and shows are on the way for the end of the year.

Vlad, I would like to thank you for your time and effort on doing this interview. Thank you for making it happen with "The Ones From Hell", it feels honest and musically defining. All the best.

Thanks for your support and long live Metal Temple !