Hello Octav and welcome amongst the writings of Din Intunerec.
Hails! We are glad to find ourselves here.
Any news regarding Akral Necrosis’ activity?
A recurring impression has recently been the fact that people were under the impression that we had a break which is quite untrue. We never stopped playing, we only stopped doing live shows since the situation that developed after the release of “Underlight” forced us to bring new blood into the band. That would be Gabriel from Saddayah who’s in the band for almost a year and a half. During this time, instead of rushing to teach him the old songs and continue to support “Underlight” with shows, we decided to invest this time into creating what will be our third album. I am really looking forward of having these first shows together!
In the near future, more exactly in May, Akral Necrosis will have a mini tour. Why only 3 concerts?
It’s a pause we are taking from working on the new album. We are also hungry for shows after this break and it’s time to get the new line-up up on stage.
How is work going for the new album and when can we have a taste of what is to come? Are you guys preparing a promotional tour for the material?
Let’s say it’s going great and you’ll get a chance to hear some of the new material during the Festering Spring Tour 2018. Other than that, we have more stuff coming until we release the album, but that’s a discussion for another time. Talking about your last question, when the new album comes out, we are going to tour to support it.
Akral Necrosis concerts have become something rare to the eye. Could it be that we’re talking about a local recipe for success (playing live less, but when you do the impact towards the public is much stronger) or has the public’s interest in black metal decreased on the local scene? Do you think we can still talk about a local black metal scene?
Discussing this will take a while. We are not doing less shows for some kind of success. We don’t believe in stuff like this, nor in the idea of “making it” as a band. We stopped playing live shows for some time due to line-up changes, but other than that, one of our goals is to have less time between albums because this is what’s all about… creating music, creating black metal as a means of expressing ourselves through this. To achieve this we would rather spend more time working on new stuff than doing shows all the time. About public interest or the existence of a local black metal scene, we simply don’t care and we don’t relate to such ideas as indicators for who we are or where we would be on some sort of scale of success.
Being part of a scene or nurturing the public interest is no longer of importance for us. And you can see that as arrogance or simply as sincerity. We never really related in a direct manner with most black metal bands in Romania (I am not speaking about younger ones that show potential and there are some exceptions of course and I would point the split with Marchosias and that most of us were fans of Satanochio or Negura Bunget in their days) due to the fact we don’t have things in common and we don’t share tree hugging, local tradition or folk obsessions which have always been present to a larger or lesser degree after Negura Bunget became the thing to copy. Who are we or what are we compared to this? Check out the music if you are not familiar. Going back to the public’s interest, I do believe we have a far better view on this. They don’t owe us anything, we don’t owe them anything. This doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy playing large shows or we are hostile towards our listeners. It’s the simple fact that not relating to what the audience wants to hear means that you are free to express yourself in the most authentic matter. And this is the way any form of art should be handled/created. In this manner, we’d rather have people that understand what we are doing, what we are playing about. And there are such people and it’s always fantastic to meet them.
Can you tell us a few words about what the new album will mean for you as well as for the local black metal scene?
Each album for us is another big step forward as we are constantly getting better at what we do and I am really sure it’s going to be the type of album that will stick in your head if black metal is what you are lusting for. As for the local scene, I don’t know, nor do I care, but for the people who are expecting it, there’s no chance in hell they’ll be disappointed by it.
Talking about the mini tour, except the Rock’N Iasi Festival, how where the other two concert venues chosen?
About that I can say it had a bit to do with logistics during the initial plan, but that changed over time. We wanted to have three shows because it’s the first time we are playing songs from the third album and we enjoy playing in these cities.
Can you tell us what other bands are invited to sing with you on tour? How were they selected?
This time it’s three bands, Marchosias in Cluj Napoca, we are glad they are ready to do shows again as they also completed their line-up, the veterans from Mercy’s Dirge and the young bloods Vathos for Bucharest.
What local bands have impressed you recently and which do you think need to be promoted more?
Having this question to answer is quite tough as I honestly believe we have a lot of great bands in Romania when it comes to the whole spectrum of metal. I’ll name a few and be sorry later for missing to mention a lot of them. Bloodway, Damage Case, Sincarnate and the ones I mentioned before and the list goes on.
Can we still talk about black metal as a life style? Or has it become a way for people nowadays to just show off?
Showing off is a big part of metal nowadays since it’s become this disney pop industry and it’s populated by all manner of people and meeting-room-created-bands. This is also present for black metal, but rest assured, there are labels and bands out there that are keeping the real banners of black metal held high. It’s simply returning to what this was meant to be. Something obscure, something you had to search in the shadows for, behind the walls of shit that are promoted and spammed nowadays. I’ll give one example for now, but it’s not hard to see what I’m listing to nowadays, since I post this from time to time. Abigor’s new album is a masterpiece.
Thank you for the interview! Any words for your fans?
I dislike this term, fans. But we are looking forward to playing the new material in May and we are starved for live shows, so we are taking no prisoners and we will play a special setlist this time.
