Zemial and Absu headlined the first edition of Rift of Hades, an event organized by Romanian Thrash Metal Club! It goes without saying that the debut edition of this festival was a total blast! Words are powerless to describe this experience… as they are not enough to convey the pleasure and honor to interview Archon Vorskaath, the legend who needs no presentation!
DinIntunerec: Hello, thank you for getting on board with this interview and welcome to Romania. How are you? What have you been doing recently?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, thank you very much for the interview. It’s fantastic to be in Romania. We love this place. Since the last time we came here it’s just been absolutely amazing. Everything about this place. So, we’re very happy to be back. What we are doing? Well, we’ve announced a union with Absu. Zemial and Absu are getting together to do a tour in 2025 of The Sun of Tipareth album of Absu. We’ve just started by doing a short tour of Spain and Greece. Now we’re in Romania where we play with both the bands. And so far so amazingly well.
DinIntunerec: Tell us a few words about Zemial, how did you decide to form the band and what did you have in mind at the very beginning?
Archon Vorskaath: I just wanted to play music. I was a young boy and I loved music. One summer, I think it was 1989, I started a band with some friends and it was just incredible fun. The idea that you’re playing with other people and you’re finally making a group was just really exhilarating. We were very, very happy to be doing it and there was no other purpose. There was nothing except having a good time.
DinIntunerec: You’ve been driving Zemial since the very, very beginning. How has your approach to songwriting and composition evolved since the band’s early days?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, entirely. It has constantly evolved, I think. In the beginning, it wasn’t so much about composing as much as it was about being able to play. I could barely play an instrument. So, composition was limited to what I could play and that was it. I had no theoretical knowledge. I just used my ears and really just went by my feeling. As time went on, I began studying music and listening to a lot more different music styles. That influenced me a lot and helped me to change my compositional approach. And eventually, to compose large pieces. I think with Zemial, we’ve released some pieces that are over 10 minutes long.
The new material that’s coming also has very, very long songs. So, composition has become a very important part of my approach to music, my thinking. And I’m still learning a lot. As much as I can.
DinIntunerec: What inspires you to create and how difficult it is to be a one-man band? Also, why did you decide to keep it like that?
Archon Vorskaath: I’m very inspired by nature. I love nature. I love being in nature. All seasons. There’s something about how you feel as a human being when you are in nature. The relationship of the human being with nature. Sometimes it’s very sweet.
You feel that you surrender. A beautiful summer night where you see the stars and there’s no human beings or civilization around you. And it’s you and nature and the stars. There’s something special about it. Other times, a winter storm, cold. All of those kind of situations, I think, have these primal responses by human beings. Because human beings have had to develop a relationship with nature in order to survive. Sometimes nature has been nurturing human beings, whilst other times it has destroyed them. So, I find that nature connects with me in a primal sense. That gives me a lot of inspiration.
I’m also inspired a lot by literature. I love Victorian literature, English literature. Films… other music. So, there’s a lot of inspiration. History and mythology are something I’ve loved since I was a child.
Being a one-man band is very difficult. Because I play all the instruments and I try not to repeat myself. I try not to play formulas. I try to create something new, as a challenge for myself every time.
However, that means I have to practice a lot and it’s very difficult. I have to put in more time and it’s more and more demanding. Of course, I’m the only one that’s placing these demands. There’s no external factor. I also get into sound engineering. Because I record myself and I also mix my albums. So, there’s a lot of work involved. Still, it’s a very personal journey.
There are always challenges and I guess I like that. The fact that I need to be better in order to keep doing what I do. I can’t just rest and say, ah, I’m safe now. It’s more about, wanting to know where else I can go, what else I can do. What else can I hear and create? Why have I chosen that? I guess it has become a lifestyle now. I work with other musicians and I love working with other musicians. But, I think this vision is very esoteric.
It’s about how I look at music and expression. But, I also do like introducing other people to my music. So, there are other musicians that I may invite to work on something with me. Because I like their collaboration or I like their style. Or the way they approach instruments or vocals or whatever. Therefore, I tend to work on my own. However, I’m always very open to the color that another musician can bring to my music.
DinIntunerec: What got you into extreme metal in the first place and who are some of the bands that got you into the genre?
Archon Vorskaath: When I was a kid I listened to heavy metal very, very early. And then in the mid 80s, I came across some bands, actually my brother and I, came across bands like Celtic Frost and Bathory, Destruction, Venom, Exodus. That was huge. We were at the right age to feel very inspired by that. We were very moved by it, and so it began.
I still like that music a lot. I don’t listen to it as much as I used to do. But, when I get nostalgic, and I often do, I go back and listen. Nevertheless, I’ve stopped following what’s going on and what so many bands release nowadays…
DinIntunerec: What is the story behind the name of the band?
Archon Vorskaath: The Devil, and the Devil is a great symbol. Of course, it represents a lot of different things as a symbol. One of them being division. And division can make a person unstuck, come unstuck from their programming and their understanding of the world. Being unstuck and taken out of your shell, as the Devil can do to you, offers another perspective. And, when you have a new perspective, you realize there’s a lot more than one point of view, and things can change drastically for one’s life if they take that opportunity. I was not as philosophical about it when I first came up with it. But I realized that the intention was there, and the Devil was a great vehicle for that.
DinIntunerec: Your latest release, the EP To Slay with Silent Dagger, came out in 2022, six years after your previous release, which was another EP, The Repairer of Reputations. Can you tell us what have you been up to in between? Also, do you have a plan for another release anytime soon?
Archon Vorskaath: The question was, why did it take so long? Or no, what have I done in between?
DinIntunerec: I was curious what you have done in between, if you dealt with other projects. I wouldn’t cast judgements on whether or not it took long to release new material. It takes how long it needs to take. Inspiration and music can’t be rushed.
Archon Vorskaath: Exactly. Finally, someone who understands that! What I have been doing… Well, I’ve been working on a lot of music. I’ve got a lot of music. I’ve already prepared two albums that are unreleased. They’re fully prepared. And a third one that’s mostly prepared, and a fourth one which is largely prepared. So, I’ve done a lot of work in the meantime. But, during the pandemic, I also felt that time went by in a way that I didn’t quite understand. It went by very strangely, and I lost track of it. Also, I focused on other stuff at that time, at that period.
Nevertheless, I’ve kept writing music… a lot. It’s only the last couple of years I haven’t written so much as I’ve practiced intensively. I’ve been practicing like a maniac.
Am I planning another release? Sure! The album is ready. If, I find the time during this tour that we’re doing, I want to finish some tiny details and release it. Then, move on to the next one. This is a thrash album, but the next one is going to be a completely different thing.
I’m not sure if I’ll play thrash again. I did this because I wanted to go back to the music that inspired me to start the band. But, after that, things are taking another turn, a dark, more heavy and more theatrical turn. Like The Repairer of Reputations, maybe that kind of thing. Maybe a bit heavier, darker, but with a lot of theatricality, a lot of arrangements, a lot of details.
DinIntunerec: Greeks have some sense of theatricality in their DNA.
Archon Vorskaath: As a matter of fact they do! I really think it’s something. Also, I think that’s probably the thing that Zemial is beginning to get a bit of a name for. We can do all these little atmospheres and build on that.
DinIntunerec: There’s a clear old-school feel to your latest release. The sharp riffing, the manner in which you let the instruments breathe, the reverb on the vocals. My only regret is that it only lasts a bit more than 10 minutes and it lets the listener crave for more. Tell us a little bit about this EP: its creation process, the lyrical themes.
Archon Vorskaath: Is it just 10 minutes?
DinIntuneric: A little bit more than 10 minutes, actually. 10 minutes and 29 seconds… You didn’t expect me to remember even that, I suppose.
Archon Vorskaath: No, I didn’t. I didn’t. You know what I’m doing now, don’t you? I’m looking at it… (laughing). Seriously now, it’s an EP that’s taken from the album that’s coming. So, I wanted to do it old-style. You know, in the old days when bands would do a single that’s connected to an album? I did that kind of thing.
So, there’s a couple of songs from the album and a couple of songs that are only on that EP. Although, the songs from the album will sound different when they’re released on the album. Some different vocals, and, of course, different mixing. There was no other intention. It was very much like a promotional thing, until the album is out.
DinIntunerec: You’ve been constantly pushing the boundaries in different directions. Let’s take a journey back in time, namely to the amazing Nykta, from 2013. The whole album is a beautiful mixture of progressive rock and black metal with trashy riffs and a lot of atmosphere. Tell us how this album came about and how you connected the mythological concept to the name of the album and the cover artwork.
Archon Vorskaath: That’s a very long answer. Well, first of all, it was a collection of music from different eras. The first song, Ancient Arcane Scrolls, I actually wrote in 1993 when I was still living in Greece. There were songs from 1996, Deathspell, Eclipse, of course, Breath of the Pestilence, they were all very early. Pharos was from 1998, because there was an early version of that that we recorded in ’98. The Small, I think, was the latest, and the last piece I wrote for that album. Nevertheless, I’m not sure, I started revising all the music and adding all these atmospheric parts.
Before that, Zemial was famous for it’s sound: old style, old school, thrash black metal. I was fine with that, but I really wanted to do something different. And for the first time, I also wanted to do some proper drumming because all those years before, I was just keeping it very simple. So, this time I thought, hold on, I really want to play my main instrument here and stretch out.
I guess it’s songs like In the Arms of Hades, Pharos or The Small and parts of Ancient Arcane Scrolls that created those kinds of atmospheres. There’s also theatrical kind of bits and influences that I’ve got from films and all sorts of stuff that contributed to it. At the end of Deathspell, if you listen carefully, I’m ringing a bell and moving away at some distance from the microphone, calling out, ‘bring out, you’re dead, bring out, you’re dead‘, which is a Monty Python line from the Holy Grail film.
So, all sorts of influences came in there… a lot of prog influences, of course.
There’s a story that I like to say about Pharos because I had written Pharos in ’97- ’97, and there was a jam section at the end, but it was always very undefined. Basically, when we played it live then, we did a drum solo, a guitar solo, and a bass solo. But, one night when I was living in Germany, this idea popped into my head at three o’clock in the morning and I ran into the studio and put down the first chords and the synthesizers and the whole piece just opened up to what it became part two. And, I just realized I can keep building and refining the songs, and it worked out.
Then, I did The Small, and of course, listeners that are into Pink Floyd would realize it’s highly influenced by Pink Floyd. And the honest truth is that I thought people would hate it. I thought people would just think, what is this and what business does it have on an album of this band? And, to my incredible surprise, people really loved it.
It seems to be one of those songs that actually made people think, wow, this is different and nice.
Just prior to Nykta, now that I think of it, I had done Dusk, the EP, which had an early version of In the Arms of Hades and was also beginning to get a little bit proggy. Also, there was another old song from the 90s, from 91, called Cries Behind the Golden Walls, which was also very proggy in a sense.
Before that, just after In Monumentum, I had done an EP called I Am the Dark where I added an extra song from In Monumentum that wasn’t on that album and another 90s song, Words from the Temple of Shadows, which was the first time I used a marimba., I think it’s probably the only time marimba has been used in black metal. I did a marimba melody and some percussion work. And I guess I was beginning to explore what I could do and how I can combine it under the banner of Zemial.
I think, what happened as a result is that fans really, really liked it and then began to realize that Zemial is not this or that or the other. That I’m constantly changing directions, constantly exploring different things. It could be traditional heavy metal parts or thrash parts or prog parts or whatever. There were always different references which led up to Nykta with all those kinds of things.
Nykta itself means night in Greek and it’s endless, isn’t it? And it’s not only endless, but that blue that we can see outside is actually an illusion due to the Earth’s atmosphere and the sun. Yet, when you remove yourself from the planet, you realize that the sun itself exists in a huge dark space. It is night everywhere in the universe.
The sun is only producing that illusion of day to us on the planet. But when you remove yourself and you externalize, you realize that we’re surrounded by darkness and it’s got infinite possibilities. So, that’s a very interesting concept to me.
Of course, the eclipse is also on the cover. It’s a very significant symbol for me as well, because the eclipse is literally a small object managing to overshadow an object of immensely larger size. But at the proper position, it can actually completely swallow it. So, the potential, and I guess Nykta is all about potential, because there’s thrash metal in there that is combined with prog. I don’t know how the hell I did it, but there’s potential. You can go from one to the other and it can work.
DinIntunerec: Could you explain how all the elements in music help to build the atmosphere? Also, what does a good atmosphere mean to you?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, a good atmosphere is something that just engulfs you, something that gives you a certain sensation. If you’re a listener, it might give you goosebumps or it might just make you dream or travel momentarily when you listen to it… make you feel a certain way, give you a certain sensation that you associate with that music or with other things as well. A good atmosphere is something that excites you, something that speaks to your flesh, I guess, not just your mind.
I think when we encounter something that we call atmospheric, it might be a film in the cinema or you’re watching at home a certain film that has a particular atmosphere, it makes you feel a certain way. If you’re looking outside a window on a rainy, windy day, there’s a certain feeling in your body. Or if you’re watching the sea, the raging sea, there’s a certain feel to it. A silent, a quiet sea with sun, creates there’s a certain atmosphere and we feel it in our body. And I guess that’s what music should be able to do to you as well, if it’s atmospheric. It should be able to speak to your flesh.
DinIntunerec: Conceptually and thematically, Zemial explores philosophy, dreams, mythology, even fiction. How do you translate these deep, complex themes into a cohesive musical experience?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, in different ways. Sometimes, as I try to become a better musician, I try to use some theoretical things that I understand to help me express those things. But, because my theoretical knowledge isn’t quite so amazing… I just go on the feeling, or intuition.
Of course, I’ve got a lot of influences, so I draw from them and I try to interpret some things like that or emulate some of my favorite musical heroes and so on. I do a lot of experimentation in the studio. When I do anything, I go over it again and again and again in different ways, with this sound, with that sound, with this rhythm, with another rhythm, with this harmony, or another harmony. All sorts of things. Sometimes, it’s not just inspiration just hard work, just going over something again and again and trying to explore all the different facets. Sincerely, I do a lot of that.
DinIntunerec: You also have your own label, ΝΥΞ which released and re-released some of Zemial‘s discography throughout the years. What is its status, currently? Is it still active?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, ΝΥΞ is practically something that I use to license my own work, so that it’s my own rights and I don’t need to give it to anybody else. I can do it myself. It’s not a label that releases other people’s music. I’ve thought sometimes about approaching people, maybe supporting people that I think are really great, but I guess I don’t have time to do it. Thus, I just use that label to release my own work around the world and make it available instead of having to negotiate with other companies, unnecessarily.
Well, sometimes I do it for releases and distribution in remote corners of the world… but sometimes release stuff myself and I’m quite happy to have my own label to do that with.
DinIntunerec: Each artist has defining moments or turning points. What are the key elements that shaped you into what you are today?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, I grew up in a very progressive environment and I’m very lucky about that because a lot of people don’t and they live a life that isn’t centered on their own potential and their own dreams, but rather other people’s expectations. So, I think my brother and I were very fortunate to have been brought up by a very progressive person, which is my mother, who allowed us to express ourselves and be responsible for our own actions very, very early on and therefore also to take our own risks, reap our own rewards and lick our own wounds when we got hurt.
So… that mind frame can really helps a child move through life and… explore it. Explore it without fear.
DinIntunerec: What were the main obstacles that you had to overcome during your activity?
Archon Vorskaath: I wish I had more arms and legs so I could play more instruments simultaneously! Anyway, I’m still learning how to play instruments, perfecting my drumming. Also, I’m still learning how to play guitar. In fact, I recently started taking guitar lessons because I really want to become a better player. I really also want to become better in all the other instruments I play. But, the main thing that’s been difficult is people that don’t have the same drive, the same vision, the same… feeling for playing music and enjoying the process. That’s been the hardest thing. Seeing people come and go because they’ve reached their limit. That’s a sad fact of life, I guess.
But, there are also the glorious, beautiful combinations that last, such as the lineup that I have now for Zemial, for instance with Aenceorg, the guitarist I have been working since 2016 and it’s amazing. We’ve had beautiful times together and that’s the other side of a coin…
DinIntunerec: There is something that is bugging me, though it is not related to the event tonight or any of the bands you’re performing with these days, Zemial and Absu. It’s about another band you’ve been involved with, more than three decades ago: Varathron! There are a lot of inconsistencies regarding the album His Majesty at the Swamp. I mean from my perspective, it looks like somebody is trying to remove the history of this album… The first edition credits only a part of the people involved in the making and recording. Afterwards, the album has been re-released 25 times, all around the world, by various labels, and the credits are less and less. As far as I know, one of the tracks was entirely written by Sakis ( Rotting Christ) which has never been mentioned. What can you tell us about the creating process, the recording and what followed, so we can cast the light of truth upon this crucial release, the very one that started the second wave of Hellenic Black Metal?
Archon Vorskaath: Yes, it is a crucial release, certainly, because it is the first full-length album that came out of a Greek underground metal band in this genre. Many bands had released EPs and mini-albums before this, but this was the first one that we did that was a full-length and with a foreign label as well, Cyber Records from Holland. And of course, I think, despite its shortcomings, it set the standard for sound.
A lot of bands, I guess, identify with that sound and that sound became representative of the Greek underground movement of the time, the songwriting. And yes, it stood the test of time, because now, 32 years later, it’s still considered a very important album globally for the black metal movement, the second wave of the black metal. It has been released many, many times.
I’ve lost count exactly how many times it’s been released, and I haven’t seen all the different releases and the different versions, because I have never authorized them personally, neither has Mutilator, actually. Only Necroabyssious has licensed them, and he’s never shared any of the copies with us. We didn’t even realize, and I was never even checking if the album was being re-released or not.
I don’t know why some of the people involved weren’t credited, because he was the guy that took the mastered tapes to send them to Cyber Music. I have no idea why he never credited the various people that participated in the album, because yes, you are right, there are people that participated in the album, and Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ is certainly one of them.
So there are several people that were involved. I’ll take it song by song. Obviously, I played the guitars on the album, the bass on my own songs, the songs that I wrote, and I also did the drum parts, which were all programmed electronically, but I actually wrote the drum parts. And interestingly, I also recorded acoustic cymbals on top of the electronics. I don’t know if that was supposed to make things more realistic or not, but they asked me to do it, and I did it, and it’s very awkward, and I think you can hear it clearly on the recording that it doesn’t feel good. It sounds strange to me even today. Mutilator played bass on some of the songs, he played bass on a couple of the songs that we wrote together. Necroabyssious did the vocals.
Sakis Tolis played the guitar and wrote Lustful Father. He played the lead guitar, I played the rhythm guitar. Stavros, my predecessor in the band, wrote the last song on the album, The Tressrising of Nyarlathothep, on which he also played guitar. John of Danger Cross, also an old Varathron member, played guitar on that song, too. Themis of Rotting Christ played drums on that song. So, there’s a lot of players from the Greek scene involved in that album.
I have no idea why we don’t celebrate that fact and why Stefanos chose to keep those people outside of the credits.
We never discussed that this would be the case. I assumed that everybody’s role was going to be mentioned. He came down to Athens to record the vocals. Then he went back, took the mastered tapes, because he was in touch with the company. So, he took the master tapes to send them to the company. We had no idea that he would give the credits the way he did.
However, there is now an edition, a 30th anniversary edition, that’s actually mentioning all of the story, all of the making. It’s released through Black Hearts Records in Brazil, and I think it’s a very interesting edition to check out for the full story.
With regards to the creative process, I regret to disappoint some of the people which may have a romantic notion about the album, but there was no working together, as a band.
We were living in different locations. Mutilator and I were in Athens, but in entirely different parts of Athens. So, we only met two times to exchange some ideas. Together, we wrote Nightly Kingdoms and Flowers of My Youth. I wrote on my own Unholy Funeral, and The Son of the Moon, which was a sequel to The Tressrising of Nyarlathothep. Furthermore, I wrote The River of My Souls as well, for which I played guitar and I also played bass. Of course, I programmed all the drum beats and recorded the cymbals. And that was it.
Stefanos came down once the recordings had been completed, he recorded his vocal parts and he left. There was no working together as a band. Unfortunately, no band may continue to exist in this way… because the studio experience and the studio dynamics in the very, very short time that we were all together were not very normal… The dynamic was very, very different when we separately interacted one with any other. For example, Stefanos, when he came down to record his vocals, stayed at my house and we had a particular interaction. We wrote lyrics together for various of the songs. We discussed the placement of the lyrics. When I worked with Mutilator, there was a special interaction.
But, when we went to the studio and Stefanos came down for the vocals and everyone was there and it was the three of us plus Sakis, plus Morbid and my brother and other guests and people that would just come and hang out at the studio, the dynamic of the band was entirely different, the social dynamic. And as such, I noticed that the first cracks began to appear in the band.
So, very shortly after the recording, we closed the project and we never met again in the same place until 2019 in Scotland. So the album was the work of a collective, yet it wasn’t a band.
I wrote some stuff for the album. I wrote most of the music and played most of the instruments. I wrote some music with Mutilator. Sakis wrote some stuff. Stavros wrote some stuff. This wasn’t a trio, for sure. And I, for one, feel that it’s a very good thing to credit these people, because for one, it’s not my work. So, I don’t want to take credit for it. But also, I think it’s very important that people should know who the songwriter was for each song, because everyone has their own signature, style and way of writing. And I think we should appreciate that, rather than make it something insignificant.
So, we did the album and we finished it, I think, in July, was the last session, and basically, we never met again. In February, a few months later, I moved to Australia. And that was that. It was over. The chapter had closed. I did consider continuing to write from a distance, because I had done it previously. That’s how I wrote before. But of course, it was no longer practical. We were in different countries, continents even…
As I said, the cracks were beginning to appear.
Stephanos was already writing letters to me indicating his dissatisfaction with Mutilator and his focus on Rotting Christ. I guess he wanted to find players that had Varathron as their main priority. And I understand that. Zemial was my priority. Mutilator had Rotting Christ. Stephanos had no other band except for Varathron. So, I do understand that feeling. That’s how it all happened.
Unfortunately, the credits have not been known. But obviously, there are people that remember from back then what the situation was. There are people that are finding out now, even with a three decade delay, how this incredible album came to be.
DinIntunerec: In my opinion, this album brought together the most influential Greek musicians of the time ( all representative for the black metal genre) and this should be regarded with pride, instead it is occulted under a veil of contradictory information, absurd statements from some and too much silence from others. Don’t you think the audience and the younger generations should know the truth and history should not be altered?
Archon Vorskaath: Yes, I completely agree with you. You know, at the end of the day, none of us became rich from this album. Well, actually, I don’t know. I haven’t made any money from it, but I know Stefanos has made some, but I doubt it made him rich. So, all that remains is the music. It’s the experience the music gives us and the process.
Indeed, because it’s such a milestone of an album, I do think that it’s important for younger generations to know the truth, as you say, and because the Greek scene is definitely being discovered again and again by newer listeners, younger people, I think it’s really crucial that they understand how one of the most important albums of the scene was actually created. I mean, why shroud in mystery something that we should really, in fact, be very open about rather than make it unknown? I think we should make it very known.
Everybody worked together and there’s a result. And everyone put a little stone in there and that’s the result. Everyone put their little contribution. I definitely think that, yes, history should not be altered. It should be revealed and it should remain like that for the ages. The reason why Stephanos doesn’t want that history to be known and to be remembered is completely beyond me. I don’t understand. But as the years have gone by, I have the feeling it’s probably because of personal insecurities.
He has become the de facto leader of the band, but at the time, his contribution maybe wasn’t so significant, because he didn’t play an instrument and he didn’t write all the lyrics and his English was not very good. So he had all the energy and all the passion, but he didn’t have the technical expertise to offer to the band. He was great with communicating to us. He was full of passion about it, but technically he couldn’t do anything.
He still doesn’t. He still doesn’t write music and he didn’t write music back then. So, maybe that made him feel that he was less significant. If all the people that contributed were mentioned, maybe his contribution would be less significant. But still, it’s best to just be honest about it and write history as it was, rather than try and change it!
DinIntunerec: I am really glad we’ve cast some light into this matter, for history to be recorded right.
Archon Vorskaath: Me too! The past and the legacy is important! Speaking about it honestly is the right thing to do!
DinIntunerec: What is the main driving force which has been constantly urging you to get involved in so many projects (Zemial, Varathron, Absu, Alpha Centauri, Agatus)? What drives you forward?
Archon Vorskaath: Many projects indeed! There is also stuff I’ve done outside the heavy metal, for instance I’ve played with Markus Stockhausen, we had a jazz band in Germany, I also played with a classical music orchestra while I was living in Australia. I love music, really, really love music, that is what’s driving me.
DinIntunerec: I was watching you drumming during the concert last evening, you know when I made the video from next to the drum kit, and I noticed some jazz elements in your drumming technique and the way you put accents.
Archon Vorskaath: That’s because I love jazz. Also, if you love drumming it’s impossible not to like jazz, because the drum kit was developed as an instrument in jazz in the early 1900s some guy put the bass drum and the snare drum and two Chinese tom toms (as they were called at the time), a cymbal and some temple blocks and created the drum set. The bass drum and the snare drum came from the European tradition, the Chinese tom toms obviously came from China, the cymbals came from the Orient. Somebody created all these elements and the first music they played with them was jazz.
So, I really believe that if you love this instrument and you look back at its creation, development and history you are bound to come across jazz because that’s where it happened.
And, of course, there is a really important element there which also is one of the reasons I don’t listen to modern heavy metal. Jazz music has a swing, a certain shuffling feel that was part of rock’n’roll, it affected rock’n’roll in the 50s and the 60s, it was part of how rock players played in the 70s and heavy metal players played in the 80s. Then, it was lost. That was directly connected to jazz because of that shuffling feel.
So, I naturally gravitate to that kind of thing and I love music, I love drumming, so I don’t really give a shit if it’s heavy metal or jazz or blues! I love the instrument! Thus, I would gladly play whatever genre, I don’t care if it is drum & bass, disco or jazz because I love the instrument! I’m not in it for my face to be known, or for me to be associated with heavy metal or with Zemial! Like I said, I really love music and I love drumming, that’s all. And if I’ve got an opportunity to add something from jazz as a guitarist, as a keyboard player, or as a vocalist or a drummer, my pleasure because it’s such a great thing to do.
I’m one of the people that are lucky because I’m playing music for my living! One of the lucky ones, doing what I was dreaming to do as a little kid, so I’m really fortunate. Therefore, if I can do as much as possible, that sounds great for me!
DinIntunerec: What makes you more wired up: writing new music or performing life? What’s the best thing for you about performing live?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, I always liked writing and composing and being in the recording studio. More than anything it is a very private place, a place where you can watch a song being built up and recording it… Also, sculpting the sound is probably my favorite activity. But, since we’ve started touring now, with this union with Absu, I’ve been going completely insane on stage. It’s a great feeling, because you can feel the energy in the whole band and that’s something you don’t really get in the studio.
That being said, I don’t have a favorite, they are both wonderful situations to be in. However, I know that the studio is my kind of thing, because I am more of a solitary person.
DinIntunerec: Is there a release that has a special place in your heart, that has a special significance for you?
Archon Vorskaath: Well Face of the Conqueror! It was the first time when I was listening to a Zemial song, thinking that it is good and feeling satisfied. Before that, I didn’t really feel that satisfied, but from then on I was starting to feel a bit more satisfied with what I could do. Anyway, I think it had to do with the fact that I was beginning to record the sounds the way I would hear them. Before that, I would just go to studios and other people would record me and I really didn’t know much about the process. I mean, I knew things, but later I learnt more about the process and began to understand. Face of the Conqueror has got this really distinct old school thrash sound.
In Monumentum is a really significant album for me because of all the circumstances that surrounded it. But I feel more proud, more than anything so far, with The Repairer of Reputations, because I broke away from the boundaries! It’s not a heavy metal release and I am very happy about it because people that like Zemial also really like this release, which means they came along for the journey. Anyway, it is hard to answer your question, because everything has something special and it represents the person that I was at that stage of my life.
However, The Repairer is something that makes me feel really great, particularly because it was released as a full-album last June, and I loved holding it in my hands after I remixed and remastered it, which was a pleasure.
DinIntunerec: What are your favorite songs to play live?
Archon Vorskaath: Well, it is hard to tell… A lot of them actually… I had a lot of fun playing The Eternalist by Agatus, because there was a lot of groove drumming and I felt really great to be able to play like that… Also, the insanity of playing …and Shineth unto the Cold Cometh… by Absu is a huge thing, because it’s a really intense song, as intense as it gets.
Furthermore, when things go really well, I love playing Pharos. It’s fantastic! We did a clip, a live video in Ukraine playing Pharos and all the stars aligned. Everything was perfect, the sound was great, the engineer was great. Whenever I watch that performance I feel really great about it, because it allows us all to solo, to become really intense, then slow down, create more introspective atmospheres… There’s a lot of dynamics, and I really love dynamics in music.
On the other hand, I also had a lot of fun when I played with Markus Stockhausen and with this jazz group because it was all improvised… we never knew what was going to happen, we just met and we played. It was a huge joy in communicating with other human beings without having spoken about what we were going to play. It was just music speaking.
DinIntunerec: How do you see the underground metal scene nowadays? Apart from quantity, as it seems there are a lot of new bands emerging everywhere, do you think there is quality too?
Archon Vorskaath: No, I don’t think there is a lot of quality. I think there are great musicians out there, people driving bands really well, but I think the motivation for music should be different. There are great professionals out there, but they are doing it for the money. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to be paid for doing art, but my intention is not to get paid as much as it is to create art. Meanwhile, there are very good professionals out there, but their intention is to get paid, which is a wrong motive for doing art.
Moreover, technology has come to a point that apart from being a very useful tool, it has become a way for people to do things they couldn’t do, in terms of musical performance.
Another bad thing is that we don’t have as much innovators these days, because people don’t experiment that much. However, to me, the beauty of rock and metal music of the 90s was that people were not afraid to be individual, actually everybody wanted to be different, to break away from being one of the sheep. Now, suddenly everyone wants to be the same, so that’s why I don’t really consider myself as part of this… I’m just an old memory…
DinIntunerec: I realize you are very busy, but do you have other interests apart from music? A hobby maybe?
Archon Vorskaath: My hobby is music! I love music, I like films, I like cooking when I can, I like good food, but what I really adore is nature. That’s one of my main interests… I love being in nature, exploring, driving through mountains, admire the sea, or a lake… I love that. I also like being in nature at night, so there are places that I go with friends and we just hang out there all night long. That’s beautiful, it’s a completely different perspective.
Book are also a passion of mine and I love reading… about music technology, or music in general. I love Victorian literature and I love reading about a lot of things. Not to mention that I’ve got a lot of books, because I don’t only like reading, but also collecting books. I have books a hundred or a hundred and twenty years old and I love the smell of the pages. The smell of an old book. Also, I love that an old book, that started its life somewhere else, in another country perhaps, has made its journey to my hands and it is still alive, it still serves its purpose.
DinIntunerec: What was the best or worst, an unforgettable incident, a memory that happened while on tour or during a live show?
Archon Vorskaath: Well there have been lots of nice moments and also lots of not so nice moments. I don’t think that anything stands out. It is a pleasure when everything goes well. I don’t do a lot of concerts, but beautiful things occur when you meet special people. When you get to talk with somebody and the conversation flows naturally and touches many subjects. So that’s one of the highlights, I think, of concert experience.
Well, I can’t also forget… I love being into different places, to different cities and seeing the architecture. Also, I love eating local food, to know how the locals live. I love to experience culture. So, when I go to another country, I don’t want to eat American food or fast food in general. Now, we’re in Romania, so I want to eat Romanian food. When we go to Italy, I like to eat Italian food. I love food, and I like exploring cultures.
I think travelling from show to show allows you that. Not always as much as you would like, but that little glimpse of another culture is a beautiful thing for me.
DinIntunerec: What is the most important life lesson that you have learned so far?
Archon Vorskaath: That it all goes too fast, and you had better be in a place where you do what you love, because you will die. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can align yourself with doing things you really love. Because this is the only opportunity we have and then it goes. So, you better just enjoy life, because you never know when you’re walking down the street and a piano falls on your head.
So, just enjoy every moment, because this is all we’ve got. There’s no reason to wait for something else and there’s no reason to dwell in the past. This is it.
DinIntunerec: Well, thank you for your time. Any final words?
Archon Vorskaath: Thank you very much, actually, for your wonderful questions. Thanks also to Horia for being a great drum tech. I love the people here. As a drummer that plays with a large drum set, it’s such a relief to deal with such professional people. It’s wonderful. It feels so good to work with people that know their jobs. But yeah, it’s been such a huge joy to be in Romania. There’s a big show coming up tonight, when I intend to give 110%. Until I lose at least a liter of sweat.
I can’t wait for the next time we’ll come here. Apparently, from what I hear, something special is making its way here, and it seems that I’m part of it. More on that later. Thank you very much.
