March 2019
The darkest shores of ravishing melancholia is visible whenever
I listen Helrunar and I kindda became addicted to this night time feeling of
the songs dragging sneakingly ambivalent notes surrounded by a somber nostalgic
voice. Helrunar has become the focus point when my nihilistic side is shivered
by the influences of Andreas Gryphius on the new album Vanitas Vanitatvm. After
all, there are whispers like “Es ist alles eitel” at every beating of my heart.
September 8th, 2018 was remarkable here; After
the Empyrium concert in İstanbul at that night, Marcus mentioned about Helrunar
and introduced me the main composer, guitarist Sebastian(a.k.a. Alsvartr) who is a very kind and
classy person while we are tasting some surprised red wine but talking about
Condrieu AOC (thanks to Fursy) for some reason.
Thereafter, my desire to know
more about Helrunar and their inspiration behind Vanitas Vanitatvm have heaved
into sight. At this point, pleased to know another kind and unique persona, Marcel (a.k.a. Skald Draugir) who
is the vocalist and writer of the lyrics accepted this intense interview flowing from romantic
era dark poetry to “The death of Hypatia” by filling my glass (imagining a
glass of Amarone at this point) with his spellbinding words about the haunting desolate
realm and captivating gloomy atmosphere of their art, Helrunar.
“Melancholy and especially Sehnsucht are quite
important aspects in the German arts of the 19th century.”
Hello
Marcel, how has been the reactions to new album called Vanitas Vanitatvm? You
have been touring with Empyrium, Sun of the Sleepless for a while. How was it?
Hello! Well, we had a great time on tour with our
friends of Empyrium and Sun of the Sleepless. The concerts were quite
successful, with lots of audience and it was simply fine to travel around in
Europe a little, meeting interesting people, visiting new places. The
interaction between all the people who were involved was simply fantastic… you
know, it can sometimes get difficult when you travel with so many people in
just one bus, but everyone was fine and no one was left behind.
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| Vanitas Vanitatvm |
For
me, new album has such different vein, can be said more energetic. It still has
doom, folkloric and dark influences carrying Helrunar marks like the previous albums
but something shining and more dynamic at there. What do you think?
That is my feeling about the new album, too! “Niederkunfft”
had stronger Death- and Doom-influences that figure quite fine with the lyrical
concept and the general atmosphere, but “VANITAS VANITATVM” is somehow more “back
to the roots” again, regarding the Black Metal-parts, but also more dynamic,
more “fresh”… maybe because of some Thrash Metal and Dissection-influences. But
I can´t really put my finger onto it… we write our sound often quite
instinctively, not really thinking about which influences we´re going to use or
where the whole thing shall lead. But it is far more dynamic, yes, definitely!
There
were 17 years since the foundation of the band, now line-up includes you and
Sebastian. Did you feel like you have fixed the line up? Who are the live musicians on the tour?
Regarding our situation and our way of working it is
the best line-up we can have I guess. Sebastian is doing the greatest part of
the compositions and I am responsible for the lyrics… and it works perfectly!
Our live musicians are Stefan and Árni from Árstiðir
lífsins (a band I am also involved in) and Rainer who is also a member of
the German Death Metal-Band Abrogation.
It might look like they´re simply “session members”, but actually they are
fulfilling a vital role in the band and our personal interaction and friendship
are just fine.
“VANITAS VANITATVM” is somehow more “back to the
roots” again, regarding the Black Metal-parts, but also more dynamic, more
“fresh”…”
In
this album, you focused more modern existentialist problems and narcissism rather
than myths, history and religious conflicts as in previous albums. The term
vanitas is also used for memento mori and the album name can be translated as
vanity of vanities. Can you please talk
about this album’s perspective and your reasons to focus on this topic?
I guess the foundation of the album concept is still
inspired by early modern history, like on “Niederkunfft”. But yes, while
“Niederkunfft” had a primary historic perspective, “Vanitas Vanitatum” points
at modern social and cultural developments. It is not difficult to discover
vanity anywhere in our modern society – just take a look at all the social networks
and how people behave and present themselves there. Everybody seems to be more
beautiful, more special, and smarter than anyone else and, of course, everybody
is more right. Our ways of communication and perception – be it of ourselves,
of others or of the world – have changed drastically within just one decade. No
one can tell yet what the consequences will be… we will have rising numbers of
mental disorders, burnouts and depression over the coming years if you ask me.
People are desperately trying to be special, be it by posting and sharing stuff
to define themselves, to achieve a feeling of identity, or by posting idealized
and photoshopped images of their wannabe-perfect bodies and lifestyle to gather
“likes” in social networks. This might work as a short-term saturation of
emotional desires, but actually it´s all vain, it´s all hollow, it´s all
nothing. That´s “Vanitas Vanitatum” mainly deals with by drawing inspiration
from mythology, history and poetry.
As
I read that you used references from German dramatist and poet Andreas Gryphius
for the album name, Vanitas Vanitatvm. Which works of him do you like? What
impresses you more from his works? Do you have another authors, poets that you
appreciate the works?
There are countless authors from all over the world
that I appreciate… for example Friedrich Hölderlin, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul
Celan and Gottfried Benn when it comes to German authors. I like Andreas
Gryphius especially for his Vanitas-poems, for example “Es ist alles eitel”
(“All is vain”) or “Threnen des Vatterlandes” (“Tears of the Fatherland”). The
latter one is a strong description of the cruelties of the 30-years-war and
what they did to the minds of people.
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| MM.I. - MM.XI. - Vier Wege eines Winters |
German
authors, poets are hand in glove with melancholy like Andreas Gryphius,
Hölderlin, Novalis and even Goethe. What do you think about melancholy in
German culture? What does it mean for
you and for your music?
Well… melancholy and especially Sehnsucht are quite important aspects in the German arts of the 19th
century. The word Sehnsucht cannot so
easily be translated into another language… the English longing falls too short. It describes a longing, but by the same
time a feeling of addiction to this longing, until the longing itself becomes
the fulfilment. Hard to describe… you mentioned various important authors from
different periods: Gryphius is the earliest one, he is baroque era (17th
century), he experienced the cruelties of the 30-years-war and a lot of his
poetry therefore deals with the already mentioned Vanitas-motive. Novalis is a
romantic (late 18th/ early 19th century) and the term Sehnsucht mainly was of importance for
him (the romantics defined their works strongly by melancholy and longing), while
Goethe and Hölderlin are merely representants of the classical period (19th
century).
But now that I think about it, I am not so sure if melancholy is so
special for German arts. Dark feelings, sadness, pain, melancholy have always
been a motivation, for artists from everywhere.
It is often said that Germans have a strong connection to nature,
melancholy and to the dark forests of their homeland, this might point back to
the romantic era, when all this melancholy and nature-mysticism was en vogue in the arts.
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| Frostnacht |
But, however, the
romantic era is over and nowadays I really can´t say that Germans are more
melancholic, or appreciate nature and poetry more than other people on this
planet. But however, I draw a lot of inspiration and often even comfort from
the mentioned authors and many more. The music we make is dark and melancholic,
definitely, and it has to. The world is a dark and sad place and our art should
reflect it. I hope my thoughts about this answer your question properly.
“Hypatia … represents intelligence, wisdom and
freedom, as a symbol.”
Who
did the artwork and what is the story behind?
The cover photo was taken by William Mortensen, an
American photographer who was active in the first decades of the 20th
century, mainly concentrating on erotic and occult photography. I discovered it
by accident and it was not easy to identify the artist and the title and to
research the copyrights. We had to get in contact with the archive of the University
of Arizona, where the original image is stored nowadays. The librarians there
were really friendly guys and offered us a high-resolution scan. The title of
the image is “The death of Hypatia”… Hypatia was a female astronomer,
mathematician and philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the ancient world… for
me, she represents intelligence, wisdom and freedom, as a symbol. She was
killed by Christian fanatics in the year of 415. They dragged her into a church
and cut the flesh from her living body with brick-shards, so it is said.
You
are into myths and archaic tales. What do myths give us? Which tales are more
influential for you?
Well, what you find in the internet is information,
while myths, tales and history are a well of knowledge and wisdom. Information
is of no use if you don´t know the context well. Many people think that they
are oh-so-well-informed nowadays, but they don´t understand a shit. Myths and
tales on the other hand have grown over hundreds, sometimes thousands of years
and preserve the emotions, thoughts and experiences of many, many human beings.
They have a kind of “open meaning”… every time you hear or read them anew, you
can find new aspects and reflect your own existence in a new way. I can´t say
which sort of myths or tales is most influential for me… I like to read and
know them all, if possible. “A book shall be the axe for the frozen sea within
us”, as Franz Kafka wrote.
“The world is a dark and sad place and our art should
reflect it.”
Your
lyrics are mostly in German, I’m curious if the decision to use it related with
the old sagas that you are influenced? How do you find the phonetics of German
language? And if I’m not wrong, it is some different German dialects that you
used on vocals?
I use various Germanic languages and it depends on the
mood and atmosphere I want to create which one I am going to use. I mainly use
normal modern German, for it is my mother tongue and it is simply the easiest way
for me to write lyrics. If I want it archaic, I go for Old-Norse, if it simply
needs a Nordic touch I´ll choose Norwegian or Icelandic (both languages are far
better than German if you want to sing “dirty”). On “Niederkunfft” and also “Vanitas
Vanitatum” I used early modern German (as it was spoken from 16th to
17th century) to get a kind of historical feeling into the lyrics.
And for “Wöljager” I use the regional dialect which is, at least for me,
connected to a lot of authentic old-time and nostalgic feelings.
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| Sól I: Der Dorn im Nebel |
What
do you think about using old/archaic instruments in metal music?
It´s absolutely ok to use them. An artist should use
any instrument or tool that helps him to realize his vision and should not take
care for borders or clichés. But what I dislike is this modern
humpty-dumpty-pseudo-medieval-Pagan-Metal-bullshit, simply because it has more
to do with Disneyland than with mythology.
You
have three active bands. What are the differences among them; Helrunar,
Wöljager and Árstiðir lífsins?
I guess Helrunar
is mainly based in the Black-/Death Metal-genre musically, with lyrics that
are mostly in German and sometimes tend to be more modern, although they were
quite strongly influenced by Old Norse mythology and poetry when we started. Árstiðir lífsins draws a lot of musical
inspiration from the Norwegian Black Metal of the 90ies, but also from
symphonic or Nordic folk music, while the lyrics are always dealing with the
history and mythology of medieval Scandinavia. Wöljager is a little different… it is dark and melancholic (Neo-) folk
music with lyrics in the dialect of my home region, the Münsterland. This
dialect is nearly extinct, but I learned it from my grandfather. The lyrics
deal with folklore, nature and human life in past times.
“There is an epic, emotional aspect and also the
musical depth that symphonic music and Metal often share.”
Do
you have influences from other music genres, classical music has a big impact in
German history, for example?
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| Sól II - Zweige der Erinnerung |
Actually, I listen to a lot of various music genres… classical
music, but also soundtracks, lots of folk, Rock music from the 60s or 70s, even
electronic music sometimes, and any kind of Metal, of course. During the last
months I enjoyed Synthwave a lot. Everything flows in. But there is a certain
parallel between classical or soundtrack music and Metal… I guess there is an
epic, emotional aspect and also the musical depth that symphonic music and
Metal often share. Yes, very many popular classical composers came from Germany
and I guess they are still a strong part of German identity. But in German
everyday life they don´t play such an important role anymore, at least my
impression.
What
are your influential black metal bands for all times according to you?
It´s mainly the old school of Norwegian Black Metal in
our case – Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Enslaved, to name some. They
managed to create this certain cold, spiritual style that sounds like music
from another dimension.
Please
share your last words… Thank you for the interview.
Çok teşekkür ederim! And best greetings to our fans in
Turkey!
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| Photo by Carsten Brand |
“…This might work as a short-term saturation of
emotional desires, but actually it´s all vain, it´s all hollow, it´s all
nothing. That´s “Vanitas Vanitatum” mainly deals with by drawing inspiration
from mythology, history and poetry.”
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