Dark forbidden stories, old rituals and scary witchcrafts have been always a thing that interested metal bands for decades. Houffalize, Belgium’s sludgy doom metal band OLDD WVRMS follows this concept with a fiercely committed fashion, serving us an unnerving sense of historical drama and breaking the hypnotizing spell that casts upon us relentlessly. The band’s new effort called “Ignobilis” is a strikingly achieved tale of old rituals, occult, dark magic, and… something natural and beautiful that lurks beneath the disturbing surface. Dive deep into it and enjoy the fear that gnaws at your bones while listening. Don’t bother pressing the stop button, cause it will come back to find you in the dark anyway.
Ignobilis by OLD WVRMS is out now on Grizzly INC (CDs), Rising Nemesis Records (tapes) and Flesh Vessel Records (vinyl).
Hey there guys! Welcome to IDIOTEQ. Thanks for taking some time with us. How are you? The first thing came to my mind after diving deep into the dark woods of OLDD WVRMS was the recently watched movie THE WITCH. Have you seen the movie?
Hi Karol, Yes we have seen the movie and loved it. Great atmosphere, exactly what we’re into.
Do you remember how you were introduced to the concept of witchraft? What was that first art form that you saw implementing ideas of dark vital forces or supernatural powers? What sparked that first images of witches in your heads?
We created OW on occult basics. We come from a region steeped in witchcraft, magic and old tales. So from the start, we wanted to build our musical journey about this topic.
How exactly did you come up with this creepy concept for the band? Apart from music, what kind of art do you find influencing OLDD WVRMS the most?
From movies and books mainly…
About movies, let’s say , Mark Of The Witch, Season Of The Witch, Suspiria, Häxan, Blair Witch Project, The Conjuring, The Witch, ans so on…
About books, everything inspired by the Malleus Maleficarum, Salem’s tales, our local tales, comics from Servais…
Beside that, the visions that these women had of nature and ritualistic practices.
Is there a particular aspect of these themes that you find yourself most drawn to?
The simple fact that these women worshiped something concrete, preferring to listen to nature rather than follow any religion. They were persecuted for following their heart and not biblical writings…
Worshiping nature is accepting the light and darkness in any kind of situation, dealing with your inner self, every single day of your life.. witches are for us, the perfect exemple of acceptance of this condition.
What aspects of this crossing between art and dark magic do you hope listeners will pick up on while diving into the sounds of OLDD WVRMS? Also, what symbols do you see reoccurring in your lyrics and artwork? What would you say is the one that keeps appearing in your stories and imagery you’re trying to display in our minds?
A ritualistic side, which each one can implement in its imaginary.
We are trying to place the listener into an hypnotic and ethereal trance with the atmosphere, while keeping the beats catchy and heavy.
The symbolic from those witches tales can be applied to our current era, fear of aging, quest for eternal youth, exclude societal and religious concepts, taming the darkness and light in each one of us.
Who do you work with when it comes to visualizing these concepts, making artworks, covers, etc.?
We have worked with various artists, explaining with few keywords our concept and let the artist do according to their vision. Luciana Nedelea is responsible for the artwork of Ignobilis, kind regards to her, the result is just perfect.
If there was one thing you would want us to take away from OLDD WVRMS, what would it be?
The hypnotic side of our music, we’re almost an instrumental band, voices are used as samples and drones.
In the future, we will go further in that direction, almost soundtrack concept.By the way, we are working with video projections at our shows, blending our music with imagery is amazing and the audience seems to like it…Regards to “A Thousand Lost Civilizations” for their stunning work.
Great! I was just about to ask you about that. Where and when will we be able to catch you guys live?
Currently, we’re playing local shows, here in the french side of Belgium.
We have plans for France in early 2017 and we’re looking for shows everywhere to promote “Ignobilis”.
If anyone who reads this would be interested…please, get in touch.
Ok, so let’s find out a bit more about your earthly activities. What are your musical backgrounds, what other bands have you been in and what led you to start this blackened project?
We all played in several projects for almost 20 years now…we met and talked about creating something slow and occult…with only two guidelines, “let’s talk about witches” & “no musical boundaries”.
We tried different singers, it did not work, so we recorded “Ignobilis” just by the three of us.
How is your creative process with this band? Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Nothing unusual or fancy, everything goes fast and smooth. One riff at a time, then we build the structure of the song according to the atmosphere of it.
Does your latest record unify the whole series of your offerings? How do you approach the approach the continuity of your discography?
Yes and no, we consider our previous records as demos, we were still searching our path.
We consider “Ignobilis” as the real beginning for OW. At this point, we recorded exactly what we had in mind when we started the band.
What can we expect in your future releases in terms of scares, surprises and interesting stories? Have you already thought about some fields you’d like to break down on your future records? In which direction would you like to take your work?
The next album will focus on the story of only one witch, her life and death, it is a bit early to explain the overall concept, but that’s the idea… We will go deeper in the hypnotic and atmospheric path, still with heavy punishing and pounding parts. We’ll keep blending all our influences in a more homogeneous way.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline, and would like to simply spread the word about some noteworthy artists from your area?
Oli is also playing in VLVR, awesome post-rock.
About friends, we send our regards to DEUIL, ANGAKOK, WYATT E, THOT, EMPTINESS, ARKANGEL, WOLVENEST, MOLK, DEEPSHOW, MOYEN and many more.
Ok gus, thanks so much for your time. last words are yours.
Oli is also playing in VLVR, awesome post-rock.
Thanks a lot for your time and interest…and all my apologies for my rusty English .
