On “Rudra Bhakti” by Italian epic black metallers DROUGHT (Avantgarde Music) combines the sublime magic of the scariest stories from the major traditions within Hinduism with disturbing rituals and massive doom sonic experience that features equally strong and well-thought compositions to render an offering that is easily one of the best of the last year. DROUGHT rendered up visceral and unearthly set of very dense and rich compositions that give you more than enough material to immerse yoourself in. We invited the band to discuss the concept of this mystical effort and more share more details on their project. Scroll down to ready our interview in full.
These songs revolve around the transformation from man to The Übermensch (German for “Overman, Overhuman, Superman, Superhuman), through the purification of the fire and the metaphor of the warrior, mainly taking inspiration from parts of Vijnanabhairava as well as personal experiences of meditation. Fire is the main element manifested by Shiva, seen as a purifying factor and dissolving, regenerating and annihilating. In this case also seen as the awakening of a burning and dissolving energy, which brings chaos and destroys the boundaries of mortality to reach immortality.
“Fusing the deep, spiritual sounds of tribal, ritualistic ambient and chanting with the complex, cacophonous discord of modern unorthodox black metal, Drought’s two unlikely halves meld and transcend. Lengthy bouts of inward, meditative ambiance explode into uncompromising, overwhelming blackened extremism, breaking the trance and achieving a greater aggression in the listener.” / Jon Rosenthal // Invisibleoranges.com
The outstanding art for “Rudra Bhakti” was designed by Blessend and Blacktooth Collective.
Catch the band live at CuevaRock Live in Strada ex provinciale Quartucciu-Ganni, Quartucciu, alongside IMPLORE, SCORNTHROATS and SIMULACRO.
Hey guys! First of all, thanks a lot for taking some time with IDIOTEQ and congratulations on your massive, mystical record! How are you? How do you view this grand opus now when it’s out for some time now?
Hi Karol, thank you for your time and the interest shown for DROUGHT. We are all fine, just rehearsing and working hard to shape the follow-up of “Rudra Bhakti”. We’re happy of the positive feedback that our EP got from the audience, the writing process of the next album is going smooth and hopefully it will be released in 2018 by Avantgarde Music.
The press release for the record says it “revolve around the transformation from man to The Übermensch (not to be confused with Untermensch, the infamous term discussed in this interview with the band УНТЕРМЕНШ). Can you expound more on the idea of the purification through the fire, the experience of meditation and more concepts behind this record and, I guess, your impressive music video for “Fire Breathing”? Let’s take it step by step and explain the very basic ideas and sources of inspirations for the stories behind your work.
The main concept of our EP is the transformation through the fire. It comes from the Vedic tradition, where Rudra – the primordial form of Shiva, appears for the first time as a manifestation of chaos. Basically the Hindu cults sink their roots on the idea of spiritual circularity, which means a circular “motion” from the birth to the death and the new rebirth. So the destruction has always the meaning of “place for new life”. Which means improvement, spiritual elevation and upheaval to enlightenment. The fire is the way to cleanse the deceptive elements of the human being, to ascend to a new spiritual level.
We turned this concept into a black metal representation, focusing everything on the element of fire. That’s why it’s so predominant in our video. We wanted a lot of fire, because the fire is the key for the disintegration of the mortality and the ascension to the deity rank. Every element of the clip, from the monks to the big woody sculpture – which reminds a kind of shady, grim Shiva – and the bones or the forest are connected to the ritual aspect of this procession.
Are you hardline believers of this religion? Do you practice the way of life that reflects and embodies these ideas?
Nobody of us is believer of any religion or practicer of any cult, but some of us are involved in oriental spiritualism, yoga and tantra practice. We mainly use this kind of spiritual approach as an allegory and a channel to focus our base concept, which is the spiritual essence of this kind of music and the communion which generate it. What you can hear in the music we play is actually a 100 % genuine essence of the feelings we feel, expecially those who binds us as friends and musicians who love to play together. Our music is the direct fruit of this kind of burning passion, filtered through our instruments.
What ultimate goals does this philosophy create?
There’s no ultimate goal in anything we put in our music. The propose is and will be only the one to create a convergence between us, channelling the quintessence of our souls into our music. Tantric and yogic philosophy is the shape we give to this propose.
How do you think the apprentices of traditional studying this knowledge view using such extreme music forms to tell stories that revolve around Hinduism?
We think they could perceive our music as blasphemy. But we are not interested: as said, the only propose we have is focusing our spiritual channel into black metal art.
How was the experience of creating this atmospheric sonic journey different from what you had experienced with your previous projects and recordings?
We are all black metal fan since the teenage. We played together in other projects but the black metal “focus” has always been strongly present, in a way or another. This time we decided to dedicate ourselves to the genre which raised us up.
Did ‘Rudra Bhakti’ create a unifying theme for your next releases? What concepts and themes do you wish to explore in your future releases?
The oriental spirituality will remain the main topic also in the next release, then we will see. Expect a deeper and more focused handling of it in the forthcoming full length.
What was your intention when you started DROUGHT and how has the initial idea of running the band evolved? What do you seek to find and learn from running this band in the future?
The answer remains the same: we started this project because we wanna play together and we wanna play black metal, choosing to channel our efforts into the oriental shamanism as symbol of unification and conflagration of spiritual power. As long as the flame will burn, the project will stay alive.
Thanks so much for your time! Feel free to wrap it up with your last message to our readers and take care! Cheers from freezing cold Warsaw!
Thank you for your time and your dedication. 2017 will be the year of our first full length’s breeding. Expect new shamanic noises from our side soon. Shanti.
