BELLVM GERITE

Second interview with Eugen and Andreas of Voidskald about the new album

Date: 2008.11.06

  • BELLVM GERITE: And once we meet again. You just released your new album Within the Boötes Void. It is your second full length release in only one month. What can you tell me about this piece of art?
  • Eugen: Yeah, I know. It's pretty strange - the speed we can work at, I mean. We do have pretty low recording standards and it's all raw distorted rubbish but it does the job. At least that is what I hoped. But the reviews for our last album were mostly mediocre, rarely positive - even from the people who are into the same music as we are. It actually got more attention than we anticipated, so that was a pleasant surprise. The less people work on a project the smaller the overhead - at least that is my theory. I think it takes far more time to put things together with many people. And you frequently end up reducing things to a common demoninator because people have different tastes and different skills. It can be really difficult to produce something the members can agree on and there's a great danger of, you know, making things too conventional!
  • Andreas: I may be a pessimist but at least I never have unreal expectations. We do quick and dirty work, I think that's a part of the idea behind making raw noisy black metal. Many people say that black metal is also about not giving a fuck about what other people think about you but I think it is important to see your own work through the eyes of others. They may see something completely different after all.
  • Eugen: I think we really should answer his actual question now.
  • Andreas: Alright (laughs). We previously announced that the riffs would be faster at times but actually you hardly notice that and the beat remains steady anyways. I am such a miserable guitarist that I can hardly play our own songs properly. Our recordings are full of mistakes and inaccurate timings, etc. At times it angers me but mostly it's not so important to me. Maybe people should stick to reading the tabs and the lyrics only, at least that will do the original music justice. Anyways, Storm is a good example for the riffs I was talking about and I really suck at playing them. Musically I Am Thorns stands out to me. I really love some of the riffs in there. The one which starts at 1:44 is pretty simple actually but it's beautiful. You can hardly hear the details though, too bad.
  • Eugen: The new album is pretty much like the old one, I think. The sound largely remained the same. I did make use of my clear voice in I Am Thorns for the "Kill me! Please kill me!" thing and...
  • Andreas: Ohhh! What a novelty!
  • Eugen: Yes, indeed. And in Lying in the Snow where I actually sing using my clear voice towards the end! It sounded pretty awkward but as you can see we like to be a bit more experimental on the last track of each album. On Hermitry it was Victor of All Wars - a long, monotonous, slow and repetitive track, if I may so. I read a review on some blog which actually said that this was the best track on the entire album. I am not sure whether this means that our usual style is unpopular or if we actually achieved what we wanted. The lyrical themes changed a bit, too. I made cut backs on the philosophical references and added more social criticism, questioning of authority, overthrowing dictators, political reforms, the old hat.
  • BELLVM GERITE: What is the title of the new album all about?
  • Eugen: Boötes Void is the name of a so called "supervoid" in the observable universe. It is a part of space which largely consists of vacuum and has only few galaxies. I thought it was a great actual scientific/physical reference to what I associate some of our lyrical themes and the name Voidskald with, as I explained in the previous interview with you. This supervoid is not particularly large or anything, I just liked the name they had given to it. It is actually an anglicanised version of the Greek Βοώτης which means herdsman - a person who lives in seclusion, taking care of animals and such. Quite fitting, I must say. The supervoid is named after the constellation which points towards it when you're looking at it from Earth. We put this constellation on the cover for that reason. Somebody pointed out that we use an archaic form of connecting the stars and we're sorry for that. We still embrace a scientific view of the world but we just thought it would look prettier. Unluckily you don't find this pattern in modern literature anymore.
  • BELLVM GERITE: About the cover... it is even more simplistic than the last one, everything written and drawn by hand, as far as I can tell. You previously promised to put more work into the cover art, didn't you?
  • Andreas: (laughs) Yes. Yes. Yes, I know I did. I am so sorry but I just suck at drawing so I just took the piss and made this black on white stuff - which many find totally unblack metal. But at least it's easier to print! Anyways, as you can see I made a new logo, too. Many people stick to one logo all the time but I think that's a bit boring.
  • BELLVM GERITE: I noticed that the back says Within Boötes Void and not Within the Boötes Void, what is that all about?
  • Andreas: Oh. You're actually right. You know, the original name was Within Boötes Void but Eugen added the "the" later to make it sound less awkward. We are Germans after all - a people renouned for their absence of English skills! Anyways, I had made the cover before that, I suppose.
  • BELLVM GERITE: Alright, thank you for this short interview! Any last words?
  • Eugen: Atheist supremacy!
  • Andreas: Yeah, err, heil atheism!