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What entices me about Metal as a whole is the fact that there is a musical equivalent to all the emotions that reside within me. Even though I’m far from being a stereotypical Black Metal fan, I’m fascinated by the way the modern Black Metal variants manage to capture the darkness of the soul. One band that does just that in a exceedingly distinctive way are GROZA. Their new album Nadir is already on the horizon and we seized the opportunity to meet them at Wolfszeit Festival. Read now what singer P.G. had to say about inspirations, future plans and, of course, the new album.
Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for the amazing pictures!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: If you had to describe GROZA to someone who never heard you music before, what would you say?
P.G.: I’m always struggling to describe us. If I had to though, I’d say that we play melodic Black Metal at the core, but at times you can hear some Post influences. As opposed to other Black Metal bands we also have some clean parts that build up slowly. GROZA is about melodic Black Metal with a lot of atmosphere and impactful lyrics. That is the way I myself see the band.
SV: Are there any songs, albums or artists that heavily influenced your style?
P.G.: MGLA for sure. It’s kind of obvious, because Groza is also the name of the first MGLA album. Originally, GROZA was a worship project and our first album is nothing but worship. They influenced me significantly! On our second album and on our coming record, there are more influences simply because the others have started contributing to the music and I’m no longer writing all the music on my own. In terms of influences, for me, it’s always been MGLA, as well as the first two UADA records, the first four DARKTHRONE albums and, in terms of more modern music, KARG, basically everything since Dornenvögel, and HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY.
SV: Looking at the content side of things, what are topics that are very prevalent in your music?
P.G.: It might be a bit cliché, but you always write everything down that weighs on you in your day-to-day life. Sometimes, there is a concept, sometimes you collect topics over a longer span of time and sometimes it’s like a diary. It always depends on what is going on. GROZA exclusively deals with negative topics. I’m only interested in negative or sad music. Happy music has never been for me. GROZA is an outlet to channel everything out of the system, so to speak.
SV: Your new album Nadir will be released on September 20th. How is this album different from the ones you did before?
P.G.: I think, at the core, we are continuing the sound from the las album. The key elements are there, but we always try to widen our sound so that we don’t repeat ourselves. To make it precise, we have intense orchestral arrangements that are much more prevalent and important. We did have those sounds on our last album as well, but they were more in the background. We also have a song in German, which is something we haven’t done before. The Song, Asbest, is derived from a collaboration with KARG. I had a guest track on the last KARG album and that was song was in German because J.J. writes everything in a dialect. During the recording I felt the gears turning and I realized that I could put more emphasis in a song when I write it in German. It’s something tremendously different to sing in your native language! We also have a guest feature for the very first time by J.J. and M.S. from HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY. Those are the most important points that differentiate Nadir from our other works.
SV: I think that different languages give a different access to the same problems. Would you agree with that?
P.G.: Yes, I would! I’m mainly a musician, not a lyricist, the musical access is always easier for me. I can express myself quite well in melodies. The lyrics are somewhat harder. The approach is very different though!
SV: You just briefly mentioned that you released the single Daffodils with HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY. Why is this song and the other single, Dysthymian Dreams, particularly worth listening to?
P.G.: Daffodils is definitely worth listening to because of the feature, because, as I said, we haven’t done something like this before. We were on tour with HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY last year and we were good friends with them before, but this was something very personal! It was less about the musical qualities, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY have a strong influence on us anyway, but it’s much more of a tribute. We lost our bass player last year and it was his idea, which came to him during the tour, that we should all do something together. On a tour like that, you also get very close to one another, so overall it was just very personal. The song also deals with this whole topic and so it was only fitting that we invited M.S. and J.J. to take part in it. They also experienced it first hand…
SV: So a kind of a memento mori?
P.G.: Mhm…yes, it is… I always find it difficult to reduce it to this topic alone, but of course it had a huge influence on the record – some parts were created before, other parts after. Daffodils in particular was made afterwards and it made sense to get the guys on board.
SV: What are things that you want people to remember about you at some point? Something that you think people should remember, even if you no longer exist?
P.G.: I hope that people remember our authenticity and credibility. We mean what we do! If someone sees one of our shows and it moves something in them, then that’s the greatest achievement. For me, it’s not about what people like in detail. If it comes across that we really mean what we’re doing, then we’ve already won a lot!
SV: As far as your live show is concerned: Last year in the concert report on the tour stop in Erfurt, I raised the question of why you were wearing masks. My assumption was that you do it to distract from the person as such and to focus on the music. Would you see it the same way?
P.G.: I would agree with that! The idea isn’t new, we’re back to our influences, we didn’t invent it. But that’s exactly the purpose! It also gives you a certain freedom as an artist on stage, because you have a barrier and you can separate your face, your self. That helps you to let go.
SV: You separate the artist from the private person.
P.G.: Absolutely! Of course it’s about personal topics that are discussed, but that’s completely interchangeable. It could come from anyone! It’s about how it’s conveyed in the music and not about who expresses it in detail or what the person looks like or what the person’s background is. That’s just not important.
SV: When you look to the near future, what’s next for you?
P.G.: The new album will be released on September 20th and we’re going on a European tour with ELLENDE and SERVANT relatively soon after that, starting on October 2nd. That will also be the first opportunity for us to play large parts of the new album live. We already had two songs on our set list at the festivals. After that, we’ll just see where else it takes us. We’ve already got a few things lined up for next year, but the tour is the focus for now.
SV: Why should people definitely see you on this tour?
P.G.: First and foremost, because ELLENDE is also playing! I’m a huge ELLENDE fan [we laugh]. I haven’t seen SERVANT live yet, but the new record is also incredibly good, it’s actually a cheek! The tour package is just very strong and especially for us, I think our new album is just very strong and I hope that translates live. It feels like we have even more depth and substance on the new record. You’ll definitely notice that live.
SV: If you could send a message to your fans, what would it be?
P.G.: Listen to the new record, if you like it, deal with it and come to the tour!
There you have it! Going to the ELLENDE tour is definitely a good idea! In addition, the third single from Nadir entitled Deluge was recently released, which I can also highly recommend at this point.
There will be another exciting interview here soon. So stay tuned!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 