martes, 23 de julio de 2013

ERRAGAL ENTREVISTA

Erragal is a one man ambient black metal/mesopotamian ritualistic dark ambient band from baghdad/iraq..formed by yassir .."AKA Lord Erragal " in 2009. piano and keyboards were the main musical essence which brings the ambient atmosphere to the project in that time which formed the theme of Erragal`s music as a Mesopotamian musical touches with some dark oriental attitude...the general lyrical theme based on sumerian mythology so as babylonian myths..the concept is dealing with the ancient gods and paganism in that time with mixture of blasphemy and anti-religion..the music have been developed into black metal/dark ambient in the 1st full length "the forgotten land" released in 2011.
Quote of textual facebook.

Good afternoon, How are things in Baghdad?, Thank you very much for agreeing to answer these questions.

Cheers , well , I think Baghdad is at it’s purest downfalls , regarding everything .


1. Why did you decide to form a project as personal as Erragal? What gives Erragal over other bands I like Amelnakru militas, Kurgal?

-Well , Erragal was a project combines all the elements ov Amelnakru and Kurgal in it’s music composition ,though I couldn’t make it that experimental for too long , so I decided to for, the other projects in 2011 , yes it’s personal because ov 2 main reasons , 1st I started with my musical career through Erragal , and 2nd it deals with Mesopotamian heritage , which is what I’m dedicated to as a person .

2. "Realms of the Underworld", is the third full-length Erragal, how the sound has evolved from the first demo, 2009? How was the recording process and composition of this album?

-I started with the worst record equipments back  to 2009 through using mobiles to record , closed and empty rooms to get delay , and bad quality mics to record vocals , but that didn’t last too long , as I worked in different places in Baghdad to gain much money for buying new instruments and equipments so that’s how u find the forgotten land as different to 2009 1st demo , and the latest full length is completely different to 2011 one , so that’s how it works  , Realms of the Underworld was originaly recorded 2011 as ambient sounds , through my field records as I used to go in the streets of Baghdad , sometimes in theaters and concerts to records what I hear as ambient , then after the ability I got to buy new instruments in 2012 , I could compose the rest , I recorded everything in my home mini room studio to serve u this album as it is .



3. The lyrics revolve Erragal turns on two aspects on the one hand Sumerian and Babylonian Mythology and other anti-religious thoughts. What aspects of Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology inspires you when composing? What do you consider essential facts within the mythology?

-Once ,a well known Iraqi archaeologist called taha baqir , said a very important fact in one ov his book’s introduction , that back to that era we can consider the age of Sumerians , akkadians and Babylonians as the golden age ov humanity concerning every single part ov life .me my self adopt this theory and approved it through my researches , it’s like they didn’t need the technology we use now a days because they replaced it with something fits their age with one important advantage , that it do not vandalize nature , the golden age concerning every other part ov morals , values , human intelligence , nature adaptation  and over all humanism , if u just read the epic of Gilgamesh , you would find the protagonist of the epic after his journey to seek immortality , that he finally found the ultimate answer to that , which is man could be immortalized through his deeds , not his physical existence , just think a while about this , and imagine this was said thousands ov years from our time .

4. Moreover we antireligious thoughts, what do you think about religions in general? Have you had many problems in your country because of your texts? What is your opinion of religious fanaticism?

-Well for me , religion is the psychological need of the weak to have set ov rules to follow , a god to worship, because human in his nature is weak and that weakness can be reflected in his adaptation to religion , which is absolutely a set of  human made rules , might helped someone through a specific era , but then it vandalized another . it’s like apolitical party raising an ideal view that contradict with human nature and instinct .
I’v faced many problems concerning what I write , and what I do in general as a black metal musician is a big risk to me , but we had enough ov silence .
The only thing I could tell u about religious fanaticism is ,u can see Iraq , middle east in general , look at it’s history , and look at it now , all what happened was directly or indirectly affecting us through the religious fanaticism manipulations and mind mutation ov all the descended generation that followed their trace .

5. I understand it is a subject that has little to do with music and understand that decline to answer the question, but how is the day to day in a country like Iraq, wrapped in recent decades in endless power struggles? What you feel about countries like USA, instigators of all these struggles to seize the wealth of countries like yours?

-I think, human as a creature is a reflection to what is happening ,humans as creatures killed each others for centuries to survive , I can’t put all the blame on the US government , yes all their actions are immoral , but they are proceeding toward the needs of their nation and their superiority , what should be blamed is our people , the decedents of a high culture whom seemed lost every single of patriotism to their nations ,drowning in ignorance till they reached this point ov being the weak side that u can do what ever u want with their resources and they would be glad for a bunch of cheap payments . USA played a filthy role in the region , and we are drowning in ignorance , that’s how is it .

6. The black metal bands in your music recreat Eastern atmospheres away a lot of gender patterns. Are you in contact with other bands in your area? What vision you have of black metal in the East? What bands would you recommend us?
  
-I tried to create something original , something never been heard before , and I think I’m on the 1st step to create that , specially with full length Shamash and Realms of the Underworld , I’d rather call it Mesopotamian atmospheres as the sub genre I claimed earlier , yes I contact and know some ov the bands in the region and I’d say the Persian scene and the Turkish one is one of a kind , I contact Ekove Efrits as Count De Efrit is a good friend  ov mine from Persia , qafas from Bahrain ,forgive me from Jordan and many others I’m in contact with , but as a recommendation , I recommend u listening to bands like , Al-Namrood, Narjahanam, Ölüm and Sorg Innkallelse.

7. Why reason decided to pursue music? Are they, today, force these reasons that prompted him to want to be a musician?

-I’d say , every single action , every single struggle just motivated me to be a musician ,not to mention the exact need inside  me that I want to reflect through my music , it’s an inhibition to be set out of the cage .



8. What is the relationship between the cover of the album and the music of "Realms of the Underworld"? Who is designing the cover of the cd?

-I designed everything , I usually design my front covers , but sometimes what inside the releases might be designed by the label I sign with , but all front covers are my original design , bu some of the covers are made by my brother as for Amelnakru too , about the cover and it reference to the music , originally this is a babylonian map made on clay with many cuneiform descriptions with many changes i did , it support to have a map ov babylon inside surrounded by the 7 edges which means 7 destinations or what they call it as "islands " , i put the image of god ningshzidda in the middle , and the 7 islands are :The North island is in darkness - a land "where one sees nothing," and "the sun is not visible The North-West island "the light is brighter than that of sunset or stars" .The third island is where "the winged bird ends not his flight," in other words, cannot be reached. The North-East island is "where a horned bull dwells and attacks the newcomer". The seventh island is the east and is is "where the morning dawns," . it got a strong reference to the content of the music .

9. "Realms of the Underworld" is published in Le Crépuscule du Soir Productions, how did the contact with the label to release the cd? Will publishing in the future work in this label?


- Jo Tsoverg contacted me personally through facebook and shows his interest 1st to release Kurgal’s full length , and my journey with him started from that day , yes , we have some plans in the future to release much music for Erragal .


10. What future plans do you have for Erragal, in terms of new releases, concerts, releases, etc. ..?

-I’m recording a new EP for Erragal , re-recording old elements from fragment of demos and EP to a new form that is completely different than any release ov Erragal , there is a teaser track uploaded on Erragal’s official page , you and the fans can check it out .,

11. Thank you very much for your time, if you want to add something for people who like Erragal, this is the place, thanks. I hope the questions are to your liking.

-I’m glad to do this interview with you as ur questions were smart to the point . I’d like to promise my fans that my music and projects will stop when I die , so do not believe any rumors of split up or any kind of that , I will continue this battle to the end , polishing the heritage of the true Meopotamian black metal scene that I start here and many will follow in the future.

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