Good afternoon, thank you very much for answering these questions. How's everything going in Slovakia?
P.: Honestly, I don’t even know. For the last ten years I’ve been living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, just losing interest in pretty much everything..
1. Porenut is approaching its twentieth anniversary. Back in 2008, it started operating, first as a one-man band, then Neplex joined. So, how did the idea of creating Porenut come about? Why did you choose the name Porenut, and what does it refer to?
P.: The idea (or rather the need) was to break free from the dull circles of everyday life and push myself — and black metal — to a new level, one that would eclipse everything that came before us and show everyone around how it’s supposed to be done. Spoiler alert: none of that worked out.
About the name: it’s a wordplay on Poor & Nut. But seriously now — my endless imagination couldn’t come up with anything better than opening a Wikipedia page of the Slavic pantheon, and fate guided my eyes to the word Porenut — only so that I would spend the rest of my life explaining to everyone that we have absolutely nothing to do with paganism, and that it’s just a word we hide behind from the world.
2. “Výstup k svätej Kunde” will be your fourth album. When you released your previous album, “Mislives,” it seemed as if a halo of dejection had settled over Porenut, a feeling of discouragement and a certain depression. However, time has passed, and Porenut continues to move forward. How have things changed within Porenut in the years between the two albums? Has this “Výstup k svätej Kunde” been a catalyst for all those negative emotions? What was the writing and recording process for the new album like? What brands of instruments did you use in the process?
P.: Not much has changed between the last two albums. The whole process is still the same: we agree on a concept, start working on it, then Neplex rewrites everything ten times only to finally delete it all and say he’s done with it. Meanwhile, I can’t even record my own songs properly, or I just keep endlessly twiddling knobs on the amps because it sounds like shit. I’m waiting for lyrics, Neplex is waiting for music. We argue about who’s waiting on whom. Or we’re just waiting on some other nonsense (greetings to Batorek and his drainpipe). So yeah, your question pretty much nailed how we function between albums — it’s all just a feeling of discouragement and a certain depression.
3. Attending a Porenut album screening requires effort and a willingness to immerse yourself in a chaotic and experimental world, where nothing is what it seems. Delving into a sound that draws on experimental, dissonant, avant-garde, black, death metal, and a touch of psychedelic rock, all of which, through Porenut's hands, results in a practically unique sound. What new ground have you explored on this new album? What bands and styles have influenced you in composing and shaping this new album?
P.: I believe every new album has to be both better and different. And if it can’t really get better anymore (because everyone eventually hits their limit), then at least it should be something new, something that hasn’t been done before. For me, the greatest embodiment of this approach is Reverorum ib Malacht. Even though they suffer from heavy overproduction and the quality varies a lot, you always know the next album will be something completely unlike everything that came before. And that’s how it should be.
It’s also necessary to mention Xasthur — even after 30 years of existence, Mr. Conner still keeps pushing black metal forward, even though he hasn’t considered his music black metal for years.
And rounding out the big three of my inspirations is Deathspell Omega. Especially the albums Fas and Drought, which convinced me that music theory is for losers.
4. I don't know if this has happened before, but in this new album you develop a conceptual story, full of absurd and surprising situations. Could you explain a little about the concept of the album and where the idea came from? Did the story adapt to the music or vice versa?
N.: Yeah, we’d already released one short story with the Sebaklam EP back in 2014. I don’t want to describe the concept of the new album. My intention was to write a text that’s open to interpretation, but still has a clear, self-contained storyline. The text tries to capture an existential mood that I can only put into words like this: I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know why it’s happening, and I know I’ll never be able to figure it out as a human being. I can only describe what I see: that guy’s going one way, another guy another. Based on such simple observation, I might try to piece together a worldview, but behind it all there’s some unreachable mystery — and also the nagging suspicion that this mystery is, at its core, just a banal piece of bullshit.
The music came first; it felt colorful, strange, sometimes totally off the wall, and I adapted the flow of the text to fit that.
5. Although the bulk of the album's sound, in terms of recording, was done by yourselves, it's also true that you worked with Dark Productions and Andreas Westholm. Why did you decide to work with him?
P. After years of trial and error I had to admit that I wasn’t cut out to be a producer, and it was time to let someone who actually knows what they’re doing take over. And since I consider Porenut to be — and always will — black metal, I wanted the album to be handled by someone who primarily works on mixing black metal.
But how do you explain to another person how it’s supposed to sound? Even if I could put it into words, I don’t like doing that — I’d rather let others guess what I mean. Which, of course, drives them crazy. So we owe a big thank you to Andreas for his patience in dealing with my endless, vague, and unclear demands.
6. Once again, the album will be self-released. Why is this situation happening again? Has there been no interest from any record label in releasing it, or even if there was, did you prefer self-release at the moment?
N.: In fact, our entire discography has been released by the label Nomad Sky Diaries. They put out a lot of noise, electronics, experimental recordings — probably the reason Metal Archives has little love for them. The previous album Mislives was also released by Necroeucharist Prod, and Postnihilera came out on cassette via Pest Productions. Hopefully we’ll manage to get Výstup k svätej Kunde onto other formats as well.
7. Marcel Hamza worked on the album cover. Why did you decide to work with Marcel? What does this cover represent and how does it relate to the album's content?
N.: Our good friend runs the publishing house Sol Noctis, which a few years ago started releasing the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft in Slovak. Marcel prepared beautiful illustrations for the books, and the rest was just a matter of a few emails and a few beers. He based the cover on a short story and basically nailed what we wanted on the very first try. Of course, I started overthinking it and only made things worse, but luckily Marcel went back to the original design — and we’re completely satisfied with the result.-
8. The Slovak extreme metal scene has a very strong identity, while at the same time, it can have an underground character. What do you think Slovak extreme metal is missing to make itself more known outside its borders? What do you think of the extreme metal scene in your country, and what bands would you recommend?
P.: There are many good bands/projects here with solid craftsmanship, good production, and great ideas. But something is missing — their own identity. Most of it is just variations of countless other bands. Nobody needs to hear yet another copy of band X. I don’t understand why there’s no ambition to go beyond the music that inspired them. It doesn’t matter whether you succeed or not (we certainly didn’t). But I feel like nobody even tries.
Still, I’ll use this space to promote a project that, for the first time in a long while, made me say: Wow, did this really come from Slovakia? — Abyssal Necrophony.
9. Is there a chance that, with the help of some of the collaborators who participated in Porenut's latest album, you'll end up playing a concert? If a concert of yours were to happen at some point, do you think the visuals would also be important?
P.: It’s not just about the visuals. For me, a concert is something like a play with its own storytelling. It has a beginning, a build-up, and an ending. It doesn’t need to be anything grandiose — everyone is already busy enough playing their instrument. But in every song (and especially between songs) there’s room for a small gesture, for something you want to highlight in that moment, or a different way to connect the songs together. After all, if a concert is to have any meaning, you have to give the listeners something they won’t find on the album.
The biggest problem (apart from the fact that the live line-up started falling apart the day it was formed) is convincing the others to take part in your dumbass ideas.
10. How did you get started in music: first concerts you attended, first albums you bought? What event in your lives pushed you to want to be musicians?
N.: I’m not a musician, but the moment that set me on this path — whatever it is — was hearing Burzum – A Journey to the Stars. The first album I ever bought was Maniac Butcher – Epitaph. I don’t remember the first gig I saw (it was some local bands), but I have to mention the last one that left me speechless — Dødheimsgard, just two nights ago. It was mesmerizing.
11. What album represents the essence of black metal for you? What recent albums have you bought?
P.: Good question. I still believe black metal hasn’t reached its peak, and there are endless paths to get there. But somehow the “metal” part keeps it grounded, preventing it from fully unfolding and truly becoming that essence you can’t describe or comprehend — an abstract presence you only know is there.
Lately, though, there have been a few interesting albums that open those paths:
• Xasthur – Disharmonic Variations
• Chelsea Wolfe – The Grime and the Glow
• Reverorum ib Malacht – everything
12. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit. If you'd like to add something for Porenut's fans, this is the place. I hope you enjoy the questions.
- Yes we did. Best regards.
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