Good afternoon, thank you so much for answering these questions. How's everything going in Haifa?
Hello, everything is fine, although it is very, very hot here now, I hope you are doing well?
1. Although you're currently based in Israel, Die Entweihung was actually founded in Belarus in 2007. What led you to create Die Entweihung? Why did you choose this name, and what does it refer to? When did you decide to leave Belarus for Israel, and what has this change brought you as a person and as an artist?
That's not entirely true. I moved to Israel in 2004, and Die Entweihung was founded in 2007, by which time I'd been living in Israel for almost three years. Although the idea of creating a band/project had been in my head since early childhood. Well, you know how it is when you're captivated by rock/metal and watching long-haired guys with guitars, holding an audience of thousands in their hands. Basically, I think every second person, if not every first person, wants to be the next Hetfield or Dickinson. While still living in Belarus, I started pursuing my dream; at the age of 12, I was able to buy my first acoustic guitar (I still have it!). Even then, I was trying to get the most out of it, learning not only simple chord songs but also something more complex. At 15, after moving to Israel, literally a couple of months later, I got my first electric guitar and a small amp. I spent the next couple of years learning electric guitar techniques, solos, and so on. Around age 16, experiencing what might be called "immigration depression", I became deeply hooked on raw black metal and DSBM (although by then I was already listening to some more "accessible" extreme metal bands) and realized that this was exactly the kind of music I wanted to play myself. And an in-depth study of the creative paths of some of these bands led me to the idea that it wasn't necessary to assemble a full lineup; you could learn everything yourself. Although, I must say, back then, this was much more difficult to do than it is now—there was far less information and opportunities. Although, of course, someone like Quorthon or Varg Vikernes would laugh in my face, considering how they recorded their songs 30-40 years ago. As for the name, well, it's a common story: when I started brainstorming names, the word "desecration" immediately came to mind, which in my mind was (and still is) the perfect synonym for black metal (and it's not just about burning churches or desecrating religious symbols). But all the English-language options were already taken at the time (I think there are even more of them now!). Then I decided to try German, since it's rougher, and at the same time, there were already quite a few bands and projects with German names. Plus, it was also, let's say, a tribute to my past life, since I studied German at school in Belarus for almost 8 years. Another of my favorite black metal projects is the Russian Der Gerwelt, which also had a not entirely grammatically correct, but still German name, so to sum it all up—I once looked up the word "Entweihung" in the dictionary and added the article, and that's what happened.
My family left Belarus for Israel in 2004, but it wasn't for "political reasons", as some sometimes write. The main reason for the move was serious problems with my eyes; I had two major surgeries in Belarus, which only worsened them. It was then that we decided to try moving to Israel, since the myth of "great Israeli medicine" was already rife. I won't mention the dire economic situation in Belarus—it was dire then, and it's even worse now. So, I think we would have left anyway, if not in 2004, then a few years later.
What did this move give me as a person and an artist? It's an interesting and complex question. I still sometimes wonder how things would have turned out if I had stayed in Belarus: would I have been able to make music, would I have been able to buy licensed records, and would I have been able to go to at least some rock and metal shows? Sometimes it feels like after moving, I'm living an alternative life to the one I originally lived in my homeland. In any case, there are two important points: in Israel, I encountered religion as an important point in the lives of many people and the country as a whole. I learned, not just in words but in practice, what it's like when practically nothing works on the weekend, and there's practically no buses or other transport, and that terrorist attacks and wars can happen not just "over there" but right here, on the next street. On the other hand, in many controversial areas, Israel has far more freedom than the former Soviet Union. Let's put it this way: in Israel, you're much less likely to get beaten up or even stabbed to death by drunken bastards simply because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In terms of political and social freedom, people here can safely demonstrate and try to change the government without being thrown into prison en masse or having a military bastard shove up their asses, and the president won't call on fucking Putin to send his army to help.
2. “Worldwide Terror,” your twelfth studio album, will be released soon. Despite being quite consistent with your releases, four years have passed since your last album. How have you spent this time between your last two albums? What was the songwriting and recording process like for “Worldwide Terror”? What brands of instruments did you use in the process?
In reality, much less time passed. The previous album, “Strict Regime Country,” was released in November 2022, so basically at the very end of the year. I started writing new material back in 2023, and in addition, two landmark works were released in late 2023 and mid-2024: a remastered edition of my second album, “Hypnotic Dreams,” and a remastered edition of my 2021 album, “Kings & Pawns.” So, I haven’t been idle. All the music was written and recorded back in 2024, and all the vocals were recorded that summer. It took some time to finish mixing and mastering, as well as the artwork and videos for two songs. It also took some time to find the labels. The search for a label is becoming more and more difficult every year, as there are more and more bands and projects every year, everyone wants to release their material, and there aren’t more labels (okay, new ones appear, of course, but they usually don’t risk releasing editions of more than 50-100 copies), so it often turns out that the release, even if approved, has to wait several months, if not longer. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in 2025, a run of awesome T-shirts featuring the remastered edition of "Kings & Pawns" design was released.
My songwriting and recording process haven't changed much for many years, but this time it took longer because, in addition to my main instruments, I used session musicians—violin, cello, saxophone. As for instrument brands, these are all my regular guitars: a Japanese Fender Stratocaster, a bass Ibanez, an old classical guitar, and an Irish bouzouki. The rest is played either with a computer or by session musicians. Generally, I don't care what brands or companies are used—the main thing is that the instrument sounds good and does its job.
3. Your beginnings were more closely related to a black metal sound; however, over time, a style like heavy metal has gained much more prominence in your work, as is perfectly reflected in your new album. How would you describe this evolution in your sound? Is it something natural, or are you still searching for your own sound? What can your fans expect from “Worldwide Terror”? What inspired you when composing the album?
Yes, if you listen to all my albums in the order they were released, it becomes clear that it's simply an evolution in my creativity. Although, of course, if you listen to something earlier and then play the latest album, they'll seem like completely different bands. On the other hand, I think it's perfectly natural to develop and move forward in any creative endeavor; otherwise, it's stagnation. I don't think I would have actually pursued music if I'd known from the start that I'd be playing the same thing for the next 20 years, without any development. Besides, my musical tastes change, too, and in my case, my current musical preferences greatly influence what I play, and that's been the case from the very beginning. So yes, it's easy to conclude that 20 years ago I was a huge fan of raw black metal, and in the last 10 years I've returned to more traditional metal (although I've almost never listened to thrash metal, which is what my new album is classified as, with the exception of a dozen albums by the genre's classics), which became the main inspiration for writing these songs. But black metal is still present, maybe not in the riffs or vocals, but the atmosphere or... spirit of black metal remains. And it's unlikely to ever disappear completely, otherwise it wouldn't be me anymore. Fans, if there are any, can expect honest underground metal, with my signature melody, the best female vocals and stylistic diversity, including heavy, thrash, progressive, doom, black, etc. If anyone reading this has heard any of my previous work, they have a rough idea of what to expect from me.
4. Alena from the Czech band Nocturnal Pestilence has a much more prominent presence on your new album, with relentless vocal work. How did the opportunity to work together on “Worldwide Terror” come about?
Alena and I met about eight years ago, when by chance I had the chance to do two interviews with her as part of the promotional campaign for the release of her band's new (at the time) album, (Nocturnal Pestilence - “Fire & Shade”). Over time, our conversations grew into friendship, then into musical collaboration (Alena contributed vocals to the albums "Kings & Pawns" and "Strict Regime Country"), and a couple of years ago we finally even met on the holy ground of Prague (yes, the real holy land is the Czech Republic, not Israel, the Bible always lies!), and back then, over a glass of beer, we agreed that Alena would sing all the songs on the next album, not just individual parts or songs. The result is a new album on which her vocals grace six songs (two more are instrumentals). In fact, I've long been toying with the idea of recording an album with female vocals, as I'm a big Warlock / Doro fan. What we managed to achieve on the new album is, in a way, a dream come true, and I am infinitely grateful to Alena for her participation; without her, my creative path would have been much less interesting and meaningful, let's say.
5. Over time, the themes of your songs have also taken on a more social, even somewhat political, tone. How do you explain this change in your lyrics? Is it impossible to escape these conflicts when you are Belarusian and now live in Israel? What specific themes do you address in “Worldwide Terror”? Do the lyrics adapt to the music, or vice versa?
I'll start from the end: first the music is written, then some preliminary vocal melodies, and only then do I write the lyrics. Yes, I used to write more abstract lyrics, on themes that were more suited to black metal in one way or another. Over time, the closer I came to changing the musical direction, the more radically I wanted to change the subject matter of the lyrics. Basically, starting with the 2015 album, "Neverending Terrorism", I completely redefined my musical and lyrical direction. While musically I simply abandoned any black metal element at the core of my music, lyrically, the theme became extremely clear—I began writing about what's happening in our world here and now. Therefore, it might not be entirely accurate to say that my lyrics are now political or social in nature. Yes, they contain both, but at the same time, they also include many other themes, be it wars, internet/gadget addiction, money, greed, religion, more personal topics concerning the interaction between man and society, etc. Speaking specifically about the album "Worldwide Terror", its core, of course, is the terrorism of recent years. The title track is a kind of terror manifesto, something that exists here and now—something that must be fought against whenever possible. There's a song about the war in Ukraine (but the lyrics are narrated from the perspective of the Russian occupier), and there's a song about the events of October 7, 2023, in Israel, which led to perhaps the greatest tragedy in that country since World War II and simultaneously triggered a bloody chain of military actions that, one way or another, have not ceased to this day. There's a song sung from the perspective of a child born during the war, whose life, in fact, isn't about playing with soldiers, but about survival and constantly keeping watch over the house with a gun. There's some semi-autobiographical material, and there's also some social commentary on the theme of "spiders in a jar" and how we rape ourselves and humanity as a whole, stepping over each other's heads for the sake of useless goods.
It's possible to avoid these topics, of course, but in my particular case, I find it more interesting and important to write and talk about all of this than to write about fantasy, abstract things, or simply about death. What's happening in the world now is more terrifying and important than something abstract. After all, God and Satan are abstract concepts, and certain historical events are things that happened and passed many years ago. But events like the protests in my native Belarus in 2020, which resulted in deaths, prison sentences, or forced exile for many people, or the war in Ukraine, or the terrorist attacks in southern Israel, where hundreds of people died, many of whom weren't even Jewish but simply visiting as tourists—all of this, to me personally, seems more important and deserving of attention in my own work.
6. Beyond the album mastering process, which took place at Lakeside Studio, what can you tell us about the recording and mixing of the album? Why did you choose to work with Lakeside?
Initially, the mastering was supposed to be done by the same person (Yuri "Dark Devil" Babeshko) who mastered my previous album, but he developed serious health issues that forced him to stop all work for several months. To avoid getting bogged down during the mastering stage, I simply found a mix/mastering engineer on a freelance platform, and he essentially mastered it, using Yuri's mastering from the previous album as a reference. After receiving the result, I no longer communicated with that person; it was essentially just a one-time, forced measure. Since Yuri has returned to active work, I hope that future material will be mastered by his hands and ears.
Recording and mixing went as usual—mic, sound card, amp, computer...I don't even know what to say about it; it's a pretty boring process, to be honest. But I always feel a surge of happiness when you have nothing, and then, track by track, a whole song is ready. That's perhaps the greatest happiness in creativity.
7. The physical release of the new album is being handled by Morbid and Miserable Records and the Indonesian label Tikoes Kecemploeng Production. This marks the first time in your long careers that you've collaborated. How did the choice and subsequent decision to work together on the album release come about?
No, no, on the contrary, many of my albums were released in collaboration with two or even three labels in different parts of the world. Currently, "Worldwide Terror" is being released on CD by two American labels, Morbid & Miserable and Southern Soundclash, while Tikoes Kecemploeng is pressing a small number of DIY CDs for the local Indonesian underground—a small way to support the album in a specific region. I love these local releases; they're usually self-produced, embracing the DIY aesthetic popular in the punk and metal underground when there's no money for a more serious release. Regarding the decision to work with these US labels, both have a strong reputation in the underground metal scene, and both promote their releases worldwide, so I think the distribution will be good, and fans around the world will be able to buy the CDs. Widespread distribution is crucial these days, as mailing costs are rising every year, and not everyone can afford to order a CD from America while living in, say, Europe or Japan.
8. You've always displayed a politically charged tone in your album covers, depicting war and political conflicts. However, it seems that "Worldwide Terror" also has a connection to religion. How can we interpret this cover? Who designed it, and how does it relate to the album's content?
The cover continues the theme of the previous albums, but the execution is a little different, because here we see the multi-armed deity Shiva, but in this case it’s simply a symbol of an abstract god who holds in his hands everything that is part of modern terror—the Bible (again, a reference not specifically to Christianity but to religion in general), the Kremlin on fire (no comment, it’s all clear), a television (a reference to the media, which does nothing but add fuel to the fire and sow even more hatred between people), nuclear weapons, dollars... I could depict a lot more there, but then I wouldn’t have enough hands, haha. I don’t even know if it’s worth explaining anything here; the concept, in my opinion, is clear and simple. The cover, like the rest of the design, was created by a Belarusian artist, Olga Kann, a fairly well-known girl. She, by the way, also created the first video for the album, for the title track.
9. We could interpret your departure from your native country as a response to the political regime; however, you ended up choosing as your residence a place with a high degree of political significance, like Israel and the entire Palestinian conflict. How do you explain your departure from Belarus and subsequent settlement in Israel? What do you think this “cultural” shift has brought you?
Well, as I mentioned above, my move wasn't related to the political situation in Belarus. It was primarily due to health issues and a slight attempt to improve my family’s financial situation. Generally, this question should probably be asked of people who lived in, say, Ukraine and then moved to Israel after 2022. There really would probably be something to discuss and share. In my case, the situation is as follows: in 2004, my family left Belarus, which was economically unstable, but which, on the other hand, had a "relatively stable political life". One president, who took office in 1994 and, during his 10 years in power, was perceived by many as something of a "meme," his “village” speech parodied by stand-up comedians, and he was widely perceived as a "strict but righteous father" who kept the country from falling apart and "selling out to the capitalistic West". So, 2004 - I found myself in Israel, in the northern part of the country, where everything seemed calm, because at that time, most of the conflicts were happening in the southern part of the country—Palestine, the Gaza Strip, you know. Basically, no one was really thinking about any political or military conflicts at the time. And even two years later, when rockets flew from Lebanon for about a month in 2006, I wouldn't say it had a significant impact on the overall situation, and, let's say, I didn't have any plans to leave. The next 15 years were relatively calm, but starting in 2020, both Belarus and Israel found themselves in a situation where things were bad and unsettled everywhere. In 2020, mass protests broke out in Belarus, resulting in some people getting jailed, some being forced to give up everything and leave for another country, and some simply being forced to remain silent. I visited Belarus three times in the 2010s, and even then there was a terribly dark air, but I think in 2020, it all went beyond all reasonable limits, with civilians facing off against the heavily armed "dogs of justice." In Israel, the situation is the exact opposite. After the events of October 7th, chaos ensued, with the war in Gaza, the war with Lebanon, the war with Iran, some attempts to launch missiles from Yemen, and so on. Society began to gradually split, demanding the resignation of the current government (whose leader, by the way, has long suffered from "eternal president" syndrome). And despite the fact that the situation has now become relatively calmer, the country is still effectively isolated and constantly dependent on the decisions of the "father of all nations", Donald Trump. Why am I telling you all this? Because you never know what life will bring. When I moved to Israel, things were "relatively normal" in both Israel and Belarus. Fifteen to twenty years later, the situation in both countries is extremely unstable, to put it mildly. So I try to simply live in the present, listen to music, write my own, and quietly hate the world.
10. How would you describe the extreme metal scene in a country like Israel? Is there life beyond established bands like Salem or Orphaned Land?
Today, the only face of Israeli metal is Orphaned Land. The band Salem, although a cult classic and perhaps even the first to play truly heavy music in the region, has not been active for many years. I think their last album was released about 15 years ago. Orphaned Land is, of course, a classic and a cult , despite the fact that I am not a fan of their early work from the 90s, their subsequent albums for me are at least the best that has come out in Israeli metal, and at most - the 2004 album "Mabool" I definitely consider one of the best, if not the best metal album released in the 21st century. As for the rest of the scene - it exists, many bands appear and disappear, a number of bands really play seriously and release albums for many years. Stylistically, you can find completely different bands here, for lovers of melodic heavy / power metal there is Desert, for fans of folk black thrash there is Arallu, there are many bands that mix different directions, like Winterhorde, there are progressive rock / metal bands like Submasq, etc., I just named a few names that have been playing for many years, but if you dig deeper - here in every city you can find many bands in completely different styles, someone just started, some have been playing for 3-5 years. The problem with Israeli metal is different - or rather, it's better to say this - Israeli metal doesn't have a problem with bands, but there are a lot of problems with everything that usually surrounds these bands. In recent years, there are practically no metal labels left here, neither big nor underground. There are no printed magazines or fanzines. There is only one metal store in the whole country (run by the bassist of Orphaned Land), which, of course, brings mostly things that can be called more or less well-known, i.e. if you expect to buy some Singaporean black metal released on 200 CDs, forget it. The same applies to metal media - yes, there is a website metalist.co.il, but it is not a site that actively supports the local scene (usually only if it is big bands, or these bands know someone from the site's editorial staff), and it is not updated very often. There are a few pages on social networks, but all of this is at an extremely amateur level. Well, and of course, I can't help but mention the lack of concerts - I think there haven't been any international bands here for about six years. First came the coronavirus, then October 7, 2023, and everything shut down again. Local concerts are happening, of course, but there haven't been artists like Behemoth or Paradise Lost for a long time, and I don't think there will be any in the next 1-2 years.
11. With the amount of time you've been active, I suppose you already have a clear idea, but is there any possibility that you might take your music to the stage and perform a concert at some point?
No, there aren't and never have been any such plans. My first albums were very specific music, which I consider completely unsuitable for live performance, the latest albums are simpler, and theoretically some of the songs could be performed live. But I don't see the point. I don't know any musicians who would be interested in this, and why bother looking for someone specifically, looking for a rehearsal space, devoting a ton of time to rehearsals, etc.? I already have pretty little free time, so I'd rather work on new music at home or remix some old albums for reissue. I've seen enough local bands gigs here—unless you're Orphaned Land, they're all pretty pathetic. 100-200 people, many of whom just come to bang their heads and drink beer; they generally don't care who's on stage.
12. How did you get started in music: the first concerts you attended, the first albums you bought? What event in your life pushed you to want to be a musician?
I attended my first metal concerts in Israel when I was 19 or 20 years old. Back then, I was a fairly active concert-goer, both of international and local bands. And the first albums I bought... well, my uncle was a big fan of Metallica and other bands from the 70s and 80s in his youth. He introduced me to the world of music. By the time I was 6 or 7, I already knew albums by Metallica, AC/DC, and others. My father loved Queen, which also stuck in my mind. Of course, due to my age, I didn't really understand what kind of music it was, what message it conveyed, and all that. I just liked certain songs, things that were more or less melodic and memorable. Around age 10, I started listening to rock and metal more consciously. Of course, Metallica was my main band back then (and probably still is). The first cassettes I bought were early Metallica albums. Over time, I began exploring other classic rock and metal bands, like Rainbow, Deep Purple, Maiden, ZZ Top. At age 12, I slowly started listening to heavier stuff from the 90s, a little black metal, thrash, death metal, and so on. But in general, I didn't experience it as "getting heavier" with each listen, or older bands becoming less interesting to me. On the contrary, after going full circle and listening to many of the heaviest bands, I realized that for me, a heavy sound isn't an indicator of musical quality. Melody is much more important; a song should be memorable, something you want to listen to again, or the atmosphere and hooks. The event that pushed me to become a musician—well, if you take just “the dream of becoming a rock star,” then it was the thrill of seeing photos and videos of all those classic bands; to me, they were like real gods in the flesh! Of course, I wanted to be like them... at a more conscious age - probably getting to know the classics of black metal, like Burzum, Bathory, Darkthrone, Judas Iscariot, Nargaroth, and many lesser-known bands, often with just one, maximum two people behind them - over time, I realized that I wanted to do the same, and most importantly, that I CAN... Yes, I had to gain experience, because I didn’t even have any knowledge of how to record tracks in programs like Guitar Pro, not to mention mixing and so on, partly because now I’m increasingly working on remixing old albums, trying to get the most out of them and give them a second life; there’s a lot of interesting music there that simply wasn’t produced properly.
13. Which album represents the essence of black metal for you? What are the most recent albums you've bought?
Oh... that's a tough question. Or maybe it's really simple? Let’s think... I'd probably say Burzum's "Filosofem”. That album showed the way for all the DSBM bands, many people often call the "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” the main Burzum album but my ideal black metal is definitely "Filosofem". On the other hand, if I were to take black metal from the perspective of anger and hatred, I'd probably say Mayhem's "Wolf's Lair Abyss". That EP from '97, the first material without Euronymous, and it’s simply insane, both musically and vocally. If we're talking about more... so to speak, intelligent black metal, I'd say Immortal's "At The Heart Of Winter." It's not exactly black, but it embodies the best of black metal for me. The atmosphere, the riffs, the melodies, the truly hit songs...
The last black metal album I bought—I think it was Nocturnal Depression's "Tides of Despair" and, finally, their "Nostalgia – Fragments of a Broken Pas". Oh, and the Belarusian cult project Pagan, their last album "To the Black Star".
14. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit. If you'd like to add anything for Die Entweihung fans, this is the place. I hope you enjoy the questions.
Thank you for the interesting questions! I hope I answered them as thoroughly as possible! Thanks to everyone who read this far. My new album will likely already be available by the time this interview comes out, so feel free to give "Worldwide Terror" a listen. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or anything else, please feel free to write to me. I'll try to answer everyone. Hailz!
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