Nachtmaar – Honesty in Words

I had the opportunity to talk to Swartagaldas, last year. Their Demo, "Forever Night", was one of the perfect renditions, in recent years, of that classic Black Metal I love so much.

There is honesty in his words, there is honesty in his music, and this is what I see lacking in today's Black Metal… I see this set of questions as one that addresses some points I see many Black Metal fans ignore.

Since we last spoke the band released a new EP, " Avgrundsmystik", that carries o nthe work started with " Promo MMXX".

Very little is known about you: Switzerland, Black Metal, Forever Night. What else can you tell us about Nachtmaar, your journey so far, the origin of the project?

Ave! You already know the most important aspects of Nachtmaar then! The band was founded in spring 2020, proceeded to record the demo in its first weeks of existence, and write material for the soon to be recorded full length. The logo was created by our good friend AntiiGraphic, who did many artworks for other bands we play in, as well as friends’ bands.

How did the process of creating and recording this Demo take place? I read somewhere that you consider it to be a Demo, right? Were you somehow hit by the pandemic during the process?

Yes, it is a demo! We recorded it on a Korg CR-4 tape deck during a few sessions in Summer `20. Goathammer played the drums and synths while I did the rest, the songs have been written together. Actually, the pandemic turned out to be quite helpful. Goathammer and I play together in several other bands, which were not able to rehearse due to limitations of persons in a single room which gave us a lot more time for Nachtmaar. We actually wrote (and recorded) more songs that we didn’t consider fitting for Nachtmaar, they will be released as a separate band and should be out already when this interview is published. 

The last months were an outburst of productivity. Besides Nachtmaar we furthermore had the chance to take part in the resurrection of another audial terror command, if it wasn’t for the closed venues and certain health risks I’d say the last months have been an absolutely great time for us. Having concerts cancelled sucks but if you don’t make anything out of that situation it is no one's fault but yours. 

Although it is a work of a very short duration, do you consider that it perfectly encapsulates the essence of Nachtmaar?

It absolutely perfectly captures the essence of the time we recorded it in. Spontaneous outbursts of unused energy, the demo is nothing but aggression. Perfectly capsulating the essence of Nachtmaar? I don’t know, that’s hard to say at that point. It’s not about where we will take Nachtmaar but where Nachtmaar will take us. It is a journey into the abyss.

What does the title refer to? What eternal night is this, and what is the general concept of your work and your music?

The eternal night is pretty much the inevitable abyss we all move towards to and is at the same time the metaphoric state we all live in. Not dead yet, but ruined, and about to be forgotten. 

All artwork is reminiscent of the 1990s, the use of synthesizers... is there, on your part, an intention to honor the 1990s and the classical era of Black Metal?

It’s just the kind of Black Metal we both listen to. It is not that we want to sound like a certain way, it just happens to us. We write songs and select the ones that fit Nachtmaar, nothing else.

It turns out to be, in a way, that revivalism, in Black Metal, has been showing itself more and more. Do you agree? Not that it is a bad thing.

Never! Depends! Personally, I’d love to see more Darkthrone clones instead of one man bedroom bands using drum machines and sound like a shit version of Mütiilation. I do not have a problem with sounding like the originators, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. But please be honest about it and don’t try to sell your music as the absolute individual rebellion that it definitely is not. After all there’s been an absolute load of great BM bands and most bands will at least end up sounding remotely like other bands. No problem with that as long as the attitude and music are both good. The thing is there’s a fine line between being a clone and being influenced by others. There is certainly not one band that always manages to stay on the right side so no one can be blamed. 

What do you take as an influence on your music? Musical, lyrical.

The main influences of Nachtmaar are Hate, Death, the absolute ending of carbon based life as well as our eternal master. Nachtmaar is the expression of all this. The word Nachtmaar can roughly be translated to the English word nightmare. Unlike the English word, it describes a mythical being, not a dream. The Nachtmaar terrorizes sleeping humans drinks their blood and can possess the bodies of animals during the night. It is not an immediate danger but we see it as a constant fear terror, which makes it a perfect namesake for this band.

"Using" the previous question: what is your opinion about the current Black Metal scene? Is there still loyalty to the bases that structured the genre? 

No. There is no such thing as a Black Metal scene that we are part off and most bands calling themselves Black Metal are a parody of what they pretend to be. Black Metal as a whole is an absolute shit show of idiots thinking they’re special, evil or rebellious. It is probably easier to name the bands that are still worth listening to than sorting out the bad ones. The current Black Metal "Scene" somehow mostly consists of the same lo-fi approach that produces a few releases and is then being hyped to death OR no one cares and the band vanishes. There’s no dedication, no authenticity left. I do not want to listen to music from people who see music as a hobby or even worse, a career.

That is the next point that bothers me; just release your fucking music on labels that respect bands and listeners. Black Metal is pretty much a stock market right now with limited editions being sold out in minutes and going straight to Discogs. The "Deathcrush" MLP had a first press of one thousand copies, not counting tapes, and was run by Euronymous who certainly didn’t have a professional sales network. Don’t tell me there’s a "need“ for releasing your music on 50 units and then never again. The Nachtmaar demo is currently being repressed with enough copies in mind so everyone who likes it can get it. You can also probably write a mail to Hexenkult and he will dub you a tape. Black Metal is not a sales show. There is a reason why you can still get every 90s album on any given format but getting that album from some newer band is impossible (or at least excessively expensive). Nevertheless, of course, that attracts the labels. Why should you sell 200 tapes over a few months when you can just sell 50 in 30 minutes and double the price?

The other day I was listening / seeing an interview with NH, from Corpus Christii, in which he said that the Post Black Metal scene gave rise to bands that, sound wise, are very good, but whose concept / connection to the genre, fell short of the desired. Black Metal, as a musical genre, is lost without this... spiritual/ideological essence?

I really could not care less about modern Black Metal in general. There are way too many bands just writing riffs and using shit equipment in order to sound like a Black Metal band but then continue to behave like the idiots they are. I mean Black Metal is not only about the music and should not exclusively be treated as a genre but more as an attitude. Separating Black Metal from its ideological background is equivalent to castrating it. That’s ultimately the point it is boiling down to. You can have the riffs and the sound but that’s not everything. If people want to listen to it that’s fine to me but personally I’m not interested in it. What’s the point in listening to some teenagers from the US (from Mars) recording some songs when it is nothing more but a hobby? Being a nice, acceptable member of society? Promising "giveaways" to their Instagram followers and bragging about how fast their fucking tape sold out? Black Metal was never "just" a genre of heavy metal but that’s not important anymore. People see the black and white photos, hear the cool riffs and suddenly begin to produce music on their own. Totally fair, but please don’t expect me to be interested in just that. There’s way more connected to it that many people just seem to ignore.

What about Politics? I am an apologist that the genre should live off that spectrum. There is no place for politics in Black metal, or it should not. However, we have more and more bands, and musicians, to be over vocal about ideologies. How do you analyze this situation? And this goes for Right-Wing and Left-Wing Musicians.

Tough question. Please keep in mind that I differentiate between Nachtmaar and my personal opinion. Nachtmaar only has one policy: spreading the word of our master and redeemer. Mundane politics don’t have any room here. Personally I don’t mind politics having an impact on music. Just take a look at the early days of rock music, being all about rebellion against a ruling class. I guess that’s also true for Black Metal being an art form that doesn’t require public appreciation. At the end of day everyone can decide on what he or she wants to include in the music, but I also have the choice to not care about it. Luckily most far right as well as far left bands are too bad to make it a hard decision for me to listen to them. The exception are of course Ton Steine Scherben, great music, great ideas.

What plans do you have for Nachtmaar? Let us hope the pandemic is not preventing you from creating new music.

The first thing will be another physical version of the Demo that sold out way too fast for our taste, you can probably imagine that it’s not going to be a CD. We want the music to be available for anyone. No need for artificial pressure through unnecessary limitations. But that’s not the only thing! The debut album is already written, we are currently in the stage of rehearsing for the recording and plan to capture it around

late summer this year. The artwork is already being worked on so if everything works well the album will be available during the winter. But let’s see, time will tell. Furthermore, there is going to be a concert in Germany, hopefully in 2022. However, no promises until concerts can happen again. 

Tell me a little about Hexenkult. What made you go ahead with this project, what bands do you have now on roster, projects? A little curiosity: what premises should a project fulfill, so that you move on to something more serious?

NOTE: Please treat Hexenkult and Nachtmaar as different persons being interviewed. I (Hexenkult) answered the last question, Swartagaldas (Nachtmaar) the first ones. 

Well, Hexenkult originated in the idea of not having to work with people I do not want to work with. Everything I do with Hexenkult can be exactly as I envision it, which leads us to the second part of your question. The main idea is to release outstanding music. The focus lies primarily on Black Metal now, which is because that is the music I feel most familiar with (currently!). Of course, that does not mean outstanding bands like Vendul or Knüppelknecht don’t have a place here, the most important parts are the relationship with the artists, the music and a generally equivalent idea about life in general. Hexenkult is in no way a commercial label, I purely do this to spread his master's words.

As I said, the personal connection between label and bands is extremely important for me. I will always try to speak to the persons directly or through a video call at least, working with anonymous people usually does not work as planned. So if you think about sending me an email concerning your band (absolutely do, I always enjoy listening to new music!) please keep that in mind. In addition, I don’t do this full time, so a release will take some weeks to be ready, but everyone I worked with so far was happy with the results which is probably a good sign.

Concerning the future it is going to be an interesting year. The next things coming up are the Opferblut debut album and the new Mnima demo (to be released in conspiracy with AbArt Corruption!), new Koldun material is in the works as well as exciting stuff from our fellow Swiss conspirators in Deathcult and Blakk old Blood… and if you kept track of what Temple ov Perversion were doing you know that the debut album still

needs to be released. Furthermore there is going to be no more tape exclusivity in the future, several Hexenkult releases will see a vinyl version. I will not say anything more about that because there is no way I could say when those arrive. The pandemic is hitting record factories hard. The coming months will also see some more collaborations with other labels so keep an eye out for that. However, we’re quite busy at the moment which is probably a good thing. This has become long. 

Will bother you no more! It was a pleasure that we will have to repeat, either with Hexenkult, or with other musical entities of the label. Thank you for the availability and see you next time!

No worries, thanks for your interest! Ave Satan!

Hexenkult Official Bandcamp