Frozen Wreath
Melancholic Melodies of Old
This interview came to be after a review I did of Frozen Wreath's last album, the 2023 release, "Mea Culpa", and it was planned to be published via Team Brutal. However, plans not always go as expected, and it was impossible, but Cláudia was kind and sent me the file.
iIf you have never heard the band, go ahead and listen to it. A very interesting sound, and an interesting pair of Artists. Read all about it, below.
First, thank you very much for your time and words. Let us start off with the new album, “Mea Culpa”. What is the core subject of this new album?
Zoltán: I am greeting the readers and thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about Frozen Wreath. ‘Mea Culpa’ is our second album and lyric-wise it is a concept album, again, just like our first album, ‘Memento Mori’ was. The previous album was about the finality of human life and now we returned to death as subject, but this time Roland specified all his lyrics on suicide. I know that is not as easy subject, but it is part of our lives and sadly, we Hungarians are in the top 3 in the world in self-murder. Unfortunately, it also runs through my family, so it is personal to me, as well. Let’s make it clear, we do not praise suicide, this album tells no one to commit suicide, it is more like a warning of what could happen if we do not pay attention to each other.
Every song shows a psyche of a different person, who is hanging on the edge of their lives, but because of completely different reasons. Some are victims of another person; some are their own reasons for the lives turned out. Unfortunately, there are still many people, who are afraid of this subject and instead of facing with that, just dig their heads in the sand. Many people maybe just simply reject the album because of its theme, but it does not matter, I know that we did a sophisticated job on this matter.
If we go back to 2021, and your first record, “Memento Mori”, are they in any way connected in terms of subject and theme?
Zoltán: Well, I guess, I have already gave an answer above to that. Apart of the subject of death, there is not much connection between the two albums. The music style is similar, as I write all the music. We agreed on that with Roland at the very beginning, as he has two other bands, plus he runs Filosofem Records, so he does not have any more spare time for this project. However, this works perfectly with us, I bring the music and Roland adds the lyrics and vocals to them.
You started the band 3 years ago, and have already released 2 albums. How does the creative, and recording, process develop? Do you set yourself a goal, or do things come out naturally?
Zoltán: It is true that we started Frozen Wreath in 2019, but half of the songs on the first album had been written way before I proposed to Roland to start a common band. I had my previous band, but things went really slow there and I decided to take actions to get things more seriously, so basically, I took these 4 songs and formed Frozen Wreath. That was the reason that on the ‘Memento Mori’ album were 5-6 years old songs. For ‘Mea Culpa’ was everything freshly written, there is not one old idea on it. I wrote the songs during the pandemic and they all came naturally, I did not set any borders around me. Basically, the only control was Roland himself, he told me, if something was not quite right or something was missing from a song.
Big difference, as well, that between the two albums, I completely changed my studio gears, I updated everything to the next level and hopefully you can hear that on the production. I am not a professional sound engineer, I still have a lot to learn, but the quality of mixing and mastering is already enjoyable. Actually, I never found the quality in black metal so important. The mix must be good, the balance of the instruments are important to me, but the final sound is not necessarily must be so clean and polished than in other genres.
How is the process with Roland? Considering he provides vocals, does he provide input, or is it a close process?
Zoltán: As I mentioned before, I am responsible for the music and he is for the lyrics and vocals. Usually, I finish the whole album, than I send him for listening. He gives me feedback, positive or negative, and if something must be changed, and then I work further on it, until we are both satisfied. Normally, these are small things, he gives me ideas how a song could be more interesting, or many times I screw up the drums, as I do not play them, but Roland does, so he hears immediately, if something is wrong with the rhythms.
Later, when the album is done, we also work together on the promotions. We both have ideas, we discuss them and then we bring them alive. The creative work is good between us, we can easily work together, there is no ego, we both focus on the goal what we want to reach.
You have been labelled as Atmospheric Black Metal, which is a very broad label. Do you see yourselves as an Atmospheric Black Metal band, or does your sound have more to it?
Zoltán: Yes, you are right, it is a broad label, but for marketing reasons you must label your product and atmospheric black metal is as good, as any other label. I think ABM is the label in what you can fit almost everything, gives the bands lots of creative freedom. An ABM fan will not whine about an acoustic part, about strings, choir or clean vocals. It does not matter what you wear or how do you look like. I love trve black metal, as well, but it is too tight for me, it gives small place for creativity. In addition, I do not like lyrics about Satanism; it just does not interest me. Frozen Wreath lyrics are very personal, more on the human side.
That is why I recently came up with the idea to label ourselves somehow differently. As both of our music and lyrics have deep meanings, I had the idea to label Frozen Wreath as ‘Profound Black Metal’. Roland liked this idea, so there you go, you heard that here officially first.
We talked about the lyric/inspirational facet of this
new record, but musically speaking, where do you find inspiration to create?
Zoltán: My inspiration is the love of music. I just love listening to it or create it. The biggest inspiration is when I hear a good album or even a good riff and then I feel the urge to grab my guitar and start jamming. If I come up with a good riff or I finish a new song, can inspire me even further. There is no stress on creation; I work on my music, when I feel like to. Sometimes I do not even touch my guitars for weeks and other times I write 3-4 good riffs in an hour. Being an underground band, there is no expectations we have to meet and that gives us a huge freedom in creativity. In other words, we can do whatever we want to do and that is also a huge inspiration to create something new, something unique.
Both of you have other projects. Do they interfere, in any way, with the overall process of Frozen Wreath? Can we see Frozen Wreath as an outlet for musical endeavours that did not fit your other projects?
Zoltán: I have to correct you here; I do not have any other active project at the moment. I had my previous band ‘de profundis’, but it is not active, though we never ended it officially. Roland has two other projects: WitcheR and Vrag. As I am the songwriter in Frozen Wreath, there is no outlet from other projects in my music, as I compose everything for this band. We can say that on the lyrics, as well. WitcheR is about folklore and old traditions and values, Vrag is about solitude and hate against the world, but Frozen Wreath is more human, so to speak. Roland can express his feelings here more ordinary; the lyrics can be more personal, sensitive or emotional. The music itself is also different in the three bands. WitcheR is slow, dreamy, transcendent music, while Vrag is old school, traditional black metal and there is Frozen Wreath, where you can find everything, not even necessarily black metal, but doom or acoustic parts, as well.
Asking it the other way around: your sound is very layered and intricate. Delicate variations and details that enhance the experience. Do your other projects have any influence on what you write for Frozen Wreath?
Zoltán: As I mentioned before, there is no overlay between these projects. In fact, we speak about three different composers here. WitcheR builds up on Karola’s compositions, Vrag is Roland’s one-man band and in Frozen Wreath I write the music. Of course, they influence me in such way that I keep following them, I hear their music and I am happy, if they release something new, inspires me to keep working on my music. What is more important, we are also friends and help each other in other things, as well. For example, I can always turn to Roland with technical questions for the studio work or promotions and I can help them out with translations or design ideas.
We are under one label, Filosofem Records, which is run by Roland. As we live at the same part of Hungary, which is in English translation ‘Iron County’; we started using a new tag for these three bands: ‘Iron County Black Metal’. That is just to strengthen the idea that we somehow belong together, kind of like a family.
Will Frozen Wreath rest for a while, or do you already have new music prepared?
Zoltán: As Frozen wreath is a studio project without any live shows, naturally it goes to rest a little bit after every release. Roland is involved in all three bands, his time is of course limited, so he focuses on one release at a time. First comes some special WitcheR releases, then next year is for Vrag, the year after is for the new WitcheR album and in 2026 can be expected the third Frozen Wreath full album. A special EP is planned before that, but it is too early to talk about it yet. I already start composing the third album and I can tell you that it will be as varied as before, but I am at the very beginning of the work, so I do not even see where it will take me.
Once again, thank you very much for your time and words. May we speak again. Cheers.
Zoltán: Thank you for the opportunity to express our thoughts and your interest in our band. A big thank you for everybody who supports us in any way. Take care and listen to Iron County Black Metal!
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