Exclusive: Legendary Anaal Nathrakh speaks for the 1st Time to the Middle Eastern Metal Media about its Upcoming Album

Anaal Nathrakh is an iconic name in the Metal scene, especially among Black Metal / Industrial/Grindcore lovers. Founded in 1999, the band is currently getting ready for releasing its 10th full length album "A New kind of Horror". So, we had the chance to interview Anaal Nathrakh to know more about the new album, and the future plans of the band.

Caption: Anaal Nathrakh Members, Photo Courtesy: Marie Korner

Anal Nathrakh interviewed by: Rana Atef

Answered by: David Taylor

Thank you guys for accepting our invitation for this short interview, firstly, I want to ask you about the concept of your upcoming release "A New Kind of Horror". What are the main themes of the album, and why did you choose this title?

Hello.  No problem.  We chose that title to chime with one of the themes of the album, which is World War One.  Obviously it’s 2018, so it’s 100 years since the end of the first world war, and it seemed entirely appropriate to reflect on that.  

That war was itself a new kind of horror in many respects – the scale of the conflict and the death, the widespread use of gas weapons, and so on.  But the album isn’t a purely historical album.  The idea is that as well as reflecting on and acknowledging the centenary of that war, it’s also about the parallels with the world today.  

We basically are those people in most important respects, and the world today feels more dangerous, more unpredictable than it did in the recent past, even with the conflicts and shocks that have been part of history throughout.  

Once again we have experienced discussion of the use of nuclear weapons, for example.  And there are smaller, more personal horrors all over the place.  In my country a film like I, Daniel Blake was necessary as a wake up call to the tragic situations that vastly increased numbers of people have been going through.  Homelessness numbers have increased, nurses having to rely on charity to eat, and so on.  

Those aren’t entirely new things, of course, but that sort of thing has been on the rise in recent years when previously it’d been a much smaller problem.  

Then there’s the ‘Satan 2’ weapons system unveiled by Russia a few months ago – we’re not interested in a partisan view of Russia versus anyone else or anything like that, but simply the fact that such a powerful new system exists anywhere in the world is on some level a new kind of horror.  I could go on, but I think you probably get the point that there’s a number of different ways you could view the title.

What are your main musical influences while writing the music of the upcoming album?

We don’t really think in terms of musical influences in a traditional sense when we’re writing music.  It’s more like the atmosphere of the album is something we’ve already got in our heads.  

That’s the first thing we begin to get a feel for – the little snippets of ideas that start to form in your mind as your subconscious moves into the ‘make an album’ phase start to have an overall character, and you start to get a feel for how the album as a whole should feel.  

Once that has formed, that’s what then becomes your influence, the idea becomes one of trying to turn that feeling and atmosphere into music and deepening it.  

So the influences aren’t things like other bands’ work or other pieces of music, it’s more like the album starts to be able to lead you in its own direction, and you have to follow that while putting in all of the inventive details that make it interesting along the way.

You are preparing yourself for many shows wither in Europe, and Asia, Are you planning to perform only songs from your upcoming album, or a mixture between your old stuff, and new ones?

It’ll be a mixture.  Naturally we’re excited to play the new material live, and on the couple of occasions so far when we’ve had the chance to do so, it’s been an exhilarating thing to do.  

But we wouldn’t want to play only new material – fans come to shows in the hopes of seeing bands play their favorite songs, or the songs which work best live, and that’s part of playing the best show you can play.  So to only play new songs falls short of that, I think.  

But we’ll definitely be mixing some new songs in to the set.  Like I say, they’ve worked really well when we’ve played them so far, so we’re looking forward to it all.

Caption: Anaal Nathrakh November Tour Date, Photo Courtesy: Anaal Nathrakh official Facebook page

Caption: Anaal Nathrakh Japan Tour 2019, Photo Courtesy: Anaal Nathrakh official Facebook page

Your name is listed on a lot of festivals lineup, How can you manage your time, what are the hardships you face through live performances, music production?

It can be a bit of a trick to get everyone’s availability nailed down, because all of us also have other demands on our time and schedules to organize.  But I do most of that for the band, and usually I can manage it in the end.  

I suppose the biggest hardship is the travel.  For one 45 minute festival show, there can be a day and a half travelling to get there, a whole day getting back and so on.  

It’s hardly the worst problem in the world to have, but it can be very tiring and enervating.  There’s also the fact that the shows themselves are very physically demanding.  We all feel that differently and perhaps surprisingly our drummer is usually fine.  

But I find shows very hard both bodily and vocally.  So you have to try to carve out the opportunity to look after yourself a bit, at the same time as travelling and also trying to enjoy it all.  

Again, not the worst problem in the world to have, or course, but it can all be quite stressful.  Like I say, everyone experiences things differently, so I’m sure that even if I find it all hard, many other people probably find it all a walk in the park!

Caption: The official Poster of Netherlands Death Fest, 2019, Photo Courtesy: Anaal Nathrakh official Facebook page

How do you see the Metal music industry nowadays?

To be honest we don’t really see it at all, in the sense that we’re not really very interested in the industry side of it.  There’s all sorts of stuff that goes on in a purely industry sense.  

But we’re interested in making music and expressing ourselves through that, not in distribution agreements or accountancy.  Obviously there’s a bit of crossover – bands need to understand the terms of their record contract, for example, and people working in the industry often have a passion for the music as well.  

But we’re very much on the creative people side of the line rather than the industry people side.  I don’t think we’re currently in a heyday for metal music like arguably happened in the late 80s or whatever.  But there are still plenty of big acts out there, and major metal festivals seem to be doing just fine.  

There’s much less money in it for most bands, I think – the top bands get more that they did at one time because of the amount they can now charge for shows.  But the underground level can’t do that, and there’s far fewer sales of albums than there used to be.  But it doesn’t seem to me like there are significant numbers of bands giving up because they can’t make it work.  So I suppose the industry in general must be doing ok.

What are the rising bands that you expect for them a bright future?

I have no idea.  Which is a shame, but the truth is that we don’t come across new bands very often.  We simply don’t have time to spend looking.  But I will say that I recently got hold of Triad by Self Deconstruction, a rabid grind band from Japan.  

As I understand it they’ve been going a while, but they recently played for the first time at Obscene Extreme in Europe, so they’re still breaking new ground.  

I think it’s great, and I’d like to get hold of their more recent material, but that stuff is only available on CD in Japan.  Once it becomes available to buy via download, I’ll grab it.  New to me at least, and great stuff that’ll definitely clear out the cobwebs!

Regarding your fans in the Middle East, Are you in contact with any Middle Eastern fans, bands?

Not, really, no.  We don’t tend to hear much from people in that part of the world.  We hear about that part of the world a lot on the news, of course, but seldom do we hear from actual people there.  

But that’s exactly where things like this interview, made possible by the internet, can be strong.  It’s gratifying and humbling to know that there are fans out there, and hopefully little steps like this interview can contribute to a mutual opening up between us and band like us and that part of the world.

Finally, thank you for giving me this chance to interview you, would you please send a message to your fans.

No problem.  Both to you and to fans, thank you for the support.  We genuinely appreciate it.  Perhaps one fine day we’ll be able to vomit on you in person, musically speaking.