The Pagan Herald #01
Zum
Gruße, Ole and Hagal! You released your second marvellous
record these days. In every matter Hagal has moved forward
and made real progress, but we will come back to this topic later!
What news should be told around the oaken table of Hagal?
Tell us something about Hagal’s current frame of mind.
It has been a while since the debut, now you’re suddenly back with
your new album, a fabulous website and great festival-gig! Do we
see a new era of Hagal arising?
I hope so! The fact that two of our bandmembers studied in different
towns made it hard to work constantly. Now I`ve returned to Hamburg,
we`re able to rehearse from time to time. But A.F. still lives in
Berlin. We can`t play spontaneous gigs, for example. But we do our
best and I´m happy to hear your nice words about our work. By the
way, I´m quite proud of our homepage www.hagal-blackmetal.de. It
has been designed by my brother, a professional graphic-designer.
What else is new? We sell a lot of our new output “Sterbender
Traum”, I think we`ll have to produce a second edition soon.
We hope to play more live-gigs in the future. We´re working on that!
I am sure a lot of people (especially here in Germany) have already
heard both name and your first magnificent Demo-CD “Karg”
('meagre'). Nevertheless, regarding the rather international readership
of these pages (who probably has neither heard of Hagal
nor their music), I would like to see you introduce Hagal
in a proper way, away from any plain facts!
Come on, plain facts have to be! At least some dates, right? „Hagal“
was founded in 1998 by Dirk (guitar), Ole (drums) and A.F. (guitar,
vocals). After one-and-a-half years work, our first album-CD „Karg“
was recorded and produced by ourselves. It was published in 2000.
In 2002 we started to work on our second album “Sterbender Traum”,
which just like “Karg” was recorded by ourselves, while
surpassing it by far exceeds relating to the sound. Because of different
personal circumstances some delays arose. That’s because “Sterbender
Traum” was published not until 2004. I really dislike to talk
about our music: Hear it, then you´ll now it! Others say we sound
like a mixture of old Helheim, Borknagar, a little bit Enslaved
here, a little bit Darkthrone there. Maybe they`re right. I think
the reader has read this a thousand times, but: I personally think
we play a very unique style of northern Black Metal. At least many
reviews say the same…And we are 100% non-political, I think that`s
important to know in these times! All of us have been in the Metal-scene
for a long time, we don`t care about any “evil” image or such a
boring fuck. So, again: The reader should listen to our music, he
won`t be disappointed, that`s for sure.
Nowadays everybody is complaining about the fact, that young
bands sign so easy contracts for unworthy releases to labels. But
on the opposite, most outstanding bands self-release their records.
This is paradox. It seems, for most labels signing doesn’t equal
quality! One might say that unsigned, but high-standard bands rarely
get a record contract with ease. Some, like Hagal, don’t
even search for such a contract but continue to release independently.
Now the second self-released CD has already come out. I know you
have searched for a label after “Karg”, at least for some
time. That leaves two questions from me: Why did you decide to release
“Sterbender Traum” ('Dying dream') on your own again, how
to deal with this independence? And were do you see the reasons
for this “sign-everyone-disregarding-any-quality” development?
Actually, we didn`t care much about a record deal for releasing
“Sterbender Traum” . We did not contact anybody
asking for a release. Maybe it has been a mistake, but “Sterbender
Traum” is great, although or because we released it on
our own... As I said before: We sell a lot, so why should we complain?
But don`t get me wrong: If there`s a serious record label wanting
to sign us we won`t say no. We`ll see what comes around. I also
see this “sign-everyone-disregarding-any-quality” development
you mentioned. You ask for reasons? Fuck, I really don`t know. There
are bands signed out there, whose members can`t play a single note.
Damn, who the fuck listens to such a worthless crap? Many little
record-labels seem to think that those bands are kind of cult figures.
I don`t care too much, there is a handful of german bands I listen
to, Drautran, Lunar Aurora…the serious ones,
you know? This hole elite-thing…man…ridiculous loosers,
all of them!
I would like to know more about the long time between your releases.
It looks quite familiar to me as a resident of North-Germany myself,
to naturally show a kind of calmer behaviour when it comes to daily
life and even to creating music. Besides, everyone has a lot of
other occupations and worries to handle in life. Are you too busy
with other things or is the band not “top priority” in your life?
I read about personal problems that might have caused this delay?
As I mentioned before, we lived in different towns, that was the
main reason for this delay. But you`re totally right by mentioning
the calm behaviour. I have to kick some bandmembers asses all the
time, otherwise there wouldn`t be much activity, haha. I think for
all of us the band is not “top priority” in life, but
very important. It can`t be “top priority”, we have
to earn our money, finish our study and stuff. We`re happy if there`s
enough time left for Hagal. Until we earn money with our
music, what probably won`t ever happen, Hagal has to be
our hobby. I think most of the Black Metal bands are in the same
situation as we are. And everyone claiming his underground-band
to be his “top priority” in life is either a liar or
a little pupil, whose parents pay for him.
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