The Pagan Herald #01
It’s quite apparent that the main direction of nowadays BM scene
is becoming heathen. More and more bands, especially in Germany,
tend to change their whole attitude; they drift from older anti-Christian
and satanic values to the integration of mythology and pagan subjects.
Unfortunately, most lack the ability to express honesty and decency
when it comes to paganism. In my opinion, it’s mostly the urge to
proof you sit on the right train (the one that leads to sensation
and acknowledgement). Do you share my point of view and can you
comment on this issue? Do you get annoyed and pissed off sometimes,
or do you simply don’t care?
I get annoyed, hell yeah! People putting Odin and Satan together
and things like that, uh, that hurts, that really hurts! I`ve read
so much about northern mythology but I would say I know
nearly nothing. Most of the people did not ever read a single book
but claim to know everything. Yes, I know what you mean and I totally
agree.
Thus, I am noticing something really frustrating these days:
Using some runes on the cover and choosing a moniker of northern
mythology’s rich terminology has clearly become a trend. Leading
country of this unfortunate development is, once again, Germany.
Why is nearly every Pagan Metal band in Germany so focussed on northern
mythology? Do you have any opinion about the aforementioned tendency?
I can understand this development: In the beginning, the lyrics
of most Black Metal bands dealt with occultism and Satan. I never
understood the fascination about this topic. Satan is part of the
Christian mythology and I´m not interested too much in this, although
it has its exciting aspects. Since I´ve read “Midgard”
from Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein I was into this whole northern
mythology stuff. Why should I bother about others, who feel the
same like I do? I don´t bother about trends anyway. What the fuck
is a trend? Is it a trend to eat food, because everyone eats food?
I hate this word: Trend. As long as people take their music seriously
and have knowledge about the stuff they sing about it`s totally
okay. Then they may use as much runes as they want and become millionaires,
I really don`t care.
Concerning this, a large number of German bands seem to change
their attitude and image just for the sake of getting an aura of
mysticism and ancestry (maybe because of Norwegian examples)? I
believe many German bands become attracted by the misinterpretation
and transfiguration of mythology, moreover the customs of fascistic
tendencies in esotericism and occultism. Where do you see Hagal
in all this? Can you comment the whole phenomenon? You know, many
bands claim it’s not necessary to comment this. Is there a need
for a Pagan Metal band to have any opinion on this?
As I said before: Hagal is a non-political band. I won´t
say anything more about this: We don´t deal with political topics,
so you can`t put us as the band in any political corner, be it left
or right. We always made clear, that the political views of each
bandmember have nothing to do with the band itself. But I do think
a Pagan Metal band should have an opinion on the phenomenon you
described. Too many Pagan bands mix together Nazi-shit with northern
mythology, for example. What a stupid thing to do! We demarcate
ourselves from those idiots, I think every serious band does. If
not, it isn`t a serious Metal band anyway.
Easy to see I am slightly narrow-minded concerning this discussion.
Well, as I said before, only few bands show individuality, sophistication
and deeper knowledge. Most newcomers (and in fact most of the old
league as well) tend to have no sufficient knowledge about the heathen
background they are trying to present. Nothing but bad replicas.
It’s all about image and entertainment, more like a masquerade without
any guts, there’s no gist behind. They have a view on mythology
based on superficiality and tawdriness. Do you share my point of
view? Where do you see the threshold between being ridiculous and
approaching the “correct” view, if any? And how to define
the latter?
Yes, I share your point of view. It´s hard to made out this threshold
you mentioned. I think the only possibility is to take a look in
the lyrics of a band: In most cases one short look is enough to
see if the author knows what he`s writing about or not. But there`s
a thin line between being ridiculous and the “correct” view: A band
posing on stage, each member decked out with a Mjöllnir and tons
of runes can be seen as ridiculous on the one hand, but on the other
hand those ornaments are able to underline a certain atmosphere.
But I think most bands overshoot the mark. When Hagal plays
live we don`t wear too much ornaments. We don`t even wear black
clothes at every show. People knowing our art take us seriously
anyway, we don`t need this stuff. It´s the music and only the music…
I consider it easy to see if a honest band leads or follows in
this matter. Hagal belongs to the former. Since the beginning,
you strive for highly inspired and nearly graceful spiritualism,
expressed through mythology and the fascination for nature. There
is no doubt about your qualities. With your new masterpiece “Sterbender
Traum”, I am sure you are going to take your foremost place
in the hollow and distorted crowd of German Pagan Metal bands. Where
do you think Hagal is positioned in Germany? What keeps
you so persistent and distinguishes Hagal from all other
bands?
We`re quite well known here in Germany. There are a lot of German
bands selling more copies of there outputs, but I think we have
a really faithful fan-base. For most people owning one of our albums
we´re not just “another” band, but very important. What I say here
might sound arrogant, but I only repeat what the people tell us.
We`re often told that we`re very unique. That could be the reason
for our persistence. Other bands just play music, show off a little
bit and that`s it. Hagal kills!
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