(Today we present a discussion by Comrade Aleks with the always-interesting Roman from the unconventional Norway-based black metal band Bizarrekult, whose sophomore full-length was released last January by Season of Mist.)
There are too many bands nowadays, and it’s difficult to keep in mind all the new releases which deserve your attention. We already interviewed Roman “Bizarre”, the leader of Bizarrekult, about a two years ago discussing the band’s long story, his relocation from Siberia to Norway, and his first Bizarrekult album Vi overlevde. The band was heavily rooted in black metal, but back then it already demonstrated a lean towards progression in other directions.
Their second album Den tapte krigen, released by Season of Mist Underground Activists in January 2023, and the sense of artistic freedom which fills it, is exciting. There was no way but to get in touch with Roman again.
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Hi Roman! How are you? What’s new on Bizarrekult’s side?
Well, where to start? The world burns down, my own life is collapsing and I don’t know what would happen next, but otherwise all good I guess. We have a third album in the works and probably another cover track will be out early next year.
Is it too early to ask about any details regarding the third album?
I can say for sure that there will be 8 tracks on it, very dynamic, with some of the fastest tracks I have ever written. But it will also be very emotional and beautiful. The text flows from one track into another so that it is all like reading a book with a story in 8 chapters. And there will be a couple of guest appearances!
Your “progressive post Black Metal with angst-ridden lyrics” turned to be even more atmospheric and more “post” with the new album Den tapte krigen. Why do you hurry inflicting all these changes in Bizarrekult’s sound?
It is all natural dynamics and development. Vi Overlevde was based on material I wrote down in 2009/10, it would be very strange to keep the same approach 11-13 years after. I became older, more mature, more confident maybe? We also wanted the songs to breathe more, have more room for delicate melodies and all the nuances. It is a more developed album, tightly produced around the solid bass core.
I read that some listeners were disappointed with the direction you chose on Den tapte krigen saying that it’s too artistic, too far from traditional black metal stuff. Is it a problem for you?
Not at all. It is important to start by repeating that I am doing Bizarrekult not in order to satisfy anyone, I am not focused on sales or something like that. Let’s say I am only a transmitter, a free painter, reflecting on his own life, passing something from the inside world to the outside world. Similarly to how our life can be different from day to day, with a variety of moods, feelings, emotions, Den Tapte Krigen is a snapshot in time. It is what it is, it is located exactly where I was when I was writing these melodies and texts, year 2021. You may like it, you may hate it, but this is my life as is. The third album is going to be different, again, because time goes on, I experience new things, get different perspectives.
Okay, then what does connect all of Bizarrekult’s records?
Well, maybe not that different 🙂 Think of a My Dying Bride 34,788%…complete. It is the same band that made Turn Loose the Swans, you can hear it, you can feel, but you might not like the album. I know many fans of MDB who hate it, but I think it is a great one, and I believe it was also an important one for themselves. Maybe Den Tapte Krigen is my 34,788%…complete? I don’t know.
This time you also used lyrics written in Russian, like we can hear in the songs “Den tapte krigen” or “Kjære barn”. Did you feel that it would be more relevant, more… precise… to speak these things in your mother tongue?
You know, with this album I went all-in with my own reflections. I was running outside in all kinds of weather and there were bits of text, thoughts, words coming into my mind with the demo version of the songs.
“Kjære barn” is very personal (like if anything is not personal in these lyrics). I developed it around a short poem that I wrote while we were waiting for our first child. Naive, unprepared, full of expectations and without any experience and understanding of what would happen. “Den Tapte Krigen” on another hand was born in mud under the rain, me running around, thinking about hardships of my life and then turning it all into battle scenery, struggling with myself, losing everything. Unfortunately, I have become a real hero of my own lyrics. Careful what you say…
Was the spoken declamation from “Himmelen er utilgjengelig” taken from a movie or did you record it specially for the song?
This is my own original text, connected to the rest of the lyrics for that song. Somehow I wrote lyrics for that track as a piece of prose in Russian, and then developed a Norwegian version. However, for that middle, meditative part I decided to go for spoken declamation. For me this album is somewhat related to Life of Insects by Pelevin, a post-modern lyrical approach, a bit of surrealism, images and visions connected to real events and feelings.
How did your approach to the lyrics change with Den tapte krigen? Do you follow the same themes or did reality interfere in your creativity?
I see these lyrics as a continuation of Vi Overlevde. I am studying myself, reflecting on past and present, looking for answers and speaking about feelings like never before. I always dragged it a bit over the border in order to make real events more poetic, surreal, artistic, but at this point of time I feel I went too far by blending my own life and my own poetry, to the point when lyrics are more real then the events around.
Season of Mist supported the album’s release with two videos. As I understand, real artists appeared in the “Du Lovet Meg” video. Did you take part in the creation of this?
This video was filmed in Portugal by Guilherme Henriques (Gaerea), and he used Portuguese actors and Portuguese landscape. Dina (my wife) wrote the script and after a few adjustments Guilherme directed it in a very professional manner. And then there is also a video for “Midt i Stormen”, directed by Natalia Drepina; she also worked with a script written by my wife. Very deep and heart-breaking.
Well, what’s the story behind the “Den Tapte Krigen” video?
Like I mentioned above, I was running under rain/mud and imagined my own life as a struggle with myself, in which I am destroying everything, including myself, in order to pursue goals that are not mine, not belonging to me. That is why you see the same face when the masks are off.
The idea of two languages in this track is another reference to Pelevin’s Life of Insects. A story when a cockroach digs away from his surroundings into another, better place only to find out that it is all the same, just new cockroaches speaking another language and wearing slightly different clothes… and then he digs away again and dies.
Some people believe that there is actually an anti-war, political statement in this video and in the meaning of the title, but it is only a coincidence. I wrote these lyrics in 2021 and script during winter 2022, before the war in Europe had began.
Once again Ivan Gladkih did all the arts for Bizarrekult’s release. Did he prepare individual art for each song this time as it was with the Vi overlevde CD booklet?
It was a bit more on the conceptual level this time. Insects represent humans and they carry their castles of broken dreams/lives. They fight, they die eventually, all for nothing. It is all connected to the lyrics, including lyrics for “Himmelen er utilgjengelig” (Heaven is not available).
Roman, what are your plans regarding Bizarrekult for the rest of 2023 and further?
In November we will do a Scandinavian club run with Danish duo Angstskrig and hope to have another tour somewhere in Europe in 2024.
How many gigs do you have in your schedule? Will Bizarrekult tour alone or do you have a company of other bands? With what kind of bands do you usually play?
At the moment only these 5 gigs with Angstskrig are planned. For 2024 I want to go on tour as a support for 1 or 2 bigger, established acts, similar to how we opened for Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Regarde Les Hommes Tomber in the fall of 2022. I prefer playing with bands that I like to hear myself and that have some connection genre-wise as well.
Thanks for the interview Roman! Did we skip something?
Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/bizarrekult
https://bizarrekult.bandcamp.com/album/den-tapte-krigen