AN NCS INTERVIEW: ORDO KARNIVORUM

(Here is Comrade Aleks‘ interview of guitarist/vocalist Sergey from the Russian black metal band Ordo Karnivorum, who released their second album last spring.)

Ordo Karnivorum was founded in Ivanovo, Russia two or three years ago. It is now a trio: Sergey (guitars, vocals), Alexander (guitars), and Eugenia (bass). Their unholy debut as a duo, Noir (2023), drew some attention to the band, but due to the low live activity it was easy to get lost among other black metal bands. However, their new crushing full-length work The Restless should change the rules of the game.

Live, unpolished sound, high-quality stuff, and a fanatical approach to deathly black metal with harsh vocals and macabre philosophy make me feel some sympathy to the wicked Ordo Karnivorum. Let’s take a look at the band’s inner machinery, maybe we’ll find something interesting there!

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Hi Sergey! How are you? What’s going on in your lair?

Hail to you as well. We are doing fine, forging out new hymns to the obscurity of the void. To put it simply, we are working on new songs already and are getting prepared for the upcoming tour.

 

Okay, we’ll return to this topic a bit later, but let’s follow the most standard protocol. So how was the band started? What drove you to form it as a duo three years ago?

I think what drove us is a passion for black metal and its unique atmosphere. It arises something very deep and mysterious, and it is always very thrilling to touch something transcendent. To my personal experience, only black metal is capable of providing such a journey.

Alexander, the other founder of the band, has already given a great manifest in the past with his first band Nidavellir; they managed to encapsulate the profound philosophy and magic of this art in the early 2000s. But now the time has come to show our view of the genre again.

 

 

What was your original idea for Ordo Karnivorum? Did you work out a certain image or a concept to differ from the legions of other black metal bands filling the underground?

The original idea was simple – we wanted to play dark and extreme music, to embody our ideas and vision of the genre by blending black metal with some elements of death and thrash. As for the image – we definitely didn’t want to use corpse paint, that’s for sure. First it was a great way to express the dark aesthetics visually, but nowadays it has sort of discredited itself. Though sometimes I find it very inspiring anyway.

We wanted to play some really decent music with an honest approach, without using too much of special effects and so on. Our idea is to show the music as it is, but it should sound strong and convincing.

 

What about the visual aspect of Ordo Karnivorum? Do you care much about it yourselves?

It turned out to be quite a task – how to present the band visually. It is close to impossible to impress anyone with some extravagant looks nowadays, so we’ve decided to focus more on the music itself and the energy that we translate via our performances.

 

How did you work on the material for the Noir album? What kind of result did you search to embody in these songs?

We’ve had a lot of rehearsals, and the great thing was that we already had quite a lot of ideas for the songs, so they were born quite fast and naturally. We wanted to embody the high-level work of darkness and malice in our music, intense and merciless. I think we’ve managed to do just that.

 

 

How did you spend the period between Noir and the new album The Restless? What inspired you to keep working further in this direction?

We simply started working on the new songs, to be honest. We’ve managed to give couple of performances, but we mostly stayed in our rehearsal room making new songs. It was just a certain need and flow of ideas that kept us making one song after another. Perhaps it was a streak of inspiration, I don’t know.

 

Where did you play? How would you value these first performances of Ordo Karnivorum?

These were mostly local gigs, we’ve played two times in our hometown, and one time it was in Moscow. There were not too many people, but the whole atmosphere was decent. Also, I can say for sure that there was a certain level up with each gig and the audience was always responsive, so I’m pretty sure that in the future it will be even better.

 

 

How do you see the difference between the albums? Did you search to prove your technical skills or did you want to broaden Ordo Karnivorum’s style?

The songs on The Restless are a little bit more complex, I guess. Sometimes they are more straightforward and relentless, which is good, they will sound great live. Also, I’ve broadened the vocal tools a bit as well, so you can hear my clean vocals in ‘Fearsome and Treacherous’. And the sound of the album is a big step-up, I think it sounds more mature and aggressive.

 

One strength  of The Restless for me is its drive and catchiness; the rhythm section works perfectly even though the drummer recorded separately. What kind of qualities did you find personally in this album? What do you like the most about this album?

We really like the overall sound of the album, the drums in particular sound more live. Also, almost all of the parts were recorded in one take – we didn’t want our album to sound too clean, so some harshness in the performance only helped to translate this certain strikeful nature of our sound. For example, our bass player Eugenia recorded 5 songs in a row during one session. We didn’t use any VST-plugins, all the guitars were recorded directly through the amplifiers, just like in the old days. Also, the vocals were recorded very simple as well – just a guy screaming out loud in the mic, no pitching or anything.

 

 

Originally one of the black metal aspects was a sense of danger or hostility the genre’s name inspired. It started as an antisocial phenomenon, and then we have quite friendly subgenres like black-gaze, some post-things or whatever… How are you social? Do you feel black metal as a way of socializing with other people?

I don’t really like all these post- genres, it doesn’t have the essential darkness that black metal is about. It is like when the wolf was tamed and became a lazy fat dog in a couple of generations. Sorry for an obvious comparison, but that’s what came to my mind in the first place. I still don’t really think that black metal is a way to socialize, especially in my town, perhaps the situation is different in bigger cities. I also stand aside in a way, in order not to create this bullshit image of the genre in mind when it’s totally mocked by everyone for a million times. I try to keep this mysterious yet dangerous aura of black metal and think that it is absolutely necessary to keep it.

 

How would you sum up The Restless’ message? What’s this album about?

One of the album’s main themes is death and its presence in our everyday life. The world seems to fall apart, there are wars rumbling all around the globe, also death can come up silently and very abruptly with the sudden demise of relatives and so on. There is a certain feeling of despair, but also the message is to keep the inner strength and carry on no matter what. You can find it in the lyrics, I think. I always felt that black metal was about strength and being an independent and proud individual, even if you are on your own.

 

 

Once again you hired Vladimir Fomenko to record the drums. Is it such a problem to find a proper drummer? How did you collaborate with him working on this material?

Yes, it is a huge problem to find a proper drummer, especially in our genre. Many modern drummers tend not to record their parts but making MIDI-tracks instead, which I find absolutely shameful. Also, it takes a lot of guts, dedication, and discipline to play black metal drum parts. It is also very demanding on the endurance; some drummers are just not physically able to play so intensely for a long period of time.

Vladimir is a machine and a beast, he plays absolutely insane parts and his attack is really mighty. Also, he has a great work ethic, so we didn’t have any doubts about contacting him again. We just sent him the guitar tracks and asked him to provide his own visions of the drum parts this time, and it was amazing, it opened some new edges of the songs we didn’t know about.

 

What are your ambitions regarding Ordo Karnivorum’s future now when you have the second album released? I saw that you were searching for a live drummer, did you find a proper one?

We’ve found a proper live drummer, his name is Eldar, also known as Noctus from the mighty Gmork. He is one of the few that can actually play the parts from the album and it is absolutely great! We’ve rehearsed with him several times and it was totally crushing and brutal.

Our rehearsal room is quite small and one day we were playing very intensely, I remember how the sweat was all over my guitar. During a short break we decided to have a breath of fresh air and stood in the hallway, and Eldar’s clothes were simply soaked, it was this physically demanding!

But overall we are totally satisfied with his skills and style, and surely excited to present the new songs live. Eldar would deliver, that’s 100%.

 

How do you see the band’s prospects regarding the fact that the scene is overcrowded now and a few rare, good, higher positions are already occupied?

We are not here for the fame or anything like that in the first place. Strictly for the art, so to say. The main thing for us is to create black metal that we would be proud of and would gladly listen to ourselves. If we’ll manage to find some new listeners who will appreciate what we do – it is great already. Also, I strongly believe that if the band is strong and dedicated, it will carry on no matter how overcrowded the scene is.

 

Traditionally black metal artists searched to build “circles” of like-minded persons. Are you involved in things like this? Do you search in black metal for something more than just playing music?

No, not really. I’d say that most of the black metal musicians are quite introverted and are not seeking for like-minded individuals. Also, the scene is quite scattered at the moment, and there is no real support or collaboration between bands, or maybe we are way too underground at the moment to see it. I don’t know, time will tell.

 

So you mentioned the band’s forthcoming tour — how many gigs do you have in your schedule? And how far are you going to get?

We are planning to support the band Illa on their tour and present our album live. Also, there will be Gmork by our side, so it will be a real challenge for Eldar to play 2 sets in one night. There will be about 10 gigs in different cities, I cannot reveal all the secrets yet. Perhaps by the time this interview is published, everything will be already announced.

 

How did you organize it? Is it easy to find proper venues and companies to spread black metal evil?

The organizer is Mikhail from Morok Booking. So far there were no real issues in finding proper venues, hopefully it will be this way in the future as well.

 

And the new material – how much do you already have for the next album?

There are three songs that we are actively working on together at the moment. Also we have a lot of riffs and song structures in stock. We are more focused on the tour rehearsals at the moment, so there is not much time left for the new songs, unfortunately. But once we’ll get back from tour, the flame in the forge will burn fiercely, that’s for sure.

 

Thanks for the interview Sergey! Any final words for our readers?

Keep supporting black metal, the genre must stay dark and evil. Keep the black flame alive!

https://ordokarnivorum.bandcamp.com/

https://svanrenne.bandcamp.com/album/the-restless