photo by Radmila Volchenkova
(Here we have a new interview by our Comrade Aleks of Roman V., mastermind of the Norwegian black metal band Bizarrekult, whose new album is due for release on February 20th — tomorrow! — by Season of Mist Underground Activists.)
Norwegian project Bizarrekult emerged from the Siberian band Dryados and moved to Oslo with the relocation of its founder, Roman “Bizarre” (guitar, bass, vocals). Since then, Bizarrekult has had a virtual “studio” lineup, which, in addition to Roman, includes guitarist Ignat Pomazkov from the Belarusian doom band Adliga and drummer Alexander Pryakhin, based in Russia. At the same time, Roman maintains a live lineup of local musicians, so the band is fully active.
As you noticed due to NCS’ newsletter, Bizarrekult’s third album, Alt Som Finnes (“All There Is”), is here and it’s marked by a slight hint of moderate progress. The eight new tracks feature both pitch-black traditional black metal, with some post-branches. The material’s sound ranges from uncompromisingly apocalyptic and quite extreme to dreamy, transparent “philosophical” passages, presented in a softer, more tranquil manner.
Incidentally, the album features guest vocals: Yusaf Parvec (Manes, Dødheimsgard, Code) croaked on “Blikket Hennes,” Lina (St. Petersburg’s Cross Bringer and Predatory Void) sang on “Drøm,” and Kim Song Sternkopf (Møl and The Arcane Order) sang clean on the lyrical post-metal farewell “Tomhet.”
Conceptually, Alt Som Finnes sounds like an introspective, heart-wrenching album, untethered from conventional black metal themes, save perhaps for a profound sense of the inappropriateness of one’s place in a disorganized world. There was no other way but to do this interview with Roman, so you can read almost the entire story of Alt Som Finnes below.
Hi Roman! How are you? What’s Bizarrekult’s current status?
Hi, I am fine, thanks. Two years ago I moved to Trondheim and that complicated the logistics for the live-band as we are now two people in one city and three in another, making rehearsals tricky, but otherwise all cool! Looking forward to the year(s) ahead.
Your up-to-date album Alt Som Finnes is finally being released, so what are your plans regarding its promotion? How much are you going to put into it?
I think you can always do as much as you can but then how efficient it is and what really results in efficient promotion – I have no idea. So I am relying on the publisher here, and from my side I am always available for fans and press through social media. But otherwise I see no reason to compete with anyone under the sun – art is part of my life, but not my profession and not my income. This leaves me with artistic freedom as I am not dependent on merch, tickets or releases that should be aimed at a specific target group. I have no plan on writing X amount of songs or playing Y amount of gigs per year or to do this and that. It is what it is and I would never trade off my vision for temporary success or compromise with my values. My biggest fans are people who can relate to music and lyrics and that is in fact really cool.
It’s said that the album’s core is shaped by your deep personal crisis. How did it influence the way Alt Som Finnes sounds? Or is it mainly reflected in the lyrics?
The music was more or less finished three years ago, but lyrical themes and exact words were shaped by events in 2023 that I was not ready for. One might say that it was a middle-life crisis, but I am not so sure. It can happen at any timepoint in life, when suddenly everything falls apart, you see that you need to re-evaluate your life trajectory, current, past, future, like if you lose it all mentally while still being in possession of your experiences. Melt it all into an undistinguishable clump of new material and cast into a new form? But the form is the same so you have to figure out how to go beyond the form, beyond the experience, values, identities and… just live, carry on, enjoying the process.
Two years ago you said that this new album promised to be emotional and beautiful and it may contain the fastest tracks you have written. Do you feel that is still true? Did this crisis stretch for this period of time?
Absolutely. This album is the best I could write and I am not sure I would be able to top it off (not that I need to either). The tracks are beautiful, full of emotions, with a good story and well-thought lyrics. Even the tracklist is a poem on its own. Also, the fastest tracks indeed (“Avmakt”).
The “crisis” is part of my life journey itself, and then if we take both retrospective and current thoughts you could scratch the timeline to both pre-album and nowadays, but I think I learned a lot and (hopefully) not experiencing the same as before.
The video “Blikket Hennes” (“Her Stare”) is very emotional, and it seems as it bears a story behind it. Is it a reflection of that personal crisis you experienced? Or is it rather a metaphor opened to interpretations?
The tracks “Hun” and “Blikket hennes” should be seen and listened to together. They are basically one text divided into two and it is all about conscience, our inner judge that is carefully watching over everything we do, think, plan, wonder, consider, develop. It is just there, regardless of what we do. We can’t hide; we can’t do anything about it.
In languages where nouns have genders (Russian, Norwegian, etc) the word for conscience is female and that explains why it is “She” and “Her stare”. My fascination with the subject of morals and conscience goes back to middle school; reading Dostoyevsky was formative on that matter. Crime and Punishment and other works often deal with the “inner voice” that narrates the characters’ lives and serves as a source of suffering which ultimately leads to redemption.
photo by Radmila Volchenkova
Can you say that this release lightened your experience in the end?
I would not say it like this. I think what is more important is that I found a better way to handle my life situations and interactions with myself and people around. Since music and words are a part of myself and accompany me on that life journey they are part of the experience. A snapshot.
As I understand, you started to compose Alt Som Finnes about three years ago. How is its emotional content actual to you today?
It is all still very relevant. The experiences that I had made a deep effect on my relationship with my own music, words, and importantly stage performance. I now learned to go all in into the exact feeling (be it anger or frustration or despair) the moment I am in the track on stage, being 100% true to emotion or feeling yet at the same time not letting it all take control over me, rather seeing myself or better to say the exact emotion as from a 3rd person video game perspective.
There are guest vocalists in this record, who don’t need a special introduction. How did you get in touch with them? What kind of qualities did you expect from their performance?
When I work with others they always have “freedom to operate” – I provide the lyrics and a demo version of how I see the track and then they adjust the way they feel is more organic for them. There are three guests – Lina from Predatory Void, Kim from Møl, and Yusaf from DHG.
For the track “Drøm” (dream) I wanted to have a different type of voice but also it had to be in Russian, as in this case it is about the language you use when you are in your dreams. Lina has a lower type of scream than me and this makes it so cool. I also left my own voice here and there in that track for an additional layer of depth. With Kim we communicated online but also in person when he was in Oslo and then I was visiting Aarhus, Denmark. We were exchanging ideas of maybe playing a gig together but then ended up with doing a song in English. Unintentionally in the first place, but it felt right both with regards to language choice, theme, and how it ended up sounding. A very bold, naked, emotional nerve in the middle section and then total chaos with all kinds of growling and screaming from both of us – a true “legion of empty shells”.
Now, for “Blikket” – without getting into many details, we became friends with Yusaf when I was in a rather dreadful shape around 2,5 years ago. And it was not for the music, but for something bigger, a match made in another dimension. We had some transformative meetings where he helped me to see things from a different perspective, reflect on what I should do (and should not) and on who I am. This experience and moments are most valuable. His amazing performance on the record is an added bonus to the whole.
Back then in 2023 you had very few gigs — did the situation change after that? How often has Bizarrekult been playing live the last two years?
We did not play as much as we would want to, but at the same time 2024 was rather shaky and life was challenging. But we nevertheless got a week-long tour in the UK with Wormwitch and Winterfylleth at the end of 2024. 2025 was also short of concerts but we managed to play both with Dold Vorde Ens Navn and Dødheimsgard!
What are your further plans for 2026?
Curious to see how the new album is going to be received and what stages it will bring us! I love being on stage and living through the lyrics and music again. We have two great events scheduled: Inferno Festival in Norway and Summer Breeze in Germany – this is going to be massive; we have never played on such big stages!
Otherwise, me and Fredrik (live guitarist) set up a grind/death trio in Trondheim and it is a lot of fun. We hope to record a demo in 2026 and start playing some crazy shows with it.
https://orcd.co/bizarrekultaltsomfinnes
https://bizarrekult.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bizarrekult/
https://www.instagram.com/bizarrekvlt/