AN NCS INTERVIEW: VORGA

(Today we present an excellent interview conducted by Daniel Barkasi with guitarist and composer Atlas from the German black metal band Vorga, whose new album is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.)

The cosmic side of black metal is a fascinating one, boasting a wide range of approaches and sounds – from the horrifying and disturbing to the eclectic and bombastic. Emerging purveyors from deep, dark reaches of space, Vorga has metastasized an energy-laden, yet cuttingly furious approach. If a soundtrack to being sucked violently into a black hole has any appeal, their latest Beyond the Palest Star should be on your list.

Said new full-length is an advancement on the acclaimed Striving Toward Oblivion, which was a sonic boom of pacey, vivacious black metal that was always traveling at Warp speed. Beyond the Palest Star achieves a balanced output; plenty of speed to burn, while also allowing a wider array of influences to take hold, forming a deeper and more complex offering.

We managed to track down guitarist Atlas to speak in-depth about the new record, a film-quality video the band released, the sci-fi and the black metal scene, as well as the impacts of AI and streaming on the artist and the world at large. Prepare to traverse into the void with us. After all – “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Yeah, we went there.

******The new album Beyond the Palest Star has had a lot of people talking in a highly positive light. From my perspective, it’s an album of tremendous growth that shows a lot of new viewpoints and strengths. With the album now out in the world, what are your thoughts on how it turned out?

Generally, I’m very happy with how it turned out. It all came together very well and is the record I am most proud of so far. Of course, I can pick away at things I’d change or re-write now, but that’s always the case, and good ammunition for the follow-up.

 

Striving Toward Oblivion was a whirlwind of an album that contained a lot of fast pacing. The new record is more nuanced with a multitude of different approaches and tempos. Was there an intentional effort to make something different this time around, and what new elements that were introduced were particularly important?

The word that kept popping into my head when writing it was ‘cinematic’. I really wanted to try to create a record that had a touch of movie score in it. Something that actually transported you away and into those visuals that Adam Burke did a fantastic job on without losing the bleak harshness of the underlying black metal. It was important to me to be able to layer the synths and soundscape elements in a careful way which would do that without overshadowing the original intent of the music.

 

There are numerous underlying themes within Beyond the Palest Star. It feels like a very personal album. Tell us about the themes present, and how important they are to Vorga’s music.

This record definitely has an overarching theme of facing death or taking one’s own life. Mixed in with it is the shitty state of affairs the world is in. One basically informs the other there. It was written during a particularly bleak time for me, during the lockdown here. Only leaving the house to go to the supermarket for months on end doesn’t do wonders to your mental health.

I always want to keep the themes and lyrics true to life and personal, that’s certainly important for me as the songwriter. Going down the fantasy sci-fi path isn’t something that interests me. Concepts of loneliness, bleakness and death are easily brought across in metaphors of space however, and that’s how I like to marry the two ideas.

The sample on “Magical Thinking” is a poignant one taken from The Expanse, speaking on intelligent life’s ironic propensity to destroy itself. Quite fitting, with the current state of the world, as you just spoke about. What kind of influence do sci-fi works have on your music, and in what ways do themes within that genre have in common with the real world?

I think you’re the first person to acknowledge where that sample comes from. Science fiction has always been one of my favorite genres. The music and soundscapes from both film and TV have always inspired me, and I find there’s a certain evocative and romantic quality to them for trying to reach for something which doesn’t exist yet. I think there’s also an underlying sadness or stillness to a lot of it, both musically and visually, and those emotions are definitely something that I both relate to and try to put into the music. The grandness and beauty of the vastness of it all is also very appealing.

The genre definitely likes to play with social and political issues that reflect the real world sometimes and serve as a reminder that we face many of the same problems, generation after generation.

 

With so many different flavors of black metal out there, what draws you towards the cosmic variety and what makes Vorga’s interpretation unique?

Putting black metal in space wasn’t really a hard choice, or even much of a decision. It came about because I relate to the emotions in black metal the same way I relate to the emotions of the things I enjoy about space and the night sky: beauty in bleakness, harsh hostility, and death. I guess our interpretation is one of the few that tries to lean on the more modern futuristic interpretations. I think this futuristic interpretation is somewhat unique, not to say fantastic bands like Khonsu haven’t done a great job doing things in a similar vein, but we push a fairly different aesthetic in our visual approach. It’s not what you might expect from a black metal outfit to some degree, and not to everyone’s taste, of course. But I enjoy trying to take the visual elements of black metal somewhere new.

A pronounced usage of electronic elements in songs such as “Terminal” add a fitting dimension to Vorga’s music. How important of an element is that to Vorga’s sound, and do you envision exploring those kinds of sounds further in the future?

I’d say so. Nothing is concrete yet, but I’ve enjoyed the new dimension it’s brought to the music, and can imagine it becoming a more central part of our sound in the future. I’m not wanting us to go down the Dimmu Borgir rabbit hole or anything, but maintaining a musical identity that straight away conjures up the ideas of futuristic space is something I’d like to maintain.

 

I mentioned sci-fi earlier. Are there any other particular sci-fi mediums – books, television, film, whatever – that are influential for you? I’m a bit of a Star Trek person myself. Any recommendations for something cool that we may not have crossed paths with?

I wish I had the time to explore it more, but the last few years have been so busy with the band that I’ve had very little free time. The obvious recommendation would be The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, where the name of the band comes from. By no means new, though, and very much a product of its time. I’ve worked in video games for a long time, so both the games and soundtracks from there have also been an influence. The soundtrack to the Deus Ex games by Michael McCann are fantastic, for example.

 

The creative process is of course so important, especially with a forward-thinking band like Vorga. Tell us about the writing of Beyond the Palest Star and how the album came to shape.

It was definitely an ambitious effort from my side. Once I had the idea of how I wanted to feel like when listening to it, I spent a lot of time gathering ideas, synth patches, samples, etc. I ended up writing about 16 or so tracks, and then building the album from those. The chosen tracks then got refined and tuned up as I tried to bring them together to make a cohesive whole.

The video for “The Sophist” was beautifully shot and quite cinematic, following an individual on a desolate planet who makes an interesting discovery. What’s the story behind the video and the song, and how was working with Oliver König and Klara Bachmair of mbience visuals / Firtan? They’ve made some other cool videos for bands like Imperium Dekadenz and Empyrium.

Working with Oliver and co. was fantastic. He’s a great guy, and we’re lucky to have played with Firtan and gotten to know them a little over the years. He was always very enthusiastic working with us and he wanted to try to push himself and try some new techniques on this shoot. The video speaks for itself, really, and I couldn’t be happier with the job he’s done.

The story was very roughly given by me before Oliver brought his own ideas to it. To an extent, it was also a product of where it was shot. Originally it was planned to shoot it in the Austrian Alps, but due to the weather at the time, it wasn’t possible. I think the location we ended up in – Fuerteventura – was definitely the right decision.

 

 

Adam Burke handled the artwork for both of your albums, with both pieces being absolutely stunning. Is there any connection between both pieces, and please describe what kind of concept the band was aiming for with the cover for Beyond the Palest Star?

There’s definitely some connection between them. The same ship features in both, as I had the idea to continue the ship’s journey on the new album. I really like to trust the artists we work with and not get too specific with the details so I’m not treading on their feet. So I didn’t really force any concept bigger than that. I told Adam we’d like the ship in the artwork again, swooping into view, the idea of an asteroid field, and also gave him the album name and left him to it. He’s made another stunning piece, and I hope we’ll be able to work with him again in the future to see where the ship ends up next.

 

Speaking of artwork, the usage of AI generated images for some recent albums has become a talking point. I feel this practice is a slippery slope that ultimately cheapens the package of an album as a whole, not to mention the moral implication of relying on generating software that steals the artwork of others to conjure up whatever it spits out. I’m curious as to your thoughts on the subject of AI, both in the realm of music and our society as a whole. Has it gone too far already?

I’m dead against AI art on the whole, and we’d never use it ourselves. Generally, AI feels a little like the early internet did right now, with no regulation or rules at present, and I can’t imagine a way to enforce anything anyway. Much like the internet, it has an infinite capacity to help us, but ultimately how people decide to use it will determine how it evolves.

 

How has working with Kunal (Choksi, label owner) and the folks at Transcending Obscurity been? How integral has the label been with the band’s success thus far?

I get on with Kunal very well and appreciate everything he has done for us so much. Without his hard work promoting the album, getting it out to reviewers and pushing its presence online, I’m sure we’d not have the success we do. Considering the label is better known for other genres like Brutal Death Metal and isn’t particularly a black metal label, we’ve really thrived being there.

 

 

With music streaming being a norm in music these days, it’s created a lot of discussion on its ethics and the effect it has on a band. One one side, it’s an outlet to share your music with more people, but the earnings from it are way out of balance in a negative way for the artist. I’m curious as to your thoughts on music streaming, and how it’s impacted the band.

I guess I’m fairly pragmatic about it. We can’t change it, so we just have to deal with it. It’s a brilliant tool for getting our music to new ears and finding our audience, but of course it does suck that music is basically free for everyone these days, when it costs many thousands to build a record like we do. That does put the onus on the bands to play live if they want to recoup their recording costs of course, but I’m more than happy to do that; it’s a great hobby that pays for itself by now.

 

I’m always interested as to what music an artist has been enjoying lately. Anything cool that you’d recommend?

I can’t say my finger has been super on the pulse in the last months with the album release and all the concerts we’ve been playing. The last album that really made me go ‘holy shit’ was the latest Crow Black Sky. Absolutely stunning record. Come to Germany!

 

I want to thank you for taking the time to answer our sometimes off-kilter line of questioning. To conclude, what plans does Vorga have for the future, both short and long term? Any tours coming up, or anything else that you’d like to call out?

We’re playing a bunch of festivals in Germany this year including, Party.San Open Air. Come check us out if you’re there. We’d love to plan more tours and we’re currently looking for teams that can help us achieve that. Hopefully we’ll catch some people on the road in 2024/2025. Thanks very much for taking the time.

https://vorgaband.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-palest-star
https://www.facebook.com/VorgaBand