(Today we present the second part of an interview by Hanoi-based NCS contributor Vizzah Harri with Nguyễn Tấn Đạt, aka Nattsvärd, from the Vietnamese black metal band Imperatus. You can find Part 1 of the interview here, and Harri‘s review of the debut Imperatus album At the Mercy of the Wind here.)
This is the second instalment of an interview with Nattsvärd from Imperatus. Part 1 focused on their origins, inspiration for their sound, as well as the technical facets of recording, whereas Part 2 focuses more on lyrics, writing/composition, as well as some thoughts on the scene and what the future holds.
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You used a quote from Anthony Burgess — “When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” Which reminded me a lot of the Avenged Sevenfold song Bat Country (I was today years old when I realized this is a quote from none other than Dr. Seuss haha): “He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man”. Together with the cover art and the sound clips, what was the feel you were going for conceptually?
Great insight and connection! I will never shy away from the fact that Avenged Sevenfold was my gateway band to metal music haha. And the said quotes do share a resemblance.
As for the concept behind the album, we use “Embrace the Darkness, Slay the Divine” as a slogan of our own during this time. That is a line off the lyrics of “Eternal Strife”, on which Anthony Burgess’s quote was also sampled. During the writing process of the album, I got really into reading and learning more about wars, and came across images and stories that influenced the lyrics on “At the Mercy of the Wind”. From the anger, frustration, agony and despair I felt from those stories, I tried to write “At the Mercy of the Wind” as a war between the mortal and the divine. There were no historical events or any political/religious views directly quoted, but the negativity from them were used to portray the mentioned fictional war.
Here, the “mortals” are the helpless, the ones without power, the ones who were discriminated against, under no fault of their own. While the “divine” are the ones in power, the oppressors, whose divinity is self-proclaimed. To be frank, to call out what we are trying to fight against with our music, I would say the holy wars, which now I would love to hear your connection of this to my favorite quote from A Clockwork Orange that was sampled in our album haha [Edit in answer: anti-free-will fatalism is the concept religions have employed as their favourite weapon over the ages, so the quote is very on the money regarding that].
The desire to make our album timeless is also a factor in writing the lyrics without any historical events. Wars have been an ongoing issue throughout the existence of humanity, therefore I wanted to write something that is relatable (the anguish, the frustration…), no matter when you were born, let it be 10, 20 years ago, or years and years to come in the future. Because there will always be that “Eternal Strife” and the future is “At the Mercy of the Wind” haha.
That quote opening with the title track is extremely prescient for me and perhaps for you too? It feels like just as Vietnam’s economy and growth in general having been exponentially rising like the folkloric ‘hoa phượng’ (phoenix flower), music and metal specifically is experiencing a rejuvenation of sorts. Who are the main players in the game instigating this incredibly exciting golden age (I don’t believe in the golden age fallacy of art in any form and feel that the now and here is more golden than any and therefore also going forward) and what are your thoughts on metal’s state right now and into the future?
Well, exactly! Writing that war cry to end the quote for the title track was my intention. The line “At the Mercy of the Wind” was actually written first, with the lyrics of the track. I then chose it to be the track title, and wrote the remainder of the poem as an introduction. And when the album was finished, personally, that line struck me as the perfect culmination of the entire album.
And a lovely leading sentence there! For the longest time in Vietnam’s history, western-influenced music (besides classical music) was considered juvenile or rebellious. There were eras when rock and metal were, in a way, banned here. Which resulted in our country being a bit slow on all the trends of music around the globe, especially metal.
There were also times when individuals and groups from Vietnam, back then Trung Loki and the Southern scene, tried their best and the metal scene was really active. However, it did not last very long due to, in my opinion, the incapability to really pass down the torch to younger musicians, as well as the unfortunate change of trend. Loki is to me the godfather of extreme metal in Vietnam, which I would love to help him pass down as a torch onto younger musicians.
While in the North, we only and truly have ourselves a local metal scene with the appearance of black metal acts like Elcrost and Vong, especially with Vong releasing the demo for “A Wander in Liminality” in 2019. This also led to the founding of House of Ygra – the first extreme metal record label based in the North of Vietnam, specifically Hanoi. They, in my opinion, have grinded their asses off since 2021 to ignite that “Ember of Hatred” (haha), the pioneer of the new movement of extreme metal in the North.
And like the phoenix flower itself, I witnessed a legion of newer and younger musicians and listeners emerge from that hard work, which gave me a sense of pride, knowing that I and our music was a tile on that road. We are still struggling from the lack of musicians, notably drummers. But to me, the more people into the dark arts, the more artists that shall come in the future. Though, I do hope that it’s the near future haha.
I am not the brightest person to be asked about the history and foundations of Vietnamese metal. However, this is my knowledge, given that I was only a true member of the community since 2021. Taking apart the “old man talk,” I am young as well compared to the other guys haha.
Which band would be your dream tour buddies?
For a smaller dream, I would love to go on an international tour with bands from our local scene. Let it be ROT, Rêvasseur, VONG,.. (or any other talented friends and bands from our scene). Showing the world what the Hanoi- and Vietnam extreme metal scenes are capable of is to me a dream, one that I truly hope we can achieve in the near future. And personally, I would love to go on tour with Parasitario one day. They are a death metal band from Japan, founded by Yuto Kotani, a close friend of mine. We actually never met in person, but I hope we can go on tour together one day haha.
A bigger dream would be being a supporting act for all the bands that influenced us.
Nattsvärd with VONG
What was on your metal playlist in 2023 and are there any albums from this year that keep luring you back?
2023 was a great year for metal and it would be hard just to pick a few. But to choose some standouts from my Album of the year list, just off the top of my head (in no particular order):
• Daemonian – The Frost Specter’s Wrath
• Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant for Us
• Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
• Parasitario – Everything Belongs to Death
• Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirits
• FesterDecay – Reality Rotten to the Core
• Marduk – Memento Mori
• Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
• Avenged Sevenfold – Life is but a Dream…
With only a few months into 2024, there’s no album that I’ve listened to that feels like it can crack my Album of the Year list yet haha. That may just be a personal reference, but I can name a few that I can remember: Brodequin, Benighted,.. To be fair, I look forward to some of the upcoming, soon-to-be released albums. For instance, Alcest, the singles really hit me man haha, definitely a repeat for the lowdays. Gatecreeper’s new singles caught me off-guard as well, the production of their new album is pretty good, the Chainsaw tone is very well-mixed.
Speaking of the infamous BOSS HM-2 tone, Dan Swanö and Edge of Sanity just released a remix of their song “Twilight” (taken from “Purgatory Afterglow”). He somehow made the sludgy and fuzzy chainsaw tone sound so beautiful, which already sounds really great on the first release of Purgatory, typical Dan Swanö eh? haha.
I would also love to shout out to Lockeheart with the second album. Though I am not a big fan of the style/genre, as the sound wizard that Nemo is, “All Of Us Divine” is definitely a memorable record of 2024 with its well-polished production.
Some rippers in there for sure, and a few I’m yet to check out!
I was lucky enough to witness the 2nd installment of the Slam City Festival in Cambodia with 3 Vietnamese bands representing. One thing that stood out was that all 7 of the bands from Cambodia shared members (with a few session musicians present for the Viet bands too). The metal community in Vietnam is also fairly close-knit as I understand it. Is it a blessing having such a nucleus of like-minded artists in the underground scene that push each other’s projects and music?
The Cambodia tour in my opinion was a very big step for the said Vietnamese metal movement, seeing 3 of our bands dispersing their terror over the borders. The Elcrost tour in Thailand previously has also made me proud as well. And I truly hope in the future, more bands from the Red River Delta will also have the chance to play overseas. Of course, it would be great if Imperatus would have that opportunity as well.
About the situation of the local scene, personally I feel like it is both a blessing and a curse. Having a small group of like-minded artists to lay the groundwork for the entire scene is the best way to build up for a better future. We have been pushing each other to take this music journey from being just a hobby to actually create something. The competitiveness may be noticeable, though at least for now, to me, in a very healthy way. And even in the Norwegian black metal scene, it started the same way now that I think of it, as they also started with Mayhem and “the black circle”.
However, in the future, this situation might seem more like a curse. If we continue being just this small group, everything we tried to build will die out as time goes on. As I mentioned above, passing down the torch has always been crucial for the longevity of any movement. Therefore, the number of new and younger audiences is to me a hope for a better future.
Do you have any big influences for when you write lyrics, compose the music, or for the feel you try to achieve?
In terms of lyrics for the album, for some reason no name popped up in my head as a direct influence at the moment. However, there are a few books I would love to mention:
Classics like Slaughterhouse-Five, The Things They Carried, Catch-22, All the Light We Cannot See, Johnny Got His Gun,… or works of Vietnamese authors like Nỗi buồn chiến tranh (The Sorrow of War) by Bảo Ninh and Tuổi Thơ Dữ Dội (Severe Childhood) by Phùng Quân.
As for composition, I was influenced a lot by the black metal movement around the late ’90s in the Nordic regions, when the extremity was pushed to the limit by sheer speed and brutality with acts like Marduk, Immortal… Tonally on the album, I am a fan of the Swedish Chainsaw tone as mentioned above, as well as the production works from Peter Tägtgren and The Abyss studio in Sweden. For thrash metal, Magane and I are also really into the new wave of old school thrash metal. Speaking of which, I am really glad that the YouTube dilemma of NWOOSTM was resolved satisfactorily. What happened was really concerning.
Something that always fascinates me about the writing process is whether the lyrics or the music comes first? And does it change as the project progresses?
Well, as for “At the Mercy of the Wind” music always did come first. During the writing phase, I felt the music, the riffs, was just flushing out very naturally. For me, the problem with writing the music was just picking the best ones, and improving them. There were tracks 90% completed and then scrapped from the album because I was not completely satisfied with them; which now left me with unused materials for the future if I can turn them into something good one day haha.
On the other hand, writing lyrics was such a struggle for me haha. Picking out the right words, the right imagery… took me so much time. Not to mention that my English was not perfect; it took quite some time to fix the errors, while keeping the number of syllables, the vocal rhythms… I had help from Liam as well; as mentioned above, he probably is my favorite metal lyricist in our scene right now. Shout out to Liam and Rêvasseur! Still, the lyrics were only finalized the night before the vocal recording day haha.
However, I would love to try working on a track in a different direction, presumably writing lyrics before music. A different direction will lead to a different perspective, and I think it’s worth trying.
Nattsvärd offering guest vox with Liam W. from Rêvasseur
You opted for lyrics that can be tied to any conflict – it’s more of a lamentation of war in general. Was this a conscious choice to not be pigeon-holed as a Vietnamese project singing about the civil war and the invasions surrounding it?
Well, the lyrics on the album were influenced by actual images and tragedies of wars in the past. However, it was not told in a direct way, or giving any actual comments on the events that happened. I treat my music not as a political or religious statement, but as something to relate to. That’s why the album is more focused on the devastation of war, the despair… I wanted to leave room for the listeners to feel what they want to feel. And the reason for not being blunt on the inspiration and putting them on the lyrics is, as Impaled Nazarene put it, “the absence of war doesn’t mean peace”, war always has and always will be there.
The theme of war was always an iffy topic for Vietnamese artists. Throughout the years they were either praised for being a “propaganda act” or condemned for having a different view, at least from my point of view. Even celebrated writers, for instance Trịnh Công Sơn, whose songs speak up about the civil war, were banned. Which perhaps is why nowadays people only remember his love songs. Phạm Duy is also a good example for sure, who had as much criticism as praise for refusing to use his talents as a political tool, for speaking up about HIS truth. Freedom of speech is there in Vietnam, however, not everywhere.
Was the shift in lyrical content from other projects as natural for you as the shift in musical style?
That’s one way to put it, for sure. As the music I write gets more aggressive, a suitable lyrical theme is much needed. It would be weird if this album was about love or something right haha? However, I will soon move on from the theme as heard on “At the Mercy of the Wind’. There are many more to explore.
Long/Guillotine playing live for Leukotomy
With quite some range noticeable on At the Mercy of the Wind, do you have any vocalists or mentors to cite as influences to your vocal style?
With harsh vocals, it’s always the story of trial and error, in my opinion. Most vocalists, especially from Vietnam, do not have any professional mentoring throughout our career. I cannot possibly think of a direct influence on my vocal style at the moment, but Chuck Schuldiner of Death is probably the most notable figure during the early days of practicing. People tend to focus on his guitar ability and didn’t give Chuck’s vocals enough credit in my opinion.
My first time listening to Death was actually their cover of Judas Priest’s Painkiller, still impressed by the intensity of the vocal every time I revisit the song and the album. From that, I spent years learning to produce disgusting sounds out of my vocal cord without fucking it up, and I did fuck it up a few times during the process haha. I did have a lot of great tips from Liam about warmups, control… Gotta give him the respect he deserves for being the most consistent and professional screamer in our scene to date.
What did you find the most challenging aspect of creation, in moving in a new direction and doing a lot of the work yourself? Also, what advice can you give other musicians starting out?
The most challenging aspect is no doubt the amount of work. I tend to overwork and be neglective on my health and my social life when I am “in the zone”. Being meticulous as I am, I tried to have inputs on every aspect of the project, meaning more work and more stress. And getting burned out is inevitable, which to me is really fucked up since I am doing what I love. Even though I am good to go after some much-needed breaks and readjustment, I still need to put my trust in the other members and share some of the tasks. That’s why our next release will have their original materials.
I am not the best at giving advice, but I’ll take inspiration from Uncle Ho’s teachings to children “5 Điều Bác Hồ Dạy”:
• Know what you’re playing, find your sound
• Learn from others, learn from your mistakes
• Always aspire to improve
• Be disciplinary but don’t be harsh on yourself
• Don’t be shy of seeking help
Three words to muse on: Metamorphosis, Order, Chaos, go!
“Transformation, Harmony, Discord.”
“Metamorphosis” represents transformation, the journey of change and evolution. It embodies the concept of growth, adaptation, and renewal.
“Order” signifies harmony, structure, and organization. It embodies stability, balance, and the smooth functioning of systems or societies.
“Chaos” symbolizes discord, unpredictability, and confusion. It represents disorder, turmoil, and the breakdown of established patterns or systems.
Nattsvärd and Magane
What is on the horizon for Imperatus?
“At the Mercy of the Wind” has just been released on 15.03.2024. The initial reaction for us would be playing shows and touring, if we ever got the chance. Playing gigs to me still is the best way to promote one’s music, so we are open for any opportunity of playing live. Still, having no stable lineup is a crisis not just for us, but other bands in the scene as well. However, there will always be a resolution.
In terms of studio work, we still have materials left in our bank as mentioned above. Though I was in charge of all music and lyrics on “At the Mercy of the Wind”, Magane might soon be taking steps into leaving his footprints on our music. We look forward to going back into the studio and working on the next release in the near future.
As a matter of fact, I actually hope to be in contact with another band who would love to do a split with us. So yes, if our music is something among your likings, please contact us.
https://imperatus.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-mercy-of-the-wind
https://www.facebook.com/imperatusofficial
https://www.youtube.com/@ImperatusBM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Z4xfWsgpCRsxjpqaImrso
https://www.instagram.com/imperatusofficial/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/imperatus/1725851616
https://twitter.com/ImperatusBM