(Today we present Part 1 of an interview by our Hanoi-based contributor Vizzah Harri with Nattsvärd from the Vietnamese black metal band Imperatus. Part 2 will follow tomorrow.)
Imperatus is the latest black metal act hailing from Hanoi, Vietnam. Their debut album that we reviewed here can be described as nothing other than a piece of music that commanded my attention from the moment the first chords struck.
I had the privilege of meeting with Nguyễn Tấn Đạt, aka Nattsvärd, to discuss their album, At the Mercy of the Wind, and this first part of the interview lights upon their beginnings, influences and the technical aspects of the recording project.
Imperatus – At the Mercy of the Wind
I have a tendency to ask people about numbers, and last year’s Eternal Path to Eden by your previous project Leukotomy was the 8th album recorded by House of Ygra, the ever-growing Hanoi label. That number does have some significance in Asian if not Vietnamese culture itself does it not?
Interesting question to start this off haha. Well, according to Eastern culture, the number 8 is a symbol of profit and wealth. I think they based this on one very simple pun, number 8 can be called “Bát” (traditional word – based on Chinese), rhymes with “Phát” in “Phát đạt” (prosperous, wealthy). However, I personally think that this number has no deep connection to “Eternal Path to Eden”.
But to pick one, I would say the album is more connected with the number 9, based on the number of tracks and the album name. “Eternal Path to Eden” is like a never-ending road, one that seemed to last for eternity, which foretold the theme of eternal struggles. The number 9 can be read as “Cửu”, like in “Vĩnh cửu” which is “forever” or “eternal” …
Sorry for the “guru” talk haha..
I don’t want to take up too much time harping on about your Leukotomy project, but I wanted to seize this opportunity to hear your thoughts on Eternal Path to Eden a year after its release. What did that album mean to you, what were your aims musically, where were you at philosophically and mentally at the time of writing and recording and it being such a diverse composition (like the keys opening ‘Disintegration’ having such a stark polarity towards what follows): do you feel that another manifestation of Leukotomy is possible in the future? (Sorry for the compound question)
“Eternal Path to Eden” does have a very special connection to me, at least myself back then. The struggles shown in the lyrics and music are fueled by my personal struggles throughout the years, as well as the tedious period finishing the album, which is more than 2 years.
The aim back then was to make a concept album with all the tracks connected, and each one of them represents a chapter of the story. I actually wrote a short story inspired by pieces of literature I read back then, most notably The Crow by James O’Barr, a story about losing love, sanity and eventually life. With this goal, each track or chapter has a very different vibe or style. Therefore, the music, which came after the concept, serves its purpose of portraying the story and was really diverse in terms of style.
Leukotomy has garnered feedback as being closer to Depressive Black Metal than other forms of Black Metal, which is not the furthest from the truth. The overall topic was mental struggles, which I had my share of fights with. And as someone who uses music as a means of expression, it is not surprising for me to receive said comments.
In terms of music, elements of Leukotomy still exist in the way I make music, like the use of synths, the sense of melody… Perhaps because it is my footprint, my personal mark. However, I will never shy from improving myself, even if to lose some of the aspects that feel outdated. Regarding the future of Leukotomy, I cannot say much about it at the moment. To me, the project is a closed door, one that I do not intend to open again in the near future. However, it is not completely locked…
The new album came about in the winter of last year – was it a project you’ve been working on for a while or did the composing and recording process happen fairly swiftly? (as in “Hà Nội, không vội được đâu” {Hanoi, there’s no rush} haha)
Yes, “At the Mercy of the Wind ” was finished amidst the winter of 2023. However, materials used in the album had started forming even before Leukotomy released the debut album. I also want to keep the momentum of writing new materials, putting any ideas that popped up in my head to use, which left me with material that are not even used in Imperatus’s “grand opening”.
In terms of “At the Mercy of the Wind”, I started to put my energy into making it around June. With the materials I already had, I finished the writing process at the end of that month, though I have to admit that it only truly stopped when I finished the recording process. It is true that “Hà Nội, không vội được đâu” (kudos to you for knowing the slang haha), but it is true that I pushed the album into production fairly soon (after). However, given the circumstances of Leukotomy back then, in terms of self, I think it was the right choice.
Recording at Nattorm Studio, how was the process and your disposition at the time different from your experience with Eternal Path to Eden?
With “Eternal Path to Eden”, my parts, which were the vocals and guitar, were recorded at Imperial Cult’s home studio. Imperial Cult is the founder of Elcrost – another black metal band based in Hanoi, and House of Ygra – a local extreme metal label. However, “At the Mercy of the Wind” was mostly recorded at my home studio, which I dubbed Nattorm Studio. Therefore, the experiences were very different.
During Leukotomy‘s album production period, I was not a very experienced recording artist, which made the recording process last for months. Imperial Cult took me in to make sure all the recordings were close to perfect, encouraging us to push forward throughout this tedious and exhausting time. I learned a lot through working with him, whether it’s recording techniques or promotion, and always will see him as a big brother. Nemo Lockeheart also had a huge role in the making of “Eternal Path to Eden”, even though he was only credited as the mastering engineer. He was the one who took time and energy to teach me and my bandmate back then how to work with the mix.
I made other great friends from House of Ygra as well, which to me is the driving force and pioneer of this extreme metal movement in Hanoi, Vietnam. My best wishes to them and their rose-colored future.
Nattsvärd taking a break from recording the guitars
With Imperatus, all instruments were recorded at Nattorm Studio. This is perhaps the first time I worked as a producer and recording engineer, as well, with not much experience prior to the recording period. A lot of learning, trial and error, and experiments, but I am happy with the result. And from the experience, I can see myself suitable for working as a producer/recording engineer, I really enjoy helping others record, as well as mixing and mastering. I hope to relocate and expand Nattorm Studio one day, hopefully in the near future. So, if you guys like what I did on this album, as well as other works on the way (not only mine), feel free to contact me.
What music (no genre bias, as in anything goes) have you been spinning the most lately, and to harken back a bit; did you listen to many of the influences you stated informed At the Mercy of the Wind at the time of writing and recording?
Lately, I mostly listen to Swedish Death Metal and Modern Thrash Metal. I always look forward to seeking inspirations from neighboring genres as well, instead of just purely listening to Black Metal. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why our music might not be among the references of the traditional or “trve” black metal aficionados, which to me is a bummer but also not the worst problem. That being said, a black metal obsession of mine lately would be Azarath. I really like their work.
As for the production period of “At the Mercy of the Wind”, of course I listened to all the bands that I mentioned as influences on our Bandcamp page (Marduk, Immortal, Dark Funeral). Perhaps even a bit too much haha. Even though I mentioned seeking inspiration from other genres, I most certainly needed to be influenced by black metal giants to be playing black metal. The acts mentioned were among the most influential for me during that time.
Imperatus is the past participle of the Latin ‘imperare’ – to command. Is this project something that you are manifesting as a command unto yourself, your art and your path forward, or what were your thoughts on choosing the name?
Thank you for taking the time to discover that! For that reason, “Imperatus” would be “commanded”. From my perspective, Imperatus’ music is as “commanded” by something, or maybe… from somewhere… Perhaps it’s a cold and dark place where I feel the blasphemy was passed down, went through us, but not from us.
With all the ideas that came to me, and the pace of it, in a way, it feels as if some higher being “commanded” us to do Imperatus.
Who is your biggest influence as far as any guitar is concerned in sound?
Well, I did mention not being a very good recording guitarist during the Leukotomy days above. The frustration from that time urged me to put more time into practicing. In my opinion, playing covers has always been the best way to improve your craft as a guitarist. Of course, technical skills will gradually be improved, but your songwriting will also be impacted. During those “training days”, I did a lot of covers from the bands I mentioned above such as Marduk, Immortal,.. But also some Slayer and Dismember from time to time haha.
I was also trained as a classical guitarist during the first few years of my guitar journey. The affection for classical music has always been in me, therefore a lot of the melodies written are heavily influenced by the genre.
And so looking further forward to your work on At the Mercy of the Wind, was there any one pure inspiration of riffage?
I got a lot of shit for my lack of techniques during my early days of playing the genre, most notably, tremolo picking. It did weird me out to admit that tremolo was my weakest link as a black metal guitarist haha, so I spent months practicing from mid-tempo (120-160 bpm during the Leukotomy days) to what can now be heard on “At the Mercy of the Wind”, most of which is around 200 bpm haha.
I think it is due to the time I got really into the Nordic black metal movement in the ’90s, with bands like Marduk, Immortal,.. some might call it “Norsecore”, a bastardized phrase for sure. The sheer brutality from albums like Panzer Division Marduk or Pure Holocaust, and other bands and albums of the style like Nordjevel, Dark Funeral,.. Or maybe some of Mayhem’s work, really inspired me to work on “At the Mercy of the Wind”.
There are instances of Thrash Metal and Swedish Death Metal in the album as well, which culminated from what I was listening to during the completion of the album.
Nattsvärd
Can you tell us a bit about the technical aspect of things, like what equipment you used and how you got such a rich mix in tones going?
On the technical side, I recorded quadruple guitar tracks with an ENGL Fireball 100 – courtesy of my great friends from H3GL Musik – a local guitar shop in Hanoi. I really love ENGL amps, so the initial plan was to record with purely the tone from this “monster of gain”. But later on, I also got really into the Swedish Chainsaw tone. So, to resolve this “mental struggle”, I decided to record 2 tracks of each tone, with the Fireball tone hard-panned and the HM-2 tone semi-panned. I started recording the guitars towards the end of June 2023, and had to spend 2 weeks just to find the right tone.
Before finishing the guitar recording period, I had to re-record the entire album as well. After that, not much mixing was needed, all I had to do was to cut noisy frequencies. And with what I wrote from the influences I mentioned above, the wall of sound from the guitar was the result, which I am satisfied with for now.
But the thing is, when the first demos of the album (with only guitar and drums) was heard by some of the guys, to whom I was close, they did throw a lot of shade and called our band a “Marduk tribute band”, though some of them actually grew a pair and admitted that they were wrong when they listened to the finished product. So, as much as I love working on the guitar, and it being a very important part in our music, it was not all that “At the Mercy of the Wind” was about.
That’s true, about there being other elements present. One of the things that stood out for me about the back half of the album was the elevated presence of the synths. I felt that it added a lot of dynamism to your sound. As far as I understand it, you wrote most of the music for the album, is this also the case for the keys? (That solo in ‘Altars…’ is dope)
Being into classical music for so long, orchestral works have always been something I’m keen on. A lot of which was incorporated into Leukotomy’s music, which still exists in Imperatus, however, not as much in “At the Mercy of the Wind.” Plenty of orchestral works were there in the demo days, though they were cut down.
One of my close friends, Long (or Guillotine), who is also the guitarist of ROT, Blood Serpent and even Leukotomy back in the day, stated that the excessive use of synths and orchestration did make the album sound less aggressive. And I totally agree, with the sheer speed of the album adding layers of orchestration was totally redundant. That is why when I completed the album, only a few of said elements made it to the final version.
Vaden
And Vaden was not just recording from what I wrote, he also left his mark in the writing as well, especially with that solo on “Altars of Despair” and the instrumental break in “From the Ashes of a Forgotten Past”. Vaden is actually the only member of the band that has an academic music background, and though I wrote the parts, he nitpicked on said parts for the best outcome. Either picking the best modes, scales, or how to incorporate them in the mix without clashing, he did a great job. Vaden is a gem in the scene right now, given his talent and young age.
An interesting approach was done during the recording of keyboards as well. I recorded Vaden’s keyboard into my computer, then I sent the quantized MIDI back into the KORG, the audio of which then was recorded through the line out. The reason behind this is purely based on our affection for the factory sound bank of KORG, and also perhaps to match the sound of the keyboard between studio and live.
In my review I kept referencing back to the bass sound. I love the fact that all the instruments are fully present in the album. The bass gets almost funky in sections, in others it leads; this makes me wonder what the recording process involves as far as mixing and mastering: how hard is it to finally decide “this is the final version?”
When I asked Magane to join us and record the bass, he had not touched the bass for almost 2 years, and his bass was just lying around in my studio for months in the shittiest condition haha. This might sound biased since he is a close friend of mine, but he did a great recording job, despite the situation back then. I helped him record the DI tracks of the bass at Nattorm Studio and then we proceeded to re-amp at Guitar Plus Studio. I think the reason was a simple thought of “if the guitar was analog, the bass should be too” haha. The bass was recorded with double tracks, one is a crunchy tone, one is with the BOSS HM-2. Bass and HM-2 might not sound like a very good match, but I love what we achieved after some mixing.
I did write the bass lines; I was never a decent bassist, and writing the bass just to follow the guitar riffs was never on my table. When doing the composition, I always try to give all the instruments room to stand out, for the instruments and players to show their characters. “Funky” is not the wrong choice of word for the bass, as well. Since a lot of my influences for the bass came from funk music. I can cite the bass work on albums by Masayoshi Takanaka or Tatsuro Yamashita as a source of influence. Some might find it weird about the bass on our album being so present, but I love the way it is and intend to keep doing that.
I knew that it was the final version when I knew that was the best I could do back then. Sure, some might find things that they don’t like, but as an artist, one must learn to accept criticism and improve what should be improved. And I am not shy to do so. Still, having the stamp of approval from friends and fellow musicians that I know personally truly encouraged me and let me know that I did well. When Niek and Loki from ROT said it was good, I know that it is, given how on edge they are with music.
Magane
The thump, drop/break at 1:30 in ‘Accursed Warfare’: how was it achieved?
Well, with the guitar recording, I used an analog setup as mentioned before. Every time that I ran to a sudden stop, I did a sudden mute on the guitar which left a feedback/noise on the recording. The decision to keep them in the mix was for the effect of making the guitar sounds more authentic to my taste. With the final riff before the break, on every progression, I added more layers of guitar, so it was 1, then 2, then 4 in an attempt to create a marching, intensifying effect.
Achievement unlocked mate. I mean, in ‘Eternal Strife’, the layers being added are very noticeable and it happens so quickly, the song morphs a few times in less than 30 seconds!
The album does start with “Calm Before the Storm”, which I feel like the name speaks for itself when “Eternal Strife” comes up. The track is actually the second fastest song on the album. The fastest is actually “Altars of Despair”, though I think the dynamic of the structure kinda lured listeners from that fact.
Even in 2024 there are still people who find it strange that drums are programmed, but they’re fine with guitar pedals. Through conversation it came up that you’re not exactly trained as a drummer, but I have to say that you did a really good job on the programming. It sounds great! Was this the most difficult part to get done or did you get a session drummer to record it? (because it sounds like a session drummer tbh)
With the current state of Imperatus, as well as the metal scene in Vietnam, acoustic drums recording is almost impossible to do. “As Darkness Burns” by ROT is actually one of the few records that this was done, and to this day still my favorite metal release from Vietnam. Recording with acoustic drums or analog equipment always provides the most authentic sound, perhaps that is why people still hold on to that standard.
I already achieved the analog sound with the guitar and bass on “At the Mercy of the Wind”, so for a while I was looking for a session drummer to do the recordings. I actually contacted and got a reply from probably my favorite drummer of the genre, Fredrik Widigs. And though he could not join us (which would have been fucking insane), his encouragement and techniques (most notably his cymbals work and fills) had a big impact on the drums on the album. I spent quite some time slowing down his drum cam video to see how he played, and tried to learn from it.
In the end, I recorded the drums with an electric set at Satoshi’s studio (Rêvasseur). The reason I stated that I am no drummer is that I had to reduce the tempo of the tracks while recording, and a lot of programming later on. But it gave the drums a realistic feel with the velocity of the recorded MIDI. After that was a lot of mixing and adjusting with the drums plugin for the best sound. Satoshi also joined in for the recording, leaving us with a lot of MIDI materials to work on. In the future, hopefully we can release an album with acoustic drums recordings. But that is a story for another day.
Embers of Hatred features Liam ‘Lupus’ Wright on vox and Satoshi Fukada on guitar solo from Rêvasseur. I was touched by how bass-heavy the opening is, as an almost introduction as to what is to follow. How was it working with these two musicians, the former of which there are a hell of a lot of projects with his signature of late?
During the demo days, the intro of “Embers of Hatred” was actually guitar only. However, this changed with the inclusion of Magane in the project. His most favourite metal genre is actually thrash metal, with his greatest initial influence being Megadeth. So the bass intro is actually a tribute to them, heavily influenced by an intro of theirs on the album “Rust in Peace”.
Working with the guys from Rêvasseur is such a thrill. I got the chance to feature vocals on one of their songs off “Talisman” – their debut album, and worked with them individually before working on “At the Mercy of the Wind”. Personally, I think Liam and Satoshi are two of the most professional and efficient metal musicians in our local scene to date. They came to the studio well-prepared and did their parts perfectly in slightly more than an hour. They gave me feedback and inputs regarding their parts, and did not shy from expressing themselves through the recordings.
Imperial Cult from Elcrost, Liam and Satoshi from Rêvasseur
It only took Satoshi 1-2 days for the base of the guitar solo; we experimented a lot on the recording day, and being the guitar master he is, there were parts that he completely improvised during the recording session. Liam on the other hand is always careful with his crafts. We went through small parts of his lines multiple times, resulting in them being perfect, in my opinion. Being “the writer”, as I usually call him, he also gave me the best advice regarding the lyrics, not just on this track, but the entire album. Truly a pleasure working with these lovely lads.
Satoshi also helped me with the mixing as credited. He came to the studio 1-2 times to work with me on the foundation and overall cacophony of the album. His experience with the BOSS HM-2 was also crucial regarding the wall of sound from the guitar.
https://www.facebook.com/imperatusofficial
https://imperatus.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-mercy-of-the-wind
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