1. Cracov is the history of kings in Poland, Cracov is the Wawel Dragon, Cracov is the Castle, Cracov is Holy Death, Cracov is a satanic concert 2004, Cracov is SVAR.At the beginning, tell us how it happened that you gave birth to Svar and what does the name mean?
# Svar was born in 2020 mainly due to a lot of free time spent at home, in isolation. The material for the first EP was created quite spontaneously. I wrote a few cohesive pieces and found that it sounded cool and suitable for a project. I had recorded various things at home before so recording the EP myself was not a problem.
# As for the name, I took it from the name of the Slavic God Svarog. According to etymologists theonym Svarog consists of the stem “Svar” and suffix “og”, where Svar means “fire”, “heat” or “light. I came across this while reading Alexander Bruckner's Mythology of the Slavs.
2. Your new album, the first big one, is pure Black Metal without unnecessary bullshit. Raw Pure . Was it supposed to be like that? Or maybe there was a different idea?
# I prefer not to plan what the next release should sound like. I usually just let things happen. For this album, it started with one song that strongly reminded me of the Swedish school of melodic black metal. Then I wrote another, and it came out in a similar style. That’s when I realized I should probably go in that direction. It wasn’t forced — those sounds were just in my head at the time, and I decided to make the most of them without overthinking whether it was 100% or just 10% black metal.
# When it came to production, however, I had a very clear vision for the album's sound. Once the musical direction was established, it became very obvious to me how the album should sound .Moreover, I like when black metal sounds dirty, I didn't want this album to sound modern.
3. Texts - what do they talk about and what do you say to us with them? What are you conveying, is it an important message?
# Svar's lyrics primarily explore themes of Slavic mythology, but they also draw from Nietzsche's philosophy, with a strong presence of nihilism in the latest release.
# The focus of these themes varies. For instance, the previous release was entirely dedicated to the Slavic God of thunder, while In the Land Called Night features relatively little of that subject matter. It depends on what I happen to be reading and listening to at the time.
4. You've already played Void of Sympathy. What happened that you were left alone and do you think it's the best solution? If you had made music 30 years ago, would it have been easier or are there more possibilities today?
# I joined Void of Sympathy between the release of Svar's first and second EPs so this has nothing to do with it. Svar is by assumption a one-man project. This gives a lot of creative freedom and 100% decision-making on my side. It also makes it a lot easier in terms of organization. You don't have to wait for someone to do something or arrange a date that suits everyone.
# There are also downsides, of course, costs fall on the shoulders of one person, there is a lot of recording and composing work. One person records all the instruments, writes the lyrics, records the vocals.
# Well, and I don't play concerts with Svar. I play them with Void of Sympathy instead and to be honest that's enough for me .
5. Stage in Cracov ! What does it look like today, is it developing or rather falling? Your oppinion !
# I would say that black metal scene in Cracov is in a realy good condition nowadays. Recent years were really good in terms of releases, new bands and projects. Mgła, Odraza, Over the Voids, Owls Woods Graves, Totenmesse, Medico Peste. From the most recent ones I can recomend Todestrieb and Kir. Both released great albums at the end of the last year. There are many more that I don't remember now. Cracov is definitely an important place on the map of polish black metal.
6. You released the album in a Polish label - publisher. Are you satisfied with the cooperation and will there be new albums still in this label?
# Yes, I'm satisfied with my cooperation with Via Nocturna. I think they did a good job promoting the album. We are currently focusing on promoting In the Land Called Night. Future releases are not on my mind yet.
7. Geopolitical question - war in the east and what do you think will happen next? What will happen ?
# I do not feel competent enough to answer this question, nor am I any kind of oracle.
8.In the end, thank you for your time and answers. The end of the interview is up to you - We are waiting for the new album and where can we listen or / buy the already released ones?
# Thank you for the interview, it was a pleasure. In the Land Called night is available on various streaming platforms and Youtube. You can buy CD and cassete on Svar's bandcamp or in Via Nocturna online shop .
interview by Seducer 2025y.
1. Hail GOMOLD, first of all, can you tell us why this band was formed and for what purpose?
- Hail! Basically it’s a long story, but I (Crotalos) got awaken after the miseries of 2023. I remember I was full of revenge. To put it other way, the first song were fueled by desire for vendetta. I created Gomold officially in 2024, and my brother played an important role in the foundation of the band, because he instigated me to start playing music. Sincet he beginning, he is the producer of the band recording our music.
Together with my fried and our bassist, Big Chris (Kitten Remains) we have been planing a long time ago to form a band since we were colleagues.
Then Lucius, one of my best friends joined us. Thus, Gomold was assembled.
2. As we already know, you are from Hungary, I already know that you are helped by (who, tell me) and Mandragora sang on the first material. Tell us who she is and how did you find her?
-Yes, we are a Hungarian band. As for Mandragora,…maybe I’m not making any trouble if I admit that she is the daughter of Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Tormentor). Together with her we are great friends since ten years. I was sad to accept that she had to leave the band, because I adore her voice. On the other hand, I understand that her job and other duties not allowed her to stay in the band.
3. How was the cooperation of 3 guys and a girl, will she stay with you?
-It was a fantastic co-operation with so many epic moments, which I will always remember. Otherwise, Mandragora remained the member of ZBMK (Zvgloian Black Metal Circle). This means that she can participate in any of our projects, and I’m surely have a couple of music ideas, where she can bring her voica, and her father, Attila will help the band in the future.
As for my side, I’m really proud of Mandragora, she’s a great women with enormous potential!
4. Your music is rather a huge experiment than regular Black Metal, it reminds me of the beginnings of Beherit. How do YOU perceive it and how are YOU perceived?
-You said it quite accurately, because it can be seen az some kind of experimentation. Though our first demo is unequivocially not the best sounding – I prefer to listen tot he second one -, but I think a demo record must identify a musical direction instead of just sounding well.
We have a strong intention to avoid the well-known schemes of the genre, because we don’t want to be mere copies of other bands. Surely we love the old classics of the genre, but their style replicated by so many bands that we could have a hard time distinguishing copycats from talented ones. In addition, I’d not define the style of Gomold as Black Metal, but Zvgloian Black Metal. Thus, I’d like to keep it distinguishable from other bands. We like Beherit, but the French LLN musicians are also worth mentioning due to their attitude for experimenting a lot before releasing their cvlt records. All of them requires open-mindedness to enjoy.
5. Lyrics, what do they say, what do they introduce us to and how do they create us?
-I try to write diverse lyrics. As mentioned before, our first songs were inspired a lot by the theme of revenge. But there are other songs refering to the forgotten past of Zvglo, or songs inspired by a nightmare and nightmarish feelings. It’s not easy to give a comprehensive answer to this question because every time I write the lyrics, there’s a movie going on in my head, so I can instantly get the feeling. Generally, our lyrics are about darkness, adoration of death and all about heresy.
6. Hungary - tell us something about your music scene and how it evolved through the communist era to today?
-Unfortunately, I know very little about the early days of the Hungarian scene due to the fact that I was born one year after the communist era you’ve mentioned. But I know that underground bands existed back at those days. Some of them sold itself for fame, others got almost forgotten (Fantom), but a few are still active nowadays. These bands preserved their dignity, like Tormentor, working hard for their succes, for which I respect them a lot. Most of the bands from the Hungarian scene started their carreer in the early 90’s, and many of them is an inspiration for our work, such as Dusk, Diecold. Of course, there are some musicians, whom I consider a bit overrated or not as significant as they are announced.
But then came the musicians of the Inner Awakening Circle (IAC) in the early 2000’s (Dunkelheit, Lepra, Niedergang, Grimness, Hell Eternal, Gyötrelem…and Voidshrine is also worth mentioning due to it’s emergence from the IAC), who massively represent the local Black Metal scene together with the Vespremian BFBMK bands (Infectus, Lidérc, Hold, Ködfolt..). So we listen to these bands most of the time, but skipping many other bands which are superficial or not really unique. This is how I could present the Hungarian Black Metal Scene briefly.
At this point, I think it’s important to give credits to the Hungarian zines, such as Tales Of The Morbid Butchers, Metal Catacombs or Dögvész, because they keep on promoting and releasing Black Metal materials up to nowadays. Kronos Mortus is also a very active local metal webzine. Among the Hungarian underground places I can recommend Supersonic Blue Hell (YUK), led by Balázs Tóth, and giving the best concerts.
7. Hungary today with this technology, with what government in this system and on top of that Russia's war in Ukraine. How does it interfere with your team or have an effect on you, as a band and as a nation?
-To be honest, I was not really influenced by this whole situation (Russian-Ukranian war), and it’s not affecting our music making too much. But if I could travel back in time, I’d rather live in the 80’s, or even in the 90’s than nowadays. Back at those days there were no such widespread technological bullshit,(like mobile or internet), yet people could organize great concerts. In my opinion, tech devices make more harm than benefit. Obviously we are using them, because we are forced to do so, and there are devies, which are useful and indispensable for music, too. But hearing that AI writes an entire song without the musician…what the fuck is that?! Whether it is great or awful, music has it’s own atmosphere because it’s made by humans, as well as the crytics as a feedback given to the music. As for us, we are making efforts to improve and avoid getting replaced by AI. I think that our world is heading towards the apocalypse for several reasons, not just because of the machines. Despite that, I believe we can make a difference, because the future is still in our hands!
8. Thank you for your time for the interview and I wish you many more albums.
-Hail from Zvglo! We’d also thank for the chance to talk! Many new things are going to be uncovered soon, you can check our website for the upcomming news. Keep your eyes open!
interview by Seducer 2025
Let's move to a country in Central Europe - Northern Poland. Zenith is one of 9 bands on metal watch.
1. Hello, tell us how you started with metal, you are young guys!?
* Hi! First of all – thank you for having us!
* And how did we start with metal? Good question. It was probably just meant to be. A natural cause of events. Or perhaps the memories of this very moment were lost along the way, flooded by alcohol and lost in cigarette smoke. The most probable answer to this question is that this is simply the way our environment shaped us. It’s pretty much the thing going on with metal – its strange attracting factor. You can’t notice the moment when it pulls you in and then it’s over. Someone might be a complete stranger to you but you immediately recognize that they belong to the same culture – culture founded upon making music and getting dead drunk (ideally both), so before you know it, you are contributing to the scene.
* Yeah, we cannot really pinpoint the moment when we started with metal, yet when it comes to THE moment when we started with THE metal – probably when we realized that there are other people sharing the passion for making heavy music and actually met them. Vast majority of our lineup throughout the years have known each other from school. Others were mutual friends, also present in the metal community. As we said, the attracting factor of this genre.
2. Have you gone back to the 90's, do you know anyone from your area?
*Oh, man. As you noticed in the first question, we are young indeed. Only one of us was alive back then and he was probably already not sober enough to remember anything from that period!
*Certainly, the easiest way to answer that question would be to name a giant like Behemoth and call it a day. Their enormous success made them be seen mainly as a Polish band, but people often overlook the fact that they originate from Pomerania.
*But we assume that such answer would not be satisfactory. In some way, 90’s era was never a thing of the past here. Scene is full of young people, but majority of seasoned veterans never really left it. They constantly present new offerings, new iterations and new takes on the style. Presumably the best way of experiencing 90’s music created by 90’s musicians is checking out bands like Riese or Deadspeak, analysing past projects of their members and eventually landing on things like Calvaria. Alternatively, should you care mainly about the style itself, there are some fine old-school picks by relative newcomers out there, such as Dreadnought or Vexange.
3. You recorded a full album in 2023, why after 2 years there is nothing more?
* Actually... actually, there is, although played exclusively live for now. We have always considered concerts to be the perfect environment for testing our new compositions. Musicians often lack objectivity of a listener. You may like a garbage track because it’s fun to play, but at the end of the day only you and your bandmates are playing it. Consequently, no matter how frustrating something may be to play, if people love it, then you’ve made a good job and the only way to check it out is to play that piece live.
* I digress, don’t I?
* Yeah, to the point: the second album is almost finished and should everything go according to our plan, we will probably start recording it later this year. Musically and lyrically speaking, it is everything that “Inside the Chapel” was not. Our debut, despite being relatively short, captured the essence of what we wanted to express through its dirty, crusty soundscape. In that regard, there is nothing more to say, we want to move on.
* So, the second release will surely see somewhat of a musical shift. Don’t get us wrong, it still will be a piece of extreme music (relatively heavier than its predecessor), although addressed from a different angle. Either way, should you desire a quick sneak peek of sorts, there are quite a few live recordings shared on YouTube and even on our Facebook page.
4. Your music is the one that is remembered for a long time. Do your fans tell you that at concerts?
* Of course, we hear such things, but we’ve got the impression that it’s not about music really. At least not only about it. Let's be real, our music isn’t anything that can’t be easily summarised as “wpierdol” on top of “napierdalać”, as our Polish fellows would say. We think that, beside few catchy motifs scattered here and there throughout our catalogue, we are remembered primarily for the energy of our concerts. No matter how groundbreaking your music is, if you stand still, looking bored as hell while playing it – it shows. It really shows.
5. Creating an album, lyrics - how does it look like for you? Do you walk through the Pomeranian forests and think about the album?
* Hah, appreciate Behemoth reference! Actually, what you said might have been true for our first vocalist. He stood for more of a traditional approach when it came both to lyrics and to themes present throughout our debut, with the horned man himself taking the centre stage…
* This time around – considering the fact that our vocalist/lyricist has changed – things are quite different. We want the second release to be much more consistent experience, at least lyrically speaking. It won’t be by any means a concept album, but we wanted to anchor all of its motifs inside a predefined conceptual framework. And so, we ended up with an idea of loosely basing it on some kind of philosophical work (we won’t reveal the book in question for now) and when that was settled upon, there came a time for making some actual lyrics.
* Unfortunately, we haven’t yet discovered (and patented) a reliable formula for being inspired, so we have to rely on good ol’ unhealthy amounts of caffeine and frequent existential crisis. The true issue is producing something of an actual quality. Try listening to a track without vocals and it feels empty. Take the lyrics out of their musical context and just read them – most of the times they are stupid at best and nonsensically hilarious at worst. Creating good lyrics, for us at least, is primarily about finding perfect balance between the two mediums they are centred around. This is when their quality is truly tested – when they leave the piece of paper they were written on and succumb to constant reshaping until the moment they both complement and are complemented by the music. In other words – define meaning as a poet, choose words as a musician.
6. Why do you play concerts so rarely and will we see you abroad?
* Why do we play so rarely? Simply speaking, that’s the way it goes. As much as we would like to do it all the time, at the end of the day it probably wouldn’t feed us (*properly feed us, let’s not delve into the beer and cigs diet) and pay our bills. Although, it’s passion after all, so we’ll be doing it at our own pace, despite all the hardships, and as long as it wouldn’t result in us ending up on streets.
* Will you see us abroad? We would surely love to, but as we said – food, bills and, in this case, gasoline. Nevertheless, should there be demand for some Zenith outside Poland… We don’t suggest anything, but recommending us around would most likely help that come into fruition.
7. Your last words to the Fans, thank you for your time! See you at the concerts!
* Last words? Nah, we think that one word is enough: POZDROCK!
* Thank you very much, it was a pleasure speaking with you. See you at the concerts indeed!
interview by Seducer 2025y.
