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Wisps of smoke, bottles
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Black metal is Art.
Well, it’s supposed to be. These days people seem to eat up any old thing, whilst real records with blood, sweat and tears poured into them and deep meaning behind them often go criminally underappreciated. I’m fervently hoping the latter won’t be the case for Dutch avant-garde atmospheric/post black triumvirate GREY AURA‘s second full-length Zwart Vierkant (translation: “Black Square”)… because, wretched readers, it really is something special.
Six and a half years in the making, Zwart Vierkant not only is a work of art but deals with it in its subject matter as well. It’s based upon a novel written by founding member Ruben Wijlacker which “tells the story of an early 20th century painter who becomes obsessed with the Russian art movement, Suprematism, which idealises the abstract and rejects traditional artistic concepts” and this synergistic approach seems to inspire great creativity – which includes the disregarding of any elitist-imposed boundaries to carefully construct a dazzling stream of post-modern, almost surreal wonders and ruinous black metal to tell that tale. They take that black metal and wind it around their fingers like a cat’s cradle game, seamlessly incorporating different colored threads from any genre they see fit to create startling patterns; truly genre-bending and unique in the best spirit of the form and proving once again that the Dutch scene is one of the most forward-thinking in the world.
Needless to say, we are beyond proud and privileged to assist our brethren at Onism Productions and Order ov the Black Arts in premiering this distinctive work, in full, for you today. We also reached out to Messrs Broek and Wijlacker for a discussion about the record and novel; the results of which are also below.
So, ahead of the marked May 7th release date, I implore you to listen. Read. Immerse yourself into the art. In a world of throwaway black metal knocked up in a few days in someone’s bedroom that still sells out on LP in three minutes flat, a work such as this, with so much passion and sheer creative talent imbued within, deserves your time. Hails.
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Greetings, Grey Aura. It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you today for the full-stream of your astonishing second album, Zwart Vierkant. Now, I’m fascinated as to the album’s premise – it is conceptually based on Ruben‘s 2019 novel De protodood in zwarte haren (which I believe translates to “The Proto-Death In Black Hair”) and follows a fictional early 20th-century modernist painter’s growing obsession with abstract art and the destruction of the physical world. Without yet having had the opportunity to read the book, I must ask – who is the main protagonist, and how do these two concepts of abstract art and the destruction of the physical world relate and play out within their tale?
GREY AURA – The story’s protagonist, Pedro (Pieter van der Laan), is a Spanish/Dutch painter. At age 24, his family is senselessly butchered inside their own home by a German loan shark. Pedro, who was out painting, finds his murdered parents and flees towards the north. He travels to Toledo and Paris, where he learns about Modernism and abstract art. One day, a fellow artist gives him the writings of Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich and abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky. Pedro reads these works with a tremendous fury and becomes obsessed with the radical mindset of both writers. As Pedro is a very traumatized and damaged person, he has a strong distaste for life. He embraces the style and ideology of Suprematism and becomes increasingly interested in creating a single artwork that can destroy the world as we know it.
Really! I must somehow read this book. What is it that drew you to create these works? Was the novel written with the idea that it would be explored in black metal album format?
– Yes. When we founded Grey Aura in 2010, we decided to always work conceptually and base each album on a different concept. For example, our debut album Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort followed the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz and his crew on their third and final voyage to find a northern route to Asia.
Working with a purely historical theme turned out to be difficult, as the story needed to be historically accurate. This meant we were restricted in our storytelling; it gave the writing process a slightly dull edge. In retrospect, we came to the conclusion that using a partially fictional story allowed us to tinker with certain elements here and there, so that we could experience more artistic freedom, both musically and conceptually.
Around the time we finished up Waerachtighe…, we started sketching the foundation for the concept of Zwart vierkant and De protodood in zwarte haren. Once the foundation had been laid, Ruben started working with it; thus his debut novel and the conceptual basis for our sophomore album was created.
That timeline certainly checks out – Zwart vierkant is noted to be the result of “6.5 years of creative freedom and dedication”. During this time you not only wrote this remarkable album and penned a novel, but two demos based on that novel were also released even before this full-length. That is impressive, and I’d imagine this period to have been quite intense at times. Did you find it a difficult process overall, or come across any particular challenges?
– We decided to make two demos to give ourselves the time and space to create a new style, suitable for the concept. Thematically, there are big differences between Zwart Vierkant and Waerachtighe…, so we didn’t want to rush anything. The two demos allowed us to experiment freely and receive feedback. On top of that, it let us take some distance from our work, so that it could ripen for a while. In hindsight, the whole process may have taken some time, but we believe it has been beneficial to us.
Considering the results, it definitely seems to have been. Now, for those further interested in the concept behind the record and novel, I believe you are also releasing another book alongside the album. Could you tell us a little about this accompanying text?
– Sure. The book we are releasing alongside the album is called Proto-death. As translating the full Protodood in zwarte haren into English would cost a tremendous amount of time and money, we started looking for alternative options. We came up with the idea to release a small book, containing not only a synopsis of De protodood, but also a lot of unique background information. That way, even those who read De protodood in zwarte haren would be able to get something out of it.
Proto-death contains essays on artists who inspired the novel and the album, essays on the novel and album’s characters, translated lyrics, and blueprints of both real and fictional places. These blueprints give the locations an added sense of credibility, making the experience more immersive.
A great idea. I mentioned needing to read the book earlier, but unfortunately I don’t speak Dutch. The album, on the other hand – despite my not being able to understand a word of what is being said, Zwart Vierkant still manages to tell the story through a dazzling array of musical twists and turns in stunning narrative flow. I’m at a loss to even guess the amount of musical influences that flowed into the album (some are more obvious than others, I imagine), or artistic and literary influences into the novel – but are there any favourite works in particular that you would recommend for further exploration to those especially taken with what you have created and the concepts at hand?
– It is always quite hard for us to talk about musical influences, as our compositions are created with the concept in mind, more than anything else. When we write our music, we do not really talk much about other artists. Instead, we discuss what the song should be about, what kind of atmosphere it should convey, and what it should make us/the listener feel.
The deeper we get into the writing process, the more intuitive it becomes, making it unnecessary for us to discuss our artistic direction through the works of other musicians. That is not to say that we aren’t influenced or inspired by anyone or anything, but those influences seep into the music in a rather subconscious way.
Literature is easier to discuss, as it is the foundation of our concept. Our music contains many references to writers and poets. There is even a list of book recommendations at the very end of Proto-death. If anyone doesn’t have the book and is still interested in delving deeper into our concepts, I’d suggest they read the writings of Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Georges Bataille, Comte de Lautréamont, Arthur Rimbaud, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Barbey d’Aurevilly. Modernism and Decadentism are very important to us.
On the topic of inspirations, looking at the bigger picture – was this entire multi-medium approach inspired by any artists or similar works that have resonated with you?
– Not really. We just really wanted to do this, and we like being immersed in art.
Music and concept aside, perhaps the most immediately striking and magnetic aspect of the entire release is the Sanja Marusic cover art. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to hear what it represented. Can you tell us a little of the story behind this image?
– It’s a rather simple story. One day, we were talking with artist and friend Sven Signe den Hartogh, who has done artwork for both our demos, as well as the photography for Waerachtighe… Sven wanted to help us with our art direction, and he showed some of Sanja’s work. As soon as we saw the image that is now our cover artwork, we knew we had to use it. The work contains many elements that we recognize in our own music: the sandy, southern atmosphere, the veiled eroticism of the two hidden lovers, and the dreamy, surrealistic atmosphere. It is a perfect balance between enticing beauty and estrangement. We contacted Sanja and she let us use it.
If I may return to the very first question for a moment, I’ve been pondering the relationship between those two aforementioned concepts and black metal – as a standalone topic the destruction of the physical world certainly speaks for itself within the genre, but abstract art or the concept of abstraction in general is something else, and seems to be becoming more and more integrated and accepted within it as time goes by. What are your thoughts? Do you feel these concepts to be particularly compatible with expression via the style of black metal? Should black metal head further down these experimental paths?
– We think black metal has always explored strange and rather abstract concepts, and has proven to be a perfect breeding ground for it. Within metal, black metal is one of the only subgenres that focuses on spirituality and philosophy; specifically their darker and more transgressive elements. It is only logical to push this further and delve into the abstract nature of the previously discussed topics.
Even at its inception, black metal had experimental and avant-garde edges. Celtic Frost was a very experimental band. Mayhem used an intro by Conrad Schnitzler on Deathcrush. Bathory used slowed down field recordings on their debut album, and experimented with synthesizers on later albums. Many of these things were (and still are) quite adventurous and daring. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until the Second Wave that black metal became a well-defined genre. We like the artistic freedom and stylistic ambiguity the First Wave bands had. It made black metal a fringe genre; an extreme form of outsider art. As it becomes more dogmatic, it loses some of its danger and turns into a senseless rehashing of things already done (and often done better).
If black metal were to embrace its tradition of fearless experimentation, it would give younger artists more space to explore the blackness we so deeply long for within this music, and perhaps stumble upon something truly dark and beautiful.
I agree. And finally: what lies on the horizon for Grey Aura? Will there be a period of rest now that Zwart Vierkant and De protodood in zwarte haren are both completed, or have you already begun planning your next creative endeavour?
– Zwart vierkant only covers half of De protodood in zwarte haren, so we are currently working on its successor; the album in which our story’s protagonist carries out his plans to destroy the physical world and reaches a state of destructive enlightenment. It will have a different atmosphere and musical qualities, but there is not much more we can say about it yet.
As of right now, we are quite far in the writing process, but we really like to take our time to work on arrangements, recording and mixing. It might take a few years until the next album comes out, but that is only because we are determined to make it good and interesting.
We are also slowly trying to get our live band back together, so that we can start rehearsing for post-COVID performances.
Very much looking forward to the second installment! Sincerest thanks for your time once again, gentlemen. Any final words or wisdom for us all?
– Thank you for your thoughtful questions. If anyone has further questions on our concepts, feel free to go to our website or write us an e-mail. We enjoy sharing our concepts with you.
Zwart Vierkant releases May 7th via Onism Productions and Kunstlicht.
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Pre-order Zwart Vierkant on CD, LP and digital from the Onism Productions Bandcamp HERE, digitally from the Grey Aura Bandcamp HERE, on CD and LP from the Onism Productions webstore HERE, or on CD, LP and tape from the band’s webstore HERE.
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