APRIL 11th, 2021
ANTRISCH EXCLUSIVE
We, at MetalTitans, got a chance to speak with Maurice Wilson [MW] & Robert Falcon Scott [RFS] of ANTRISCH, a musical and lyrical expedition to the heights of the world and the depths of man. Antrisch [Austro-Bavarian term for eerie or strange] is a blend of different styles of Black Metal mingled with portions of Doom, Djent and Dark Ambient. If this interests you, and would like to learn more, check out our interview below as well as their full EP streaming link:
Interview By: Metal Mom
ANTRISCH lineup:
Maurice Wilson • Vocals
Robert Falcon Scott • Guitars
Отто Шмидт • Bass
Игорь Дятлов • Drums
MT: First, how are you all making out during this pandemic, has it been hard for you, or are you managing to work around it?
MW: Enchanté, Rita. Luckily, the current situation doesn't have any negative impact on our creative work. Far from it! During the first lockdown in Germany [May 2020] Mr. Scott was given the one-time [that's at least what we thought back then] opportunity to compose and record Expedition I at a stretch.
MT: You have an EP being released, so what are you doing now to keep yourselves busy?
MW: Right now, that we find ourselves still caught in the very same rat race, we do exactly the same by forging Expedition II.
MT: Do you have strict restrictions in place?
MW: Yes, Definitely. There are lots of unpleasant interferences regarding our personal rights at the moment and there's no light at the end of the tunnel in sight. Of course, there is a massive cause for complaints, especially on a personal level, but let's focus on what keeps the spirit alive: art in general & music in particular.
MT: You are a new band out there, forming in 2020, and you have been in other projects before, tell us how you all came to be in ANTRISCH.
MW: In fact, we share a common history musically speaking. Mr. Scott, Mr. Шмидт and myself played in a Pagan Metal band called KromleK from 2004 to 2011. When we finally broke up, Mr. Scott and Mr. Шмидт founded the Melodic Death/Groove Metal band 7th Abyss by recruiting Mr. Дятлов first on guitars, later on drums. After the end of KromleK I kind of "retired" and wrote lyrics just for myself, but Mr. Scott and I had been carrying that idea of forming a Black Metal band together in our minds for years and finally, thanks to covid, there was a concrete impulse to bring it to the light of day. To me, as well as to Mr. Scott in particular, all this is part of the same evolution and we both strongly agree on the view that without all that has been before, Antrisch wouldn't be possible. So it literally ALL came to be Antrisch.
MT: The band name was stuck in your mind for a few years, but how did it relate to the band, what made that the choice over others?
MW: Well, those things that ripen for years are meant to be and meant to last, I guess. I wrote the lyrics for expedition I back in 2014 - not knowing if there'd ever be a band to fuse these words with appropriate sound - and even without working for a band I heard some music in my mind while writing those lyrics which was of course a combination of Black Metal in the cold vein of the early 90ies and thick, atmospheric sound wally you know from dungeon synth and dark ambient bands. Antrisch, meaning eerie, uncanny or strange, is by far the best description for the very core of our band regarding both sound and lyrical concept which engages in the subtle horrors that derive from fear, psychosis, trauma, delusion et cetera through isolation or when being exposed to the unforgiving forces of nature.
MT: What made you choose to be an Atmospheric Black Metal band?
MW: I think this question and the one above belong together.Whens some serious thoughts concerning the formation of a new band began to emerge we had a very clear vision of the musical style. According to the strong narrative aspects in both music and lyrics we found it appropriate to add the "atmospheric" - apart from the fact that Black Metal generally is supposed to be atmospheric in one way or another, we think that nowadays there's so much branches and sub-subgenres that this definition of our style and vision of Black Metal gives the potentially interested listener a fine-tuned navigation tool.
It feels more like Atmospheric Black Metal chose us rather than the other way round.
MT: You have an EP out with 5 tracks called Expedition 1, I am curious as to why you choose to pick the theme of an expedition, is there someone that peeked your interest and then you thought this would be a great idea to follow? In truth, I haven't heard or seen another band do this.
MW: I had that interest all along but I think what triggered me in addition was a couple of books I read at that time, especially those written by Reinhold Messner. When Antrisch began to shape we somewhen reached the point when it didn't feel like a mere one-time project - as it was supposed to be in the very beginning - but a long-term bond tied to a conceptional leitmotif. So we developed that concept of historical expeditions - with a main focus on the fatal ones - during the final stage of Expedition I.
MT: Did you have more than those 5 songs when you went to record? Or you just planned on the 5?
MW: The latter. That's the very moment you stop believing in coincidences: Mr. Scott composed a five-piece EP and I wrote a five-piece lyrical story. As a matter of fact there is some surplus material which comes naturally when you're experimenting with soundscapes, but there are no left-overs so to speak, every output will be composed anew.
MT: Do you have a favourite among them, and if so why that one?
MW: Actually, I got two. "Stirnschlag" is the strongest and most emotional one for me, the final melody expresses that mixture of agony, pain, despair, anguish and wrath in the best possible way. And as a devoted all-time fan of Windir, the final song "Gipfelfieber" excites every nerve fibre, every synapse and every monade of my innermost self.
MT: Who writes the lyrics, and where does the inspiration come to write them?
MW: That is my humble part of the project. I draw a lot of inspiration from the books mentioned above as well as my own admittedly lesser impressive mountain hiking experiences. Furthermore I'm a documentary junkie and I've always been interested in history. So there's a lot of sources of inspiration and sometimes there's even an autobiographical level, but encrypted. Last but definitely not least Mr. Scott's way of writing songs always has a strong narrative character in itself, his music speaks to me and creates images in the mind's eye.
MT: Does it take long to write a song?
RFS: It depends. As a guitar player you have thousands of ideas and hundreds of recording projects on your pc containing one or two riffs „for later“. A lot of them will rot on your HDD forever. For „Expedition I“ I started to write the songs in April 2020 and ended up in the middle of July 2020. I tried to write complete rough structured songs from scratch for further improving in our studio. The fourth song „Firnfeldkonfrontation“ was a tough one and needed most of the recording time, because for a long time I was not sure that this project fits into the EP. „Stirnschlag“ was composed only in a few hours. „Gipfelfieber“ is a special one for me as this was the first complete song before I decided to write a five-piece ABM EP.
MT: The artwork for the album is from a still of the 1953 movie Nanga Pargal, great image, but why that one?
MW: To answer that one I'd like to go back to the question concerning our band name. It's quite the same here: this image illustrates perfectly the meaning of "antrisch" by reducing the passing rope party to shady, spectre-like silhouettes, a most fitting symbol for what happens to the human mind and body when being exposed to the life-threatening conditions on the high mountains: one slowly fades from shape to contour to hatching. This slow reduction of the human nature down to the primal instincts whilst being surrounded by nothing but a hostile scenery that doesn't even notice your presence
MT: I guess if you formed in 2020, you haven't had a chance to put on a show, where would you like to play when this is all over?
MW: It might appear a little odd, but we don't want to play live as badly as most other bands. I'm a perfectionist and when it comes to live appearance and show, then there's obviously a vast gap between budget and imagination. It is definitely not impossible that we might present our material live on stage, but there are no concrete plans yet.
MT: When you do a show, will you have a similar type of outfit on as an explorer? It sure would be a cool look.
MW: That's what I meant above, our leitmotif is a tough one and of course everything would have to fit in the imagery of our subordinate concept.
MT: As you were growing up, what kind of music influenced you?
MW: I feel like I'm still growing up, to be honest. In my early days of becoming a Metal devotee, it was the album "the Heart of Darkness" by the German True Metal band Grave Digger that introduced me to a whole new world. One of the albums that has been influencing me until this very day is "Imaginations from the other Side" by Blind Guardian, yet, I can't even tell exactly how and why. A real inspiration for my style of screaming was the Dark Metal band Graveworm from South Tyrol - back then I wanted to do these high, very long screams just like Stefan Fiori. Other bands that had - and still have - a strong impact on me are Vintersorg, Summoning and Wardruna.
MT: Do you have anyone you listen to, that might surprise others?
MW: Definitely. One of my all time-favourite albums is "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" by the divine Vangelis and I have a soft spot for the compositions of David Wise. Currently I'm digging that New Retro Wave stuff, especially Gunship which entered my inner sanctum of favourite bands so to speak, but I think that's no big surprise, because many Metal fans seem to like that stuff.
MT: What is next for ANTRISCH?
MW: At the very moment we're gathering gear and supplies for Expedition II, so I kindly invite you to stay tuned and keep your eyes open and your binoculars polished.
MT: Is there anything you would like to add, something I may have missed?
MW: Well, I think it's about time to apologise to all non-German speakers for using only German language in my lyrics, but I think the narrative character of the music does it's bit of redress for the unpleasantness. Furthermore I'd like to take the opportunity to express the band's gratitude for the many positive reactions and the enthusiasm we received so far. It's very encouraging and approves my feeling that this long evolution which finally ended up as Antrisch was and is worth all the work and energy invested.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with us here at Metaltitans, and we wish you much success with your EP "Expedition 1".
MW: Oh, thank YOU for a most pleasant and stimulating interview. I really do appreciate people who are suggestive of being actually interested in our work. Cheerio & all the best.
Full EP stream - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xu78_Qgl3g
Words, views and opinions expressed in answers are those of the authors and do not reflect necessarily the official position, attitude or position of 𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗚𝗘 ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ