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file under black/pagan metal
Black metal is cold, grim and nihilistic. When knowing that, it is not surprising that the bulk of the good bands is from either Scandinavia (Norway!) or countries east of Germany, yet there are plenty of other regions where there is a good deal of infernal mayhem to be found. Those areas that yield lesser or less better bands, are generally spoken (there are exceptions) a bit warmer regarding climate. So it is less obvious that a strong black metal jewels can de dug out there, and thus the surprise of a good debut album coming from the country of samba is a bit bigger. You got it right, we received a strong album called ‘Reign Ov Opposites’, produced by four Brazilian metalheads who call themselves Vinterthron. Lords of Metal mailed the questions to drummer and vocalist M., and here are the answers.
Text: Neithan
 First of all congratulations on ‘Reign Ov Opposites’: it doesn’t happen often that a non Scandinavian band can achieve such a Norwegian sound. The band was founded in 2001, yet I wonder how long the band’s musicians have been listening and playing to this kind of metal, as it sounds so genuine. So, for how many years have you been listening to this kind of metal?
First of all, thanks a lot. I'm glad to know you enjoy our debut album. I'm a huge fan of some "old" metal bands like Venom, Hellhammer, Slayer, Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Sarcófago, amongst others, and I have been into this kind of music since many years. I'm almost 30 years old now and I'm listening heavy metal since my age of thirteen or fourteen. So, at least seventeen years back I think. But I know the new age of black metal, I mean "Scandinavian Black Metal", for about fourteen years. I just love bands like Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, Enslaved, Mayhem with Euronymous, etcetera. They all have a very powerful music expression for me and of course, it's a great inspiration for Vinterthron.
How are the reactions so far on ‘Reign Ov Opposites’: any remarkable reactions so far?
Actually, we got some very good and other very bad reviews. We don't care so much for reviews really. It's always been complicated since the magazines are open to all kind of metal and not necessarily only black metal. And I know we're playing a difficult kind of music style. Some people don't understand the real motive of black metal. But if they'll say a lot of shit about Burzum music, I would be satisfied with the same bad words about Vinterthron ... You know what I mean?
The band lists quite a number of bands, old and new, as influences, yet that might be confusing to many metal heads: in our review I describe it as a well succeeded mix of good old Darkthrone, Kampfar and Watain, to keep it comprehensible. Can the band live with that comparison, or is there anything essential missing?
Yes, you got the point. Darkthrone is one of our biggest influences, and I'm a great worshipper of Kampfar and mainly Watain’s music, so it's natural. Other names I could say: Bathory, Burzum, Mercyful Fate (maybe our melodic parts), Celtic Frost, etcetera. Of course we can live with that comparison. Our music is kind of a special tribute to the old black metal bands! We don't need to be original or the most extreme. We don't play black metal for a living, it's not our job, you know. We just do what we want to do in an honest way. That is the most important in my opinion.
The album is released on an Austrian label: how did you get to this label: through friends, the old fashioned way of sending demos or was there another route?
Ashen Productions is an amazing black metal label and Robert is a great person! He really lives and believes in the underground black metal and he's doing a fantastic job with the label. We were looking for a serious and professional black metal label to release our debut full-length album. Then we got a label list and contacted them through e-mail. We got some great proposals from many others, but the best and fastest one was from Ashen Productions. We quickly discussed some points about the contract and done: we signed the contract pretty fast. We're very satisfied with Ashen Productions’ work and promotion and I hope we can release our next album through them, again!
Is the deal with Ashen Productions for one album only, or can we expect more from Vinterthron on this label?
The contract was for only one album, but since we're very happy with their work, maybe we could sign for the second one too, course. Would be killer! But actually now it's still early.
Why has the band decided to use only characters (M, W, N and K) in stead of own names or pseudonyms?
Not a big deal, we were only tired about pseudonyms. So, to use the initials of our names was the best way for us.
Normally a band also takes inspiration from its surroundings, yet when thinking of this kind of black metal I do not hear that a lot from Rio de Janeiro. Mostly it is thrash or old school death / black metal. How hard was it for Vinterthron to find the right people for the line-up? In other words, how did the line-up come together?
It's really fucking hard. So difficult that Vinterthron line-up is not all formed by members from Rio de Janeiro. Only our guitarist K is from Rio de Janeiro. I don't live in Rio de Janeiro anymore. Now I'm living in the extreme south of Brazil in a small cold city called Carlos Barbosa, close to Porto Alegre and not so far from Argentina. N is from Brasília and W is from Minas Gerais. We're old friends, so it was the first step to unite the band line-up.
For a band coming from Brazil and playing music which doesn’t exactly dominate the charts: how big is the chance that Vinterthron is coming over to Europe to do some shows?
A very small, tiny chance I'm afraid. We don't play live even here in Brazil. Vinterthron is a band like a project, only to record albums, not anything more. Anyway, we would love to play in Europe sometime, but it's very expensive and we don't have any promoter able to pay our flights and expenses, unfortunately. But we never know! Hope we can do that in a near future!
Some questions about the Brazilian scene: how would you describe, in a few words, the black metal scene in Brazil and especially Rio de Janeiro?
It's a very big scene in a still very big country. You'll find all kind of people, bands, attitudes and ideologies. There's not so much to say actually. We have a lot of amazing bands and also other craps. I don't live in Rio de Janeiro anymore, so I'm not so into that scene today, but that city already had a very strong black metal scenery some years ago. Bands like Songe D'enfer (the best Brazilian black metal band ever), old Nocturnal Worshipper, Demonthor, Ancient Sign Glorify, Necromancer, Grave Desecrator, Mysteriis, Unearthly, they all had their glorious time.
Any other regional bands in your style that we should keep an eye on?
Of course, there's many awesome bands here in Brazil. I could say Enterro, Murder Rape, Tiwaz, Drakonian Age, Ocultan, Thorns Of Evil, Lustful, Sodomizer, Hellkommander, among others.
On the site I see no live dates: how often does the band get the chance to play live per year?
As I said, we're not a band that plays live. It's not impossible. Would be very nice, but we just didn't get any interesting invitation. Actually we got one to play with Mayhem, but no one would pay the expenses, so, we decided not to play. Live shows are not important to us at the moment.
Over here in Europe the black metal image is not so much shocking anymore, yet how does Brazil, with a more catholic influence, react on black metal bands like Vinterthron?
In Brazil I think it's the same. Black metal image is not so shocking! There's other terrifying and evil things happening here, I mean (lol).
What more can we expect from Vinterthron and its musicians in 2009
We're preparing a new MCD called "Hate Ode To Kill" that will be released probably by Black Hate Productions from Germany, another killer black metal label. And besides that we're looking for a vinyl label interested to release "Reign Ov Opposites" album in LP version. After the middle of 2009 we'll start to compose our second album.
http://www.myspace.com/vinterthron
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