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file under black/pagan metal
“Cirith Gorgor: Called the Haunted Pass, the point were the mountain ranges of the Ered Lithui and the Ephel Dúath met, to the northwest of Mordor. It was sealed by the Black Gate of the Morannon, and guarded by the Towers of the Teeth.” I have no clue as to what this is all about. I type “Cirith Gorgor” in Google and it returns me a couple of pages with band info. Okay, but I was looking for the first meaning. I know it comes from the books of Tolkien, but would like to get to know a bit more about it. Well, that’s what you get for being nosey. I have come halfway through ‘The Lord Of The Rings’, I have finished ‘The Hobbit’ and started a long time ago ‘The Silmarillon’. But why am I telling this nonsense? Ah yes, the new CD ‘Firestorm Apocalypse – Tomorrow Shall Know The Blackest Dawn’ of Cirith Gorgor is released. As a result of this and of their performance the 9th of October at Unitas, Wageningen (sorry, the review is in Dutch only), I have a couple of questions for this Dutch black metal band. They appear below along with the answers.
Text: Carl
 You have a new CD out called 'Firestorm Apocalypse'. Are you satisfied with the result? What does the title mean?
Hail. Yes, our latest album is out for some time now and we are really satisfied with the end result. It is in all aspects better than anything we have released before. The production and sound have improved and also musically it has become much better in my opinion. Our style has remained the same though, but other than that, we have released our best album so far. “Firestorm…” contains fast, aggressive black metal with a melodic touch to it. The title reflects the apocalyptic music as well as the view on the end of the world and the coming of a greater era.
The CD is produced and distributed by Ketzer Records. I guess this means you have not yet found a record company that suits your needs?
Strange thing to assume really… So no. After we left Osmose we decided we wanted a smaller label to release our future recordings. It had to be back to the real underground and Ketzer perfectly suited that purpose. We are extremely satisfied with all the work Alex (of Ketzer) has done so far, he is a really dedicated person and willing to put a lot of time and effort into Cirith Gorgor. The cooperation thus far has been perfect and we hope that we can stay on Ketzer for new releases too.
The music on the new CD sounds a lot more raw and basic than on the other works. How much of this was planned? On the whole, how much do you plan while writing your music?
It definitely was all very deliberate; after Astaroth had left the band we wanted to focus more on the aggressive part of our music and subsequently got rid of an overabundance of melodies. It still is quite melodic though, however, the emphasis is much more on rawness and brutality. It is not about planning so much, it is more that our guitarist Marchosias composes material and works it out to full songs. I don’t think he plans it ahead; he comes up with a melody line or rhythm part and just uses it if it is liked. It comes quite natural really and since Astaroth’s (who was responsible for half the music and most of the melodies) departure Marchosias up until now has sole responsibility for the new material.
 How does a typical Cirith Gorgor song come into existence? In what order do you write the music and lyrics?
I think I mentioned most of it in the previous question, except for the lyrics part. Myself, Nimroth and Marchosias write lyrics and once these have been read and approved by the rest of the band Marchosias takes it with him to write music for it. This is a change because we used to write music first and then add a lyric to it. Now the music is more adapted to the lyrics.
Your website looked very dark, but I see you have changed the background of most of the pages to white. The red letters on black underground were quite unreadable, but this is not much of a solution. Do you plan to leave it like this?
Hmmm, don’t know what you mean really.. I haven’t changed anything. It is still very dark and some people still complain about the readability of it – on my screen however, it looks great.
On the whole I think you are one of the best performing black metal bands of Holland. Were you satisfied with your performance 9 October at Unitas, Wageningen?
Some people enjoy our live shows and some think we are really bad live performers. Sometimes the show goes better than others but I think the show in Wageningen was quite ok. Unfortunately near the end there was something wrong with the sound but in general we were satisfied with it.
You had great sound during this performance. Have you found a permanent sound engineer?
No we haven’t, we are still dependent on sound technicians the venues arrange, which is a pity because if I could do it myself it would always sound great. Some people just cannot deal with our music and then the sound is terrible. So, if there are people seriously considering to engineer the sound during our shows on a regular basis, get in contact!
Cirith Gorgor do not tour on a steady basis. How do you find your gigs?
People always come to us really…. We don’t do much about it. Since we all have very busy schedules (work, study etc) touring is nearly impossible, however, we are now trying to arrange some small tour in the beginning of 2005.
You both perform as opening/support act as well as headliner. What is it like to perform as an opening/support act? Does one get used to being the main attraction on a concert?
It depends on what bands you have to play with, but mostly we prefer to play early on in the evening so that we can start drinking early and watch some of the other bands as well. Being the main band of the night mostly means you have to wait and sit sober for most of the evening…
I have always considered Cirith Gorgor to be a pure black metal band. Have you ever considered using different influences like industrial or folk?
No, we will remain the same…. No other influences.
 People always tend to idealize the “underground scene”. To what extend do you agree?
I agree. The real underground is not infested with commercialism and trends as is the mainstream.
What does the future of Cirith Gorgor look like? Do you want to reach a level in the music business like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth? What are your desires and ambitions?
With our style we will never appeal to such big audiences as the bands you mention and if you know that we will never change our style there won’t change much in the future as well. We will develop into better musicians and songwriters but are not interested in acquiring a status as DB or CoF because we would have to add keyboards and generally adapt our music to the wishes of the audience, which we will never do!
We have come to the final part of this little interview. I have a couple of so-called or-statements. Please choose one of each. You do not have to explain your choice; you may of course if you really want to. It is just some silly thing I came up with and I would like to see if and how it works.
Coffee or tea: Coffee, loads of it
God or Satan: Satan, as a symbol of opposition to religion
Black or white: BLACK METAL!
Day or night: Day, more productivity
Left or right: Right-handed
Ham or cheese: Ham, meat!
Man or woman: Woman, fuck!
Snakes or ladders: Snakes, slimy bastards
Young or old: Young women preferred over ancient skin
Flora or fauna: Fauna
Optimist or pessimist: Pessimist, humanity
Cart or horse: Horse
Up or down: Up
Car or bike: Car
Walk or run: Walk
Knife or fork: Knife
Spider or fly: Fly
Thank you for your time and energy. I will leave the final words to you.
Thanks for the interview
http://www.cirithgorgor.tk
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