THALARION – Interview with Juraj

It's a weird musical world of THALARION! I don't mean they play some schizo fucked up music – they don't! I mean what they can do to the listener. Well, what can you tell about the band having listened to any of their records? You love them and hate them at the same time!!! OK, just skip the introduction and get to the interview… By the way: I forgot to ask Juraj who actually set THALARION…

How does it feel to be 13 years old as a band? It's kinda unlucky age you are! Unless we count since releasing Towards The Obscure Slumberland which entirely changes things!

Hello! This is Juraj Grezdo (vox) from Thalarion. Yeah, Thalarion is active in the metal scene over thirtheen years. Personally, I sing metal music fifteen years as I started in death metal band Catastrophe on 1987, my next band Nailed Nazarene was active from 1991 – 1994 when I joined Thalarion. Look, it´s hard for an East-European band to establish itself on the international, especially Western, metal scene, so that´s why we have never toured over Europe or so. Anyway, we play over 50 shows in a year on average and that´s enough I think. We are still full of energy though we are over thirty-year old men. We love the music we play and it makes us stronger on our hard way. Shortly, we started in 1990 and recorded four demo tapes, „Black Raven“´91, „Best Art“´93, „Behind The Door Of Sorrow“´94 and „Dominion Unfound“´96. Our first album „Towards The Obscure Slumberland“ was released in March of 1996 by Hallelujjah Productions as a cassette LP. The first CD, in a word, second album called „Tales Of The Woods…Thus Was Written“ was recorded in March 1998 and released worldwide through the Danish label Mighty Music in December 1998. The album was very well received by the world wide metal scene, gaining highly positive reviews and established Thalarion as one of the leading bands from the Slovakian metal scene. The third album „Four Elements Mysterium“ we recorded in September/October 1999 and it was released on Mighty Music in May 2000. The actual CD „Tunes Of Despondency“ was recorded in September 2001 and because of some delays released through Mighty Music in November 2002.

Have you had the same crew though all those years? It's worth admiring, but didn't any of you have any moments of doubt in what you do?

Well, there have been times when we felt the group would collapse, we felt a hate to each other, some swearwords and insults fell, but we soon understood we must go on and make music not only for our own pleasure but for the fans, too. Those have been very personal emotions which made us fury.

Does Nela still peform with DYSANCHELY? Well, I haven't heard about them for quite a long time… Did they definitely finish they musical adventure?

Nela left Dysanchely on Spring 1998 when she entered Thalarion. Don´t worry, Dysanchely are still alive, they released their new CD “Secrets Of The Sun” through Metal Age Prod. (www.metalage.sk ) in the beginning of this year. They released really excellent album. We just finished the tour over Slovakia with Dysanchely and Protest which we went along in May/June 2003.

And since we talk about the vocalists – there is Liv Kristine singing on “My Weakness”! I wonder what Nela thought of it.

Are you joking? I don´t absolutely think that Nela has a similar voice as Liv Kristine. That´s absurd! Who said it? Nela is often compared to Anneke from The Gathering, but it doesn´t irritate her, I would say.

You released three albums through the company which doesn't rather issue peaceful music! What's more Michael is your manager! How does it feel to be the sheep among the wolves?

I don´t understand exactly this question. Perhaps that´s a hint on the fact that Mighty Music releases a lot of brutal death metal bands and we produce melodic and atmospheric metal albums. Is it true? Look, Michael H.Andersen likes our music too much, that´s why he signed a record deal with Thalarion.

Though it's better to be in a „brutal” company, rather than change it every year and keep arguing.

We don´t think about changing to another label. We are satisfied where we are. Mighty Music doesn´t release only brutal death metal bands, let´s see Solar Dawn, Cronic Disorder, Pik, Wolfheart, Sacrificial and so on. I think everybody who knows a previous albums of Thalarion won´t be distracted with being marked us as brutal death metal. Anyway, we never tended to the music like that.

Was it hard or easy to sign with Mighty Music? What did they like about THALARION?

After recording of “Tales Of The Woods … Thus Was Written” in March of 1998 we sent a lot of promo copies to the record labels all around the world. Some weeks after, we were offered by some labels to sign a contract, but we chose to Mighty Music because they offered the best conditions for the band. Anyway, “Tunes Of Despondency” is the third album we released through Mighty Music and we are still satisfied with the activity which Mighty Music do for us. Their worldwide promotion and distribution of our albums is really cool and this label surely established the name Thalarion in the international metal scene

As far as I remember “Four Elements Mysterium” didn't receive much praise from press in Poland. Tell me, how was it in other countries?

Regarding the worldwide responses on CD „Four Elements Mysterium“, they were very good and we are satisfied. Yeah, there´s ever somebody who doesn´t like your music but that´s all right, because you cannot win the favour of all the audience. We surely accept as positive so negative responses. Concerning the new album „Tunes Of Despondency”, that´s very soon talking about the number of sold copies or response since album is out only eight months and we have no information from Mighty Music yet.

I also said few bad words about the album myself. I don't remember it clearly now, but I guess I meant that the changes of tempo didn't… match. The mood changed too rapidly, as you switched from the aggression into great melancholy. Of course it's just my opinion…

It´s only your opinion and we can´t influence it. I think we stand apart from other metal bands. We try to set us free from a grey mass of the huge abundance of metal bands. Our styles´ combination is not intentional. Each of us listen to the different musical genres therefore our music is so diverse and slightly original. But, it can be evaluated by yourself or the listeners. You have to find your own individuality and inner interpretation to write a quite original sort of music and achive a real success. We try to harmonize both vocals into one cohesive unit and explore all the possibilities of using them to open new dimensions in our music. It´s no fucking pose or following the trends!!! It´s just a natural course of creation of the songs. We are free so we do we want. We only try to follow our own inner emotions by the writing of the songs and all the vocal parts. We try to express and unveil the mystical charm of the nature and union of good with evil, black with white etc.

“Tunes of Despondency” doesn't vary from “Four Elements Mysterium” that much. Although I don't have the same feelings about it – now everything works on the new album.

Well, there are surely some little differences but only in terms of the whole atmosphere. We also used a female vocals in a bigger scale on the previous album “Four Elements Mysterium” since Nela entered the band as a fulltime member. It was necessary to used her vocals in the songs because it was extorted by the songs´atmosphere. Anyway, the whole feeling and mood of the “Four Elements Mysterium”CD is more mysterious and dreamy. Also, the sound of the album is far more heavy, severe and aggressive as ever before so it sounds cool I would say. On “Tunes Of Despondency” we used Nela´s voice in a lesser range because the atmosphere and songs´ structure didn´t call for it. We quickened the tempo in the most of the songs and started making more aggressive riffs on “Tunes Of Despondency”. The album ”Tunes Of Despondency” was recorded in September 2001 so it took a lot of time till now. We started doing new material from December 2001 and now we have written ten new songs. The music on the newest material is situated for two guitars with no keyboards and no female vocals right now. The songs are very melodic but not losing their aggressiveness and energy. You´ll be very surprised with the new sound of Thalarion when listening to those songs. They are absolutely different from our usual stuff since new guitarist Michal entered the band and wrote most of the material. He is very creative and inventive musician with the sense of melody and harmony. I think this will be a big step ahead for Thalarion.

I think I'm not grown up to your music! There are days when it's great to listen to any of your records, but on other days I can't put up with it.

Everybody have to find in our music what is good and bad, but there´s surely more positive things. Look, everybody has a possibility to choose among the huge multitude of metal bands, so we don´t care of any orthodox fans prefering only one metal genre. As I remembered above, we mix some metal genres and try to form a cohesive unit. We have our minds open to all the music genres, not only metal music, and we unleash our deepest emotions and thoughts through the music we make. Everything lays on your mood.

I think that both vocal lines are appropriate to the musical style you prefer. But if you combine them, the result isn't the right one.

That´s only a matter of taste as you can see our music. I can´t see Nela´s vocals taking a higher profile within our forthcoming releases since she is not a member of the band in the presence. She stopped being interested in our music. We agreed to use her vocals on the next album but only as a special guest. Also, Nela doesn´t ride with the band to the live shows. Forget Nela, here´s now stronger line-up of Thalarion as ever before since we have a new guitarist Michal from December 2001 who brought new possitive energy and feeling into the band.

“Tatyana” has a lot to do with Puszkin's writings. Don't you have any famous writers in Slovakia? Wasn't it better to use any work by a Slovak rather than Russian?

It´s a passage taken from his excellent work „Eugene Onegin” that I like too much, but translated into english language. Peronally, I do like a works of Pushkin, Alexander Sergejevitch was a great poet. Though he is a Russian writer he lived close by my city, in Brodzany, where his house is still persisting. I think it´s a Pushkin´s museum now. No fears, here were and are many writers or poets in Slovakia, but I only chose the work from Pushkin, no more no less.

Let's get back to Mighty Music for a while. Are you satisfied with what Michael does for you?

In regards to Mighty Music, in general we are very satisfied with them. They are doing a good job. The promotional and distribution side of Mighty Music is satisfying for Thalarion, so on that point we can´t complain, eventhough things of course always can get better. Mighty Music is very good medium-sized record label and we are proud of belonging to them with regard to the fact that they prefer releasing brutal death metal bands in the presence, but they still respect us. Yes, I also find Michael a very decent & easy guy who sacrifices a lot of time and energy for Mighty Music. Also, he really adore all the bands he ever released and that´s very positive thing.

I know he fixes interviews and keeps promoting THALARION. But what about the gigs? I mean, does the company takes care about it?

It depends on our record label which promotion or tour they are able to arrange for Thalarion. If Mighty Music don´t feel a need to send us on tour we won´t struggle there through the corpses. I think our actual position in the international scene is good and Mighty Music do their best to establish Thalarion worldwide.

Do you remember your last gig?

Yes, I do remember the last gig very well. We played two weeks ago as special guest here in Slovakia on Depresy´s new album baptism. It was very cool show, almost 400 fans there, great sound, simply … fucking cool!!!

And do you remember how many interviews you did for the polish underground…?

I don´t know exactly how many it was, I think I did any interview for Thrash ´em All Mag. and Masterful Webmagazine, but I don´t remember any others.

Are you vindictive? I mean, if somebody gets in your way, will you remember this until you die?

What? No, we are not vindictive. There´s no reason to be vindictive.

What do you think about joining EU? Do you think Slovakia should join this organization? As a musician are you for it?

I don´t follow this matter and sincerely, I don´t care of any EU. The other guys from the band were vote on referendum FOR entering Slovakia into EU, but it goes by myself. I can see no positive things there, maybe an open borders when travelling from one state to another.

Do you think that as Slavs we shall be the citizens of the second category or maybe the EU shall exploit our nations?

That´s why I didn´t vote, the middle and east-european states will be only the citizens of the second category and everybody will kicks our ass!!!

Thank you for answering these few questions! Maybe sometime we're going to have another interview…

Well, we are at the end. Huge thanks goes to you for this interview. I hope you will live long in the way of the underground. For all those atmospheric music lovers the time of sadness has come. All real life starts from there both figurative and in exact senses. Keep the pagan Slavic fires burning!!! Let the grandsons of the windy god Stribog lead your steps through the obscures hills of the Carpathians. Stay dark and metal forever!!! If there´s somebody interested in Thalarion, don´t hesitate and write to thalarion.jg@topolcany.net . Juraj Grezdo