by Vpower
The Band: Craven Idol
Country: United Kingdom
Answers by:
Sadistik Vrath (vocals, guitar)
CRAVEN IDOL’s new album shows a very much
crafted recording, musically, in the lyrical aspect and also the great cover artwork.
I guess they have a plan in their minds and they follow it until the last
consequences, at least this is the conclusion you can get reading Sadistik
Vrath’s speech below. Extreme metal with attitude, no time to sound commercial,
now it is up to you.
Hello Vrath and congratulations for your
sophomore album "The Shackles Of Mammon"
Thank you
so very much. Glad you guys at Metalbrothers seemed to enjoy it! It’s early
days and the interviews have started rolling in…. All in all, we are all
delighted the way the album turned out and eager for people to hear it. Review
have mostly been positive too!
Good! Craven Idol was formed in 2005, but your
first full length didn’t arrive until 2013 with Towards Eschaton. It seems you
have speed up already
Back in
2005 we had zero know-how on recording or anything related to being in a band. All
we wanted was to create horrible hell-noise – which we (Scourger and I) did
frequently in a cellar near King’s Cross in London. I somehow managed to self-release
a 3-track demo in 2006. It took us four years to bring out its predecessor, the
‘Ethereal Altars’ MLP (via Hammer Of Hate), which featured Volgard on bass. Mainly
the delays were due to out lacking expertise, logistics, as well as trying to
find a label.
Volgard
then moved from bass to drums, and Scourger assumed his natural role as
guitarist. We then played our first live gig at the Armageddon Festival in 2010
with this line-up. From there it took us a further three years to sort out
‘Towards Eschaton’ (in fact we recorded it in 2012). But to come back to your question, things
have certainly sped up. Not lastly due to the massive accumulation of riffs and
ideas dating back to 2005 (we must have 2-3 albums of material backed up). Today
we also have a very solid line-up and a strong writing team. And incidentally
four song-structures for the successor of ‘Shackles…’ are already in the works!
Don’t turn off the machines. Comparing your new
work "The Shackles Of Mammon" with its predecessor what are we going
to find?
A much more
complete album, yet one that is more fierce and aggressive than its
predecessor. It is also a more varied album and I think you can really hear our
wide range of influences running free. In a way I would call this record
‘unshackled’ (if you will excuse my pun), you will hear Master’s Hammer,
Inquisition, Poison (Ger), and Bathory… as well as Manilla Road, Candlemass, and Pagan Altar. Fuck
the barriers, this is extreme metal!
A big musical universe. You are releasing it on
April 14th through Dark Descent Records, you repeat with the guys, it seems all
of you are satisfied with it
Dark
Descent is one of the best labels out there and we are honored to be on their
roster. Matt Calvert picked up our CDr promo of ‘Towards Eschaton’ some years
back and we’ve been working together ever since. An amazing label that I can
recommend to all bands big and small. I would love to remain on the label for
the foreseeable future!
When reading about your new album there are
some names that arise, such big as Bathory, Gospel Of The Horns, Manilla Road, Venom… what do you
think about it?
I think it is
essential to draw inspiration from a number of sources rather than being a
follower or adapting (or even copying) someone else’s legacy. Metal was never
about sounding similar to other bands. It was only during the second wave of
black metal that we started insisting on a certain sense of purity of sound, or
as we call it ‘worship’. Sure, if you are good enough to be unoriginal, that’s
great, and I’ll subscribe to that… but very few bands are. Metal is freedom,
metal is destruction of all obstacles, looking for the most extreme form of
music. But it’s our loyalty that is letting us down. We have become too
comfortable in our skins. The only challenge we seem to set ourselves is how
similar to someone else we possibly sound. Craven Idol ain’t reinventing the
steel, but at least we reach a bit further than the current trend!
What is clear is that you blend some extreme
metal with some dark or blackened metal, but how you define it?
‘Extreme
Metal’ is the key word. The ingredients of it reach back into the ages. Every
step can be tracked to a source. Metal is power in music… it’s the scratch on a
damaged vinyl record, the ruggedness of Aetna, the climax of Sibelius’
“Finlandia” (1899), the utter despair of "Dies Irae" (1265), the raw
expression of the “Sixth Hurrian Hymn” (1400 BCE), the fury of the Neolithic
Folkton drums… It is the rage of man.
Returning to your question, you are quite right. We are looking at late
‘80s/early ‘90s extreme metal at its peak. A raw mix of heavy metal and
black/thrash metal as we’d call it today.
I’m glad
you noticed that! We recorded with Greg Chandler (of Esoteric) at Priory Studio
in Birmingham, a topnotch studio capable of
producing pretty much anything. I had worked with Greg before and we had a
number of conversations about what sound to go for. It was important to me that
the performances could be heard, rather than just the production. There is heaploads
of passion in what we do, and it must be heard loud and clear. A modern
pristine clean sound kills all sense of humanity. And if metal is not the fury
and loathing of humanity, I’m not sure what it is. It certainly isn’t some kind
of performance sport, as some of the more modern bands would have you believe….
No posers here. How long have you worked in
"The Shackles Of Mammon" and how was the process?
The oldest
material on there dates back to 2006, however, all in all we wrote this album
incredibly quickly, in a year perhaps (from when we really got going with it). The
process was relatively painless with everyone working towards a common goal. It
was mostly composed by Heretic Blades and I in a small basement studio near Kentish Town in London. Countless hours of toil went into
it, but when it’s your main passion that can only be a good thing! Recording at
Priory also went seamlessly.
Craven Idol has seen new faces coming on board
in the last years, did it have any effect on your sound or style?
I think, if
anything, it has made us a more close-knit band with more identity! All in all,
the most key departure was Scourger, and I wasn’t sure if we could continue
without him. I gave it a go, and I believe the new material sounds distinctly
like Craven Idol. And whilst, I’m gutted that he’s no longer in the fold, I
find that as a band we are stronger than ever. Also, we’ve never been ones to
stand still and our sound has developed gradually from a distinctly
black/thrash outfit to a diverse extreme metal band; to me at least that’s a
positive.
More than diversity I would say that what
better defines "The Shackles Of Mammon" is its consistency, the trend
of obscurity and aggressiveness it follows from the very first song to the last
Consistency
of high standards is paramount to us. We have strict quality control within our
group. ‘Towards Eschaton’ was not only a shorter record, but was also initially
aimed as a second E.P. One we had recorded it, we realized it was around 35
minutes long (as are most of our favorite albums) hence we went with the full
length format. ‘Shackles…’ was always intended as a full-length, sonically
re-creating the experience of a specific locker of hell. So whilst the album is
more varied than its predecessor, it also is more consistent due to a common
thread running through the entire piece.
I imagine these songs played live and I can see
a devastating gig…
Devastating
is what we go for! The fire and wrath has to transfer into the crowd, or the
whole exercise is utterly pointless. Even if the audience don’t know the
lyrics, they have to feel them. If they do not, then we have failed.
The awesome artwork by Daniel Corcuera also
deserves a mention
I’m glad
you like it! It’s a brilliant piece of art indeed and I don’t think he receives
enough credit for it! The cover is an extension of our previous album and
continues the journey ever-deeper into Eschaton. The painting is loosely based
on Sascha Schneider’s wood carving ‘Der Mammon und sein Sklave’ from 1896 –
depicting human kind on its knees, worshipping the great vulture that is Mammon
(the God of Avarice), holding beyond our grasp the utmost item of our desire:
Currency. More than any religion today, the West worships Mammon. The takeover
is complete and religion is dying. Salvation can now be found on this plain of
existence in the form of pixels on your phone (the measure of your dreams).
I think you have also done a good work on
telling things and taking some classic matters or issues to the arena. What are
the lyrics about on "The Shackles Of Mammon"?
Yes indeed,
the lyrics deal largely about the self-made hell of humanity. How we create our
own demons, how we grant them power over us, and how they ultimately consume
us. We wrought the plagues that bleed us dry. The theme of ‘blinding light’
(fire, celestial illusion, the sun) is a recurring one on the album, a
perpetual state of somnambulism as we trudge through the day-to-day on someone
else’s’ terms. As creatures of comfort we accept, we endure, in the name of
Mammon. The enlightened world has no other Gods…
As a London based act how do you
see the scene in your country? It keeps up to the glorious days from the past?
Oh it
certainly doesn’t, ha! I don’t think the scene is anywhere near to the glory of
the NWOBHM! Back then bands competed for world domination. These days the bar
has sunk very low, and instead of unique music, acts measure themselves based
on who has the funniest album title and/or gimmick... or who puts the most
reverb on their albums. I suppose this is largely a result of metal music
breaking into the main-stream and being easily accessible. People listen to
bands that are a copy of a copy of a copy, and base their musical opinions on
that. Never a good sign; forgetting your history. On the other hand, I’ve seen
the same phenomenon in many counties by now, so it’s not only the UK; it’s global.
Of course,
there are some excellent bands in the U.K. like Grave Miasma, Adorior,
Scythian, Crom Dubh, The Wounded Kings, Leathean, Salute, Terra, Dungeon,
Esoteric, Sepuku, HVP, Lvcifyre, etc So it’s a decent scene. Yet, given the
population of London (around eight million) it’s quite meagre, we certainly have a way
smaller scene than say Helsinki (which has a population of under
one million).
A good picture of the current situation, Have
you or will you release any promo material before the official release of your
album?
The second
track of the album - ‘A Ripping Strike’ - is currently streaming at No Clean
Singing Webzine.
Are you preparing for touring around?
We are not
really a touring band, however, we have some one-off gigs planned, including a
release show in London and an appearance at the North Of The Wall festival in Scotland. Of course would love to come and
play across the channel, but only if the demand I there. We are open to offers,
so feel free to get in touch via cravenidol@gmail.com.
Thanks for your attention!
Thanks for
the interview! Stand strong against the raging tide!
