CARACH ANGREN : Seregor interview

Seregor, guitarist and singer of CARACH ANGREN answered to our interview and spoke about sujects like the beginning of the band, his inspiration, the process of song composition as well as the incoming album.

Hi ! How are you and how is CARACH ANGREN doing ?

Hi, I’m fine thank you. CARACH ANGREN is also doing great. We are currently preparing for our release in February. We are very busy with our work at the moment and more and more interesting things have been happening for CARACH ANGREN lately, so I proudly can say the band is doing very well.

Let’s speak a little bit about your introduction to music, how did you fall into it ?

Well, I was young and I always felt attracted to the metal side. I was 12 and I listened to RAGE AGAINT THE MACHINE and PANTERA. My taste for extreme music grew. I didn’t take long for me to become a dedicated death-metal listener. I got into bands like DEICIDE, CANNIBAL CORPSE, OBITUARY etc. Then I got inspired by metal acts like CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR, MÖRK GRYNING, EMPEROR etc. Meanwhile I was already playing bass guitar. Lead/rhythm guitars came later.
So I have been active in that Symphonic black/death metal scene ever since.

What were your musician / band inspirations at that time ? What are your musician / band inspirations now ?
The previous bands I mentioned were a big influence on me. I still listen to them! Just listened to CANNIBAL CORPSE this morning 😉 But like everyone knows, when you get older, it’s normal you start listening to other kinds of music. I can listen to everything around me. Today I’m more inspired by simply film-music because I watch a lot of movies. Bands can inspire us these days especially when we work with them. To see and feel their energy everyday on tour. Bands like DARK FUNERAL, SEPTICFLESH and BEHEMOTH. But for me these days, movies and their music are maybe more of an inspiration than other bands. I think because Ardek is responsible for composing music that I’m very comfortable with. His music inspires me when it comes to guitar writing. I just try to write that, what I need to feel, when I hear it. But the main ingredient here is ‘horror’. I try to be inspired by the darkness and horror around me. I find it in movies, shocking news etc. But that’s more for concepts and lyric writing. Musically, things in CARACH ANGREN go naturally. We cannot imagine to be out of ideas.

Do you remember the first concert you saw?And on the other side, do you have some souvenirs about your first gig ? Was everything alright as excepted ?
Damn! I think it was a tiny open festival not far from where I lived. There played some death metal bands. One of them was GOREFEST. I got their autograph on my jeans. But It got washed out. I was like 16 years old. I believe that was the first concert I ever saw when it comes to ‘metal music’
Our fist gig was in ‘Dingus’-Venray. And the funny thing here is. I remember a GOREFEST interview where I read that also they kept their first show ever in Dingus. I remember being nervous like Hell but all went great. It’s been closed for years now. But I somehow really liked that fucking place!

How did you learn music/guitar– self-taught or lessons?

I never had lessons. I always figured stuff out myself.

What was your first guitar model ?

That was a black Ibanez Gio 7 string. It’s still my back-up guitar.

What is your live rig / studio gears ?

I’m not really picky about gear on stage. Of course I have to have a kick-ass sound on stage. But sometimes you simply have another amp when you cannot take yours on the plane or whatever. Normally I simply use my Engl Powerball amplifier. I play a Schecter Hellraiser 7 strings. If the sound has enough balls… the sound man will complete the job. Also it’s important to hear myself clear enough on monitors. As long I can do my job I think it’s good to improvise on different kinds of equipment. Personally I like the fact of not having ‘one’ specific sound on every show. After all.. It’s live. And CARACH ANGREN has already a specific sound by Ardek’s keys and Namtar’s drum-style. You will recognize us in a heartbeat, even without guitars. So guitar sound can change as long it kicks ass off course!
The Engl Powerball is also used for the studio-recordings.
I just have one cable from my guitar going through a tuner-pedal and into the amp.

Could you please share some information about your gear (guitar, amp, pedals) for each album?

Phew! Hard to remember. I know we mainly used the Schecter/Engl amp. for recordings.
Patrick Damiani is an important member of CARACH ANGREN here. He is the studio/sound engineer and is responsible for all the technical matters. I bet even he doesn’t remember exactly what pedals/equipment we used for each recording.

What is a standard guitar warm up / training for your ?
Well, I swing my arms around a bit. Stretch my fingers. Especially when it’s cold my warming-up takes more time. Sometimes I jump around a bit so my heartbeat goes up. All to get that blood flowing. I used to just start playing songs right away in the old days. It got me some nasty time consuming injuries.
So now I just start playing cords slowly. Doing chromatic exercises and rehearsing technical riffs/parts I still find difficult.
Then I start to rehearse the complete songs when I’m warm. I can never train enough. My guitars are not that easy. Combining that with vocals is a hell of a job that needs constant practice.

Which advice could you provide to a new and advanced player ?

Practice with metronome. It helps your rhythm and timing.

On a weekly basis, about how much time do you spend practicing ?

It changes. Depends on my time schedule. 10 – 15 hours a week maybe.

Let’s speak now about the band, CARACH ANGREN, which I really love for many reasons, like for your creativity, the risk taken, the thema chosen and so on. I prefer to alert you, here are a serious bunch of questions, but I do hope that these questions will really help to better promote the band !

Hehe. Thanks for your compliment!

Did you ever think in your previous bands, INGER INDOLIA and VAULTAGE, to create a massive horror atmosphere or did this idea only come out later ?

Yeah! It was quite certain Ardek and I wanted something like we are doing now. We always had a thing for horror. We just never knew in what shape it would come. And of course we never expected to have success with it like we do now.

Could you please share information about how you started to create CARACH ANGREN ?

Ardek and I met up in VAULTAGE. This was after Inger INGER INDOLIA. We already knew each other but in VAULTAGE we personally and musically clicked immediately. He and I always had a strong taste for symphonic black/death metal. If you listen to VAULTAGE you can clearly hear this trash/death metal style. On the other hand Ardek’s keys and my vocal sound already give it a symphonic black feel. During VAULTAGE we started CARACH ANGREN as a project. We rehearsed CARACH ANGRENsongs during the breaks of a VAULTAGE rehearsal hehe. Yeah. You can simply say we put our whole heart in it. Pure passion. Later Namtar came in the picture. He was also in VAULTAGE for some time. So when things started to fall apart in VAULTAGE it was time to call CARACH ANGRENa ‘band’. Since that time we are used to call our thing ‘The triangle’

Why did you choose the name “CARACH ANGREN” for the band name ? Seems you were quite inspired the Silmarilion, is it the best book from Tolkien for you ? Many tales are present into this book but as far as I know you didn’t use them for the band.

The name Carach Angren goes way back before even Inger INGER INDOLIA. I was like 16/17 years old and I was inspired by Tolkien’s literature. I loved the sound of it. And I never read shit about dwarves or hobbits. Only the evil work about the land Mordor. About the Nazgul and the witch-king of Angmar. Sauron and Saruman. Tolkien’s work is fucking amazing! I think it still is one of the best stories that projects good and evil in a perfect way. There were already many bands/artists like GORGORTH, CIRITH GORGOR, MORGUL, DIMMU BORGIR, Shagrath, etc. who used this language. I remember writing a few songs during that time. I even remember titles!!! J “Moria’s Mysticism” “Valinor’s Darkening” “The forgotten gardens of malice” hehe Cheeky-ass teenage lyrics now I guess, but it meant something back then. It was our learning process.

Anyway, I had the Silmarrilion and I found the name Carach Angren. My other bandmates didn’t agree and we choose a Romanian name INGER INDOLIA. So.. maybe 8 years later! INGER INDOLIA died and Ardek and I needed a name for our project. I was at home and I had 3 drawers next to my bed. I was cleaning them. You know how it works when stuff falls behind the bottom drawer. You never look there. And because I was cleaning I took out that bottom drawer and what did I find?
A folded paper covered with dust. I opened it and there it stood inside. The name “Carach Angren”. You have to know; I forgot this name all these years, since we chose for Inger Indolia. I thought FUCK YEAH .
Later, Ardek agreed on that.
So you see? It’s always hard to find a good band name. And CARACH ANGREN simply sounds “BAMMM”, like power to me. It’s not all too original because some bands already took some Tolkien names. But then again. The name was still free. It means “Iron Jaws”. Because it’s a passage through mountains of Iron. Their spiky tops look like teeth. So in Tolkien’s world if you walk through that passage, you walk straight into the center of Mordor. The plateau of Gorgoroth.
So it’s all about the name. No further Tolkien lyrics/concepts.

Speaking about bands speaking about Tolkien, I am sure that you know SUMMONING, do you share some interest into their quite atmospherical music ? It’s quite different for sure but maybe some alchemy with their style maybe possible.

Hmm. Not really. Sorry. I know them. And I understand their approach but personally they never inspired my work. Somehow I am more into creating this harder and faster music. I am not the kind of guy who can easily sit back to be taken away by atmospheric sounds. It has to be really special, emotional and surprising for me. Then again, I cannot deny SUMMONING is making high quality music. They don’t have their name for nothing. I didn’t hear much of them but I always like their song titles when I see them. Titles like “Dol Guldur” and “Minas Morgul”

I really appreciate your guitar composition, the melodies are always warm and cold at the same time, melodic, atmospheric and colorful. Do you have some tricks in your “book” for that ? What is your way to get it ?

Hehe, well thanks again! To be honest with you, I don’t think of me as great guitarist. I believe my power is more in my mind. I began as a bass-player. I was young when I discovered a strong feeling for music. When I hear music… I can imagine complete melancholic/symphonic melodies on them. I never had lessons. But when I heard a melody I could find it right away on my guitar. Now I can do it in a heart-beat (when it’s not too fucking crazy guitar-playing of course). So when Ardek comes with a key passage he wrote, I’m gonna take my time to listen and write the melody line on it, that my mind absolutely wants to hear. So I’m strong in creativity. We don’t go into the rehearsal room to jam and make a song of it. We sit there in our rooms day and night creating something until we are 100 % satisfied. Until it lets us go. Once my guitar-riffs are written I do the same with the lyrics. You see I can write on a song for weeks, and I absolutely don’t even take 1 second the time to think about guitar riff vs vocals, during the whole writing process. I think many guitarists/vocalists decide if it’s possible to sing a sentence on a certain riff when they write it. I will never do that! So we put many hours of work in creating music the way we want to hear it from our speakers.
So of course! The challenge now for me is rehearsing and practicing new written material until my goddamn fingers fall off. Many musicians won’t even go there. They will hire session musicians or whatever. It’s a fucking tough job to do those guitars and vocals in the same time during live. Some parts are even impossible like exactly on CD. Then I’ll have to find the best solution to make it possible. My life has to be a nonstop rehearsal especially when it comes to guitars, hehe. But Hell! I’m a proud guy and I’m still doing it.

How are the songs created? Do you create the “tabs” for each instruments by your own or with others CARACH ANGREN members ?

No, Ardek most of the times composes a certain drum/keyboard . He’s actually the main composer of the band. I just sit here and listen to it. I will decide what kind of guitars should come on top. Chords, melodic riff etc. There will be nonstop recordings until I’m completely satisfied with the part. Sometimes the whole part can change because of my choice for guitars. It’s fun to hear that I can write good guitar riffs that Ardek totally doesn’t expect on certain of his parts. Later on things can even change when Namtar composes his drum part on it. So we just keep switching and puzzling with music until we have songs we totally stand for.

And no! I never write tabs for guitars :p

As far as I know, you, Seregor, write the lyrics for the band. May we know what inspired you most, is it some horror movie, some books, poems, video games, art or something else ?
Yeah.. in that world indeed! Sure as Hell you don’t get Carach results in other bands when it comes to lyrics. As a kid when I wrote my first songs, I could be inspired by other bands and pc games. They have pretty good poetry and stories in certain games man! It’s inspiring! These days I’m more inspired by horror movies if it comes to lyrics. You know it doesn’t really matter what kind of media. If we decide to write an album about a haunted house. Then I’ll watch every ghost movie and read as much as possible stories of it. Hell! I will turn my fucking apartment into a haunted house!!! Also we’ve had our experiences with horror in reality. It’s luckily not like some did in war, but we all have a certain bag with tragedies. We also like to get dark stuff out of that. To use our fears with the concept we are writing at that moment. You know, I simply have a fascination for death. All our stories and concepts are in and about the afterlife. I always find it hard to explain exact inspirations. But “Death” would be my main inspiration in one word for CARACH ANGREN and all my other works.

Death, fear, sadness, evil history and mysticism seem to be your main topics into your albums. May we “hope” to see one a kind of vampire history ? Many BM band us this thema for their album and it works well for some.

For me CRADLE OF FILTH had that ‘vampire’ image during their first albums. Especially the first one. It was unique how Dani did it back then. But after that when I grew older… I never had any deeper connection with vampirism or Dracula. It has its charms! I love movies like Dracula, Interview with the vampire, let the right one in.. and many more. Especially the more darker/urban legends some countries have. But somehow when it comes to Seregor. Hmmmm No! I don’t think vampirism will ever be a topic in CARACH ANGREN. It never attracted me as much as ghosts and hauntings for example.

CARACH ANGREN has now 11 years; however the “horror black metal” genre is not so new. Some others band in the past, like CRADLE OF FILTH (with Dusk..) TARTAROS, THE VISION BLEAK or GLOOMY GRIM by example, also had some “horror” arrangement into their composition. Have you been inspired by those band / artists as well ?

Yes! All the bands you mention are inspiring. For me that was COF for a big part. I was totally into Death metal. Then I was like maybe 17 years old and I went to a CRADLE OF FILTH show. CRADLE OF FILTH was so hot back in 97, the people just crawled over each other in the front rows. That’s rare for the sober staring Dutch. And that was a whole lot more than just a band for me. It was ‘the’ cradle-hype during ‘Dusk and her embrace’ if I’m correct. It felt as if the fucking Adams family was standing there with instruments! This was more than long hair, instruments and loud music. It felt as if these guys were a living horror movie. And this whole theatrical/show thing of visual and sound got me into this symphonic/horror genre. There were more bands that inspired me at the time. RAGNAROK, EMPEROR, ABYSSOS, MÖRK GRYNING, BURZUM, MZ412, MARDUK, MAYHEM, DARK FUNERAL etc. Also DIMMU BORGIR was a great inspiration since they came with their first album. Yes! All these bands have something with death and horror that still can be very inspiring.

I’ve seen on stage in 2013, at Colmar (France), with SEPTIC FLESH and FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE. The show was great and you seem to really enjoy it (or possessed?). Do you consider the scene/stage like a theater and a way to express your feeling ?

Yes! It’s like a stage-play. A theater. I become Seregor the moment I walk on stage. Possessed? Thanks for the compliment! That’s a good description for it. People pay to see a show. So it is my job to give them a good impression of my band. You have to give the audience a certain energy. That only works if you express yourself as best as you can. If I see myself back on YouTube vids I wanna see myself moving explosively in a way it’s interesting on the music. I don’t wanna see guys just standing there with serious eyes and moving fingers. They already do that a lot in metal ;p
I compare a stage with a movie screen. If you see an actor on TV.. you want that fucker to ‘act’!! Otherwise you will switch channels. Stage is the same! You make sure you express all your feelings in a good act. Otherwise people walk away.

You recorded as well this show with a cam, may we know if CARACH ANGREN plan to maybe records a live album once ?

Hmm, no ideas about that yet!

As you were on tour with SEPTICFLESH you met Christos Antoniou, who is leading CHAOSTAR and studies classical music composition and who works as well with the Filmharmonic Orchestra from Prague. Have you been able to share some thoughts about musical composition and get some tips in order to improve the next composition of CARACH ANGREN ?

Hell yeah! The guys from SEPTICFLESH became like brothers to us. They gave us respect and helped us on many ways in this scene. We fucking love those Greeks. I can proudly tell that Namtar recently helped them out with some live shows on drums.
Christos was for me the most distant one on the first tour. Not so much contact. But since we toured with them in the US. Christos and I always woke up early. When the bus stopped, the two of us always when searching for food-stores and shit. I needed my daily doses of Coca Cola. And he needed his shot of Iced Coffee hehe.
Yeah! CARACH ANGREN is getting good tips from SEPTICFLESH ! Not one bad word about those fucking guys!!

How was your latest album “Where the Corpses Sink Forever” welcomed by the public ?

Pretty good as far as I know. You always hear different people preferring different albums. But the last album was received very well. We had some high rates in good magazines.

Your label is now Season of Mist, a known French label (ANOREXIA NERVOSA in the past). Why did you choose to work with them ?

It was simply a matter of the next logical step for the band. Before that we were signed by Maddening Media. A one-man’s label. This guy “Philip Breuer” helped us on our way. He is the one who put us on the map. So when our friend Philip put his label on hold we came in contact with Season of Mist. I still miss working with Philip sometimes. We had a good connection. But life goes on. Of course Season of Mist is a much bigger label. So things started to become more businesslike. If you are aware and certain about the options of your band, you can get great results with a powerful label behind you. SOM was simply a big step forward for CARACH ANGREN .

If you will have to give one or two words about each CARACH ANGREN album, which words will be chosen to describe them one by one ?

Lammendam – White ghost
Death came through a phantom ship – Nautical haunting
Where the corpses sink forever – War haunting

The first album is most of a time a kind of “warmup” for a band, even if the band is quite creative, the production is not so good. However, the things are different with CARACH ANGREN, meaning the first album was quite creative and very well arranged and the production was as well great. How did you achieve that? Do we have to think that you guys are like perfectionist?

Of course! Perfectionists we are. We fuck ourselves up to get the job done in way we can sleep with it. We realize very well that the songs you release are ‘forever’!!! No way back! So make sure you put ‘everything’ in it!
We released Lammendam in 2008 under Maddening Media. We released the first 2 albums with Philip. He also got us introduced with Patrick Damiani of Tidal Wave studio’s. He is also a deranged perfectionist. That’s what we need! We have worked with him ever since. So yeah! We just took a few years to write good songs and met up with the right contacts.

What was the biggest success for CARACH ANGREN ?

In the last 2 years we have seen some places. We went to Japan with MARDUK & TAAKE. A European tour with SEPTICFLESH & FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE. We did a US tour with SEPTICFLESH & DEICIDE. Also we shared stage with BEHEMOTH for 2 shows. One in Mexico, the day after in Costa Rica.
We are hungry again to get out there for some new shows.

On the other side, what do you regret? The first album “Lammendam” was released in 2008, from MADDENING MEDIA, a young label which seems to be on hold now. Do you think than an other label, like Season of Mist, was maybe able to put you at these time on the top rank ?

I don’t know. Maybe we would have more success. But I believe that we are more ‘ready’ for it now. We simply needed our time to developed as a band.

One status of your Facebook account told that you finished the songwriting process. May we get additional information about that, please?

It was a hard process, like always in CARACH ANGREN. It will be maybe different. But I have a stronger satisfaction this time for writing this concept. It is like you said; CARACH ANGREN can be cold and warm at the same time. So some people will always find things too comic or over the top at certain parts on our albums. Yet during this process I had a constant feeling of total convincement. The need to be crystal clear and ice cold!

May we get some information about the future theme of the next album, and as well a potential release date ? What dark tales will be chosen this time ?

Hmmm I will still keep it a surprise heheh. But you can check out our first song already. ‘There’s no place like home’ It comes with a video clip made by a great artist; Costin Chioreanu. It’s the first big puzzle of the concept. Check it out! It’s fucking disturbing! Ice cold! Just how I wanted it to be J

Will this new album be even more theatral or do you want to focus more onto the “raw black metal” ?

Yes! Theatrical like always in CARACH ANGREN. The music is full of symphonies like you are used from us. It’s dynamic. But also cold and hard at the same time. That’s what Carach is about. Combining darker parts with more beautiful melodies.

The violin seems be to more and more present into CARACH ANGREN, may we hope to hear the violin more often on the new release ?
Yes, the violin is there for sure. Maybe not as much as the previous releases, but certain parts are definitely played by Niko’s Mavridis, our Greek session violinist. Now and then we fly him in to do a show with us. He’s a great asset for our band.

You play guitar but you sing as well, and to be honest we may say that you are a good singer because you are able to share some feelings with your voice. Sometimes your voice is more focused on the black metal side, sometimes you whisper, speak or growl. Do you plan to continue to play with your voice as well on the next record ?

Oh Yes! I think even more whispering and other voices this time. This album maybe has the most lyrics of albums. It feels really like a story-telling metal attack to me.

With which band would you like to be on a tour ?
For all these years we never had a band we were friends with or anything. But now we are meeting some good people out there.

At this point SEPTICFLESH is the most comfortable band to be on tour with. But we are starting to get familiar with more and more bands. I also liked Tom and Jason from the American ´Inquisition´. All the guys from Deicide are cool. I guess we are easy going guys. Not everyone is the same. But we are all there to be a part of our band. You will have to respect each other if you live with them for 3 weeks in a tour bus. Otherwise it will cost you energy. I have a good experience with all the bands we toured so far.

Will CARACH ANGREN be on tour this year ?Speaking about tour, do you plan, one day, to have a kind of orchestra on stage, if it will be possible ?

We are busy planning the next tour but nothing certain about that yet. Anyway we definitely will do some touring this year.
Orchestra on stage? Yeah! That thought crossed our mind many times. Especially for Ardek it’s an interesting thing. But! It costs time, money, connections etc. I guess you need to have to right stage, sound etc. It’s always possible. But for now it’s still food for the future.
What do you think about the Netherlands metal scene ? The scene is not so well known in France.

The Dutch scene isn’t that big. I mean it’s okay. Like I said, the Dutch are sober. Mexican’s are the opposite. Crazy!! The French are also way more Carach-people to us. But okey! Holland is also a tiny fucking country. If we do a show, the venues are crowded enough. I don’t go out to concerts much myself so.. I don’t have a real clear picture about it. But I guess for little Holland the scene is quite good.

Speaking about the metal scene, are you ever heard that CARACH ANGREN is now one, or maybe the leader, of this genre ? Your albums are often considered to a masterpiece. What do you think about that ?
Haha Leader? It’s not a statement I easily would dare to say myself. But if more and more people tell me this, I can only say I’m flattered. When people consider our work as a masterpiece… We have surely reached our goal and I’m proud of it.
You did some good works for a movie called “Her Gift”, do you plan to continue to do some movie soundtrack in the future as well ?
Hmm, not sure!!! I think you mean Ardek and his key arrangements with this question, right?

Do you plan, maybe one day, to create a short movie, like 15min, in order to present a song story ? By example THERION did it.

Well, I haven’t seen it yet. I will check it out. For the upcoming album we will only do video-clips. And for now our animation/lyric video of ‘There’s no place like home’ is a clip that I’m very satisfied with.

If you will have to describe your feelings about CARACH ANGREN, what do you will like to share ? Good experience or horrible experience ?

Oh we’ve had great moments and horrible ones! There’s still a lot to come though. You guys out there know how it is to start a band. There’s always someone you cannot work with or whatever, and then your band breaks up. Well, we know our good and bad things more or less. We know how to deal with outside problems and we are still operating this machine like a team. I already told that we used to call us ‘The triangle’ That’s how it feels. I like to compare Carach Angren with a big fucking tank. One drives, one loads the canon and the other one aims and shoots.

Do you have a last word for the french reader ?

Tourmentés, brûlés, violés, tués!
Just some juicy words in your beautiful language from our song ‘General Nightmare’ Pardon my French.. but in French it is written 😉

Thanks to have answered this bunch of questions. I leave the last word to you if you want to add anything.

Yeah I wanna thank myself too for answering a million fucking questions here… Whuahhah. Neh just kidding :p Your questions were interesting and I enjoyed answering them.

Thank you and all out the for listening
Hails and take care,

Seregor