1 / NAZGUL and URUK HAI were two projects from the ancient Iberian lands. Both groups through the years played stripped down and raw black metal with strong Pagan overtones. Hails Defernos, maybe you can tell us how NAZGUL surfaced and what ideas did you have in those early days for the band?
Greetings, brothers, thank you for the interview after such a long time away from music. Nazgul emerged in the mid-90s, after dropping a project that Thorgul and I had started, called Ragnarok. Our initial idea was to play unholy black metal with Ragnarok, but for different reasons it ended up being melodic death metal with a Viking influence and had very little to do with paganism. The conception of the band was far from what I and Thorgul wanted, and there were some typical issues common in all bands, such as different opinions, especially for the guitar sounds. They pushed me to leave the group, so I brought to life an idea that I already had in my mind: Nazgul.
Within a few months of leaving Ragnarok, Thorgul also left the band and joined my new project, this is how Nazgul emerged.
Uruk Hai was born some years later, mainly to provide an outlet to the musical compositions that Thorgul had, and to my ideas in the artistic aspect, ideas that were more contextualized in the dark legends and in the Spanish fantasy horror of the 70s. Films, which in many cases dealt with or were based on terrifying Spanish legends. All of this mixed with a certain degree of aristocracy, elitism and patriotism ... The result was Uruk Hai.
2 / Your first demo "From the Throne of Winter" certainly was quite an assault on the senses with a very direct approach. What do you recall of recording this demo? And what equipment did you work with for the demo? And which bands inspired you most in those early days?
The 90s were very different from how they are today, recording in Spain in those years was very expensive, and complicated. Nowadays almost anyone can have a small studio at home, if they have good computers and a space to play the instruments. In the 90s, the recordings were analog, not digital. You had to hire a recording studio by the hour, and it was very expensive.
However, I have always preferred analog sound over digital. The most satisfying results I have had as a musician to date have always been in analog studios.
I remember that the days of recording our first demo were very complicated and difficult. Thorgul and I had to work many months to get the money needed: I had to sell my TV and an Atari ST 520 computer to get the money that the sound technician was asking for. There were only two of us, and we had always rehearsed without vocals and bass. So we sought help from Lovhathon from the band Xharathorn, he put the bass in our first demo. I recorded the vocals that day, improvising and adapting them while Thorgul recorded the guitars, in such a way that when it was my turn to record, it would be as quick as possible and thus save money and time.
I have very good memories of those days, it was hard, but it was also awesome and we had a blast. The result may not have been what we expected, but the demo “From the Throne of Winter” was very well received on the national scene, and we got some international contacts.
We were inspired by the bands we were listening to back then ... DarkThrone, Thornium, Bathory, Graveland, and bands from the Scandinavian scene of the early 90's.
3 / URUK HAI was a project featuring you, Thorgal (also in NAZGUL) and Crom. NAZGUL was only a few years old at the time, why and how did the project come to be? What did you want to make different?
Uruk Hai was actually born while we were rehearsing with Nazgul. Thorgul and I spent a lot of time in rehearsal studios playing music. Some guitar riffs did not fit into Nazgul's style (or so we thought) and we kept storing them in a scrapbook. One day we decided to rescue part of those notes to see what comes out, and that was how the idea of Uruk Hai was born.
As time went by, Thorgul and I became more involved in Uruk Hai, Lovhathorn left us due to lack of time, and we reorganized the group. It was then that we proposed to CROM to be part of the band playing bass and adding vocals. I had already been working with Crom on a pagan metal project called WOLFILAS. In Wolfilas it was me (drums), Crom (guitar and voice) and the late Robert (RIP – 1980-2011) from Warcry (Guitar).
Months later and organized that way (Crom, Defernos and Thorgul) we recorded our first MCD (maxi single) called “In the Side of Eternal Eclipse”. This is one of the finest pieces I have ever done. The sound is pure old school black metal, and some of the songs have become the “hymns” of Spanish black metal history, like the song “El monte de las animas”.
Oddly enough, we recorded that MCD at the Nazguls rehearsal room, with some very bad microphones, with some broken drum plates ... We did all the recording with the PC that Crom had brought. We had very little technical means but the result was 100% unholy black metal.
The main differences between Nazgul and Uruk Hai were musical and lyrical. Nazgul was a musical project that had become too epic and with a symbolic pagan theme with values very anchored in honor, struggle, and the vindication of old religions and rituals. Uruk Hai on the other hand was musically just an unholy black metal band. And with it we wanted to play a dark theme based on the national legends of Spain, the renaissance, the mystique of our castles and fortresses ... a kind of dark and macabre patriotism that Nazgul did not have.
4 / Europe's current situation is looking bleak with an influx of mongrels and third world filth sweeping across the seas to enter our kingdoms. How would you describe the current state of Europe and do you envision a future for white Europeans?
Sadly I think there is no hope for native Europeans. Europe has entered a process of cultural decadence, financed and supported by large capitalist and globalist groups that have interests in its decline. I believe that Europe will disappear as a culture ... it is inevitable. But there is hope in the Eastern Europe countries and in the Baltics, it is they who have to resist, and we must warn the native comrades of Eastern Europe of the decadence that modernism could bring. I believe that Russia will play a fundamental role in the coming decades or centuries. Russia will be the new European “Covadonga” which will reconquer Europe, establishing a new, more archaic and traditional order. An order based on blood and tradition. In reality, the postmodern world is an anti-natural world, if it was not supported and subsidized by a large capitalist elite, it would disappear, and it is anti-natural.
5 / In recent years Black Metal seems to have become tainted with the spirit of the old days seemingly being a part of the past. What opinions do you have of these online sites such as Facebook and Instagram? Do you feel these platforms are suitable for Black Metal and Underground music?
I think Black metal as we knew it in the 90's is dead. It is impossible to bring back to life that spirit, since it was something of a unique social and temporal context. Today society has changed, the underground is within the reach of a click on the PC. There are major music festivals that invite big black metal bands. In the 90s black metal boasted of being an elitist music for the elite. Today it is mass music for the overcrowded world. It is just another trend of the metal musical genre. It has lost all its magic and wickedness. The best that can happen is that it would disappear for about 10 years, people forget about it, and someone, somewhere in Europe, one fine day recovers black metal bands and musical styles from the past, imitating their attitude and way of understanding life. Copying and creating a new underground and elitist circle from scratch.
Without a doubt the internet has contributed to the death of extreme metal, but also the businessmen, who have seen a market from which they could profit. Let's be honest ... today all the great groups from the glorious black metal era have traded their souls for money. In many underground sectors, Nergal from Behemoth is criticized for being a sellout ... indeed, he is. But aren’t Mayhen, Marduk, Emperor? We are really in a process of decline similar to what is being experienced in European society. We have been betrayed by our own people.
6 / Can you name some records from the past that acted as an inspiration for NAZGUL & URUK HAI? Are there any bands in recent years that you care for?
I can mention groups that have influenced our music and our way of thinking or understanding black metal. Without a doubt the works of DarkThrone: “A Blaze in the Northern Sky and Under Afuneral Moon”. Burzum's first album. “Graveland - Thousand Swords”, and “In the Glare of Burning Churches” demo, Veles, Diabolical (Pol), Xantotol (Pol), Fullmoon (Pol), Thornium demo (Swe), Warlogue (Fin).
Currently I don't follow the Black Metal scene too much. I listen to some old heavy/trash and black metal bands that I didn't know at the time. The newest thing I have heard was the album by the band Ymir from Finland.. I liked it a lot.
7 / The former Spanish music scene featured some interesting projects such as Blazemth, Primigenium, Argar, Asgaroth, Xharathorn and many others (including the projects in which you were involved). What do you think about those old Iberian bands?
Actually I only had contact with the bands from Madrid and with Gothician and Gorthaur. In Primigenium I got to play drums for a short period of time. They were going to record and were looking for a drummer, but I was not up to their level to record with them at the time. They seem to me to be one of the first Spanish bands with more international success. Their first pieces were impressive, they have been one of the best Spanish groups. Xharathorn has been a good band also, perhaps not very recognized in Spain because they disappeared very quickly. But their music is pure and powerful raw black metal, inspired in the dark side of the epic history of Spain just like Uruk Hai.
The truth is that throughout all these years I have discovered and listened to many Spanish black metal bands that I would recommend to our readers. Einsatz Kommando, Warcry (RIP), Gothician, Gorthaur, Primigenium, Xharathorn, Akerbeltz, Grimuak ... all of them are old school groups and highly recommended.
8 / In 2005 you worked on a project called Trasgo… To date there has only been one demo tape "The Secret Eyes of Nature". What happened to that project? Do you have any future plans for that or has that ceased also?
That has ceased to exist. It was an attempt to create a demo that honored the dark side of nature. Nature has a vital importance in my life. I even left the city some time ago and now I live in the mountains of Segovia, in a small town surrounded by forest and mountains. There I live quietly without the problems of the city. The problems that are increasing every day, since all kinds of lowlifes from the third world have gathered in the city listening to the music of monkeys such as Reggeton. All these people did not exist when I lived in Madrid, and now everything is polluted. It is a sign of the degradation of society itself. A society that lacks spirituality and emotions, embracing ape music that makes them the perfect apes that the system itself desires.
That admiration that Thorgul and I had for nature, made us work on a project like Trasgo ... which is very much influenced by ARckanum, another magnificent group that I think has not been recognized as it deserves in the black metal scene.
Unfortunately, as with other projects, Trasgo could not go ahead, however I don't remember very well why we abandoned it. I remember that Thorgul and Heolstor had, or were working on at least 2 more songs that did not appear in the demo ... and they were very good songs, I heard the recordings and I really liked them.
9 / In all of those years there was never a full length record recorded for NAZGUL. Were there ever any plans to record it before NAZGUL ceased?
There were actually many Nazgul’s songs that were never recorded. And we were working on about eight songs that would come out on a new CD after the release of “Awaiting the Battle Ravens”. But due to different problems we delayed the rehearsals, then we could not see each other, and finally life distanced us from each other. We are still comrades and we meet to talk and such ... but everyone already has their duties and commitments in their private lives that prevent them from dedicating themselves to music. Thorgul often suggests that I should take up remote rehearsals, but I can't quite make up my mind, because I am not a very technological person and it takes a lot for me to learn to use the new technologies such as mobile phones, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.
It is possible that Nazgul’s works will be reissued by 2022, we are in contact with some labels that are interested. Maybe in those editions we include some themes that have never been played in public. This way they will not die in oblivion and they will be heard by the people.
10 / The first full length record of URUK HAI was "Unholy Medieval Congregation" which is an album with a very basic and stripped down sound. How do you feel about the album now looking back? And how would you compare it to the follow up album "Archi Catedra Nigra Diaboli"?
Unholy Medieval was a highly anticipated album in Spain, and it was very popular in my country and in other parts of Europe. I think the concept of the album was very good, it explored the dark side of Spain's own history. It even had some wicked winks in the lyrics talking about the Valley of the Fallen, the place where dictator Franco was buried.
But to be honest I do not think it is the best of the works that we have published. For my taste it sounds too “Swedish”, parts of it remind me of Dark Funeral. It may be just an obsession of mine though...
I like Archi Catedra much more, it reminds me of our first MCD, which for me is the reference. Sadly due to a budget problem on the part of the label that produced us at that time, we could not dedicate hours to the recording, having to record all the instruments and mix the songs in just two days. I think Archicatedra could have been a very good black metal album if we had had more time to record in the studio. But our producer did not give us that possibility. Nor did he ever edit an LP release that he had promised us. We were very annoyed by his behavior.
Anyhow, all the material recorded with Uruk Hai satisfies me quite a bit in every way ... artistic, lyrical, and musical. I think it has been a very good contribution to the black metal of my country. And has made my nation known abroad.
11 / The interview is now over Defernos. Do you wish to leave any final words for the reader?
I would just like to thank you for the interview. I feel honored that after almost 25 years there are still people who remember the name of Uruk Hai or Nazgul. Thank you very much for the opportunity you have given us by putting the names of my groups back on the scene.
And I would like to ask the readers to feel and sense the underground... abandon the internet, create a sub scene based on direct contacts and letters between all of you. Talk about projects in your letters, ideological projects, plans, music, paganism and black metal. Create a sub scene that escapes the control of the internet. Very difficult times are going to come where the elite of the left will censor everything that appears on the internet, or will domesticate the messages of the gangs. Only the real underground will remain free. Black metal legions .. spit in the face of the black metal stars and burn their CDs
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