Vronth, the drummer of this very good German Black Metal band, is my interlocutor on this interview about Graven's debut "Perished and Forgotten". I have tried to analyse with him this really good Cd, and asked some questions about the statement inside the booklet, in which they told this is the last release they make with this "too clear" sound. To you the answers...

Ok, first of all Hails Vronth! You have just realised "Perished and Forgotten"; tell us the process of creation for this recording.

            Dark greetings to you! Well, our record "Perished and Forgotten" is the logical pursuit from the "Of misanthropic spirit" demo CD. We've re-recorded three tracks from the Demo CD ("Nightwinds lead my sword", "Of misanthropic spirit" and "Fullmoon rites") and composed five new tracks, which ones are paired with the aggression from our past recordings and some new influences. A little bit more in the vein of the spirit in early ´90, I think.

I think it will be good if you give us a short biography of the band, in such way as to let our readers getting in touch with it. Can you?

            So, GRAVEN foundation was in 1995 under the name "Totenreich" by Vargsang, as a one-man-band. In 1998 he released the first Demo-tape "Requiem Aeternam". Also in this year I joined the band and together we recorded the second Demo-tape "Peststurm". In 1999 we brought out the third one, called "Demo ´99", and changed the band's name into GRAVEN. One year later (June 2000), we released our demo CD "Of misanthropic spirit". After that we get in touch with Undercover Rec., and they signed us. In 2001 we released a Split-CD with Barad-Dür (including three tracks of our "Of misanthropic spirit" demo).
After the release of our debut CD "Perished and Forgotten", in June 2002, Vargsang left the band for personal establishes.
With new (session) members I prepare now the second GRAVEN output.

Are you completely satisfied about "Perished…"? I ask you this 'cause I read in the booklet that you say this is the last Graven release with this kind of recording, and that in the future releases you will come back to a more grim and hateful sound. Is it true?

            Well, in my point of view, our release had a too clear sound. That's it. So I have to say, that our future releases will be more grim and hateful.

Personally, in my musical life I have heard any kind of recordings, from the most clear and very "correct" sound of Abyss studio's bands to the lonely guy who records is music with his home-recorder, and I consider your last work's sound a right compromise between good level of production and the necessary raw attitude that needs a Black Metal release. Don't you agree?

            Not really. I'm not satisfied with the sound. It needs a little bit more aggression and rawness like DARKTHRONE's "Under a funeral moon".

Anyway, I'm happy to hear than a band like you want to come back to the roots of its musical genre. Attitudinally I think you are standing firmly into the roots, even if you give your personal contribute. How do you like to define your way of creating music?

            Thanks a lot! It's no difficult definition to create this music, I think. The difficult thing is, to catch in the right way the spirit and the dark atmosphere, which is absolutely necessary for this kind of music. It has nothing to do if you are a great musician or something like this. It's just a feeling and thinking right from the belly out, if you now what I mean. For example: Listen to the old BURZUM releases; it's quite simple, but it works, really!!! It's an honour for me if someone thinks, that we're creating those dark atmospheres in our releases. `Cause that is, what we want to do.

In the recording are occasionally present some synth intervention, just to underline the mood of the song in that precise moment: can you please tell us your point of view about this controversial instrument inside Black Metal music? What do you think about those bands, which seem to depend on this kind of sonorities?

            In my point of view I must say too much synths destroy the atmosphere and above all the aggression. But there're a handful of bands, which know how to use this instrument in the right way (Emperor's "In the Nightside..." is a perfect album with a lot of synths; also the old-releases from LIMBONIC ART). But the sound of most of the bands is too soft and commercial (sounds like Dimmu Borgir), in fact of using synths too much.

Personal I absolutely don't tolerate all this keyboard-oriented modern stuff, but I consider a minimal and occasional use of some kind of extra musical contributes, like the synth in a couple (I hope I am correct…) of your songs, a good thing that adds some little more pathos to the song structure. About the song themselves, can you give us a short analysis of them, explaining the meaning of titles such as "Of Darkness, Sorrow and Hate", "When Funeral Winds Arise" and so on? They seem to be very obscure and negative lyrics…

            Sorry, I m the wrong man to answer this question. All lyrics on our past recordings were written by Vargsang. I only can say, that they are very personal. The most titles are catchwords for the summary. That's all, what I can say.
Ask me again after our next release and I can / will answer your / this question.

You define you music "Great Misanthropic Art". This thing I think needs absolutely a couple of question about an interesting topic: what's misanthropy for you? What's your personal idea of a misanthropic attitude and, last but not least, what do you think about all those individuals who call themselves misanthropes, even if they neither know the meaning of the word "misanthropy"?

            What do you think about our mankind? Infected with all those commercial shit around, no morality and proud around us. A fuckin consumer society. All I can give to those people is pure hate!!!! And that's what I mean, personal for me, misanthropic. My personal idea of a misanthropic attitude, I try to explain with GRAVEN's music. All hate is manufactured in our songs. It's a kind of valve.
To be "misanthrophic" could be such a trend, how everything. It's sad but true, I think. There are so many of those fool-individuals, personal I give a shit of them. Why should I care about those bastards? I have my suspension and it's my suspension.

I think this is becoming the new ridiculous trend: after saturday night satanists, hippie pagans and wannabe nationalsocialists, the next freaks will be metal-brothers misanthropists…
When you take a look around you, trying to find something new or simply coherent to your musical genre, what do you see? I think I should know your answer…

            You are right. Fuckin trendy bastards.
Yeah, nothing...... maybe disdain.

Graven is a duo, so it's clear than for an eventual live gigs, you will need at least one guest member: have you find the ideal one, with the right spirit to support your music concept? But, I should ask you before all, if you have planned any live dates, shouldn't I?

            GRAVEN is no longer a duo. It's now my "One-man-show". But I have found some good session-musicians around me (but only for the moment to compose new material!)
I want to play live, yeah. But it's still not the right line-up to play. We'll see, what the future brings.

Ok, I think we are reaching the end: the last question and I will leave you wrapped into "nightwinds"…. What are your plannings for the future of Graven? Are you composing new material for the next release, or what?

            Yeah, we are composing new material for the next release. And I hope we can present the new release live, next year.

Ok, I have finished. Thank you for your time! Add anything you want or you think has been missed:

            Thanks for your support. Thanks to everyone, who support GRAVEN in any way.
We have to keep the Underground-flame alive!!

We will… Hails Vronth!