Here's an interview with Ancient Gate from Argentina, a very interesting band that is deeply rooted in 90ies black metal. Their music contains the perfect mix between rawness, melody, and some subtle symphonic elements. Besides the fact that band leader Ildrac strongly recommends not to visit his country, he has a lot interesting things to tell...
How are you ? What about the situation concerning Covid-19 in Argentina actually ?
Greetings! Here’s Ildrac, from Ancient Gate, listening to some Diamanda Galás while answering your questions. First of all, thanks to your zine for this oportunity and to everyone reading this interview. Regarding this Covid matter, here in Argentina we are still under quarantine. It has extended from March up until now (November). The situation sucks of course. I have even been diagnosed with covid in September (I’m ok now) so you can say that I am more than fed up with this whole situation. I don’t really know how other countries in the world are dealing with this virus, but here it is tearing the economy apart. A lot of people lost their jobs because of the restrictions imposed by the government. And (from a musician’s point of view) it has affected a lot of bands, not being able to rehearse and release stuff. So a cure can’t come soon enough.
Please introduce the band to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine. How long does Ancient Gate exist, who are the bandmembers ? From which city /region of Argentina do you come from ? Did you play in other (serious) bands before Ancient Gate ?
Ancient Gate plays a form of Black Metal influenced by bands
such as Abigor, Blut Aus Nord (old), Mutiilation, Immortal and Sacramentum. Old
school melodic Black Metal, with some atmospheric touches here and there. Some
people has even found traces of Sorhin in our sound. We were born in March
2019, but the idea of the project came from about a year before. At first it
was my personal project and I played all instruments and wrote all the music
and lyrics (up until our Split with Wintaar). Before the recording of our
second album, E.Neros joined the band. So currently the band line up consists
of E.Neros on drums and percussion, and me, Ildrac, on guitars, bass, keyboards
and vocals. Maybe in the future we will include other session musicians, but
the core of the band will remain me and E.Neros. As for the region of Argentina
we come from, I can say we are from the northern parts of our country, the most
warm and mountain filled regions. It is a very small land. Winters are almost
non existent here, and summers are long. I seriously think that such long and
hot summers fucks with people’s heads, as we have unbelievable high levels of
violence in our society. People are one half descendant from natives, and the
other half sons of immigrants (mostly from Europe and middle east). We are very
rich culturally speaking, even tough people living here don’t give a fuck about
that and thrive on stereotypes and always running behind the newest phone or
some shit like that. Must say that, if any of you reading this have a chance to
come to Argentina……...don’t do it! You’ll thank me later. Anyways, I also play
in other band, Spectral Light (in fact, even before I formed Ancient Gate). And
before I played in a Death/Grind band named Sick Blood. E.Neros has never
before played seriously in a band.
Looking at your discography (check out Ancient Gates' bandcamp HERE )which includes two full-length albums and a split with Wintaar from Russia - how would you describe each single release and the musical development in general ? What are or maybe were the major influencences or inspirations now and in the beginning ?
Well, as you said, we have two full lenghts and one split
release. Our debut album is “From the Shadow Lands“, released on June 22,2019.
Gotta say that when writing those songs, I was listening to a lot of albums such
as „Heaven in Flames“, „Midnight Butchery“ (Judas Iscariot), „Ultima Thulee“,
„Fathers of the Icy Age“ (Blut Aus Nord) and „Vampires of Black Imperial Blood“
(Mutiilation). So the sound of the album kind of reflected that influence;
cold, raw and atmospheric black metal. I must say that on some tracks such as
„The Spires of Alcorath“ and „Under the Tomb Skies“ the compositions are more
primitive and tend to repeat a lot of riffs. The other songs have a lot more
sections and riffs into them. I’m particularly fond of the closing song on the
album „Through Paths Forgotten“, being more mid paced and melodic. Anyway, we
were gearing towards a raw and unproduced sound, but keeping it audible. I hate
when bands that play good music hide it behind some unlistenable production. I
mean, when I listen to a record I wanna enjoy it, not spend two fucking years
trying to get past the wall of sound. Maybe when I was younger I didn’t mind
horrible production (I fucking love Vlad Tepes or the first Urgehal demo) but
as of now if I listen to some trve,
kvlt, recorded in the bathroom shit, I’m more than inclined to pass it
up.
Anyways, next we recorded two new songs for a split with
Wintaar. Released on July 06, 2019, it was entitled „Morbid Gates of Winter“. I
think it is kind of a continuation of the sound of our first album. The thing
is, Wintaar contacted us some days after releasing our debut and the idea was
to compose new songs exclusive to the split. I had a planned trip to the
United States at the first days of July, so I was in a rush to get the thing
recorded as soon as possible. So, I composed the songs in three days, recorded
them in one night at a friend’s studio, then I mixed and mastered it all by
myself the day before releasing it on bandcamp. I must say that, given the
circumstances, I’m more than pleased with the way our songs came out. The thing
with those songs is that we were aiming for a different character and mood for each one of them.
„Castle Behind Mist“ is the more streamlined one, direct and to the point. The
middle section inspired by The Eye (with their one and only album „Supremacy“).
The other track, „Beholding Dead Horizons“ was much more inspired by bands such
as Emperor, with a lot of riffs and a kind of epic mood.
Our newest album, „Empire Beyond Dusk“ was released on May
23, 2020. Like I said before, E.Neros joined the band previous to our recording
sessions for that album, even though all the music was already written. The
influence for this particular release came from two albums, „Nachthymnen“ by
Abigor and „Saturnian Poetry“ by Blut Aus Nord. I think that kind of sound is
easily heard on the tracks: the opening riffs on „Journey through astral
landscapes“ or the melodies on „Nightfall at the autumnal forest“ owe a lot to
„Saturnian Poetry“; while the middle section of „Rebirth of the ancient
spirit“, with all the tremolo picking and timpani are pure „Nachthymnen“
worship. We tried to make the songs more melodic and faster than on our first
release. We had in mind to record some cover version of Children Of Maani, but
lyrics are nowhere to be found, so we settled for a song by The Eye. I worship
everything that Vindsval has done and that man has been my highest inspiration
when forming Ancient Gate.
About the direction of every album I can’t say that we are
confined to one specific sound. Our first album had more a raw quality, while
on our sophomore release, as I said, we aimed for something more melodic and
fast. And we have planned to make our next releases different too.
I can’t really say if either I create music fast or not.
Music is my passion in life. I must play or write some kind of music almost
every day to satisfy my „creative urges“, hehe. I don’t think I’m disciplined
either when writing music. For the first album I had written some riffs before I
started arranging the songs. It's our only release where I had material
written from before (a year or so). But only a small amount of them. They ended
up in parts of „Under the tomb skies“ and in some other song wich I can’t
remember right now. For our next releases I wrote every song from scratch. Like
I said before, for the Split with Wintaar I had little time to write material,
so the two songs were composed in about two/three days. And for „Empire Beyond
Dusk“ I wrote the first of those songs („Journey through astral landscapes“) at the end of July 2019 and finished the whole lot of them maybe in September/October 2019. I had so many riffs that it was just a matter of arranging them into the songs.
Usually I start jamming with a metronome. When I have the beggining I just let
it flow and try to write the rest of the song. Some songs take a couple of
hours, while others I have to let them rest a while and finish them later. I
all depends on the day and my mood. I try to spend every spare hour I have
(besides my job, my career, my family, etc.) writing music.
What can you tell us about the lyrics ? How important are the lyrics for you and how much time and energy do you invest in writing lyrics in relation to the time for creating music ?
It really depends on my inspiration. Some lyrics have been
written pretty quickly. Some others I just had to wait to have some good ideas
or something interesting to tell. Usually the later. For me, sometimes it’s
hard to find subjects or things to say. I think it has to do with us trying to
get away from cliché topics such as satanism and the like. Anyways, we don’t
want to spread any particular message with our lyrics. They exist just as
companions to the music. I obviously spend more time writing music than
lyrics. But that doesn’t mean we don’t pay attention to our lyrics subjects. I
think good lyrics can enhance a song.
The subject matter of our lyrics range from old legends, to
cosmic horror, to the human condition. I am a big fan of writers such as Clark
Ashton Smith or Lovecraft (who doesn’t like Lovecraft? Specially in metal) and
they influenced my lyrics. I even got my alias (Ildrac) from a story by Ashton
Smith.
Did Ancient Gate played live so far ? If not, ist this maybe planned fo the future (with the help of session musicians for example) ?
What can you tell us about the metal scene in Argentina in general and your local scene in particular ? To be honest, I have to admit that I don’t know much about your scene and bands. In comparision to Argentina, Brazil owns a much more well-known scene with bands such as Sepultura, Sarcofago, Sex Thrash, Dorsal Antlantica, Korzus, Mystifier and Apokalyptic Raids to name some. Okay, Brazil has a lot of more citizens and of course I think that the success of Sepultura alone did a lot for Brazilian metal, as a reuslt of Sepulturas' success lot of people from Europe showed interest in Brazilian metal. Nevertheless do you maybe have a explanation why Argentinia don’t have so much well-known bands ? Are there good opportunities for live gigs, in particular for smaller underground acts ? Does (bigger) bands from Europe or the USA often visit Argentina for tours and gigs ?
We have a large metal scene in our country and new bands are born everyday. Not everyone has the mediums to ensure a recording or even get beyond the rehearsal stages, but nevertheless, the mere fact that this genre gets to so many new bands is good. We have a very small scene here at the north of Argentina. Even though it’s quite diverse. Black, Death, Thrash, Doom, Power Metal bands are active and playing. Some notable bands are Unholy Cross, Black Mausoleum, Cemetery Dwell, Panteón and Vergom.
About Brazil, they have a much much well known metal scene
overseas. I agree with you about the success of Sepultura opened the door for a
lot of bands from that country. I think many of those bands have been pioneers
in extreme metal. They have released a lot of classic albums such as „Morbid
Visions“, „Inri“, or „The Hangman Tree“. But from my perspective, Sepultura was
the most important band to come out from Brazil. In their peak (from „Bestial
Devastation“ to „Arise“) they were untouchable. They easily wipped the floor
with major metal acts in those days, such as Anthrax, Destruction, Testament,
or even Slayer (after „Reign in Blood“). I have never again heard such riff
mastery in a metal band. Listen to „Beneath the Remains“ and you have riffs for
days. The surprising fact was that they never were the most technically
proficient band. Sarcofago was also cool. I got into them past my metal
formative years, so they didn’t have the same impact on me as Sepultura did (I
was 15 when I first listened to „Beneath the Remains“). I know about bands such
as Angra, wich became huge, but I don’t like them one bit.
I think the same phenomenom couldn’t be replicated here in
Argentina for a couple of reasons. First of all, there are some bands that hold
historical significance and are the ones most people have been influenced by,
such as Hermetica, V8 and bands formed in the 80‘s. They all play(ed) classic
heavy metal, with some thrash touches here and there. I think our scene got
quite stagnant for years because of that. The leader of one of those bands has
been very influential with the metal crowd and rejects any kind of heavy metal
that is not derived from Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden, so it contributed to
much people hating other sounds within the genre (particularly extreme metal).
There are still some dickheads listening to the same three bands since the
90‘s. Secondly, once the influence from the legacy bands (V8, Hermetica, Rata
Blanca, Riff) was waning, many bands jumped on the trends from outside, and
they did it late also. We were still into thrash and death metal when the
second wave of black metal was hyped all over the world, for example. I think
that kept our bands from beign well known outside. We had bands signed to the
same label as Sepultura for example, but they never quite got big overseas.
About the gigs, here in our city there don't exist many places to
play live. And the ones that exist, either suck (we played once with my other
band in a place with no bathroom and the beers were sold through a literall
hole in the wall) or they charge much money to play a gig. To be able to play
we have to travel farther to the north, were the scene is bigger and the fans of extreme metal are many. The times
I played live with my other or former bands, we always aimed to play there. In
fact, recently they have been organizing shows of international acts too,
something that was unthinkable years before. Gorgoroth, Mayhem, some power
metal bands, and even Brujeria (we played with them when I was in Sick Blood)
have come to play here.
What can you tell us about German metal ? I mean German Thrash metal is a trademark, do you like Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Holy Moses, Living Dead, Tankard, Assassin ? Do you listen to some german black metal acts ? And in general I am interested which bands are and has been popular in the underground scene in Argentinia, bei it national or international bands. For example here in germany the 90ies black metal boom is associated with bands such as Absu, Impaled Nazarene, Enthroned, Ancient Rites, Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Marduk, Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone and so on. Did in Argentina other bands played a prominent role as well or were some of the mentioned band not very relevant in Argentinia ?
Of course I love german Thrash Metal, specially Sodom. I can’t
get enough of „Persecution Mania“ and the debut EP (the re-recording also
rules!). I have been trying to get into „Obssessed by Cruelty“ lately, because
for some reason I discovered that album in recent years. „Tapping the Vein“ is
also cool. I like Kreator too. You are very very lucky to have those bands as
foundation. I remeber watching some kind of documentary about Sodom and they
were all very young and full of energy when they started. Even coming from the
working class, and with very limited resources they got a recording deal and
made history with some of the best metal ever caught on tape.
As for the german Black Metal acts, I have been listening a
lot to the debut album of Dies Ater („Reign of Tempests“) lately. Some solid
sympho/melodic 90‘s black metal. Of course I know Moonblood too. Dig a lot
their debut album and some songs from their countless demos (mainly from „Dusk
Woerot“). And Sarkrista I think are from Germany as well. I love their song „Black
devouring flames“. I listened to Paragon Belial too, and I liked them.
About the bands that proved to be influential here in our
land, we can name Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Dark Funeral, Belphegor, Emperor,
Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Burzum and Mayhem. I think we got to like those
bands once the boom had already passed. In the late 90‘s, beginning of 2000 the
bands that proved most influential were those with symphonic approaches
(Emperor, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir). Those for the international bands. From here I can’t
really answer as I’m not influenced by any local band. Maybe bands such as
Infierno, or Panteón were influential, because they were some of the first
black metal bands in Argentina, but I don’t hear traces of their sound in other
groups.
What will the future hold for Ancient Gate ? What will be the next steps ?
Well, as of now we have started the recording process for
our next release, wich will be entitled „Forgotten Dark Age“. We have finished
recording drums and guitars. It will be
an EP, consisting of four new songs. They are more mid paced and atmospheric
than our past records. Hopefuly we can release them next year. From there we
have plans for a future full length, but the songs are in a very embryonic state as of yet so I can’t really say much about it. We hope to keep on
improving our releases and get more people interested in our music.
The last words are yours !
Thanks a lot for the interview. If you want to know our band you can check our bandcamp page. And our newest album has just been released physically by Hessian Firm, an european metal label. Hail Sova!