Over the past decade, the Black Metal genre has, once again, renewed, deepened and broadened. This can be largely credited to a number of Icelandic and Norwegian bands (always those Norwegians!), whose recordings often have been released under the watchful eye of the (also) Norwegian Terratur Possessions label. However, that label also had its eye on Germany-based Imha Tarikat, with the release of ‘Kenoboros’ debut 12″ EP in 2017 was the result of that collaboration. It was also the launch pad for this band, led with a tight hand and full of passion by multi-instrumentalist Kerem. With last year’s ‘Hearts Unchained – At War With A Passionless World’, Kerem brought a new chapter to the increasingly exciting book called Imha Tarikat. So I sat down with him to discuss what drives him to keep moving the band up a level…
Hi Kerem, welcome to The Whispering Darkness! When I picked up the ‘Kenoboros’ 12” from Terratur Possessions in 2017 I was kind of surprised that the band seemed to have popped up from nowhere. It’s not uncommon for bands to demo a bit before coming up with a 12″ EP (or full-length). Let alone one of such amazing quality. How do you look back on those formative years?
Firstly, thank you for inviting me to this interview. Looking back at the past, everything seems blurry and vivid at the same time, as there is not a day passing in which I am not affected with something related to the project. Though, the way I feel about all this involvement has changed drastically – actually, once I held the LPs of Kenoboros in my hands. I was filled with euphoria doing my first steps, recording songs and writing lyrics only led by intuition and no clear goal – and suddenly I was getting recognized for what I am doing. Ole of Terratur Possessions was the first and only person back then I contacted sending some song-demos to, he liked the music and offered to release the EP on CD and LP. Fast-forward, then, when I held the LPs in my hands, after all the months of preparing the release, suddenly all excitement was erased, and I was overcome by a feeling of duty and ambition. It hit me: This is only the beginning, I will not be satisfied by this, I still have to learn and create so much more. And so the fundament was set and the real journey started…
Now we do live in the year 2023 and you have released one 12” EP and three full-length albums. Observant listeners have heard the band change over the span of five years in which your records have been released. How would you characterize that development? What would you call the main musical transition?
During an interview in the Sternenberster-era I actually dared to state that I feel like having achieved a certain expertise in my songwriting and technical skills. When thinking about this, all I can do is smile about this naivety and arrogance. With time, while also evolving in identity, I was learning more and more to technically translate my ideas and emotions into music. And this also is the main fuel to my artistic work: Exercising, exploring, transferring the results onto myself and the music, and starting all over again.
Let’s focus on ‘Hearts Unchained – At War With A Passionless World’, your latest effort. In my review I have called it your “best effort so far, blending all its trademark elements while even further pushing its contrasting beauty”. In my eyes/ears it sounded even more mature, versatile and overall utterly compelling. Can you relate to such a statement?
Thank you! Yes, I would say that with Hearts Unchained, after the sophomore release which was written and recorded during a rough period of my life, it felt like having come to terms with myself and having matured in a manner where I feel confident in expressing myself. It wasn’t about detonating anymore, but about building a deeper and more sovereign understanding of things, and I feel that with this kind of ambition while practicing music and art in general you automatically will be pushed into the internal dialogue of how to conceive and transfer visions with more communicative and arousing motives.
Judging from the title of your last album, ‘Hearts Unchained – At War With A Passionless World’ it is quite obvious you are making a statement. It’s almost like you took a deliberate path that goes against the regular themes in the Black Metal genre of hatred, misanthropy and satanism. What did you want to say with the album?
It has something to do with how I perceive the world and what I don’t like about it. Moving out of the door and getting into the everyday hassle, all you see are frustrated, distrustful and tired faces. There is no more empathy, companionship. It makes me fucking sick. Why the hell should you keep feeding the status quo with even more negative and hopeless content, messages that affect people and lead them to not changing a thing and turning bitter and resentful. It has become antagonistic to try and be a decent person, and Imha Tarikat mirrors this shift in society. Hearts Unchained is about revolting against the lack of good in this world and calling out to people to reclaim genuine passion.
From the very start Imha Tarikat wasn’t much of a standard Black Metal band in the sense that it sounded Darkthrone or Mayhem inspired. You have always stated that your musical taste and interest goes beyond Black Metal, how do you think that translates to your way of composing music?
There are no rules to creating music, by that also none to Black Metal. This is the way I perceive it and send out my salutes to those who practice by this ideal. What music did pioneer bands have which they would listen to? To me, it is an identity and not how you have to sound. I absolutely enjoy listening through different genres, there definitely are ones I prefer and some I cannot appreciate like others, but that’s personal taste I guess, haha. And I really like letting myself get inspired by artists that achieve vibrating with certain emotions, by songs that make me sink and immerse in thoughts. “How can I achieve this too?” is what I ask myself then and take my time figuring out my way of transmitting feelings.
Picking up on the previous question, I recently saw that for Deaf Forever you had selected some records that have been of great value to your musical development. I assume that not everyone has been able to read it (and can’t read German), so I wanted to pick out some unusual or unexpected ones. Could you comment on that, what do these records mean to you?
- Joe Cocker – Summer in the City: One of my oldest memories is rummaging through CDs of my parents and putting them into our cd-player. They had this compilation named something like “Rock Volume” which I put in the player and started skipping through. I still remember how those lead-guitars at the start of the song made me feel all fuzzy and like getting on an adventure…
- Dissection – Reinkaos: It is one of the most powerful releases of music I ever listened to. There is an abundant amount of dedication to its cause and I can feel it each time I listened to it. Each song is a glorious hymn, ritual, and story and fills me with immense power.
- Venom – Welcome To Hell: Imma go crazy! (Will put it as short as I did with Deaf Forever, haha.)
- At The Gates – Slaughter Of The Soul: Was probably the first Metal release I ever listened to, which was introduced to me by a friend during school-time. I still can remember how shocked and afraid I was by the obscurity of “Blinded By Fear” and the album cover. At first, I felt very repelled by it, as I also was raised quite conservative and religious, but that experience didn’t let go off me and I so the journey began…
Other than those aforementioned three albums and song, what would you, in a general sense and on a musical level, regard as your main driving force?
When playing an instrument, writing songs and lyrics, I feel alive. There is nothing in life giving me as much joy and satisfaction. People listen to the music, join for live-performances, express and exchange their thoughts and emotions with us. I perceive this to be a sacral process.
While you are German you appear to also have a different cultural background. Over the past years I have read some comments and analysis how that might have helped you to write some contrarian and unorthodox Black Metal. Do you think at all that your cultural background has had any influence on your views on musicianship and on Imha Tarikat’s music specifically?
Well, certainly it had a role in shaping the aesthetics and topics in songs, however do I not feel like it is essential to what the project is. I never wanted to use it to express my heritage or any history that is part of it, musically it is something detaching from exactly this, and criticizing shades of society and what is part of it at most. On a personal level, Imha Tarikat helped me find my place in between cultures and expectations towards me as a friend, son, individual in society. People have been ignorant enough to label the project “Turkish Black Metal” or “Islamic Black Metal”. It is a Black Metal project, nothing more, nothing less.
You are running Imha Tarikat primarily as a solo-band. Did you never feel the urge to make it a full band with other musicians involved? Maybe to help you stay focused or perhaps to tempt you to look in other directions that you never thought of yourself.
To have someone join the project on a creative and operative level, I will need them to give their selves into the music the way I do and no less. For years, I have invested every second I have and each penny I can into Imha Tarikat, because it is the least to me that is fair to it. Usually, this depth of involvement will lead you to connect with people of the same idealism, and the most reasonable thing then is to support each other’s causes instead of interfering into it. This is what is happening for me with musicians of Hexer and The Night Eternal, of which musicians are part of the live-line up for Imha Tarikat. I support them as good as I can with, advice, recording and design-services, but would not go further without the demand and mutual interest in doing so.
When looking at the personnel, both current and ex-members, whether session or live musicians, it seems that you are firmly rooted in the German underground Black Metal scene. Although Imha Tarikat is for the major part not sounding like any of those bands, do you feel like an actual part of that scene, if you’d like to call it that way? Can you relate to the underground Black Metal aesthetics at all?
While surely there are some people and bands spread over Germany I/we have connections to, the metal scene here in the Ruhr-area where we are from has lots of active groups and is mixed through with all kinds of Metal sub-genres. I don’t like all that exclusive “we are a chosen few against them all” stuff, even though, sadly, this seems to be interesting appealing to people.
As mentioned before, between 2017 and 2022 you have managed to release quite some records, meaning you have an impressive working pace. What will this relentless stream of creativity and inspiration lead to in the near future?
As I am replying to your questions, I am listening to the demos of the next album that is planned to be recorded in the coming months. We also work on adding more live-performances to our list, with a Finland mini-tour just ahead and another tour with Sodom, Knife and Soulburn at the end of this year. The next months will be very exciting, I am really looking forward to them!
Thanks a lot for your time and effort in answering these questions. If you feel like I have left anything important out, please feel free to add it here as the last words are yours…
Thank you so much for giving Imha Tarikat a platform to speak on.
To love is to burn, so burn them all! PASSION BURSTING FOREVER!
