Despite moving to Sweden a few years ago, Volc Vermaledide can still be seen as a Dutch Black Metal band. After all, already formed in 2001, the band has existed on Dutch soil for the most part. Despite now slowly heading towards its 25th anniversary, the band is not a name on everyone’s lips when talking about Dutch Black Metal. A shame really, because Volc Vermaledide has more than enough to offer. Just listen to the fantastic ‘Nietig’, released via Heidens Hart Records, and try to debunk that statement. I spoke to the headstrong but also talkative inspirer Satanael M. Raben about the band’s history, the ‘Nietig’-album and how he sees the future of his musical brainchild…
Hey Satanael, welcome to these pages. Let’s get started right away: although Volc Vermaledide is regarded as a Dutch Black Metal band and you do have your roots in The Netherlands and its metal scene from around the turn of the millennium, you have since moved to Sweden. How do you think that this totally different environment influenced you as a person and musician? And how does this shine through in the music you create?
I believe I have been enthralled by Swedish Norrland since 2009 and I knew back then that at some point I would make it my home. In fact, the song Skogens Besvärjelse speaks to that specific feeling. After having made good on that promise, I can say it has had a very big impact on me both as a person and a musician.
Apart from having supported Yxxan as live session vocalist, before moving further up North, my involvement in the Swedish scene is limited.
But after having been stuck for a while, being surrounded by woods as far as the eye can see and the knowledge that you can go outside and get yourself completely lost, brought a lot of calmness and inspiration.
It might shine through in my music, definitely. Places where we live and which we visit, things we experience always leave a mark. Whether we want it or not.
Before we go into the current stages of the band, let’s go back to ‘Nietig’. Listening back to it now, it feels even more of a organic and coherent whole than when I heard it when it came out. It perfectly blends nice and soothing melodies with sharp-edged, cold riffs and harsh vocals, together providing a magnificent, almost schizophrenic contrast. How do you look back at this album now, some three years later?
Schizophrenic contrast…that would be a fair assessment. Never considered it like that.
To me it is a very important milestone as a musician and I look back at ‘Nietig’ with pride. Even though I would say I have grown since then, it is the first full length and everything is just as it was supposed to be at that moment in time; the music, the artwork and the general atmosphere.
When it comes to that contrast you spoke about, I think that is the part that is typically Volc Vermaledide. Beautiful, epic or sometimes melancholic, yet angry, harsh and ugly at the same time. I think it stems from my outlook on life, mankind and nature.
To me, in my sentient world, it feels that the music on ‘Nietig’ is even more in place in the current Black Metal scene in which there is an still increasing praise for some of those bands that form the corner stones of the more melodic or even symphonic Black Metal territories. Whether it is ‘Stormblåst’-era Dimmu Borgir and Gehenna or more recent bands like Bekëth Nexëhmü and Evilfeast, it seems more popular than ever before and to me Volc Vermaledide fits in perfectly. Can you relate to that a little bit?
Honestly, not really. Fitting in, doing what is popular or being current is not something I have pursued or, to my knowledge, succeeded in. I think there is something euforic in combining the harshness with the grandeur. It might be that people are leaning more into that, who’s to say.
Yet, Volc Vermaledide didn’t come to the level of ‘Nietig’ just overnight. You started the band back in 2001. That means that you are slowly heading towards your quarter century anniversary. If you look back at all those years, aged the same number of years yourself, what words would you use to describe that musical journey?
I think I would descibe it as a mad man constantly muttering to himself until he gets stuck on something that ignites a spark. A spark that leads the man to speak up more loudly and more pronounced. A spark that leads to feverish work until the work leads to a creation. And when work is done and the creation sees the light, the man reverts to his mutterings.
Currently a spark has ignited. I hope it grows fierce enough to lead to a creation.
What has changed over the years is that I stopped wasting any time with searching what it is that makes Volc Vermaledide, Volc Vermaledide. I simply do what feels right, all the while improving. Things can always be better.
I already mentioned a few bands and usually music is a form of art that allows everyone to listen to it in his or her own world, it offers the opportunity to hear something different in it all. But what bands or styles would you say are the most influential to you, as a persona and musician, and how do you think that reflects in the music of Volc Vermaledide?
My personal musical journey that brought me my passion for Black Metal and its associated sub-genres can literally be traced from Queen to Guns n’ Roses to Metallica. Went straight to Dissection after that and Satyricon sealed the deal. I think these bands on a subconscious level also have an impact on the music I make. The same goes for movie soundtracks; I love them and they have always had a huge impact on my own music.
Then also I need to mention the huge impact Phillip Glass has had with his Koyaanisqatsi, both to me as a person as well as a musician. It still gives me goosebumps while at the same time fuelling my hate for humanity.
Another artist that is hugely important to Volc Vermaledide is Summoning. They are actually the reason I started Volc Vermaledide.
Okay, let’s go to more recent years. After the ‘Nietig’ album from 2021 you have released a one-track demo called ‘Zinnennevel’. You stated that this particular track was written in 2021 but got more or less forgotten and eventually recorded in 2023. Nevertheless you also claim it to be one of your most personal tracks to date. That requires some explanation, take us with you into this track please.
This track symbolizes my personal struggles with my mental health. I had been dealing with depression for some time and during 2023 I grew more balanced and stronger again.
The lyrics, literally describing being lost in the mist of the mind, and the music have been written at separate points of time in the preceding years. Finally being in an upward spiral inspired me to put them together.
Initially I just wanted to keep it to myself, but in the end I felt it was a good step to post it publicly.
Continuing a bit on this subject, stating that music is a personal thing might be a bit obvious, since it is all very personal, especially when you create everything yourself, but when you zoom out a little, what would you mention as the most influential for the lyrical matter of the music of Volc Vermaledide? Is there something that keeps inspiring you or that can be considered the main driving force for you?
It used to be an eternal exercise to figure out what Volc Vermaledide would be about. But in the recent years it has landed on two main themes.
Nature, which represents a force that can take as easily as it can give. I can go out into the woods and always get back inspired. Nothing is ever given in nature, but it is always full of magic.
Society, which represents all that I loathe. There is so much misplaced arrogance and at the same time I do not have to look to any Dark Lord or mythology to find evil; it’s right there, staring you right in the face.
‘Nietig’ was more about me accepting me being inconsequential in the grander scheme of time and space and seeing humankind in general as those same speks of unimportant, microscopic dust.
On a musical side of things, ‘Zinnennevel’ is a lengthy track of well over 14 minutes and shows Volc Vermaledide on a more spacey side, while still maintaining a core of solid and recognizable bleak Black Metal. How would you describe the musical progression when compared to your previous work?
I’m not sure if you can look at it as a linear progression. As my music has always been very much synth driven, it made sense to me to also delve into Dungeon Synth. And as long as it felt as Volc Vermaledide, I didn’t bother creating a new project for that. I feel that both approaches fit the same banner. The ‘Met Aangetrokken Strop’ tape is the first Dungeon Synth release under Volc Vermaledide.
So, you have your progression on the Black Metal side and then also on the Dungeon Synth side and I don’t see a reason to keep those two streams separate if I feel like mixing it up a bit.
I hate conformity so I end up doing what feels right, basically. Having said that, I have discovered that I tend to lean more and more to spaciness.
Besides that one-track demo that was released in 2023, there was also the ‘Grafloos’ demo from a year prior. Two tracks of basically the same length, just under eight minutes each and they should serve the purpose of appetizer for the upcoming album, ‘Vergetelkind’. How do these two tracks characterize musically what will be on that new album? I mean, you have always used a lot of intriguing ambient part, but these tracks are 100% ambiental soundscapes. Will there be any Black Metal at all?
That album has its root in the pandemic. It is 100% synth music and thematically it is a remnant of things that I felt I had to do and get out of my system, so to say.
However odd the album is (it is done and I might just make it a digital release), creating it was a very fulfilling process. I spent time exploring musical themes in ways I had never done before.
I am working on new material more in line with ‘Nietig’ and ‘Zinnennevel’, which, I hope, will be a physical release in the future.
And, in general, what can we expect from ‘Vergetelkind’? It is in the making for quite a bit of time already. In the short conversation we had prior this interview we already joked that Volc Vermaledide can be enjoyed as good cheese or wine, it needs time to mature… But, that obviously sets the bar high. So, what’s cooking?
As mentioned before I’m working on a new Black Metal album. And it takes time to really give it the attention it deserves. One thing I am spending time on is listening to the current mix over and over again just to reassure myself that the atmosphere I was aiming for stands the test of time.
Now that we have discussed the very beginnings of Volc Vermaledide as well as the latest few releases and even the upcoming album. What would you name as the unifying factor that all your music has in common and thus allows it all to bear the name Volc Vermaledide?
Volc Vermaledide translates loosely to the “Cursed People”. I believe this to be Homo Sapiens, so the factors that mainly form the foundation of Volc Vermaledide are; disdain for humankind, love for nature and the romantisation of solitude. With love for nature I also include the destructive part.
The last two recordings, the demos we discussed, were, as far as I know, solely written and recorded by you – like the majority of what you have released. Yet, ‘Nietig’ also featured Nortfalke/Swerc (Salacious Gods, Lugubre, Kjeld etc.). What is his part in Volc Vermaledide at this moment in time?
Apart from providing the drums (and on ‘Nietig’ the bass tracks), Nortfalke is the person that constantly challenges me to push myself. I am always grateful for that as I sometimes tend to get lost in my own blindspots.
Time to slowly start to round things off, but a few other topics… You are also active in quite a few different other bands, at least officially, as you mentioned to me that your main focus is (and was?) mainly Volc Vermaledide at the moment. What is happening with the other bands you are linked with such as Raben, Asregen and Weemoed, some of these are indeed inactive for a considerable time already…
Raben was a one time experiment after being utterly stuck with Volc Vermaledide. Having said that it formed an important part in the development of Volc Vermaledide.
Asregen was my first collaboration with Nortfalke. Hopefully we will be able do a follow up of that somewhere in the future.
For Weemoed I only contributed vocals for the split with Volc Vermaledide. It is 100% the brainchild of Houtekiet.
Together with Nortfalke/Swerc you have also ran a collective/small label that went under the name of Aratron Productions, as far as I know this has either stopped its activities or at least it was put on hold a few years ago. It had the purpose to promote the bands affiliated with the two of you, did you come to a point that you didn’t need it anymore?
Nah, it came to the point of laying Aratron Productions to rest when I moved to Sweden. For practical reasons, we decided it was better to shut it down.
Alright, thanks for your sharing your thoughts and visions with me Satanael, I am offering you the opportunity to close off the interview with some words of your own…
I think I have spoken enough. Thank you for this opportunity, stay true to yourself and fuck society.
