Wurgilnõ – “A story about one of my ancestors who was convicted as a Bokkenrijder sealed the deal…”

Although Wurgilnõ is a completely new addition to the Dutch Black Metal spectrum, its inspirer is no stranger to those who have either been around for a long time or have delved deep enough into the local Black Metal history. Connoisseurs will recognise Consanguineous for his work with Belphegor (the Dutch one), Corpusculum or Inverted Pentagram, among others, all of which took their first steps in the early 90s. In the intervening three decades, Consanguineus has developed himself into a multi-instrumentalist. This first album of Wurgilnõ, his latest creation, in which he operates entirely on his own, is one of the first results of those new musical developments. Quite enough reason to have a word with Consanguineus…

Hi there Consanguineus, welcome and many thanks for making time for some questions for The Whispering Darkness. Wurgilnõ is only a few months old, but you clearly haven’t been sitting still…. Your debut album has just come out as we speak, I’m always the first to be curious about how you yourself, as a musician, look back on the past few months of creating.
The past few months have been quite busy. After releasing the first single in May, everything happened quite quickly. After finishing the initial demo recordings and ordering cassettes, I put everything on Bandcamp. Three days later, Alexander from Fetzner Death Records contacted me about a CD release. So, I completed a song that wasn’t quite finished for the bonus track and remixed the whole thing for the CD. I prepared the artwork, and then it all started to roll. It’s certainly satisfying when all the pieces of the puzzle come together.

Despite the fact that you had already put some digital songs online, Wurgilnõ seemed to have come fairly out of nowhere and although you are far from a rookie in the (Dutch) Black Metal scene, we haven’t heard you for several years, or hardly at all. What made you “suddenly” pick up music again?
It’s not like I haven’t been doing anything in recent years. Since 2015, we’ve been working on Inverted Pentagram again and have released various things with that project. However, just like in the 90s, it’s still difficult to get labels interested in Inverted Pentagram. We did release a 7″ EP, and there’s a split with Melek-Tha in the works. Additionally, I’ve been busy with Corpusculum. In 2020, I started Mergelland and collaborated with a guest from Wales for O-Uffern (which is now on hold again). Between 2000 and 2012, I did several LP/CD releases and performed live with a Martial Industrial project, but Black Metal called from afar. You always return to your roots.

For me personally, ‘De Doden Rusten Niet In Vrede’ sounds like a kind of intersection where many aspects of the Black Metal scene come together, the album has a distinctly multicoloured sound. We talked about it briefly earlier, because of this I know you don’t have a narrow view of the Black Metal genre as a whole. Is this your natural way of approaching music in which you let your creativity run wild, or have these been deliberate decisions?
I am influenced by what I personally listen to, and the ideal version of Black Metal for me is what I enjoy blasting in the car on a lonely highway in the middle of the night when I’m coming home from work. This is it. It’s possible that the sound of Wurgilnõ might stabilize in the upcoming releases, but for now, it sounds the way it sounds. It’s my personal taste summarized in a sonic form.

Picking up on the previous question. In my review of ‘De Doden Rusten Niet In Vrede’, I cited some references such as, for example, the current Black Metal scenes from France and Iceland, but also later Mayhem because of its contrarian and idiosyncratic sound. You were clear though, you are not particularly fond of Mayhem. Can you say something about where you did get your inspiration from on a musical level?
You either connect with something or you don’t, and in my case, it’s Mayhem. Some people might consider it blasphemy, but I don’t really care. I did give it a chance, but it just didn’t resonate with me. To each their own, of course. I started listening to Metal when I was around 10 years old, which was 38 years ago, and those first steps still influence me. Venom, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate, and of course Bathory were my things in the 80s. It was always about discovering something new that was even harder and rawer. In the early 90s, when I got heavily into tape-trading, I realized that it could be even harsher, more intense, and above all, faster. That period also shaped me. Bands like Rotting Christ, Blasphemy, Beherit, Varathron, and others heavily influenced me. But also Master’s Hammer, Necromantia, and Unholy, for example, were crucial back then, especially for the sound of Inverted Pentagram. I still buy new material, recently got Gráb, an amazing album and definitely an influence for Wurgilnõ.

I already mentioned it briefly, you are far from a stranger in the Dutch Black Metal scene. Your first musical escapades may not have been big selling hits, but you were at the cradle of the Dutch Black Metal scene in the early 1990s. With an experience of over three decades, what do you take from that period into what we hear in Wurgilnõ today?
Well, I’m still the same person as I was back then, albeit a bit older. But when it comes to ideas about how something should sound, I’m still on the same wavelength. During that time, we were in the rehearsal room every week, often with missing musicians because it was already difficult to find drummers or guitarists who wanted to play this kind of music. I don’t have that handicap now, of course. If I have an idea, I jump into my “studio” in the attic and record it. I’ve been able to teach myself a lot in terms of guitar playing and technique, but sometimes I do miss those simple days in the rehearsal rooms with the cassette deck.

And, slightly going sideways, in general, how do you see your own contribution to the Dutch Black Metal scene? And do you still see or feel something of that in what you experience today?
I’m not sure if our music has had a significant impact on the contemporary scene, but the fact that individuals like Alex from Zwaertgevegt and Pepijn from Kaladruna are still interested in releasing our old material shows that there is still interest in those recordings. A few years ago, I was also approached for a documentary (which is yet to be released), and Peter from De Pankraker was working on a book at the time, which has now become a magazine. So, it’s still alive, just as underground as it was back then.

You also said you really like Wesenwille, a band I cited to illustrate Wurgilnõ’s complexity and contrariness. Can I infer from this that you still follow today’s scene closely? Which bands (national or international) have attracted you most in recent years?
I really like Wesenwille as well. I saw them live last year at Samhain in Hasselt (Belgium). I’m also impressed by Helleruin, especially their live performances, which are an absolute must-see. The whole Swarte Yssel group is very talented. I find Turia and related projects fantastic, with some daring elements on certain albums. Terzij de Horde is innovative in terms of sound and they are really fun guys to chat with. The new album from Sammath is excellent, with a great sound. Speaking internationally, Gráb is really good. There’s been a lot of great stuff coming out of Belgium lately, like Alkerdeel, Predatory Void, Wolvennest, and others. There are actually too many to mention.

Back to Wurgilnõ. You make no secret of the fact that with this new musical vehicle, you are clearly taking a different direction when it comes to conceptual content. Now you draw inspiration from old Dutch folklore and sagas. That seems quite a turnaround with your older work, what attracts you to this subject matter?
History has always been a great interest of mine, starting from my early childhood and continuing to this day. I can still get lost in a 1.5-hour documentary about Stone Age burials in England, for example. In addition, the Netherlands has a lot to offer when it comes to old legends and folklore. We are a country with a rich history. This path is one that I embarked on with Mergelland three years ago, primarily focusing on things from my region. What sealed the deal was when my father presented our family tree (which he has been working on for over 40 years) and shared a story about one of my ancestors who was convicted as a Bokkenrijder (a notorious bandit in Dutch folklore), with the punishment being hanging until the body fell off by itself. Now, that’s inspiration! So, I started delving into the world of the Bokkenrijders and other legends and myths.

So is this also where I may have gotten that slight Pagan feeling from it that I also referred to in my review?
Indeed, there is a link between devil worship and the Bokkenrijders. Here in Sittard, there is the St. Rosa Chapel, where, according to legend, the Bokkenrijders were initiated by urinating on the cross and accepting the devil as their leader. Musically, bands like Primordial, Moonsorrow and Hellheim also frequently blast through the speakers here, creating a powerful atmosphere.

Although you have become a bit more musically active with your bands Corpusculum, Inverted Pentagram (both of which have their roots in the early 90s) and the newer O Uffern and Mergelland, there have also been years in which we haven’t heard from you, roughly between 1995 and 2015. What kept you busy in those intervening years? Did you just have enough or did you simply withdraw from “public metal life”?
I was engaged in other musical endeavors at that time, which I had some reasonable success with. However, the desire to pick up a guitar again and really let loose was strong, as you could hear in the songs I made around 2010-2012. After picking up a bass guitar in 1989 and diving into metal, I never really stopped playing. However, most of the projects I was involved in never really took off the ground.

To be honest, although I’ve always really liked Belphegor’s “cult demo” ‘Daemonolatria’ (1992), I’m certainly not equally familiar with all your past (and current) work. At the moment, you keep about four active bands, how do you think they differ musically or ideologically?
Currently, there are three main projects: Wurgilnõ, Inverted Pentagram and The Curse of Yig. For Inverted Pentagram, Necrosadist writes the lyrics, which are mainly inspired by Lovecraft. I also try to differentiate the music, using different guitar tunings, instrumentations, and other elements. The Curse of Yig is a full-fledged band that leans more towards Doom Metal, and I play guitar in that project, but in a completely different tuning compared to Wurgilnõ. O-Uffern and Corpusculum are both on hold at the moment, and Mergelland could be seen as a precursor to Wurgilnõ. Some of the riffs that I originally wrote for Mergelland eventually found their way into Wurgilnõ.

For Wurgilnõ, you seem to have consciously chosen to do it all on your own. Were you just up for having everything in your own hands or were you looking for a challenge? And, by the way, do you indeed play all the instruments yourself or do you still let others help/assist you?
A few months ago, I finally started drumming, something I had actually wanted to do my whole life but never got around to. I bought a drum kit and started practicing. I played some of the drum parts on the album myself, while the rest I programmed using MIDI. I handle the guitars, bass, and vocals myself. Maybe in the future, I’ll collaborate with others, but for now, I do everything on my own. I find that I enjoy having control over the music and not having to engage in discussions with others about a certain approach. Of course, it’s a challenge to avoid falling into repetition and becoming a copy of myself.

You wrote that you and Wurgilnõ have no interest in moving on to playing the material live, and since ‘The Dead Don’t Rest In Peace’ has only just come out, it seems a bit premature to ask, but it does seem like an excellent wrap-up: what can we expect from Wurgilnõ (or your other bands/projects) in the future?
I hope people give this album a chance and pick it up, as it seems to be happening so far. I’m already working on a follow-up, but I’m taking a bit more time with it. Whether it will ever be played live, I don’t know. I don’t have any plans for that at the moment. With Inverted Pentagram, we’re working on a split release with Melek-Tha, but I don’t have all the details about that release yet. The Curse of Yig will release a CD on Saturni Records, a Belgian label, towards the end of the year. I also notice that things are moving a bit slower with that project since we’re a full band.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your free time, I would like to leave the last words to you…
Thank you very much fort his Interview and the review you did on the Album.