Ciomny Doł -''Is focused on darker horror and mysticism of our wild nature''

Sparky
13 minutes ago
6 min read

Slepowron and Sida are Ciomny Doł a new project that captures the ideology of pure second wave black metal yet contains its own inherit darkness that incorporates melody, ideologies and inspirations that transcend the genre. It is music that is intrinsically connected to nature, tradition and authenticity. Untamed in its aggression the debut album Zabytaja Karcma is also haunting and atmospheric, a duality that is deeply connected to its name and meaning.

Slepowron: The name of our project (Ciomny Doł )is literally the name of one of the Belarusian villages. It's really called the Dark Valley. Our land, its nature and culture, its names are our main source of inspiration.

It is quite different from your other project Synaxaria

Slepowron: Of course. Ciomny Doł is mostly focused on darker horror narrative and also mysticism of our wild nature. Our land is quite rich in such interesting stories. And we created this project because we want to translate this into music. And I always knew that blackened sound is really suitable for it.

-Your Debut Album Zabytaja Karcma. what is the Forgotten Tavern?

Slepowron: The album was named this way because a painting of Ferdynand Ruszczyc (our cover art) was found that accurately reflected the spirit of Yanka Kupala poem. This is connected with the semantic of the tavern in Belarusian folklore. Actually, it’s not only a fun place in our folklore, but quite the opposite. There are certain historical reasons why this happened. Taverns was considered close to evil spirits when it was in operation. And if it’s closed and abandoned, they said that all the local evil spirits would immediately settle there. This very thing is described in our track.

Was it a lengthy process? And the lyrical themes you chose for it?

Slepowron: This is a really long process, considering how much I thought about creating some kind of similar project. Then I finally realized that this is what I was going to do, I wrote the songs, then I recorded all the instruments. Normal people upload technical assignments to the AI in the evening, and post it on TikTok in the morning. But we are too backward))

In the lyrics, I realized exactly what I wanted for a long time. This is classic Belarusian poetry, based on folk legends and the authentic flavor of our land.

How does it fit with the themes of Belarusian nature and culture?

Sida: It's strongly connected. Of course, we would thank Janka Kupala for being the one who created a perfect lyric. It's a reflection of non-urbanictic person's world perspective, with all dark sides of it. But the difference is that it's not pure folk beliefs but in brilliant artistic processing. This helps you to imagine yourself close to nature, feel what a person could feel in the deep dark forest or looking at abandoned tavern, or hearing something unclear and ominous in the twilight... All this horrible, haunting, sinister, dark, sometimes hopeless stories suits perfectly to black metal and at the same time shows you Belarusian culture as it is because all these dark creatures come from it. All these characters like Khokhlik, or, for example, like Hundred-legged Doom are the creation of our people, of our land... And they are really frightening!

The combination of epic black metal and atmosphere?

Slepowron: Absolutely! The things we sing about require some colour and space. Also I'm probably the kind of person who doesn't particularly like fuggy, musty, cramped, two-dimensional music. Although there are many who demand that black metal be exactly that, because it's more "anti-human."But I need atmosphere, need some ‘air’, need arrangement and need epicness. And this applies to any genre I work in.

Does the storytelling influence the music and its direction in anyway?

Slepowron: I really regret that only a few poems by Yanka Kupala have been translated into world English. I have read a lot of different black metal lyrics in my life, and I can responsibly declare that this is absolutely dark, ominous and highly artistic poetry, of which there is very little on the modern scene and in general in modern times. In the most direct way, I worked with high poetry on this album. I wrote the music based on the mood and meaning of the poem, if we talk about the artistic component. And I also wrote music to the meter of the poem, I played with its internal rhythm. This album is an attempt of music incarnation the poetry of YankaKupala.

Has Black metal always been a large part of your musical history, and how did you discover it?

Slepowron: I want to make an important disclaimer right away. I don't insist on calling ourself "black metal" exclusively. I don’t want problems with some people who think that TRUE black metal is only stuff sounds like a chainsaw with a blast beat. I don’t claim anything and even characterize our project primarily as "metal with a dark aesthetic". Otherwise, I've been a black metal fan for a quarter of a century. The very first band that my friends and I put together back in our school days played black metal. I remember those heydays when black metal was influencing metal music the same way deathcore crap does now. Black was everywhere back then, you'll find these influences on many albums across all genres in the extreme metal scene of the late 90s and early 00s. I wouldn't call this part of my musical history as "large". Yes, there was a lot of black metal in my youth, but then everything became more balanced.I simply listened to those albums, as well as many other genres.I work (and continue to work) mainly in another genre.But over the last, probably, 5 years, the situation in the world and my worldview have begun to develop in such a way that I felt the need to express something exactly in this way. I know I have enough experience, knowledge and understanding of how exactly I can work in this genre and what I want to do.

Sida: It was early 2000th. Imagine you can't go online and choose what you want to listen to today. You can't go to a store and buy CD of your favourite band. Internet connection is very slow and stores offer you very poor choice of metal releases. It a real miracle if you find any good thing! So we listened to any metal that we or our friends could find! That's how I discovered Burzum 'Filosofem', which became my first black metal album. And it wasn't love at the first note, by the way! Then other releases came, but anyway black metal always stays in my life, first of all for its uncompromisingness, otherness and dark atmosphere. And for opportunity to be not a commercial and to be understood.

What is U NočnymCarstvie (In The Night’s Kingdom) and its upbeat tempos?

Slepowron: As I already said, in choosing the rhythm of the song I was guided primarily by the rhythm of the poem. And here it is exactly like that. I can very roughly describe what happens in this song as a “zombie march”. This is again connected with Belarusian folklore legends that on certain gloomy days processions of the dead are seen in different places.

The importance of presenting a true expression of oneself through your music?

Slepowron: It’s important, of course, but I also see myself as an exponent of the idea behind my music. We sing about old, forgotten, lost things. First of all, we do it for its discovering and demonstration. And only then for presenting ourselves if it matters.

Sida: We were, we are and we always will be absolutely honest in our musical art. Our music is what we are ourselves and what is interesting for us, so... In my opinion, the best way to say is we present what we love, first of all nature and culture, and if it presents us as well - it means that we coincide with what we love. Let it be! It's not a self-expression because of self-expression, not because we are so unique and so unusual and so outstanding and blah blah blah - we truly feel and express our interests in this world. And usually they're very different from most people.

Do you define extreme as how much one puts themselves into their art honestly and fearlessly?

Slepowron: You know, nowadays a lot of people do things for views or money absolutely honestly. IMO, for real extreme you should have some kind of controversial idea inside. If your art is banal, you don’t even need to be fearless to present it. The essence, the message is of primary importance. There is no extreme in doing trendy shit, even if it’s honest.

Where does Ciomny Doł progress from here? Will there be more music or are there other projects on the horizon?

Slepowron: Plans are definitely in place. I hope that I will be able to juggle several projects in my life. The only thing is that everything can happen much slower than we would like. Unfortunately, our strength, health and finances are not unlimited to maintain a frantic pace.

Top 6 favourite black metal albums of all time?

Slepowron: 6 is too little, but

Celtic Frost ‘To Mega Therion’ (not pure black metal, but absolutely ICONIC!)

Darkthrone ‘Pazerfaust’

Carpathian Forest ‘Through Chasm, Caves And Titan Woods’

Emperor ‘In The Nightside Eclipse’

Gehenna ‘Seen Through The Veil Of Darkness’

Covenant ‘In Time Before The Light’

Sida:

Satyricon - Nemesis Divina

Windir – 1184

Summoning - Minas Morgul