Galvornhathol is a sonic creation where the personality behind its creation is irrelevant when dealing with such expansive subjects such as ones place their future and the relationship with the cosmos. The focus is the music that combines the earthen savagery of black metal and the ethereal ambience of the stars, beautiful and ugly and equal measure, immense calm, and claustrophobic aggression. It is a combination of inspirations and new album III is the conclusion of a trilogy.
‘’Inspiration is life, nature and everything that surrounds it. That’s enough, believe me. Not saying I live a particularly interesting life, but the impressions I get manifest sufficient interesting bits that keep my mind spinning. Sometimes for days on end.” III” concludes the trilogy in the sense that it was meant as a concept. Not the project itself, but those records up until “III.” When Galvonrhathol started, there was no concept at all. It was just instrumental doom metal, and some Lord of The Rings inspired melodic death lyrics. It has evolved naturally. “III” is not an end, it is merely a milestone.
Is it a return to the source?‘
’In a way, yes. The “earthlier” matters were discussed with the first two records. Even the last EP (“H-Alpha”) has introduced that “beyond” character to the project, I imagine it is more towards the beginning of all things, then the first album was. But even beginnings have beginnings. Maybe in that way it is a return to the actual source, the ether from where the sources came afterwards.
It is both beautiful and brutal? a combination of opposing forces?
‘’The optimum! I like working with contrasts. The ups and downs make things interesting. Not saying it should be that way, but Life is dynamic. We are dynamic beings. Combining opposing (-FORCES! You put it perfectly) matters makes for a greater whole.
Introspective and thoughtful against the vastness?
‘’That is not to get lost completely. Jumping in all things unknown head-on can be a relief, but a little foresight has never hurt. Quite on the contrary. Especially if we are talking all that is around us. We do not have the means to understand it all at once. We will have to work with all that is vast, not against it. I fear we would just be working against ourselves in the end.
III also looks into future. What does it hold?
‘’Whatever it is, I hope it holds something benign for us. Everything else is looking into the proverbial crystal ball. What we do know matters and that has always been of great importance to the whole trilogy.
How does the cosmos reflect the personal life and our own existence?
‘’The circle of life is the same out there. An astrophysicist will have a more in-depth explanation, but the I think you can make a lot of the concepts work for us down here as well. Time, speed, life, death. What seems not to be of importance in the outer realms of the cosmos, is that what makes as human. A lot of unfortunate things to mention here, but I cannot see them in the vast reaches of space to be honest. It just inherently “is.” Sure, there are things you can consider as dangerous to its surroundings. But I do not see those as what we consider as menacing and inherently bad.
Is there peace to be found in the void rather than the noise of earth?
‘’Peace is a wonderful word! Could not have said it better. Noise, depending on what you mean by it, holds peace too, but I think it is already way more known to be a bringer of joy and solace, then what we understand as “void”.‘
’Depending on the situation, the void is the only peaceful place. It has an extremely negative connotation to it, but unrightfully so. You enter the void by meditating. By being still and just “being.” That is what I see in the void. This is surely up to your interpretation, but I associate mostly positive things with it. You will wonder what sights the void holds sometimes and you can emerge from it (you said there is no way back?) with a fresh sight of things to come. To your question: Yes. That is exactly what I mean by it. It may be a well-worn formula, but it works. Again. Contrasts. Couldn’t live without them.
The combination of Ambience and Black metal a natural evolution?
‘’In this case, yes. All noise has a calm side to it. It is up to the creator to bring it out or not. As a creative, curious, and open-minded individual, it comes naturally. Evolution is a natural process in music. It is hard to comprehend at times, but it is, and that’s what matters.
Is extreme music a boundless experience that needs further pursuit?
‘’Definitely. Hard to tell where this will lead us, but looking back, it always brought out new interesting concepts, characters and so on. It might not be good, but we might never know if we don’t let it happen.
In the cyclic nature of the universe light was born from darkness. Must it eventually return?
‘’I strongly think so. The concept of infinity doesn’t work on all things in an equal manner, but we know for certain that it doesn’t work at all on some. We mammals die, as do the other creatures we share this world with. Planets “die,” if I can put it that way (we tend to humanize a lot of things”). To put it short, everything comes from nothing, and some point it will for sure become nothing once more. But who knows what comes after that?
Is III a spiritual experience as well when contemplating how infinite the universe is and even what our own perceptions can be?
‘’That’s a good way to put it. I imagine the universe to, based on what we can observe, as vast and unfathomable as life here on earth. I found out that people are sometimes scared of that great unknown (just as some are of the ocean and whatnot) so in some way there seems to be a connection between earthly live and the space around us. It needs further exploring for us to be able to understand it. It’s a search that goes ever on. Many metaphors we can make work here.
Final thoughts ‘’I am not a person of big words, at least not after having them spilled all over my recordings. So... Keep looking up!
Top six albums of all time?Close to impossible to narrow it down to 6, but here are some(In no particular order)
Katatonia – Brave murder day
Opeth – Blackwater Park
Alcest - Écailles de lune
Dredg – Catch without arms
Killswitch Engage – Alive or just breathing
Secrets Of The Moon - Sun
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