Haram Interview

Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Hi, at the moment we had the release of the CD and some gig with the new drummer, it was nice, we have been travelling through italy.

2.In April you had released a new album, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
 It’ s completely different, the past was actually much more spacy and trippy, this new work it s much more straight and noisy then the work before, it s something much more instinctive and less intimate, i believe this  was a huge change.The music is still deeply connected to the sound, i mean there is a deep study in creating the chaos we wanna accomplish. So there is a little of order and investigation in the chaos! we've tried to accomplish this result by not adding new gear, actually we’ve simplified a little the rig so we can be more direct and not overthink too much. Sometimes limits are good things!

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored over the years with your music?
The old works were much more about the innerself, the music was much more evocative and spiritual in a kind of way, the lyrics were connected to the music in a way and they were all about the knowledge of the one self, in the Sgretolamento the whole work was inspired by the i ching, The oracle.
In QESC the main focus is the protest, it s music against the consumerism, fascism, omofobia, razism, our government and the new politics against refugees, climate emergency and more.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Haram'?
Haram it s an arabic word, The meaning is  literally an action against god Will.
It s a name that we love. 

5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover
The art work it s by Alessio Marchetti,  the lead singer of tutti i colori del buio, The love supreme , it s a great guy who did always support the scene, it s a great friend and we like the way he does things.
it s the mix of 2 different images, The first it’s a commercial from the 80s and the second it s the scene of an explosion. The faces on the art cover they express a huge amount of violence and we loved it at first sight

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We have  a huge amount of sounds and noise, I do not recall the best performance, because it’s not our goal to be perfect musician and please the audience. But probably in the last tour, the last date was the best because we’ve improved our interplay during the tour and because playing at Banhnof is always a pleasure with a lot of friends and alcohol
Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We Will be around the whole mounth of october in italy playing gigs all around.

8.In 2017 you where a part of a split with 'La Deriva', what are your thoughts on the other band that had participated on the recording? /////
That band it s over and we just keep the contact with Luca, The guitar player, He s a local sound guy. We were quite different bands, but we were friends and we wanted to do something together

9.The album was released through a variety of many different labels, can you tell us a little bit more about the labels you have worked with on the new recording?
Well basically all the labels are friends, there some people who did appreciate our work over the years and that did support us so much, and many of them they “own” labels and the did help us out with the release but mainly we wanted them to be part of this, because music it s about sharing and be together. Always.

10.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your recordings by fans of underground music?
Well we do not have this kind of approach, i mean we do not know what a worldwide level is…. We live here and now and we play what we love.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Well haram has and will always be freestereotypes kind of band, so i do not know, i am sure that we will keep going, going nowhere… As we always did.
We will experiment and try new solutions and find new ways to express ourselves through sounds, that s where we are heading. Our music listening change pretty quickly so we’ve abandoned the idea to be the band with the same sound on every album. We’ve different textures even in the same album but for us it’s not a problem

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Our new drummer Utku Tavil is a great source of new underground extreme music. He lives half a year in Berlin and coordinates some experimental music festivals so he’s in contact with many interesting bands and project. We like most of all bands like Moe, No Balls, White Suns, Cuntroaches, Urin, Piss, Brainbombs, Puma. Different bands that share the same attitude

13.What are some of your non musical interests?
We try to keep in shape and not get too fat. Two of us practice climbing and the other one is getting fat

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We’re getting old so it’s getting harder to be in the music scene, but the will to make some noise and make some ear bleed is still alive, even more then in the past. Chaos with some order!

Ulfven Interview

1.For those hat have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?



 ⁃ We are 4 guys who plays melodic doom/death metal with some black metal elements. It has always been a struggle to explain our style with all these different elements but internally and to friends we call our music Nature Metal, which describes our desired concept, nature and folklore. The band was formed in the late 2017 and we started to work on our debut album very early. Our new bassist and vocalist Jonathan joined the band in Mars 2018. Our first album which we released on the 1st of February this year is a concept album about scandinavian folklore. As previously mentioned It’s a theme through the whole album which we want to explore and internalize as our main ”atmosphere”.





2.So far you have released one full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?



 ⁃ The plan wasn’t acctually to record a whole album and release it as an album. The idea from the beginning was just to record our tracks just for fun and to learn more how the recording process are and try to do it all by ourselves. Robert, our guitarrist, vocalist and main songwriter had some really good demo tracks and riffs which we put together. When the first track was recorded we sent it to our friend Rickard Törnqvist (Svartkonst) and after we heard his first mix we realised that he was the perfect guy for the job and that everything sounded so much better than we thought it would. From that moment everything became quite exciting for us. We didn’t really focus on any specific genre in the beginning, but we all agreed that it would be quite slow and melodic.



3.Your lyrics cover Scandinavian Folklore themes. can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?



 ⁃ We wanted a concept and the first song that was completed was about 'Skogsrået' which is a female being, a watcher of the forest, in old folklore.  It woke a strong interest in all of us, so we decided to use that theme.  We have grown up very close to nature and have heard the stories then and then since childhood.



4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Ulfven'?



 ⁃ 'Ulv' is an old word for wolf and it can also mean werewolf.  We thought it was a name that suited us very well considering what our songs are about. It also sounds ”dense” when you say it, it rolls of the tounge!



5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?



 ⁃ The cover of ’Folklore’ is a photo taken in the woods. Our song ’Nocturnal Watcher’ is about a mytholigical creature in swedish folklore called Kyrkogrimmen, which holds the shape you see in the back of the cover.



6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?



 ⁃ We haven’t played any shows yet so it’s hard to answer that question. When the idea of recording an album emerged, we put all our focus on it. After the release of ’Folklore’, the idea was to play live as much as possible but we went through various things, both as a band and privately, that made us unable to do it. We have a lot of different ideas to further enhance the atmosphere in our performance when we play live. So stay tuned, we’re really hyped, rehearsed and ready for a live show!



7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?



 ⁃ Yes, we have. Nothing is nailed at the moment, but we will reveal more about that soon.



8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest/



 ⁃ We are looking for a label at the moment. We have received some offers but we have either not been interested or the other part has stopped replying/drawn themselves out of it. It has been infuriating to say the least!



9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of melodic death and doom metal?



 ⁃ The reactions has been so much better than expected. If the people who like the album is fans of melodic death and doom metal it doesn’t matter as long as people like the music. That said there has been some minor bitter reactions from people who think metal and its genres is some static thing that has to be the same as its origins. Mostly these ”true” metalheads are doom and black metal fans, but we have not given it much thought. One funny comment we got on YouTube was from a true doom fan who said ”The music is great but THE VOCALS SUCK”. We thought it was quite funny.



10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?



 ⁃ Time will tell. We have a lot of ideas that we want to make real, but it’s really hard to tell what the future will look like, but we will continue the journey with ’Ulfven’ as long as possible. We love doing this.



11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?



 - The big ones that have inspired us throughout former bands and this one would probably be Opeth, Bloodbath and Gojira. Others would be bands such as Katatonia and Ereb Altor. Music styles that inspire are mainly black and death metal of course but we listen to a lot of different things internally. Sometimes some of us blast Bloodbath through the speakers one moment only to put on some Modern Pop, RnB and old rock classics in the next. We think it is important to listen to more than just metal because you can easily get stuck in the same patterns, which can kill your creativity. We will not cover Hit Me Baby One More Time anytime soon but a melody or a groove here and there from completely different genres can definitely inspire a brutal metal track.



12.What are some of your non musical interests?



 ⁃ We live very different lives and do very different things outside ’Ulfven’ but music is luckily the main interest. Other than that we enjoy nature, cooking food, hanging out or having a few drinks. Preferably all at once!



13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?



 - We invite people to follow us on Instagram and Facebook! We post band updates, write some swedish poetry and currently we’re releasing some folklore-inspired artwork made by Sofia Hultqvist. All in our style.

We are currently working on something that we hopefully will reveal later this year, it will be ’Ulfven’ in its essence. A bittersweet, brutal and beautifully dark journey through the unknown. Thank you for having us!