Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: V.I.T.R.I.O.L. of Anaal Nathrakh

As a rabid, well-schooled extreme metal fan, I’m not easily intimidated, turned off or frightened by any band that crosses my path. I don’t want to say I’ve heard it all, but at this point, I’d say I’m damn close. That was until I heard Anaal Nathrakh, an extreme noise duo from the U.K., molding black, industrial and grind. Their sound is indescribable, twisting and dissecting all that is extreme into one sultry dish of pure, unbridled hatred and rage, oozing with disgust and disdain for the world in which we live. If you haven’t heard them, once you do, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want to again.

Just as Anaal Nathrakh released its sixth album, Passion (Candlelight Records, May 23, 2011), LiveMetalNet’s Jeff Maki put out a call to V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (Dave Hunt), the band’s vocalist, anxious to find out just what in the hell is wrong with these guys.

LiveMetalNet: Just for those unfamiliar, give us a brief introduction of the band. I know it’s kind of hard to do, but back from when you guys first got started, leading up until now.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.: Irrumator (Mick Kenney) and I met in the U.K., and we started to write some music, and we liked what we heard. And it started from there really. So in that time, we’ve always recorded and produced ourselves, and we’ve done six albums now. And it’s gone quite well—the reaction has been really good. My idea has been to always make absolutely horrible music—really nasty, abrasive and aggressive, but with actually a little more to it than just the sound of a chainsaw. And yeah, here we are.

Let’s talk about the making of the new album, Passion. After all, that’s why we’re doing this. There were a couple of things in the band’s recent press release regarding the album. It describes it as, “The digestive and re-vomited results of an 18-month journey through slings, arrows and outrageous misfortune.” Is there truth to that and could you explain what happened over those 18 months and what this all exactly means?

The bottom line is that we both had a lot of shit to deal with in those 18 months; deaths in the family and problems with various different personal things. So the album is not autobiographical or anything like that. We’re not some kind of emo band whining about how upset we are about our girlfriend. But the idea of having that in the bio was just to underline the fact that it’s a genuine aspect of the frustration and anger with everything that’s in the music.

There’s another statement in there that says you’ve “developed a deeper understanding of horror.” Could you explain this also?

It is literally as it sounds. I was doing a lot of reading of various things in general in the 18 months that we did the last album. And one of the things I stumbled across was a journal called Collapse. And in the edition of Collapse I was reading, there was a great article on conceptual horror and just making it clear what horror is—or terror or fear. The piece pointed out that the true horror is the knowledge of the victim and how they are being corrupted or changed by the horrific experience. If it’s just some faceless bad guy stabbing you, then that’s terrifying and actually very painful, but it’s not horrifying in the sense that it’s talking about. That’s why (the author) would say that H.P. Lovecraft or The Exorcist, or something like that—that is horror because it involves the identity of the victim being compromised and changed by the horrific experience. This is not a concept album, but that idea formed a number of the ideas that we use in the album.

[Editor’s note: Collapse is an independent, non-affiliated journal of philosophical research and development published in the United Kingdom by Urbanomic. It was founded in 2006 by Robin Mackay. It features speculative work in progress by contemporary philosophers, along with contributions from artists, scientists and other writers outside of philosophy.]

Are there any specific horror movies that have influenced the band in the writing and music?

Not really with horror films. It’s more (built upon) ideas. It’s quite common for bands, and especially extreme metal bands, to be influenced by horror, like George A. Romero and all that kind of thing. But that’s not really us—we’re not really big horror movie buffs or anything. It’s more to do with the world in general, and whether it’s experiences you had yourself that you wish you hadn’t. There’s this word I came across in German which (translates to) “something that can never be undone.” And because it’s changed what you are, whether directed in everyday life or your approach to the world, it’s about finding out things. That’s more of the kind of horror I was thinking of.

So what does the band stand for in its beliefs? Is there any underlying message and, if so, what would it be?

There is no intentional message for one very good reason: I can’t stand the idea of someone being arrogant enough to try and tell me what I should think—whoever it is, a band or an author or anything like that. So I don’t like the idea of trying to put a message in the music. What we see ourselves doing more is painting a picture and that picture is full of things that are quite important to us. What we’re saying is, “Look at this, and see what you think.” We’re not saying, “Look at this and think.”

How does music so extreme, this chaotic and just crazy come together for a song? How does the framework for a song even start?

It’s very unrefined, really. It’s almost subconscious. Mick writes all the music pretty much on his own. We talk about the idea and I have suggestions, but for the most part, its Mick writing all the music. And he just has a sense in his head and he writes it. He describes making music that goes, “Ahhhhh!” It’s literally as unsophisticated as that. It’s just an idea, a chaotic sense, a desire to get out frustration, or show desperation, or whatever it may be. And then he just picks up a guitar and makes it happen. And then when he has done that, he comes to me with the music, and I have hundreds and hundreds of things that I’ve written down; ideas, lyrics and things like that. And we just sort of hash them up in the studio. Then we’ll sit and we’ll listen, and I’ll pick the idea that it captures for me, and we’ll mull the ideas that I’ve had about that (particular) idea. And we try to do that in a spontaneous way, as well. Not the first thing that comes into our heads necessarily, but we like to get something quite immediate and instinctive that captures the music.

You talked about life and seeing things in the world, but what is it in you that drives you guys to make music in such an extreme form? Not influences or inspirations, but what is it that’s inside you? Is it in your blood?

I don’t know in a way that’s very easy to explain. Yeah, I think one of the easiest ways to kind of get it across is, yeah, it’s sort of in your blood. For me, it’s just an underlying level of blind rage the whole time. And that’s not everyday life. Sometimes you gotta go to the shop and you gotta buy a pint of milk. It’s not 24/7, but it’s always there in the background. So for me, music is an opportunity to let it out, I suppose. It’s not particularly cathartic in that sense. You don’t necessarily feel better afterward. Sometimes you allow yourself to focus on some very negative things and that’s not always a positive experience. But it at least feels like a bit of a liberation. What comes out in the music is just in the background, when you close your eyes, and you just hear a screaming noise inside your head. And that’s what comes out on tape.

Yeah in a way, but the goal of therapy is to reach an improvement, isn’t it? It’s to involve things in a certain way in order to come to terms with them. And this isn’t like that. It’s not directed in that way. It’s not to work through things and feel better in the end. If you feel better afterwards, great. And if you don’t feel better afterwards, then you shouldn’t really have expected to.

Have you had problems with the band’s name before because of the similarity in spelling (to a naughty word)? Have there been misinterpretations of the name and the meaning, and just exactly what is the correct pronunciation?

Right, yeah. Well, we took the name from a film (Excalibur, 1981), and no, it’s not one of those kinds of films. So the correct pronunciation as far as we’re concerned is what the guy in the film says; “a-nell nath-rack.” But yeah, given that our records our available in some other countries, I’m pretty sure that in Holland, in Europe, I think our spelling actually is the word for anal. It’s not intentional. We didn’t want to make a band that was all about (anal, porn?). It’s just one of those things that we didn’t even think about. But it doesn’t really bother us. And a name is just a name, you know? And there’s nothing wrong with assholes.

So if you could, you wouldn’t go back and rename the band or anything. Who gives a shit, right?

Well yeah, really. I’ve said it in other interviews, but what is a “Metallica?” After you get used to a name or label like that, I think that you forget about it really. I don’t know; we did.

I see you have some tour dates coming up. I know you guys have been kind of anti-live before. I was reading some things about how you wanted each show to be a special thing. Has your stance now changed on playing live, and in this state of music are you now forced to go out there and play live?

No, not forced to. We never were particularly “anti-live.” It’s just that we didn’t want it to become boring, basically. You hear about bands that do all the touring they can and they get burnt out and they end up hating each other. And we didn’t want to make it a mundane thing. But we have said that we can survive musically and in each other’s company and in physical terms doing a certain amount of touring. So we’re happy enough to do it because obviously there are quality aspects to doing it. You go out there, you meet fans, and it’s a rush playing live, so it’s not begrudging that we’re playing live. And so we are tentatively looking to do some more dates. We got some lined up in the U.K. and Europe in May and in the start of June. And we might—we currently just started looking at it—but with any luck, we might be able to get back over to America later in the year. So, we’re really looking forward to it.