 |
| "You can never finish an album, you can only stop working on it" |
Hungarian melodoc death / black metallers Verilun, recently relesed "Through fire... in the Sun" album, and bbr took the opportunity to talk with the band. Enjoy the interview below and read everything about Verilun.
Wouldyou like to give us a brief history of Verilun?
Verilun has been founded in 2010 by me (György Varga). I invited Zoltán Schönberger (ex-Sear Bliss) on drums and Krisztián Varga (ex- Sear Bliss, Art Of Butchery) on guitars to join. This could be considered as the very first and most long lasting line-up in Verilun’s history. There have been some second guitarists joining and leaving the band during the years, but since they had no any effect on the band or on the music, it’s not worth mentioning them. In 2011 we came-up with our first release, the Blood Moon EP with the intention to get signed to a label with the help of it. As a result of it in 2013 we signed with Sliptrick Records and released Verilun’s debut, “Home for the Dead”. The next 3 years were quite chaotic, there were some line-up changes, personal issues, so except for a lot of gigs and a cover of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ “Where the wild roses grow” and video to this song, we could say, not too much things happened to Verilun. We started working on the 2nd full-length at the beginning of February 2017 when Zoltán quitted, so finally the two remaining members, Krisztián and I wrote the entire “Through Fire… In The Sun” album. And we are at May 2018, when the second full-length has been released again by Sliptrick Records.
Tell us about the name Verilun. How did you come up with it?
I’m interested in history very much, especially in the ancient history of Hungary. I’m reading continuously books about this topic, and one of them was about the relationship between the Huns and Magyars (as we in Hungary call ourselves) and the similarities between the two languages. In this book I read about the world Verilun, the Hunnic name of planet Mars as “blood moon”, and since an other field of interest of mine is planet Mars itself and the mysteries around it, the idea of giving Verilun as a name of the band came quite easy and obviously.
How would you describe your music?
If we want to express it on the most simple way, I’d say it’s a melodic black / death metal. I think, it has some similarities with the Scandinavian melodic death metal, but the black metal features are quite significant too. Moreover we introduced some epic themes and sound as well as some heavy metal elements (considering e.g. the guitar solos) on the second full-length. Not a usual mixture, but there could be a potential in it.
What are your songs about and what are your main sources of inspiration?
The lyrics are not typical black metal or death metal lyrics. They are mostly rhymed versions of my thoughts inspired by books, movies, and my life. They are about either historical, mythological or spiritual topics. On “Through Fire… In The Sun” there is a lyrics based on an ancient Hungarian myth.
As I’ve mentioned, we started working on it at the end of 2016, beginning of 2017, but due to the not completely proper stance of the drummer (to be as diplomatic as possible) the progress was very slow, but after he quitted we could start working very fast with Krisztián, so the recording session begun already in November 2017. The album got completely ready by March and released in May 2018. Basically there were no special expectations or plans with this stuff (maybe except for the aim to create a metal album on the possibly highest level and quality), we simply wrote the songs, created the sound the way we liked.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Yes, we are. There are some minor things I would change, but that’s always like this. As it’s said, you can never finish an album, you can only stop working on it. The most important with this stuff is, that although I don’t deny the first album, I would rather consider the second one as the debut, since on this album we could manage to come-up with something that – after some further improvements on the next albums – might the own sound or style of Verilun. I can see several possible directions to go, and only future will tell, which way we’ll choose.
What is the response of the fans so far?
It’s absolutely positive. I think there’s a well composed music with a lot of catchy melodies on this album, the sound is powerful too, so it’s something, metalheads may really like.
Which artists would you like to work with and for what reason?
I do not have this kind of intentions except for maybe female vocal: if there would be any at all on any Verilun album in the future, I would invite Kylie Minogue or Yolandi Visser from Die Antwoord. I know, this is perverse, but I like both of them, and it would be interesting to hear them singing in a metal song.
Which are your plans for the future?
First of all it would be great to play the songs of the new album live, but unfortunately we could not manage so far to find the appropriate drummer. I do not want to wait anything or anybody anymore, and since Verilun will be 10 years old in 2020, I’d like to celebrate it with a new album. We have just agreed with Krisztián to start the songwriting, and since there’s a new candidate on the second guitarist position, most probably we’ll invite him to join us in this work, and we’ll check how we could co-operate.
Thank you very much for this interview. Anything else you want to add?
We thank you for the opportunity! I do hope we can get rid of the line-up issue very soon, we’ll be able to perform live, and maybe sometimes in the near future we’ll have the chance to visit you, guys, in Greece too. See you!
Leave A Comment: