Interviews: Sulgogar

In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the  Death Metal/Trash Metal band Sulgogar from Venezuela. Check out the interview and this band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Can you give me a brief history of your band, Sulgogar?

Sulgogar is a metal band of Venezuelan / Russian origin that was founded at the

end of 2016 in the town of Duaca, located in the municipality Crespo, north of Barquisimeto, Lara State, Venezuela. It is considered as the first and only extreme metal band existing in that area to date. His musical style is very close to the Old School Death Metal, despite having some very typical elements of Thrash and Black Metal, all of them appreciable in each of his songs. The band is currently composed of Sting Weiss (vocals and bass), Steve Kaiba (guitars) and Svetlana Sevostianova (drums).

The lyrics of Sulgogar are inspired by sinister themes, such as urban legends and unsolved mysteries, as well as a bit of social criticism.

2. What is a Sulgogar? Where does this band name come from?

Sulgogar was the name of a fictitious race of aliens first appeared in the game Urban Assault belonging to the genre of action and strategy for PC. It is supposed to be the most powerful enemy faction in the game. We chose that name because it is very cool and because no other band in the world is using it.

3. What bands are the main influence to Sulgogar's sound?

The main source of inspiration for our band is Impaled Nazarene, from whom we

took some musical ideas from their latest albums. Although we also have much influence from other groups of different subgenres within the metal such as Violator, Havok, Municipal Waste, Fueled by Fire, Thrash or Die, Death, Svartsyn, Mayhem, Burzum, Behexen, Dark Funeral among others.

4. Your new album is called Science of Beyond and you have some excellent artwork. Who did the artwork for the cover? What does the artwork depict in relation to the album?

The cover art was in charge of the great Venezuelan illustrator BJ Manchester who, besides dedicating himself to drawing comics, also designs covers by hand and in black and white style for death metal bands, brutal death metal and other extreme subgenres.

The art of Science of Beyond represents an extraterrestrial abduction with a slight touch of gore, as several gray extraterrestrials dissect the corpse of a human being inside their spaceship. This work of art fits very well with the central idea of Science of Beyond, since it deals with the theme of gray extraterrestrials and their obscure intentions with respect to humanity.

5. I think the album has a very modern tone but an early 90's or late 80's crossover style riff-wise. Is this the sound you were going for? How do you usually describe your music to others?

Well, we really wanted to do death thrash but without including the guitar riffs that are normally used nowadays in death metal that sometimes are a bit indigestible and boring. But it seems that our music effectively approaches the crossover style of those years that you comment. I hope that's a good thing for the band's reputation, because I liked it a lot. I can describe the music of Sulgogar as a crazy fusion of several extreme subgenres, whose purpose is that the songs are very sticky and digestible for most people.

6. What is Sulgogar's writing process? Do you have a specific way in which you compose your songs?

Well, at the time of writing the lyrics I always like to listen to the whole instrumental theme and compose the vocal part following almost the same rhythm of the riffs. That's great, since this method contributes to the songs being more moving and less monotonous as in many of the modern extreme metal productions. The central idea of ​​each lyric always arises spontaneously and based on the sensation that each instrumental track transmits.

As for the instruments, we usually make a simple base on the guitar and then we assemble the drums. The bass I leave almost always for the end and sometimes I like to leave a few pauses for this instrument between the changes of the structure of each song. For example, in Socialista-Satanista it is noted that the bass is present and also has an important role giving more power to the song.

In the case of the drums, we like everything to sound as brutal as possible and with interesting fillings. Svetlana is very good at that, too much I would say. It is a pleasure to watch her play and record. Practically she is a sexy demon of the rums embodied in the body of a woman.

7. The vocal style on Science of Beyond is very unique. Was this a natural vocal style for you or was it something that specific for this band? 

To me, it falls somewhere between a grunt and yell with gang vocals on top. For me it is very easy to make such guttural voices. Before I used a very different technique that was not very good because I got too tired, but now I feel much more comfortable. I managed to learn how to do it properly shortly before recording the voices of the Acechadores Intergalácticos (Intergalactic Stalkers) song. That voice is just what we were looking for from the beginning: a very powerful guttural voice capable of generating a great impact on the listeners.

The clean voice is something closer to the thrash metal style, a little street if you like. This is usually used to give that "vintage" touch to the whole thing.

8. What has the feedback been on Science of Beyond so far?

The responsiveness of this first release of Sulgogar has exceeded all our expectations. Really, we are very happy with the work done by Machine Man Records, because our music is reaching many people all over the world. A lot of people have told us that they love our sick sound and that they want to see us play live someday. Others are begging us to release a CD version soon. Right now we are considering that possibility.

9. I could not find lyrics for any of the tracks but I'd like some expansion on a few of them. "Socialist-Satanist" for instance. What are you trying to say in the lyrics to this song? Is this something dangerous to say in Venezuela?

Well, in the particular case of "Socialist-Satanist" this is clearly a song of mockery and protest towards what they call "Socialism of the 21st century". The name of the song makes reference to the rumors that many people of the Venezuelan government practice or have practiced horrible black African magic rituals at some point of their lives, especially the deceased former president of the republic.

The lyrics of this song are very short. Here the English translation:

Socialist-Satanist,

Corruption excites them,

Socialist-Satanist,

Sorcerers, false and Marxists,

Socialist-Satanist,

Controlling the currencies,

Socialist-Satanist,

Sorcerers, false and Marxists.

I composed it by taking some phrases I have heard from people in the street when they feel helpless in the face of all the stupidities that the current Venezuelan government does and that are constantly applauded by their brainless followers. The lyrics were going to be longer, but it was too controversial and could bring us many problems with the government later on. So we decided on something much simpler and that reflected the anger of the people who suffer every day under this corrupt government.

10. Also, "Femi-Nazis" Are you guys anti-feminism? Are you saying that feminism is becoming too authoritative as a political ideology? Is it about a specific person or incident?

I am in favor of the ideals of feminism of the old waves. But I do not agree with

the ideals of the modern radical feminists and even less so-called "Femi-Nazis". In this song I make a joke of them, but before doing it I admit that they have all the chance to win because it has been scientifically proven that the masculine gender will gradually disappear from our species.

In this song I also talk a little about the theories of Richard Dawkins and about

the radical feminists going against the interests of our genes. In short, the Femi- Nazis movement is a threat to our species. I also say that they only want power and that they will not be able to reproduce just by relating to each other.

11. The title track is "Science of Beyond." Do you believe in extraterrestial beings? Are there real life extraterrestrial experiences which you've had? 

I know that South America in general is considered a hotspot for UFO and Paranormal activity. I do believe in aliens. In fact, I really like to read about it and investigate the most well-known cases of abduction in South America and the rest of the world.

One of the cases that struck me the most was Betty and Barney Hill’s abduction

and that's why I wanted to propose it as the central idea of ​​this first album and

cover art.

12. There's a sample that is used as the current title track. What is this sample from and why did you make the whole title track a sample?

That audio sample is an excerpt from the hypnosis session held with Betty and Barney Hill. There they relate how they were kidnapped by the aliens and then subjected to very strange medical tests. Apparently, the interests of grey extraterrestrials go far beyond our three-dimensional logic. That's why the album is called Science of Beyond.

13. Sting, you've been in a few other bands. What other bands have you been involved with and how do they differ from Sulgogar? Have Steve or Svetlana been in any other projects or bands as well?

Apart from stay as the vocalist and bassist of Sulgogar, I am also the keyboardist and leader of Anfítrite, a female fronted symphonic metal band inspired by Greek mythology. In the same way I play the keyboard in Dragón Blanco, a band of symphonic power metal led by my brother Steve Kaiba. In both bands we are also recording new material with a more clean and delicate sound.

The sexy bomb Svetlana Sevostianova was part of a band in her native town in Russia but she soon abandoned it because her work and studies consumed a lot of her time. So she devoted himself to perfecting her technique on the drums. She and I met some time ago on the internet and we became good friends. When I showed him some of the material that I was recording with Sulgogar Svetlana asked me to let her record the drums of all the songs. Since then she is collaborating with us on drums.

12. Have you played or will you be playing any concerts or live shows?

For now we have not been able to play live with Sulgogar because it is very difficult to move from where we live to the city and other states. We practically live in a very remote area comparable to Hobbiton, Fangorn or Narnia. We have received many proposals and invitations for concerts here in Venezuela but it is very complicated for now with the crisis. We hope in the near future to start playing live both nationally and other countries.

13. What are long term plans for Sulgogar?

Our plans are to record a lot more material and find a way to play live anywhere. As I write this, we are already fine-tuning the details of our next album, which we hope will also be liked by our fans. We also plan to release a version of Science of Beyond in CD format and another cool video clip that we have already uploaded to Youtube several months ago.

14. What are your thoughts on the impact of the internet, and particularly social media, on music in general, and then more specifically on metal?

The internet is a very important medium for today's musicians. Thanks to tools such as the internet, I was able to contact my friend Svetlana Sevostianova and we were also able to sign with the people of Machine Man Records, in addition to making our music known in all corners of the planet.

Social networks are important because through them you can meet people with your same musical tastes and many fans eager to listen and follow the new

groups.

Every musician and modern metalhead should take advantage of the virtues of the internet, otherwise we will be stuck and we will not be able to continue growing and expanding our influence.

14. What final thoughts do you have for our online readers?

Well, first of all I would like to ask you to support the emerging metal bands of the world more. It's okay to like old and legendary bands, but new bands also need an opportunity because they help the metal scene grow and evolve. The bands that today are great legends also went through this process of being little known and having to break through the community.