Interviews: Orkrist

On this new occasion, we had the opportunity to interview the Atmospheric Black Metal/Doom Metal band Orkrist from Slovakia. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or come out just like that? 

Our first drummer proposed this. In English it should be “Orcrist”, but none knew that at that time (we only heard that). We like it from the perspective that it is short and catchy, the audience can scream easily “or-krist, or-krist…”. In our country (Slovakia) the “krist” part is a little bit confusing because it means “Christ” and that is not exactly what we wanted.

2. Why did you want to play this genre? 

I, as a songwriter of the band, grew up on the atmospheric music of the 90’s. I loved the first atmospheric bands which brought new elements in the hard death metal music. Theatre of Tragedy brought in 1994 the female voice equivalent to the male part, dared to have one song only on piano (no guitars, no drums), My Dying Bride brought 1 year earlier as well piano and violin. Then more bands started to use keyboards and other fantasy (Bal Sagoth), medieval (Haggard), or symphonic elements (Nightwish). And it is worth to mention also Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir who brought a kind of gothic/vampire black metal.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Not exactly. We met on one or the other bands and somehow found out we have the same music preference and can work as a team together. So, the music brought us together.

4. Each band member's favorite band? 

Ivett (new female singer, 08/2024): Cradle of Filth, Arkona

Michal (guitar): Evergrey, Stratovarius

Robo (drums): Cradle of Filth, Behemoth

Kabi (bass guitar): Exploited (yes, wft ???), Finntroll (at least that) Crom

Myself (vocals, keyboards composing): Summoning (1995-96)

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs? 

Definitely, the bands I listed in one of the previous answers. Then some books, and movies, all linked to fantasy or fairytales, in the past those were also some computer games ala Diablo I. The music brings some atmosphere, a medieval/fantasy touch, it is based on melodies and contrast of the nice female voice vs brutal male singing.

6. Where was your last gig? 

We had a break now, as we had a personal change (female singer, the most important element of the band). But we played with her just a few days ago, as we were taking a promo video. We experimented a little bit with flames to underline the atmosphere of our music. And this took place in an urban place – in front of old garages, where most of the bands in our city practiced 20 years ago. 

Even though this was an unannounced activity, we had a few of our friends there.

7. Where would you like to act? 

We are a band coming from Slovakia and have a solid position in our local market, great fans. Every band would want as much as possible. I am rather realistic and would be glad if we could leave some footprint in the Czech Republic (previously we were one country, and are still a kind of brother nations) and Germany, so close around. And as our new female singer is from Hungary, then there are some plans as well.

8. Whom would you like to feature with? 

We don’t have a preference here. Those should be of course bands that are style-wise closer to us (not Kerry King or Cannibal Corpse). We had the chance and luck to play as support of Nightwish (in their best times, cca 2003, my opinion only) and Eluveitie. These were nice examples of bands with our preferred taste. Maybe I could imagine Cradle of Filth, as you have seen before, 2 our band members love them.

9. Whom not?

No hate in any kind of direction in metal. Metal is one family, we should stay together. What I recently learned – I remember in the old times more diverse concerts having death, black, doom metal and grind as well, and people were always there. I think it is not the case today (unless it is a larger festival), as we played not that long time ago with only brutal death metal and grindcore bands, and did not have many people in.

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that? 

It is normal when you don’t perform often, stress might be there. The only cure is to play as much as possible and experience will come. You need to be not pre-programmed, but be flexible, have a good mood, and be ready for a joke/funny answer if you get some provocation from the crowd. The most “self-aware” times were for us those where we played explicitly every weekend. We did not even practice offline and sometimes did not even do a proper sound check on the concerts and know how to set up things.

11. What bands have inspired you the most? 

Hard to say. For me, the best game-changer was probably Nightwish. Even though it might be not my favorite band nowadays, their album Oceanborn was incredibly revolutionary. Suddenly there was a band with a dominant female voice and keyboards, and you see how many bands copied them (and still do that).

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for? 

Hmm, here we will be probably boring. Those are the usual things – photos, signatures. For a friend of mine (and a fan of us) I have cut the patch with our logo from my 20-year-old trousers so I can give it to him as something authentic.

13. What do you think of your fans?

We don’t have thousands of fans and are not known worldwide. Also, the interactions on social media are not in the hundreds/thousands. But we know: that social media activities are not the real world and the number of people who would come to your gig. What I can say is we have great local fans who are years with us, supporting us for the best. Their interactions at the concerts are simply warming up our hearts. And they are the reason why we do music. Example: we had a band break for 14 years (don’t ask, simply our lives changed, but we can back then). I remember one reaction from a fan: “The saddest thing for me was the death of Freddy Mercury and the split of Orkrist”. This touches the heart, even though we know we can not be mentioned in one sentence with such a talented musician. Another example: for our biggest fan in the Czech republic we came to play at his 50th birthday party, for free, because he supported us many times and he deserved this attention from us.

14. What do you think of our site?

To be honest, this is our first interaction with Breathing the Core. This question motivated me to open the site and check what is there. I like the fact that you give space to not that many known bands because there are so many good unknown bands today. And I found many questions here interesting, not such as we usually get. I had fun replying to them.

15. Something to add?

Nothing to add except a warm “thank you” to anybody who read this through, found our music interesting, and spent a few minutes with it. There is no music without people listening to it.