Of Lust and Lilithian Chants - Interview with SORGUINAZIA - Nachthymnen 2024

 Of Lust and Lilithian Chants - Interview with SORGUINAZIA - Nachthymnen 2024

    The following is an interview conducted in late 2024 with Sorguinazia for issue #2 of Nachthymnen Mag. As Nacht has laid the project to rest, both he and Xolaryxis have given me permission to post the interview on Crypt's Burden for your reading. Enjoy, and thanks to Sorguinazia for the great answers and patience!  - Rusty  

                                                                                        

    

        1. [Nacht] What are SORGUINAZIA’s main influences? The music is oppressively chaotic, similar to PORTAL and LUST.

    I’ve often said Sorguinazia is what happens when I move my hands on a fretboard. I am blessed and cursed in that I can’t really think about what I want it to sound like. It turns into what it is as I work to please my ear.

    For things I think overtly influence my playing, I like raw black metal and grunge and post-punk. Texture in guitars is very important to what I find pleasing to hear. But it’s mostly about “soul”.

The Wipers

Vlad Tepes

Grausemkiet

Xibalba Itzaes

Worm

Negative Plane

Ved Buenes End

Babes in Toyland

Sadus

Infernal Majesty

Morbid Angel

Celtic Frost


        2. [Nacht] What pedals and effects are used for guitar on “Negation of Delirium”? The tone is absolutely massive.

    Ahh, the secret sauce. I really don’t think the specific equipment I use is very important. Everyone has their own sound they need to pursue. The equipment that works for me likely won’t match another person’s style. Trial and error is all I can recommend. But thank you. The production/mixing for that album was the most strenuous undertaking I had ever done in my life until that point.


        3. [Nacht] Now that Axczor is no longer a part of SORGUINAZIA, have you yet found a permanent replacement or do you plan on continuing the project by yourself? Do you expect SORGUINAZIA to maintain a similar trajectory musically, and when can we expect new music?

    There’s new music always on the horizon - at least a further 2 albums worth of new material slowly bubbling into this dimension.

    The pieces that are written for the next album have a distinctive swampiness to them as exemplified in OF LUST AND LEECHES, where’s the next album will be more… medieval and dry.
    
    However, I have no idea how contrived musicianship works, there’s no guarantee of what I’ll write next, because I don’t know. It’s not for me to decide. I am blessed by the beyond for whatever inspiration I get, and I’m not going to spit it back at the gods if it’s a bit more this way or that.

    I’m currently working with a drummer, KAMEN of KINGSROT and CESSATION. My live members are incredible and have been with me for years and there are no plans for change.

    AXCZOR did make serious contributions to this project as a drummer and bassist. He also did some of the vocals, and a couple riffs and leads on NEGATION. I think there was some resentment and desire to shoehorn his guitarist into SORGUINAZIA as the bands he wrote and played guitar for didn’t get the same attention, although he is very talented. Overall tracks are a lot easier to complete now without needing to cater to another person’s desires.

    Of Lust and Leeches was released in August 2024, for which he did the drums only.


        4. [Nacht] WITCH WITH AN AXE combines guitar lessons, mysticism and mental wellness. Can you explain this project, and what one can expect in a session with WITCH WITH AN AXE? What does “Existential kink coach” mean? How serious is your connection to the occult and what are your beliefs?

    Your beliefs, whether conscious or unconscious, determine everything you do in your life.

    “Occult”, or more accurately, “Religious”, philosophical, and shamanic practices have a serious connection to my life and work.

    A session with WWAA is highly dependent on the student/client. I’ve been a guitar teacher since 2008 and have a couple of psychology/counselling degrees. A person’s blockages might be related to physical technique, lack of direction, psychological/spiritual hang ups… What someone is working on and their goals determine the direction we go and we solve the problems as they arise.

    Existential Kink is a book by Carolyn Elliot. Basically she posits a tantric spiritual practice of radical acceptance, reducing internal resistance to the “bad” things in your life, loosening the pre-existing “tracks” we may be stuck on. Highly recommend it. I took training with her group a few treats ago and it can lead to incredibly fast and profound changes in your life, both mundane and magickal - if I described what I have experienced myself and witnessed in others you’d think I was a liar.


        5. [Nacht] Comparing pictures of yourself from “Negation of Delirium” to “Of Lust and Leeches”, you’ve begun presenting SORGUINAZIA in a very female-forward way. Is this move away from androgynity an artistic, personal or commercial choice? Do you feel that extreme metal is a “boys club” that pushes away women, and if so, why weren’t you pushed away?

    There is no conscious choice to be more out less feminine, I find this whole idea laughable. Disgusting to think people might assume that there’s a commercial or contrived motive. I don’t view any difference between them, it’s just whichever photos I liked. People are bizarre repressed creatures. Just like with what riffs I write, I publish photos I like, that’s as complex as it gets. Study those Quarthon pictures a little closer if you think I’m doing something unusual. Anyone who still has a problem with a few inches of skin can do a backflip off a bridge.

    Of course black metal pushes everyone away. If you’re concerned with acceptance you’re in the wrong place.

    As a woman - well, there’s some freedom in already being the worst thing possible (female or gay or trans). Fuckheads already think the worst of you so who cares. No reputation to lose. If someone really wants me gone they’ll have to kill me!


        6. [Nacht] Opinion on moshers?

    I grew up in a mixed scene so I like em personally. I used to go get all my aggression out there and come home completely battered. Some people want to stand and watch, some people want to go psychotic. Do as thy wilt is the whole of the law.


        7. [Nacht] The Edmonton scene is known for high quality black/death metal, and SORGUINAZIA carries that torch excellently. When did you first get into the local scene, and what memories do you have of that period? Outside of the obvious big names (REVENGE, RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE, AMSG, etc), what are some other Edmonton bands worth listening to? Why is Edmonton such a fertile breeding ground for this style?

    Memories and great shows and conversations are plenty, and too much to write…

    I will say Paulus (of RITES, ex AXIS OF ADVANCE, his self-titled project) and I have had some really cool talks about the cosmos, theology, and a few conversations about what makes Edmonton the festering ground it is. I think there’s a type of misery and isolation that comes from being so far north. Edmonton is a miserable empty place with long winters, ignorant conservative truck bros and hillbilly farmers. It’s bleak. The best things there are trees, blood, soil, and ice, and the things we conjure for ourselves.

    I highly recommend

BRULVAHNATU

ANTEDILUVIAN

GOATHAMMER (Saskatoon but close enough)

    Disbanded but cool

WRATH BESTIAL

MORBIS INFERNIS


        8. [Nacht] What happened to solo project CATHERINE ANAKHA? What little I was able to find of it (“Nowhere Far Enough Away”, “Dancing in the Mist) I found very interesting. What do you call this kind of music, do you still stand by it, and can we expect more non-metal music from you in the future? What non-metal artists are you interested in? And what can you tell us about CAT THE ADVERSARY?

    You did your research hey, haha.

    What can I do aside from “stand by” my work? It exists, it is what it is. Some people might like it some might not. Much of it is improvised or low production value or experimental or commissioned.

    Again, this track or that happens when I move my hands against a fretboard. If something catches me, I continue until the result is something I like. Whether the outcome is black metal or weird jazz or whatever the hell, I don’t even know how to categorize some of this stuff. I just try to collect similar sounding things under the title of a project.

    Playing music is like talking. The output is easy enough, what is difficult is the transcription, memorization, polishing, performing, recording, promoting, and sadly I don’t have the time energy or money to pursue those ends for every random track I throw out. So who knows?

    Like most real black metal maniacs, a huge variety of non black metal artists interest me! Good musicians have eclectic taste!

    A few not previously mentioned above

Stravinsky

Zappa

King Crimson

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Pink Floyd

The Cure

        [Nacht] Any final words?

    Anyone worried about bare skin in a picture needs to throw their Bathory and Venom albums out in shame! Black metal prudes should feed their blood to trees to atone for all the oxygen they waste!

    Worship the old gods, protect Mother Earth!

    Live and Die with Honour!

    Don’t be a boot licking cuck! BOW TO NO ONE !

    HAIL LILITH!

    In sickness and in health, with Love,

    XOLARYXIS