Invoking the Hidden Words of Catastrophe - Interview with EGREGORE - 5/13/2026

Invoking the Hidden Words of Catastrophe - Interview with EGREGORE - 5/13/2026

It's a pleasure to introduce Canadian cultists Egregore to Crypt's Burden! Egregore make some of the wildest and all-over-the-place Black Metal I've heard in recent years, drawing influences seemingly from everywhere without a care. And it's great, definitely listen to their newest album for some mystic mayhem. Thanks to Egregore for the great answers!    - Rusty

    Thanks for the quick response and taking the time for this interview. I understand you guys like to leave your music up to interpretation, so I will try my best to refrain from any redundant questions like that. Besides, it’s often pointless trying to pick apart an album thematically anyway. That being said, congrats on It Echoes in the Wild, I surely enjoy it and spin it regularly now.


        1. First of all, how are you guys doing? How has the reception been thus far for It Echoes in the Wild compared to your debut?

    Everything is great, Rusty. The reception has been very flattering. You spend a long time with a record gestating- long enough to lose relativity about how it really sounds- so when it comes out it’s nice to finally hear the consensus about what you’ve created.


        2. You brought in three new musicians and then some for various parts on this album. Did this change the “free-for-all” dynamic of the band at all? Were there more constraints? What is the current line-up for live shows?

    If anything, having more members only added fuel to the uncontrolled wildfire that is an Egregore recording session. Any semblance of someone being in charge or leading the process decayed completely and was replaced with a take-what-you-can-and-strip-the-fucker-for-parts mad-dashing bum-rush. Everyone simply doing what they want, no one even attempting to make the same album. Luckily all yodelling was cut from the final product. The lineup for live shows will be Essentia Collapse, Catastrophe Saturna, Helios Thread, and Exodus to Unukalhai.


        3. Having been 4 years since The Word of His Law, was there a lot of built-up energy that went into creating this album? Or was it written more spread out over that entire period?

    It seems like a long wait from the outside, but in reality we wrote the record through 2023, recorded the meat of it at the start of 2024, finished it up through the rest of the winter and summer of that year, and by the time the art, layout, mix, master, videos, and everything else needed for release was needed, it was 2026. There wasn’t really much delay or gestation time. This is just the way these things go.

        4. What are your thoughts on the state of the modern Black Metal scene? With tons of clones and over-produced slop, how does Egregore thrive in this scene when it so often pulls away from the norms?

    I think I speak for the whole band when I say that we are entirely unconcerned with what is or isn’t happening in the world of black metal. If something that is a work of true craftsmanship enters my sphere of attention, it’s always welcome, but I don’t seek out inferior works just to judge them or use them as a metric by which to judge the overall state of black metal. In fact, I don’t pay any attention to what is happening in heavy metal at all. It turns out that all the good records, noteworthy stories, or captivating gossip will reach you whether or not you ask. As far as banal records go, inferior works are necessary, otherwise there would be no pole by which to distinguish the superior. Everything is connected.


        5. What was the process like behind filming the music video for “Stair Into the Vortex”? Do you think “Stair Into the Vortex” best represents who Egregore are musically?

    We were very fortunate that Christopher Lazar, the director, reached out to us to collaborate. The decision to focus on Stair was mostly down to the shorter length of the track, but perhaps it was a worthy first single in that it’s easy to digest compared to some of the more eccentric songs on the record.


        6. Your playing style is incredibly varied and there’s a lot of neat experimental bits and pieces that went into the new album. It’s chaotic and tends to venture into technical territory without being over-the-top wankery. At what point do you think this kind of music becomes over-the-top? Is there a limit to the insanity?

    We don’t set our mind on boundaries, neither attempting to push up against nor go past them. We’re mostly just trying to emulate Sarcófago’s INRI and missing the mark by orders of magnitude.


        7. For Catastrophe - any plans with your other project Iogsothep? You’ve only put out a single yet I yearn for more.

    The Iogsothep full length is finished and will see the light of day this same year! It will be called Abominaciones Innombrables.

        Oddball questions to end. Usually I do 3 or 4 but I thought for you these would be more fun:

            1. Have any of you gained superhuman abilities yet?

    Yes! I myself can read minds, Essentia Collapse is can double-jump when unobserved (it’s a sort of double-slit experiment), Exodus to Unukalhai can hear in the dark, and Helios Thread has an above average guy biome.


            2. Are you fond of European Power Metal (Blind Guardian, Helloween, Lost Horizon, etc)?

    Huge fans! Blind Guardian, Primal Fear, and Grave Digger have been staples since young teenage years.


            3. What are your beverages of choice? How often do you get drunk when rehearsing or recording?

    As far as intoxication goes, this band is much more interested in psychedelic drugs than alcohol, but I think there is something of a consensus among us that scotch is mankind’s great contribution to the universe.


            4. Certainly you’ve had paranormal experiences before, can you share what those might have been?

    All of us have suffered from a prolonged period of delusion where we have found ourselves fully identified with specific passing phenomena in nature, namely a decaying body, hedonic tones, and the knowing of those things. It’s lasted some 35/40 years. Very fucking trippy and hard to shake.


            5. You’re from Canada, what are your thoughts on the movie Strange Brew?

    You’re from America, what are your thoughts on American Pie?


            6. Favorite works of occult literature?

    Señor Herrington Goes To Winstershire, The Diplenonticon, Three Nails, The Collected Brochures of Count Eglinton, Liber Plontiox, The Grimoire of Wabubu, Seven Spells of McClintock, Prophets of Hoboken, Twelve are the Apes of Time, Thørsœsþingmyrksmur, and the Dhammapada.


    Thanks for your time in the interview, I hope it remained interesting and I wish for Exodus’s neck to heal swiftly. If there’s anything else you’d like to add you may do so below:

    Everything is connected.