e-mail  by Boris "Azrael" Witta ___  03.11.2004  

organized by Enigmatik  and gryphonmetal.ch

EVOLUTION IS OUR BIBLE

Boris -Hails Hysgarth!
Let  me first of all thank you for the interview and let me once more congratulate you to your superb album “Forgotten Memories!” Here we go…

• As first, can you tell me something about the name “Enigmatik”, where does it come from and what’s the meaning of it?

Hysgarth - Well, the Enigmatik’s name was found before I joined the band. I guess it paints the dimensions the music can reach or represent. It’s not too typical or dark or whatsoever. I think it fits us well and it fits our music.

• How would call your music? I think that’s not easy to say, because your sound shows a lot of different influences and elements.

Right now. A lot of changes occurred in the band which I will talk about later. But our style is just what we want to do. No matter if it’s not “in the rules”. We all come from different musical backgrounds and we just try to link everything to give life to our music.

• Do you make yourself limits with the influences or do you say, it doesn’t matter, everything fits to Enigmatik?

No limits Baby yeah ! Well to tell the truth, we are not narrow minded people, we are just musicians and we like to let the music speak. So if someone’s got a problem with that, fuck off. For us it’s a natural process and we hope it’s not finished ‘cause our style is still envolving.

• When I look at your songtitles, you don’t seem to be a “typical” Black Metal-band. Where do you take your inspiration from and what are your lyrics about?

What’s a typical black metal band ? A crypt-born one man band during a gloomy Halloween night of 1990 ? Some say “Black Metal is a way of life”… OK but does it mean to be closed to everything ? I don’t think so. Our evolution carried us above the black metal style. What we keep of this music is the atmosphere. The rest… we don’t care anymore. We arrived at the point where we could not stand to wear corpse paints, etc and play guitar solos. I mean we needed to reinforce our relationship with our inspiration and it has to come to the point where we had to let some thing behind us. You know personally I am so disappointed about this dying scene that I prefer let it behind me and continue my journey. Some will spit on us, some will let us fall but we don’t care we just want to play what really fits us.

But the point was our inspiration. It comes from ourselves I think. For the last album “Forgotten Memories” I wrote a lot about mythologies and heroic fantasy etc. With this album we realized a kind of concept. I read a lot, looked at some paintings and picked up in myself what I wanted to be inside Forgotten Memories. It’s been a fantastic experience for me to go deep in the Nordic mythology and create my world with its histories, tales and legends. 

Today we have a new line up and our style is evaluating. We are more direct but we keep in mind that music has to give the public a feeling. So we try to give each new track an atmosphere.

• Who had the great idea with “The Wanderer’s Song”, an instrumental with acoustic Black Metal-riffs?

Héhé… I was really surprised when I heard this comment. “A song with acoustic black metal riffs”. It was not my point when I wrote this song. So I composed the main part of this song and the guys of the band came with their ideas and feelings about this song.

• How do you know, that there, a scream-part fits, but on another place, a clean vocals-passage would be perfect?

Wow… Well… We compose the song first then, when it’s finished I write the lyrics. So during the composition process I imitate a kind of vocal line on each riff and we discuss how it’s gonna be sung. It’s almost always democratic decision…

• When you compare “Forgotten Memories” to “Where Evil Is Cloistered”, what would you say have you done better, or have you done something different?

We were more mature and experienced than for the “Where evil…” album. And I hope it’s for every band the same shit. Progress is our credo and evolution our Bible ;-). (I am not true, I like progress sorry… J) We are proud of each album we recorded. But we also want to go further every day.

• How does an Enigmatik-song arise? Are you sitting together and somebody has an idea or how does this work?

Most of the time, someone comes with a riff or a skeleton and we play, play, play, arrange, discuss until the music is written. Then I write the lyrics. I do it this way so I can catch the atmosphere of the song and develop a theme.

• Is Enigmatik just a hobby for you or more?

We are still amateurs but Enigmatik takes a lot of time in our lives. It’s our musical priority. We all hope to get the opportunity to reach a higher level. Today we can deal with our jobs, studies and girlfriends so it’s cool. Isn’t it ? J

• A short time ago, your long-time drummer Thror left the band. What were the reasons and can you tell me something about his successor, Guido Wyss?

Ok. So I won’t tell you the reason why he left the band because it’s private. Guido was a friend of us who already had to play a gig with us last year. So we contacted him ‘cause we know he would be happy to play with us. He is a teacher in a music school and a very high skilled drummer. His jazz formation gives him a wide panel of possibilities. His arrival in Enigmatik is a breath of fresh air. He is totally crazy…

• How was the gig on the last “Swiss Metal Attack” - Festival, where unfortunately I couldn’t appear to?

It was awful. You know 7 bands, no sound check just a kind of fucking line check, 30 minutes concert and 15 minutes to do the changing. It’s not interesting, it’s just stressing. Some bands don’t have the possibility to play in excellent conditions. So the Z7 should take less bands and give them the possibility to play in acceptable conditions. Our show was not good but it permitted us to play once again with Mortiis and Susperia.

• Enigmatik played a lot of gigs in the past. Which were the best and which the worst experiences?

Every experience is good to take. But when you arrive in a bar without scene without PA and without public, it’s not so interesting… But this is the growing process. We don’t regret our gigs. Today we do not accept some gigs because we need a minimum material and comfort. We experienced liars who promised us a great concert place and finally we arrived in a shit smelling bar… so… you just have to be humble and play.

• On stage, you use corpsepaint. What do you express with the black/white-painting?

We don’t use them anymore…

• Who’s the creator of the fantastic coverartwork of “Forgotten Memories”?

It’s Benjamin Ith a fantastic graphic designer who works for us and some other bands like Your Own Decay or Primordial from Ireland. Check his website www.ith1.ch  !

• What’s the meaning of your Pseudonym “Hysgarth”?

 I don’t use it anymore. But at the time when we used the nicknames, they were almost all coming from our imaginations.

• What’s your opinion of the Swiss Extreme Metal-scene? At least, is there a real scene?

There is a fucking great potential. But here in Switzerland the artists are bad considered and nobody takes care of them. But as far as I know there are some great and meriting bands.

• What do you think about the neverending discussion of True Black Metal vs. Melodic Black Metal?

Let them fight… They are not of those who make music go further. I mean this kind of discussion is sterile and useless. We just want to play.

• This is our typical last question we propose  to every band we are interviewing for the very first time and it is called the Game of the Tower. There is a very high tower and on top of this tower, there are three bands waiting for you and you have to kick down two of them saving only one. For you, Hysgarth, the bands are: Immortal, Death and Cradle Of Filth...

So.. Chuck is already dead, Cradle does not interest me today and Immortal are not true J So I kick down all of them… No  I will kick down each of them run until the base of the tower and recuperate them before they are dead. I can’t ??? So I will let Death live… and try to recuperate Abbath and the guys… ;-)

• Thank you very much for the interview!

Thank you and I hope to see you at one of our gigs. Check the website.

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