"...To expand our sound and make it... Personal."

Heruka are an Italian black metal band, who first formed in 2000. They went to dormancy somewhere in the middle of that decade, only to return in 2016... to return with more strength and releases. Since their reactivating, the band have already put out two albums and an EP. The newest release, 'No Sun Dared Pass Our Windows' album was released at the end of 2019, so it is time to check out what is going on with Heruka. The forming member Adranor (guitars) and drummer Nemuri-Shi were there to give us answers.

AM: Hello there. How have you and the band been after the release of your latest album, 'No Sun Dared Pass Our Windows', which was put about a year ago actually?

Adranor: Hi Lane! First of all, thank you for welcoming us to your Archaic Metallurgy webzine. Fortunately (or unfortunately, it depends on the point of view :D ) we are all still alive and in excellent shape. After the release of 'No Sun Dared Pass Our Windows' we were in full preparation to promote the new album in the live environment. But due to the vicissitudes that we have all been experiencing for more than a year now we have been forced to stop on that regard.

AM: How was the album welcomed by the fans? And the media?

Adranor: The feedback from the last album was really good. We received many positive reviews. It was a very complex job, the most complex work done by the band so far and it is gratifying for us to have received these kinds of responses. One more incentive to continue on our artistic path.

AM: The band has been active for about 21 years now. There was a huge cap between releases though. How do you see the history of the band?

Adranor: In the first period of the band's life (2000-2005) the demo 'Doxa Epicurea' (2001) and the EP 'Leggenda' (2005) were released but only after overcoming the long stalemate and the entering in the lineup on a permanent basis of Nemuri-Shi (drums) and Nekrom (vocals) in 2017, the project slowly began to express its full potential. The compositional maturity acquired over the years, (also due to the participation in other musical projects) and the creative output of all the elements in the band made it possible for the first album 'Deception's End',the EP 'Turning to Dust' and the second album 'No Sun Dared Pass Our Windows' to be released in the following three years. So far we are satisfied with our evolution but I don't think it's over.

AM: Your music isn't any kind of typical black metal, judging by my ears. It also is rather characteristic in general. You seem to include some other genres in your compositions, too. What is the aim with your musical path? And can you give some deep analysis about it?

Adranor: We always try to create our compositions in a very natural way by not following any fixed pattern. Songwriting usually evolves starting from guitar riffs, but not necessarily, in order to successively develop the complete arrangement of the song. Each member of the band has their own technical/musical background that we try to exploit in the best way. We listen to a lot of music, of different genres, just to expand our sound and make it, as far as possible, personal.

AM: The bass on your newer releases remind me of Iron Maiden's Steve Harris' style. You really wanted to put it forward in the mix. What are your opinions about your bass and the importance of it, generally?

Adranor: Too often in extreme music the bass is overshadowed by other instruments, especially guitars, as almost always an extremely "icy" sound is preferred or simply there is not enough space in the mix for its frequencies. We believe that its overall importance is fundamental and its lines must be able to create melodies like those of guitars but with total independence. Basically we have never been inspired by Steve Harris but if our bass lines made you think about him we are more than happy.

AM: The bass guitar playing is really vivid, not unlike proggressive music stuff, too.
Your lyrics aren't about Satan or burning churches. On the latest album you tackled mental illness. How come?

Adranor: Since the dawn of its existence, humanity has felt the need to place the inexplicable side by side with some non-earthly divinity or figure. This is, in my opinion, acceptable up to a given period. The developments in science and the greater accessibility to knowledge should have long since led to the natural cessation of the various creeds and doctrines. Obviously all this did not happen for several motives and so, many are the artists who, in their lyrics, still speak about imaginary figures created centuries ago as a god or a satan. In any case, these are entities that basically need their alter ego to be considered as actually existing. We don't know if the bands that deal with those issues actually believe in all of this or do it solely to remain consistent with a certain type of black metal. We prefer to deal with something else. Personal events, sensations and states of human malaise having as the central idea the only true certainty in life: death, after all.

Nemuri-Shi: On every album the aim with the lyrics is to conjure up a certain atmosphere, with 'No Sun Dared Pass Our Windows' it came up very spontaneously, like everything else for that matter, talking about different kinds and states of mental illnesses seen from the perspective of the affected. It wasn't a simple thing to do but certainly one of the most interesting and absorbing. We wanted to maintain an absolute impartiality whenever possible since it wasn't in our interest to give any kind of judgement one way or the other and I think we managed pretty well to do so. So the album is made of a series of vignettes, each one highlighting a single piece or fragment, momentarily leaving behind the whole picture only to return to it once the listener has arrived at the end of the path. Luckily on more than one occasion the reviewers did actually listen to the album while reading the lyrics and that helped so much in understanding that 'No Sun...', while being a complex album both lyrically and musically it can be fully enjoyed as an atmospheric experience.

AM: On your earlier releases, if I've understood correctly, you created your own storyline?

Adranor: As I said earlier, in the first releases the main theme was about an intimate journey with autobiographical references, imagined to be done together with the other members of the band, in an imaginary context created personally by me. The lyrics of the first album 'Deception's End' (2018) are an extension of those written for the EP 'Leggenda' in 2005. The 6 songs of the EP have been re-recorded and 10 more songs have been added to complete the first album. The language used on the lyrics of 'Leggenda' is Italian, converted into English on 'Deception's End'.

AM: You've done some live shows in the past. Did this Covid-19 crap royally fuck your concert plans? How are your live song, do you perhaps do some special gimmicks live, or do you just hit it hard?

Adranor: Of course, the advent of Covid-19 created many problems for us too. The search for live dates obviously stopped due to the impossibility of playing live. In the meantime, however, we did not stop; a new album (the third) has been recorded in full and another project is on the way and I hope it can be completed soon. We hope to be able to give you more info on both fronts by the end of the year.

AM : You guy have other active bands, and share history in them, too, right? Do they all go well hand in hand?

Adranor: I also play in two other bands; Throne Of Molok (industrial death/black metal) with 3 albums in our discography together with the EP 'Mutate to Survive' released in 2020, and another band called Sirrush (black/death metal). With the latter, we released an EP back in 2011, and the first album has been completed and will be released shortly.
For those who want more information, below the metal-archives links:

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Throne_of_Molok/42123

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Sirrush/3540376387

Nemuri-Shi: Yes, me, Adranor and Nekrom we have all played in Ars Macabra but I was in the band in a different period so I never played with them before joining Heruka. But yes, Adranor and Nekrom knew each other quite well and in fact that is the reason why Nekrom was invited to be the singer. Apart from that I have and have had a number of projects in which I mostly play drums but not only, (I'm a bass player as well), the most relevant is Blood Legion in which I am the drummer, singer and main composer. It is a death metal band with a touch of melody and at times some very politically incorrect lyrics. We released a demo in 2000 and an album; 'Human Beings' Extermination Campaign' in 2012.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Blood_Legion/3540418524

AM: "Extra, extra! Read all about it!!!", news time! What are your future plans? Did this down-time make you come up with new music perhaps? Any other hot-as-hell news?!

Adranor: Yes!! As I anticipated in the answer N°8 we have a new album completed, recorded, mixed etc. that we hope to release soon, another project that could materialize in autumn (surprise surprise!), and of course we will try to resume live concert activity as soon as possible.

Nemuri-Shi: The aim is to continue to release albums and projects where the difference between the other albums is clearly visible but with a consistent though ever evolving sound and atmosphere, (not easy!). If we look back at our discography it seems we have achieved this goal, (including the still unreleased third album), let's see where we'll go next. And to finish let me say that seeing an interest from outside, both metal fans and magazine or webzine editors and reviewers is no little push for us to always be at the best of our abilities in every department so a big thank you to you and whoever took and interest in our project.

07/12/2021 16:47