An interview I had with Markus (guitar player) about the Norwegian metal band Cretura.
Hello to you, thank you for your time. How things are going?
Hello Carla! Things are going great here in Norway. We just got home from 2 quite succsessfull shows in Gdansk and Stupsk in Poland. A few weeks to catch our breath and then we’ll embark on our European Tour co-headlining with the Croatian metal band Angelseed!
First to let readers know about Cretura, when the band appeared on the metal scene?
Cretura I guess first made our appearance on the Metal scene internationally in 2014, this was when we did the X-mas in hell tour in Germany as support for Six Feet Under and Maat. We’d been a part of the metal scene in Norway for quite some time before that all the way back to 2010 but during that time we still worked on creating our sound and image, so one can say that 2014 was the starting year of Cretura as a full line up band playing symphonic extreme metal.
You have signed a deal with the Italian label WormHoleDeath, same time you recorded the new album in Italy.
Yes we have! After the tour in Germany we got in touch with WHD where they expressed an interest in the band and after some talking back and forth we signed a world wide record deal. After that we went to Bologna- Italy to record our debut album in Realsound studio with Wahoomi Corvi as a producer. It went great and the album sounds very much like we wanted it to.
”Fall Of The Seventh Star” is the newest release, so talk about it.
Ok, so “Fall Of The Seventh Golden Star” is an 11 track album which showcases our musical approach with a very diverse soundscape, spanding from norwegian black metal to symphonic metal. The lyrics tells a story about how humanity is going towards the end, both as a race but also in a philosophical aspect. We’ve taken actual historical events, religious events, folklore and old epic poems and conjoined and molded them into a fictional tale where we follow humanity both as a race but also as a philosophical person ultimatley facing death. We’ve taken inspiration from Dante Alighieris epic poem “Divine Comedy” which is about Dante’s decending to hell and ascending to heaven. We’ve used fragments of the book of revelation from Christianity with the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. And we have connected this to our own folklore from the Sámi people of Norway.
Who’s the artist that made the cover artwork?
The artist who made the cover artwork is called “Xaay” he has done work for known bands such as Nile and Behemoth. It was great working with him because he really understood what we wantet and made a great interpretation of our guidelines. We actually didn’t want to micromanage his work because as an artist you should make room for other peoples interpretations. So we basically just told him about the story, sent him the lyrics and songs and said “go”. I think also we made 2-3 sketches but more as guidelines rather then demands. The end result is something that we really like and think represent the epicness of our music and story very well!
On the album is only one song in Norwegian, ”Nar Lyset Dor”. What does the title means and why only one song in Norwegian on the album?
“Når lyset dør” is translated into enlgish as” When all light dies”. It directly references to our Norwegian Black Metal approach and is also the song which uses this kind of atmosphere most deliberatly. The reason why this is the only song in Norwegian is that it was the only one that felt right to have in our own language. The music is inspired by bands such as Immortal, Burzum and Emperor. The lyrics is written in such a Norwegian figurativley and philosophical way that doing it in english would actually change the meaning of the lyrics. So in short terms, it had to be in Norwegian.
Do you have two other releases, 2012 and 2013, what can you tell me about them?
No, we have 1 other release. “When The Dead Goes To Dance’’. We are clearing it up but it is going to take some time. Once it’s done we’ll post a note on facebook about it. Anyways, “When The Dead Goes To Dance” is our selfproduced EP. It was recorded and released in Norway in 2013. Back then we didn’t know if we wanted to do this all the way so we just focused on Norway release. Looking back at it this was a EP that should probably have been put more time and effort into production. But then again I like the fact that it has a very youth like approach to it. I think we composed the songs while we were like 17-18 years old or something. I can hear the innocence and the unconcernes on the EP which is a memory dare to me at least. But fuck it is really low budget..
Which are the band’s influences, aswell which are the themes of Cretura?
Cretura is basically the bastard infant child of Dimmu Borgir and Nightwish I’d say. We are not in any way a traditionall black metal band, nor are we a traditional symphonic or power metal band either. That’s why we use the term symphonic extreme metal about our music. It is inspired by bands such as Epica, Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Nightwish, Ava Inferi and so on but we will never lock into one particular genre I think. Our themes is very much about humanity and though “Fall Of The Seventh Golden Star” has a very negative view upon humanity..if you read between the lines we are really trying to encourage change and hope for something new. But unlike all the fairytales and stories we know that in order to build something new one must first tear the old stuff down.
Soon you are going to tour over Europe. What dates are confirmed so far?
Yes we are, starting at March 25 and then we’ll stay on tour to the 8th of April.
Thus fare we have confirmed every date on our announced tour scheduale. We’ll be visiting countries like: Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Rep., Germany, Denmark, maybe Sweden and ending in Norway.
If things are going to work fine with the newest release, have you thought about recording a new release?
I won’t say anything concrete. But I will say this. We composed the songs for “Fall Of The Seventh Golden Star” in 2014 and 2015. It’s been 2 years since I personally made a riff and I constantly get inspired by things going on. whether it be some new music I hear or the natural landscapes of another country it surley makes my head ticking.
But for now our main focus is this comin release on april 8th!
Do you want to end this interview with a message for the readers and fans?
Yes, I would like to thank each and everyone who reads this, Cretura 2016 is going to be a hectic year and we hope to see a lot of metal heads on tour!
Cheers to you all. Hope to see you soon. Rock on!
Thank you for your time!
https://www.facebook.com/Cretura
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