Interview with Lava Abyss

Hi! You originally started as “Lava” but later became “Lava Abyss.” What inspired the name change, and how does it reflect the band’s evolution?
At first, when I started this project, I wanted the simplest name that would match a volcanic theme, but due to the fact that the Internet is overflowing with crap, we found it difficult to find our music on the Internet, and we decided to deepen our name in every sense of the word. I believe that this decision had a very positive effect on the group, and it acquired a more extended meaning.

Your album Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire was recorded in 2021 but is just now being released in physical format. What caused the delay, and how does it feel to finally share it with the world?
It so happened that we put a lot of effort into creating this album and the band as a whole and then worked on the next material, we did not really do any promotion. After the Archivist label released the album, it was awesome to see the printed copies of this brainchild. To hear and see so many reviews and feedback among metalheads and even from people far from metal, this makes you work harder on new material for the future.

Your new single, “Secret of the Black Soil”. I think I have an idea of what it’s about just by looking at the cover art , but can you share more details about the themes in the single?
Right after the debut we were preparing the next album, and pre-production for seven tracks had already been done. Due to the introduction of imbecile neighbors into Ukraine, all this was postponed in terms and the theme of “Lava Abyss” and everything connected with it was slightly directed towards the dying “guests” on this EP/single. It is the main message that is presented with the participation of little-used words of the millennium before last, when there was already Kievan Rus (the one and only) and its name “Rus” had not yet been stolen by those who settled later beyond its borders in the northern swampy wastelands, traitors and outcasts who tied their ties with the Mongol Tatars, in connection with which the eternal war arose, which has been going on for about 900 years, in its various manifestations. Unfortunately, this track had to be dedicated to them…

Being a duo from both Ukraine and the U.S., how did you manage the distance when creating music together?
When we recorded this album, we were on different continents, but we managed to quickly and efficiently record it and find solutions for production.

Mike Poggione plays bass for Lava Abyss. How has his experience shaped the sound of the band?
You bet it has! Besides the fact that Mike is one of the best bass players in the world in metal and he is the most professional musician I have ever worked with – the sound he produces really individualizes Lava Abyss, since such bass is not typical for blackened death metal or especially black metal.

You describe Lava Abyss as “Plague Metal,” focusing on topics like pollution and human greed. Can you explain what Plague Metal means to you and how it defines your message?
The band’s theme is based on the insignificance of current human ideologies such as active self-destruction of the entire civilization and all living things that surround it with such a smile like nothing is happening. On illusory predetermined destinies for the masses that do not need them, but they invented gods, authorities and false political and dumb wealthy leaders because they are more dumb than all others and they inspire and create new absurd legacy. Not realizing that they are a tiny flying anthill built thanks to natural evolution on a thin layer of the earth’s crust – covering an unimaginable scale for themselves, a huge piece of hot stone and metal called magma or if already erupted by its type – lava, a bottomless, lava abyss.

Your lyrics critique all religions rather than just focusing on anti-Christianity. Why do you feel it’s important to address religion in this broader way?
Any religion is invented for the selfish purposes of its creators and its users.
Under the guise of good and the surrounding world, they frightened the population with their delirium due to their limited minds. Any inexplicable natural phenomena were described as divine influence or intervention, but fortunately, scientists have already explained enough to understand that religion is just a trick.

The title Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire feels very symbolic. What does it represent, and how does it tie into the album’s themes?
The concept of the album is about natural disasters that are related to lava and magma on the planet and are epically intertwined with condemnations of the naivety of all religions, the absolute helplessness of humanity before these elements and the smallness that we bear metaphysically in relation to the space in which we are.

Each track has a consistent meaning, for example – “Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire” about the beginning of the birth of the earth in detail, with the implication that vain gods and no “leaders of humanity” will save any of us from a tornado of red-hot metals, dozens of kilometers wide and thousands of kilometers high.

Did recording during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine impact the album’s sound or themes?
Covid did not affect the recording of the album, perhaps it even helped to concentrate all the efforts on the recordings due to the ubiquitous infrastructural lull

How has working with Archivist Records helped bring this album to life?
We are very grateful to our label for publishing the album in such a difficult period of time for Ukraine.

Your lyrics reflect a misanthropic view of humanity, focusing on its destructive tendencies. What drives this outlook, and do you see any hope for change?
All this absurdity under today’s name “life” will soon end. Humanity is not eternal, and its end is near and it will not come to its senses. Do you believe that the arms, power and money race can end and the planet and all its life forms will have a common goal? ….just by seeing an advertisement on YouTube or turning on the TV, you can understand everything…

Do you see your music as a call to action, or more of a reflection of the dark state of the world?
Yes, you are right and beautifully described the reflection of the dark side of the world. I call our art dark theater.

Is Lava Abyss a way for you to express personal frustrations, or do you hope to provoke deeper thinking in your listeners?
To some extent, yes, I feel very sorry for this planet and its inhabitants who are suffering, if they are still alive…
First of all, this is a dark theater in which our real representation of this world is captured, with unceremonious colors that are so lacking today.

Being from Kyiv, how has the war in Ukraine affected you as musicians? Has it influenced your music or worldview?
On February 24, I woke up from the bombing of Hostomel airport, five kilometers from me, there were 20 helicopters, there was great chaos. We managed to leave, as did many who immediately reacted, but those who remained in our area (Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel) were imprisoned in the occupation and many innocents were mercilessly killed… Even children, teenagers, girls, old men, young men. They killed everyone indiscriminately. In Hostomel, in the first weeks, Russian soldiers brutally raped girls and hung them on the streets, soon after that they were surrounded and neutralized, but who will return these innocent lives?

A good friend of mine from a black metal band sat with a group of people from his condominium in the basement, during the occupation, russian soldiers occupied strategic positions in residential buildings and covered themselves with civilians, these were trained, heavily equipped soldiers (not like 99% of the army – naked and barefoot), but they behaved worse than wild animals, defecating right under themselves, ransacking entire apartments, shooting civilian moving cars and killing volunteers who rescued the remaining domestic animals locked in houses. They murdered people in a car behind them when they were driving through block post, just shot all who was in car… And there is countless stories like that…

Right in my condominium, in Irpin, there was a pawn shop with a video showing soldiers loading household appliances directly into a tank (televisions, washing machines).

Unfortunately, this war continues to leave an unimaginable mark on the lives and feelings of peace of all Ukrainians, at least.

I’m not talking about the corruption that affects this war, every party that participates in it, and unfortunately, first of all, Ukrainian politicians who profit from the death of their own citizens. A stalemate. russians have no place in Ukraine, but the government must be changed from head to toe.

What’s your take on the current global metal scene, and how does Lava Abyss stand out from other blackened death metal bands?
I think, first of all, we are not set to play the standardized genre of “blackned death”, as we make dark music with the help of sound extraction from the components of death and black separately and since we want to hear the compositions that I write in the inversions and intervals of dark classical music – I think this is what will always distinguish us from the leading performers of the genre and their imitators, especially if you look at the current scene. Therefore, we better call it volcanic plague metal.

With everything happening in the world, do you feel the themes in Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire are even more relevant today than when you wrote them?
It doesn’t really matter, only this is that this is war shows that some part of the planet rather be already under the ash but the lyrics mostly touch on the period of time from the birth of the earth to the potential near future, against the background of these time intervals two years is just a puff, even taking into account the fact that over the last century we have destroyed flora and fauna more than at any other time considering the eruption of the Toba supervolcano, 75,000 years ago, when humanity almost died out.

Now that the album is out, what’s next for Lava Abyss? Are you already working on new material? Thank you for your time!
Yes, we are actively preparing new material. In December we will release a new single called “Tephra Horizons”, literally yesterday we threw out a teaser for it on our Instagram page, after that we will record a new album, it is already completely composed, we are currently looking for a drummer and a second guitarist for the day of its recording, tours and further involvement.

Thank you Stanley for the interview, it was interesting to participate!

https://www.instagram.com/lavaabyss