May Result
Arcana Noctis: Hail to thee Kozeljnik, for now May Result is a known underground Black Metal act, 10 years now from the time of your birth as a band, for how long you've thought is endeavour will last and what made you assign to the Black Metal genre?
Kozeljnik: Hails to you too! Yes, one decade had passed since our gathering and it was a time of great experiences, time of building the own spirituality and unveiling the highest levels of our energetically blackened wisdom that we expressed within our dark and aggressive form of musical art, simply called, Metal of Blackdeath. We crystallized our concept of living within this dark aura of Black Metal and we found it to be the most important and the only way of life we have as individuals, so it's kind a natural why we assigned to that form of darkly being.
Arcana Noctis: "Svetogrdje", your latest opus is quite different from your earlier opuses, more atmospheric than your previous releases and more complex in the same time when it comes to the song structures, but somehow the production, especially when it comes to drumms and especially to cymbals is weaker than on "Tmina" for example, it has somehow an unnatural sound, how do you see the evolution of your band, are you satisfied with what you've done on this album?
Kozeljnik: Well, I'm not sharing the same opinion as you have, but probably that's the way our new album impressed you. I think that we just developed our style to be more dark and authentic, but not totally different. It's still a record with our own identity, but improved and more coherent this time. I think "Svetogrdje" is one of those albums which unveils its power after more and more listening séances. It's a record which energy has to grow by each time when listener meets its dark source. It depends on which mood you take of course, but in general, if you have a right portion of energy to give to this record then it'll return you with a double. Concerning drums I think that we did a far better job then on "Tmina" record. This time it sounds more present and it fits to the music and the atmosphere quite well. To be honest, only the sound of snare drum should be improved, but it's a matter of taste I think. Anyway, to describe our drum sound to be unnatural, hmm... it's really strange comparison to me, but that's the way you see things, no problem.
Arcana Noctis: The lyrics for "Svetogrdje" are written in Serbian language which is a language with which I'm not familiar, can you introduce me to the philosophy of your lyrical universe?
Kozeljnik: Lyrically, "Svetogrdje" represents a sacrilegious manifestation deeply rooted in ancient symbolism of old Pagan spirituality and vast devilish wisdom of the horns of Slavic heathen's nature. We used those energies to enrich our wisdom within the dark prose of ours. Lyrics are mostly full of hatred, but written in more sophisticated way and from very personal point of view. It is anti-Christian, but not in a form of classical anarchy-rebels who don't care about the long distance echo of their so-called war against... who knows what? Also our lyrical side is based upon the individualistic Satanic philosophy, which is not idolatry. It's very personal and it doesn't represent an inverted biblical Satanism, but a form of energy that is a part of great laws of nature bounded with ancient occult symbolism and mysticism of old Pagan wisdom.
Arcana Noctis: Music in its modern form supposes a symbiose between the lyrical themes and the melodies, in which way this is put in the light by May Result, do you create firstly the lyrics or the melodies, who's responsible for music and lyrics, in the process of creating music do you work as a team or everyone is doing his part?
Kozeljnik: We mostly work as a team, but on a base of creativity of each member as individual. Mostly what does come up at first, are the musical parts, usually written by second guitarist Dusan and by me. Then we do the arrangements for the songs including drum lines and keyboard layers and we choose what lyric suits the best to the atmosphere of the song. It depends on mood, but mostly it goes spontaneously, followed by energy of music and lyrics, so it's kind of natural that we have a strong connected atmosphere between music and lyrics in general. Anyway the foreign fans would probably felt amputated, cause they mostly found our native language to be totally unfamiliar to them, but that's the way our expression is.
Arcana Noctis: Your first two albums were released by CCP Austria, you're now signed with your homeland label Rock Express, how is your relationship with this label and how did you got in contact with them?
Kozeljnik: Well, they are friends of ours for a long time. They offered us quite good two-albums deal and we decided to sign with them. They did a great job, even if they are still more or less underground label, but they are hard workers and they're struggling really good. Shall we stay with them or not it depends on what offers we get, not only from them, but also from other interested labels. We shall see in near future what will happen.
Arcana Noctis: With this album you've already ended the contract with Rock Express, counting here the sample CD that they've released last year, will you search for another label or will you renew the contract with Rock Express?
Kozeljnik: Well as I said in previous question, we shall wait some time cause we have no need to hurry that thing. Anyway, soon we will start to negotiate with labels and wait the right offer.
Arcana Noctis: You and some other members from May Result also play in a band called The Stone, tell me more about this band and your connection to it.
Kozeljnik: Yes, I am actually the only permanent member of The Stone who also plays in May Result. Well, our keyboardist Milan plays a session bass for live occasions and our second guitarist Dusan was involved in The Stone too in the past. Anyway, we have more than a brotherhood relationship between each other. Musically, The Stone is more into raw and aggressive Black Metal full of rage and furious speed, but still very cold and atmospheric. Until now we released three full length albums, one mini album, one 7" EP and one demo tape. Mostly of that, we released through German Solistitium Records, but also labels like Eclipse Productions (now Long Ago Records), CCP and Demonion Productions from Greece. Band also exists around one decade as well. In July The Stone will play a mini tour, which will take a place in Germany and Belgium. We will appear on German cult festival Under The Black Sun and some good bands will play there too like, Primordial, Ragnarok, Tsjuder, Antaeus, Urgehal and a couple more. Also before that we will play at Serbian Exit Festival on "Metal Hammer" stage and May Result will play there too. Some well known bands will be part of that, like Napalm Death and the main headliners Slayer.
Arcana Noctis: By now you've already played two concerts here in Romania, please tell me about the impression you have from this concerts, for me when I saw you live with Primordial and Negură Bunget, you were the best from the list as image and you've eclipsed Negură Bunget's show that followed.
Kozeljnik: Thanks for the compliments. Well, it was a very good show and we have quite pleasant memories upon it. I think Primordial opened their show very pompously and with great dose of energy, but later it became a little bit boring to me. Anyway it was a first time I saw them live and they mostly satisfied my expectation. Negură Bunget was OK, but I think they're too far away from a Black Metal concept with that new style. I rather prefer their first two CDs when they were more into Black Metal. I think our show was very good. I hope that Romanian fans had been also satisfied with our performance. Actually, our friend from "Ancient Beliefs" recorded that show in its full form and also made a video clip for us for the song from previous mini album. We included that live and video on a special limited to 666 copies 2CD as a bonus multimedia. He did great things for us and we eternally hailed him for honest support. Slava to thee (Ancient Beliefs)!!!
Arcana Noctis: You've also played at Open Hell Fest. How is to play live in such a company?
Kozeljnik: It was very good experience. We played on a second day and for the very first time in the middle of afternoon under the daylight. It was strange, but we played quite good show and had enjoyable moments with friends from other bands and labels. Anyway, Open Hell is very good festival and hope it will remain like this.
Arcana Noctis: How is the scene in Serbia now, do you have interesting bands/labels/zines there? Name a few.
Kozeljnik: Well, it's not so good. There are tons of bands, but their quality is on a poor level. Just a few bands are capable to do something original and authentic. Others just blindly follow the trends and jump from one wagon to another. About fanzine scene there are a few quality ones, but still nothing big and outstanding. There are also two or three magazines and for labels there are actually two labels worth to mention and they are Rock Express Rec. and Grom Rec.
Arcana Noctis: Is May Result a Satanic band, wich are your views on this topic?
Kozeljnik: We get Satanism from very personal point of view. For us it's not a form of religion or any kind of blind idolatry for the masses. We express it as a philosophy of individual. It's wisdom of nature and ancient darkness of old mysticism and occult energies within the traditional deviltry and it must be separated from present Christian biblical Satanism that actually represents the inverted religion and political shaped state to control today's pseudo morality, stupidity and weakness of civilization in global. Maybe the term Satanism is not the right one to explain our concept of energies, cause that word is mostly connected and used to be an opposite to Christians, but anyway we use it as a "modern" symbol cause it still brings something that is outstanding within our ideology. Someone will probably ask: "How could you mix Satanism and Paganism within your lyrics and statements?" Well, old heathens pantheons, be it Slavonic, Germanic etc. had a two postulates of energies. One is "good or light or positive" and the other is "evil or darkness or negative". Both energies are very important cause they respectively participate in forming the great old balance of nature, the realm of perfection and wisdom, the realm of Pagan deities. For men, it depends on which energy is actually a primary one for him and which is the one with whom he forms his balance. Maybe it's complicated, but think twice and you will come to the same source. We are the ones who feed our soul with darkness and our hearts lay on the other side of nature to get our balance and eternal wisdom. That side is a source of energy that we use to close to our perfection. In our case it's a dark one and it exists under the veils of ancient deviltry or better known to a modern society as Satanism. That's in-short explanation of our views.
Arcana Noctis: Is ideology important for May Result? Please try to explain your ideology as a band and your views upon the following concepts, try to define them trough the optics of your ideology.
Kozeljnik: Well I hope you already get that ideology is the most important thing in our life. I will try to give you a short line upon every term you mentioned.
Christianity - Form of energetic thrash that constantly distance men from nature!
God - As sole creator of the universe - a symbol for that distance!
Freedom - Nature and it's mystic darkly secrets!
Society - Flesh to desecrate! (what I have on mind is the present society.)
Nation - Values that must be rebuild on the ashes of blindness and stupidity!
Arcana Noctis: Which are your future plans?
Kozeljnik: We rehearsing with a new drummer Ved, due to our long time drummer Ilija left the band. We will play several gigs during the summer and I hope in autumn we shall book some more gigs in order to promote our new record. I hope that we will visit your country again and share the energy with Romanian fans. We will also start to work on a new material and I hope that it'll be finished at the end of 2006.
Arcana Noctis: An ending word?
Kozeljnik: Thanks for the interview and for your support! Good luck with your work. SLAVA SVETOGRDJE!
Kozeljnik: Hails to you too! Yes, one decade had passed since our gathering and it was a time of great experiences, time of building the own spirituality and unveiling the highest levels of our energetically blackened wisdom that we expressed within our dark and aggressive form of musical art, simply called, Metal of Blackdeath. We crystallized our concept of living within this dark aura of Black Metal and we found it to be the most important and the only way of life we have as individuals, so it's kind a natural why we assigned to that form of darkly being.Arcana Noctis: "Svetogrdje", your latest opus is quite different from your earlier opuses, more atmospheric than your previous releases and more complex in the same time when it comes to the song structures, but somehow the production, especially when it comes to drumms and especially to cymbals is weaker than on "Tmina" for example, it has somehow an unnatural sound, how do you see the evolution of your band, are you satisfied with what you've done on this album?
Kozeljnik: Well, I'm not sharing the same opinion as you have, but probably that's the way our new album impressed you. I think that we just developed our style to be more dark and authentic, but not totally different. It's still a record with our own identity, but improved and more coherent this time. I think "Svetogrdje" is one of those albums which unveils its power after more and more listening séances. It's a record which energy has to grow by each time when listener meets its dark source. It depends on which mood you take of course, but in general, if you have a right portion of energy to give to this record then it'll return you with a double. Concerning drums I think that we did a far better job then on "Tmina" record. This time it sounds more present and it fits to the music and the atmosphere quite well. To be honest, only the sound of snare drum should be improved, but it's a matter of taste I think. Anyway, to describe our drum sound to be unnatural, hmm... it's really strange comparison to me, but that's the way you see things, no problem.
Arcana Noctis: The lyrics for "Svetogrdje" are written in Serbian language which is a language with which I'm not familiar, can you introduce me to the philosophy of your lyrical universe?
Kozeljnik: Lyrically, "Svetogrdje" represents a sacrilegious manifestation deeply rooted in ancient symbolism of old Pagan spirituality and vast devilish wisdom of the horns of Slavic heathen's nature. We used those energies to enrich our wisdom within the dark prose of ours. Lyrics are mostly full of hatred, but written in more sophisticated way and from very personal point of view. It is anti-Christian, but not in a form of classical anarchy-rebels who don't care about the long distance echo of their so-called war against... who knows what? Also our lyrical side is based upon the individualistic Satanic philosophy, which is not idolatry. It's very personal and it doesn't represent an inverted biblical Satanism, but a form of energy that is a part of great laws of nature bounded with ancient occult symbolism and mysticism of old Pagan wisdom.
Arcana Noctis: Music in its modern form supposes a symbiose between the lyrical themes and the melodies, in which way this is put in the light by May Result, do you create firstly the lyrics or the melodies, who's responsible for music and lyrics, in the process of creating music do you work as a team or everyone is doing his part?
Kozeljnik: We mostly work as a team, but on a base of creativity of each member as individual. Mostly what does come up at first, are the musical parts, usually written by second guitarist Dusan and by me. Then we do the arrangements for the songs including drum lines and keyboard layers and we choose what lyric suits the best to the atmosphere of the song. It depends on mood, but mostly it goes spontaneously, followed by energy of music and lyrics, so it's kind of natural that we have a strong connected atmosphere between music and lyrics in general. Anyway the foreign fans would probably felt amputated, cause they mostly found our native language to be totally unfamiliar to them, but that's the way our expression is.
Arcana Noctis: Your first two albums were released by CCP Austria, you're now signed with your homeland label Rock Express, how is your relationship with this label and how did you got in contact with them?
Kozeljnik: Well, they are friends of ours for a long time. They offered us quite good two-albums deal and we decided to sign with them. They did a great job, even if they are still more or less underground label, but they are hard workers and they're struggling really good. Shall we stay with them or not it depends on what offers we get, not only from them, but also from other interested labels. We shall see in near future what will happen.
Arcana Noctis: With this album you've already ended the contract with Rock Express, counting here the sample CD that they've released last year, will you search for another label or will you renew the contract with Rock Express?
Kozeljnik: Well as I said in previous question, we shall wait some time cause we have no need to hurry that thing. Anyway, soon we will start to negotiate with labels and wait the right offer.
Arcana Noctis: You and some other members from May Result also play in a band called The Stone, tell me more about this band and your connection to it.
Kozeljnik: Yes, I am actually the only permanent member of The Stone who also plays in May Result. Well, our keyboardist Milan plays a session bass for live occasions and our second guitarist Dusan was involved in The Stone too in the past. Anyway, we have more than a brotherhood relationship between each other. Musically, The Stone is more into raw and aggressive Black Metal full of rage and furious speed, but still very cold and atmospheric. Until now we released three full length albums, one mini album, one 7" EP and one demo tape. Mostly of that, we released through German Solistitium Records, but also labels like Eclipse Productions (now Long Ago Records), CCP and Demonion Productions from Greece. Band also exists around one decade as well. In July The Stone will play a mini tour, which will take a place in Germany and Belgium. We will appear on German cult festival Under The Black Sun and some good bands will play there too like, Primordial, Ragnarok, Tsjuder, Antaeus, Urgehal and a couple more. Also before that we will play at Serbian Exit Festival on "Metal Hammer" stage and May Result will play there too. Some well known bands will be part of that, like Napalm Death and the main headliners Slayer.
Arcana Noctis: By now you've already played two concerts here in Romania, please tell me about the impression you have from this concerts, for me when I saw you live with Primordial and Negură Bunget, you were the best from the list as image and you've eclipsed Negură Bunget's show that followed.
Kozeljnik: Thanks for the compliments. Well, it was a very good show and we have quite pleasant memories upon it. I think Primordial opened their show very pompously and with great dose of energy, but later it became a little bit boring to me. Anyway it was a first time I saw them live and they mostly satisfied my expectation. Negură Bunget was OK, but I think they're too far away from a Black Metal concept with that new style. I rather prefer their first two CDs when they were more into Black Metal. I think our show was very good. I hope that Romanian fans had been also satisfied with our performance. Actually, our friend from "Ancient Beliefs" recorded that show in its full form and also made a video clip for us for the song from previous mini album. We included that live and video on a special limited to 666 copies 2CD as a bonus multimedia. He did great things for us and we eternally hailed him for honest support. Slava to thee (Ancient Beliefs)!!!
Arcana Noctis: You've also played at Open Hell Fest. How is to play live in such a company?
Kozeljnik: It was very good experience. We played on a second day and for the very first time in the middle of afternoon under the daylight. It was strange, but we played quite good show and had enjoyable moments with friends from other bands and labels. Anyway, Open Hell is very good festival and hope it will remain like this.
Arcana Noctis: How is the scene in Serbia now, do you have interesting bands/labels/zines there? Name a few.
Kozeljnik: Well, it's not so good. There are tons of bands, but their quality is on a poor level. Just a few bands are capable to do something original and authentic. Others just blindly follow the trends and jump from one wagon to another. About fanzine scene there are a few quality ones, but still nothing big and outstanding. There are also two or three magazines and for labels there are actually two labels worth to mention and they are Rock Express Rec. and Grom Rec.
Arcana Noctis: Is May Result a Satanic band, wich are your views on this topic?
Kozeljnik: We get Satanism from very personal point of view. For us it's not a form of religion or any kind of blind idolatry for the masses. We express it as a philosophy of individual. It's wisdom of nature and ancient darkness of old mysticism and occult energies within the traditional deviltry and it must be separated from present Christian biblical Satanism that actually represents the inverted religion and political shaped state to control today's pseudo morality, stupidity and weakness of civilization in global. Maybe the term Satanism is not the right one to explain our concept of energies, cause that word is mostly connected and used to be an opposite to Christians, but anyway we use it as a "modern" symbol cause it still brings something that is outstanding within our ideology. Someone will probably ask: "How could you mix Satanism and Paganism within your lyrics and statements?" Well, old heathens pantheons, be it Slavonic, Germanic etc. had a two postulates of energies. One is "good or light or positive" and the other is "evil or darkness or negative". Both energies are very important cause they respectively participate in forming the great old balance of nature, the realm of perfection and wisdom, the realm of Pagan deities. For men, it depends on which energy is actually a primary one for him and which is the one with whom he forms his balance. Maybe it's complicated, but think twice and you will come to the same source. We are the ones who feed our soul with darkness and our hearts lay on the other side of nature to get our balance and eternal wisdom. That side is a source of energy that we use to close to our perfection. In our case it's a dark one and it exists under the veils of ancient deviltry or better known to a modern society as Satanism. That's in-short explanation of our views.
Arcana Noctis: Is ideology important for May Result? Please try to explain your ideology as a band and your views upon the following concepts, try to define them trough the optics of your ideology.
Kozeljnik: Well I hope you already get that ideology is the most important thing in our life. I will try to give you a short line upon every term you mentioned.
Christianity - Form of energetic thrash that constantly distance men from nature!
God - As sole creator of the universe - a symbol for that distance!
Freedom - Nature and it's mystic darkly secrets!
Society - Flesh to desecrate! (what I have on mind is the present society.)
Nation - Values that must be rebuild on the ashes of blindness and stupidity!
Arcana Noctis: Which are your future plans?
Kozeljnik: We rehearsing with a new drummer Ved, due to our long time drummer Ilija left the band. We will play several gigs during the summer and I hope in autumn we shall book some more gigs in order to promote our new record. I hope that we will visit your country again and share the energy with Romanian fans. We will also start to work on a new material and I hope that it'll be finished at the end of 2006.
Arcana Noctis: An ending word?
Kozeljnik: Thanks for the interview and for your support! Good luck with your work. SLAVA SVETOGRDJE!