Silent Kingdom
Arcana Noctis: Greetings, please introduce Silent Kingdom and provide a short history...
Amir: Cheers Jamie to you and to rest of the Arcana Noctis crew. Well, Silent Kingdom exists for almost eight years and within that period of time we recorded two full length demos, one EP and two official albums (released by Walk Records). Originally band was formed by Sead Tafro (drums) and me back in 1999. At first Silent Kingdom was mentioned to be a side project of ours, since both of us played in Death Metal band Uriel at that time, but after the recording of our first demo "Fields Of Dream" we decided that Silent Kingdom will continue as a real band. We had a lot of ideas that didn't fit into music that we played with Uriel and we simply had to bring them out through music form that will later on become our trade mark, Sevdah Metal.
Arcana Noctis: Your new CD "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" sounds a world apart from its predecessor, "Bloodless". Everything has improved – playing, production, originality. How did you create such a great progression in such a relatively short space of time?
Amir: Well, if you had listened to our first two demos, especially second one, "Visions From Forgotten Land", you would see that this album isn't that big surprise. I love to say that "Bloodless" was an experiment, not our real style. I started writing songs for "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" right after we recorded "Bloodless" back in 2002. For almost two and a half years we waited for a good offer to release "Bloodless" and in December of 2004 we signed a deal with Walk Records. Album was out in March of 2005 but I already had songs for "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" finished. Impatient as I am, I couldn't wait for next two years to record new CD and after we got a financial support from Walk Records we decided to enter Radio 202 Studio in Sarajevo. It is a professional, well equipped studio and with some help from our friends we managed to record this album in time. Our new drummer, Stefan Komljenovic, produced this CD and far as I know reviews on production are great.
Arcana Noctis: The style on "Reflections Of Fire" is extreme Metal fused with a Folk music distinctive to Bosnia (called Sevdalinka). Can you give us a brief insight into this music (perhaps with recommended further listening)?
Amir: This question is very interesting for me. Sevdalinka is Bosnian traditional music and it dates even before arrival of Turks. In some older songs you can even find some ancient Slavonic influences. Of course when Turks came they gave a final shape to this music. Sevdalinka is a love song in its essence and beside love as the main theme it also deals with hate, war and people's emotions. This song is usually performed on Saz, an original Bosnian string instrument, with male vocalist. In last hundred years female vocalists are also accepted as the part of Sevdalinka culture. Also, Sevdalinka is something that is in common for all ethnic groups in Bosnia. For example, you can find some Jewish influences, as Sephards came here almost four hundred years ago, than, one of the greatest authors in history of Sevdalinka, Rade Jovanović, was a Serb... and so on. During all these years I heard a lot of great performers of this music but my favourites are Zaim Imamović and Safet Isović. They are probably the best performers of this music in our history.
Arcana Noctis: Opeth and other Swedish acts seem to show their influence in your music. Some of these bands from the Swedish Death Metal scene took a very commercial turn and "softened" their music. What's your opinion on this? Will Silent Kingdom always remain an "extreme" sounding band?
Amir: Would you believe me if I tell you that I never listened to any other album of Opeth except for "Damnation"? I don't like Swedish scene in general. For me there are only two bands that are worth of listening, At The Gates (R.I.P.) and Dismember. Most of other bands that are coming from that area are turning towards Nu Metal and shit like that. Just look at In Flames... Silent Kingdom is extreme Metal band and it will stay extreme as long as we have strength to play. We started out as a true Black Metal band but as we matured as a musicians and song writers, our style developed into something completely new and progressive but we stayed within those extreme Metal borders. This music is something that fulfills us and as far as I'm concerned I will play it forever.
Arcana Noctis: The songs on "Reflection Of Fire" are rather long (all around the ten minute mark) with a lot of different components. On average, how long does it take for one of these epics to take shape?
Amir: As you can hear I put a lot of my time and energy into this album. I worked for almost two years to write these eight songs... It was very hard for me since I never worked on a conceptual album before and I tried to tell a story with music so that music speaks for itself, independently of lyrics. Each song is structured out of two parts, first one is played on acoustic guitars and was based on Sevdalinka with clean vocals (Mirsad Rahić) and female vocals (Larisa Gavrić), and the second part is development of the story into something more aggressive. For the first time we used lyrics written in Bosnian and it turned out to be a very good idea since fans and press in ex-Yugoslavian region accepted it with approval. What I used for inspiration for this album is love as universal truth and emotion that we all feel... sooner or later, in one way or another. In my opinion you simply can't say a lot of things in song that lasts for three or four minutes. You can't tell a story in the right way in that short time and since music is an art form it needs to be explored and it needs time and patience too. When I write song I don't think about how long that song will be, for me it is very important to tell a story and if that story needs 15 or 5 minutes to be told... so what. My personal satisfaction is the most important thing for me.
Arcana Noctis: Amir, some of the guitar playing in your songs is superb. How long have you been playing guitar for and about how much time do you devote to practice each week?
Amir: Thank you! I started playing guitar fifteen years ago but it got serious during the war time in 1993. That was when I formed my first Death Metal band Incinerator together with Sead Tafro and couple of our friends. I used to practice 10 or 15 hours per day but now, because of my daytime job (I work as a graphic designer in one of the biggest corporations in Bosnia) I reduced it to one or two hours. I'm lucky to have side projects and because of that I'm always in capability to play whatever I want.
Arcana Noctis: It seems the Metal scene in Bosnia (and FYR countries) is improving all the time. Western Metal bands are starting to visit your lands and you also have some killer acts of your own (Agonize, Inferfector, Toxic Death...). Is there a "positive" vibe in the underground there, like things are in ascendence?
Amir: I really don't know what to tell you on this one. We are in good relations with guys from Agonize, Interfector and some other less known bands. Almost every other band, except mentioned ones, tries to fuck you up and stuff like that. They always spread some rumors between themselves and if you do something good that majority will appreciate they will tell a bunch of crap about your work. I must tell you that I don't give a fuck about their opinion... our work and years behind us are enough.
Arcana Noctis: Both Silent Kingdom CDs so far have been issued through local record label Walk Records. How is the cooperation with them? If a label with a better distribution and possibilities of promotion approached Silent Kingdom, would you be interested?
Amir: We have very good cooperation with Walk Records. Those guys are the best. They are very correct and they did everything they promised, without empty words. The only bad thing is that they don't have strong distribution even though what they have done for us by now isn't bad at all. I can tell you that in the past we had some proposals from Austria and Germany but we decided not to sign for any of those labels simply because their offers were more than rip off's. Also we had a proposal from Serbian label Rock Express Records and we were really interested but they dropped the deal literally in the last moment. They never explained to us what happened. Currently we have two proposals along with proposal from Walk Records so we'll see what will happen in the future.
Arcana Noctis: Bosnia, like Silent Kingdom's music, is something that is made up of a lot of different influences (albeit ones that are not always friendly to each other). How do you feel about living in such a place? If given the opportunity – would you move abroad?
Amir: You're right when talking about hostility in this region, especially here in Bosnia. It's not easy to live here... there are many reasons for that but the main reason, in my opinion, is the latest war that happened. Domestic politicians are playing with our minds and trying to screw us up as much as they can. Unfortunately a lot of people trust them and believe that they will actually do something for them. Lie. Nationalism is something that has deep roots in Bosnia and it, probably, will never disappear. Bosnia is a state where you have three main nationalities Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks and two entities Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska. Could you imagine how does that kind of state is functioning? It doesn't. Politicians of all three sides are fucking robbing their people and than trying to blame other two nationalities for that. Endless circle. That is something that can't be cut out of mentality of ex-Yugoslavian people. I had some opportunities to leave this country but I didn't. It doesn't mean that I won't do that in the future. Bosnia is a beautiful country, rich with natural resources, it exists as a state for 1000 years so when you come here you can see a lot of interesting things.
Arcana Noctis: There's some photos on your website of a live show of Silent Kingdom. How do you feel the music comes across live and would you ever consider a tour or something like that?
Amir: When we first started with live shows it was difficult since there were only three of us in the band. Of course we didn't sound like we should back then but now situation is different. Now we have a new member, a keyboard player, so we're complete now as a band.
Arcana Noctis: "Silent Kingdom" is an interesting name. Is it a reference to your nation's secret history?
Amir: Yes, it refers directly to Bosnia. As I mentioned before Bosnia is a state that exists for 1000 years but very small number of people outside of ex-Yugoslavian region knows that. I used to work for some foreign companies here and it is very strange to see their reaction when I tell them about history of this country. That is something on which we're really proud of. With our music we're trying to tell the rest of the world who we are.
Arcana Noctis: It is said that the artist's surroundings can influence his art. Do you find inspiration in the buildings of old Sarajevo, or walking in the mountains that encircle the city?
Amir: I actually do find inspiration in things you've mentioned. Sometimes I simply look through window of my room and what I can see is ancient mountain with medieval fortress on top of it. It just fills me with some emotions that can't be described by words so naturally I grab my guitar and try to express my feelings through music. When you see places like Husein Gradaščević's tower or Srebrenik's old town or Castle of Lucretia you literally shiver... and if you know the stories and legends that are weaved into those stone walls you will have a plenty of inspiration.
Arcana Noctis: This might seem like a small thing, but you have used Cyrillic text on the CD cover. As I understood it, Bosnian language (like Croatian) was written in Latin script. Any significance to this?
Amir: Cyrilic text is a basic text in these areas used by ancient Slavic people. From that text all other texts were extracted. This text that we used on our CD cover is a Bosnian variation and was used for writings on old tombstones called Stećci. It's very important for us to show those writings that were used by our ancestors and it tells a lot about their understanding of afterlife as well as their poetic view on this life.
Arcana Noctis: Reading the lyrics to "Reflections Of Fire", it seems you have some quite negative views on religion. Would it be reasonable to assume that most of Bosnia's (and former Yugoslavia in general) problems are caused by religious intolerance?
Amir: In my opinion, religion has nothing to do with recent war. I know a lot of people, Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats, that don't know a shit about their religion. Religion was just an excuse for nationalism. For example: recently I met this guy, Croat, he never went to church in his life, curses his God at every corner, hates the pope and similar stuff... yet, he hates Serbs and Bosniaks (Jews, Protestants etc.) only because they aren't catholic. He knows nothing about his religion, he never heard of St. Joseph, Moses etc. he never read a page of Bible in his life so now I ask you what kind of believer is he? And 80% of people in B&H are like this. It is totally the same thing in Bosniaks (building Mosques at every corner but they remain empty because no one is praying) and Serbs. Nationalism is our problem. We have to get rid of that disease.
Arcana Noctis: Time for a history lesson... I'm going to mention some historical figures of Bosnia – Herzegovina, please tell the readers something about them:
– Tvrtko Kotromanić:
He was a Ban (something like king) of Bosnia from 1353 'till 1391. He was a king of Serbs, Bosnia and western parts of country, Dalmatia, Raška and Croatia. He played a significant role in Bosnian history and was claimed as a last true king of this country.
– Husein Gradaščević:
Husein Gradaščević (born in 1802 and died August 17, 1834) was a Bosniak general who fought for Bosnian autonomy in the Ottoman Empire. He is often referred to as "Zmaj od Bosne", meaning "Dragon of Bosnia", a title he may have invented himself. In 1831 Gradaščević was called upon to lead the movement for Bosnian autonomy. He moved to Belgrade and then to Istanbul, where he died under mysterious circumstances on August 17, 1834.
– Ivo Andrić:
He was born in the village of Dolac, near Travnik, in 1892. After spending his youth in his native Bosnia, which was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he studied philosophy at the universities of Zagreb, Vienna, and Cracow. After receiving a doctorate in letters from the University of Graz in 1923, he entered the Yugoslav diplomatic service. He was a great writer and for that he won a Nobel prize.
Arcana Noctis: Several members of Silent Kingdom play in Sarajevan Black Metal outfit Krv... In fact, looking at Silent Kingdom's website you all play in different bands. Would you like to tell us more about these?
Amir: It's true that all of us have some projects. Edin, Emir and I together with Silent Kingdom former drummer Sead Tafro are playing in old school Black Metal band Krv and in a Doom Death project Forgiveness. Stefan and I are playing in Kursk (Melodic Death Metal). Stefan is also playing in his Rock band Euthanasia. It is cool to play in several bands since you don't play the same music over and over. Right now I'm recording a new album with Krv and Kursk so I have a lot of work to do.
Arcana Noctis: Has work started on the next Silent Kingdom opus? What are your future plans?
Amir: We have two new songs finished and I think that our new album will be different from our latest CD. It will be a conceptual album but not like "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)". There will be eight songs and every song will tell one of the legends or a story that is written on some of the tombstones I mentioned earlier. When I started with research on Bosnian legends I found some really interesting ones so I guess that those stories will shape our music. Concerning to our future plans I can tell you that we are planning to release a multimedia DVD and to finish our next CD. After that we'll see what will happen. We have some gigs booked too so I hope that everything will be OK.
Arcana Noctis: Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best with Silent Kingdom and other projects (in life as well as music...). The final words are yours...
Amir: Thanks for your support and I wish you the same with your webzine! I must say that this was an extremely interesting interview and some of the questions even surprised me... Hailz to all of our fans and friends and don't forget to visit our web site!
Amir: Cheers Jamie to you and to rest of the Arcana Noctis crew. Well, Silent Kingdom exists for almost eight years and within that period of time we recorded two full length demos, one EP and two official albums (released by Walk Records). Originally band was formed by Sead Tafro (drums) and me back in 1999. At first Silent Kingdom was mentioned to be a side project of ours, since both of us played in Death Metal band Uriel at that time, but after the recording of our first demo "Fields Of Dream" we decided that Silent Kingdom will continue as a real band. We had a lot of ideas that didn't fit into music that we played with Uriel and we simply had to bring them out through music form that will later on become our trade mark, Sevdah Metal.Arcana Noctis: Your new CD "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" sounds a world apart from its predecessor, "Bloodless". Everything has improved – playing, production, originality. How did you create such a great progression in such a relatively short space of time?
Amir: Well, if you had listened to our first two demos, especially second one, "Visions From Forgotten Land", you would see that this album isn't that big surprise. I love to say that "Bloodless" was an experiment, not our real style. I started writing songs for "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" right after we recorded "Bloodless" back in 2002. For almost two and a half years we waited for a good offer to release "Bloodless" and in December of 2004 we signed a deal with Walk Records. Album was out in March of 2005 but I already had songs for "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)" finished. Impatient as I am, I couldn't wait for next two years to record new CD and after we got a financial support from Walk Records we decided to enter Radio 202 Studio in Sarajevo. It is a professional, well equipped studio and with some help from our friends we managed to record this album in time. Our new drummer, Stefan Komljenovic, produced this CD and far as I know reviews on production are great.
Arcana Noctis: The style on "Reflections Of Fire" is extreme Metal fused with a Folk music distinctive to Bosnia (called Sevdalinka). Can you give us a brief insight into this music (perhaps with recommended further listening)?
Amir: This question is very interesting for me. Sevdalinka is Bosnian traditional music and it dates even before arrival of Turks. In some older songs you can even find some ancient Slavonic influences. Of course when Turks came they gave a final shape to this music. Sevdalinka is a love song in its essence and beside love as the main theme it also deals with hate, war and people's emotions. This song is usually performed on Saz, an original Bosnian string instrument, with male vocalist. In last hundred years female vocalists are also accepted as the part of Sevdalinka culture. Also, Sevdalinka is something that is in common for all ethnic groups in Bosnia. For example, you can find some Jewish influences, as Sephards came here almost four hundred years ago, than, one of the greatest authors in history of Sevdalinka, Rade Jovanović, was a Serb... and so on. During all these years I heard a lot of great performers of this music but my favourites are Zaim Imamović and Safet Isović. They are probably the best performers of this music in our history.
Arcana Noctis: Opeth and other Swedish acts seem to show their influence in your music. Some of these bands from the Swedish Death Metal scene took a very commercial turn and "softened" their music. What's your opinion on this? Will Silent Kingdom always remain an "extreme" sounding band?
Amir: Would you believe me if I tell you that I never listened to any other album of Opeth except for "Damnation"? I don't like Swedish scene in general. For me there are only two bands that are worth of listening, At The Gates (R.I.P.) and Dismember. Most of other bands that are coming from that area are turning towards Nu Metal and shit like that. Just look at In Flames... Silent Kingdom is extreme Metal band and it will stay extreme as long as we have strength to play. We started out as a true Black Metal band but as we matured as a musicians and song writers, our style developed into something completely new and progressive but we stayed within those extreme Metal borders. This music is something that fulfills us and as far as I'm concerned I will play it forever.
Arcana Noctis: The songs on "Reflection Of Fire" are rather long (all around the ten minute mark) with a lot of different components. On average, how long does it take for one of these epics to take shape?
Amir: As you can hear I put a lot of my time and energy into this album. I worked for almost two years to write these eight songs... It was very hard for me since I never worked on a conceptual album before and I tried to tell a story with music so that music speaks for itself, independently of lyrics. Each song is structured out of two parts, first one is played on acoustic guitars and was based on Sevdalinka with clean vocals (Mirsad Rahić) and female vocals (Larisa Gavrić), and the second part is development of the story into something more aggressive. For the first time we used lyrics written in Bosnian and it turned out to be a very good idea since fans and press in ex-Yugoslavian region accepted it with approval. What I used for inspiration for this album is love as universal truth and emotion that we all feel... sooner or later, in one way or another. In my opinion you simply can't say a lot of things in song that lasts for three or four minutes. You can't tell a story in the right way in that short time and since music is an art form it needs to be explored and it needs time and patience too. When I write song I don't think about how long that song will be, for me it is very important to tell a story and if that story needs 15 or 5 minutes to be told... so what. My personal satisfaction is the most important thing for me.
Arcana Noctis: Amir, some of the guitar playing in your songs is superb. How long have you been playing guitar for and about how much time do you devote to practice each week?
Amir: Thank you! I started playing guitar fifteen years ago but it got serious during the war time in 1993. That was when I formed my first Death Metal band Incinerator together with Sead Tafro and couple of our friends. I used to practice 10 or 15 hours per day but now, because of my daytime job (I work as a graphic designer in one of the biggest corporations in Bosnia) I reduced it to one or two hours. I'm lucky to have side projects and because of that I'm always in capability to play whatever I want.
Arcana Noctis: It seems the Metal scene in Bosnia (and FYR countries) is improving all the time. Western Metal bands are starting to visit your lands and you also have some killer acts of your own (Agonize, Inferfector, Toxic Death...). Is there a "positive" vibe in the underground there, like things are in ascendence?
Amir: I really don't know what to tell you on this one. We are in good relations with guys from Agonize, Interfector and some other less known bands. Almost every other band, except mentioned ones, tries to fuck you up and stuff like that. They always spread some rumors between themselves and if you do something good that majority will appreciate they will tell a bunch of crap about your work. I must tell you that I don't give a fuck about their opinion... our work and years behind us are enough.
Arcana Noctis: Both Silent Kingdom CDs so far have been issued through local record label Walk Records. How is the cooperation with them? If a label with a better distribution and possibilities of promotion approached Silent Kingdom, would you be interested?
Amir: We have very good cooperation with Walk Records. Those guys are the best. They are very correct and they did everything they promised, without empty words. The only bad thing is that they don't have strong distribution even though what they have done for us by now isn't bad at all. I can tell you that in the past we had some proposals from Austria and Germany but we decided not to sign for any of those labels simply because their offers were more than rip off's. Also we had a proposal from Serbian label Rock Express Records and we were really interested but they dropped the deal literally in the last moment. They never explained to us what happened. Currently we have two proposals along with proposal from Walk Records so we'll see what will happen in the future.
Arcana Noctis: Bosnia, like Silent Kingdom's music, is something that is made up of a lot of different influences (albeit ones that are not always friendly to each other). How do you feel about living in such a place? If given the opportunity – would you move abroad?
Amir: You're right when talking about hostility in this region, especially here in Bosnia. It's not easy to live here... there are many reasons for that but the main reason, in my opinion, is the latest war that happened. Domestic politicians are playing with our minds and trying to screw us up as much as they can. Unfortunately a lot of people trust them and believe that they will actually do something for them. Lie. Nationalism is something that has deep roots in Bosnia and it, probably, will never disappear. Bosnia is a state where you have three main nationalities Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks and two entities Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska. Could you imagine how does that kind of state is functioning? It doesn't. Politicians of all three sides are fucking robbing their people and than trying to blame other two nationalities for that. Endless circle. That is something that can't be cut out of mentality of ex-Yugoslavian people. I had some opportunities to leave this country but I didn't. It doesn't mean that I won't do that in the future. Bosnia is a beautiful country, rich with natural resources, it exists as a state for 1000 years so when you come here you can see a lot of interesting things.
Arcana Noctis: There's some photos on your website of a live show of Silent Kingdom. How do you feel the music comes across live and would you ever consider a tour or something like that?
Amir: When we first started with live shows it was difficult since there were only three of us in the band. Of course we didn't sound like we should back then but now situation is different. Now we have a new member, a keyboard player, so we're complete now as a band.
Arcana Noctis: "Silent Kingdom" is an interesting name. Is it a reference to your nation's secret history?
Amir: Yes, it refers directly to Bosnia. As I mentioned before Bosnia is a state that exists for 1000 years but very small number of people outside of ex-Yugoslavian region knows that. I used to work for some foreign companies here and it is very strange to see their reaction when I tell them about history of this country. That is something on which we're really proud of. With our music we're trying to tell the rest of the world who we are.
Arcana Noctis: It is said that the artist's surroundings can influence his art. Do you find inspiration in the buildings of old Sarajevo, or walking in the mountains that encircle the city?
Amir: I actually do find inspiration in things you've mentioned. Sometimes I simply look through window of my room and what I can see is ancient mountain with medieval fortress on top of it. It just fills me with some emotions that can't be described by words so naturally I grab my guitar and try to express my feelings through music. When you see places like Husein Gradaščević's tower or Srebrenik's old town or Castle of Lucretia you literally shiver... and if you know the stories and legends that are weaved into those stone walls you will have a plenty of inspiration.
Arcana Noctis: This might seem like a small thing, but you have used Cyrillic text on the CD cover. As I understood it, Bosnian language (like Croatian) was written in Latin script. Any significance to this?
Amir: Cyrilic text is a basic text in these areas used by ancient Slavic people. From that text all other texts were extracted. This text that we used on our CD cover is a Bosnian variation and was used for writings on old tombstones called Stećci. It's very important for us to show those writings that were used by our ancestors and it tells a lot about their understanding of afterlife as well as their poetic view on this life.
Arcana Noctis: Reading the lyrics to "Reflections Of Fire", it seems you have some quite negative views on religion. Would it be reasonable to assume that most of Bosnia's (and former Yugoslavia in general) problems are caused by religious intolerance?
Amir: In my opinion, religion has nothing to do with recent war. I know a lot of people, Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats, that don't know a shit about their religion. Religion was just an excuse for nationalism. For example: recently I met this guy, Croat, he never went to church in his life, curses his God at every corner, hates the pope and similar stuff... yet, he hates Serbs and Bosniaks (Jews, Protestants etc.) only because they aren't catholic. He knows nothing about his religion, he never heard of St. Joseph, Moses etc. he never read a page of Bible in his life so now I ask you what kind of believer is he? And 80% of people in B&H are like this. It is totally the same thing in Bosniaks (building Mosques at every corner but they remain empty because no one is praying) and Serbs. Nationalism is our problem. We have to get rid of that disease.
Arcana Noctis: Time for a history lesson... I'm going to mention some historical figures of Bosnia – Herzegovina, please tell the readers something about them:
– Tvrtko Kotromanić:
He was a Ban (something like king) of Bosnia from 1353 'till 1391. He was a king of Serbs, Bosnia and western parts of country, Dalmatia, Raška and Croatia. He played a significant role in Bosnian history and was claimed as a last true king of this country.
– Husein Gradaščević:
Husein Gradaščević (born in 1802 and died August 17, 1834) was a Bosniak general who fought for Bosnian autonomy in the Ottoman Empire. He is often referred to as "Zmaj od Bosne", meaning "Dragon of Bosnia", a title he may have invented himself. In 1831 Gradaščević was called upon to lead the movement for Bosnian autonomy. He moved to Belgrade and then to Istanbul, where he died under mysterious circumstances on August 17, 1834.
– Ivo Andrić:
He was born in the village of Dolac, near Travnik, in 1892. After spending his youth in his native Bosnia, which was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he studied philosophy at the universities of Zagreb, Vienna, and Cracow. After receiving a doctorate in letters from the University of Graz in 1923, he entered the Yugoslav diplomatic service. He was a great writer and for that he won a Nobel prize.
Arcana Noctis: Several members of Silent Kingdom play in Sarajevan Black Metal outfit Krv... In fact, looking at Silent Kingdom's website you all play in different bands. Would you like to tell us more about these?
Amir: It's true that all of us have some projects. Edin, Emir and I together with Silent Kingdom former drummer Sead Tafro are playing in old school Black Metal band Krv and in a Doom Death project Forgiveness. Stefan and I are playing in Kursk (Melodic Death Metal). Stefan is also playing in his Rock band Euthanasia. It is cool to play in several bands since you don't play the same music over and over. Right now I'm recording a new album with Krv and Kursk so I have a lot of work to do.
Arcana Noctis: Has work started on the next Silent Kingdom opus? What are your future plans?
Amir: We have two new songs finished and I think that our new album will be different from our latest CD. It will be a conceptual album but not like "Reflections Of Fire (The Journey)". There will be eight songs and every song will tell one of the legends or a story that is written on some of the tombstones I mentioned earlier. When I started with research on Bosnian legends I found some really interesting ones so I guess that those stories will shape our music. Concerning to our future plans I can tell you that we are planning to release a multimedia DVD and to finish our next CD. After that we'll see what will happen. We have some gigs booked too so I hope that everything will be OK.
Arcana Noctis: Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best with Silent Kingdom and other projects (in life as well as music...). The final words are yours...
Amir: Thanks for your support and I wish you the same with your webzine! I must say that this was an extremely interesting interview and some of the questions even surprised me... Hailz to all of our fans and friends and don't forget to visit our web site!