Roland (guitars, vocals) The idea of WitcheR came to Karola’s and my mind more than a decade ago. The whole story goes back to the mid 2000’s. We had already played together in another band, which split around 2007, but since we had many common favourites from the black metal scene, we decided to try what we were capable together. That is how the first demo was born in 2010 followed by many releases since.
At that time we first start writing songs, I was all about The Witcher. Around that time was the first part of the video games out, which totally mesmerized me, and if I remember correctly, then Karola liked it, as well. Since the conception of the game perfectly matched to the witchery world we had in mind, with a bit of moderation we took the name. At that time, there was not such hype yet over the genius world of Sapkowski as nowadays, which was just a Slavic fantasy world known by its inner circle, happened to fit to the atmosphere of our witchery world drawn by our music.
Your music combines both the beauty of almost classical synthetic and brutal darkness.
I am glad you have noticed that, because the foundation of WitcheR’s music is indeed the elevated mood of black metal mixed with classical music elements. That is the main reason behind the concept of include one classical song in our interpretation on every album, which we started on our second release.
In my opinion, black metal is a genre not everyone can understand. Certainly, many see only the image, which is important, but there is more than that. I never forget when the atmosphere of this genre sucked me in. It was very similar to a shot in my veins with the best drugs. I was immediately addicted to this dark, elevated and otherworldly atmosphere, I felt at home in a blink of an eye.
Your music has been described as enchanting?
Our music was described by so many words, including the one you just mentioned. There is no secret recipe or many thoughts behind this, when we sit down with Karola to write music, that naturally comes out, our very colourful taste in music gives the nature of WitcheR’s music.
The new album Soul Bell? It's sound compared to other releases and it's overall theme?
Our brand-new album is ready to be released, which is entitled ’Lélekharang’, in English ’Soul Bell’. The album is in production at this very moment, and we are busy to get ready for the promotion. We planned two videos for it, one of them is already done, and we are getting ready for the other one now.
I believe our style did not change since the previous albums, only we took the quality of the production, the sound of the album one-step further. I hope that our fans will notice this, as well.
When can we expect it?
According to our plans, the CD, tape, and digital release will be out this October/November, followed by the LP release a bit later. It is not up to us; the factories work with amazingly long production times today.
Your last ep was a homage to summer? Will the new release explore a darker season?
The Summernight Melancholy Ep was a spontaneous idea, which took shape on summer nights, tried capturing the atmosphere of summer evenings via music as we, hermit-like people see. There is no plan to pay tribute to other seasons, though the idea to make an individual EP to every season has come to our mind. Unfortunately, we have more plans than time…
Will it keep you trademark atmosphere?
If you have the new album in mind, yes, we definitely kept the atmosphere of our previous albums, even managed to make it more epic. There not will be any particular surprises, we are not the type of band always following the actual trends for 15 minutes fame, we make music for the sake of creation, we record what comes from inside, regardless how many people like it. Of course, there will be some novelties, for example Karola provided some clean vocals to a WitcheR album for the very first time, though not too much.
Will it still be in native Hungarian?
Yes, we stick to the Hungarian lyrics, which is very important to me. Hungarian is my native language and in this, I can best express my thoughts. I always regret that many words and beautiful poetic images are lost from my lyrics when planted in English, in spite of that the translations will be included in the booklet. Nowadays it is accepted – especially in black metal – if someone sings in native language.
The combination of melody with the extreme? Does this come naturally?
With no doubts, that comes naturally from us. We do not want to be the 25th Mgla or 56th Saor copy band, WitcheR was like that a decade ago and I think will be after 10 years, as well.
The lyricism that Witcher gives life?
Definitely. My lyrics are about respect for and importance of traditions, attachment to our roots, ideas and ideals of the past. They are not direct wizarding or witching themes, but indirectly in all of them, there is magic, spirituality. That interest me in every day’s life, so I cannot write, and I do not even want to write about anything else. However, for WitcheR I put less militant words on paper than in case of Vrag.
Your songwriting partnership?
I do not really know the answer for that. Karola is a trained musician, she can perfectly write and read music sheets, on her part there is a measurable level of our development. On the other hand, I play from my heart, relying on my ears, my hearing. I practice a lot; I can only hope that I developed as a composer, though similar to WitcheR’s style, which is also instinctive on my part.
Should music keep the aura of mystery and mystique?
Definitely yes. We even try keeping the mysticism around WitcheR, as much as possible in the world of social media.
Plans for the future
As for WitcheR, we concentrate with full power to the release of the new album. Making video, handling the merchandise, we are working on the content of the limited edition, at the moment, but we already talked about a new album, even the idea of another special release has surfaced. In my spare time I deal with my other two musical projects. Basically, the second Frozen Wreath album is nearly done and I have already started recording materials for the 4th Vrag album. Both of these might be released next year.
Top 6 albums of all time?
This is a question, I would answer every day differently, because I listen to all kind of music. If we narrow it down to black metal, my answer is:
Burzum: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Mayhem: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Summoning: Minas Morgul
Sear Bliss: Phantoms
Emperor: In the Nightside Eclipse
Ulver: Nattens madrigal
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