BlackPath by ARVAS
The band, first known as Örth (Norwegian raw Satanic Black Metal), was formed by Vassago Rex in 1993. It was a solo project. In 2009 V-Rex started to work on more material and recorded some demos, he changed the name from Örth to Arvas. The band consists of one full time member: V-Rex. He has been in the scene for over 20 years and is a very experienced musician. Nowadays, ARVAS concisting of the following members:
V-Rex: Lead/Rhythm guitars, bass and synths
Stürm: Rhythm Guitars (vocals on EVIL)
Snuff X: Drums
ColdBound: Vocals
Leslava: What idea do you want to convey through your music? What do you want to pull out of the depths of the soul?
V-Rex: Well the music just comes to mind pretty much by accidents because when I sit in the studio practicing or just play my guitar sometimes a riff just pops up and I just have to record it and store it. And then after a few weeks when I listen to it again it sometimes feel right and sometimes it doesn’t. The ones that do feel right are used and I work further on them until I have a finished song. Other times I can easily write a whole album in one week or so and then I work on all songs over a period of a couple of months until all is perfect. So I don’t really have any mission with my music, it is there to be enjoyed by the listener, and if you like it, it is great, if you don’t ,that is also ok because you cannot please everyone right.
Leslava: Tell us about the new album, which was released in the end of March.
V-Rex: BlackPath is an album we have been working on for a long time now, I had most of the ideas and songs ready for about two years ago, but I encouraged Sturm to write songs for this album too and he came up with three killer songs that I just had to include on the album. They were so different compared to the other material so they made the album more diverse and deeper. We are in on all different genres here, from thrash metal to death to black metal so all is represented in a strange way. The previous album was more a black metal album with a touch of thrash metal, this one is more a thrash/death metal album with a touch of black, it just happens these things and I never really plan on how the songs are going to be, they just are there and if they fit the general idea I will use them on the album. There is also two songs here that I wrote back in the nineties; ‘I am Thy Grief’ and ‘In Solitude I Dwell’. they have been done nothing with since I wrote them more or less and they have stood the test of time. Blackpath is an album we all were a part of, Snuff-X has done a very good job on the drums this time, he was great on the previous album too but he was not prepared then and was just thrown into the process. But he made it still. This time he had a lot more time to rehearse and to get into the songs. As for Sturm, he wrote as mentioned three songs and I think it is awesome, he also came up with other ideas on all songs basically so he is more visible in the soundscape then before. Coldbound has his Arvas debut on an album this time and came up with all the lyrics and did an amazing job here and his vocals are also pretty neat. We did not have a bass player this time so I did the bass on the album as well as producing and mixing. Dan Swanö took care of the mastering and did a very great job on getting it all to sound the way we wanted. The artwork is done by Nacaez Mindartset.
Leslava: The main values of life?
V-Rex: Main values of life: good one.. ehh I don’t quite know what to answer, but on the top of my head I must say; Death, Life; Love and Hate... the four contradictions...And Satan of course as an energy to actually keep on going.
Leslava: Do you like horror movies? What are you afraid of?
V-Rex: I like horror movies, the good old classics like Omen and such, my wife is the main horror movie fan in my family but I watch as well and like some of it, and some I don’t but there is always great horror stuff to watch.
Personally, I am always also most into romantic comedies actually, it may sound weird but I do. I am not afraid of anything actually.
Leslava: Where do you plan to perform this year?
V-Rex: We will see, first of now is a gig in Vienna and then we are off to London for the first time in May, and that will great. There is also concert in our old hometown Bergen later this year and hopefully a tour in the winter, so we will see.
Leslava: Do you have a desire to perform in Ukraine?
V-Rex: Arvas has been in Ukraine in 2013 when we played with Deicide, and it was a great experience, you never know, we might come back.
Leslava: What is happening on the contemporary Norwegian scene?
V-Rex: In Norway there are a lot of bands, way too many actually and there are a lot of these one man projects around who infests the scene with crappy music and they make no sense. There are some great bands as well. I don’t listen to new bands at all and there are not many bands I like, I support bands where I know the members and personal friends with, but that’s it.
Leslava: A few words for your fans.
V-Rex: Thank you all for supporting Arvas and for being who you are, this is all for you.