After a five-year break, the Hungarians BORNHOLM are back with their fifth album „Apotheosis“. The pagan/black metal band around Péter „Sashnot“ Sallai has used the time to further hone their sound and can now present their best album yet. We talk to the band mastermind about the grueling work on the album, the titular deification of man and the deeper, spiritual meaning. In addition, Sallai talks about his view of manipulation and truth covering by science, media and religion.
Hello Péter, thank you for taking time to do this interview with us. How are you the days?
Despite the circumstances, I can say that everything is fine, thank you! There is so much to do as always but I try to keep the borders! We are working on some new media contents for BORNHOLM, playthrough videos etc., I run my art projects, photo shootings …it is not a boring period…
With Napalm Records BORNHOLM found a new home for your music. Why did you choose Napalm, what does it improve for you?
We did not choose Napalm, Napalm chose us, that is the truth. When we finished the album in late January 2019, we had no idea where it was going to be released.
We’ve had a connection between us before, but somehow we didn’t fit into the portfolio. Each of our previous albums came out at different labels. A friend of mine who works for an independent management asked me how we were with the album. He heard we were working on a new record and was curious about it. Since we wanted to switch record label, we gave it a chance. That’s how he got to Napalm, among other things, but we didn’t know what the outcome would be. They will listen and there will be something, we thought. Not long after, I received an email that said so much to congratulate and if we want we have a place there. Needless to say, we were surprised.
You stated that the last two years were the “toughest, longest and most unforgettable work period”. Can you tell more about that?
We started work in March 2019. By then, we already had the structure of the songs, and we went into the studio with relatively specific ideas. We were musically insecure, as after a long period of songwriting, a rather unique piece of music came together. I feel like we have defined ourselves with this record. We didn’t know what its reception would be. We started playing instrumental recordings, which D and I did, because Charun was still a relatively new member of the band at the time. The songs were mostly ready when he arrived.
I played all the guitars and bass, then D followed with the drums. Then he fell ill and the recordings had to be interrupted, and I, too, was so exhausted that my voice was almost useless. It was only a little later, but it was the greatest achievement of our lives in every way. We felt that what we were doing was different now. The studio was also secluded from the outside world and had a unique atmosphere. No one was there sometimes except for the sound engineer and me, but there were plenty of cats out there.
There were eyes everywhere when one went out to smoke at night … However, we only returned to mixing in 2020, in March. We barely started working when the news of a pandemic came and we had no idea what it was. We were isolated anyway, but it was even weirder. We decided to keep working, not caring about what was happening in the outside world. It was in this mood that we finished the job and I have to say the isolation was good for everything. We were able to focus much better on everything. However, it became apparent that the record could not be released that year. That’s when a creative process started, which resulted in me shaping up a lot on the songs. New themes have been added, complete solos, keyboard tracks. The whole album got a whole new look and it took to be the end result.
Five years have passed since „Primaeval Pantheons“. The recordings for „Apotheosis“ were already completed at the end of 2020, am I right? Why did it take so long to release the album and would you change something on it now with some distance to the recordings?
There was a mix of the early version in 2020, but as I mentioned we did another round with the full album. The epidemic clearly set the pace, but it turned out to be in place in its time. Everything happened that way and when it was time for it. We had almost no influence on the process. It all shaped itself and it was a pretty magical experience. It took the extra time to get to its final shape.
If someone plays music, you know that an album is almost never made completely. there is always something to change in retrospect, but I can say that with this album we are the closest we have imagined. It is the true essence of us and our music.
You recorded again at SuperSize Recording Studio in Hungary. Were there any changes in your usual way of working because of Corona, did you have problems to get together? Was it also an option to record the album separately in home studios?
At first, there were questions about what to do, whether to stay, but we didn’t change anything. We did it for what we went there for. In fact, the end of the world wouldn’t have stopped it either. We just didn’t deal with it. It added something to our mood, that’s for sure. A small part of the later recordings were made in a home studio but by then the instrumental parts had already been recorded, which was also recorded, and we didn’t want to interrupt the process in any way due to the mixing. None of us are a scary breed and we have simply ruled out the outside world. I don’t follow the news anyway, I don’t care what’s going on in the world. We created our own.
How have you evolved as a musician and as band since the previous album and what makes the new album better than its predecessor?
I learned a lot while writing the record. We had to define our own music and get to the point where we were no longer affected by any outside influence. Luckily, all of our albums feel better, or at least different than the previous ones, we’ve never lived from our past. We, however, felt this was a milestone, like a new beginning. We have managed to take what we stand to another level. I’m proud of this record because it’s round and has a story both musically and in terms of content. During each recording, one develops as a musician. Here, however, there was much more time to think through everything and we understood a great deal about ourselves.
„Black Shining Cloaks“ is one of the oldest tracks and is from the time when “Primaeval Pantheons” was released, as you stated. So the track is already about five years old. How has it developed and changed during this time and why was it perfect for a music video?
One of the earliest songs on the album. The previous one didn’t even release, it was ready a version and I thought about it a lot. It was different than before and I knew from the first minute that there would definitely be a video clip for that. One thing was missing, I wanted a solo by the end, but in a different way than I would. Then during the epidemic came a sudden idea and I was looking for Mike Wead, who is a good acquaintance of mine and I raised the matter with him. To my great delight, he undertook and the solo at the end of the song was born in a few days. It’s not a simple piece, but it puts the crown on the song.
„Apotheosis“ got a raw and powerful sound, it fits the atmosphere really well, you can feel it through the entire album. Is atmosphere the most important element on the sound of BORNHOLM?
For me, metal music has always been about guitars. Anything else may be okay, but it will be something metal. Not specifically because I’m a guitarist, but because that’s the soul of this music. It is very difficult to create a good guitar sound. It is exactly what one hears with one’s ear that needs to be heard back and that is no small task. I spent almost a full day in the studio in front of the amps to find what I needed. The sound of the band is based on this. Most of the musical themes are also played on this instrument. The keys always stay in the background, but are much needed to support the sound. Each instrument has a place and must form a uniform sound image.
Why was Maor Applebaum the right choice for the mastering of the album and how was it to work with him?
When the mixing was done, Viktor Scheer was the sound engineer and I thought we needed an outside ear for the mastering. They having worked together before, and he asked me what it would be like to ask him. I was very happy when I got a positive response and when he heard the record he was happy to work on it. It was made in a completely analogous way to mastering in Los Angeles and you can hear that too. He did a fantastic job.
„Apotheosis“ means deification and lifting man up to be a god. Why did you choose this title and is there an overall lyrical concept for all the songs?
There is a point in the life of a person who is looking for the reality behind the visible world when his eyes open to another world that he has not perceived until then. However, he is changing and this process is not always pleasant. He realizes a part of his being that is more than human. It is like birth when you move from a familiar place to another world and quality at the cost of great suffering. This thing can be paralleled with alchemy, where the transformation of lead into gold symbolizes the divinity of human quality. But it is also the promise of Lucifer that you will be like Gods, knowing good and evil. It also appears in the divine self-consciousness of the Roman emperors, the album begins with the words of Caligula. There are many aspects and levels to this thing and the album reveals the hidden reality behind the visible world. Meanwhile, this change is happening. The past, present and future become interconnected and become a cyclical process. Man dies and is reborn differently as the world around him is destroyed and enters another era. The symbol of Aquarius is the angel with the human face, the man who has become a god. The final age in which the process is completed. That’s what man enters today.
Would you consider yourself a religious and spiritual person?
Every human being is a spiritual being, he is only aware of it on different levels. It is not the body that creates consciousness, since the body builds itself up in development when it is ready, it is born. Something has to build this up. Religion is a veil of truth and its primary purpose is to rule the mind and thereby keep man in bondage by his own conscience. You have to tear apart this veil to reveal what is behind it. I’ve never been religious, since it’s just theater, an outward doctrine that contrasts with what it hides. A tool to hide reality, just like the media. Those who represent know exactly this, which is why they so much persecute those who do not believe what they say literally. Today, this is exactly how science and the media behave like a new religion.
Why did you name the band after the island of BORNHOLM? What do you particularly like about the island, did you have ancestors there?
In the beginning, at the age of just 19, the singer of the very early line-up brought that name. According to the saga of our Nibel, Attila marries Brünhilda, who came from the island of the Burgundians. He took the name BORNHOLM from here and then I nodded. I wasn’t particularly interested in what the band’s name was at the time, I never thought it would exist in that long time. But eventually the band became known by that name. At that time, the orchestra still had a great influence on the orchestra of the northern world. It still has it today, but it goes far beyond what musical styles suggest.
How important is your own origin to you, what does the history of your ancestors mean to you?
That is not the emphasis. The past is known to those who have experienced it, everything else is just a version of what another has told. Each person carries his ancestors in his genes, since he is also only one element in the birth chain. Any other artificial ideology into which everything can be explained. But we are not the pagan metal band that revives a fashionable past that never existed. We are talking about reality. Paganism must be lived here and today, for there are no ages but different stations of a single age. It is more of a spiritual attitude than an age that existed back in time somewhere. What the origins of the people burned along with the library in Alexandria, today can only be mentioned in the forbidden libraries of the Vatican. Everything else is just an artificial and manipulative product of controlled education, not to be taken seriously.
The cover artwork is really beautiful, there is so much going on and it fits the album title “Apotheosis” and it’s meaning perfectly. Did you draw it yourself? How are all the elements on the artwork connected to each other and to the songs?
Few know but I am a graphic artist and have been working in the metal business worldwide for a long time. This is my other side. I’ve always been into art and of course the visual part is in my hands. There are a lot of elements related to music and lyrics and there is more to it, but it would be worth a separate interview.
What do you like best about your work with Mortpaintgraphics?
I manage this part of my life completely separated from the band, as I work according to the needs of work and other bands, there is no connection between the two things. It was natural for me to connect my artistic activity with the world of metal music, but I don’t want to say more about that in this interview. This is another story.
What’s your favorite piece of artwork you’ve done lately?
I don’t stand for it as a fan of his own work. Each has a different story, each has a stage in my life, and each has its own value or fault. It’s like a fingerprint.Each of them evokes something in me that would have been forgotten without it.
You are not only doing metal artworks, but also horror, sci-fi and fantasy. What inspires you about fictional worlds?
It feeds on a lot of things, but I don’t flinch in so many directions today. I have traveled in different directions to find what I really am. But it’s a work, not a free creation as it’s made to order, it’s a whole different thing than what the band is talking about. Inspiration comes from within. It may inspire a forgotten experience, a reading, but it is also such that it is simply a deadline …
Let’s conclude with our traditional brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following words?
Current favorite album: Emperor: Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Comics: Frank Miller’s Batman
Best Movie-/Series-/Book-Universe: Twin Peaks
Climate: Moderated
Something that makes every bad day better: To create something from nothing
BORNHOLM in 10 years: A journey through Heaven and Hell
Thank you once again for your time! The last words are all yours. Is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Thank you so much for this great interview! All I can say, never believe in anything because of others!
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24. März 2022 Stefan Popp
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