Interview: Walg
Image by Sonja Schuringa
Walg is a black metal band hailing from The Netherlands. What is a “walg”, you might ask? Well, don’t ask us. We have no idea, and we’re quite lazy about googling such matters. What we can help you with is gaining some insight into the band’s background, their musical vision, and their thoughts on good local (to The Netherlands) coffee in contrast to surrounding countries.
The guys from the band were gracious enough to take time to an interview, which brought me quite a thrill when they accepted the offer. Why? Well, it was nagging me deeply about the album artwork’s meaning, so I absolutely needed to get that monkey off my back. Whether you think it’s an image of a bedraggled Saint Nick or simply your crazy uncle who still lives with his 80-year-old mother, you have to admit that the thematic elements are quite fascinating. It’s a bizarrely captivating image, despite the bizarre part.
We delve into the artwork question and so much more in the following interview with Walg (whatever that means).
Thanks so much for joining Blacforje for an interview! You guys are in the Netherlands, right?
Thanks for having us. We sure are! Hailing from Groningen, The Netherlands.
Your new album titled III was the third of a three-part album release within just 1.5 years. What inspired you guys to do three albums in such a short period?
Walg is our first step into the world of (melodic) black metal songwriting. Prior to Walg, we mostly made Death metal and hardcore. Of course, black metal is a genre we always listened to and enjoyed a lot. The genre carries a lot of emotion other metal genres just don’t have. For this reason, I think we are able to write a lot of music, seeing there is a lot to tell. Our goal is to release an album each year. So far so good! We are already working on the fourth album IVas we speak, which is set to Q4 2023/Q1 2024.
Is there a “theme” of III? If so, can you explain what it’s about?
The lyrical themes are inspired by the overall stupidity of humankind. We’re often disgusted by the human species in general, and this (of course) serves as great inspiration for black metal. Despair, loathing, gloom, and melancholy are the main ingredients for most of the lyrics. For us it is easier to express ourselves in the Dutch language. We love the “weird” tonalities of the language and believe they fit perfectly with the music. For example, the rolling “R” and hard “G” sounds are great to experiment with musically.
Each album we aim to have a sub-level of said theme. For III it was loss and decay, which translates to “Verlies & Verval”, also the title of the 9th track on the album.
Image by Sonja Schuringa
Blacforje is a new publication with a vision of covering black metal that inspires hope for humanity, even in the darkest of times. Black metal definitely explores pain and heartache, but there are many artists in the genre who explore the beauty that is still found in life. I couldn’t help but notice on your website that you said, “WALG (en: disgust) is inspired by the stupid and overall sickening humankind. Despair, loathing, gloom, & melancholy are the main ingredients for their unique blend of emotional Black Metal.” There’s no question that humanity is often very depraved, and we tend to eat our own.
Would you mind expounding upon what you mean by the above statement? And do you think your music provides any hope that humanity can get out of our self-destructive habits in order to evolve into something better?
We believe that we are at a crossroads. And that is exactly what the cover art of III stands for. Walg doesn’t inspire hope. We love to explore the darker parts of ourselves and humanity with our music. Don’t listen to Walg if you are looking for hope because you will not find any.
What’s with the album artwork on III? I think it’s incredible for reasons I can’t even put into words. It’s as if someone merged Santa Claus with a hermit in the forest who hasn’t left in ages. Is there any symbolism behind it, or am I just being weird in reading into it?
Close! interesting interpretation. [laughs] The cover art is a representation of humankind. As we’ve mentioned before, our inspiration is fueled by the overall stupidity of our race. In our mind, the way we currently behave is “old” and “dying”. If we don’t change quickly, we are at our final stage.
Humankind wears a crown of rotting branches. Normally branches go into the earth, but we are so disconnected from our essence and reality that our branches grow upward - they literally reach into nothingness.
But we are not completely lost. There is still time and space to change our ways. We can still follow our “guiding stick” and return to the earth.
Does spirituality and philosophy influence your writing, both lyrically and musically? If so, how would you describe it?
We love to explore deep and darker topics. We believe spirituality and philosophy is all around us; there is no escaping it when touching subjects concerning the stupidity of humankind.
Final and most important question: is the coffee in the Netherlands better than your Belgian and German neighbors, or do you guys have mediocre coffee?
We live close to the German border, so we’ve tried both. That one is easy - The Netherlands! When it comes to Belgian coffee, no idea. Now we are actually curious… Dutch coffee is by far the best. [laughs]
Good thing you asked about coffee and not beer, by the way. All three of us think we are the masters of brewing beer, so that would have been an interesting discussion. [laughs]
