There is a cave deep in the forest, which we have already seen once. During another walk, in the middle of our lucky journey, familiar voices may creep towards us again! I am very happy that you are not concerned with what is trendy these days! You always created interesting and valuable music wherever you were present. What the hell is this Cave Altar? Why was this necessary? How did that appear in your mind that made it clear to paint the bleakness?
I’m glad we’re talking again, and that it’s about something new. To be honest, I wanted to do a death metal based band for 25 years, and then as time went on, a lot of doom came into it. I had a band called Dög about 15 years ago, which released a couple of demos and an EP, it was a kind of punkish death metal, and then I wanted to take it in the direction of true cryptic death metal. We rehearsed for 1-2 years, I wrote a few songs, but then nothing came of the record, the band broke up. 10 years flew by and I started working on the old Dög riffs again. At the same time, we made the debut material of Holdlajtorja (this is the progressive dark/black metal project of Vorkuta’s musical brain, Inmar), and when Kryptagonist (Sír, Leiru) was experimenting with drum sounds, he put very slow drums on one of the test recordings, and it clicked for me, I knew that my old riffs had to be transformed in this direction. We had a couple of name ideas, and in the end Cave Altar, which had been on my list of potential band names for a long time, became our name. In 2021, we released the first material quickly, so that no one else could take over the name. By the way, it is inspired by the Szeleta cave in Lillafüred, one of my favorite domestic caves since my childhood, which is a cave where ancient people lived and it has beautiful large spaces.
You have been active in projects and bands such as: Holdlajtorja, Marblebog, ex-Apokalipszis Árnyék, ex-Teth, ex-Dög, Asattarn, Fahalmaz, Nopheleth, Nora, Paluster Rex, Worguldum, ex-Diecold, ex-Funebre. I’m saying that you like to experiment, discover new things and are very creative and full of ideas. What would you say about that?
Yes, it’s a side effect of my slightly rambunctious, never-resting nature. From a “business” point of view, it would have been more successful to build a single band, but that’s not my path. I’ve tried many things, although most of them were black metal and dark ambient. I am currently active in three bands.
I played a guitar solo for the first demo in Holdlajtorja, I will play bass on the upcoming debut album, but here Inmar and Kryptagonist do the lion’s share of the work.
I don’t think Marblebog needs an introduction, here I can do black metal one time, and then an instrumental material with a synthesizer. We are currently working on a new recording, here too I asked Kryptagonist to play drums, he has already done his part. Then I would like to experiment with ambient music again, but for now we are focusing on the material in front of us.
Then there is Cave Altar, which is basically a death/doom duo, but we don’t want to lock ourselves in boxes.
What has happened to you over the past years? How much more time can you devote to music? Is the time allocated to it satisfactory for you?
In the last 5 years, I have released tons of stuff with Marblebog and Asattarn (the latter is no longer active), and in 2021 the “Impermanence” demo by Cave Altar. Looking back, this pace was inhuman. I subconsciously wanted to make up for the break between 2010-2018. At that time, my parents died and a lot of bad things happened to me, so publishing limited run cassettes and vinyls was not my main concern. There is never enough time for music. You could say that I breathe music, it is the central pillar and core of my being, my sense of self, but of course it is impossible to make a living from it, especially with my introverted personality. No live shows, no serious promotion, no ass-kissing. So, realistically, unfortunately, there will never be enough time for this.
Let’s start dealing with Cave Altar stuff. I’ll be honest, you’re not doing anything new, nothing extra, but the end result is still good. In 2021, we got 2 songs from you, which were released as a demo on cassette. It’s called “Impermanence” with a cute little butterfly cover. 🙂 Did doom/death metal fans find you? Did you get enough encouragement to continue?
The big advantage of a new band is that you don’t have any expectations (with the second material you already have, haha). We just did the demo and we were surprised by how well it was received. It’s a very small world even within the underground, but I feel like it’s a very grateful environment, we’ve been supported from many places, from the USA to Belgium to Singapore.
Do you have any special method to improve your musical level? Thinking here of the perfect placement of mood, sound, different riffs, which can improve the result?
We both try to improve on our instruments, and we are constantly improving the instrument park and studio conditions. In songwriting, I think we already have experience, but we always look ahead, we don’t like to repeat ourselves. Anyway, we struggled a lot with the sound. Good sound is important for this type of music, much more important than with any other band I’ve played before, and here we really had to put ourselves out there to get a good end result. There are mistakes and inaccuracies, and there will be, we are not fans of the current sound that is drawn to the grid and pushed onto bricks. We are in the minority, but we think this makes the sound live and breathe.
As far as I know, the follow-up was not planned to be an EP, but a full album. In fact, you wrote that the new release will have 3 songs in 19 minutes. In comparison, we got an EP with 2 songs in 12 minutes called “Serenity in Ruins”! What happened, why did it change?
Yes. I am very critical, but also about myself. We originally planned an album, but it didn’t come together as a coherent whole. Then we found a sound that worked with the strongest songs, but the third song didn’t fit the picture for me. Kryptagonist gave me shit because of this, but I was like, these are my riffs, and I didn’t like them in that form, so we cut out a lot of stuff, and that’s how we ended up with two songs. You could say we sacrificed on the altar of the atmosphere.
The new compositions of course continue on the path you started. A very deep rumble from a cave in the forest. I think the sound got better too! What should we know about the 2 songs? How is this different?
The riffs that make up the songs are more than ten years old, but the songs themselves, the structures are new, and the way the riffs were played, they were also different from the originally written themes. This is heavier material than the first one, we can feel that we have reached a wall. Completing “Serenity In Ruins” was an exhausting journey, these tracks are so heavy that a random death metal band is children’s music compared to it. It was also a bit of a goal to create the heaviest material possible. I love the way a riff tuned to A# sounds in a big space. Obviously, we are not young boys anymore (the average age of the band is 41), so we have our own world, and we have never been fans of copying, but as an inspiration, as an ideal, Disembowelment, Thergothon (especially the demos), and very early Pan.Thy.Monium were there to light our path. Brutally heavy stuff, but it came naturally to me, it fit my psyche, haha…
It was released by Fekete Terror Productions in the form of a cassette, in 66 copies, in blue color. Why MC? Is a further release expected with another publisher? What would be the perfect look and format for you, if you had the chance?
This material would have been short on CD, and the production costs and waiting times for vinyl have become absurd in recent years, so it was obvious that the physical version would appear on cassette. Of course, all our material is also available on all streaming platforms. I already negotiated with a label about a Cave Altar vinyl. Whether this will be the future debut album on LP, or a demo collection on a 10″ record, we don’t know yet. There is no perfect format for me. I have already released about 50 different vinyl, cassette, CD releases with my various bands, I have no special desires anymore. I didn’t have a picture disc yet!
Returning to the planned debut album, I curiously ask WHEN will it finally come? Other than that, what else can you tell us about it?
I have no idea. We want to release something new next year. Whether it will be an EP or an album, we don’t know yet. But we definitely want something in 2024.
Is your year promising to be better than last year? Can you plan better and get more done? What can be expected in relation to other projects now?
So far this year, Cave Altar „Serenity In Ruins” and a t-shirt have come out. In April, after many years, we are making official Marblebog t-shirts again, and as I mentioned above, we are currently working on a new Marblebog material, which will be out this autumn. Hopefully, Holdlajtorja’s first album will also be ready this year. I’d like to make the next Cave Altar as well, it’s just a matter of time…
What kind of music are you listening to lately? Is it possible that you listen to many different styles than, say, 10 years ago?
I have always listened to many different styles of music. What’s more interesting is what I don’t listen to. For example, I don’t listen to black metal at all anymore, only occasionally. Recently, a lot of Judas Priest has been played here, especially their albums from the 70s, “Sad Wings of Destiny” is a total goosebump, but “Screaming for Vengeance” is the best for working out, I love it. I also listen to a lot of Pink Floyd, and all kinds of bizarre synthesizer music, for example Suuri Shamaani, Archon Satani. I recently started listening to the Beatles discography, starting from their debut album in ’63, but as they became more successful and took more drugs, their music became more and more depressing. The first 6-7 albums are the real deal!
I will go to the forest a lot more and look for murmurations, because that is what my soul needs. We live in a rotten, fucking world. You always need a Cave Altar!
So be it!