An all-consuming vortex has become manifest through Fathomless Hysteros, and its uncompromising force persists in ravaging our space and time dimensions, with grand melodic and hostile elements of both contemporary and classic aeons coursing throughout its dark matter. A review of this striking new abomination from OUIJA was followed by the honor of conversing with their lead invocator, Midgard, who offers his perspectives on many points surrounding this formidable entity. Its renewed incarnation, current outlooks on black metal, and other topics involving mythological and cosmic forces are all explored, along with events awaiting on the void’s other side for OUIJA.
Greetings and many thanks for taking time for this interview! Fathomless Hysteros represents a mighty full-length return after a lengthy hiatus. What is the story behind its creation and how does it relate to your initial reemergence with 2021’s Selenophile Impia?
First of all, I really like the title of the interview, very successful. With reference to your question, say that for different personal reasons unrelated to music, the band was inactive for a few years, but as I say, the beast was not dead, it was just sleeping. And the process of creating the album has possibly been the simplest to date since in my opinion we have the best line-up of the band in its entire history. That does not mean that we have not worked hard in the creation of this album, on the contrary it has been an arduous and hard task until we are satisfied with the final result.
How would you compare the songwriting process for this release to that of past efforts, and how did contributions from the newer band members influence the final result?
In previous albums, our work system was more primitive so to speak, certainly the new technologies make the composition process much easier, you can now do it in your own home.
And the new members have been a key piece for the success of this new album. All of them have greatly enriched our sound, both Fulgur and Shogoth with their impressive work, as with JM101 to the guitar, he is a genius and together with Map they have totally merged creating some very good songs in my opinion.
Ideas of a “Fathomless hysteros” could have many applications, including an actual cosmic or astral void, and also an endless imaginative potential in the mind. Was the album meant to portray one in particular, and do you prefer certain interpretations of it?
I prefer that each person have their own interpretations of the cover, the ideas that you give are completely applicable to said picture. My idea was to make a cryptic cover, for whoever sees it, it makes them think. It expresses many things just seeing it, but the nothing is difficult to express since we are a whole and at the same time, we are immersed in a fathomless cyclic nothing.
About the technical details, to express these thoughts in a picture was arduous and hard, together with Juanjo Castellano until he managed to capture what we wanted to represent in it. For a moment Juanjo almost abandoned the work, but in the end as a great artist he is, he was able to masterfully capture what we were looking for, in my opinion a unique cover.
Multiple allusions to black holes, which are certainly a fascinating topic, appear in the lyrics of these new songs. What do you find most intriguing about those areas of space?
There was a time when we were younger, every weekend we would take LSD, one thing we would do was draw a big spiral on a wall with a big black dot in the center. Under the effects of this narcotic, you stared at the spiral and it swallowed you into the void and blackness… perhaps that’s where my fascination for black holes was born.
What was it like to revisit the past through renewed versions of “Adversary” and “Unbridled Transylvanian Passion,” and how has your perspective on black metal changed since those days?
They were two songs that we wanted to record again because we wanted to know how they would sound in the current studio, with the new technological advances that this entails. They are two songs that the whole band likes and we were always wondering how they would sound when they were re-recorded with a great sound technician like Javi Felez and we even changed the tuning from the original songs. In my opinion they have been bestial, they keep their original essence but with a current sound that has given them a lot of strength and punch.
Was the material on Fathomless Hysteros aimed toward recapturing something you feel is missing in black metal today?
Let me tell you that we first make the music that we like, without following any passing fashion. The important thing is that your music first pleases you, not making music to please. If the public likes it later, that is already quite an achievement, but there is no need to be false and be faithful to your principles. About black metal today I would tell you that everything is very superficial, that’s why we run away from falling into it and follow our own path.
Tendencies of the Left-Hand Path remain prominent on these new tracks. What do you find most beneficial, or maybe also most challenging, about living this spiritual philosophy?
Under my understanding, each being has to be their own God and Master, this leads to a state of full spiritual freedom. If you follow the sinister path in the right way, you will surely reach that point, but the road is long and tumultuous, not made for the masses, not made for those who walk with the herd.
The lyrics also possess a rich mythological presence. What are some of your favorite sources of inspiration and stories involving this subject?
I usually invest out a lot about this topic, because I have always been fascinated by history in general and more by that of Ancient civilizations. You always find very curious things in them and to a greater or lesser extent, as you rightly say, they serve me as a source of inspiration. Correctly understood the testimony of the ancients, you always find many explanations of what we were, what we are, and maybe the path of degeneration we are going.
What are your thoughts on playing live, and which of your new tracks are you most looking forward to performing?
About this question, say that we are going to play live in very few places, only where we feel like it and where it is really worth doing.
I would really like to play several songs from our new album live, combined with our usual classic hymns… a song that I want to play on stage is “Hijo del caido.” I think live it will be overwhelming because it is a song with a lot of hook.
It seems OUIJA intends to remain active going forward. Are there plans for the near future that you can shed light on at this time?
There are no future plans; only to promote the new album and create new stuff. Whenever we have made plans they have gone to shit, so it is best not to make plans and what has to come, will come, and more so in these convulse times and total oppression that we are living, where everything is very changeable only in a matter of hours.
Many thanks once again for your time and insights, and I look forward to witnessing acts yet to be conjured from OUIJA! Are there any other thoughts you would like to share in closing?
To finish, first of all I would like to thank you for this interesting interview and then I am going to leave a totally combative message, saying that we are under a new change in the world order and humanity is more stupid, cowardly, and submissive with each passing day. They are hanging a yoke around our necks so that we live like androids, totally subservient to them, those fucking vermin, hidden under the great elitist spheres that want to enslave us, turning us into puppets of the system, manipulated and controlled by their dirty hands. Black metal has always been a music that has fought against all this, breaking everything established, like its damn and infamous doctrines, take off the blindfold and start to see the shit they want to feed and poison us with, start thinking for yourself and do not let them think for you and mark your path. IT IS BETTER TO BE A HUNGRY AND FREE WOLF… THAN A LAMB FED AND SUBDUED.
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