Born from the scars of the Alpine front, Orgg transforms war’s brutality and nature’s majesty into black/death metal. We dive into their haunting concept, evolution, and upcoming release Indomita.
1. Orgg
was born out of the idea of turning the excruciating Alpine front of WWI into
music. What drew you specifically to this forgotten and haunting part of
history?
As many
things in life, this came unexpectedly to my mind, while hiking in the
Dolomites visiting WW1 forts and seeing the remnants of war that still litter
those places. Listening to stories told by old soldiers, watching the mountains
missing pieces where the mines exploded. Like scars on an incredibly beautiful
face. The contrast was staggering. This contrast led to a fascination for the
history of such events, and wanting to learn more about them.
2. Your
concept balances the brutality of war with the majestic presence of the
mountains. How do you capture that contrast in your sound and songwriting?
We try to
capture the feeling, not to musically depict in a programmatic fashion. We try
to convey the cold, the fear, the pain through the canonical black metal
paradigms, but most of our songs are written on acoustic guitars or at the
piano, before becoming black/death metal assaults. This helps focusing the
songs on the melodies that inspired them, retaining their beauty while wounding
them through black metal.
An example of this process will be obvious on our next album, Indomita, in
which one of the tracks, “The Enemy Beyond The Enemy”, will be available as a
bonus track on the CD only, in its early piano form.
3. On
stage, the mask you wear resembles an alpine soldier, adding a ghostlike aura
to the performance. How important is this theatrical element to the identity of
Orgg?
Being a concept band requires bringing the concept in all the different aspects
of your band presence. The mask that “L’”, the vocalist, wears on stage and in
all our appearances, is a reproduction of an anti-fragmentation mask, and is
part of our identity.
4.
Lawinensturm is
described as your most brutal and relentless track to date. What inspired its
creation, and why did you choose it as your live set opener?
It definitely is! After reading of these happenings in several occasions, I
asked myself…how to convey this? What would you feel while you’re at your post
and suddenly a wall of snow, ice, rocks and wood splinters runs at you so fast
that you can’t hide? Lawinensturm hits like this, relentless, fast, leaving
only death in its trail.
5. Avalanches turning into deadly enemies is a powerful metaphor — both
nature and war as forces beyond human control. Do you see Orgg’s music as a
commentary on this duality?
Orgg definitely is. Actually this concept is even brought explicitly in one
of the new tracks, The Enemy Beyond The Enemy. There’s something else that’s
fighting these soldiers, it’s not just men.
6. Since
your founding in 2018, how has Orgg evolved musically and conceptually? Has
your perspective on war, history, and nature shifted along the way?
The project
evolved a lot, musically, since its inception. Some of the tracks on “The Great
White War” date back to 1997 so it’s just a natural thing that the writing
style, the complexity and musicality of the tracks changed a lot through our
albums.
In Indomita, we think we found the sound we were looking for since the start,
but we began writing our songs with live performance in mind, at least some of
them. If in the past we recorded tracks with up to six guitars (like Ashes, for
example) to convey the atmosphere we wanted, this becomes an issue when playing
live. So our writing style adapted to this.
You will also notice that drums are now more protagonist in our tracks. Since
when Vael, our drummer, started playing in the band, he was involved in the
songwriting and arrangement process and this has a meaningful impact on
Indomita as a whole.
On history and nature, our perspective is pretty much the same. Staying true to
history, never taking sides, never glorifying war.
7. The
Alpine setting plays such a strong role in your music. Do you ever go to these
historical sites for inspiration, or even write music directly in those
landscapes?
All the time, whenever possible. I even ended up living in the exact sites of
some of these events for some time. I’d say most of our songs were written
there. Also our band photos are taken there, next to a WW1 fort.
8. Black
and death metal often deal with themes of destruction, but your approach ties
it deeply to specific history and lore. How do audiences respond to this
narrative-driven style?
Some people just care about the music, the energy and the feeling it builds
into you, and that’s fine. If you listen to one of our tracks, you can like it
and be totally unaware of the theme. But we encourage our listeners to go
deeper, read the lyrics, understand our message. This will help experience our
albums and live shows at a much deeper level.
9. Can
you tell us more about your creative process? Does the historical research come
first, or does the music often lead you toward a story to tell?
Usually our songs
start with a base concept, as a work in progress. It often comes from
historical research of a specific event, or even a specific piece of equipment.
For example, our second single for Indomita, called “Colossus”, is inspired by
a piece of artillery (a Skoda 305 howitzer) that became known for its immense
destructive power. The mechanical rhythm of the chorus reminds of the movement
of the weapon, before it releases its load of death.
Or “The Silent Sentinel”, whose lyrics were written while admiring the remains
of a WW1 fort, being retaken by wildlife.
10. Looking ahead, what can listeners expect from Orgg — both in upcoming
releases and in terms of your live performances?
We’ll be pretty busy with live shows next year, as we want to bring our show
and get our music live to old and new fans. Meanwhile we’ll be writing, staying
true to the concept, as always. If our musical style may change and evolve,
what is the core of our band will stay true to itself.
Thanks!
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