As listeners of heavy music, we all understand what it’s like to find a sub-genre you can’t shake; one that connects your soul to the rest of creation, and to people with whom you form a kinship. For nearly four decades, HM has been a place of discovery, encouragement, and expression within heavy music—evolving with every voice and every change that touches our community. So, when one of our own gets the opportunity to pursue a passion and promote niche talent within heavy music, we consider it a win for all.
During his time at HM, former writer Andrew Voigt discovered a love for one of the many rich corners of heavy music: black metal. As he dug deeper into black metal and its surrounding sub-genres, he couldn’t ignore the untapped well of music to be shared. He found himself interviewing more and more black metal artists, reviewing black metal albums, and forging a path that would eventually lead to a platform all its own: Blacforje Magazine.
Now, months later, Andrew sits down with us to talk about his new journalistic venture as Editor of Blacforje. He shares about the creativity he’s found in the black metal scene, the artists and humans he’s met along the way and holds in high esteem, and the way the genre is moving from where he sits.
Our conversation shed new light on the origins of black metal and the reasons many artists resonate with its content and character. With roots in mythology, nature, and mysticism, this often-misunderstood school of metal is much brighter than one may think, and with platforms like Blacforje at the helm, there are more of us listening than ever before.
I know it’s kind of a general question, but for those who don’t know, how did Blacforje come to be?
As you know, I liked to cover a lot of black metal artists when I was with HM. It’s a favorite genre of mine. Of course, I’m also a huge fan of totally unrelated music, like new wave from the 80s and alternative like Radiohead and bands like that. But when it comes to metal, I felt that there was a hole missing in the black metal journalism world. I did not feel like a lot of people were covering these artists. Now, you’ll see interviews with these bands on lesser-known publications—blogs, and such—but if you ever want to learn about a black metal artist in any kind of detail, you have to go to metal archives or you have to go to Bandcamp.
There are a lot of artists in the black metal world. I think it’s probably the most misunderstood sub-genre in metal, and I think that that’s part of what I enjoy bringing to light; that this is not a sub-genre that is dominated by Satanism and church burnings. That’s a misconception. Most of the artists that I’ve connected with are either into nature, they’re into mythology. Many—and you’ll hear this from anybody in the scene—many of them are influenced by their love for J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings in The Lord of the Rings. There’s also a huge subset of, strangely enough, Eastern Orthodox black metal. You’ve got bands like Fathomage and some others—I can’t even say their names properly, so I won’t try—who are part of that. And of course, you have the Christian American, what they call “un-black” metal artists.
So, there’s a lot of music that I consider good for the human spirit that comes out of this genre, but nobody knows who they are. The only ones you hear about in mainstream metal are the more weighty, darker black metal like Burzum and others that, of course, have that satanic leaning.
I love being able to get this work out to the public, especially when I believe in these people and I think that they’re good human beings. I really like them as individuals. It’s great to be a part of that.
Yeah. So for you, it’s content that draws you to it?
Yeah, that and promoting people I’ve become friends with. I love promoting people. Nobody makes money doing black metal. Nobody.
(Laughs) No. Nobody makes money doing a lot of metal.
That’s the thing. You barely make any money if you’re doing metalcore, and being at the top of your game in metalcore, which is the most popular sub-genre within metal. So if you think that’s not going to make money, imagine black metal. These guys do it for the love of it. They truly love the music and I think that affords them creative freedom. The funniest thing about black metal is half of it is ambient and atmospheric, so finding these artists that have really beautiful music, you know, it’s not even metal, truthfully. The name is misleading in itself.
I love being able to get this work out to the public, especially when I believe in these people and I think that they’re good human beings. I really like them as individuals. It’s great to be a part of that.
Yeah. I remember whenever you were writing for us, there were a lot of solo artists; it was rarely a black metal band. What do you think makes that the case in the genre?
Well, the era we live in, number one. We live in a day and age where you can have a drummer record for you from halfway across the country and send you their tracks. You can record without having to be in the studio together. So a lot of these guys collaborate. I’ll talk to some of them and they they’ve worked with somebody they know in another solo act. They did the drums and the bass for them, or they did backup vocals. And of course, we have digital music where we can put in those fillers ourselves.
Second of all, I think black metal, again, is not a genre that is super popular. So it’s going to be really hard to find a band to start even in metalcore, much less black metal. For example, Silent Planet just lost their lead guitarist, and he’s a great guitarist but he has a family and he has things he wants to do outside of music. It’s hard to maintain a band even when you’re making money and records. So forming a band with four or five individuals to do black metal; it’s gonna be very, very hard.
A lot of these artists have decided, ‘Hey, I’m gonna do this on the side.’ The ones I’ve become friends with, this is their creative passion. It’s their expression outside of their day job. They go home, they play guitar, they record whatever instruments they can live in their own studio at home, and then they find ways to fill in the gaps.
One of the most intriguing artists I’ve recently connected with is a girl named Olga Kann. I can’t remember which country she’s in, but she just she started her own solo project called Withered Land. We recently interviewed her. Fantastic music. And what’s cool about her is, she’s also a cinematographer and a designer, so she incorporates her music and also incorporates all the other skills that she has into her music. It’s one big artistic expression for her. I find it fascinating. I never liked black metal until several years ago. I didn’t even know what it was…
What changed?
I became friends with Dempsey from the band Vials of Wrath, who happens to be one of my favorite black metal artists. I didn’t know him at all, I just liked his music, reached out to him, and became friends with him. We started talking about the genre and he was giving me some insight, so I started doing research because I’m a nerd like that. I found a lot of good music that was really mystical and mysterious. I love ambient music, and a lot of atmospheric black metal is just that.
So I really found a niche in that sub-genre, and then I started connecting to some other guys like Travis from Daygraves, who’s a close friend as well. I just was like, ‘Wow, these guys do this for free.’ Like you and me, they do this because they enjoy the work. They don’t do it because they’re thinking they’re gonna get rich off of this.
One of my favorite artists that I discovered… actually, I lied. Vials of Wrath wasn’t the first person. The first artist I ever fell in love with that was semi-pseudo-black metal is Myrkur. I believe out of Norway. Amalie Bruun is her legal name. She was a pop artist many years ago and a model, and she was even in a commercial for Martin Scorsese. She’s done a lot of things in her past life. She also grew up playing a lot of different instruments and was very interested in black metal as a child and as a teenager. She decided after leaving the pop world that she was going to do her own music, and it’s kind of a blend of black metal and Nordic folk; really interesting music.
I don’t remember where I read the article, but she spoke so highly of the community in the black metal world, and I can attest that she’s she’s right. Those are the nicest people I’ve connected with.
Do you personally experience that community mostly online or are you talking about in person?
I’ve met a few in person. Sylvaine, for example, is somebody I’ve been able to connect with in person and she’s just as nice in person as she is online. Dempsey Mills from Vials of Wrath is another great person I’ve met who backs up what he says in how he lives is his artistic life. But most of them are people I’ve connected with online and we’ve either done a virtual webcam meeting or we just maintain a text conversation.
There are so many people talking about metalcore and other things in so many different magazines—Kerrang!, Revolver, or whichever magazine you want to throw out. I like to find a niche where I can be a distinct voice and I thought, ‘Why not black metal?’
So what is your personal journey with music? Not just black metal, but any music. Did you always write about it? Did you do you ever play it? I don’t even think I know that about you.
That’s a good question. When I was growing up as a kid, my favorite music I grew up in the church and so I was really into anything Christian rock. You name it, and I knew who it was. I was an HM magazine subscriber as a teenager, which is why I wrote for HM. That’s the reason I reached out to David [Stagg] originally to see if he needed writers.
I played the piano for a long time. I wasn’t really passionate about it. I played violin and was terrible at it, and then took up guitar at like 13 or so and really fell in love with it. And I loved singing. I loved vocals and I really wanted to play in a band myself. So a group of guys in high school and I formed a band we called Fuse, and it was kind of post-grunge blend, like Bush meets a little industrial Nine Inch Nails, or something like that. We did that for for a few years and really enjoyed it, and then we went our own ways.
I’ve always had a passion for music, even as it’s evolved. I was an actor in Los Angeles for a short period of my life; just a couple of years, and music still tagged along with me throughout that. I was, and still am, a huge Anberlin fan. Those guys really influenced my love for the alternative scene that was coming up in 2005–2015. That decade had a really distinct alternative scene that bands like Mae, Thrice, Underoath, you name it. I just really fell in love with that.
I started writing about mental health and spiritual topics back in 2012 and really found a passion for writing and created a blog and started getting published at other places, but I thought, ‘You know, I’d love to talk about music.’ Music has been the one companion of mine throughout all of these wild excursions I’ve had, and thankfully, David was gracious enough to let me do that.
And what’s funny is, we evolve. I think through listening to black metal, I found out, ‘Hey, I like this. This is good stuff. This is distinct.’ There are so many people talking about metalcore and other things in so many different magazines—Kerrang!, Revolver, or whichever magazine you want to throw out. I like to find a niche where I can be a distinct voice and I thought, ‘Why not black metal?’
When you find a genre of music that is not strictly dependent on catchy tunes, or melodies, or catchy lyrics, but instead it thrives on ambience and atmosphere, to me, it just screams ‘spiritual’ in a really healthy way, depending on how you’re approaching it.
Absolutely. And we didn’t even work together for all that long at HM, but looking back, I can definitely see the the evolution of your writing moving more and more toward black metal, so it makes all the sense in the world to me. I’m glad you did it.
You were talking before about the content of the black metal music and how it’s mystical and nature-based, and when you were writing with us, you had a really strong passion for the faith-based music. What are your thoughts about how that plays out in black metal.
Yeah. Well, just like any other genre, I think any artist is going to bring their worldview into what they do. It doesn’t matter if you’re a painter, musician, it doesn’t matter what you do. We cannot keep our perspectives from our art, whatever it is. So when I find these guys like Dempsey, Daygraves, Fathomage, these are individuals who all hold to what I would call an Orthodox Christian faith, with different viewpoints in certain areas. I see these individuals love this genre of music, and it’s almost like they want to reclaim it and create it into their own image, which I think is great.
I think there are always going to be people who will hate Christian black metal. There are plenty who do in the in the black metal scene. I’ve already had some naysayers of Blacforje.
Really? Already?
Oh yeah, but on the secular side or the satanic side. They don’t really like Christians being involved in it. It’s kind of funny because if you really paid attention, probably 15% of black metal is satanic. The rest is not. They’re being edged out by the pagan artists who talk about nature and their love for waterfalls without knowing it. Anyway, it’s not what it used to be.
So I think a lot of Christian artists are like, ‘Hey, we love the music. We love this genre.’ In my opinion, Christianity is very mystical in its own way. The concepts of spiritual connection to God, God coming in the flesh to to save humanity, and so many other things applied to Tolkien’s writings, which is why The Lord of the Rings and CS Lewis’s Narnia series are still so compelling to people today. So when you find a genre of music that is not strictly dependent on catchy tunes, or melodies, or catchy lyrics, but instead it thrives on ambience and atmosphere, to me, it just screams ‘spiritual’ in a really healthy way, depending on how you’re approaching it.
So I think a lot of Christian artists are finding their way into the scene. Some of them are proselytizing, but some of them are not. Travis from Daygraves is one of the most genuine believers I’ve ever known and he’s not in it to proselytize. He’s in it because he loves the music, but he also loves Jesus and he wants to talk about what he loves. So, I don’t think you can limit people to any kind of music.
Yeah, I mean, I always thought that about Anberlin, too. You know, they were obviously not ashamed of what they believe, but their music wasn’t a billboard for the Church. It was just good music.
Yeah, and that’s why Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance would play with them, and why people who love those bands and a lot of the pseudo-emo bands of that era also loved Anberlin. They were true to who they were. One thing that you probably noticed because you grew up in the same background in the church is that a lot of Christian music is cookie cutter. It’s very boring, in my opinion. Four chords, Same song. Same tune. Same everything. Bands like Anberlin made a mark because they were different. They were experimenting and weren’t defining themselves by checklists of things that every other Christian artist was doing.
I think that’s what makes Vials of Wrath and Fathomage and Daygraves so interesting. They are not trying to appeal to a large audience. They’re not trying to fit a mold. There’s such freedom in how they create, unlike any Christian pop artist or worship band or anything. Their music is so good for that reason; they have no limits.
I would even go even further to say it’s a better testament to the Creator if you know and value your role as a sub-creator, versus your role as someone just carrying the sign and playing the four chords and doing all the expected stuff. I always think as believers, and also as artists, we almost have a responsibility—I don’t like how that sounds, but you know what I mean—to devote excellence to our creativity and to explore it as far as it’ll go because our faith is in a God who goes even further.
I fully agree. Francis Schaeffer, the theologian, delved into this a lot about believers being part of creating culture, creating art that was impactful, not just art that was in a cocoon of the Church and never saw the daylight outside.
And I want to be clear, Blacforje is not strictly Christian. Half of the people I will interview are not even Christians. I’ve had many people ask me, ‘Is this Christian only?’ No. Bands like Inherits the Void and and Withered Land, for example, are not self-identifying as Christians at all. But I do research on what their content is. I do. I’ll read lyrics when I’m able to. I’ll reach out to the artist and talk to them. I do my background check, basically, to see who they are as people, what their ethos is, what their music is about. If I feel that it has an uplifting aspect to it, or I feel that they are talking about things that are not destructive to the human spirit, I’m all for promoting that.
I’ve also had to turn away certain bands. I just recently had an interview with a band I had to turn away. It was a very uncomfortable situation. I found out they were satanic and didn’t know that, and they had said some things in the interviews that I was like, ‘Whoa. I don’t think I can share that in good conscience.’ They were gracious in how we separated from the interview, but it just reminded me that I need to stay true to what I know. That’s why I made the About page. I’m very explicit about what we are about and what we’re not.
I want it to be a place for people who are looking for good, creative artists who aren’t trying to make some satanic statement or anything like that. I want it to be where people can come find those artists. I’m actually going to create a page, thanks to my sister’s recommendation, where I’m going to keep a list of the artists that I recommend and what genre they fit, their style, and all the links to their pages.
That way people have an archive of good stuff.
That’s great. What album are you looking forward to most right now?
Ooh, that’s a good question. Well on Friday, Jernlov is releasing Resurrection and I’m looking forward to hearing the full thing. I haven’t heard the entire album. They’re with Nordic Missions, so they are actually believers. Very interested in that.
And I hate to give it away, but Fathomage is probably going to win Album of the Year at the end of this year, unless somebody comes out with something just killer. Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness was just incredible. If you haven’t heard it, it’s brilliant. It’s a guy out of Australia and it’s just an incredible performance.
I also love Inherits the Void’s recent album, The Impending Fall of the Stars. Inherits the Void is out of France. He’s not a believer but his music is really compelling.
And besides the artists that you’ve shared with us so far, what would you consider your guilty pleasure outside of black metal?
That’s a great question. I’m not ashamed to say this one. It’s not really a ‘guilty’ pleasure, but it’s just a band that I love listening to: The Birthday Massacre. I interviewed them with HM and I have had a fascination with industrial rock.
Birthday Massacre meets many of my likes. I’m a huge new wave fan—Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, music like that. The Birthday Massacre takes that style of music and blends it with synth and then they blend it a Nine Inch Nails vibe, so it’s like this weird hodge-podge of industrial synth wave. It’s just beautiful. So that’s my guilty pleasure. Whenever I don’t know what I want to listen to, that’s the first choice.
Really, I just want this to be a place that’s fun. I want this to be a safe place where people who are looking for black metal that is uplifting or compelling to the human spirit can come find artists.
Awesome. I think the only thing I really had down here to make sure that I asked was where can artists reach out if they’re like, ‘Hey, this sounds like me.’ Where can they reach you?
Oh, I’m easy to access. You can message me on the website’s Contact page. I highly recommend that anybody interested clarify what the messaging is about their music. You can also reach me on Instagram. I’m very responsive there, as well as Facebook Messenger, and you can also email me at AndrewVoigt [at] blacforjemagazine [dot] com.
Anything else that you want people to know?
Really, I just want this to be a place that’s fun. I want this to be a safe place where people who are looking for black metal that is uplifting or compelling to the human spirit can come find artists. I’ve had people write me asking, ‘Do you cover satanic stuff?’ No. I want people to know that I’m going to do the best I can to vet that out before I share anything and it’s going to be a place where Christians and non-Christians alike can come find really good music.
I think you’re doing a great job so far, for what it’s worth.
I’m just a one man show, so I’m not going to get a ton of content out, plus there’s not a ton of content to be had. But when there is something new, I want to elevate it.
To discover more, visit blacforjemagazine.com.
