Hail
Ordo Draconis (OD)! What is the latest news concerning OD? “In Speculis
Noctis” is a successful self-released CD and perhaps the best one in 1999.
How was the response from the listeners so far ? Hail!
Well let me start with the second question. Thank you very much for the
compliment on our demo- CD! The response in general has been very good –
several people told us that “In Speculis Noctis” was among their
all-time favourites, which is of course a huge compliment, especially
considering it’s only a demo – a professional one indeed, but still! In
most magazines the CD got very good criticism as well, so no complaints as
far as the response is concerned. We did interviews with some major
magazines all over the world, which is quite amazing for us as a demo band.
I mean we were featured in Rock Brigade with an interview for example, a big
Brazilian magazine. And when we received the free copy you see yourself in
between interviews with AC/DC and Cradle of Filth.. was quite funny. About
the current situation in Ordo Draconis. Well we’re making the preparations
required for the recording of our debut (full-length) album. “In Speculis
Noctis” got us a record deal with the young, yet very promising and
dedicated German label Skaldic Art Productions, owned by Vratyas from
Falkenbach! We’re going to make a pre-production just next week and if
everything goes as planned we’ll record the album in September. It should
be out later in autumn then. The album will contain 7 or 8 tracks including
one re-recorded track from our first demo “When the Cycle Ends”.
Unfortunately I can’t give you the album title at this stage, but you can
be sure it’ll turn out to be a very interesting piece of music! How
much money did OD spend on this demo-CD? Why was “In Speculis Noctis”
self released by the band? There were some offers from labels for a record
deal, so why turn their offer down? Talk a bit a bout the recording session
of this CD. Hmmm,
I don’t think it’s that interesting to know how much money on the
demo-CD… to give you some indication: for the recording and reproduction
you’d be able to buy a small new car. We recorded a second demo, because
at the time we felt we weren’t ready to record our debut just yet.
That’s why we turned down the offers from the labels. Ordo Draconis is not
about making money or gaining popularity as fast as possible… we want to
do thing on our terms in our way! We wanted to gain some studio experience
to make a real blast out of our debut. Looking back I think it was a wise
choice to do things this way – we learnt a whole lot recording in a
studio, both on a social level and about our musical skills. The recording
session was quite an interesting experience… most of the time we were just
doing nothing, wandering about, having conversations – most of us stayed
at the studio during the nights and we got to know each other under
different circumstances like this. I think we got through pretty good, no
great tensions and a good deal of respect and patience. And what might be
even just as good, I think we can be proud of the result! The
CD contains 4 long songs. About the selection, is there any song left out
from this CD? Why did you choose these songs ? When
we entered the studio it was already sure that these 4 songs would be
featured on “In Speculis Noctis” and no others. We initially intended to
record a few more tracks, but time turned out to be lacking. These songs
would have been for a compilation CD of the Dutch Skullcrusher Records and
maybe a 7”. The
songs are also varied and range from slow to fast. What does OD specifically
play ? I’m
not so much into labelling our music. Let’s say Ordo Draconis play
symphonic black metal. It’s true that variation is a very important
element in our songs – the contrast emphasises the atmosphere of the
different parts… a fast parts seems even faster when there was a slow part
prior to the fast one. That’s the thing with high speed black metal
bands… they only play fast songs and after a track of three or four, it
doesn’t seem fast any more, because the song constantly have these same
blast beats. Not only do we vary the speed of our songs, but even more
important the songs are varied in atmosphere as well! It’s not only
blasting hatred and aggression all the time.. the range of emotions we aim
to express is much broader. There’s also melancholy, hope, longing, love
and despair to name but a few more. Our music is an expression of what we
feel like in our delay lives, and our feelings are not limited to blind rage
and hatred, fortunately. I
hope talking about the band’s concept and ideology is not too personal for
you. What
exactly is the “Order of the Dragon” ? The
dragon is a symbol for matters to which I attach a lot of value in my life,
for example the cycle of creation and destruction –a cycle inherent to the
concept of life and existence. And we all participate on various levels and
in various phases, like cycles within cycles. Of course the dragon is also
the ancient guardian of treasures and wisdom (which just might be the same
in a symbolic sense). The search for wisdom is one of the main goals in life
for me. Next to that, the dragon is a symbol of tragedy and this fascinates
me. The dragon is destined to be slaughtered, whether that is by ‘gods’
like Jahwe or Marduk, or by ‘human heroes’ like Sigurd or Beowolf. I
think it interests me because dragons are mostly depicted as
‘evil’-beings in myths and legends (not necessarily in modern fantasy
literature). People tend to label things, they don’t understand
‘evil’, I think it’s interesting and important to question and if
necessary to redefine values like ‘good’ and ‘evil’. So the cause
for the extinction of the dragon just might lie somewhere in between
‘justice’ and ‘ignorance/intolerance’. Taking
into account the importance of these values in our life, we decided to call
our band the order of the dragon – ORDO DRACONIS. As a symbol of chaos and
potential (- the opportunity to create) the dragon is the patron of the
creative process within the band. An interesting contradiction, concerning
our band name is the fact that the Romans only used the word Ordo as the
opposite of
‘chaos’
(it was only later that the word Ordo was also used meaning ‘a
cult’), yet the dragon is a symbol of chaos…..Apart from that Ordo
Draconis holds a reference the Dracul cult of which Vlad Tepes was the most
famous member. Is
the current line-up (the line-up for the demo-CD), Moloch, Rahab, Bob,
Midhir and Arco the same line-up in which you started out in 1996? How did
you guys hook up and form a band? Is there any project that band members of
OD were involved in before OD’s birth? How about now ? No,
we started out with a different drummer, named Timo. After a few months it
turned out to be inevitable to part ways… we’re still friends though!
Arco joined us at the very beginning of ’97. Moloch and I had been talking
about forming a band for ages and on a night in spring ’96 we finally
decided to get things on the track. During the summer we recruited the other
band members who we’re quite easy to find, since we were all friends for
quite some years. We finally started rehearsing in September ’96.Before
Ordo Draconis saw the light of day some band members had some other
projects, but nothing worth mentioning really. At this moment Moloch is also
involved in a death metal band called Dark Remains, together with the former
drummer of legendary Dutch death metallers Eternal Solstice and Mourning!
Bob, our other guitarist also has another band, playing some kind of
schizophrene metal. Apart from actually creating music Arco and myself are
involved in other ways in the metal scene. Our drummer Arco runs his own
distro label Moongleam offering all kinds of underground quality stuff. And
I am an editor for the Dutch quality underground publication Mandrake
Magazine – a magazine focussing on quality, offering in depth interviews
with both established acts as the promises from the underground! OD
will unleash their debut soon. When on which label? How about the songs, are
there any new songs? Is it still in the same style as on the demo-CD? Would
you list the tracks and the album title ? Oops,
I believe I already answered the large part of this question with your first
one. Like I said the album is going to contain 6 or 7 new tracks… and we
already have another 3 finished for the next album. I can’t give you only
two song titles at this stage, simply because the titles for the other songs
aren’t sure yet: “Wreckage” –including another lyrical masterpiece
from Midhir, once more inspired by Celtic mythology (so was “Deirde of the
Sorrows” on “In Speculis Noctis”) and “Turpentine Chimera”. I
think the songs are slightly more progressive than the ones on “In
Speculis Noctis”, with some interesting musical experiments, like for
example rearranging a well known classical piece and incorporating it into
one of the songs. But on a whole, you can still hear it is Ordo Draconis. I
think the influences from classical music have grown stronger. Is
OD’s debut demo “When The Cycle Ends” still available ? Yes,
it most certainly is, though I must say we have only very few copies left!
It’s nearly sold out at 1250 copies! So if anyone is interested in
obtaining a copy make haste and send 6 US$ to the address below, haha. The
release of “In Speculis Noctis” must have led to a lot of offers for
playing live, or am I wrong? Care to share your sweet and bitter experiences
concerning you playing live? Will OD play in big metal festivals such as
Dynamo ? Not
that many offers really and though we enjoy playing live it doesn’t bother
me that much. We did do a number of gigs in the more important clubs in
Holland, like the famous Baroeg and 013-venue. What can I say about our live
experiences – each time you succeed in convincing the audiences is a
wonderful experience and fortunately we get a good feed back from the
audience most of the time, but it has occurred that we were working our
asses of and did
a great show and the response was abominable… faeces occur! We
never had complete disasters live, just minor inconveniences like breaking
strings, swallowing lamp-oil haha… Are
there any new Dutch bands worth mentioning to us? Have you heard anything
from South East Asian metal scene especially in Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia
? Yes
there are some interesting upcoming bands from Holland. Of course there is
Liar of Golgotha, which should be the best known Dutch black metal band.
Then there is Cirith Gorgor, who have released their debut album through
Osmose Productions some time ago– they’re an excellent band, consisting
of a couple of great guys. We have done some gigs together and it’s always
great to play with them. They play fast yet melodic black metal somewhere in
league with Marduk and Dark Funeral. Then there are Salacious Gods and
Absent Mind, both playing black metal with keyboards a little in the CoF-vein.
For the fans of the really brutal stuff Holland has to offer Warlust,
Infinity and Yoatzin. Then there are Detonation and Reborn two highly
skilled bands who play in the Gothenburg-style. Some other bands that
deserve attention in my opinion are Engorge, Animosity, Iscariot, Whispering
Gallery and Virulent. So as you can see there are quite some bands you might
want to look out for!! I
am ashamed to admit that I am pretty much ignorant to the SEA scene as far
as the music is concerned. I have heard a lot of good things about As Sahar,
but I haven’t had the pleasure of listening to their art. Our vocalist
Moloch would have been able to say a lot more than me on this subject, I am
sorry. How
long will you keep on playing black metal? What’s your view on the current
black metal scene as well as on the entire metal scene? Black metal is not
an obscure extreme type of music anymore since black metal got more coverage
in metal mag’s/radio/TV. Do you think this is a positive thing for black
metal? Will black metal ever be billboard music and have it’s own category
in Grammy Awards (or any other music award) ? I
can’t say how long I will be playing black metal, but I hope to be making
music until the very day I die! Making music is al about expressing ones
emotions, so it’s quite likely the music I’ll be creating will always
have an obscure touch, but I will never have myself restricted in whatsoever
way. I have been walking around in the black metal scene for over 10 years
now and I have seen it develop. I think it’s impossible to say this change
has been all for the better or for the worse. I think due to the growing
interest in this type of music a lot of really talented bands came into
existence… next to a whole lot of uninspired copy-cats, which is the down
side. There’s a lot of shit around and I’m not too fond of adolescents
wearing Cradle of Filth shirts, because they think it’s cool to shock
their parents and stuff. However, I know that I started to listen to extreme
metal at a young age and I think it’s stupid to categorize all these young
black metallers as ignorant posers. Maybe there are only few but among them
there will be a number that will stay loyal to the scene. I
don’t have a general opinion on the entire metal scene. I only focus on
the more extreme genres, and of course if for these genres my view is highly
restricted. I
highly doubt that black metal will ever be billboard music or that it will
become a category in the Grammy Awards. I don’t think, despite the few
musical restrictions, black metal will never be able to reach an audience
that large. I think that’s the way it should be, though it’s not a
matter that concerns me that much. I want to do my thing with Ordo Draconis
and that’s that…. Of course it still makes me a little sad when I look
at the scene now and see that a large share of the people involved doesn’t
have the foggiest idea where this type of music came from and how it
progressed in what it is today, but I guess I have dealt with that some
years ago. Thank
you for your time! Any last message for metal warheads, especially in South
East Asia ? Well
thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to tell some about Ordo
Draconis to the South East Asian metal heads! Let me close off by saying
that next to “When the Cycle Ends”, we also have a few copies of “In
Speculis Noctis” left. It can be obtained for 8 US$. And we also have full
colour T-shirts for 15 US$. People interested to can always drop us some
lines at the following address: Ordo
Draconis |
