Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Paul: I started with na zarot in the late 2020 by recording some raw, dark an emerged guitar tracks. Only at that time, I had no idea that it would become the project it is today. That everything ended up like this was part of an emerging development.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Paul: That would be black metal in general and raw/lofi black metal in specific.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Paul: The feedback I got for the music has been great. Thanks to bandcamp I was able to sell the EP and the shirt to people all over the world. I was a surprised how fast the tapes were sold out and it’s cool that people really take an interest in the project. It seems to me that there are many people in the black metal „scene“ who are willing to give a shot to new stuff.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Paul: At first, when I was thinking about a possible name, I was looking in texts and books about cultures, religions and history. But even though I liked some Names like „Efreet“ or „Nebroel“, they didn’t felt so right . That’s when I remembered a name that I read on a sign, a few months earlier, on vacation in Austria. On that day I was driving through some small villages and the low hanging clouds and the dark fading day were quite atmospheric. On one of the few roead signs in the area there was the name nazaroht (or something similar) written. It must be the name of another village or something like that. Immediately I thought that would be a good name for a black metal band. So months later I made that with a bit of intentional misspelling, happen.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Paul: So there is Paul, a 36 year old guy, playing the guitar and Paul from Hamburg playing the other guitar. Than there is Paul, a father of two, on vocals and Paul who is working as a social worker, doing the drum samples. Sometimes there’s also this happy depressed guy named Paul to help us with some synths or audio samples. But apart from that is na zarot a one person project by myself, Paul.
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Paul: Right now it’s only the catacombs EP. But since the feedback was great and the effort was worth it, I’m pretty sure that there is more to come.
Blackened Horde: Are you signed with any label or working independently?
Paul: For the first release I was doing (almost) everything on my own. That was all right and fun, but also time consuming.
That’s why I am quite happy that there’s gonna be a re-release of catacombs with forbidden keep records (UK). Since the owner of Forbidden Keep seems to be quit cool and interested in the music, I could imagine that the we’ll keep up with the cooperation.
And there’s going to be a CD version of catacombs with the TormentRex label which I’m also looking forward to.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some of the songs on the latest CD?
Paul: Three of them are up-tempo songs with a raw lofi sound. Although they are, as I would call it, basic black metal songs, you may also find some punk influences in there, or in my way of playing them. The fourth song “catacombs” is also a raw, but more of a slow DBMS song.
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Paul: I usually write the lyrics after I finished a track, or at least after I got the main idea for the song. At that point I listen over and over to the song again, to get an Idea what the topic of the lyrics could be about. When I got a main – topic, I take my time to read into it and start to take notes. For the Catacombs EP I got some Ideas from religious texts, history books, horror stories and even some paintings as well.
Blackened Horde: Being in a Black Metal band what are your views on the occult?
Paul: Sure, occultism is one of my interests. Not in a way that I take a strong believe in everything, but more from a cultural and literary point of view. I doubt that Crowley or La Vey wrote their documents in one single night, but the Liber Legis works pretty good as a mantra for me and I think that La Vey got some impressive advanced perspectives in his work. Besides that I just enjoy reading stories, articles and books or watching movies that deal with the topic.
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Paul: Yes, I also play in a (synth–) punk band called “night punch”. The music is not as heavy as the one of na zarot, but also raw, kind of dark and really cool. Since I’m not the main songwriter of the band, I guess its okay for me to say that. Anyway it’s fun to play in this band with my friends.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Paul: When I started listening to alternative music in my youth it was mostly punk and metal. So these are kind of my roots. Certainly there was a lot more to come and the genre borders are fluid, but I still love the rough and sinister sound of this kind of music.
At the time I started with na zarot I was listening a lot to bands like Bestcraft, Trist, Mispyrming, Xasthur and Somme.
Blackened Horde: Being a one man band have you ever played live with session musicians?
Paul: With na zarot, no. And at this time I do not consider to play the songs with other musicians. The independence and personal framing is one things I enjoy about the project.
Blackened Horde: Would you ever consider playing live?
Paul: Yes that would be something I would like to do. Not, as I just said, with other musicians, but maybe in a different way. I guess it could be arranged to just do the vocals / or maybe vocals and one guitar live and still have a suitable ceremonial performance.
Blackened Horde: What do you think about the underground scene?
Paul: Since I started to release my music and got into the scene during the pandemic, I only got to know the online community. But that is fine with me and I felt welcomed pretty soon. I got in contact with some cool people, shared my songs, collaborated and learned from them.
Blackened Horde: What are some of your new favorite Black Metal bands?
Paul: There’s a lot of great stuff out there. A few months ago I started to listen to “Mulla”. They’ve been around since 2020, so they are not that new. But I really got into their music. I also like their concept which seem to be quite new to this kind of music.
But my current favorite Black Metal Music is the work of Adelheid Fehrentz. I discovered her on Instagram and the first thing that came to my mind when I was listening to her songs was: This is amazing and incredible authentic.
As far as I know she got two projects right now. One called “Adalheim” and the other called “Ermgarten”. I instantly bought the albums of both and can definitely recommend them.
Blackened Horde: Since the Covid Pandemic has that hurt the band in making music at all?
Paul: Na zarot was created during the pandemic, so I can’t really judge that. I don’t know what would be the different in a non-pandemic setting. Maybe I would have played one or two live-shows by now. But apart from that I guess the pandemic had no actual bad influence to the project.
Blackened Horde: What advice would you as a musician give to a fellow musician just starting out?
Paul: Just get yourself something to record on and get started. Don’t put to much effort in looking for the perfect sound, but let your anger, sadness, desperation or whatever take control.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Paul: I’m on that right now. There are two new songs that are about to be finished in the next time. Since I’m also in a recording process with “night punch” it took a while to get started again. But the night-time recording sessions and working on the lyrics with na zarot have become quite important to me, so I guess there’s gonna be some new stuff out there in 2022.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Paul: So there is going to be a re-release of the catacombs EP with Forbidden Keep records and TormentRex. Beside that I’ll keep on recording songs and release them sooner or later. I’m not sure if this will be on an full length album, or on another EP. But we will see. Playing a live show sure would be fun. But thanks to the pandemic, I think this will have to wait another year. But when it will finally happen, there’s gonna be darkness, noise and blood.
Thanks for your time
Contact them at:
https://nazarot.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.instagram.com/na_zarot/
