Interview with Chernaa - Czech / Ukraine/ Russian Black Metal

Czech/Ukranian/Russian Post Black Metal band Chernaa have a new album out June 9th and this week I talked to them about their record deal, meaning of the band name and juggling band members from 3 different countries – check it out

How did the record deal with Noizr come about?

Noizr founder Dmytro and me (Nexus) met around six years ago and since then we’ve hung out a lot and worked together (I was helping him with Noizr occasionally). On February 2019 I was doing some work in Hertz studio in Poland (the temple of the Polish black metal, the place where were recordings of Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated and Hate born) and during my stay in Poland I made a few calls with Dmytro and we agreed on a good deal between Chernaa and Noizr. Generally, guys from Noizr are really responsive, disposed and competent in their field, so we’re really happy to work with them. – Nexus

You guys are listed as a Czech Republic/Ukraine/Russian band – how does that work?

With Hedonist (the vocalist), we were communicating via the internet and managed to record the whole album, despite the 6000 Km between us, which was, by the way, a rare and amazing experience. Nexus speaks both Russian and Czech, so it wasn’t a problem. Hedonist also speaks English, as the rest of the band does. – Solipsist

The only requirement we had for the vox was that it would be a high pitched shriek

How did you all meet?

When I first moved to Prague I was introduced to Solipsist. At the time, they were looking for a guitar player with his prog-metal band, which I joined. Then after nearly 3 years, we joined another post-rock band together and Nexus was the one who mixed and mastered our full-length album. The band, unfortunately, fell apart soon after, but we stayed in touch with Nexus and decided to create a new band. We started to hang out a lot and write music at Nexuses place. And at that time my friend told me that he knows a drummer who was skilled enough to play the drums for a post-black metal band, so we hit him up and he agreed to play with us. At that point, we just needed to find vocals. The only requirement we had for the vox was that it would be a high pitched shriek, rather than those lower pitched types of vocals. We were looking all over the Czech internet, without any response though. That is when my Russian friend came in (he lives in Prague as well) and he wanted to help with finding a vocalist since his birth town in Russia offered many talented people, that like black metal. And so he found us vocalist, Hedonist the Poisoned, from Krasnoyarsk. – Solipsist, Utsuro

Have any of the band visited the USA before – if so did they like it?

None of us has been to the US yet, but hopefully, we can change that in the future. We all like travelling and we would like to visit some exotic destinations as well. Utsuro just returned from his trip to Japan. Our journey as a band has just begun and we hope, that our music will allow us to visit many beautiful places. – Nihilist

if you put that together with metal friendly themes that we like (like nihilism, existentialism etc) it works the best for us

How did you guys get into Black Metal? What bands have been your biggest influences?

Everyone of us has a rich history with metal music. I would say that all of our members are open to different subgenres of metal. What I think everyone prefers about black metal, is the fact that it focuses more on the song structure as a story. It’s not really about bragging that you can play technically, it is not about showing your shred off. It is more about focusing on how it sounds together, rather than everyone shredding at the same time. It is about sacrificing your own playing for the sake of the bigger picture – the atmosphere of the song, or the story that it has to unveil. It is also like that in post-rock, which we like and if you put that together with metal friendly themes that we like (like nihilism, existentialism etc) it works the best for us. Metal music nowadays also seems very rhythmically based. Some of us grew tired of that, and that’s why we would prefer a wall-of-sound genre. With all this being said, post-black metal seemed like the right choice for us. Now let us get to some concrete influences. From the second wave of black, I’d say old Darkthrone for the raw/frostbitten riffs and high pitched vocals, Burzum for the sheer black metal energy and rpg feel to it. From the third wave of black metal, I’d say all the melodic stuff, like Lantlos, Alcest, Deafheaven, Russian and Ukrainian bands like Drudkh and Sivyj Yar, Ultar and so on. We often listen to a lot of heavy black metal

(Yellow Eyes, Krallice, Mgla, Deathspell Omega, Akhlys…) and we get inspired by the heaviness and possibly write our material more melody drenched. – Solipsist

What is pink powder about?

At the moment, when the text of this track was born, I was experiencing a strong emotional pain and longing. A man who has exhausted in himself all the vital and emotional forces, seeking peace and humility from within. This song is about the internal pain of a tired man. – Hedonist

this transient awareness of the nothingness that triggers emotional responses that are too mysterious and profound

What does the band name mean?

The name “Chernaa (tʃeərnɑː)” symbolises the feeling that life is meaningless and that we are utterly insignificant when compared to the size of universe. Like the beauty of gazing vacantly into the black void and being detached from all other worries in life. As soon as the melancholy becomes the basic disposition of man, it reflects a world that has lost its firm order and human life is at the very edge of incurable disease. And it is this transient awareness of the nothingness that triggers emotional responses that are too mysterious and profound and which we are trying to capture with our music. – Utsuro

What can we expect from Chernaa for the rest of 2019?

We’re currently extensively working on the new material, which is halfly done, hope to finish the next album within a year. There’s a lot of new ideas and we’re pushing our development, to make the next record more miscellaneous, complex and surely more professional. Fans could look forward to genre diversity, there will be shoegaze, prog and post-metal influences as well as heavier black metal and black-death songs. At the same time, we’re rehearsing a lot and hope to start actively performing and touring from the second half of 2019. We’re also open to any booking offers. – Nexus

The purpose behind what we do is to document and share an expressive interpretation of strong and dark emotions like depression, anger and melancholy

Any final words?

The purpose behind what we do is to document and share an expressive interpretation of strong and dark emotions like depression, anger and melancholy. While not all people can exhaust their negative emotions through a grim artform, there always might people who do, same as us. And if someone happens to be one of those people, then we would be glad if you discover our music. – Solipsist