Well, friends of the Aristocracy!Let's now follow in all their emotions, the forty-fourth interview of our page. The chosen ones mix the evil side of Black Metal with realism and pessimism. An interesting way of working the controversial side of Metal. simple ways. Well, we're talking about a vocalist and drummer who goes by the name of David and Manuel On Guitars,Jan on Drums,Jan also play guitar and David add bass parts and Alex is the frontmen.
A1:How was the composition process for your new album Abkehr“?
Lichtblick:We took our time to write the songs for the new album. Usually someone comes up with a riff idea and we start to jam around it. If we find a good lick we keep on working till we can make something out of it. We didn’t force us to write the new album, it just came with time. As soon as we had enough material we hit the studio. During the recording process we even did some spontaneous changes here and there – but in the end we were really satisfied. A2: Playing Black Metal is an interesting choice, it's a genre that I really like. How and why did you decide to play music in this genre?
Lichtblick:We think that Black Metal, or in this case its depressive sub-genre, fits exactly for that what we want to play and express. On the one hand we have the loud, fast and aggressive parts which we associate with hate and anger, on the other hand we can use very melodic and slow, almost dreamy parts to express other feelings and emotions that we want to bring out when we play music. For us no other music genre can combine those drastic counterparts in itself...
A3:Another thing are the clean vocals. Why do you use them? Are they meant to be a “counterpoint” to typical Black Metal?
Lichtblick:Well, yes. if you want you can call the clean vocals a counterpart to the classical shrieking vocals in Black Metal. But as mentioned before, we like to have the opportunity to mix very aggressive parts with very mellow parts to create a certain atmosphere. Many other Black Metal or Post Metal bands do the same, its nothing new. We think it suits us very well.
A4:How do you view the human mind in your music? Do you see it from a pessimistic or realistic perspective?
Lichtblick:Both, obviously. We reflect our own feelings and our own past with our music. Everything we have been through good and bad and that we want to share or work through is inside our music. We don’t care about the general human mind, that’s more of a philosophical topic. We are working with our own minds and they are both,realistic and pessimistic.
A5:This is your second album already. Are there any changes or differences to the first album “Phrenesis”?
Lichtblick:Yes, there are definitely some changes. First of all the arrangement of the band members is a little different ,we had some changes regarding who plays what instrument). And of course the concept is different. The first album “Phrenesis” deals with substance abuse and its positive as well as its negative consequences. “Abkehr” has a totally different meaning.
A6:What are the differences between the first song “Geäst” and third song “Geister”? Are they two parts of the same idea even though that wasn't the objective?
Lichtblick:Interesting question. They both have a German title, but they are not directly connected to each other. “Geäst” is about losing a close person and remembering her at a certain place where you spent a lot of time together. “Geister” on the other hand is about losing your mind after wishing for something that you thought you want to have. But it turned out really bad so you wish for nothing more than death now. Both songs, just like the whole album, deal with the main topic of “loss” or “losing something”.
A7:How is Lichtblick different from your previous bands?
Lichtblick:We haven’t played in any significant bands before...
A8:I'm trying to understand the fourth title track of the new album called “I Feel Nothing”. What is the song exactly about? “
Lichtblick:I Feel Nothing” is about being damaged so bad by someone or something that you lose the ability to feel normal. Either due to the damage directly or as a protect mechanism so you never get hurt again. But to clarify one thing – that are just our interpretations of our music. We want the people to listen to our songs and make up their own feelings and thoughts to each and every song. The art work we provide to every song is supposed to help or to give a thought-provoking impulse to that.
A9:What is the idea behind the artwork of “ABKEHR”?
Litchtblick:As mentioned above every song has its own deeper meaning for us and we chose the artwork so that it fits our idea to every song. We edited the pictures to our satisfaction. Everyone can make up their own mind to what the pictures mean to them while listening to each specific song.
A10:What about the fifth song “Amaurosis”, what do you mean by that and what is the song about?
Litchtblick:Amaurosis” means short or long, but transient blindness of the eyes. The song is about someone who closes his or her eyes in front of issues that might be important and not reacting to them. The loss of eyesight here can be a protective or a very harming thing – regarding of your own perspective.
A11:Dostojewski talked about a suicide with reasoning. You also broach the issue of suicide in you music and lyrics. Is this Russian writer and thinker an inspiration to you? As an interviewing philosopher like myself this screams like a band of his style!
Litchtblick:Haha, ok. Well...No, neither Dostojewski nor Nietzsche or so have been an inspiration to our music, even though we deal with similar topics. If you want to search for a lyrical influence you will find it in the song “Geister”. This song was inspired by Goethes ballade “Der Zauberlehrling” to some extend.
A12:Did some films or movies inspire the band to any songs?
Litchtblick:No, not as far as I know
A13:“Abehr” is a concept album, right? What is the concept?
Lichtblick:Yes, the album is definitely meant to be a concept album. The main topic throughout all six songs is “Loss” in various variations. Losing can be a good thing, it can be protective but it can also be devastating its just a matter of perspective and how you deal with it. This is how we deal with it.
A14:How did you get in contact with Immortal Frost Productions?
Lichtblick:That’s a pretty cool story, actually. We consider ourselves as a live band – so playing concerts is something we really want to do. 2 years ago, before the pandemic, we saw that one of your favourite bands, Fen from the UK, was having a tour with Frostmoon Eclipse from Italy throughout middle Europe. And they had a stop in Vienna, Austria. We wrote to the club in Vienna if they still needed a local support band or an opener and the guy from the club forwarded our message to Surtur form Immortal Frost, who was organizing the tour. He gave us a listen and asked us if we want to join for three or four concerts, not just one. But then, you know, COVID came along and the tour got postponed for two years... In the meantime Immortal Frost Productions signed us and we recorded our second album “Abkehr”. And just before the above mentioned tour finally happened, Immortal Frost released the new album – perfect timing.
A15:What kind of subjects or topics don´t deserve a Lichtblick song?
Lichtblick:Hmm, difficult question. We certainly don’t cover political or religious topics. We concentrate more on us and ourselves, what we do, feel, how we react to everyone and everything. Its a kind of self-therapy if you want...
A16:Do you feel any differences between “Phrenesis” and now in “ABKEHR”? Yes, definitely. As mentioned before there are huge differences regarding those two albums. Also the feelings we get when we play these different songs differ strongly.
A17: Do you think existence is agony?
Lichtblick:No, certainly not. We aren’t anti-human or anti-life or whatsoever. We think everyone must live their own life and cope with everything that comes up. Some do it better, some do it worse. Lichtblick is about how we do this for ourselves. Feel free to lose your life!
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