After they dissolved Wederganger in 2018, a part of the former line-up founded BEZWERING. Their debut album ties musically directly to Wederganger – why the band changed the name anyway, what is different with BEZWERING and what the name means at all, singer Alfschijn explains in an interview.
Hi and thanks a lot for taking time for this interview! How are you doing?
Hey Moritz, thanks for your interest in BEZWERING. Well, summer has really started, turning Gelderland into a paradise for mosquitos, ticks and other pests forcing me to stay indoors a bit more then I’d like. But I’m keeping myself busy with a lot of projects, mostly but not exclusively musical, so I’m doing fine!
BEZWERING is the follow-up project of Wederganger. What led to the breakup of this band back then?
It’s hard to name one reason, to me it was a combination of personal issues and a lack of focus and drive, causing the creative energy to fly all over the place while draining our energy. We tried to see if the magic would return, but we came to the conclusion it was lost for good so we pulled the plug.
The new band involves two of the three founders of Wederganger as well as one of your former live musicians, Why didn’t you continue as Wederganger with a new line-up, but changed the band name?
Wederganger was a pact between Botmuyl, MJWW and me, and we swore we would dissolve if this core would lose its chemistry. BEZWERING is not a direct continuation of Wederganger, everybody went their own way after we quit. I still wanted to make music based on undeath and dark local folklore, and one day guitarist Plaag crossed my path. He, MJWW and I decided to form a new band, adding some old and new blood in the form of Onmens and Onzalige respectively. So even though stylistically and thematically there are similarities, to me there’s a different energy and other influences within this new group.
What does the band name BEZWERING mean in English?
It has several meanings actually, among which “incantation”, “evocation”, “enchantment”, “invocation”, “curse” …
and what was the idea behind it – why does it fit the music perfectly?
I think because we deal with a variety of occult themes and because I consider us to be a band with several different faces, this equivocal name is fitting to us.
Your debut also carries a Dutch title: „Aan de wormen overgeleverd“. What does it mean?
It means “handed over to the worms”.
Is there a lyrical concept behind it, or what are your texts generally about?
It’s not strictly a concept album, but most of the songs share a regional source of inspiration. In the lyrics there is often a paradigm shift between the living and the (un)dead, and between the victim and the perpetrator. We make conscious use of instruments and vocal styles to portray the stories.
Musically, you continue pretty much exactly where Wederganger left off, I think. What differences do you see yourself?
I see your point, I think BEZWERING reignited Wederganger’s torch but because of the different line-up it carries it in different directions. There are new ideas and influences, and there is a new dynamic. I feel the biggest difference is that more people are involved in songwriting, making for more diverse songs that are still bound by a common sound, vocal style and inspiration. If I were to compare it to whipping, BEZWERING is more like a “cat o’ nine tails”…
Despite their hardness the songs are very versatile and catchy. A crucial component are the two different singing styles. Is this all you or who takes over the harsh vocals?
I take care of the droning and the clean vocals, Onzalige handles screams and bass guitar. To have two singers allows for alternating or combining the vocal styles and thus creating different atmospheres fitting to the themes of the songs.
The album has just been released at the beginning of the Corona time. Was that a disadvantage for you because of the decreasing sales figures?
To be honest, I have no idea how much the album has sold. With all the shows cancelled and bars closed, all that burning money has to go somewhere so it wouldn’t surprise me if records sales didn’t drop as much as initially was feared. It may also have been an advantage with people stuck in their homes, they actually had the time to find and digest some new music. In that case I hope our album has served as a soundtrack to the modern plague and people will remember it because of it. For Ván Records’ sake I hope we sell a lot, but personally it’s more important that our music falls into the right hands rather than into as many hands as possible.
In general: What consequences does Corona have for you as a band, how do you deal with it?
Never waste a good crisis, like they say. While we wouldn’t have minded following up the release with a couple of nights of blood, fire and undeath on stage, we have found a lot of time to write our next album, which is coming along quite nicely. We also managed to find a party willing to sell our merchandise online and we’re working on a visual interpretation of one of our songs, which will hopefully see the light of day before long. Rehearsals have resumed meanwhile, so once opportunity presents itself we will be ready to deliver on stage.
You have several other projects – among others :Nodfyr:. Can you briefly update us on what to expect here in the near future? So far there is only one first EP from 2017?
Recordings for the first album, called “Eigenheid”, are almost done! It’ll contain seven heavy songs dealing with various elements that constitute our identity. We cooperated with a few very interesting local heroes as guest musicians, so I can’t wait to hear how this will turn out. I’m not sure if it will be released this year, we shall see!
Is there also something to report on your other projects Gaistaz and Knoest?
Gaistaz will record a full-length, but no time-frame has been set so there’s really no telling when the spirit chooses to appear. Knoest is an even bigger question mark, for now it’s buried but I met up with Mink and Harold last weekend and who knows … maybe in the future?
Thank you for the interview! Please let us do a short brainstorming in the end of this interview.
Black Metal from the Netherlands: Almost mutually exclusive.
Black Metal from Germany: Katharsis.
2020: What’s next?
Your favorite album at the moment: Allegiance – Vrede
The first drink you order in a bar: A Budvar.
BEZWERING in 10 years: Undead.
Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
The pleasure was all mine. Thanks for reading this until the bitter end, we hope the current pandemic makes place soon so we can spread a plague of our own in a theater near you.
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10. Juli 2020 Moritz Grütz
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