As
I said in my original review for Hyperwülff’s new album - Volume Two - The Divide. I’m not
very good reviewing concept albums. I always want to focus on the
music. So I will post what Hyperwülff’s new album is about.
“Volume
Two: The Divide, begins on the battlefield where the last fight
against Robogoat is taking place, and instantly throws us in a
kaleidoscope of words and memories recounted by the two protagonists,
describing the last moments of struggle between the Great Wolf and
the Mechanical Beast, which ends with the annihilation of both.
Hyperwülff,
now devoid of a physical body, is forced to roam the cosmos in a
different state of matter, and can only interact through the body of
The Wülff. The Erionite forces, now in shambles, need to gather
their last strength to save the Stele of Laar, infinite source of
energy, and symbol of the ancient pact between the planet’s living
beings, upon which they swore an oath of fraternity and loyalty.
The
Stele is the last chance for the Hyper Wolf to regain a physical
body, before being swept away forever in the dark of the Universe.“
The
band kindly asked me to do an interview with though I will be
speaking to the actual entities that make up Hyperwülff. I was
intrugied to find out more about Hyperwülff’s motivations behind
their music and how this crazy journey started.
Read
on if you want to find out more about this cool band and the epic
spaced out story they have to tell….
Hi
guys. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today?
Hey
there! Good and super excited!
Before
we get started on your new album. Sorry I mean audio description of
your ever-going battles against the forces of evil. Can you give a
brief description or history of the spaced out journey you’ve been
facing over the course of your last two albums?
Oook.
Hope not to turn this chat into The Hobbit… Volume Two begins where
Volume One ended. Erion Speaks was about the battle against the
cosmic invader, Robogoat, the evil machine that came to Erion to
destroy it and drain all its energy, and introduced the characters.
With The Divide we pass a threshold. Time goes back to its normal
flow and you progressively start to take contact with places and
events surrounding the battle.
Like
a flight over everything right before diving back into it. You are
witnessing through the eyes of Wülff and Sarge, and you can now see
the Ridge, the city of Erion IX, the Great Planes, the temple of the
twenty pillars where the Stele is kept… and you can see the final
moments of fighting between Hyperwülff and Robogoat. But mainly this
is an album about separation. Separation from oneself, from
existence, from home (also seen as a comfort zone). And so the two
protagonists have no choice left to protect the Stele of Laar but to
grab it and leave the planet before it collapses.
So
do the two of you individuals make up the Hyperwulff in question?
We
don’t make it up, but rather are made of its same substance, like
everything else on the lost planet of Erion. What we do is we let its
spirit speak through our music. We are the only channel it has to
communicate with the people on Earth.
How
long have you been fighting the forces of Robogoat?
The
battle took place in a distant space and time. Sarge and Wülff have
left the planet since that. All of this already happened. But it is
really an eternal struggle, and distances don’t matter.
What
happened to Hyperwulff to roam the cosmos in a different state of
matter?
At
the end of the great battle of Erion, the Hyperwulff was able to
defeat Robogoat, but at the cost of its own life. Its spirit lingered
like a distant resonance echoing through the void. It now needs the
help of the living to regain a physical body and respark the
Hypersphere once again.
What
is exactly the body of The Wulff. How do you interact with The Wulff?
The
body of the Wulff works pretty much like an antenna. He lets the
Hyperwulff speak its message through his body.
So
what is Hyperwulff’s mission and final destination?
Hyperwulff
has no mission. He’s a spirit. An entity. And we need Him to get to
the Stele of Laar before the Robogoat does. This artifact is the only
remaining piece of Erion, and it’s the most important one because
it’s the trigger to its power. The Robogoat wants this power to
turn everything into a cancerous mechanical nightmare where only its
existence is preserved. On the other hand, the Hyperwulff is this
ancient spirit that comes from a place that celebrates life in all of
its forms. He is the protector and the vanquisher of the machine.
As
far as we are concerned, we are here to spread its message and
hopefully convince the people of Earth to join together and share
their energy to give the Hyperwulff a new body. That’s what our
live shows are for.
Why
did you form this band called Hyperwulff?
It
really started as some sort of a joke. We were living in the same
flat at the time, and we used to come up with all these weird origin
stories and random fantasy-themed ideas. When the name of the
Hyperwulff came up, we liked it so much that we immediately decided
to form a band around it.
How
did the band became to be?
Originally,
we just wanted to jam out to heavy riffs and bang our heads in a
rehearsal room. We really had little ambition when we started, other
than make as much noise as we could. Then on our very first
rehearsal, the very first riff we came up with was “Robogoat”. By
the end of the rehearsal we had the song pinned down, and that got us
really excited because we weren’t expecting it to come out so
easily.
It
was like some sort of force was guiding our hands! So we made it a
regular thing, and after a couple of months we had a few songs
sketched out. Then a friend needed a band for some fest they were
setting up, and he asked us if we were up for it. We weren’t even
sure it was a good idea to play these songs live, but we did it
anyway. We found out people liked it, and here we are. It really came
out pretty naturally.
Why
did you choose Doom/Sludge Metal Music as the best format to tell
your story?
Well
first off because it’s a lot of fun. It’s raw and powerful, and
these are the qualities we wanted from our music. We have always been
great fans of The Riff. But mostly it was the most suitable for the
storytelling of a violent, gigantic, supermassive battle.
We
also spent a lot of time in the punk hardcore/DIY scene so that has
always been our main frame of reference, we want to share our music
with people who love to share, and we want to take it live where we
can all have a good time together.
Why
not other genres such which are better suited to tell fantastical
stories such as yourselves?
We
don’t really feel like we play a proper genre, given that we are
influenced by a slew of different, often unrelated things. Of course
some references are clearer than others… It’s hard to say. We
like to think that this is a starting point, and that we can move
towards many different directions. The whole concept allows us to
experiment with different sounds and themes and this will happen in
the future, for sure.
What
can people expect from Volume Two: The Divide?
They
can expect an effort to shape an unstable material into a new
temporary form. We wanted it to be closer to how we sound live and
our friend Bruno Germano at Vacuum Studio did just the perfect job.
He helped us a lot under many aspects. He's a good friend and a very
talented musician/sound engineer. His approach is very similar to
ours, so we worked hard together to preserve some sort of
authenticity. There is a broader spectrum of different moods in the
album, due to the evolution of the events, but we tried to make it as
much organic as we could. For your own amusement there is also a map.
Maps are always comforting.
Was
this an easy or hard album to write and record for?
We
sketch out a lot of riffs all the time, but stitching them together
into coherent songs, and then fitting the whole thing into the
narrative, is sometimes a painful process. But we don’t like to put
pressure on ourselves, we prefer to think about it as a journey, and
we like to enjoy both the good and the hard of it.
Recording
it was smooth sailing. Bruno helped us to stay true to the songs and
the way we naturally play them, and also allowed us to experiment in
post-production and to really broaden the sound.
How
would you describe your music in your own words?
It's
metal but there's something wrong with it. So it's like metal i
guess…
Which
labels are releasing the album and what formats as well?
Vinyl
format will be released by Shove Records, Deathcrush Distro, Dischi
Bervisti and Teschio Dischi, and it will come together with the CD.
The tape format will come out for Roughness Noise. All Italian DIY
labels working with different genres. All good friends.
Will
you be performing gigs or festivals to promote the album?
We
hope so! We will start with some late summer festivals in September.
We'll be in our town, Bologna, at Krakatoa Fest, and we are very
excited cause it's a huge meeting. Lots of very good bands like Zu,
Messa and Naga will play there. It's such an honor.
What
is the song-writing dynamic within the band. Is it a group collective
or down to individual(s)?
We
try to keep individuals aside from this. We jam a lot in our
rehearsal space. Almost all of the music comes from that. When you
are a duo it's easier. Everything can change from one moment to
another with a glance. Sometimes a song comes together very quickly
and never changes in time. Sometimes it takes months to get to a
conclusion. We can play a song for one year and then decide it is not
sufficient to fit in a record. We don't work on a rush. We discuss
everything, about the lyrics and the evolution of the story…
What
comes first. Lyrics or Music?
Always
music first. English is not our mother language so mostly it stays
barks and growls for months and then we put words in.
Before
you go, do you have anything to say to your fans?
Do
we have fans?! HA HA! we feel like saying “thank you” to a lot of
people. Especially to all who keep putting their blood and sweat into
this kind of music, whether as listeners, musicians or by organising
and promoting gigs. And of course, thank you for sharing your passion
and spreading good music.
Words
by Steve Howe and Hyperwülff
