NATVRE’S
Hardcore-sired Greeks turn to the dark side
While virtually unknown outside their native Greece, the guys behind Natvre’s have been around since 2005, originally mixing hardcore, death and grind under the name Insane. After releasing three albums, they were reborn as Natvre’s in 2014, featuring the same musicians but this time focusing on black metal. Outside of hardcore and punk, according to vocalist and guitarist Foedraan, it proved to be the one subgenre that all three bandmembers could agree upon.
“It all comes from the same nihilistic womb,” he explains.
“Of course, while black metal is more endoscopic, d-beat crustpunk feels more like screaming in your face, and to me, the two complete each other. There are many similarities in terms of chords, picking style and even vocals. Both styles also like to use repetitive riffs to provoke a form of trance.”
Feeling that the current scene is “kind of trapped in complexity”, Foedraan described Natvre’s second album, Early Cvlts, as “a trip back to the Helvete store”, the name of Euronymous’s short-lived record shop in Oslo. “Whoever tells you he’s playing black metal but doesn’t care about what happened in Norway in the 90s is a liar. This was the perfect soil for the seed we call black metal today, although I would say we’ve toned this specific influence down a bit on our new album compared to our debut, Wrath, which came out two years ago.”
The album’s title came after Foedraan visited an exhibition in Athens titled Early Cults, with tools “some dating from as far back as 4,000 BC, to practise religion, which according to me, is purely a human creation.”
Still, simplicity and impact are the keywords here: “I believe that only two songs on both full-lengths have two different guitar parts,” says Foedraan. We like to keep it simple, especially for live shows and everything bar the drums is very distorted. This allows us to sound like a rabid dog attack!”
LINE-UP: Foedraan (vocals, guitar), Aethir (bass), Saathield (drums)
HOME TOWN: Thessaloniki, Greece
SOUNDS LIKE: Norwegian-inspired mid-tempo black metal performed by furious Greek crusties storming the gates of Hades.
FOR FANS OF: Darkthrone, The Secret, Taake
CURRENT RELEASE: Early Cvlts (Argento, 2017) WEBSITE: www.facebook.com/natvres