Nebran - The Franconian Black Heart
Adrastos
Coming off the recent premiere of his first LP, ...Of Long Forgotten Times, on the BMP YouTube channel, Nebran’s creator, Adrastos, has been turning heads with his auspicious mix of cold and eerie Black Metal. Hailing from the Franconia region of Bavaria, we summoned this spectre to the gates of The Heavy Metal Citadel, this is what he had to say:
We’d like to welcome Nebran to the Citadel, can you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little more about the creation of Nebran?
Hails! I'm Adrastos, the founder of Nebran. I formed Nebran in march 2019. I was always busy with other bands and projects but had always the idea of creating a solo project and for some reasons, it happened in 2019. I founded the project at a difficult time of my life. It enabled me to express my emotions better and to treat myself in a way. Nebran is atmospheric, 90s-inspired black metal. Nothing new, but for those who still live in the old times like I do.
Congratulations on your first LP, …Of Long Forgotten Times. Love the artwork, who contributed to it, also who did the killer logo?!
Thank you! The cover and the whole artwork of the album was made by Chris / Misanthropic Art. A long-time friend of mine and an outstanding artist. I made the first version of the logo but wasn't satisfied after a couple of months, so I asked Chris if he could make an update and now it's perfect.
How does the LP compare to the Demo and your recent split with Goath? Are you pleased with the finished product? Anything you would’ve done differently?
The main difference between the demo, the split ep & the album is that I played drums on the last two releases. There are always small things that I would like to change sooner or later, but at the moment, I'm satisfied with all 3 releases. To be honest, I don't listen to my own music very much. I'm listening to a new release a couple of times and then it's history for me and I'm looking forward to write new songs.
Where does the lyrical inspiration for the songs come from?
I'm inspired by topics like the middle ages, nature and very personal, dark things that happened in my life. Both the music and the lyrics are kind of a dark diary and sometimes even therapy. That's one of the reasons why I don't print most of the lyrics so far, except the split EP song Pestwind.
You guys hail from Bavaria, what has been the local reception to the latest album?
To be exact, I'm from Franconia, which is a big part of bavaria. If you would visit this region, telling people they are from Bavaria, you would always get this answer: “I'm not from Bavaria – I'm from Franconia!”. The album has its release date today, but all people and close friends that listened to it so far, liked it very much and I saw the first review where the album got 8 of 10 points.
What are some of your biggest influences/inspirations?
I grew up in the 90s when black metal was something new, serious, mysterious and pure underground cult. No internet, no metal archives, no youtube, hard to imagine for today's kids. Just black and white printed fanzines, letters and flyers at this time and the major zines boycotted black metal. I try to keep that flame alive and honour the old traditions like spikes, corpse paint, bullets and so on. The first releases I listened to were the first albums of Darkthrone, Immortal, Burzum, Satyricon, Emperor, Gehenna and the whole outstanding, unreachable black metal releases of the 90s. Sitting next to a campfire in an ancient ruin or in the woods and listening to these classics, having a couple of drinks is maybe my biggest inspiration for Nebran besides hiking in the Franconian woods. I lived in the city for many years and recently moved to the countryside. One of the best decisions of my life was the escape from the city...
For our non-Franconian listeners, what are some good local underground Black Metal bands they ought to listen to?
We've had a lot of great Bavarian/Franconian black metal bands in the past, I think the most famous bands are Dark Fortress and Lunar Aurora. Also, we have hordes like Empaligon, Lunatic Affliction, Kapein, Wolfthorn, Grab, Valosta Varjoon, Ungod, Cosmic Burial, Cold Death, Grandeur, Nyktalgia, Suicide, Total Hate, Seeds of Hate, to name a few, and I discovered Drudensang a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, there are not many of the mentioned bands anymore.
There is a bit of dungeon synth flare in your intro of your EP, A New Path, is Dungeon Synth is this something you might experiment more with in the future?
In fact, I composed and recorded some synthesizer tracks again on the new album and even on the next split release. I always found the combination of black metal and cold, atmospheric synthesizer songs perfect in old Burzum releases for example. I'm also a big fan of old stuff like Mortiis, Wongraven, Aghast and so on. I can remember when I made a tape sampler in the 90s just with in- and outros of black metal albums. So many great tracks have been written.
Make it stand out
Have you had a chance to do any live shows yet?
Doing a live show with a solo project won't work and at the moment I don't think about forming a lineup and playing live, but never say never...
Before The Gallows Selection
You’re being marched to the gallows pole tomorrow. You have the last rite of listening to one entire album and only one album, what do you choose?
Well, Iron Maiden – No Prayer For The Dying! One of my first tapes I ever bought and so my journey would end like it started…
How can fans best support the band?
I upload news, merch, etc on my homepage www.nebran.org If you want to support a band (doesn't matter, if it's Nebran or another band), don't send just youtube links, listen to the bands just on Spotify or upload mp3s... buy CDs, vinyl, tapes and other merch. That's the best way if you want to support an artist. And of course, go to concerts! Even if you had a hard day at work, if nobody shows up, concerts and especially underground shows will die!
As the hangman says, any last words?
I have nothing more to add! Thank you for the interview and your support. Hail to all of you who keep the flame of 80s and 90s black metal burning!
We’d like to thank Adrastos for visiting the Citadel. All you reader heathens need to make sure to head over to the Nebran website and buy the latest LP and some merch now!
