YR might be the rawest active black metal band from Riga. They have adopted all stereotypical 2nd wave specifics – blast beats, tremolo picking, lack of technicality (meaning – primitive & brutal) and fry screams, mixing all of that with lyrics in latvian and maximalism of youth power.
Here’s an interview with (in my opinion) the most authentic Riga black metal band YR.
1. Hail satan! Let’s start with the name. “Y” and “R” makes a difficult sound to remember and correctly pronounce. Is it an acronym? And what does it mean? How did you choose this band name?
YR is not an acronym. It is a rune, but spelled with capital letters. This rune means quite a lot of things, but we chose this rune, because of its meaning of death.(and no, it does not make us NSBM)
2. Who’s playing in the band, who’s writting music and what other projects do you guys have?
Our band members are: Ä(drummer), Sērga(rythm guitar/main vocals) Sumburs(lead guitar/backvocals) Rabrt(bass). All of our band members write the instrumental parts of our music, for example we can take our EP – Ä wrote “Lāsts”, Sumburs wrote “Ēna” and Sērga wrote “Saules sāpes” (bassist was not yet in the band). All lyrics is in our native language and written by vocalist- Sērga. Here are other bands and projects our band members participate in:
Ä- Polycephaly, Hæedrunn, Nazishweinejäger, грех;
Sērga- ex-Polycaphaly, Hæedrunn(as bass);
Rabrt- OPIUM_LV (not metal), Grobiņa, Nazishweinejäger;
Sumburs-грех and one, yet untitled,bm band.
3. A year ago YR recorded an EP that later got released as a split with Finnish black metal band Warorath X under the label Planetary King Records from West Virginia, USA. How did this collaboration went? The split got released on a 25 tape run. Do you have a copy of your own? And are they still available? Big respect for choosing a Finnish black metal band as the other half! Kippis!
It was pretty random. This american guy emailed us after releasing our songs on bandcamp and offered to make cassetes and then he offered to combine these cassetes with Warorath, and scince we liked their content, we totally agreed. Sadly we dont have any of those cassetes, but we know local people who have bought it. We have not contacted the records guy in a while, so those who are interested, must investigate their availability themselves.
4. You call yourselves pagan and war metal. Is it because of lyrics or does any other aspect make YR pagan? There was a big wave of “pagan metal”/folk metal bands few years ago, copying Skyforger success – Deodium, Druun, Green Novice, Ryvendir, Varang Nord etc. Do you feel like sharing ideology or style with these bands? Side note: you would fit Zobens & Lemess festival line-up. Would you like to perform there?
Our vocalist is the only one infuenced by these bands (mostly), and he uses paganism as a unique way to protest againt christianity and promote underrated mithology of ancient Balts. Soundwise there is no big influence from mentioned bands, altho some parts might be simmular to early Skyforger or Deodium, but it is not intentional. Our vocalist is writing lyrics in a politically neutral way (except anti-christianity of course), so anyone who enjoys our music does not have to worry about the band being opposite political wing. Our vocalist says that, in the EP lyrical focus was on a vison of how dark paganic forces would end the helpless world and humanity, but newer lyrycs are more focused of everyday pchycological struggles, anti-christianity and just some brutal, graphical stuff. We think that performing in Zobens and Lemess would be a new, great experience for us, so it would really nice to play there.
5. What should FILTHY HANGOUT festival attendies expect from your show? Thanks for the chat, cheers!
You should expect new songs with a different sound, as we are constantly evolving it to our liking. Oh yeah and dying in the moshpit.