A VISION BLEAK

Ask any serious fan of fantasy and horror what the greatest inspiration for their favorite genres is and they will almost certainly answer: “Weird Tales”! The publication known as “the unique magazine” was the spawning ground for uncounted talents who went on to be legends in the field. The “Big Three” of “Weird Tales” were H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, and the impact of their writings on heavy metal music is incalculable. “Weird Tales” was also the launching pad for Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Seabury Quinn and many more.

Ask any serious fan of heavy metal what the best Gothic horror metal band is and the answer should be (but not always is) THE VISION BLEAK. The two gentlemen known as Schwadorf and Konstanz, along with various talented associates, have dedicated themselves to a musical exploration of classic horror using heavy metal and Gothic music. Not for these guys are simple minded tales of slashers and flesh-eating zombies...they deal more with cosmic and subtle horrors.

What a great combination, then, when THE VISION BLEAK decides to do an entire album inspired by “Weird Tales”. Simply titled “Weird Tales”, this opus finds the band at its peak with a lush look at works by Lovecraft, Poe and the neglected Irish muse Lafacadio Hearn, amongst others. I’ve had the honor of speaking to Schwadorf before, but I was compelled to talk to him once more concerning this great new album…

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Greetings and hails to THE VISION BLEAK! “Weird Tales” is now upon us. When did you first conceive the idea of paying a musical tribute to “the unique magazine”? Was it a long term project or something that suddenly possessed you?

SCHWADORF: Greetings! The musical concept to make this album a one track album was there before the idea of the lyrical concept. Once it was clear this will be a one track album consisting of musical themes instead of songs I pretty quickly came up with the short story concept and that led to "Weird Tales". I wanna make clear though that this concept is not about a 1:1 recreation of the "Weird Tales" Magazines content. It's about creating something in its spirit, with that kind of underlying atmosphere and also the philosophy of some of the authors of "Weird Tales" stories, their “nerdiness” and their outsider mentality.

WC:  When did you first become familiar with “Weird Tales” and its legacy? Do you recall the first actual story from the magazine you read?

S: I’ve know about this magazines for a long time. I think almost as long as I know the stories of Lovecraft. 1992/1993 - about that time. The first story was either "The Call of Cthulhu" or "Dreams in the Witch-house". I guess it was the first mentioned.

WC: To this day, “Weird Tales” remains the greatest source for tales of dark imagination. What do you think was the best story to appear there? I always thought Lovecraft’s “Color Out of Space” was the most complete horror story ever written and I also liked a short story called “The Night Wire” by H.F. Arnold.

 S: My favorite story remains "The Outsider". The psychological quality and essence of it is just beautiful in a very weird and dark way. Also "Mother of Toads" which is a theme featured on our album too is an incredibly great horror story as is almost everything by Smith.

WC: You did include “The Premature Burial” by Poe on the album. Poe predates “Weird Tales”...I believe there’s a Poe tribute on every VISION BLEAK album. Is it absolute that there is a Poe-inspired song on every album? 

S: As I mentioned earlier. our idea was not to create a 1:1 "Weird Tales" concept, but to create something in its spirit and philosophy. Many authors that published in "Weird Tales" were greatly inspired by Poe – as are we – so it was natural to include him on the album that is themed around horror short stories.

WC: The press mentions that the works of writer Lafcadio Hearn are integral to the album. Tell us more about this underrated creator and how he influenced some of the music on “Weird Tales”.

S: Lafcadio Hearn's "When I Was a Flower" story is absolutely integral to the album (it even is the blueprint of the cover artwork). It is quite simply the most beautiful gothic story I have ever read and was so inspiring for this album.

WC: How intense were the discussions about which authors and stories should be paid tribute to on “Weird Tales”? The magazine produced so many great authors. Lovecraft naturally had to be one and also Clark Ashton Smith, but after that, I imagine it was hard to pick.

S: No discussion since I wrote the whole album and developed the lyrical concept on my own too. It was more like putting together a puzzle. Some of the pieces aligned without effort – other pieces needed a little bit more time and thoughtfulness. 

WC: The band made the unusual choice of making “Weird Tales” a single song with “chapters”. What led to this decision?

S: I always wanted to compose a one track album. I had the idea since the start of THE VISION BLEAK but things never aligned for many reasons up until this album. The main inspiration for this is the Italian/Slovenian Project called DEVIL DOLL run by the infamous Mr Doctor that released absolute stunning records in the early to mid 90s.

WC: In many ways, the “chapters” can still be considered separate songs. Was this how they were originally written or did you really do everything all at once?

S: No, I don't think you can compare the chapters to songs. They are more like musical themes as in classical music whereas a typical song is characterized by a certain structure (intro, verse, chorus etc.). The album was also composed chronologically as one song and the chapters where added later to that one song. So it was a very different approach than composing songs.

WC: Did you approach the recording process differently for “Weird Tales” or did you stick to the same techniques as previously?

S: I composed this album completely on my own while on past albums I was also the main songwriter/lyricist but Konstanz added in his ideas too. This one was completely structured and done before recording it and the preproduction is pretty much the album without vocals. We even took a lot of tracks from the composing/preproduction files into the final recording session. Like all the keyboards - they were completely done on an analog synth and would have been impossible to reproduce.

WC:  The album is really a kind of tour through all your musical styles and influences...there’s doom metal, black metal, Gothic rock, death metal, symphonic tones and very delicate melodies. Was this intentional or is it just the way it happened naturally?

S: It just happened in the composition process. Like I mentioned earlier - it was composed as one piece so I had to build the dynamics and the ebb and flow of it always having the bigger picture in mind.

WC: Do you have any live plans cooked up for “Weird Tales”?

S: We'll be playing a couple of festival shows now. Then we’ll play a European tour in autumn. We have cooked up a pretty special concept for this tour since we will play two shows per night with another band performing in between our two sets. Set number one will be “Weird Tales” in its entirety and set number two will be a best of older material. This way we can do justice to the new album's concept and at the same time we can satisfy fans that also understandably come to the show because of their old favorite songs.

WC: Has the band ever played in the States and are there any plans to come over? I would think some of the big festivals like Maryland Deathfest or Milwaukee Metalfest might be good venues.

S: No, but we'd love to. Get in touch with us!

WC: What would you say was the most unique venue you have played?

S: The cave of Balve at Prophecy Fest (numerous times) or the Opera house of Strasburg with my other band EMPYRIUM.

WC: What are some of the other projects you’re involved with?

S: I also have my other projects EMPYRIUM and SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS plus my passion as a landscape photographer – not to forget I run my own studio Klangschmiede Studio E being responsible for a lot of productions when it comes to German/Austrian Black Metal. Konstanz has his projects OUL and MUNK which are more synth based ambient/dark wave.

WC: If you could have dinner with any 3 people from history, who would they be?

S: Hard question. There's a lot of interesting persona from our history. I'd love to spend an evening with Lord Byron, Peter Stubbe and Caspar David Friedrich. 

WC: Any last messages or words?

S: Thanks for the support and the interest in THE VISION BLEAK. “Weird Tales” is the album we always wanted to do so we are very proud of it. Please check it out!

THE VISION BLEAK