Tell us, how did Kreyll come to be? It seems like you suddenly appeared out of nowhere. How did you two get in touch, and how does the collaboration work considering the significant distance between the members?
We are life-long friends, growing up in a small dull town near Eindhoven. We both have on-and-off been engaged with our own bands and projects. R.S. was involved inAura, a death metal band from Eindhoven, and after he moved to Scotland he got involved in some local bands like Collapse of Reason and HXDRN. R.L. spend time in hardcore bands Human Demise and Beg to Differ and was in a Misfits tribute band called Devilöck. We started taking Kreyll seriously around 2020 but the idea of starting Kreyllis older. Both dealing with mental health issues, it seemed we had to go through that mental hell to understand and appreciate black metal and in that we found a common ground to collaborate musically again.
These days, collaborating when not in the same room so to speak, is pretty easy. I would even go as far as to say that we prefer it that way. We can develop and exchange musical ideas without band politics and ego getting in the way.
Your first demo, MMXXII, initially wasn’t entirely how you wanted it to be, so it was remixed and remastered. What were the issues with the first mix that bothered you?
We did the entire production ourselves and initially we wanted the recordings to be an exercise in minimalism, so we didn’t record any bass guitars for it. Although artistically there may have been a well-argumented point to this, it just didn’t sound very good. Add to that a substantial lack of experience in the recording process and our tendency to be overly critical at every stage of the process. By the time we got in contact with Alex of Zwaertgevegt to release our demo on tape, we took the opportunity to remix and remaster our demo.
The MMXXII demo was well received, with reviews highlighting Kreyll’s highly experimental approach. Is it important for you to keep things as broad as possible rather than focusing on a single style?
To be honest, we don’t really think about it as ‘experimental’. We just write music as it comes to us, without considering genre-definitions and constraints. If anything, to us black metal stands for total freedom without compromise. We do what we do.
Are there any other bands or projects you are involved in? There is very little information available about Kreyll. Is there a specific reason why you take anonymity so seriously?
We’re not currently involved in any other bands. Doing a few personal projects on the side, but Kreyll is the main focus.
Anonymity is not really as important to us as it may appear. Perhaps it only serves as a reminder to let the music speak for itself; musically and artistically it’s not relevant who is involved. We have also since abandoned our rather silly monikers and have now reverted to our initials.
Having said all that, we’d like to keep some sort of mystique regarding the Kreyll project.
Kreyll’s influences are quite extensive. What bands and/or music genres do you personally listen to outside of Black Metal?
We are both huge music fanatics, so it is hard to pinpoint where our tastes lie. Anything from goth, 80s electro pop, noise, (post-)punk, avant-garde to extreme metal and beyond. If you want some band names, Killing Joke, Isis, The God Machine, Fields of the Nephilim, Amenra, Godflesh, Darkthrone, Wolfbrigade, Blut Aus Nord, Nihilland Lawnmower Deth are where we musically meet. But also, movies like The Thing and the Alien franchise have some influence on our songs and sound.
The Dutch Black Metal scene has grown significantly in recent years. What is your view on the overall development of Dutch bands and labels?
The Dutch black metal scene is a very inspiring one. Somehow our soil is just as bad as in the Nordics to spawn such great bands and projects. Nihill, Verwoed, Deathless Void, Hinder, Galgenras, Urfaust, Laster, Fluisteraars, Kwade Droes and Terzij de Horde regularly hit our record players or spotify. All quality over image, creative and down to earth.
Last year, there was a split release with Rejoice in Moribund and BHPL. How did this release come about, especially considering that some of the styles are quite far apart?
R.L. is friends and has been in bands with members of BHPL and Rejoice In Moribund. M of BHPL popped the idea of doing this split and it gave us the opportunity to go into a more industrial direction by remixing our new song “Kathedraal”. Giving it a doomier and more industrial vibe it fits perfectly between the blackened doom of the RiM & Utter collaboration and the techno/EBM of BHPL. The paintings of HMX and art direction of R.S. tied it all together visually.
Are there any plans for a full-length Kreyll album? And is there any label interest in such a project?
YES! As a matter of fact, we have completed our debut album ‘Ontzielingsrituelen’ and are currently looking for a label to release it. If we were to describe it, both musically and thematically it is a pretty radical departure from the demo. It’s much more extreme, it’s discordant and uneasy, yet at the same time much deeper on an emotional level. A psychotic mind’s quest to find meaning and purpose. If the demo aimed to be minimalist, the new album would be maximalist.
Thank you for this interview! Do you have any final words for our readers?
Thanks for your interest in Kreyll! Hopefully we can present our first full length soon.
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