Dreich are a depressive suicidal black metal band from Aberdeen, Scotland, and their first EP, Edicius, does not try to make that introduction easy. The title itself means “suicide” backwards, and the music moves through slow, grey stretches of fear, emptiness and despair, with flashes of melody that hint at something more personal beneath the surface.
For guitarist Terrorwielder, who answers here on behalf of the band, Dreich are “slow, depressive suicidal black metal made from how we actually feel.” There is no grand concept being dressed up for effect. In his words, it is “the sound of things going wrong and staying that way.” That sense of bleak honesty runs through Edicius, from the melodic pull of “Sharing Death” to the long, ritual unease of “Propria Manu Mori”.
There is also a hard idea of freedom at the centre of it. As Terrorwielder puts it, Dreich praise freedom because “a man can choose even against himself, and no one can fully take that choice away from him.” It is a grim statement, and one that fits the EP’s refusal to soften what it is. Speaking to AFRICA.ROCKS, he explains how Edicius came together, what Aberdeen puts into the band’s sound, and where Dreich are heading next.
“Aberdeen is grey, cold, and dead most of the time.”
Edicius was the first Dreich release through As Pestis Records. What was happening around the band when those five tracks came together?
It came together in a bad period. Drinking, no structure, everyone stuck in their own head. Days felt the same and nothing really moved forward. We didn’t try to polish anything. We recorded it as it was and left the mistakes in. As Pestis helped us finish it when things were falling apart, and they didn’t try to change it, which is why it still sounds honest.
“Propria Manu Mori” runs past the ten-minute mark and closes the EP. What made that song the right place to leave people with this record?
It’s the most draining track on the EP. Repetitive, slow, and hard to sit through in the right way. It pushes the same feeling over and over until it gets uncomfortable. It has a ritual feel to it, like something that keeps going until there’s nothing left. Ending on that made sense, because after it finishes, there’s no need to add anything else. It’s a perfect song to bleed out to…
Aberdeen is all over the Bandcamp tags and the band identity, but place can mean different things from one black metal band to another. What does your own environment actually put into the music?
Aberdeen is grey, cold, and dead most of the time. Fog from the North Sea, granite everywhere, everything looks the same. It wears you down slowly. You see addiction, crime, people stuck in the same cycle, and after a while it stops being shocking and just becomes normal. That gets into your head, and that’s where the sound comes from.
You are staying with As Pestis for the next album as well. What has that working relationship looked like in real terms since Edicius came out?
They do their job and leave us alone. No pressure, no trying to change the sound. They understand what this is supposed to be. Since the EP, it’s been steady and simple. They support the band without interfering, and that kind of approach is rare now.
Now that the next record is in progress, what part of Edicius still feels worth carrying forward into a full-length?
We’re not trying to reinvent anything. The way we write is still the same, it just comes out differently now. The new material is already shaping up, and it still sits in that same DSBM space, because that’s what feels natural for us. We’re in the demo stage now, recording starts next month, and we’ll see where it lands when winter comes.
Stream/Buy Edicius on Bandcamp.
