Greetings Patrick! Thank you accepting this interview. First, before being called Sapthuran, your project was called Enthralled. Why this new name and what does it mean for you? Because, to our knowledge, it has no particular meaning. Patrick T. Hall: I changed the name from Enthralled to Sapthuran because, for the simplest reason, I found out that there was another band named Enthralled. To answer the latter part of your question, you are correct, Sapthuran has no other particular meaning. Instead of choosing a pseudonym instead of my real name in addition to a band name, I simply chose one word to represent both a pseudonym and a band name since it was to be a one-man project. In other words, Sapthuran has no other meaning other than to describe this particular project. We confess not knowing your other projects in which you take part, past and present. For example Heatthen Hammer and Herot. Can you tell us more about it? How do you distinguished those side projects regarding Sapthuran which, we guess, represents something more personal? Herot was a brief project between myself and one other individual, we released one demo/ep and that was both the beginning and end of that project. I want to thank that one individual and Desastrious records for putting it out! Heathen Hammer is still an active project. We have released a demo and two full length albums so far and are working on the third album which should be released this year (2016). As for how I distinguish the different projects, Sapthuran is the one project where I write and record every bit of the music. All of the other projects are shared efforts between myself and other people. My influences will surely be heard in these other projects but I do not have full creative control like I do with Sapthuran… not that that is a bad thing by any means... as I certainly do enjoy collaborating with other like minded musicians. Your first album ...in Hatred is admirably up to its name, since it is a total cruelty, wrenching end to end. From where this hatred came from at this time? What musical influences held you? I was quite young when I wrote and recorded that album... still in high school, in fact. I suppose if it seemed cruel and hateful, it was nothing more than youth that spawned such emotions. I do not remember any specific events or ideas that may have caused it, only a general disillusion with modernity and its constraints, a general dislike of popular culture and a general disappointment in the mentality of most of my generation (and beyond). My musical influences at the time were many of the “staple” Black Metal bands such as Burzum, Judas Iscariot, Ulver, early Satyricon, early Borknagar, Arckanum and other similar acts. Many people may know you through the split with Leviathan. How does it comes? What do you think of Wrest and its various projects? Leviathan is an important Black Metal band in the US, what does it mean to you? Battle Kommand records asked me if I had a label set up to release my second album, To the Edge of Land, and I did inform him that I already agreed to release it with God is Myth records. When I told him that, he responded and asked me if I would like to take part in a split with Leviathan and I agreed to do so. I felt this would be a good opportunity for some exposure since Leviathan is a very well known band within Black Metal and I had already enjoyed and respected his material for some time by then. I think he has a very distinct, original and impressionable sound and certainly formed a firm foothold within underground US Black Metal that many others have taken influence from and since emulated. In your music, there is a really impressive and well done minimalism. Do you work a lot your compositions for it, by purifying them for instance, or do you have a more spontaneous approach? Honestly it is a bit of both. With earlier Sapthuran material, minimalism and a certain primal almost unrefined or slightly off-putting rawness was a focus of mine, combined with my more organic/melodic/whatever-you-call-it riffing style. However, with that being said, the writing and composition process was often times very spontaneous… it was the recording techniques, particularly the mixing and stripped down simplicity of the songs that were crafted in a more controlled way. There are only a few "riffers" in the Black Metal music, by this we mean, only few people can transcend their music with a simple riff endlessly repeated without tiring any second. The best known are certainly early-Burzum, sometimes Nargaroth, or, of course, the mighty Judas Iscariot. You seem to fully subscribe to this approach, do you agree to be categorized this way? Are these bands have a real influence on you? I agree with that, yes. With the exception of some tracks on Hildegicel and some of my synth instrumental tracks, I write almost everything first and foremost on the guitar, so there is certainly a focus on riffing, and I do believe that I have a certain “style” of riffing. I do try to create certain atmospheres through repetition, subtle changes and the use of certain melodies and chords. This is often prevalent in my other projects, such as Heathen Hammer, when we are working on new material and we have to discard a riff because it sounds “too Sapthuran.” Speaking of Judas Iscariot your album The Wanderer appears to be really influenced by it, more than the others. We feel the same sometimes on Hildegicel too. Is it just an impression or is it actually a kind of tribute? What this band means to you? I do enjoy Judas Iscariot a lot, but I will say that I was playing guitar in the Sapthuran style for a number of years before I ever listened to his material… so I think that part of the reason that I enjoyed Judas Iscariot when I first heard it was because of the similarities I heard between his and my riffing styles. I can also hear similarities between myself and the riffing prevalent in Kristallnacht, for example, amongst others. I do not try to play to anyone else’s style, I feel that I have a style of my own, but I do tend to enjoy listening to the bands that share similarities with my sound (as long as their ideologies and imageries are not entirely off-putting). On your last album, Hildegicel, you seams to slow down a little bit. It seems closer to The Edge of Land, because of the samples, the interludes, some breathing moments in contrast with more intense and dark moments. Could you explain why ? ...In Hatred and The Wanderer were more “harsh” albums, as they were the first and third albums, while To the Edge of Land was softer and more organic overall. Hildegicel continues this trend… and we can expect the fifth full length to be more aggressive again… and should there be a sixth, it very well might return to the likes of Hildegicel and To the Edge of Land. I do one, then the other, then the one again, then the other again, but they are all still ultimately different. I do not exactly have a reason why it is this way, but it is something that feels right, as if to show both sides of the same thing. The EP’s, demos and splits are more unpredictable. There is no particular order to how they will sound. In Hildegicel booklet, you said that the album was written, recorded and mixed in 2012. Why this delay of three years to get out? We were surprised also with this confidential release on Vanguard Productions, on tape, just before the release on CD later. Is there a particular reason for that? The delay mainly comes down to complications with the label who originally planned to release Hildegicel. Being that it was a label that I worked with a number of times in the past, quite favorably I might add, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and agreed to wait while the album kept being delayed. I was also beginning to work on new Heathen Hammer material which distracted me from the release… but eventually it simply became delayed for too long and I needed a change. Thankfully Vanguard Productions offered to release it on Cassette, I accepted and he had it released in a very timely and professional fashion, and then Foreign Sounds offered me a deal on the CD and released it just as professionally and just as timely. I do not foresee any future delays like that. Can you tell us more about the concept of the album and the subtitle "Blood Dripping from a Sword"? The concept of the album follows once unnamed protagonist who, for reasons left unexplained, leaves his city behind in search of answers in the deep wilderness. This person is not meant to be myself. As he progresses further into the forests, he encounters various stimuli, which he reflects upon, and toward the end of the album, he finds a sword which he interprets as a sign of sorts. In the end, he returns to his city with a renewed spirit, having experienced some sort of catharsis. I will not go into specifics here, as it can be interpreted a number of ways. There are strong themes of individualism, willpower, survival and self-preservation present throughout this album and Sapthuran as a whole. Hildegicel means “blood dripping from a sword” in Old English. Hildegicel has this huge "naturalist" aura, more than usual, which might seem more arid, usually evoking desolate landscapes. We think of it on the instrumental "Separation IV", giving the impression of wandering in the middle of a forest, or with the samples of water, wolves howling, and this dramatic music on "Steadfast Resilience VI". Does this album maintains a special bound with Nature? What is your relationship with it? This album, along with all of my other albums, and myself, hold(s) a strong bond with Nature, although “nature” is not solely the woods, even though that is the setting of Hildegicel. Nature is everything, from the cosmos to the forests to the most destitute inner city. There is no separation between nature and civilization, even though the unnamed protagonist mentioned in the last question seeks a separation during the first half of the album. At the end of the album, he returns to the city, likely having realized something such as this. My relationship with nature... I feel that I do not see the world as most people do. I see modern society as an illusion, an obscuring veil that manages to fool seemingly the majority of humanity into believing something that is not actually “nature,” yet, even this society is, of course, a product of nature and therefore also nature. Yes, I do enjoy backpacking, camping, fishing and the outdoors in general quite a bit and I spend much of my time familiarizing myself with various methods of survival both urban and “wild“ in nature. These survival methods can range from knowing how to start a fire in the woods to verbally de-escalating a potential threatening situation to operating a firearm to maintaining a motor vehicle and trading money, goods and services for money, goods and services in return. I do not want to rely on the modern system to survive, but I do want to know how to use it to my advantage. On your first album, we can read the following sentence : "When man and machines are forgotten, the world remain...". What does it means for you ? More specifically, what is your opinion to mankind ? What is your relation with Time, and Cosmos ? Do you have a down-to-earth approach or rather turned to something more mystical? Is there some writings that could inspire you about it? I touched on this in my last answer, but… I personally feel that I am very down to Earth, however, the majority of people might argue that my views are much more “mystical.” I am, fairly simply, a conscious being currently operating in this plane of existence, an existence that we all seemingly can agree to call “humanity” on the planet Earth. I do not presume to know any answers but I do know that the continuance of my survival is important, and I do not mean this in terms of procreation, but instead in the sense that I wish to continue to observe and learn from my environment, hone my skills, and use the tools given to be both by society and nature to prolong my time here. If at some point I have a change of heart, well, we can deal with that then, but for now, it’s about surviving and thriving for me. I honestly can’t think of any writings that I can recommend, not that I do not enjoy reading, but most of what formulates my worldview is put together by too many fragments of too many sources for me to be able to zero in on one to note here. From a French point of view, Americans are much more attached to their nation compare to us, culturally speaking, without necessarily support the US government and lobbies that have a strong hold on it. For instance, just see the number of American flags in the streets. In Europe it's the opposite, the nationalists are outcasts, considered as "extremists". It is a common thing to practice ethno-masochism, to deny its origins and to prioritize "foreign" in opposite to its own interests. What is your opinion about it? America is a relatively new country and was formed as a result of a fight for freedom against tyranny and oppresion. I think this is why you see so many flags waving here... People still believe strongly in freedom here. I know that many countries were formed after revolutions but many are so old now that the “new” ideas of a free nation and people have since faded away. You are correct, it is certainly not the government that people wave their flags for… but the ideas presented in the original constitution of the United States. It is the land itself and the idea of freedom and self pursuance that people are attached to, not some forked-tongued politicians in Washington D.C. Now, ironically, those who are dependant on government are often the ones who demonize and antagonize those who stand for traditional American ideals of freedom and self sufficiency. Those dependant people are the failures and bottom-feeders of this nation, the leeches and the parasites who, emboldened and empowered by their politician helpers, community organizers and apologists, constantly burden the rest of the hard-working stand-up citizens by their gross misuse of the welfare and government assistance system and their criminal preying upon law abiding citizens. They have not the fortitude to be free, so they criticize freedom, calling it unfair or racist, and prefer to give their rights away in order for the assistance and false sense of security that the government provides... and the politicians, lobbyists, banks, corporations, etc are right there to help them along. This is how the freedoms of a new nation are chipped away over time. As for what you stated about foreign interests… well… it is one thing to emigrate to a country, adopt their way of life and become a productive member of society… but it is entirely another thing to enter a country illegally, or be flown, carted or boated in by the government with some sort of refugee status... only to tap into the same government assistance and welfare system that many citizens of the United States already abuse... and make no attempt to assimilate otherwise into our culture or work to prove worth. This is absurd and absolutely foolishly backwards. Eventually it will become dangerous. For example, there is no place for sharia law in this country. What is my opinion about it? To put it plainly by using the term that Benjamin Franklin coined, Join or Die. That’s my opinion about that. Generally speaking, are you interested in politics ? Do you participate in elections, as "citizen" for exemple ? It seems that more and more people realize that democracy, as practiced in Europe at least, seems only to be an artificial thing, a well-oiled system build to control the "masses" against them. As an American, what do you think of it? I am interested in politics but, as you say, I also feel that there is certainly “something” going on… an artificial thing, a big farce or masquerade that still manages to fool a large number of people. It is angering, but I think more and more people are catching on. I think we could see something of a tipping point in the foreseeable future. Watching Western Europe seems to be a window into the near future for us here… it seems like if it happens over there to you all, it happens here fairly soon after. I have talked to a number of people from Europe about this and they more or less say the same thing. In a way, we could see a message behind Sapthuran, turned towards a form of conservatism. Is it true, and if not, what is it exactly? In the past, you highlighted this sentence : "What became of those who journeyed here before us ?". What is the meaning behind this sentence? I would never label myself a conservative, as that phrase here in the US has taken on a life on its own and I do not want to pigeon-hole myself into a specific ideology, but the act or idea of conserving is generally one that is well-received by me. That particular sentence (“What became of those who journeyed here before us?”) simply represents a yearning for knowledge, perhaps a link to times past where people were forced to forge a stronger link with nature in order to secure their own survival, unlike today when water comes out of a faucet and food comes out of a supermarket, or perhaps wondering how the ancient Egyptians built such great monuments of stone, or what wisdom was lost in the burning of the library of Alexandria, or what Stonehenge was truly used for, to name a couple of examples. I am very intrigued by how people of my past (or, in other words, those whose blood has been passed down to me) lived centuries ago and what life was like with them without all of these modern distractions and conveniences. How much more, if at all, did they appreciate things when they were not simply given to them? How different or similar would I be in comparison to them, my distant yet direct ancestors? You seem to have a high idea of what is Black Metal and what it represents for you. This can be see not only musically, but also through your themes, and the way you present your albums. For instance, you qualify the title on To the Edge of Land as "Eleven examples of pure Black Metal art". What vision do you have of Black Metal music? A few weeks ago, I spoke with another Black Metal musician, it was the first time I had met him, and despite something of a small language barrier, he spoke of Black Metal having to be more than just music, and I would agree with this. It is difficult to describe. Music in and of itself is a phenomenon that isn’t easy to describe. Why do we create it? I suppose it is easier for me to say what Black Metal is “not” for me. Black Metal is not about scenes, friends, fame, fashion, fortune or anything along those lines. It is something of a personal endeavor and, since I am obviously making the choice to make my music public, if others enjoy it or take something from it, then so be it. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I feel like whatever it is, I’m doing it right for my needs… but surely not for everyone’s. Although having a very traditional approach, you do not use the "gimmicks" of Black Metal, both in the look (corpsepaint, nails, bandoliers ...) and the way you introduce yourself, with your real name instead of pseudonym. Is it a desire to put some distance from these cliches? Something like that, yes. I am not a total introvert but I do not require a lot of attention. I just have a different vision for Sapthuran and don’t feel like those things will help in any way. As for the pseudonym, Sapthuran is the pseudonym. The Beast in the Cave EP is a bit apart in your discography since, beside its format (a 3’’ CDr), the concept is based on HP Lovecraft’s writings, a not so big reference for black metal bands, as opposed to Death Metal in which it is often quoted. Why this choice? I was asked by God is Myth records to participate in his H.P. Lovecraft series of 3“ CDr EP‘s. I was not very familiar with Lovecraft’s works but after doing some research, I became acquainted with “The Beast in the Cave.” The cave in the story is none other than Mammoth Cave, which is located right here in Kentucky, and is a cave that I have visited quite a number of times. The opportunity to write a musical work based on that truly massive and impressive cave system, a place that certainly left an impression on me, was reason enough to create the “Beast in the Cave” EP. Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world with over 400 miles explored and many left unexplored. Speaking of EP, Call of Wolf had been included as a bonus on The Wanderer. You have no plans to make The Beast in the Cave more widely available? Personally it was a little bit hard to finding it! When I agreed to release “The Beast in the Cave” with God is Myth, I (along with the other bands in the series) agreed to keep the material exclusive to that series and not re-release it... and I’m keeping my word! You’re right though, it’s a very limited release. I do believe the tracks have been uploaded by someone to YouTube though... so people can at least hear them there if they can‘t find them elsewhere. For how long have you been involve in Black Metal music? We already talked a bit about it, but what are your personal classic in the genre, and why? I have been involved with black metal music for about seventeen or eighteen years now (I will be 30 this year). My personal classics… Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk was the first Black Metal album I owned and still one of the best, Ulver - Kveldssanger, Bergtatt and Nattens Madrigal, Temnozor, Burzum, Dissection, Kristallnacht, Absurd, the Blazebirth Hall bands, Judas Iscariot, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Arckanum, Abigor, and many more. When it comes to my true favorites, I like “serious stuff” (and I’ve recently been told by a young kid that I can be a “fun killer.”) ... We tend to be a little "European-centered" here regarding Black Metal. How is the scene near you, in Kentucky? If you are close to it of course. This will be a simple answer because... I really don’t know. If there is a Black Metal scene in Kentucky, I know that I am not a part of it. I don’t really know much about any scene. Internet and new media, the (in)famous "social networks", have deeply changed our lifestyles of each of us, and so the Black Metal scene. How do you see the evolution of this scene over time? Whitch bands really worth interest for you at the moment? I don’t participate very much with social media, I don‘t have a Facebook or anything like that. I have an email address and a basic website... other than that, I only communicate with people that I see in person or through my phone. Because of this, I have lost touch with much of the current scene… I really don’t know much about what is going on, I don’t keep up with things. I find new bands here and there. I saw Dark Fury play live a few weeks ago. That was really good. The evolution over time...? Hopefully it doesn’t all turn hipster. Just because someone has a beard and boots doesn’t make him a man. It's the end of this interview. We really want to thank you for your time, and as the tradition works, we leave you final words. Thank you very much for the opportunity to complete this interview. I found the questions to be interesting and challenging. With “Hildegicel” now finally released, it is time to work on new material. I will probably put out some sort of split or EP before I do another full album. I like to “get my feet wet” first before jumping right into a full length release. Sapthuran is still active and, like Vanguard Productions recently joked about, hopefully you don’t have to wait another three or four years before you see any new material. Interview: April 2016