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WOLVES AMONG SHEEP

Vargsriket have steadily emerged as one of the most respected bands in the Austrian extreme music underground. Their nihilistic, abrasive brand of Christ-Shredding Black Metal has garnered them strong reviews in the underground press and has led to various live experiences that list among some of the most potent names in extreme metal: Impaled Nazarene, Tsjuder, Dark Tranquillity, Dark Funeral, Tiamat, Siebenbrgen, Eisregen, Hypocrisy, Sodom and most recently, Marduk.

Originally founded in 1995 by guitarist/vocalist Grym and bassist/vocalist Draug, the band embarked on a temporary hiatus while the original members pursued various musical projects. When Grym and Draug decided to regroup, they recruited powerhouse drummer Tru and the trio quickly found a unique chemistry that would prove explosive. A natural progression of musical influences and interests led them to shift the focus from their melodic death/black metal roots to a more primal, aggressive Black Metal. When Vargsriket (the name is loosely translated as "Wolf's Realm") re-emerged in 2001, the response to their brand of impious CSBM was almost immediate and the band became renowned for their consistently high performance at their live appearances.

ANTICHRISTIAN SONIC WARFARE

It was the quality of their self-released, self-produced and self-financed 2002 debut album, Satanic Execution Commando Vargsriket, that really proved incendiary and propelled the band to the upper echelons of the Austrian metal underground. The music was raw, primitive and reflected a profound hatred for organized religion and status-quo politics. But Vargsriket aren't waging a political war; rather, they view their war more as a philosophical one - the ultimate struggle for liberation from false morals and systems of belief that have yoked the human herd since the rise of Christianity. "Christianity once was a religion of war and hate," offers Grym. "Now it is tame as sheep, nothing is left of sword and flame, all just to pretend peaceful existence, leading to overpopulation and - most of all - massive, suppressed hatred. This hatred we cast into words and music and vomit it into the face of the lie in itself. ANTICHRISTIAN WARFARE is what we preach, something everyone has to conduct in heart and soul. Destroy false belief from inside - all but the belief in yourself, not what tactical religion and politics make you feel true and right."

Vehemently anti-religious, Vargsriket contend that organized religions MUST be challenged if mankind is to progress spiritually, culturally and philosophically. Vargsriket represents a natural right to self-expression and freedom of thought and action; to define certain concepts too narrowly is to choose a path that limits one's freedom of future action, but, according to Grym, certain efforts must be focused to achieve goals. "Concentrating hatred on a very defined spot makes the expression of hate for a whole much easier and more expressive," Grym says. "I personally concentrate my lyrics on christian religion, as I've grown up with it and luckily was able to see that it's no more but a business, just like politics and, especially nowadays, war, which is another human way of depopulating the world for economical and political reasons. To us it means the fight against our enemies, things that we hate."

MUSIC, NOT POLITICS

"We absolutely do NOT appreciate the NS history of our country, as it has cost our right to speak and think freely." - GRYM

There is a liberal use of war as metaphor and Vargsriket rely heavily upon World War I imagery to spread their message. While this has generated a tendency of the paranoid uninformed to label them proponents of Nazism and herd them into the category of National Socialist Black Metal, the band has a different view. "NSBM is nothing but another trend. As Satanism, war, atrocity and winter seem to have lost their intensity and provocative effect for some bands, they now concentrate on NS. Some say this is because of the misanthropic attitude the NS regime had towards humanity, some are simply antisemitic. Racism is a natural development in regions with many races mixed, especially of "lower class" people with social problems. There's a fear of foreign influences destroying tradition and culture, just like christianity did all over the world." These are all politically sensitive, even dangerous, topics to address in their native Austria - a country that is still politically sensitive to the use of certain portrayals of WWII history. While the band does admit to certain thematic preferences for war, they do not, according to Grym, proclaim any particular political affiliation or agenda. "We absolutely do NOT appreciate the NS history of our country, as it has cost our right to speak and think freely."