Newly-signed Season of Mist artists Mora Prokaza boldly call themselves new school black metal. A google translation reveals their name roughly means "sea of leprosy," a fitting term for their visceral assault.
Mora Prokaza spit lyrical venom in their native tongue, with hip hop swagger and gold chains. It's a drastic departure from traditional corpse paint and spikes.
Their music video "Blacker Than Black" is an in-your-face declaration of war, presented in black and white tones. Hatestorm, one half of these toxic twins, possesses a striking appearance and physical intensity, reminiscent of The Prodigy's Keith Flint. His bandmate, Farmakon, appears with his face covered in gauze, licking up a disgusting, dark fluid. I recommend turning on the Youtube subtitles to soak in their poetic poison. While it might not be a perfect translation, it gets the point across, like a stiletto through the lungs. This Belarusian duo are dripping with nihilism, darkness and hatred.
I recently spoke with Farmakon over email about his band's new direction, now that they have joined forces with Season Of Mist.
You describe Mora Prokaza as new school black metal. What defines the "new school?"
This is a new approach to the composition of black metal music. As a matter of fact, you can call a style of music whatever you want, it is just a subtitle, a useless description of something more important than the name of the so-called genre. Mora Prokaza – this is author’s music, in all senses of the phrase. You just need to listen to it as a musical production, we live in the 21st century, and the boundaries of musical styles have simmered away. It is time to accept music as an art, instead of something that someone decided to label and categorize into an individual box called “classification.”
How do you describe Mora Prokaza's sound in your own words?
As we have mentioned earlier, Mora Prokaza is author’s music. In the past we would listen to the albums of various bands and we would understand – someone had decided upon the sound, concept and structure of the album. Fuck that. Music – is the expression of the soul state of the writer, and these states are subject to change. That is why a definitive sound and concept is not something you will hear here, you will hear the state of the soul, instead of a thousand words.
Who are your musical and artistic influences?
We listen to a completely broad and different spectrum of music, from modern pop to classical. The most important influence on our music is life itself, not bands on stages and Youtube. In Mora Prokaza, we are doing and creating that which cannot be found in the music that is being created by today’s artists.
How do you feel about the old school black metal guard?
We have stopped listening to old school black metal a long time ago. The market doesn’t offer anything new. Sure, sometimes we choose a day to listen to something new. Unfortunately, we haven’t found anything worth the time. Old and new black metal bands continue doing the same thing that they have done for the past 10, or even 20 years. The development of black metal has halted, and not because that was always its fate, but because there are no representatives that would develop it. Do you understand? Development. We live in the 21st century, everything has changed, the course of life is different, the course of art is completely different. How many people have you seen, that have spent their whole life drinking the same drink, and have no desire to try something new? We don’t belong to that lot. There isn’t a new drink on the market? Well then, we will offer it.
Which Mora Prokaza song would you recommend to someone who has never heard your band before, and why?
Blacker Than Black, or really any composition from the upcoming album. Because this is new music and a good alternative to today’s metal scene.
What are you hoping to accomplish with your music and overall plan of attack, now that you've joined forces with Season of Mist? Anything we can look forward to in the near future?
Nothing has changed. We continue to work the same way we did in the past. The most important thing – is to create. We would continue to write our music even on the Moon…even on Mars! Alone or with a big group, on an uninhabited island (using sticks to drum on trees and vines for strings) or in a metropolis. This is the most important thing. Together with Seasons of Mist we can now work more on the promotion and marketing of the band. As for the future…in the future you just have to buy the new Mora Prokaza album, listen to it and watch our new video clips. This - is our voice, our sense, our business is music. So in the future, you will receive all the same, that is in reality, and in the past – the music of Mora Prokaza.
Thank you Farmakon from Mora Prokaza for going one on one with the GRIM1. Listen to more Mora Prokaza here, and I wish you all grim sailing on the seas of leprosy.
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