Interview: GROZA: "...not care less for people accusing us of being rip offs though...."

The new album by the German Black Metal band GROZA, "The Redemptive End", was released to the market last August 6, which is the band's 2nd album. For this reason, we decided to interview them to find out more about them and their latest work.

First of all, please receive our thanks for agreeing to this interview. Let’s begin.

1. From what we know about GROZA, it’s a band that was formed in 2016, still fairly young. What drove you to form this Black Metal band and not another style within Metal? What would be the main influences of the musicians that make up GROZA?

P.G.: "I have always been drawn to this kind of music that has substance, melody and emotion within itself. Mgla then pushed this obsession over the edge for me and made me want to start my own project in that direction, so of course, they remain my biggest influence since they also happen to be my favourite band. But also, we have other influences, that are widely spread across all types of music reaching from grunge to post-rock, punk, classical music and even movie scores. Influence and inspiration can come from all types of places."

2. The word GROZA has several meanings in Cyrillic. It can be: Storm of Light. In some Slavic languages it can be: Horror or disgust. What is the true meaning of the band’s name? In certain web portals it has been said that the name GROZA is for a song by MGŁA. What opinion does this statement deserve?

P.G.: "All the translations fit us in one way or another, there is no universal true meaning. It is, what the listener connects with our music, that makes up the true meaning. But of course the name is also a reference to Mgla's first album. "

3. Let’s talk about your 1st album, "Unified in Void". 5 songs that compose it were enough for it to be a success and it enjoyed good reception and excellent criticism within the specialized media. Were you expecting the success it received?

P.G.: "Not at all. I did not have any ambitions when releasing it. I just released it through YouTube to get it off my chest and so that people, that had asked me about it, could listen to it. I did not expect it to pick up momentum that quickly at all."

4. As there are good reviews, there are also bad reviews. We suppose you have seen or read that many compare GROZA, and others say that they are a copy of MGŁA, musically and visually. What do you think about those opinions/criticism?

P.G.: "Considering that I started GROZA basically as a worship project, I can see, where those comments come from. I could not care less for people accusing us of being rip offs though. I make this music just for my own pleasure and to clear things off my mind and if some dude on the internet doesn't like it or think, that it sounds too much like this or that band, I really couldn't care less. We do what we want to do and go our path. I just get bothered, when we get accusations, that we only make this type of music, because it sells very well at the moment. This is very untrue, since GROZA was, is and will always be about passion, emotion and dedication. Not about money, fame or other bullshit in that vein. People who have seen us live will surely confirm."

5. Why did you choose to cover up your faces? What is your opinion of the other bands that do this as well, and what do you think of those who criticize this?

P.G.: "To eliminate the individual and make GROZA a collective. It shifts the attention from our person to our music and art, which is, what all live shows should be about in the first place. I think this is the way, that music should be performed and much more artists should do so. About people disliking it: to each their own, I don't really care. It's just funny to me, that no one seemed to complain about every single band wearing corpse paint in the old days though."

6. "The Redemptive End" is the name of your 2nd full-length album, recorded between August and November 2020. How was the composing and recording process for it? What is the process like to write a song, from inspiration to taking it to a recording studio for the final touches, so to speak. What inspires you, or what do you think about?

P.G.: "The songwriting process was a quite a bit different than for the last album. The last one, I wrote mainly alone whereas this time, it was much more of a team effort. Most of the time, I still bring the basic ideas and structures to the table, but now the other members in GROZA participate a lot more in arranging the material and give the parts their own personal spin. Some of the parts also came out of jam sessions at rehearsal, which is a totally new way of working for us. We then always make demos of the songs to see, what works in context of producing the final album and so we can have something to listen back, to see, if the songs still needs anything.When all the songs and lyrics were done we then proceeded to record the album by ourselves. This way, we don't have any middle man our outsiders involved in the process that we would first have to explain our vision to. Most of the time, I have a clear picture in mind of how I want things to be / sound and it just makes sense to then do all these things yourself, instead of explaining it to someone else to do it for you, if you understand. "

7. The mastering of this new album was in charge of Michael Kraxenberger, from the band CHAEDRIST. Why did you choose him to do the mastering?

P.G.: We chose him, because we've known him for a long time and like his style of production and mastering. He is also very easy to work with, which was a bonus as well.

8. We know that the artwork concept was by founding member P.G. (Vocals and guitar), and the cover photo was by Phillip Hartinger. P.G. what can you tell us about the cover?

P.G.: "As you already said, the artwork is based on a photo, that my old friend Phillip took a while back. When I saw it for the first time, it instantly connected with me and I immediatly thought, that it represented and visualized the new material very well. It symbolizes the duality, light and dark, which is a concept that also can be found in our lyrics. Also, the atmosphere compliments the music very well and the other way around, too. That's why we chose it."

9. GROZA looks like a band with 2 main members, P.G. and D.M., where both are in charge of practically everything related to the band, even though 4 members appear in the photos. Can you clarify this for us?

P.G.: "Just to clarify: D.M. is no official member of GROZA. He's an old friend of mine who also writes lyrics in a style, that fits GROZA very well. He contributes lyrics but is no actual part of the band. Our lineup can be found in our bio or in the album sleeves."

10. What does GROZA seek to convey with its music and lyrics?

P.G.: "Emotion."

11. Regarding your live performances, tell us a funny anecdote that happened to you and a negative one.

P.G.: "There are not too many funny or negative anecdotes about live shows themselves, but a lot of them about touring. Almost being arrested by authority in Zagreb, Croatia after violently partying in a public parking garage after a gig was hilarious and quite memorable to say the least. On the negative side: nothing exciting, car breakdowns, stuff like that."

12. Would you like to visit Latin america? Have you heard about the Metal fans of our continent?

P.G.: "Of course, we would love to visit Latin America. The whole world knows about the passion, that Latin American fans have for Black Metal and heavy music in general and we would love to experience that at one of our own shows someday. So yes, once the time is right, we would absolutely love to go."

13. We thank you for your time and we hope to have you in Latin America soon. Any few last words that you would like to dedicate to your followers on this Continent?

P.G.: "Thanks again for having me and hope to see you at a GROZA show in Latin America in the future. Make sure to give our new album "THE REDEMPTIVE END" a spin once it comes out on August, 13th. Hails"

Link new álbum:

Interview by: FEBRUUS FENRAEL.