Albums of Purgatory interview Galadriel's Dr. Victor

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, what’s the band up to right now?

Dr. Victor: We’re getting ready to baptize our new album on September the 27th. Beside that, we’re trying to get distribution for our albums worldwide. Up to now, almost nothing is certain, but we hope of a good result. We paid the release costs of the new CD ourselves and are now in a terrible debt. We have to sell some 200 CDs to get out of this.

AoP:  How would you describe the Galadriel’s sound?

V: Well, I guess we have a typical sound of the Eastern Europe. That means, we don’t have enough money for a high quality studio and during the recording session, there are just little possibilities to adjust the overall sound according to our needs. Usually, there’s really not too much you can do about it – even if the studio is better, your instruments and experiences are not. It is normal that all bands of the same style in Slovakia have the same sound since they record their songs in one of the 2 or 3 metal studios here. But our latest album is noticeably better recorded than the previous recordings of us, especially better than the third album "Oblivion".

AoP:  How did you get involved with the band?

V: I was the drummer of a speed metal band called Trojan Warrior, which preceded Galadriel. Except of me, two other founding members of Galadriel (Dodo – vocals, Voloda – guitars) played in that band.

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

V: Yeah, I still remember that. It took place in front of a bar in one pub in Bratislava. We played without real stage equipment, just through some amplifiers from our practice room. Our female signer at that time almost wasn’t heard and our performance wasn’t perfect, LOL. But there were more than 150 people there, which was really a success. I also remember our singer’s cousin being unable to withstand the noise (even though he liked the music), so he filled his ears with shreds of his entrance ticket :-).

AoP: Why did "Empire of Emptiness" take so long to be released back in 97?

V: It is typical for underground labels that releasing album sometimes takes very long time. Our label from that time, Unknown Territory, was just starting its activities and beside that, a single man ran it. He wasn’t able to release everything he wanted on time because of the simple obstacle called money. So it takes more than a year until the debut came out. Some portion of that time took also looking for a suitable label and sending promos worldwide. But I guess it’s not that bad for a debuting band to wait for its release.

AoP: What were the reasons for "Oblivion" not getting the exposure it deserved in 2000?

V: We don’t know. We spent very long time preparing this album. It is true that nowadays, we like it the least, but that was not important then. When the CD came out, we felt it wasn’t getting the support we expected. After all, that was our third album and we wanted to move a bit further on our way. We always try to improve with time, but then we felt our label was stagnating and not moving at all. This led to our disillusion and our leaving the label afterwards. Soon after that, the label itself ceased to exist.

AoP: How do you think the band’s sound has developed since "Empire of Emptiness" up until the recent release "From Ashes and Dust"?

V: Enormously!!! We had absolutely no experiences while recording "Empire…"We went to a studio (where everyone else has been recording) without any thoughts on how the whole session will look like. We feared that we would not get proper attention of the sound engineers because of being so young. That fear then showed up to be valid. But at the end, we did this record in two and a half days and were very proud of it :-). The next album, "The Mirror Of Ages", committed in the same studio, had already a better sound and I can say, this was our most successful album until now. But after this one there came "Oblivion" – our greatest disappointment. Firstly because of our label’s low intensity of work and later, because of the shitty sound, our poor performance and bad production. We spent so long time preparing that one, but it turned out to be a failure. Despite this attitude, many people like it till today even though almost nobody was able to buy it. After leaving Unknown Territory, we put almost all our song on the Internet so that people could at least download our music. Fortunately, we have now a brand new album "From Ashes & Dust", with a much better sound and, most of all, with a great production.

AoP: What are your favorite Galadriel’s tracks?

V: 1st album: Solitude, Silence & Screams,

    2nd album: The Flower and The Dark Butterfly, The Battle By Wogastisburg

    3rd album: It Ends When The Moon Looses Its Face, Rivers Of Oblivion

    4th album: Dark Erotica, Armies Of Valinor

AoP:. What are your favorite all time songs?

V: Iron Maiden – The Evil That Man Do

    Judas Priest – Leather Rebel

    Manowar – Hail And Kill

    Blind Guardian – Traveler in Time

    Helloween – March Of Time

    Queensryche – Eyes Of A Stranger

    Savatage – Gutter Ballet

    + many, many others…

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

V: I can still remember this one – it was Maiden’s Wasted Years EP.

 

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

V: Vocals: Geoff Tate (Queensryche)

    Guitars: Glen Tipton (Judas Priest)

    Guitars: Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)

    Bass: Steve Harris (Iron Maiden)

    Drums: Scott Travis (Judas Priest)

    Keyboards: Jon Oliva (Savatage)

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

V: The situation in music in general is disastrous today. The dictatorship of the almighty MTV is making me sick. Demented dollies like Britney, excited "sweet" boys like Backstreet Boys, demented and fat rapping monkeys with gold chains around their necks (I’m not such a racist, this is just about the music!) and other disastrous creatures are total waste. Of course, there’s also some metal present, but that’s usually just that American shit like Slipknot. The only solution I see today might be the rapid advancement of the Internet. Sooner or later, it’s speed and availability will increase to a breakthrough level and metal fans will no longer be dependent on the good will of others. I hope on one day web based TV metal stations will start to broadcast and fans will have many choices of what to watch while not rich metal bands will have a chance to present themselves. Nowadays, if we would like to be featured in some major TV metal show, it would cost us sum equal to the whole year salaries of all Galadriel’s members!!!

AoP: Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?

V: Funny stories would spoil our image of a depressive doom metal band :-)

AoP: Finally, what do you see in the future for Galadriel?

V: I see us getting a platinum record, LOL. No, just kidding.

Our band exists for 7 years, and during that time, we learned that almost nobody would do something for us. That’s the reason why we do so many things on our own. Therefore, I have some hopes for the future :-). I hope we will get rid of problems with unreliable labels. I hope we will have enough money so that we can record our albums abroad to make them sound great. I hope we will no longer be dependent on unreliable people and will be able to release our CDs ourselves.