This is Jay reporting from Bogota, Colombia…Today I’m going to be talking with Noa, from female fronted Black Metal band, Khaos, from Haifa, Israel..
Shalom Noa, thanks for taking the time to talk to our readers
1- When, where, and why did you decide to create Khaos?
I guess it was as soon as I first discovered and fell in love with Black Metal, with Emperor's "Anthems to The Welkin at Dusk". The philosophical lyrics and intricate music testified of a much greater endeavor – it seemed to me as if Black Metal had a lot going on beyond just musical and entertainment.
Some artists in the genre appeared to be part composers, part philosophers and part ascetics of their own spiritual path. This combination spiked my interest and I wanted to follow their footsteps. I wanted to live and create this way.
Even before writing a single note of music, I picked the alias Khaos which was inspired by Emperor's "Ensorcelled by Khaos". To me, Khaos signified a perilous realm into which one is drawn again and again in quest for wisdom. To this day, I like to think of any creative process or any process of research and exploration as that of drawing order from Khaos.
However, Khaos didn't take off immediately as a musical project but stayed as an idea on paper for several years, since I had many doubts around becoming a musician. The final push I needed in order to get up and do something came when I was first introduced to Burzum's Filosofem. As I shall describe later, this album has had a life-changing impact on me. Once I realized that, I was certain of my life goal: to create music that can impact people in the same way Filosofem impacted me.
2- What is the inspiration behind your music and your lyrics?
In short, anything that affects me deeply enough for good or bad. This can be a personal experience, books that I have read, ancient wisdom that I learned and experienced by reading texts or listening to teachers I had the pleasure and great privilege of becoming personally acquainted with.
Another powerful source of inspiration are my experiences in nature. Haifa is a city surrounded by mountains and forests. In my spare time I like to go on day-long hiking trips that could cover about 20 Kms or late evening\nocturnal jogging journeys of the same scale through the woods and mountains. There is a very special quality to spending some time alone or with a loved one in nature. The combination of silence, darkness and solitude revives something in the spirit. Time spent like this in nature always leaves me feeling so alive in every way…It is somewhat shocking to think how the world we have built around us as humans can cater to our every material need but can still starve our souls to the verge of spiritual death.
All these different experiences and musings eventually find their way into the music and lyrics of Khaos.
3- A new single, ‘Chasing the Wind’, and the debut album ‘Ensorcelled’, are due for release soon…Tell us about the album and run us through the tracks…
This might be a bit long, but please bear with me…
I once read something about how Burzum wrote each one of his songs as a magic spell and that even the order of the songs in each album is premeditated so that the spells can work together and momentarily open the listener's mind to a different world. I had this very idea in mind when putting together songs for "Ensorcelled" and throughout the process of its production. This album is my attempt at casting a similar spell with music.
Simultaneously, the album is also my love letter to the genre: the musical style and overall attitude of the album is a homage to the great masterpieces of Black Metal which ensorcelled me into the great work of drawing out order from Khaos, otherwise known as music composition.
I will now run you through the tracks as briefly as possible…
- Borne on Restless Winds –When writing this track, I wanted to convey the sense of a great storm approaching from afar. This song is like a harbinger of the apocalypse described in the next song, "Theloe". The idea of packing as many layers of sound as (in)humanely possible was inspired by works of early Nokturnal Mortum, like "Goat Horns" and "Lunar Poetry" (Their 2022 rendition of the same album too, was nothing short of brilliant!). I put in all the epic, majestic-sounding riffs I could possibly think of in what seemed back then as a crazy number of layers. I didn't cut back on anything or worry about it being "too much". I think the magic of this kind of music lies precisely in this unrestrained expression of regal magnificence.
- Theloe – This is one of the first songs I ever wrote for Khaos. The theme and the words came first and were inspired by a short story called "The Crawling Chaos" by H.P Lovecraft. The story ends with its narrator witnessing the destruction of Earth by a storm of apocalyptic proportions and realizing he is stranded in this world as an immortal being, forever alone in the universe...
- Chasing the Wind - This song emerged from a time of struggle, confusion and pain. A lot of things were changing in my life and it felt like the world as I knew it was readily crumbling before my very eyes. Nevertheless, the words for this song came out of me in a single sitting. Same was the case when writing its music. It was only many years later that I realized how much it resembled certain verses from the book of Ecclesiastes, both in concept and in the actual expressions used throughout the song. The lyrics themselves were even written in Hebrew - the same language used by the wise king Solomon when writing this very self-reflective, philosophical book. In this book, Solomon contemplated the ephemeral nature of man and material existence and advised, from his past mistakes, not to seek solace in them since they are passing, but instead rely on the Eternal and Transcendent as a source of endless contentment and devote your thoughts and deeds to it. I am not an adherent of Judaism, but I think the wise king's insights are universal to spiritual seekers of all paths. These are truths which I find highly cathartic, clarifying and calming in times of confusion. Even now, as I recall these ideas just so I can write them down, I am filled by a deep sense of calm. Sadly enough, our age of shadows otherwise known as the modern world places man in the center, tube-feeding him sweet illusions of what almost seems like omnipotence and immutability. The idea of anything greater than man, whether it's a God, Satan, the Self (Ātman) or the Übermensch are a threat to these delusions. These are ideas often explored in Black Metal. This alone, in my humble opinion, makes Black Metal a very important cultural movement for the times in which we are living.
- Rhyme of the Plague - As a young Black Metaller, I was fascinated by Theodor Kittelsen's illustrations of The Black Plague. I imagine many of us may have felt so when seeing them on Burzum's "Hvis Lysett Tar Oss". This is my attempt to reimagine Kittelsen's Svartedauen as a Black Metal track. The song tells a story of a village ravaged by a plague, not only of the flesh but also of the spirit. When writing this song, I wanted it to feel like a folk song – short and simple but also somewhat poignant.
- Once Upon a Silver Dawnbreak – This is perhaps the only overtly feminine song in the album. This is a romantic story, a ballad if you wish, about a woman falling in love with and eventually giving her soul to a fallen angel. For a long time, I couldn't find any good ideas for the drums on this one. The inspiration eventually came from "Aspera Hiems Symfonia" by Arcturus.
- The Trident Banner – I originally wrote this song as an instrumental track. The inspiration for the music came from a song called "To the Elfpaths I Ride" by Saturno and from Summoning's "Stronghold" album. The idea of adding words came later. This is an anthem for holy, heroic battles and the noble spirited ones who fight them. Assaf picked up on these vibes astoundingly well and suggested a martial-inspired drumline, reminiscent of Frontschwein-era Marduk for the ending. This was a brilliant idea which really added to the song's whole impact. I do not think I would have come up with this approach on my own.
- (The Return) – this song is pure Sehensucht. A longing for some lost "Garden of Eden" or at least for a time in my life when everything seemed brighter and simpler. It is a painful, endless longing because this Eden perhaps never existed or will never again come to be. Much like "Chasing the Wind", this song also came out in one sitting, during a dark and lonely time in my life. It was inspired by an unusually bright and pleasant dream I had amid what was one of the coldest and darkest winters I ever experienced. at that time, I almost regretted waking up from that dream instead of dying in my sleep and remaining forever in its warmth. I shudder as I write these words but that was the depth of the longing that inspired this song.
- First Snow –The cold, dark perception of winter presented in "The Return" morphs into a calming, cleansing sense of awe which I often experience in the presence of nature. This one was inspired by one magical winter morning from my childhood in Japan, where I woke up to find ice-cold petals of snow descending gently onto the balcony of our apartment. Even the busy city seemed to fall into an almost reverence-filled silence...
4- Your music is very hypnotic, magical… what are your influences musically? Which bands did you listen to growing up?
I grew up listening to a lot of classical music and studying classical piano from a very young age. I fell in love with the genre with Korsakov's "Shecherezade" and Dvorak's "New World Symphony". To this day I can never have enough of classical music, mostly works of Slavic masters like Korsakov, Dvorak, Borodin and French romanticists like Debussy, Satie and Faure, which I also enjoyed as a child.
Another thing I remember from my childhood is Japanese folk rock. Growing up in Japan, my family and I used to go on lots of hiking trips. On our long car rides from the city, my father would often listen to 70's Japanese Folk-Rock tapes on the car stereo while we drove by quaint countryside landscapes, majestic mountains and abandoned villages. Some of the songs – perhaps those that most captured my heart - were beautiful, wistful ballads, often dealing with existential loneliness or a longing for a lost love or better times. These were a perfect artistic expression of Sehensucht, one of these words in German that you must experience to understand. It was only years later when I was introduced to European Neofolk that I reexperienced this emotion through music. I think I owe my love to Neofolk, and perhaps my taste for atmospheric, melancholy and overall magical music to these hiking trips and my father's Folk-Rock tapes.
During my teen years, I couldn't relate to pop or rock music beyond a very superficial level but eventually a turning point came when I saw Pink Floyd's film: "The Wall". From there it was a sure road to Nirvana, Metallica, Megadeath and Iron Maiden. My fateful encounter with Black Metal came only around my late teens, when I discovered Emperor's "Anthems to The Welkin at Dusk". A friend of mind then introduced me to all the genre's classics, some of which changed my perception of music and even my life forever…
5- What are your plans for the future? Are you writing new material? Tell us about the witchery you are weaving…
Wow, my studio computer and notebooks are literally exploding with many bits and pieces of words and music which I gathered over the past few years. Currently speaking, I'm not sure how all these will come together into one cohesive piece so my work now will be to find all the matching fragments and fit them all together like a puzzle.
Part of my love for Black Metal stems from its wonderful ability to weave in different styles of music into its fabric while staying true to its original character. I don't know if it will happen in my next release, but I would very much like to experiment with combining other genres such as Middle Eastern music, Neofolk or Industrial into my Black Metal.
6- Do you have any plans to present Khaos as a live act? Khaos has played live before, as a guest artist for Kutna Hora. As for now, there are unfortunately no concrete plans to present Khaos as a live act.
Part of the reason for this is that the music of Khaos tends to be rather atmospheric and will possibly remain so in future releases. Many Khaos tracks rely heavily on synths and different musical instruments and I'm still not sure how all these layers could be translated into a live rendition without radically changing the feel of the music.Nevertheless, it is an endeavor worth of considering…
7- Do you have any side projects apart from Khaos?
Nothing official, though I enjoy playing around with related genres such as Neofolk and Martial Industrial and making some doodles and drafts in these styles of music. I still haven't decided whether I'd release them as Khaos or as a separate project. One way or another, an official release in these styles could be an interesting venture.
8- Tell us the Extreme Metal scene in Israel… recommend some local bands for our readers to check out…
There were times when artists or even fans of extreme metal were deemed mentally instable or dangerous cultists, like the famous case with Melechesh1. In the 90's we even had our own version of the "Satanic Panic"2.
Nowadays people are a bit more open minded, but my impression is that the local cultural climate is still rather hostile toward extreme, and particularly Black Metal. Unlike Europe, if you're not living in certain areas in the country, it can be very hard to find Extreme Metal festivals and events. Even in these areas where we do have a prominent scene, these events can be rather sparse.
Last year we hosted what I think was the first ever Black Metal festival in Tel-Aviv. We had Darvza, Baxaxaxa, Ungod, The Ruins of Beverast and many other great names on one stage. It was two days of pure extasy. There were even tourists from Cyprus that came over to see these bands play. Following this experience, I even had a glimmer of hope that one day Tel-Aviv will become an underground culture hub, not only for Israel but also for neighboring countries. And then two days later, I woke up and my country was at war again…
Haifa has its own little scene of extreme music, but from what I've seen and heard it's mostly Punk and some Grindcore.
Regarding what I said before on the status of Black Metal in Israel, I believe it is only natural for this type of artistic expression to remain a cultural pariah.
This artistic style is one of the few opportunities left for man to contemplate and express themes such as life and the inevitable nature of suffering, our finite nature and eventual death as opposed to powers greater than us. With the many barriers set by the modern world against all these forms of Chaos or anything greater than "mankind almighty", it is only natural for the average modern man to be frightened of even thinking about these themes.
Black Metal is a powerful artistic expression which should never be reduced to the status of a toothless circus beast, and the current status of Black Metal in Israel is probably a sign that the local artists are doing it right.As for local bands, there are a couple of outstanding names from different eras of Extreme Metal. From the 90's and early 2000's we have Bartholomeus Night, Azamoth, Melechesh and Arallu (which have recently made an amazing quantum-leap with "Ein-Olam"), from later eras we have Tsorer, Mucus Scrotum, Geist, Har, Venomous Skeleton, Kever, Sonne Adam and Dim Aura. Recent years have graced us with the presence of Deathsiege, Bilar and Srefa. Srefa are scheduled to play live at Brutal Assault this year – I wish them lots of luck in their upcoming gig. Give them hell!
9- What has been the reaction in Israel to your music? The album got a very positive review in reshimotohu.com, a zine which I believe is among the keenest, most honest and very best our country has to offer in terms of music journalism. A single from the album, "The Trident Banner" was also featured in "Metal Monday\Oy Vavoy", a program on local radio station Ze Rock Radio. The host, Yotam "Defiler" Avni has been a prominent name in our scene for many years now, both as a musician and as a music journalist so it's a great honor to have my work recognized by him. Yotam's show on Ze Rock really reminded me of an old Metal radio show I used to listen to as a teenager, so it felt kind of weird (but also unbelievably awesome) be part of such a thing. Thanks man!
To be honest, I was a bit nervous about this release…although we have a couple of projects that lean toward symphonic styles Black Metal, Israeli Black Metal tends to be a mostly on the raw side so I wasn't sure how an atmospheric\melodic act such as mine would be perceived or if it will appeal to the local taste. The reviews and reactions I got so far were overwhelmingly positive, and some are even delighted by the different style presented in "Ensorcelled".
I am glad to have had the privilege to bring some variety to our local scene and infinitely grateful for all the support that Khaos has received from local musicians, friends and fans.
10- As a female Black Metal musician, you are quite a rare thing… What have been the positives and negatives for you so far?
One big positive in being a female Black Metal artist is that it's an almost unexplored territory. This gives me a lot of space for experimentation, exploration and creativity and also lots of chances for unique expression, since the scarcity of female artists in this genre also means that the chances of sounding or looking like another project are very low.
Given all this, the challenge and opportunity that we now have as female artists is to create a unique, feminine expression for Black Metal. This includes all different aspects of the art ranging from appearance, aesthetics and vocal style to lyrical themes and obviously the music itself. However, this process should not be forced, but rather left to develop organically from a place that fully understands and feels what Black Metal stands for and what is its purpose in the world. I am really looking forward to seeing where other ladies in Black Metal will take it.
On the downside, people sometimes tend to overfocus on the aspect of Khaos being a one-lady band, to the point where it interferes with their ability to notice other themes I wish to convey through my music. Luckily, I would not say it is a prominent phenomenon and I am very glad to see people who also take their time to look at the ideas behind my songs. For example, there was one guy who wrote me, just to thank me for relating to certain themes in my work and wholly expressing his enjoyment of the music. This really made my day!
11- What are your top 5 favourite albums of all time?
This is a very difficult question since my taste in music is rather broad and so many musical works have inspired me in so many ways. I'll try to narrow it down to a few Black Metal pieces that have inspired me most in my early years…
1. Emperor – Anthems for the welkin at dusk. This was one of the first albums I bought on CD as a young Black Metaller. There was a time I listened to it almost every day and yet each time I would listen, I would discover a previously unheard musical element. It was as if the album was a bottomless chest of musical treasures - I never thought one could make music like this and still cannot find an album that surpasses the rich musicianship and emotional expression found there. The lyrics too, have an astounding philosophical depth. Remember the line: "I hate my flesh, its dimension has poisoned my soul with doubt, it made me question the essence of the I" from "With Strength I Burn"? It was only years later, when I was introduced to Hindu and Buddhist doctrines that I realized what powerful, life changing themes hid behind these lines – themes explored by perhaps the wisest thinkers of mankind, in ancient doctrines dealing with understanding your true identity as a key to spiritual freedom. I am thoroughly amazed at how Emperor, who back then were probably a bunch of teenagers or very young adults, thought up these words and ideas in the first place…
2. Burzum – Filosofem. Yet another case of inexplicable musical magic that changed my life forever. I remember falling asleep one night to this album and then waking up to a rare and deep sense of peace with the world. It was as if the music gave me a glimpse at some sort of "absolute reality" where I saw how small and ephemeral our material existence is against nature and the Transcendent. This realization brought over a sense of peace that can only be found beyond the dichotomy of good and bad, happy and sad. This realization and the peace that it has brought to me are now the holy grail of all my endeavors.
3. Dissection – Storm of The Light's Bane\Where Dead Angels Lie. I first encountered this one when an internet radio station (I think it was "Black Metal Radio") played "Thorns of Crimson Death". Even the harsher sounding songs in this album have a touch of tragically beautiful melodies. It's so tragic to think how Dissection made such beautiful music on this album but then vanished so suddenly along with Nödtveidt… I can't help but feel as if the heart wrenching melodies in this album are already mourning Dissection's unexpected end.
4. Arcturus – Aspera Hiems Symfonia. Another discovery from "Black Metal Radio". "Fall of Men" just grabbed my heart with the ever-ascending chromatic melodies in the background. There was so much yearning in both words and music of this one song. The rest of the album gives the sense of gazing into a star-filled clear sky on a very cold night.
5. 1349 – Beyond the Apocalypse. I admit it's an atypical item among all the other melodic\atmospheric\symphonic pieces in the list. Still, when thinking about albums that shaped my taste in Black Metal, this one always comes to mind. To me, "Beyond the Apocalypse" embodies the essence of Black Metal in its pure, distilled form. Stripped of all melodic frills and aesthetically pleasing embellishments, this album showed me how Black Metal can still be powerful and beautiful in its barren clarity, reminiscent only of vast deserts and snow-covered mountain peaks.
12- What advice would you give to any up and coming female musicians looking to follow in your footsteps?
When creating something in the world, you might get ensnared in the false idea that you have absolute control over the outcome. As the creator of the work it is only natural to think that you can shape it into anything at your whim. However, this mistaken paradigm caused me much misery by stalling my work for a long time and making me feel horribly insecure about my competence as an artist.
Therefore, dear ladies, you should know this: once your music emanates from vision to sensory experience, it can take a life of its own. Much like a human child, it can turn out radically different from your vision or expectations. The mistake then is to try and "micromanage" it or hold tight to the notion that you have complete control on the outcome and then blame yourself with incompetence. I have been there, and it has only brought misery to an otherwise joyous (yet nevertheless demanding) endeavor.
When I finally came to this realization, I just resorted to observing the results at each stage of the process and doing my best to guide the outcome to a place where it is somehow in line with my original vision.
One more thing to keep in mind is that the vision for your music can also become clearer as you progress with your work, so you should just keep working even when the outcome seems unclear or "when guiding stars are clouded and deranged" as Emperor would have put it :).
13- Would you like to add anything for our readers?
I would like to use this opportunity to thank all my followers and friends, my dear session musicians and all other people who helped transform Ensorcelled from vision to reality.
A great thanks also goes to Masters of Kaos Productions for their help in releasing and promoting this album. I couldn't have done this without you!
By questioning the many crooked status quos of our times, underground Black Metal has the potential to become a strong bastion of revolt against the spiritual degeneracy of the modern world. Therefore, I strongly encourage all my readers to support underground Black Metal labels and artists.
Regardless of how dark an age may be, there is always a life which cuts through its pale and insipid reality. My hopes are that Khaos will serve as a gathering place for all of us wayfaring renegades of the spirit, who by refusing to become shadows, will hold high the banner of revolt against those who insist to turn their backs on the "life that cuts through life".
Toh-dah Noa!
Khaos https://khaosorcery.bandcamp.com/album/ensorcelled https://www.facebook.com/projectkhaos https://www.youtube.com/@khaosorcery Masters Of Kaos Prod. https://mastersofkaos.bandcamp.com/album/khaos-israel-ensorcelled
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