Long Island, New York isn’t exactly where you’d expect to find an occult black metal band but that’s exactly what one can expect from Teloch Vovin. The band, led by guitarist/vocalist Grigori, is primarily a black metal group but dabbles frequently in death and doom metal, as well as classical and electronic music, when performing.
Their new album, Towards the Inevitable, follows a long series of singles and splits, with their last full-length coming more than a decade ago. When speaking about the new album, which you can stream below, Grigori told Decibel:
“Like the Ravenous Vortex on the cover, Towards the Inevitable is a Malevolent, Seething, Dynamic Maelstrom seeking to both entrance and devour the listener.
“The Inevitable implied here is Death but Death comes in many forms and for those with the wisdom to understand that thru Death (both ov the ego and then again later ov the flesh) and the dissolution which comes with these transformations, Liberation is found. Liberation within the boundless arms ov Mother Khaos.”
In addition to a full stream of the album, Decibel spoke with Grigori in more detail about Towards the Inevitable, his relationship to the occult and live performances. You can read the interview below. Towards the Inevitable is out on May 8 via An Eastern Temple Productions and Thus Spake Qayin Records.
Can you describe Telcoh Vovin’s relationship to the occult and how that affects the music the band writes?
The spiritual practice behind the music is paramount in my life and has been since my teenage years. When I became a musician in my 20s, mixing my spiritual practice with my music just came naturally, it just called to me to do so. And I believe that music is one ov the highest forms ov Magick.
Teloch Vovin is part of a project spread across multiple release from two bands, Teloch Vovin and Lux Fero. Teloch Vovin relates to Samael in his Fiery Destructive aspect as Ha-Satan and Lux Fero relates to Samael in his Illuminated Kingly aspect as Lucifer.
The albums released under the name Teloch Vovin are a Middle Pillar Ritual working with the Tree ov Death. Each one ov the three full length albums represents one ov the three pillars ov the Tree ov Death.
The first album, Ov Khaos, Entropy and Death, represents the right hand pillar, the masculine aspects ov the Pan-Dimensional Khaos and is dedicated to Samael.
The second album, The Psalms ov Khaos, represents the Middle Pillar on the Tree ov Death and is dedicated to the Primal Void, though the middle Pillar on the Tree ov Death doesn’t represent the Primal Void there is a reason the second album within the “Tree of Death” trilogy is dedicated to the Primordial Source but it’s enough to say here that the Primal Void is the unifying/nullifying root source ov ALL.
The third full-length, Lux Fero-Hymns ov Mahapralaya, represents the Left handed pillar on the Tree ov Death and it’s attuned to the feminine aspects ov the Pan-Dimensional Khaos and is dedicated to Ama Lilith.”
After the completions ov the “Tree ov Death” trilogy, Teloch Vovin will change our name to Lux Fero for the 4th album which will complete the overarching concept between the two bands.
Lux Fero is the apex point achieved after the completion ov the MPR expressed thru the Teloch Vovin trilogy ov albums. Lux Fero represents Samael in his transcendental aspect as Lucifer-The Light Bringer. The Lux Fero full length album, The Rite ov the Harvest Pt 4: The Hungry End, is the last step before shedding the lower self and a crossroads where the Spirit leaves behind the physical manifestation and returns to the Void.
Is there a consistent theme or set of ideas running throughout Towards The Inevitable?
Towards the Inevitable was planned as part ov a special limited release between Teloch Vovin and another band who fell apart, where each band would have a couple ov songs that where only on this release and a couple specially version ov songs from other releases. When the other band fell apart, we felt that the recording just came out to good to be shelved so we decided to release it as a standalone release.
Spiritually every release and every song is in one way or another tied to the greater whole, which I briefly outlined above. Also I see “Towards” as an EP, even though the release is 40 minutes long, its purpose is to introduce people to the “Tree ov Death” Trilogy and it also alludes to the very end ov the Great Work and the severing ov the rays ov manifestation expressed within the Lux Fero album. All Teloch Vovin releases with 7 or 5 tracks are EP, all our full-lengths will have 11 tracks on them.
Teloch Vovin has released a lot of singles and smaller releases in the time since your debut album, but it’s been 11 years since your last full-length. What does the band’s process for writing music look like?
This project exists in different worlds and as such we wanted to explore different manners ov releasing material. One ov these ideas was to occasionally release tracks digitally, some are pre-production versions giving people insight into how the songs are developing along the way and another idea was to release a digital series ov singles known as “The Psalms ov Khaos” which we have released 10 of the 11 tracks digitally. These 10 tracks will eventually be stitched together along with the 11th and final Psalm into the second album in Teloch Vovin’s “ Tree ov Death” trilogy.
All three full lengths in the “Tree ov Death” trilogy are being worked on as we speak but these things take a long time as their are extensive Spiritual works that go had in had with the music and these sort ov undertakings take time and are not something to be entered into lightly.
Also both myself and other members ov the band have had to deal with some health-related issues which has caused paused in the bands activities as some ov these health issue were rather serious.
How important are live performances in refining your songs? The band has played a lot of gigs supporting other black metal bands in recent years.
Refining our songs? Not much, this happens more in the studio when we are jamming on the material. And while Teloch Vovin has played some really killer shows, the live version of the band has ceased as our drummer has had to move back to New Mexico from New York and I won’t be putting a live line up together until we record and release the first full length, Ov Khaos, Entropy and Death, ov which we only have 2 tracks to finish up and hopefully over the winter ov 26/27 we will start the recording process.
Your new album incorporates a fair number of influences from outside of black metal—death, doom, trad metal, classical, ambient. How do you balance those outside influences with your core black metal sound?
I myself have always looked on black metal as spiritual music, it’s the spiritual basis that makes the music black metal, not a style ov riffing or vocal, etc With that in mind, I will use any style ov music that is needed to get across the feeling that I am trying to convey thru our songs. I love classical music which has greatly effected how I compose the music for Teloch Vovin and I look at Teloch Vovin the band as a sort ov orchestra in a way. I place no boundaries on the manner ov expressions used to convey my love and devotion to the Holy Spirit ov Khaos.
