Interview: Slechtvalk

Pictured: Slechtvalk

Ever since the band’s first album Falconry was released in 2000, Slechtvalk has captivated their cult-like following of listeners with their special brand of black metal mixed with death metal elements. Hailing from the Netherlands, they come from the very dust of the black metal homeland, which makes them even more “authentic”, if that was even such a thing.

After an 8-year hiatus, I’ve been wondering what happened to the band. Then, in recent months, the band’s Facebook page started sharing updates and news with followers, indicating a resurgence. I had to know more, so I reached out to the band to get an interview setup. Graciously, the band consented.

I’m honored to share the following interview with Shamgar of Slechtvalk, where we dive into the band’s 8-year break, what’s on the horizon, and who the guys are outside of music.

Thanks so much for joining Blacforje for an interview! It’s an honor to connect with you all. You’re based in the Netherlands, correct? What part?

We live spread out across the country. I think Premnath (bass guitarist) and I (Shamgar) live a 2-hours drive apart, so we generally meet up for practice in Utrecht, which is a more central location in the Netherlands.

Your last album, Where Wandering Shadows and Mists Collide, was released in 2016. Since then, I was wondering where the heck you guys went…until now. You recently have been performing at various life shows, which makes me wonder: are you guys making any new music? If so, what can you share with us?

We were still around, but the lack of a manager or someone who actively tries to arrange gigs for us, I can understand you get the feeling we were gone. After all, we’re not really spamming our Facebook page with stuff, either. Generally, if we have nothing new to report or something to announce, we don’t feel the inclination to post anything. And the handful of gigs we play each year might pass you unnoticed.
However, we’ve recorded a new album last year, and it’s expected to be release around Autumn 2024. I personally hope we’d be able to record a new album late 2025, as well, as we have a lot of unused material at the moment. But that depends on finances and how things go with the next album.

Image: Slechtvalk

You probably get asked this a lot, but since this is an interview, I feel I still need to ask it. Why the 8-year hiatus? What were you guys doing all this time? Gardening? Bird watching?

In 2017, long-time drummer, Grimbold, left the band, so we needed to look for a new one and get him acquainted with part of our existing repertoire so we could play a couple of gigs, and that delayed the song writing process.

Then, early 2020, we made plans for new album recordings and were about to book for a slot in November/December, but then COVID-19 happened, and all regulations from our government made it impossible to practice together during most of 2020 and a good part of 2021. So, we had to delay our studio booking twice in total.

In the summer of 2021, our bass guitarist announced he wanted to move to Portugal. So, although we quickly found another, getting to know him and his play style is something that delays the song writing process. We decided not to rush things, and at the time, it was uncertain whether the winter would herald a new series of government issued lockdowns (they did). So, it wasn’t until spring 2022 when we were able to regularly practice again, and a couple months later we felt confident enough to do a new studio booking for Q2 2023.

When the recordings were all done, we began our search for a label. If you don’t happen to have the luxury of being signed to a label that is willing to renew the contract blindly, all labels nowadays want to hear a finished album first, and most of them already have a release schedule planned out for the next 6-12 months. Creating an album is a time-consuming process. So, let’s say you have a full album worth of songs written, which might take from a month to years. Then you need to rehearse and fine-tune them together, which takes time (probably 6-12 months, especially if you also have regular jobs and families to provide for, like we do). Then record, then the mixing/mastering process, then searching for a label, which takes up several months - getting demos out, waiting for response, negotiate terms with an interested party, and then start over if those negotiations fail. And when you find a label, you have to wait 6-12 months before they have a vacant slot in their planning. You’re easily looking at a 2-4 year process here.
Line-up changes, chronic illness, government issued lockdowns are then things that can screw up with your planning.

So, all things considered, if we’d record another new album sometime during 2nd half of 2025, it probably won’t be released before Q3 2026. 



As I mentioned earlier, you guys have been performing live as of late. What inspired the live shows, and can we expect you to continue to perform live? If so, any shows expected outside of the Netherlands? 

When we first started performing in 2002, we dressed up in Medieval-ish/viking-esque attire and used dark green face paint. At the time, this was still a novelty. Not that many bands were doing it. With A Forlorn Throne (2010), our music took a more brutal turn, and we left behind the folkish influences. So, we decided to go for a more grim look, and we’ve stuck with that.

During 2002-2012, we had some people actively helping us with getting gigs, and I think we yearly played around 10-15 shows during that time. Since 2012 we’re on our own, and being introverts, we don’t really actively hunt for shows and generally rely on word-of-mouth and promoters remembering us when they’re looking for bands. So, since 2012, we only play about 3-5 shows a year, usually in the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, but we also played in Mexico last year. With a new album coming up in Autumn, we expect to do some gigs around that time, but it’s too early to tell when and where.

I love to know more about the artists beyond just the music. When it comes to spirituality and philosophy, how does that influence you as artists? What role does it play (if any) in your music?

Having experienced deep depressions, knowing other people who struggled through like me, but also many who succumbed to it and committed suicide, it’s important to me to keep my eyes fixed on the hope that there is a way out other than death. My personal faith is a source of such hope for me, but I also have the experience that I’ve been able to conquer certain things in my life with the help of other people, which is why things like perseverance and not giving up, even when fighting insurmountable odds, are a recurring theme in my lyrics. As long as I draw breath, there is still hope I’m able to overcome whatever tries to bring me down.

What other hobbies do you guys have outside of music? If you say bird watching and gardening, I’m not going to be surprised.

We all have families with children and regular jobs, so that’s where our primary focus lies. And, when we’re not bus, with those and don’t get distracted by social media, Netflix, and whatever, I know Seraph makes hunting knives and trains sword fighting. Hamar likes board games and spent a lot of time on home-improvement the last two years. Premnath has several musical side-projects. I tend to have too many interests, of which board-gaming, creating music, and home-improvement are my main ones.

Last question: If Slechtvalk were to play any other style of music not metal (of any kind), what would it be? I’m assuming you’re going to say bluegrass, but I don’t want to put words in your mouth. (Side note: this is always the dumbest question of my interviews for levity. Forgive me ahead of time.)

We’d probably make either atmospheric lounge music or try to write scores for movies.

You can follow Slechtvalk on Facebook.