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Kval
Originally formed under the name Khaossos between 2014 and 2015, Kval stands as a one-man atmospheric black metal act from Finland. With a handful of releases behind, the man known simply as Kval has signed a deal with Hypnotic Dirge Records to unleash the entity’s debut self-titled album. However, it’s not a simple follow-up to the previous entity’s 015 full-length Kuolonkuu, but rather a re-imagining of that very release. A rebirth, if you will. And ahead of it’s release I was given the opportunity to shoot some questions over to the mastermind himself, as well as debut the first song off said offering.

Kval is due out July 27th, 2017. Be sure to head over to Hypnotic Dirge Records for additional information, or pre-order the album through their official Bandcamp account.

How is everything on your end? I hope all is well.

Kval:
Everything’s great. I hope you’re doing great as well.

First off I need to ask the obvious: Why the name change from Khaossos to Kval, especially since you already had established yourself under the Kuolonkuu name with a handful of releases?

Kval:
When I completed the first demo, the project didn’t yet have a name. With WNTRBRNR (guitarist, from Auriel) we tried to come up with a name as soon as possible. We didn’t have many names so I decided to go with Khaossos. That name started to bother me later on. It doesn’t really fit my music and to be honest, it sounded stupid. I was for a long time thinking about whether or not I should change the name. Early in 2015 Moonroot Art concacted me about making the cover art for my next album. His works look wonderful so I thought he should also make the new logo for the new name, Kval (Norwegian for ‘anguish’).

Why the choice to re-record ‘Kuolonkuu’ as the first Kval album

Kval:
’Kuolonkuu’ was my first release that I really liked. I felt like I had finally found the true sound of Kval. Still, there were too many things about the album that I wanted to fix. I tried to compose more detailed drum and bass parts. WNTRBRNR also recorded the guitars with a stronger and colder sound and gave the album a proper mix and mastering for the first time. Originally I had planned to make a minimal ambient track to accompany every original album track, but ended up making one only for ‘Harhainen’, called ‘Kaiku Tyhjyydestä’).

Kval: KvalYou’re currently signed with Hypnotic Dirge Records to release ‘Khaossos’. How did this deal come about?

Kval:
You mean ’Kval’ debut album. I really like Canadian Black Metal, maybe that’s why I decided to check out if there’s a labels in the same country interested to release some Finnish atmospheric Black Metal. I contacted to HDR, and they responded very soon Kval’s debut album sounds great and they’re interested to publish it on CD in summer, at last in autumn. In my opinion, cooperation has gone well.

There’s still a number of other Khaossos songs out there in the wild. Will we see those released in the future under the Kval name such as the ‘Kaaos’ demo?

Kval:
I don’t know. I’m currently working on new material but I’ve talked before with WNTRBRNR if I should re-release or re-record old demo songs or albums. Nothing is certain for now.

So what lies ahead for you and Kval as an entity? Or is it too early to say?

Kval:
We’ve practiced as a band for a couple of times and are planning to play our first gig soon. I hope the next Kval album will be released in 2018. Hopefully everything will go as planned.

Thank you for your time, and all the best with the band! Take care!

Kval:
Thank you and I hope all the best for you!

Interview conducted thanks to Hypnotic Dirge Records.

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