Interview with Θ (vocals)
https://matavitatau.bandcamp.com/album/numen-nescio

Ghent-based black metal act, Matavitatau, was founded back in 2021. A few months ago this now a trio, released their four-tracker demo entitled Numen Nescio. As soon as we were offered an opportunity to talk with band’s vocalist Θ, I prepared some questions for this hard-working and quite interesting man. Hereby I thank him for his presentation of Matavitatau’s latest activities, news about the recent addition of a new bassist, and a bit on philosophy, Danish society, famous places etc. I hope you enjoy reading this most recent interview.

Metal Revolution: Hello from Denmark. How are you Mr. Θ? How are things over in Belgium?
Matavitatau: Well, I guess I could go over the local headlines here and get you up to speed, but that would be too depressing, so… We are finally getting some nice weather here. Does it hurt my credibility when I say I’m enjoying it? I have two weeks off and Roadburn is next week, what’s not to like? The day before yesterday I already got to witness the release show of the new Neptunian Maximalism album in Brussels, and on Sunday three of us are climbing the windswept citadel of Namur to see Negative Plane. Now that’s the kind of news that gives a man energy! Oh, and of course there’s the release of our demo on tape at the end of this month, mustn’t forget the most important thing.

MR: Please tell us a few things about Matavitatau, about the first steps of the band. When and where was it founded?
Matavitatau: Sparakter and I are both older gentlemen (well, mid-40s) who had been friends and metal aficionados for decades but always wrote off the idea of starting our own band as being unrealistic. That changed in 2021 when at the local swimming pond (where else) here in Ghent we met a dashing young man who shall here be referred to as Loimos, although I’m told he also accepts the title L.O.A.F.A.P. (Morbid Angel fans will understand). Our musical tastes overlapped to a great extent and he turned out to be a talented drummer. Suddenly starting a band didn’t seem so far-fetched anymore, so in December of that year we rented a rehearsal space for the first time. The rest sort of grew organically from there. We have had quite a bit of trouble finding and keeping a bass player, but that too seems to be resolved right now, as we have just recently added another young go-getter called Barathron to our ranks.

MR: How did you get your (band)name, and what is the exact meaning behind it?
Matavitatau: The answer to this is quite complicated, but suffice it to say that it is a mysterious word that appears only once in Latin literature, in the Satyrica of Petronius, in the context of a werewolf story. It seems to be some sort of apotropaic spell – maybe. Truth is, nobody knows for sure, and there’s a distinct possibility that the word doesn’t even exist at all but is just a clusterfuck of copyist errors. There’s a bunch of theories surrounding it in academic literature, each one more far-fetched than the last. For whatever reason it seemed like a good band name to me at the time! And you know what, I still really like it.

MR: What can you tell us about your first demo recording, Numen Nescio, released in February 2025?
Matavitatau: In 2024 we finally managed to ensnare a good bass player: Apovrasma, whom you might know from his solo project with that same monicker. The time was right to lay down a first recording, the more so since he also had experience in that department, and the necessary equipment to boot. We selected four songs that we had been developing since 2022 and recorded the whole thing in one weekend in December 2024. I’m quite happy with the results, for a demo it sounds pretty damn good if I do declare so myself.

MR: What were the first reactions and feedback from your fans as well as from the press?
Matavitatau: We first released the demo on Bandcamp on Valentine’s day (we are romantic that way), and very soon we got some pretty nice reviews, which confirmed that we weren’t imagining things and that we were in fact doing something right. So that was… gratifying. Even more so was the fact that we got some interest from labels. We cut a deal with the esteemed Canti Eretici Productions from Italy and should have the tape edition in our hands in less than a month!

MR: What obstacles or challenges, if any, do you encounter when it comes to getting your music out there and heard by potential new fans?
Matavitatau: The sheer abundance of new black metal releases week after week defies belief, and now we have actively added to that. So how can one possibly stand out from the crowd? Having Latin lyrics and atypically colorful artwork helps a bit, as it turns out. But of course we still work on a very small scale: there will be fewer than 100 tapes printed. We’ll see. You know, on average we’re quite a bit older than most starting bands, and I think that translates into a more laid-back approach on our part. It’s not like we have a list of lofty goals that have to be checked off one by one. We enjoy the way things are going right now, but we’re not quitting our day jobs.

MR: You’ve never played live so far?! Do you have any plans to present your latest demo for the wider audience? Any kind of a release-party?
Matavitatau: That’s right, we haven’t. You can blame the lack of a bass player for that. We are now initiating the new guy and we’re starting to get to a point where a live show sounds like a realistic prospect. Sparakter and I have never been on stage before, so that should be an interesting experience – I hope!

MR: If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
Matavitatau: Tough question. Well, Negative Plane are playing two Belgian dates soon and it did cross our minds: that would have been an awesome opening spot for us. (We all love Negative Plane.) But there will be other opportunities and there’s no rush!

MR: Your music style is what I would call an old-school ‘poetic’ black metal. Is is a fitting description of your sound, or would you add anything?
Matavitatau: I like that you think it’s ‘poetic’. I’m not entirely clear on what you mean by that exactly, but I’ll take the compliment. And I know our guitarist Sparakter will be pleased, since he actually is a published and widely lauded poet – maybe it seeps through in his riffs? Old-school black metal, that is to say, second wave, well that’s undeniable of course – can’t argue with that. We do not labor under the illusion that we have invented something completely ground-breaking and unique. We do hope we have our own ‘personality’ though.

MR: Which are your main influences then?
Matavitatau: The two bands that reviewers and supporters mention most often upon listening to our recording are Mayhem and Mare. Funny detail: Sparakter, who writes and plays all the riffs, had never heard a single note of Mare before our demo was out. The Mayhem thing is of course justified, we’re not going to deny that. Few albums have had the same impact on us that De Mysteriis did – I think I speak for all four of us here. And for me personally as a vocalist, yes, I admit, Attila is one of the greats. There’s plenty more bands I could name, but it’s not because we like them that they are direct influences on what we do.

MR: I have noticed that the lyrics to your songs are in Latin, and you personally are a Latin and Old Greek teacher. Where do you find the inspiration for the lyrical content? I believe you do a lot of research and abstract lyrics from ancient writers?
Matavitatau: That’s right, one of the earliest things we decided on was that with this band we would handle the lyrical part a bit differently than what you usually get. As a Latin and (to a lesser extent) Ancient Greek teacher of 20+ years I have of course drunk deep from the chalice of classical literature, and it seemed like a fascinating concept to extract lines from various Latin sources and make them ‘my own’ so to speak. I’m basically just combining two of my greatest passions in life, it’s that simple. Latin itself isn’t simple though, just ask Dark Funeral.

MR: Talking of lyrical content, am I completely wrong if I say that your lyrics deal with subjects of death and darkness?
Matavitatau: You’re not wide off the mark at all, my good man. Those are subjects we are naturally drawn to. Is that odd? To me it feels natural. I never had any ambition to do the usual anti-christian or satanic shtick. There are bands who are really feeling this and can make it work – more power to them, but it wouldn’t work for me. Decay and transience, those are things that touch my core, that’s where it’s at.

MR: Where do you get inspiration from when creating a new song, and how does your creative process work – do all members contribute equally or are you the only one main songwriter? I mean, what’s the creative process like when you make a new song?
Matavitatau: Sparakter plays the guitar and is the songwriter in the band, as I mentioned earlier. He writes the riffs, often he already draws up preliminary song structures, which he then presents to us. We all have our input and can speak out when something doesn’t strike us as fitting or good enough, but honestly though, that rarely happens, he knows what he’s doing. We then get together in the rehearsal room and build on these riffs: first Loimos will add his drums as a sturdy backbone, then the bass player (Apovrasma earlier, now Barathron) accentuates and complements everything with some thundering basslines. When these parts come together I start to add lyrics and vocals, and lo and behold, a song is born. Of course in reality it’s all a bit messier and less clear-cut than I describe it here. As for the lyrics, I’m entirely to blame for those as discussed above. I’ll usually have some vague ideas and potentially interesting sources in the back of my head (and on my hard drive), then I’ll let the mood of the song guide me.

MR: What is your favorite track from this four-tracker demo Numen Nescio? Which song resonates with you personally the most and why?
Matavitatau: For me personally that would be “Calcanda Semel Via Leti”. The lyrics are from an ode by Horace, one of my absolute favorites, and they are very dear to me. Everytime someone around us dies or faces death, the song resonates more deeply within me. I also really love the melodies on this one.

MR: In the recent years we have featured few metal bands from Belgium, but in your own view what is the state of Belgium (extreme) metal scene?
Matavitatau: The scene is quite large and fruitful here. There’s plenty of local bands in all subsections of metal and in many other styles as well (none of us listens to Metal exclusively). There’s also no shortage of interesting gigs all throughout the year. The biggest names when it comes to black metal specifically are Alkerdeel, Wiegedood and Lugubrum the way I see it, but there’s a lot more below the surface. Check out Oerheks for instance, or Bokkerijders, or Bacht’n de Vulle Moane featuring our former bassist Apovrasma (and also don’t forget his solo work)!

MR: I will, thx. Now, would you tell us what’s the next step for Matavitatau now? Plans for recording a full-length debut? Live performances in support of your new demo? Any new projects in the pipeline that you can share with us?
Matavitatau: We are planning to record a second demo in the summer or early fall, and hope to release it towards the end of this year. We have enough material to pick from, songs that are ready or very nearly so. But for now we just want to keep rehearsing with our new bass player so he can catch up with us on the songs that the rest of us have been playing for three years now. And sure, we will probably play our live debut some time this year, preferably in some dusty ossuary or, almost equally good, a local dive bar.

MR: Anything more to add here towards the end of this interview? Any message for your future fans in Denmark & Scandinavia?
Matavitatau: Thank you, Metal Revolution, for having us! It’s nice to get mail from the land of Saxo Grammaticus and Søren Kierkegaard, and not to forget Carl Theodor Dreyer, director of some of the greatest films of all time! The music scene you guys have over there is often overshadowed by the fellows up north, unfortunately, but I have enjoyed a lot of Danish music, metal of course (Solbrud, Gabestok, Geistaz’ika… I hear Loimos screaming at the back of my skull, ‘Don’t forget Mercyful Fate!!’), but a lot of other stuff as well (Puce Mary, øjeRum, Jacob Kirkegaard, hell, I even played the first Stoffer & Maskinen album on repeat for weeks). I was also really taken with Copenhagen the one time I was over there for a couple of days. If you can arrange for us to do a nocturnal performance in a sparsely lit Glyptotek, that would be swell.
In the meantime, check out our demo on Bandcamp or get a beautifully designed tape from Canti Eretici, while stocks last! Pre-orders are live now, sov ikke! Did you know that the Danish word ‘sove’ and all these album titles are etymologically related? Insomnia (Deinonychus), Sopor (Sleep Chamber), Hypnosis (Desiderii Marginis), Sweven (Morbus Chron) and Svapiti (Born of Six)… Ask me all about it next time!

MR: Wow, thank you for such a nice words, and your enormous knowledge of Danish philosopher(s), film directors, different spots and society as a whole. Thank you very much for your time & keep up the good work!
Matavitatau: Thank you!