Interview

Saphath Hails The Ascension Of The Dark Prophet

It's the most obvious thing in the world to say that the COVID-19 pandemic ground the world to a halt two years ago. From the viewpoint of the music industry, albums were delayed, tours were cancelled and plans were up in the air. Imagine then that you've created a band which is difficult to define, has some amazing music to offer but you face it being over before it even began. That's exactly the situation Russian outfit Saphath faced.

Despite all the setbacks, Saphath has risen with full force and this month, released their debut album, "Ascension Of The Dark Prophet," a multi faceted story of contrasts, darkness and beauty in the strangest places. To find out more about the record, Metal Underground caught up with the band's vocalist Alexey Duraev and bassist Alexander Klimkov. You can read it in full below.

Diamond Oz: Congratulations on your debut album, "Ascension of the Dark Prophet." What is the meaning behind the title?

Alexey Duraev: The Dark Prophet is a character of harsh fate, an outsider in his world, rejected by society, but possessing indomitable willpower and independence. Since his youth, he hears a voice of Darkness in his head and the Darkness is personalized, she is not just a universal power, she is a lady of forbidden knowledge and defiance. You may look at him as Antichrist or Cain and perceive her as Lilith or Mara (Slavic goddess of death), but it is more to them than the known mythological characters.

The Prophet aims for reaching the city he sees in his dreams, and this would be the story of his ascension. On his lonely path, he travels around the world seeking knowledge of half-mad wizards, he falls in love and loses his beloved, he gets sentenced and kills, he becomes a ruler and a demigod god and finally reaches his goal, falling into the arms of Darkness in the land of his dreams. All the album lyrics are written from the Prophet’s standpoint, but if you look closer at the character, many people in the world can relate to him. I just meant to tell that everyone can ascend from dust to the sky, even so it is unbelievably hard.

Oz: What kind of topics are covered in the lyrics on the album?

Alexey: As I said, many people could relate to the Dark Prophet at something. The music and lyrics are filled with a poetic combination of loneliness, despair, pain, anxiety, passion, rage, judgment and questioning of what is believed to be truth. A couple of songs of how love hurts. Summarizing that, every song expresses a particular emotion a person like that would feel. It is very personal to me, I lived through every hardness expressed, so everything described is a sincere thing in Byronish style bars.

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