KYRIOS interview

 Hi! Blood Constellation is presented almost like an archaeological discovery rather than a new release. What was it like revisiting material that had effectively been lost to time?

It's been gratifying to see these tracks finally go out into the world. These songs sans vocals were essentially done four or five years ago. Basically following Trevor's passing we put the thing on hold and would occasionally talk about getting vocals and wrapping it up but it stayed on ice for what ended up being years. Once we got Cory/GK Defenestrator on these it really gave the songs new life. Although the songwriting is indeed an artifact from another creative era, hearing them in a fully complete form with vocals made it feel somewhat new and re-invigorated the material.

The press release describes these recordings as "the last transmission from a great event horizon". Was that simply poetic imagery, or does the EP actually revolve around themes of disappearance, distance, and irretrievable things?

I was about to say "no," but maybe there's something to that...

Highborn Sacrifice was inspired by a book titled "The Life and Death of a Druid Prince," which is a piece of forensic archeology that theorizes on what might've happened to the so-called Lindow Man, a bog body discovered in the Northwest of England. The story that's summarized in the lyrics is what they posited in the book, i.e., that this was a human sacrifice of a high ranking member of society that was done as a response to the Roman invasion under Claudius in the 1st century. That's morbidly fascinating in it's own right, but it's also pretty interesting to consider that after reading all of the detective work that went into this that it's impossible to say exactly what happened. Nobody could ever know conclusively and at the end of the day it's a convincing theory gathered by looking through a very, very murky window back in time. That feeling of mystery on unknowable things is a big part of this track.

The next track, Astrophage's ideas were basically lifted from Project Hail Mary. The novel itself is a fun story but the concept of a microscopic star devourer is extremely dark and I thought worth exploring in a different context by way of solar deity imagery. Both songs have this theme of a death over huge time spans and distances which on some level planted the event horizon idea.

This release bridges dungeon synth and black metal in a way that feels organic rather than experimental. Did those two sides of KYRIOS always belong together, or did they gradually pull toward one another over the years?

They were always together, "Saturnal Chambers" has a dungeon synth interlude as well and we wanted to do the same here, those tracks do a lot for the atmosphere of the whole record. One of our big influences, especially for Sam was Departure Chandelier who did something similar very effectively.

The songs were written in a different period of your creative life. Did you ever feel tempted to rewrite or modernize them before finally releasing the EP?

Actually no. Every recording is really a moment frozen in time and I'd rather preserve that than try something different on a future project than to rip apart something already is what it is.

There's something compelling about finally completing a work after years of silence. At what point does preserving the original spirit become more important than perfecting the music?

The first EP was received very well and hit a lot of listeners, so yeah, the pressure was on! What helped was that this material was written not long after "Saturnal Chambers" so there's a lot of natural continuity between this and what we were doing at the time.

The EP is dedicated to Trevor Strand, who also gave the release its title. Could you share what his contribution meant to KYRIOS beyond the obvious vocal connection?

His vocals and lyrics were a huge contribution on the first EP. Behind the scenes he was really critical in making sure that tape made it far and wide as well. It's a shame we couldn't do this one with him too, but I remember him proposing this name as a possible title for this project and it was an obvious move to use it here.

GK Defenestrator steps into the role of vocalist on these recordings. Did you encourage him to reinterpret the material in his own way, or was the goal to preserve the atmosphere that originally surrounded these songs?

GK's got a great musical ear and is a multi-instrumentalist in his own right, so he's the type that can be trusted with doing his own thing.

The cosmic imagery running through Blood Constellation feels less like science fiction and more like metaphysical isolation. What draws you toward the language of stars, voids, and forgotten transmissions?

A lot of black metal focuses on the frozen north, but really there's nothing more desolate, intimidating and horrifying than what's beyond our atmosphere. Everything is so extreme that we can only describe it in mathematical language, which sure, one can kind of understand intellectually but not really feel connected to, it's just too vast. That's pretty compelling and worth exploring creatively. 

As a tie-in to more traditional black metal themes, our ancestors tried to understand it in ways that made sense to them with stories and mythological explanations and the imagery created there is still powerful and provided a lot of inspiration here.

Dungeon synth often evokes abandoned castles, while your black metal reaches for something almost astronomical. Do you see those landscapes as fundamentally connected?

Vaguely in terms of thinking creatively about vast empty spaces. The cosmic part of this band has a mythological element so that serves as a connecting piece between the two also.

The title Blood Constellation juxtaposes something eternal with something intensely mortal. Was that contrast part of what made the title so fitting?

Yeah, it's a captivating image and has a similar mix of elements to other concepts we use.

Many bands revisit old recordings simply because fans ask for them. Did rediscovering these tapes change your own opinion of KYRIOS, or were you already convinced they deserved a proper release?

Oh I always thought these had to get out there. Saturnal Chambers was also pretty short, and given that this came on the heels of that there were a lot of ideas to explore artistically as a follow-up which I think we did successfully. And either way, it's a shame to have good songs sit on a hard drive forever and wanted to get it out there!

Caligari Records has become known for unearthing obscure and overlooked underground recordings. Did releasing Blood Constellation through them reinforce the feeling that these songs had finally found the right home?

Oh definitely, Caligari's great and has always been really supportive going back to the first release so continuing with them here felt like the right move.

After Saturnal Chambers and now Blood Constellation, where do you see KYRIOS heading next? Does this release close a forgotten chapter, or does it reopen one that was never truly finished?

Right now it looks like this is a close of a chapter for Kyrios. There are some active projects we're in where I'm sure the Kyrios DNA will pop out occasionally, but either way I definitely would like to do more in this style under one name or another.