The idea behind ‘Razernij’ was initially devised in response to the religious attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan in Paris in 2015. These had a major impact on me. How can young people be persuaded to go on a suicide mission? How is it that a scripture that claims to offer peace prompts people to take actions that have the exact opposite effect? How is it possible that bloodshed is an appropriate act in the context of honoring your highest ideals? I wanted to do something with these emotions that were racing through my body. I wanted to do something with my incomprehension, hatred and frustration. I wanted to express in lyrical form, as sharply as I could, why I am diametrically opposed to religious violence. Therefore, the first step was the switch to Dutch.

There were several reasons for this. The first is purely because of the phonetic aspect. Our previous albums were all in English. At least for the most part, because we already liked to use other languages for short parts of our songs. We did this with Latin (because come on, every black metal band flirts with Latin every now and then), German and Dutch. Along the way we discovered that the Dutch language lends itself perfectly to metal because of the many blunt and harsh sounds that our language has. Given the emotional charge that this song would get, Dutch suited it perfectly. I would be lying if the rest of the Dutch black metal scene didn’t have some influence on this but if the dutch language wouldn’t have fit creatively, we wouldn’t have used it. In addition, this song would be an exploration of my personal feelings and thoughts and it helped me to do that by writing in my native language. When I realized how I would say it, I could think about why I wanted to write about this. After some contemplation I came to the conclusion that what hurt me the most is this idea:

Apparently, there is a state of mind a person can end up in where one is firmly convinced that he or she has found the one and only truth. This is something that you can clearly recognize in religious extremists, but you can also see this in people who adhere to a (usually extreme) political ideology. One symptom is that in a discussion with such a person you are able to predict what the other is going to say because everything they say are quotes from the doctrine they adhere to and no individual thought seems to be possible anymore. Therefore, in addition to a shriek and a scream in frustration, my response to people like that is the phrase “De waarheid bestaat niet” (There is no truth). No one knows exactly how this universe came into existence, no one understands the exact nature of consciousness and no one can say for sure what the nature of our reality is. Anyone who claims to know is a liar and is on a perilous path. You cannot open a history book without being stained with the blood of the hundreds of millions of people who died as a direct result of the actions of those possessed by some ultimate truth. Be it political or religious.

‘Razernij’ was an emotional journey inward for me and I am very happy and proud with what it eventually turned out to be. Especially because of the way in which Dennis has brought the lyrics to life with his vocals. This is something that is always a special experience as a lyricist. In conclusion, I would like to add that I put references or easter eggs in almost all of my lyrics. Until now I did this purely for my own enjoyment, but this post gives me the opportunity to highlight a few:

Ik schreeuw
Krijs. Ik ontsteek in Razernij
‘Ik schreeuw’ (I scream) is a referral to the statue  ‘De schreeuw’ in honor of the late Theo van Gogh.

De bijbel of het zwaard (The bible or the sword)
This was a sentence that my history teacher used to describe the way how early christianity spread through Europe. People had the ‘choice’ to either accept the Bible or the violence from the sword.

Broeder tegen broeder (Brother against brother)
This is one of the ways that the American civil war was described.

Woorden zijn slechts lucht (words are wind)
This is a referral to the book ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin. The saying ‘words are wind’ is used often in this series.

In de modder verjaard, een offer voor de goden de waanzin vergaard. (Aged in mud, an offering to the gods, madness achieved)
This refers to the bog bodies that have been found all over europe. Some of which were found with stab wounds. It is assumed that these people were sacrificed as a religious offering.