Bij deze een exclusief voorproefje van mijn stuk dat verschijnt in De Pankraker magazine III - verkrijgbaar tijdens het festival
This article gives a rare glimpse deep into the soul of one of the most prolific and original black metal bands from the past 20 years. Circle of Ouroborus seems to be an enigmatic duo with a wide variety of styles and releases making it hard to get a clear image of the band. However, as this piece will reveal, the men behind the legendary underground outfit are less enigmatic.
At least, Antti Klemi, lead vocalist, art director and plain artist in general, is not enigmatic at all. Outspoken and intelligent, but also searching and questioning, with a genuine dedication to music, arts and philosophy. And Circle of Ouroborus being a reflection of this quest which we all undergo during our lives. This is the short summary of our long talk in Tampere during a frostbitten night in January 2025.
Introïtus
On my way by bus from Helsinki to Tampere, I feel the
darkness creeping in. Literally, as it is already past 4pm and the night still descends early this high up North, but also subjectively, with frostbitten and snowy forest landscapes unfolding besides the misty road that drives us through sparsely populated Finnish land. A feeling of gloom, yet at the same time excitement, builds inside me as I become immersed in this peculiar setting. These feelings are amplified even more as during the roughly six hour long trip from Brussels Airport to Helsinki I make time to go through the impressive discography of Circle of Ouroborus. This is only possible because I added a Youtube Premium subscription to my account which allows you to download videos, or better albums, on your smartphone. There are multiple Circle of Ouroborus ‘complete discography’ playlists to be found, yet none of them is complete. There is also a reason why their music is not to be found on ‘regular’ streaming sites such as Spotify, as Antti, lead vocalist, lyric and artwork creator, and one half of the mysterious duo that is CoO, will explain to me later tonight. “We just do not like streaming, we prefer
physical media which allows to convey your message and
art (yes, they consider themselves artists, and I wholeheartedly agree) in an appropriate form, containing both music and carefully selected and created artwork”.
Streams (of releases)
In the process of going through their discography, it already soon becomes clear that 6 hours of traveling are by no means enough to listen to everything. By now, a stunning
number of 61 releases and counting, as Antti confirms there
are at least eight full-length albums ready to be released and that their well of creativity at the moment of our interview is “flowing fast and abundant”. This amounts for more than thirty hours of music, released within the timespan of now just over twenty years since their first demo, aptly entitled ‘Introitus’. No fewer than fifteen labels have released their material. If your head is already buzzing by these numbers and details, you will be completely off track when we would discuss the wide variety of styles performed throughout their discography. As Antti himself states: “It all started with Atvar and me hanging around together in Jyväskylä when we had both moved there to study. Before my student time, I lived in Lappeenranta where at the time Horna was starting to spread the black plague via their first releases and Satanic Warmaster was also contributing to the cult. It was during the mid to late 90’s that I picked up black metal for the first time via these local bands, but I was mostly into death and doom metal bands like My Dying Bride, Anathema, Opeth and Katatonia, the Peacevile bands. In Lappeenranta, there was mostly a scene with punk and hardcore bands at that time, and there was even a local scene with the first Finnish rap acts where I had some encounters with”.
