Formed in 2010 by Roland Neubauer and Karola Gere, WitcheR stands as a majestic anomaly in the black metal realm. Blending the raw spirit of traditional black metal with epic orchestration and profound melancholy, the Hungarian duo has carved out their own haunting path over 15 years. In this interview, we delve into the origins, vision, and creative rituals behind their music—particularly the deeply resonant Lélekharang—and discuss the timeless essence of black metal in a modern world that often feels disconnected from its roots.
Serial Metalbums: Witcher seems to have been born from an almost funereal need, a dark manifestation that has taken shape over the years. Was it a shared vision from the start, or did this entity impose itself upon you gradually, like an uncontrollable force? What was your initial intention in summoning this musical entity?
Roland Neubauer: This year marks 15 years since Karola and I started the band. A sort of inner urge, a kind of creative lust drove us, since we had already played music for years, moreover we had been together in a band (Trollheimen), when we had enough of the traditional musicianship.
I think the vision was always clear, but we had to climb every step of the ladder in order to find the path we have been on for years now. If someone listens to our first demo, will notice that we already had this musical style and atmosphere, only we evolved musically over the years, deliberately building up everything step by step.
We had the aim since the beginning, that we represent the basic orthodox black metal with epic, sublime atmosphere, mystic and catchy keyboard tunes, classical music influences, plus adding to the whole thing a powerful concept. It is not a secret that Summoning is a common favourite with Karola and that you can hear it in our music.
Serial Metalbums: Witcher’s music is steeped in funeral melancholy and a twilight grandeur rarely achieved. What occult forces and tormented souls fuel your inspiration? How would you describe your own sound to someone who has never heard your compositions before?
Roland Neubauer: The basic of most songs come from our Arch-witch Karola. In most cases, she dreams of these tunes or they come to her just like that, driven by an unexplainable force. As she is an educated musician, she can write proper music sheets, adds harmonies to them. Mostly this is how a basic of a WitcheR song comes alive.
If someone has not hear our music yet, imagine the basic black metal with powerful symphonic influences, with mystic and epic tunes, with classical music references, with a huge amount of melancholy and with a hint of witchery. The aforementioned Summoning stands probably the closest to us musically, though maybe there is more metal in our music.
Serial Metalbums: Your works evoke a world where pain and beauty seem to merge, where every note resonates like a funeral chant. What messages lie behind your lyrics and melodies? Is Witcher a personal catharsis or an open window onto something greater—perhaps a philosophy, a universal mourning?
Roland Neubauer: Merging beauty and pain, I like that, I see you understand our music, I am happy for you. In every of our lyrics there are melancholy, nostalgia and pain, holding on to the old values, denying the dogmas of the modern world. Nowadays, this is perfectly present in our concept, too, not only in our lyrics and in our music.
Serial Metalbums: Csendes Domb and A gyertyák csonkig égnek laid the foundation for your musical temple. Can you take us back to those periods of composition and recording? Was it an organic process or a painful birth? At the time, were you aware that you were carving a path that would eventually lead to Lélekharang?
Roland Neubauer: To be honest, it was all natural back then, we did not have a master plan, we just wanted to create and enjoy every minute of that. At that time our home studio was very simple, every recording was an experiment and just after the ‘A gyertyák csonkig égnek” album reached a wider audience, we turned to the recording of ‘Lélekharang’ more deliberate.
The songwriting was still natural, but we had more options, for example for the first time we used a midi keyboard for the recordings, opening up more possibilities to us, leading to the sound of today’s WitcheR. We can say that ‘Lélekharang’ was our first album, which we built up on a whole concept with a solid idea and to get here all our previous albums were necessary.
Serial Metalbums: With Lélekharang, Witcher has reached a level of intensity rarely equaled in atmospheric black metal, to the point of being called a masterpiece of the genre. How did this album come to life? Was it an initiatory journey, a necessity, or a creation that escaped your grasp and took on a life of its own? When you completed it, were you aware that you had crafted something that would resonate so deeply with listeners?
Roland Neubauer: Thank you for the kind words. We put in our ‘Lélekharang’ album more energy than ever before. Though the songwriting was still instinctive, we started building up the song instrumentations more purposefully. We had a strong vision what sound we wanted for each song.
We put tremendous energy into the common image, including the cover, to the music videos, to such small things like the promotional photos. We also had the feeling at the end of the studio session that we had created the best WitcheR album to date, but we could not imagine that it would reach so many people and we would get so many positive feedbacks. We would like to thank all of you for this great support, with that we can take the whole band to a new level.
Serial Metalbums: Each Witcher release feels like a tombstone erected in the grand cemetery of your discography. What will be the face of the next monument you are building? Will there be a noticeable evolution, a shift in direction, or will Witcher continue to dig deeper into its own abyss?
Roland Neubauer: WitcheR is so natural and so unique, even if we wanted to change, we could not do so. At least drastically. Our sound is in our hands and not in our amps or in the soundscapes. When Karola starts playing that immediately has a WitcheR feeling and if I add to it my dirty guitar sound, we get what we have represented for 15 years already. The other day got ready the master of the new album and I can assure everybody that there will be no drastic changes.
Maybe the new album is a little bit more epic and more melodic and you can hear Karola’s voice more, but the big picture is the same. We stay on the old path, somebody liked our music before, will not be disappointed at this time either.
Moreover, in the future we would like to present every year a new song – in between the albums -, hence we already started the recordings for a 2026 single, which stays on the marked way. This song will be introduced next year, parallel with the new Frozen Wreath album, as it is also on the way to be completed.
Serial Metalbums: Since Witcher’s birth in 2010, the black metal and extreme metal scenes have undergone transformations. In hindsight, how do you perceive this evolution, both locally and internationally? Do you believe the essence of the genre remains intact, or has something dissipated in the fog of time? Does black metal still have uncharted territories to explore, or are we doomed to endlessly summon the ghosts of the past?
Roland Neubauer: As for me, I follow the black metal scene for way earlier. Though it changed a lot since the beginning of WitcheR, but if we compare how it was 25 years ago, we can talk about a drastic transformation.
Back then, we were literally hunting for the new releases, going through the fanzines. If a new demo or album was released, we sent the empty tape or money to get that, we wrote handwritten mails. A copied tape with a copied booklet was a big deal then…Do not get me wrong, I do not cry for the old time’s sake, but there was a certain mystic to that era, which most of the new black metal bands cannot understand.
It was almost already extinct at the start of the WitcheR, but in the last 10-15 years the internet changed everything. If someone has the money, can be popular with a bad production or even with a partly AI-written music. According to this, we follow the old way, we stick to the physical copies, but let’s return to your question.
As for me, black metal is my life. I think we talk about a genre, which has wide boundaries, as you could see already at the old Norwegian scene. For example, compare the first Emperor album to the second Darkthrone album. Night and day, though both are black metal.
In my opinion, still up to today there are bands who preserve the old attitude of the genre. Obviously, some just imagine that they represent that, but luckily, that is a minority. I like all kind of subgenre, from orthodox, through symphonic, to atmospheric black metal.
I honestly do not know if there any undiscovered field left in the genre, but for me it is more important that any new production capture the ghost of old times.