Photo courtesy of Hannah Verbeuren
If there’s one thing that stands out about Athenar, the sole creative force behind Midnight, it’s his ability to write and grind out good songs. Operating as a one-man army since 2003, Athenar has been able to channel the raw ‘n’ rugged charm from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s music that impacted his youth, into his own electrifying, speed-metal thrill ride.
With an abundance of demos, EPs, splits, and full-lengths under his bullet-laced belt, Athenar gives credit to classics like Raw Power by The Stooges and Apocalyptic Raids by Hellhammer.
“Those albums are ingrained in me, and that’s just the style that I like,” he says. “You could hear the intensity with that stuff, and you can hear, especially with Hellhammer, too, they’re just going for it. They don’t know anything else; they don’t know any better; there’s no rules for them at all.”
And having no rules is exactly what guides the mentality behind Midnight’s music and imagery. Athenar has maintained his freewheeling attitude and crudity over the course of Midnight’s discography, allowing the band to have more of a raw attack.
“That’s just the way I feel, that’s just the way it should be, you know? Humans are crude in general, so …” says Athenar, laughing. “The rock ‘n’ roll, heavy metal style, it shouldn’t really be too clean and polished, and I’m not really connected to what other people think, that’s why I just stay in my own headspace.”
As the release date for Midnight’s fifth full-length album, Let There Be Witchery, approaches, Athenar surely delivers his most venomous vocal attack and unleashes some of his most gripping hooks yet. The newest collection of songs is full of piss and vinegar, with spontaneous guitar leads that stimulate every salacious sense in the body, all backed by one roaring production.
Tracks on the new record such as “In Sinful Secrecy,” “Snake Obsession,” and “Villainy Wretched Villainy” summon some of the catchiest qualities within Midnight’s balls-to-the-wall, punk-infused sound.
“Without catchiness, what do you have? Then you might as well just put on anything else. It’s at least my intent to have a song you want to sing yourself. So, it’s pretty important to have some sort of hook, however that may be. A hook can be just a little drum accent; it could be a vocal part, but it has to have some sort of hook.”
On the other hand, a song like “More Torment” is able to slow the pace down a bit and add more of a swingy, heavy element to the record.
“I like to at least attempt to give a little different pacing, where I can,” says Athenar. “The slow stuff like that, the more grinding stuff, I’ve always let that come back to Celtic Frost, that’s one of the things I like about them. It wasn’t just all speed.”
As far as the song placement and the pacing of Let There Be Witchery goes, Athenar utilizes small tricks to aid in the flow of the album.
“You want something out of the gate that will at least grab [the listener’s] attention,” he explains. “And when you’re talking about keys and stuff, if one song ends in A, you want the next song to start in E, so it has a natural flow to it.”
He continues, “A to F# always sounds good, too. The listener might not know … but they’ll feel it. It’ll have a certain bit of heaviness kicking from A to F# into the next song. So, I try to think that way.”
When asked if there’s any part of him that’s happy to be passing along older song traditions set by bands like Venom, Motorhead, Bathory, and Hellhammer, to younger generations to discover, he mentions: “Yeah, I mean, I think that’s what it’s about, right? Just turning people on to music in general. It’s not all about me. I really don’t give a shit if someone listens to Midnight or not, but if they listen to Midnight and then get turned on to some other bands, then that’s great. That’s the way it should be.”