Antiqva should be considered as the love child between black metal and classical music. The brand new dark project began during the end of 2015 by Ne Obliviscaris vocalist Xenoyr and Cradle of Filth keyboardist/backing vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft. The two were currently touring together and wanted to collaborate on combining something darker mixing both classical and black metal. The group comes from all over the world (Australia / Canada / Germany / USA / Norway), consisting of Xen (harsh vocals, lyricist, photographer, graphic designer etc.), Schoolcraft (composer, Orchestrations, piano, church organ, ethereal female vocals), Urzorn (Negator) on guitar, Justine Ethier (Blackguard, Karkaos) on drums, guitarist/clean vocals by Andy Thomas (Black Crown Initiate), Memnock (Susperia, Abyssic) on contrabass and bass, and cellist Dalai (Dirty Granny Tales).
Bravewords spoke with members Xen and Schoolcraft asking how Antiqva developed:
Xen: “It’s a bit of a long story, however in short, the idea was brought up in Rome when Cradle and NeO were touring together in 2015. We both craved another musical avenue to express what we couldn’t do so in our respective bands. I’d been planning for years to attempt something more black metal orientated, as I knew NeO would never go down that path, and needed an avenue to pursue my darker tastes. I love what we do in NeO, but black metal is not something that NeO is… NeO is a vast array of influences, various shades of light and dark, and many colours. Antiqva is something else altogether.”
Lindsay: “This is something that I really wanted to do because when you meet someone and you have the same creative energy, it’s stupid not to make it happen. Me and Xen spent a lot of time together on that first tour in Europe. We’d get coffee together almost every day and then go out sightseeing because the rest of the guys would sleep in. It’s rare that they would go out. I was up early every day and so was Xen. We got to talking, and we’re certainly not unhappy in our bands, but Xen wanted to do something in a more black metal outfit and I wanted to do something more classically driven. I presented small bits and pieces of this material to the guys in Cradle a few years ago, and they thought it was cool but it didn’t fit with the sound that defines the band. In the past Cradle had more of that classical vibe and they’ve been moving in a different direction.
Later, Schoolcraft stated she has no intention on leaving Cradle of Filth and Xen assured the music will be different and darker than their current bands but:
“also to pay homage to both ‘90s black metal and classical music. There would be no point in the band if we were doing the same thing.”
Hopefully, we will hear this darker sound soon enough. In the meantime, check out their brand new Facebook page.
