Interview begins with the band apologizing for their bad lighting. Reason for their lack of lights is yet another blackout in Kyiv because of Russian missiles, the same reason this city was without water the day before. This is how I started my interview with Kthona, a Nu Metal band from Kyiv who constantly seeks to evolve their music.
Band has shed their skin already couple of times. They started as Trash Metal band and were later known as Chasing Embers playing Alternative Metal. As Chasing Embers was about to embark on their first European tour the pandemic hit. Band started to make new music and realized things had changed again, this time to Nu Metal. With over a year from their last concert they knew they had to build everything from scratch again and so they reinvented the whole concept of their band and thus Kthona was born.
At the moment Kthona doesn’t have to look far to find reasons to make angry music. Other sources of inspiration for them are humanity, depression, early 2000’s metal, modern rap and current events. Band also states that their music is kind of social commentary and reflection on what it is live in Kyiv and Ukraine. The message Kthona wants to send to ”west” with their music is that Ukrainians are Europeans, just a bit different ?
Members of Kthona have years of experience in metal scene of Kyiv and Ukraine as a whole. According to them the scene showed a lot of promise before the pandemic and there were a lot of interesting bands. Covid did its deed and a lot of smaller bands called it quits. For example in Kyiv the two coolest concert venues for metal and rock bands went under and you can find supermarkets now in their place. There are two small clubs in Kyiv active at this time. Situation under war has driven many artist to only publish music and videos online. We also should not forget the musicians who are fighting for their country against the Russian attack. In some cases the whole line-up of a band is now fighting in the front-lines. Times are difficult but if there is one thing the Kyiv and Ukraine metal scene is not going to do, it is giving up.
Kthona interview 01.11.2022
Producer: Janne Vuorela
https://www.facebook.com/kthonaband
Imperiumin artikkeli: https://www.impe.fi/articles/1/3144
Help Ukraine: https://helpukraine.center/
Picture: Kthona
