Doodswens: Seeing The Light Of Day

Playing a traditional style of black metal but with an expansive and detailed sound, DOODSWENS consists of vocalist and guitarist Fraukje van Burg and drummer Inge van der Zon, who together bring exceptional nuance to an overtly primitive genre. The band emerged from the darkness of lockdown with their debut Lichtvrees, which they released on Svart Records in early December. We spoke to Fraukje van Burg about the short history of the band, and the success of their first album.

“I started playing guitar when I was about nine, and then at fourteen I discovered black metal,” begins van Burg. “It sparked something in me. Something about it just made sense. It was so dark. I knew that I wanted to play this music. I was especially inspired my Onielar from DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT: she’s a female black metal guitarist and vocalist,” she explains. Van Burg met van der Zon at music college, which began their creative partnership. “We were the only black metal fans in the whole class, so one day we said: ‘let’s hit the rehearsal room, and see what happens?’”

“We sounded like shit,” she laughs, “but we loved it.” The duo soon began to perform live, and DOODSWENS began to emerge from the stage. “Our friend books shows at the Little Devil in Tilburg, and he asked us if we wanted to do a gig. He’d seen us in a video which I had sent him just for laughs. We said: ‘OK, why not?’ We didn’t have enough songs, or even a name! Once we came up with DOODSWENS, everything came together. The day of the gig arrived, and we immediately thought that this could be something serious. I’d say that was the day DOODSWENS was born. It all came together without a plan,” she smiles, “and we were along for the ride.”

Soon after their live debut, the band produced their very first recordings. “The demo was what we were playing for our live set for the first six months or so,” remembers van Burg. “We recorded it DIY with a friend of ours, and it wasn’t such a big deal. We just needed this raw-ass black metal demo to publish, and get out into the world so that more people could hear our live set.” A split release with ADVERSARIUS (From The Shadows of the Abyss) came early last year, and brought them deeper into the underground consciousness. “We were performing the song from the split single for a very long time too,” van Burg adds. “When coronavirus hit, I started writing for the new album which became Lichtvrees.”

Lichtvrees recreates the atmosphere of DOODSWEN’s live sound faithfully; van Burg’s immersive guitar textures offset by van der Zon’s detailed and precise drum work. “The title means ‘fear of the light’,” explains van Burg, “which goes hand-in-hand with what Inge and I had experienced separately over the last two years.” The duo have become creative in their catharsis. “It is split into two halves, side I and side F for the both of us: two stories that go hand-in-hand, but still have a personal touch. My side is about my anxiety disorder,” she explains, “which I’ve had for as long as I can remember. Last year it hit rock bottom, and I wasn’t able to leave the house anymore. I began to read The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” she continues, “which speaks about the cycles of rebirth, life, death and eventually enlightenment. I took a lot of inspiration from it because, if you accept life and its negative aspects, then you’ll become more at peace with your fears, your demons; your anxiety. Eventually I dared to step into the light again,” she concludes, “and could live my life by accepting that things can always get worse. Maybe they won’t, but perhaps they will.”

Lone guitarist van Gurg manages to conjure a thick, sonorous fog with her instrument where chords blend into one another. “The only effect I use is reverb, and I chose my amp especially for the sound of DOODSWENS,” she explains. “After six months I decided to buy my own amp, because I wanted a fuller sound where you don’t miss anything in the lower tones. It’s a Koch amp; a hybrid, with a couple of tubes. It has a very different sound from a Marshall: a really distinguished full sound with a lot of bass, but it doesn’t lose definition,” enthuses van Burg. “It’s a small Dutch brand. It has the underground vibe I was going for.”

“Our music is constantly evolving,” she continues. “We always want to have this raw nineties feel to it because that’s where our style comes from, and we want that old school vibe to stick around. At the same time, we’ve matured and so has the music,” she observes. “Lichtvrees is a conceptual album, which tells our stories. It’s a combination of authentic emotion and storytelling. We wanted our sound to become more mature: definitely not too polished, still a harsh tone, but more audible and atmospheric.”

Lichtvrees is adorned with dark, subtly occult artwork which manages to capture something essential about the music. “We are both visual artists who paint, so we did the artwork for the demo. Inge made some sigils and drawings for the booklet but for this album,” she explains, “we wanted something bigger, which was not from our own hands.” Smiling, she adds, “we both know that if you create something visual, then you will just keep staring at it and hate it after a month! So I discovered an artist called Carlos Eckhardt: he is not that well known, but his artwork is amazing,” she tells us admiringly. “I figured I’d message him, and see what he said. I like to support underground artists. I sent him some of our music, and he really got the vibe we were looking for. It’s an angel that’s literally being beheaded by the light!”

Lichtvrees is out now via Svart Records.

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