NEW NOISE
IMHA TARIKAT
German black metal mastermind explores his inner turmoil and misunderstood roots
WORDS: RICH HOBSON • PICTURES: ELIF BELL
FOR MORE THAN 30 years the ire of black metal has raged against god and mankind alike in a never-ending quest to assert the self. Imha Tarikat take this even further, casting a critical eye inward to stare into the abyss.
“Back when the band started things were pretty rough,” admits the band’s founder, Kerem Yilmaz. “My depression presented as this sense of being completely numb: but it was a numbness from utter agony and pain that seeped into everything.”
Since Imha Tarikat’s first EP, Kenoboros, in 2017, the project has – by and large – remained a solo venture, credited to ‘Ruhsuz Cellât’ (an alter-ego) but intrinsically linked to the identity and heritage of Kerem Yilmaz, giving him an opportunity to explore and externalise his inner turmoil. The band’s 2019 debut, Kara Ihlas, translated this into a flurry of emotion and Nietzschean introspection, building ever-grander melodic structures to house its primal, punkish fury. But while it was applauded for its ability to communicate its emotional core, some elements were nonetheless lost in translation. “The story was ‘black metal inspired by the Quran’ but that was only partially correct,” Kerem explains. “The way it was expressed was completely wrong.”