TRIVAN: VANJA ŠANTAK TALKS LOSS, INNER DEMONS, AND THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND ETERNAL SHORE
Croatian extreme metal band TRIVAN recently joined The Zach Moonshine Show on Metal Devastation Radio for a powerful conversation about music, loss,...
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TRIVAN: VANJA ŠANTAK TALKS LOSS, INNER DEMONS, AND THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND ETERNAL SHORE
Croatian extreme metal band TRIVAN recently joined The Zach Moonshine Show on Metal Devastation Radio for a powerful conversation about music, loss, self-discovery, the band's unique philosophy, and their upcoming debut album, Eternal Shore.
Vanja Šantak, the driving force behind TRIVAN, opened up about the deeply personal experiences that have shaped the band's music, including the recent loss of his beloved dog.
The conversation began with "Abyss of Crawling Shadows," an emotional track originally inspired by someone Vanja knew who was struggling with depression. At first, Vanja wanted to write about something he didn't personally understand. That changed after his dog suddenly became seriously ill and was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Vanja was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to put his dog to sleep.
The experience gave the song an entirely different meaning.
For Vanja, dogs aren't simply pets. They're family, companions, and beings capable of communicating through a language of pure emotion. His loss became one of the major emotional forces behind the music he is now creating.
A STRANGE NEW BEGINNING
Not long afterward, Vanja encountered another dog under circumstances he described as almost impossible to explain.
He discovered a litter of puppies born on the same day as his previous dog. Among them was a black male puppy who wasn't originally shown in the photographs.
When Vanja eventually met the puppies, that particular dog immediately ran toward him.
After bringing the puppy home, another strange thing happened. Despite being only a few months old, the dog seemed to know exactly where he was going and already understood basic commands.
The experience even caused Vanja to reconsider his previous disbelief in reincarnation.
The story has already inspired another TRIVAN song, which is currently being mixed and mastered.
WHAT DOES TRIVAN MEAN?
The name TRIVAN combines the ideas of triviality and vanquish, representing the band's desire to defeat the trivial things that can consume our lives.
The band began taking shape in 2018 after Vanja had stepped away from music for several years. Following lineup changes and the disruption caused by COVID, he eventually returned to his original goal of creating darker and more extreme music.
By around 2023, the TRIVAN lineup had come together.
But the band wasn't interested in simply repeating the usual black metal themes.
Instead, TRIVAN's philosophy is about confronting your own darkness.
Vanja describes the band's demons as the darker parts of ourselves that we often try to avoid. Rather than simply destroying those demons, he believes we should understand them, confront them, conquer them, and ultimately learn from them.
It's a philosophy that runs through the band's music.
FROM PERSONAL PRESSURE TO "BLACK AND HARD PLEDGE"
One example is "Black and Hard Pledge," which came from a period when Vanja was working toward his PhD.
The pressure to become the best student of the year began consuming him. He stopped training, gained weight, and eventually realized he had lost sight of himself.
Looking in the mirror became the breaking point.
The song became a promise to himself to stop allowing outside pressure to destroy his inner peace and to become the best version of himself.
Another track, "Dance of Death," takes a wider look at society, conformity, hypocrisy, and the constant pressure people face to follow whatever trend comes next.
The title references the medieval concept of the Dance of Death, where death dances with everyone regardless of wealth or status.
The message is simple: eventually, everything ends.
Ironically, just weeks after the song was released, Vanja had to say goodbye to his dog, making the song's themes of mortality even more personal.
ETERNAL SHORE
All of these experiences eventually became part of TRIVAN's upcoming debut album, Eternal Shore.
Originally planned as a 13-song album, the record was eventually reduced to eight tracks because of the length and depth of the songs.
The album is heavily influenced by Vanja's own life.
One of its most personal songs, "Eternal Shore," came from spreading his dog's ashes on a beach where they had spent time together.
Vanja explained that he wants the same thing for himself someday.
Rather than being buried in a casket, he wants his ashes spread on that beach so he can symbolically spend eternity there with his dogs, watching the waves, sunsets, and sunrises.
It is a surprisingly peaceful image for an extreme metal record, but it perfectly captures what TRIVAN is about.
Darkness doesn't always mean despair.
Sometimes you have to walk through the darkness to find peace.
OLD-SCHOOL METAL AND THE CROATIAN SCENE
Vanja also talked about discovering metal growing up in what was then Yugoslavia.
His uncle played in a rock band, so guitars, drums, bass, and rehearsals were part of his childhood.
Later, Alice Cooper's Trash became a major influence, followed by bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Marduk, Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, and Immortal.
In the 1990s, discovering new music meant listening to radio programs, visiting record stores, and actually hunting down physical CDs.
Vanja reflected on how different that was from today's streaming world, where virtually every band on Earth is only a few clicks away.
The Croatian metal scene itself remains active, with concerts happening regularly and international bands frequently passing through the country.
TRIVAN hopes to eventually expand beyond Croatia, with plans for shows throughout Slovenia and Austria and, eventually, the United States.
MORE THAN 10 MILLION VOTES
TRIVAN also made serious noise recently by winning a Battle of the Bands competition with more than 10 million votes.
Vanja explained that the band's massive support network stretches across the globe, including Croatia, Chile, Japan, and elsewhere.
He even mobilized people in his own apartment building and neighborhood, including a local Facebook group with tens of thousands of members.
The band's supporters didn't simply click a button once and walk away.
They went to war.
And the results were undeniable.
THE ROAD TO AMERICA
TRIVAN is currently preparing Eternal Shore for its planned February release while continuing to release singles and build its audience.
The band is also working with Blood Red Covenant Records to expand its presence in the United States.
And Vanja has one particular American goal in mind.
Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest.
After watching footage and a documentary about the festival, Vanja said he and the band would love to make the trip to Tennessee, experience the festival's raw energy, and eventually share a stage there.
That would be one hell of a way to bring this story full circle.
TRIVAN's Eternal Shore is shaping up to be more than a metal album. It's a musical journey through grief, pressure, darkness, self-discovery, mortality, and ultimately finding your own path.
As Vanja Šantak puts it, the goal isn't simply to run from your demons.
Conquer them. Become friends with them. And come out stronger on the other side.
Listen to the full conversation with Vanja Šantak of TRIVAN on The Zach Moonshine Show below:
Full Track List:
Battle Of The Bands Top Six Winners:
1 - Okl's FruitLoops - Scream Of Silence - (1,096,368 votes)2 - Soul Of Sheol - Paradise Is Not For Us - (60,371 votes)3 - Rage of Justice - Digital Prison - (17,728 votes)4 - Heidbekka - Völva - (9,670 votes)5 - Leach - Serpent Of Time - (5,540 votes)6 - Mistress - Terrified eyes - (4,271 votes)
The Zach Moonshine Intro
7 - Ozzy Osbourne - See You On The Other Side8 - Dolly Parton - Purple Rain9 - Heaven & Hell - Heaven And Hell
Trivan - Interview featuring Abyss Of Crawling Shadows/Dance of Death/Dark Malicious Desire
10 - Ola Englund - DOGMA PROGMA11 - Smoulder - Water Wars12 - DOWN - Blood Oath13 - Superjoint Ritual - Everyone Hates Everyone/Fuck Your Enemy/Dress Like A Target14 - Burnt Witch - We Hate You - (Electric Wizard Cover)15 - Hellripper - Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm16 - Starved of Light - Wander the Holler17 - Soothsayer - Catfish18 - THE BLEEDING - Immortal Flesh19 - Wildfire - Sweet Sensation20 - Megaton Communion - Echo's in Time21 - Dread Witch - Cult22 - Lord Gryphus - Troops of Doom (Sepultura)23 - Netherdred - Necrodancer24 - The Red Mountain - N.I.B.25 - Webb Of Deceit - Hellswithin (Feat. Dave Frost & Jason Aaron Wood)/In My Wake (Feat. Raven & Jason Aaron Wood)26 - NEMESIS - Hell's Last Kiss27 - Stryfe - Breathe
Full show streaming on Mixcloud:
The interview is also available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple..
[jrEmbed module="jrYouTube" youtube_id="PdGzDfruIjQ"]
Check out the band on bandcamp and support:
Abyss Of Crawling Shadows by Trivan
Super huge shout out and thanks to the 279,001 metal maniacs from around the world that tuned in to the live broadcast!
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