Dan Elkin of Echoes of Gloom dives into the creation of The Mind’s Eternal Storm, exploring the raw emotion, atmospheric soundscapes, and influences behind his introspective black metal project. From gear choices to the underground Australian scene, this interview captures the soul of a rising one-man band.

"Be yourself, no rules. Stay true to your identity. Keep on recording, making albums and play live."

“Deitus is the knife in the back of man.”

One could think that living under the impression of Nazis about 70 years ago should have left an impact, but that’s just wishful thinking. Fascism works because it’s so easy to blame others, and fighting against this will always be a nuisance in the view of these people.

“Technology has ruined everything already, now it will even ruin art. We are doomed as a species, and we deserve it. Fucking stupid arrogant humans. We have way bigger things to worry about than the metal scene.”

“Finding fans who have tattooed our logo or cover art on themselves has been pretty crazy. I’ve had fans come tell me how they wanted to kill themselves and my art has helped them with that.”

“I did care a lot when I was younger what people thought of me, but I do not anymore...I don’t judge anyone for their choices or for what they like or do. When you accept that, I think it's way more easy to just go through life curious and make out of it what you want.”

“I'm inspired by topics like the middle ages, nature and very personal, dark things that happened in my life. ”

“We incorporated a lot of harsh imagery and completely avoided showing any of us musicians. As the song intends, it should slightly drain and confuse the viewer with a somewhat sober perspective of our world.”

“Propaganda was everything back then [WWI]. People were told glorious stories about pride, dignity and honor. In the end, most of them died in the mud, torn apart by shells.”

“I believe that regardless of our advancement as human species and as a society, there’s no way of finding something that can universally be described as “meaning”.”

“Metal is based in emotion and conflict, which indigenous people are no strangers to, so I think a lot of us are drawn to music like metal or punk from a very early age.”

[In reference to war] “Don’t ever expect for it to end. It never will. ”

“I think it's pretty obvious that Finnish black metal and Finnish melancholy drive us all. All of us listen to a lot of various music besides black metal and all that stuff influences us.”