TEAM

Paula Fazlich (Morthriel)
Founder and currently a sole official member of www.thevoidjournal.com

“Bloody cheers to whoever invented factor 50+ sunscreen…”

♆ I’ve been listening to black metal since : It was sometime around 1997 or 1998—the exact year escapes me now. My family had always surrounded me with quality music, and I grew up with a deep respect for all arts. But it was during this period that I stumbled into a world that would change me forever. A friend gave me a cassette of Darkthrone, and that single gesture marked the beginning of a lifelong devotion. Black metal instantly resonated with something buried deep inside me—its raw power, its eerie grandeur, the sense of solitude it carried. From that moment on, the genre became my biggest passion. I began seeking out bands on my own, diving into increasingly obscure and arcane titles, driven by an insatiable hunger to hear more, know more, feel more. Discovering and sharing music gradually became something almost instinctive—like breathing. If I wasn’t doing it, I wasn’t truly alive. The first band I found on my own—the one that truly captivated me—was Blut Aus Nord. Their surreal, dissonant atmospheres opened entirely new dimensions in what black metal could be, and I knew I had found something profoundly important. Since then, it’s never stopped – the search continues, always.

♆ I like: Herbs and flowers, nihilistic jokes, down-to-earth and real people, haunting music, the sound of bagpipes, axolotls , cave olms,  walks in nature, meaningful  books and movies, monochrome images and aesthetics, spending some time in beautiful cemetery parks, rain, art, darkness, light, old gothic architecture, etc. There are many fascinating and strange things in the world to fall in love with…and my eyes, mind, heart and teeth are always tingling in anticipation for them.

♆ I dislike: Fitting into frames just for the sake of pleasing society; low manifestations of the human species such as the hunger for fame and prestige, the cult of falsehood, envy, mediocrity, and all the hollow noise that comes with them. Black metal devoid of beautiful, harsh vocals (with perhaps only one exception to date). Small talk, social media theatrics, and the oppressive glare of the midday sun. Politics, politicians, and the hollow machinery of religion. The Bulgarian government system, and worse—society’s passive acceptance of its own decay. People who’ve built nothing with their own hands yet walk tall on borrowed pride. Imitators who fail to honor the essence of what they copy. The cruel reality that in this day and age, so many poor people still live without shelter or food, while in the same time – politicians buy mansions for billions. The sheer irresponsibility of putting weapons in the hands of unstable minds. Among many other things.

♆ 10 favourite books: All books written in honour of black metal by Dayal Patterson (they will always have a honorable place in my library); all H.P. Lovecraft’s works such as ‘Shadow Over Innsmouth’, ‘The Mountains of Madness’, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘Dagon’ are among the most inspiring to me, and  the ‘Necronomicon’ collection seems to be my favourite ; Clive Barker’s ‘Scarlet Gospels’, along with all the volumes of the ‘Books of Blood’ by the same author (Barker has other interesting works besides these that I also like to reread); Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ (and almost all of his other works); J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series; ‘The Murders on Morgue Street’  by Edgar Allan Poe, along with all his other works; ‘Dragon Tears’ by Dean Koontz; ‘In the Miso Soup’ by Ryū Murakami ; ‘Chernobyl Prayer’ by Svetlana Alexievich; ‘Blood of the Dragon’  by George R. Р. Martin, along with his other lesser-known works from the ‘Song of Fire and Ice’ universe; the five novels of the ‘Gargantua and Pantagruel’ series by François Rabelais … and many others. I love to read – mostly horror, fantasy and science fiction, folklore tales, sometimes crime novels ,  poetry and gamebooks.

♆ 10 favourite screen titles: “Santa Sangre”, “Stranger Things,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Split,” “Twin Peaks,” “The Adams Family” (all versions, including the new screen adaptation of “Wednesday”), “The Munsters”,  “Sleepy Hollow,” “Dagon”, “Hellraiser” (all films in the series except the last one from 2022), “From”, “The Matrix”, “Blade Runner”, “House of The Dragon” , “Game of Thrones”, “The Polar Bear King”, “Rehepapp ehk November”, etc. In truth, I don’t have absolute favourites – I come across interesting stuff all the time, I even have my own movie title app. Mostly I like work that involves the names of Tim Burton, David Lynch, Stephen King or Clive Barker, as well as older and ‘weirder’ cinema treasures, but I’m definitely open to new titles and authors.

♆ 10 favourite bands: Blut Aus Nord, Darkthrone, Drudkh, Castrum, Embraced, Alrakis, Kyprian’s Circle, Tomb Of Time, Wolves in the Throne Room, Lycia,  13th Temple, Agalloch, Thorr’s Hammer, Urfaust, Mortuus Umbra, Svartidaudi,Mephorash, Kraken Duumvirate, Thy Darkened Shade , The Ruins Of Beverast, Darvaza, Kaosritual, One Tail One Head, Black Majesty, Mānbryne and many more. I don’t have a list of absolute favorites – I listen to good music almost 24/7 and appreciate every good track on my playlists, always with preference for bands from my favorite genre – black metal , with a particular affinity for the Norwegian ,Icelandic, Chilean and Finnish scene.

♆ Hobbies: I am a very spiritual person  and I am constantly increasing my list of knowledge and skills in every aspect of life. With that said, I have many hobbies, perhaps the greatest of which is fine art, which I have been involved with since childhood. You can view some of my artworks on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulafazlich. All other links you may find here: https://linktr.ee/paulafazlich.