On Tyranny: Malist Maestro Fights Russian Monarchs With New Project Crimson Crown
Inside Moscow, a once-US adversary that appears to be becoming more of an ally thanks to Donald Trump’s hero-worship of its dictatorial leader Vladimir Putin, is a man waging his own war against the same type of authorial rule that is taking hold in the U.S. If you’re acquainted with The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny series, in which we interview musicians who previously or are currently living under authoritarian regimes, you should be familiar with him: Ovfrost, an inspired young artist whose primary project Malist is recognized far beyond the borders of Russia thanks to its excellence in rebelling against tyranny, war and isolation with seething, searing and superiorly executed black metal.
As brave as the uncompromising music that Ovfrost unleashes with enviable proficiency practically every year with Malist, the longhaired prodigy graciously spoke with us candidly and without fear in 2023 and 2024 in opposition to his country’s invasion of Ukraine. During those conversations, he inspired the continuation of our On Tyranny series while many other rock critics and outlets began shirking away from the topics of tyranny, fascism and authoritarianism as Trump strengthened his grip on the U.S. and continued finding new ways to establish a unitary executive, i.e. making himself a king in these United States. As Putin keeps setting an example for Trump’s takeover, Ovfrost is setting an example for us on how to combat those anti-democratic efforts.
With Ovfrost’s courage in mind — keep in mind he lives a solitary existence, sans security detail, and is creating and even starting to perform live some of the most anti-establishment music on the planet — we sought his counsel for the third year in a row on how to deal with forces of evil that few of us would have imagined could effectively take over America. This time around, however, the music project of Ovfrost that we also focused on was his newer affair Crimson Crown — which, as you will soon learn, is even more brazen in its message to crush monarchic rule.
How are you doing today, Ovfrost?
I’m fine. It’s actually a special day because I just announced the first Malist live performance.
Oh, no way! Congratulations.
Obviously we’re just playing in Moscow for now, not anywhere else, for obvious reasons. But if everything goes well, we’re going to go down that road.
What prompted your decision to start playing shows?
You know, almost precisely a year ago, I was sitting around and thinking to myself, “What do I do now? Am I going to write another album? Am I going to promote something?” I wanted to do something new. I always thought live shows are very difficult to pull off in terms of the funds you need to raise and the people you need to find. You can’t imagine how hard it is to find a drummer in Moscow. They’re in, like, five different bands, and the session drumming costs are in the triple-digits. It’s discouraging.
But I kept trying for a year, and at the end of ’24, a drummer wrote to me [with interest in participating]. The guy is just 20 years old, but his playing is insane. He’s very down to earth, and his socials tell me he’s [the real deal] and not just drumming for money. It’s worked out great with him so far. The drummer is the key part of the live performance, because the drums are the only acoustic instruments playing in a metal show. The rest are electric and set up around the volume of the drums. I’m not really a fan of computer drums. It’s not the same.
Everyone is from Russia [now]. There used to be more [musician recruiting options], but globalization doesn’t work here anymore. It’s not the same country. The [2014] Sochi Olympics was the last time that many foreigners came to Russia; since then, it’s not really been the same. So we’ve been rehearsing since early December, at least once a week. You know, the arrangements that I put on my last album [2024’s Of Scorched Earth] are very complex, not just in terms of the performance [but] also in terms of the arrangements. There are so many layers, so many instruments playing at the same time. It’s going to be tough to pull off in a live environment.
But we also found a keyboard player – the same girl who programmed the keys for Of Scorched Earth [Neinzge]. She agreed to play with us, and she’s really, really great. She has so much experience because she’s a DJ as well. I’m surrounded by all these guys who have so much experience [playing live], and I have none. It’s going to be very interesting.
Well, that takes the pressure off you, right?
Yeah, a little bit
Where are you playing and when?
In Moscow at a bar. I heard the stage there is very small, so it’s going to be tough to fit six guys in there. It’s going to be insane. I’m most likely going to jump down [off the stage] and join the crowd — like how these hardcore bands go out and sing in front of the mosh pit. It’s going to be my thing, I think.
It’s going to be a whole new experience to get that interactive element and to be with people who know your music in a live setting. That’s exciting.
Yeah, it’s a barrier that I need to break, because when I usually go to live shows, I’m not really joining any mosh pits. It’s not my thing. I’m just casually there, the guy who’s just standing by the pillar looking at [what’s happening]. I’m going to try to enter the mosh pit for the first time in my life this Sunday [June 14], just to try it out. Otherwise I might not survive when it comes to performing in this mess!
So let’s talk about your other endeavor, Crimson Crown. Did you find that you hit certain limitations with Malist and decided to form a side project accordingly?
Yeah, it’s one of the reasons. Also, from time to time, I like to compose riffier, groover stuff, because I really enjoy that kind of black metal as well — not just atmospheric black metal. I have a song on the second Malist album, [2020’s To Mantle the Rising Sun] called “Shackled Minds,” that’s much groovier than other Malist material. I found that such songs were not particularly well received, because it’s not what people love Malice like, but I really enjoyed it. The fourth Malist album, [2022’s As I Become Darkness], has a very groovy song too, called “March of the Defilers.” I think it’s one of my best works, but people didn’t really get it. That’s why I decided to create another band [in which] could go another route.
Maybe this kind of [groovy Crimson Crown] stuff has potential. Maybe there are people out there who would enjoy it. In my interpretation, I would call it the amalgamation of melodic death metal and groove metal on the basis of black metal, something like that. But you can’t really call it “atmospheric” or something like that. I named the project “Crimson Crown” because it reminds me a bit of Satyricon, who have [that classic song] “King.”
Can you elaborate on where you came up with the imagery for Crimson Crown, particularly the red crown and the king motifs? Do they have anti-royalty connotations?
Yeah, anti-monarchy. It’s a beat-up concept, honestly, but there are only so many myths that you can pull out to base your music on. For me, it’s more about the visual concept, because when I first came up with it, I was thinking about my stage presence and about my possible costumes. It was a very distant thought but still interesting to me. I thought it would be cool if the character had this belt and a trophy on it. Having a few crowns on your belt signifies that you have collected these trophies. You killed some kings and you went about your business. It’s really metal, really cool.
And I thought, what if I create some lore about this guy who all the oppressed people would pray to? He appears, slays some king, gets his crown, puts it on his belt and disappears — just like that. Then he [re]appears on the second album, and people would notice that he already has one crown on his belt, and he’s about to go get another one. I like that as a recurring image. And the number of releases will correspond with the number of crowns he has on his belt.
Take Demon Hunter, for example. Basically, all their artwork is one image, a mask, presented in different contexts. It’s the image of a demon, and it appears in all these different settings. Or Kalmah — they have a swamp theme in every album.
Does the idea of collecting the crowns kind of tie in with your character The Collector too? It’s a really cool handle, reminds me of the Marvel Comics character of the same name.
At first, Crimson Crown was supposed to be an anonymous project, because it’s tough to promote something when you’re from Russia. People tend to be prejudiced against Russia. But after some time, I realized that more and more people are not really that biased anymore. Many people are seeing through all this political bullshit and just enjoying the music.
Did you write and record the Crimson Crown record, Vae Victis, all last year?
I wrote it very early in 2024, and then I recorded it from February to March 2024. And then I fished for a label that would release it, because [Malist’s label] Avantgarde wasn’t really interested. I can’t blame them, it’s not really their stuff. I wrote to some other labels that specialize in black death metal and waited for their answers, but it didn’t really go anywhere. I waited for one, two, three months … it was never-ending.
[Eventually] I found Satanath Records, which is a Russian label that relocated to Georgia some time ago so it could connect with a wider international audience. I don’t know if you’re aware, but you cannot just send out merch from Russia worldwide; many countries block it, many customs [offices] return it. Russia is not very respected in this way. Even on my Bandcamp, I have a list of countries that I don’t send merch to, because they just don’t accept it. Thankfully, it’s really easy [dealing] with the US. For some reason, you guys don’t really care and always accept everything that comes out of Russia. You’re not prejudiced, and I really like that. [That said,] it’s better to release it on some label that is not located in Russia.
[Another issue is that I get the] Crimson Crown CDs without the cases, because customs [are skeptical of cases [but not] booklets. So I have to buy the cases myself and put in all the booklets [manually]. That’s something new for me. The other thing that I’ve come to need is a guy in some other country to help me. So I have this guy in the Czech Republic — he’s a Russian who relocated — and he started helping me distribute music on CD and vinyl when [Malist’s 2024 album] Of Scorched Earth came out. Bandcamp is really great for that. You can allocate certain merch items to be shipped from one country and others from another country. So, as soon as they are ordered, this guy collects all the orders and sends them out.
Also, right now in Russia, there is no MasterCard, no Visa, no PayPal. We cannot really receive euros or dollars. So we need guys who live abroad and can help us with their PayPals and MasterCards. They cash out the checks and transfer rubles for us using some sophisticated method. That’s what it’s like these days in Russia. It’s very tough for the bands to receive money for their work. But we’re managing somehow.
Grab a copy of Crimson Crown’s Vae Victis on Bandcamp.
Go to The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny hub for more installments in this series.
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