Interview conducted by Carcassbomb
Interview with dark artist Satta (@satta_la_main_verte)
I became familiar with Satta through IG as I follow a lot of dark artists suitable for band merch, Satta however has a classical approach to the style that outshines the rabble of common assets and lazy work ethic. His art is not just dark by subject, it embodies it fully, from conception to technique to completion. It’s a higher brow darkness. I also became familiar with the aussie OSDM band Aeon’s Abyss through instagram, who ended up commissioning Satta for their upcoming album Impenitent (Nov 1), a fortunate pairing sharing similar classic metal values. Here is an interview with the Greece based artist Satta in which we discuss influences, the upcoming album and living as an artist.
Greetings Satta! You are an artist who I have been following on IG pretty much since I joined and so I’m very happy to be able to interview you after seeing so much of your work.
What is your preferred art medium?
Hallo my friend thank you for this interview, my preferred medium and the one I have studied the most is oil painting using mostly old techniques I learned out of studying Titian and Rembrandt mostly. However I have not posted any of that work on instagram. on IG you can mostly find ink drawings, ink and gouache that I use pretty much like doing a classical grisaille.
What got you into art and into metal? did they influence each other much?
I have been drawing since I was a child, first copying comic books at a very young age, the same age I was introduced to death metal. I can remember hiding my tapes from my mother as listening to extreme metal was still a strong taboo in the early 90’s. The entire death metal scene of the era would have hand drawn horror and gore artworks, furthermore vinyls provided size for extra admiration sick works such as cause of death or even less known stuff such as Gorguts’ “Considered Dead”. Their grotesque approach left a mark. Then Black metal arrived and black became solid. Metal definitely influenced my art.
Your style is dark, and that’s kind of an understatement as some of your work actually elicits a response of intimidation if you stare too long. What were some of the biggest artistic inspirations for this darkness?
Rembrandt’s portraits are definitely my main inspiration, he was a guy who experienced loss in huge amounts and you can see that in his perception of light. That is where I focus always, the light. Probably in many of my artworks light is restricted. I also studied come classic horror artists such as H.R.Giger but that mostly related to decoding techniques on specific forms and textures.
You have a way with anatomy, by that I mean you often contort ones expectations of the body, in monstrous ways. Do you have a favorite anatomy or thing to draw?
I can say that throughout the years If I were to contort the figure i would mostly add a stuffed belly and make bodied look more like chicken lol. Don’t ask me why… apart from that when I draw monsters I tend to disfigure the mouth and eye sockets, this happens because I suffer from migraines.
You did the incredible artwork for the upcoming album Impenitent by Aeons Abyss, how did you end up working with them?
Thank you once again, I am very glad you liked it. Aeons Abyss approached me during a giveaway i was running on instagram and expressed their interest in me making a single cover. As soon as the band contacted me I had to listen to their music that I easily tracked on YouTube. I love the original sound they produce, reminded me of the good ol true death metal days and I appreciated that very much. I believe these guys are true to themselves and thus they produce true death metal. These guys deserve to be heard.
It turned out to become the album cover and I am honored for this appreciation from the band.
It’s a very detailed and seemingly symbolic piece; what were some ideas and inspirations that went into this album cover?
The artwork is based on the lyrics of the song ‘Impenitent’ as far as the narration of the story came to my understanding. Rembrandt’s etchings and Dore’s illustrations where the main references concerning the aesthetic. Plus a small dose of that grotesque feel of the 90’s death metal album covers I mentioned before. You can see that in the skulls and other elements in the drawing.
How do you think of what you are going to draw? And do you have any advice for other artists out there struggling in their work?
I am a classic painter, I always think in a classic for some maybe narrow minded way. I enjoy perspective both in drawing as well as in selecting my themes. Sometimes the concept is created in my mind after a chain of thoughts and sometimes I choose a classic idea and draw upon that. However, I must say that I do large amounts of portraits and for that I always go for the expression. To all the struggling artists out there, I hope they get fed by their art before anything else, if not they should reconsider – techniques are only there to serve as a language for you to express yourselves in the best possible way, what you say is what matters the most, you just need to find a way to say it and get heard. Sometimes you might need to speak a different language to achieve that.
What are some of your favorite album covers?
….that’s a tough one… I can only tell you the ones that excited me the most when I first saw them
I am classic man.
Your instagram gallery is outstanding, do you have other platforms you use or places that you sell your work?
I am currently forced to live in between two cities which means I am out of my studio for long periods of time. This results in me being focused only on my artworks and commission works as well. Hopefully some time this year i will be able to launch my site where everything will be included. In any case I mostly sell original works except for a few cases such as the impenitent album cover that I will have a limited series of high quality prints
Thank you for the interview, hope to see some more of your work in the wild.
It was an honor and a great joy my man, hope to be able to share some oil paintings soon. I would like to thank you once again and congratulate you for the awesome work you do. stay true stay dark
Satta
Big thanks to Satta for this interview, I always enjoy getting the artside perspective on the metal world. Make sure to follow their IG and support their art. Impenitent by Aeons Abyss releases on the 1st of November, in just a week! Follow them on their various platforms as well.
Aeons Abyss: Bandcamp – Spotify – Youtube – Instagram
Art related Noob Heavy pages:
Artist Spotlight
Commissioning Artist List
Previous Artist Interview: Luke Oram
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