Scandinavian bands could "(unfortunately) not be denied", but that he could not tell what bands influence him when writing songs, or if any do, and another time mentioned the early releases of Burzum, Darkthrone, Emperor, Marduk and Immortal. In a 2009 interview, he mentioned the early Scandinavian pioneers as an undeniable influence in the beginning. Jander's vocals were influenced by Burzum, whom he calls his most important influence, and whom all early band members were fascinated by according to Meilenwald. Meilenwald mentioned that the first Srontgorrth chapter was influenced by Enslaved's "Slaget i skogen bortenfor". But he believes the band already distanced themselves from that on Hünengrab im Herbst; the album "did not sound as black metal did at that time". On their debut album, Nagelfar combined Northern black metal influences with their own rhythmicity and influences from their Teutonic thrash metal background. The vocals were party "crazily screamed", partly clean and "heroically sung". The production by Andy Classen, who had never worked with black metal bands before, gave them "a brutal yet 'true' sound". The production, which was "extremely fat and punchy for black metal conditions", is considered "an important building stone for the success of this album". After their first album, the band took another approach to their music and experimented with industrial elements on Srontgorrth. Virus West is more inspired by traditional black metal than the first two albums, except the production. Meilenwald "think[s] 'Virus West' already indicated that Nagelfar were departing from the shores of all-too dreamy, melodic and 'beautiful' Black Metal. The development to the point of founding The Ruins Of Beverast merely strengthened me in my decision to create music of immense gloom and trepidation, surreal and dark." Lyrics and ideology Naglfar took their name from the ship Naglfar from Norse mythology but used its German spelling because they were a German band and used the Pagan symbols "more related to (Western) German history". Despite the Pagan lyrics, and although "[i]t was Euronymous' dogma that Black Metal necessarily had to have a satanic background" and "Nagelfar has never been a satanic band", they always considered themselves "pure black metal in every aspect" and not as a pagan metal band. The band considered some statements of the black metal scene hilarious and distanced themselves from them, which earned them respect by some and hatred by others and led "to bizarre, ambivalent insults […]. We were