interview by: Roberto Martinelli

The impact that Helloween had on melodic metal up until this very day is immeasurable. With a release of a mere two albums in the mid- to late-80s, Keeper of the Seven Keys I and II, the benchmark for the style that is commonly thought of as European power metal was set. At the forefront of this revolution was Helloween’s singer, Michael Kiske. Since his day in Germany’s most important metal band ever, Kiske has been the idol of many a high squealing metal singer.

However, Kiske has been hanging very low since his departure from Helloween nearly 10 years ago. He put out some solo records that no one really paid attention to or even heard of, partially because they were never available in the States. From the reverence of a fan base unable to let go of the identity of Kiske as Helloween frontman, to his much publicized, bitter quibbles with Helloween guitarist Micheal Weikath (a man Kiske still calls “Weiky”), Kiske’s musical persona became trapped in limbo, as talented as he is. And he is talented, now more than ever. Kiske’s new band, the rock group Supared, is proof that he can come back, reinvent himself, and make something great. I contacted Kiske to chat about his image and where he’ll be going.

Maelstrom: Hi, Michael! I was pleasantly surprised to be blown away by Supared's debut album. I find every song has something nice to offer. Your voice is in fine form and the melodies are superb. You chose not to do any of the high vocals that put you on the map, though. Was this a conscious decision or do such vocals just not fit your music? Will you sing high again?

Michael Kiske: It’s funny that you have that impression, because on a couple of songs I thought I sing very high. Or do you mean those very high, someone stepped on my foot, kind of squeaks? I don’t really like those ones anymore. Everyone sounds the same doing them.

Maelstrom: Certainly the record wouldn't be a success if you didn't have a great band to back you up. Please tell us about your band mates; how did you hook up with them?

Michael Kiske: A friend has a friend who knows someone sort of thing. I new the drummer from the previous recordings, and he knows everyone. Came together very natural.

Maelstrom: Fourteen songs! That's quite a lot. How long has this band been in the works?

Michael Kiske: It took a little with the drums, all the rest went very fast; just the vocals took forever, because of a stomach problem of mine. I had to wait almost a year to do them.

Maelstrom: I find that the chorus to "He Pretends" is the one that stays in my mind the most. I didn't have the luxury of getting a lyric sheet. What's this song about?

Michael Kiske: Don’t really know! It’s a mix of a few people I have had the pleasure to know, I’d say.

Maelstrom: I was reading up on your career since Helloween. It seems that you put out some records with groups named RTS (in 1999) and a self-titled band (in 1996). I'm sorry I had never heard of these before, but I've never seen them in stores in the US. Mainly for our US readers, what are these records like, how are they different from Supared? Will you release any more solo albums?

Michael Kiske: Hard to say what I will do in the future. If SupaRed doesn’t go anywhere, I might do solo things again. The music on those two solo records of mine is just me. Like always. The first one is the most metal-like. I worked with Kai Hansen and Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden on it. R.T.S. is pretty wild. Very poppy. No red line in it. Impossible to sell, but interesting from an artistic point of view. A lot of searching and defining myself anew was going on.

Maelstrom: You've had periods of quiet that have lasted years between albums. What have you been doing? Do you prefer to make an album every three years or so?

Michael Kiske: I was trying to find out what I wanted to do with my life. Did A LOT of book reading. Spent over 25.000 Deutsch-Marks just on books. The business sucks in many ways, you know! I am still sometimes not sure if that’s what I am supposed to do. But I love singing. I had a big hunger for some more depth in my life. And I have found what I was searching for. A record should come out every second year. But it always takes forever in my case. I hope I can change that in the future.

Maelstrom: What's your fondest memory and/ or your greatest accomplishment yet in your musical career?

Michael Kiske: The first three years with Helloween. Because everything was right. Since than I know what it feels like being in a real band that works. Being on tour felt like being invincible! But it was pretty much over when Kai Hansen left. The chemistry was gone. But it was also very great to be able to personally meat pretty much all of my idols. I made my teenager dream come true. Now my goals are more art oriented and moral.

Maelstrom: Both your fame as a musician and the press release that came with the Supared promo cannot go long at all without mentioning your career with Helloween (which ended 13 years ago). We can certainly understand why, but it seems almost like a (perhaps) unwanted crutch that I hope will diminish as you continue to make great albums. In the meantime, do you feel that you live in your own shadow, of Michale Kiske, Helloween frontman? What is that like?

Michael Kiske: For the metal press and in certain metal heads for sure. And it’s very understandable too! Until I have achieved something new on a similar level, the old image will probable not be replaced too soon. But as a person I don’t live in the shadow of my past at all. It was great, but it’s over. And I am still burning. As I said: I have had some great years with that band. I don’t wanna miss them. A lot of people will probably never get the chance to experience what I have. As I said above: I lived my dream. And that’s so cool. I have new ones now, and I will try to live them too.

Maelstrom: I was reading up on your career on the internet. There's a site, whose url is really long, that has a brief and not all that flattering summary of Helloween's career. It mentions the problems that Ingo Schwicthenberg had that led to his suicide, and it also mentions your split with Helloween due to your getting involved in some "obscure religion." Would you care to comment on such words?

Michael Kiske: These things get written by those typical smart-ass materialists. My ‘obscure religion` is simply Christianity. But I am not a member of any church. I think that the official Christian religion has to do with real Christianity by name only. I don’t need (nor like) institutions! I am looking for an over-religious way to truth. And I am not a materialist, so as a Christian I am dealing with spiritual-science… Christian occultism even! That’s what early Christians always called the Holy Spirit. No big deal to someone who is looking for some truth, and has some senses left for something more than the brutal matter. Someone who really lives some kind of a spiritual life will always be obscure or crazy or what ever for materialists. I honestly think this world is gone nuts in so many ways. Someone who is still at least in some way alive in his soul is crazy or obscure, and soul dead materialists are considered to be healthy. Well! To each his own. I certainly am religious! - I think Michael Weikath has spread those stupid things about me. I saw a statement like that from him years ago in a Magazine. Maybe that’s where the person had it from. The band simply split up because we didn’t understand each other anymore. Weiky was playing his false games behind backs, like he always does. That kills everything. It was simply over. And of course they didn’t understand me talking about true art or young spiritual Christianity or things like that. It just didn’t make sense anymore. All the rest is talk. Ingo slowly killed himself with alcohol and cocaine. It’s the saddest end you could have for a life and a band.

Maelstrom: My last Helloween question: Now 15 years after the final installment of the "Keeper" series, so many European bands (including Kai Hansen's Gamma Ray) continue to emulate what you did (and usually without much originality of their own). Looking back over this period of time and the current state of power metal, what are you thoughts on your impact?

Michael Kiske: It’s cool! I was very surprised to find out that those records still mean that much to young people, and musicians still get inspired by it. Especially considering being out of the scene for such a long time. I always thought Maiden's Number of the Beast, or Priest's Screaming for Vengeance were much more important as influences, but in certain areas it seems to be different. But I honestly think that the cool rock/metal scene of the eighties and early nineties died out so much because of a big lack of creativity that took over. The nowadays scene has no respect for the individual or creative freedom. I also think that has to do with all the silly love for evil and Satanism in it. That has to kill all life slowly! It only creates moral wimps. It truly has become a scene of the dead. And I believe in the GOD of the living. I know that the god of the dead exists also, but that’s not where I wanna go, or what I have anything to do with. I don’t feel at home there anymore. And a lot of circles there don’t seem to like me either, so it’s about time to tame new grounds. I really don’t care about a scene that kills all progress. It has no intelligence and absolutely no sense for honesty anymore. It used to be so different. But there’s more rock n roll in pop/rock today than there is in metal. It’s bitter, but a fact. And I know! Cause I try to stay real for number of years now, and the scene doesn’t want that. But I rather leave a stupid scene than lose my soul. In the good times of Helloween it was an exciting, rebellious scene, today it bores the hell out of me.

Maelstrom: Well, Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. You're one of the best singers in rock or metal and Supared for sure will be one of my favorite albums of 2003. I hope you continue on this path and continue to make wonderful songs.

Michael Kiske: I will never stop making music, but if those destructive jerks I call pseudo-critics always kill everything already from the start, I can’t promise you that my records will always be available. And add to that all this copying CDs business, the future is very unclear. The future of honest rock music in general! I hope that there will be a mind revolution soon, because music the way I like it disappears more and more. Everyone who copies a CD of a cool band kills it slowly. The whole concept doesn’t work like that. Just all those gay-fake-boy-groups will survive, because they have millions behind them. The cool honest stuff dies first. It’s up to the people. They got it in their hands! I still believe that music from the heart will make its way somehow. I just hope there will be a platform for it left in five years.

It that sense!

All the best to you!

Michael Kiske www.supared.de

editor's note: finally, here is an excerpt from Supared's website. You may find it quite interesting:

"To all my friends and all my enemies

I finally decided not to try to give an objective moral justification for my creative doings and the way I understand true art here anymore. It will not be understood by certain people anyway, and others don't need to hear that, because they know. I am simply tired of justifying myself. I am tired of fighting against ignorance, stupidity and pseudo-ideals. It only eats up all energy. I want to make it fully personal here. Some people even told me that my ideals are shit. Well! The ideals I have, I have learned from my idols and (for me) the only true real masters in art like: Richard Wagner, Beethoven, Goethe or Schiller and many more. I am less than nothing compared to these giants, but at least I understood them. What we do today, in their eyes it is never art! They were able to create music and culture out of the centre of their strongest humanity, and It was GOD speaking through them. We are only little kids, but most of the time just pure barbarians compared to their humanity and ability. After thankfully learning from them the highest and most beautiful ideals of art and its mission for human culture, the only way for me to keep on making records was to reduce it all down to music's necessary bases like: honesty and freedom. But even that seems to be too much for modern music to be able to carry or handle in most areas. I don't want to talk anymore. It just waters out the words. But I want to get this out of my system:

A lot of people say that they are my fans (friends), but they are really not. They are just fans of certain records I was involved in. They want to make me a slave of my past and certain successful records and won't let me be what I am today. That in fact (wanted or not) makes them my enemies. Who ever rejects my music, rejects me. That's why every musician takes bad and unfair criticism very personal. Because it is very personal! I know that a lot of you guys don't mean bad by telling me what to do, or that I should do the music I got known with, but it is bad. The worst thing you can do to someone is to constantly rape his heart by telling him not to be himself, and to steel his freedom. A lot of people are even arrogant enough to really think that they know better than me what a good song is. Well! Write your own! I can only give you MY Song. If that won't do, just leave me be. If you guys can't follow me anymore today, please just don't! And don't write about my music unless you really want to destroy me as a musician. I won't sell my soul for anyone. Some of you guys will probably never get it, but I guess I am just not trained well enough in being a pleaser and an ass-kisser. I never thought that's the musicians job, but for far too many today unfortunately it is. In the end it's very simple: Either my music will sooner or later make its way to some real friends of mine that want and expect me to express myself as free and honest as I can through my music, or it simply won't.
I can't be what I'm not, and I don't want to be what I'm not.

That's all.

Michael Kiske

And for some who care, I put Richard Wagner here. He says it better than I ever can anyway. And I absolutely know how little his words fit together with our modern slavery-music and pseudo-ideals:

... denn die wahre Kunst ist höchste Freiheit,
und nur die höchste Freiheit
kann sie aus sich kundgeben,
kein Befehl, keine Verordnung,
kurz kein außerkünstlerischer Zweck
kann sie entstehen lassen.
... Und doch werden wir sehen, daß die Kunst,
statt sich von immerhin respektablen Herren,
wie die geistige Kirche und geistreiche Fürsten es waren,
zu befreien,
einer viel schlimmeren Herrin
mit Haut und Haar sich verkaufte:
der Industrie.
...Das ist die Kunst,
wie sie jetzt die ganze zivilisierte Welt erfüllt!
Ihr wirkliches Wesen ist die Industrie,
ihr moralischer Zweck der Gelderwerb,
ihr ästhetisches Vorgeben die Unterhaltung der Gelangweilten.
Aus dem Herzen unsrer modernen Gesellschaft,
aus dem Mittelpunkt ihrer kreisförmigen Bewegung,
der Geld Spekulation im Großen,
saugt unsre Kunst ihren Lebenssaft,
erborgt sich eine herzlose Anmut
aus den leblosen Überresten
mittelalterlich ritterlicher Konvention, und läßt sich von da
- mit scheinbarer Christlichkeit auch das Scherflein des Armen nicht verschmähend -
zu den Tiefen des Proletariats herab,
entnervend, entsittlichend, entmenschend überall,
wohin sich das Gift ihres Lebenssaftes ergießt.
...Zur Zeit ihrer Blüte
war die Kunst bei den Griechen konservativ,
weil sie dem öffentlichen Bewußtsein als ein gültiger
und entsprechender Ausdruck vorhanden war:
bei uns ist die echte Kunst revolutionär,
weil sie nur im Gegensatz
zur gültigen Allgemeinheit existiert.
...Aus dem entehrenden Sklavenjoch
des allgemeinen Handwerkertums
mit seiner bleichen Geldseele
wollen wir uns zum freien künstlerischen Menschentume
mit seiner strahlenden Weltseele aufschwingen;
aus mühselig beladenen Tagelöhnern der Industriewollen wir alle zu schönen, starken Menschen werden,
denen die Welt gehört als ein ewig unversiegbarer Quell höchsten künstlerischen Genusses.

(Richard Wagner. Die Kunst und die Revolution 1849)"

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Red. The color of blood, of passion, of fire.

Death. The ultimate silence and stillness.

Norway’s Madder Mortem is about the marriage of these contrasts, according to the group’s singer and lyricist, Agnete Kirkevaag. Kirkevaag and her band have quietly been making record after record of the truest, most emotional doom for years now - quietly in the sense that Madder Mortem has not yet received the attention it so richly deserves. For to behold the sounds and energy found on the band’s latest album, Deadlands, is to experience the pinnacle of that particular flavor of monumental, despondent passion that metal has.

Soaring and crushing, Kirkevaag’s singing turned out to be in fairly sharp contrast to her actual speaking persona, which is nervous and bright. On this particular day, Kirkevaag was getting over a “huge party” following Madder Mortem’s acclaimed performance the day before at Oslo’s Inferno Festival. With her voice cracking from pushing harder on stage, lack of sleep and massive whiskey consumption, making her sound a bit like Katharine Hepburn, the Doom Queen talked about the requisite pain she must go through for her art and how she can’t watch “Twin Peaks” alone.

Maelstrom: So, how does a nice girl from Nord-Odal get into a doom metal band?

Agnete Kirkevaag: Hahaha. Well, it probably started with Metallica and Sepultura. Actually, my auntie bought me and BP (Birger Petter Kirkevaag, Agnete’s brother who plays guitar in the band - Roberto) And Justice for All. We’d been listening to stuff like W.A.S.P. and Guns ‘n’ Roses; the 80s metal, the big hair bands. She just went into some record store and asked for something that was a bit rough.

Maelstrom: Wow. Your aunt sounds pretty cool.

Agnete Kirkevaag: She’s very cool. So she started buying me more tapes, which was also very important.

Maelstrom: I was kind of surprised. I was looking at the list of bands that you like (on Madder Mortem’s website, www.maddermortem.com, which is unbelievably great - Roberto), and a lot of the bands are ones that don’t sing melodically. You have this tremendous melodic voice. When I heard you, the first thing I thought of was Candlemass, even though they’re a lot cheesier than you are. I mean, I love Candlemass, but your music sounds more solid.

Agnete Kirkevaag: I do like them.

Maelstrom: Ok. But it wasn’t on the front. You know what I’m saying? I mean, the bands that you just mentioned now aren’t anything like what you do, other than being metal, obviously.

Agnete Kirkevaag: We had a big discussion about that with Century Media (Madder Mortem’s former label). We were doing the text for the press releases of All Flesh is Grass (the album before Deadlands - Roberto). They wanted us to cite inspirations. And what they actually mean by that is not to cite inspirations, but to mention bands that we think are similar to us.

Maelstrom: For dummy journalists who don’t know what to write.

Agnete Kirkevaag: What we actually did was name influences and inspirations that we don’t sound like, like Faith No More, Darkthrone and Arvo Pärt.

Maelstrom: It’s funny how Pärt comes up a lot in Norwegian metal or metal-related bands. I interviewed Heidi Tveitan, who’s the wife of the guy from Emperor, and she’s all about Pärt.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Well, she’s married to a guy who’s very into classical music. I don’t know why Pärt has gotten so much attention in Norway, but he’s been floating around in the metal world. It really makes sense: it appeals to people who like music with a lot of atmosphere. I also find Pärt pretty scary. It’s unsettling. For people who are into stuff from Cold Meat Industry, it makes sense. What surprises me is that other composers that would fit in with Pärt haven’t had as much popularity. They’d be perfect for the soundtrack of black metal people.

Maelstrom: Do you like Górecki? He’s from Poland.

Agnete Kirkevaag: No, I don’t know him. The stuff I have heard from Poland that I liked is by a guy called Ligeti. He has this cello thing that’s very, very great. And Penderecki also.

Maelstrom: I’m trying to get into him, but it’s more difficult.

Agnete Kirkevaag: It is difficult. It’s the same kind of scary stuff. We also have a Norwegian composer called Arne Nordheim, who is also very weird. It’s more electronic, actually. It’s good for metal people to open their minds to other stuff.

Maelstrom: How did you train your voice? I imagine you must have done lots of practice throughout your life.

Agnete Kirkevaag: By singing in bands, mostly. I’ve had some classical training, but mostly like taking care of my voice. But then I go and...

Maelstrom: ...drink whiskey!

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah. I smoke a lot, too, which doesn’t really make sense.

Maelstrom: You smoke a lot, too?

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah, I smoke quite a lot, actually. The Opeth (whom Madder Mortem had just finished a six week tour with - Roberto) guys said they’d never seen a band that smokes and eats as much. It was really funny. Probably an important event in my development was when I started with this youth club band, we had a very (unintelligible), so you had to sing very loudly. That’s basically where it comes from. I’m pushing my voice instead of sliding up into this head register, as most girls do. It’s usually the easiest style for girls to do. Men generally sing with their chests. When you do classical stuff, you try to blend these as much as possible. When you sing in the traditional heavy metal style, you push the chest voice up. It’s actually a very big strain on your vocal chords, but you get a lot more power.

Maelstrom: If there’s anything your vocals have, it’s this huge power.

Agnete Kirkevaag: (laugh) It’s getting more and more like a fist.

Maelstrom: I listened to the All Flesh is Grass record recently. It’s totally great, but Deadlands is even better. All that is good about All Flesh is Grass is improved. The melodies are more well-crafted, and you’ve dropped almost all the gruff vocals, which I think don’t fit as well into what you’re doing. Obviously, you think so too.

Agnete Kirkevaag: We do it when it suits it. The development has been good. We’re learning a lot more with every record. Technically, we’re getting better at things like sound. We’re growing together more as a band. For All Flesh is Grass, we had three new members come in a month before we recorded the album. Since then we’ve had the same lineup. We put a lot of focus on the melodies. It’s very concentrated around the vocal melodies. I think we got a lot better at writing songs.

Maelstrom: Yes, I agree. I don’t want this to sound like I don’t think All Flesh is Grass is great, because I really love it, but Deadlands is in a class by itself, for sure.

Agnete Kirkevaag: I think it’s better, too! (Laugh) If I didn’t, then we’d be doing something wrong. That’s very important to me. If we do make an album, it’s supposed to mean that we can do something better than what we did before. If we can’t, then we’ve failed. At least, we have to think so.

Maelstrom: Your sound is SO huge. The production is perfect, and your vocals are so big and crushing. Generally, I don’t read lyrics in metal albums because either I think they’re dumb, or I don’t get it because they’re cryptic and don’t make any sense to me, but the lyrics that you write are just as crushing as your vocals. It seems that this theme that you’ve picked for this new record has really focused your writing. What got into you to write all this?

Agnete Kirkevaag: I think it’s just me being me, or at least a big part of me. One of the reasons the lyrics are better is because I put a lot more focus on it and worked on it quite a lot harder. It was something I really wanted to improve. Also, we have this conceptual idea for the album, which I think is also good for the lyrics because you can make the nine songs better together lyrically, but also musically. There is this idea of the dead lands, which is taking a state of mind that would be easiest described as “rock bottom”: Sitting very quietly in a chair and watching the world crumble around you, and you really don’t have the energy to react to it.

Maelstrom: That’s what comes through.

Agnete Kirkevaag: What I’ve tried to do is project this feeling into a physical landscape, and make a visual representation of this state of mind. That’s the dead lands. I imagine it as a stone desert: cold, very still and very stale - everything is covered with dust, but filthy, filthy dust. A place that is dessicated and crumbling and merging into a part of this dusty filth that covers everything.

Maelstrom: Mostly because of the artwork that you’ve chosen for the record, it makes me think of like a fantasy, Egyptian pyramid building hell.

Agnete Kirkevaag: The pyramid thing is a very, very good reference. The first lyric and first song we properly finished was “Necropol Lit,” the opener. It sort of pointed us in the right direction, and me lyrically very much. “Necropol” is the city of the dead, in Greek. I think of it as huge stone buildings with rough slabs. A city for dead people is a very cruel irony: putting all that effort into building a town that no one will ever live in. Waste. Doing so much for absolutely nothing.

Maelstrom: How does it make you feel when you’re making or performing this stuff?

Agnete Kirkevaag: It’s a pain. It’s most of all rightness, because it’s true. That’s the most important thing to me. I has to be true so I can sing honestly. It shines through in three seconds if you don’t really mean what you say. But it’s also pain. This theme of catharsis through your music, that’s not really working for me.

Maelstrom: Do you like to feel pain when you do this?

Agnete Kirkevaag: No. But it’s right. It’s necessary. It’s not really a matter of choice. It’s what I do, and the only way I can make it sound and be right. It has to be that intense for me. I want people to get it. It could go in the other direction at some point. If I’d been writing happy stuff, I’d have wanted it to be so. But, I’m not exactly... at least, that part of me is not a happy person. I’m not a sad miser, living depressively. Everybody has layers. I think my social persona is very cheery. I laugh and talk a lot. But that is one part, and it couldn’t exist without the other side. It might be that I’m more in touch with the darker and less pleasant aspects of my personality than most people are.

Maelstrom: If you could sing a duet with anyone, who would it be?

Agnete Kirkevaag: Mike Patton (Faith no More, Fantomas, et al). He’s a big idol for me. I really, really love his voice; and perhaps more, his way of using vocals.

Maelstrom: How would that turn out? If he did his thing and you did your thing, what would that be like?

Agnete Kirkevaag: I think it would be really cool. Some of the stuff he does is very intense. It’s really, really scary. Musically, it would turn out really cool. I don’t do as many strange things as he does. I’m expanding. I’ll probably do more and more strange stuff as the years go by, to keep myself occupied. But I think it would fit well. He does have a very large sort of voice, if you know what I mean, when he sings properly.

Maelstrom: I love that Fantomas The Director’s Cut album. The first track of the “Godfather” thing. That’s so entertaining, funny and cool.

Agnete Kirkevaag: At the same time, some of the record is really... not nice. I think it’s the theme from “Rosemary’s Baby,” the thing at the end really scared me. Do you like Tomahawk?

Maelstrom: You know, I was going to ask you about that. It seems that everyone in Madder Mortem loves that, but I don’t know what it is.

Agnete Kirkevaag: It’s another Mike Patton project. It’s on Ipecac, I think. It’s more straight forward music than Fantomas. It’s very Patton-esque.

Maelstrom: Speaking of side projects, you’re in a couple: Magma and Utburd. Obviously, Magma makes one think of the French prog band.

Agnete Kirkevaag: It’s me and Christian, our cover designer, who played guitar on our very first album - we’re kind of a very happy little family. It’s me and Christian doing very sweet, acoustic songs with Norwegian lyrics from Norwegian poetry. The other thing (and I didn’t know about the French band), Utburd, is a joke. It’s me and some girlfriends of mine who decided to make a girl black metal band. Utburd is the Norwegian word for, if you put a baby into the forest to die, the ghost would be called “utburd.”

Maelstrom: Oh, my god! What a culturally specific thing! (Laugh)

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah (laugh). So, just for fun we wanted to make this website and pretend like we’d recorded lots of demos and have really cool band photos with corpsepaint and lots of cleavage. (Laugh) That way we’d appeal to both Norwegians and Germans, obviously.

Maelstrom: Who are the other girls?

Agnete Kirkevaag: Just friends of mine.

Maelstrom: So, you have no actual recordings?

Agnete Kirkevaag: No, no, no. That would be totally wrong for the project.

Maelstrom: Yeah, totally wrong. Absolutely.

Agnete Kirkevaag: It’s supposed to be all hype. What we plan to do is write about an extremely underground and very rare demo that we did. It would be recorded out in the woods, so that you can really get the atmosphere and also hear, like, the power generator going in the background. (Chuckle) Then we want to try to get a live gig at like, the Inferno Festival, just for laughs. Black metal needs a good kick in the ass now and then to keep it serious, I think.

Maelstrom: I want to give you a couple bands, and I want you to give me your thoughts. The Gathering.

Agnete Kirkevaag: She’s a really good singer.

Maelstrom: Your softer parts remind me of her, but your range is much bigger than hers.

Agnete Kirkevaag: She also uses the pushing the chest voice upwards style. I think she has an amazingly good control. I haven’t really been following them. I like the Mandylion album a lot. I have years and years at a time when I don’t go out and check out new music because my head is so full of my own.

Maelstrom: The Third and the Mortal.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Oh, one of my favorites.

Maelstrom: You know, they’re one of my favorites, too. Painting on Glass is one of my favorites ever. I don’t know how you feel about their recent album, Memoirs, but I was so disappointed. I mean, it’s a good record, but it’s Portishead! They had an original sound and traded it in for somebody else’s.

Agnete Kirkevaag: I really love Memoirs. I haven’t connected with Portishead, but I can see what you mean. My opinion of that record is greatly colored by the fact that I first heard the songs live. I was totally surprised because the record has had zero publicity in Norway. But the concert totally blew me off my feet. So I went and bought the record. So my connection with the record is with the concert. But I’d say my favorite is also Painting on Glass. I love the singer.

Maelstrom: A lot of people seem to think that Kari Rueslåtten is the best. I think that record is nice, but Painting on Glass for sure is my favorite.

Agnete Kirkevaag: I think “nice” is a good word. The first records are good - and this is a very unpopular opinion to have in Norway, especially because there are many Kari fans around - she has a very nice voice and sings very well, but I think Ann-Mari Edvardsen (who sings on Painting on Glass) has a lot more personality. It’s much more my thing. I like that a lot better than this sort of pretty style.

Maelstrom: She’s a lot more mature sounding. Rueslåtten’s style is a lot like bubble gum.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah!

Maelstrom: I saw that the photography on your Mercury album is by Runhild Grammelsæter!

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah.

Maelstrom: Who is like, the biggest cult figure if you like doom, since she was the vocalist on Thorr’s Hammer. (She’s also on the new Sunn. Read about it in the interview in this issue - Roberto).

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah, I’ve heard about it.

Maelstrom: You’ve never heard it?!?!?!

Agnete Kirkevaag: No, are you crazy?

Maelstrom: You have heard it, right?

Agnete Kirkevaag: No, no, no. I was looking through stuff about it on the web. Some interview with her somewhere popped up. She’s definitely not a part of any metal scene anymore.

Maelstrom: Do you know what her vocals are like?

Agnete Kirkevaag: No.

Maelstrom: They’re the most brutal, growled, guttural vocals ever. They totally kill just about every male vocalist of this style.

Agnete Kirkevaag: That’s cool. That’s very cool.

Maelstrom: It’s AMAZING.

Agnete Kirkevaag: She’s a nice girl.

Maelstrom: How did you get in contact with her?

Agnete Kirkevaag: Through Misanthropy (Records). She was hired to do photography for other bands.

Maelstrom: You’re an accountant. I know that’s totally not exciting, but I think it’s pretty cool you put that up there on your site, right out in the open, ‘cause it’s just about the least metal job you can think of.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah, it is. That’s actually what kills me nowadays. Just imagine the feeling of getting back from six weeks of touring Europe with Opeth on Friday, and going back to accounting on Monday.

Maelstrom: Do your co-workers know about your musical career, and what do they think of it?

Agnete Kirkevaag: They find it extremely fascinating and they don’t get any of it. They either ask, “do you sacrifice children?” or, “do you do your own songs, then?” They either have this fantastic vision of something really grand, like total 80s rock ‘n’ roll luxury hotels and thousands of screaming fans, or ask me if we write our own songs. You should see their faces when I try to explain something like headbanging. “Yeah, you basically bob your head like this. It’s very correct for the style.” They go, “ohhh....ok.” I came back with my first tattoo, and it was like, “ooh-la-la. This is strange.”

Maelstrom: Naturally, “Twin Peaks” is amongst your favorite things.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Well, Lynch in total, basically. I love “Twin Peaks,” but I can’t watch it alone. It scares the hell out of me.

Maelstrom: There’s a part in episode - I can’t remember, like, 11 (?) - the part when we clearly find out that Leland Palmer is Killer Bob, and he kills Maddie.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah,

Maelstrom: That part, when you see him laughing, and his face changes, that freaked me out for three months. (Laugh)

Agnete Kirkevaag: You remember that one scene where he comes climbing across the coffee table toward the couch, and it’s filmed really fast? (Chilled breathing) I nearly pee my pants every time. If I do see this alone, I have to crawl underneath a blanket and put my head under there and lie very still and hope nobody finds me. I have this fear remaining from childhood, a fear of the dark.

Maelstrom: Wow, the doom queen is afraid of this stuff. That’s a revelation.

Agnete Kirkevaag: Actually, it’s a very important factor. I think it might be the same kind of over-active imagination, intense thought processes, and being too impressionable that lead me to make music in the way I do. It’s not like I think things are there, but that I imagine things that <could> be there.

Maelstrom: That’s a great reason to be in a band and write songs.

Agnete Kirkevaag: (laugh)

Maelstrom: Although your English is perfect, you’re not a native English speaker. However, you write all your Madder Mortem lyrics in English. Is that ever a pain?

Agnete Kirkevaag: I think it in English. I am trying to do some Norwegian lyrics, because I’d like to do at least one song in Norwegian. It’s so much more difficult.

Maelstrom: Wow! Why?

Agnete Kirkevaag: English is the traditional language for any kind of rock music. The good thing is, people understand it. How many speak Norwegian? Four million and then some.

Maelstrom: And most of them don’t get headbanging.

Agnete Kirkevaag: No. (laugh) Exactly. English is a much bigger language, not in terms of how many people speak it, but in the amount of words. So many more words exist than in Norwegian.

Maelstrom: Yeah, but you guys have words like “utburd.” (Laugh)

Agnete Kirkevaag: Yeah, but this huge amount of words in English are words used to describe stuff, like adverbs. It’s much easier to find a very specific word that goes well with the feeling of the lyric. Norwegian is much harsher. But that means whatever you write is so much stronger. The thing about English is that it’s much easier to camouflage stuff. Norwegian feels very, very naked. It’s my mother tongue, and the way I write in Norwegian is very direct. I take a lot of inspiration from the way they wrote songs back in the Viking days. I do a lot of alliterations; Madder Mortem is a good example. Norwegian being a strict language with a lot of consonants, if you sing in it, it gives it a lot of rhythm.

Maelstrom: It worked for Darkthrone. What does the title “All Flesh is Grass” mean?

Agnete Kirkevaag: It’s a Bible quote. I put a lot of my own meaning into it. “All flesh is grass, and all goodliness is like a flower in the field.” I think it originally is talking about how good is uncommon. But what I put into it is a focus that it’s all irrelevant. If you know what you want and it’s important, all the rest is irrelevant. It’s also like the feeling of sitting on a mountaintop and looking down on everything, like a festival or something. From a very high altitude, it would look like grass - human grass. It’s also a bit about how we’re not important. We’re all little pieces of grass. We’re born; we die; we don’t leave our mark upon anything. Except that we fertilize the ground.

Maelstrom: And, in some cases, leave us with some really cool records.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Lykathea Aflame has shaken up quite a few of us in and around the Maelstrom camp. How could a band be so brutal and beautiful at the same time? How can one’s band be technical death metal yet have new wave elements and lyrics about love and acceptance and still be successful? How could no one else know about this? (Have you read our review of this band’s album, Elvenefris, yet?)

Well, we found out. Here’s an email chat with Petr of Lykathea Aflame, the best death metal band that's too underground for its own good.

Maelstrom: Hi, Lykathea Aflame! All I can say is, "wow!" Elvenefris is so monumentally brilliant, and so courageously adventurous, where can I begin? Well, I would imagine that describing your music by the sum of its parts would probably instantly turn off most death metal fans. I hear technical death, Middle Eastern influences, but then you have this new age music element in there, too. Could you comment on what on Earth lead you to mix all this stuff together?

Petr: Many greetings to all of you from the Czech land. What seems to be a difficult question has a very simple answer. Each element of the music on Elvenefris is a part of me. So the only thing I did was express some parts of me. I promise that by our next coming CD (that we are working on at the time) you will be surprised much, much more.

Maelstrom: Let's talk about another super remarkable thing about Elvenefris, the lyrics. They deal with spiritual enlightenment, giving to others, tolerance, loving birds…basically the polar opposite of what death metal is accepted to be. While I can't say I would like to see many other bands adapt your style to themselves, I love what you have done. Where many bands' lyrics seem to be really labored - either done at the last minute or being total nonsense disguised as something that was meant to be poetic - you seem to have a lot to say from your hearts. Could you please talk about your lyrical ideas, your personal philosophies, and how you even thought about putting this all together in a technical death metal album? Why have uplifting themes sung in a guttural style?

Petr: Lyrics are another form how to express what wants to be expressed. So as music speaks for its composer the same way lyrics (if written in a genuine and sincere way) say so much about the writer. And during the time when we spawned Elvenefris I felt it that way and chose this form of vocal expression. Our lucky fate is inevitable and the only hell is not knowing it. Each of us has his own path and the best leader on it is a voice from the heart. Listen to it and it will lead you home safely and straight. None of us is better than whoever else, we all are one so whatever you do to others you do to yourself. Ideas for my lyrics are : wisdom, will to grow, light, love, tenderness, sophisticated and sublime spirit, freedom, knowledge, Beauty of being…

Maelstrom: Speaking of which, what do you think about extreme metal?

Petr: A kind of expression in music. As long as there is someone who listens to it and someone who plays it….it has a sense.

Maelstrom: Speaking of music and lyrics, I hear a lot of influence from Cryptopsy and Orphaned Land (because of the ethnic influences; Lyrically you remind me of Orphaned Land a great deal as well). But wait, you guys are from the Czech Republic. What are Middle Eastern melodies doing on your record?

Petr: Yes, we´ve been influenced by Cryptopsy. Orphaned Land I´ve never heard of. Does it mean that by the fact that I´m from Czech Rep. I can´t use middle eastern melodies? :o) I like´em very much and will use them of course in the future. They simply sound in my heart.

Maelstrom: I can't believe how much of a dead ringer your drummer, Tom Corn, is for Cryptopsy's Flo Mounier. Tom must be a jazz drummer. How else could he play snare with one hand like that? I'm a drummer and I'm dumbfounded and energized every time I hear someone like him. Could you please talk about Tom's musical development?

Petr: Thanks from him, I´ll tell him. He´s not a jazz drummer, he´s self taught. His drum set changes very often and as far as I know he´s going to have a DW drums and he uses Istanbul cymbals.

Maelstrom: What kind of name is Tom Corn?

Petr: It is his official name. Tomas Corn.

Maelstrom: The last track is a 12-minute keyboard piece with a jungle full of trilling birds. It's so moving it makes me want to cry. Again, it's so out of place for this genre. Please talk about the idea behind this track and how it fits into the album.

Petr: This is a song my brother did. There is a lot from his and my heart and I wanted to share the beauty with everyone who could be touched. There is a certain kind of energy that flows through all the album and from a spiritual point of view this song has a clear place on Elvenefris. This song is for everyone who has a beautiful and tender heart.

Maelstrom: I was in the Czech Republic this past summer. Somehow I managed to stay about two days ahead of the floods. How did you fare? Were you hit hard?

Petr: None of us ( the band ) were hit but there were many sad people. The consequences can still be seen to these days.

Maelstrom: How long have you been a band? Any other albums?

Petr: Formerly we were known under the name Appalling Spawn from 1996 to 1999. Under this name we have demo and one CD.

Maelstrom: What's the cover art on the Elvenefris album? It's beautiful and reminds me somewhat of Egyptian art (especially the lapis lazuli-like stuff). I see that you do have ankhs on the album as well.

Petr: The cover on album is a multi-cultural synthesis and is meant to symbolize the connection with the past of all mankind as one. During the time I was creating Elvenefris, I was fascinated by Ancient Egypt, so that´s why there are certain fragments of that culture (the fascination of Ancient Egypt I got especially by the books of Christian Jacq - Ramses and many others). I gave the lyrics to our friend who is an artist (Jane Šouflová, whose work you can see at http://home.internet.cz/maffet) and quite spiritual woman and discussed with her the concept of the cover. Then she drew it…

Maelstrom: So, who are you guys? How did meet up and decide to play this kind of music? How did you personally get into this style?

Petr: From the line up that recorded Elvenefris, only two of us remain, me and Tom Corn. I always wanted to connect two different but basic elements in my music : tenderness and strength. I always did it and I´m doing it now and I´m improving the way I create the music.

Maelstrom: Why haven't we heard much about you?

Petr: I don´t know :o). Our gig activity is not big and that’s probably why you haven´t heard much about us. Also, we are focusing on our daily lives and try to make them beautiful. We are not into the underground scene and stuff around it.

Maelstrom: Please tell us about some bands (of course from any genre) that you have loved.

Petr: Wow, so many ….. Bal-Sagoth, Enya, Amorphis, latest Arcturus (The Sham Mirrors) - Garm ...wauu..don´t have words. He is the one that I´d love to have as a singer in Lykathea. Really. His voice really fascinates me that much - Secret Garden, Emperor, Anorexia Nervosa, Dead Can Dance, classical music, Septic Flesh, Adiemus, Vader, pop music (Sandra, Falco, A-HA….nowadays pop music as well), Opeth, Madder Mortem, latest Novembre ( I think they are from your country ), folk music …. And many, many others.

Maelstrom: What's the new record called and when is it coming out?

Petr: I do not know now what I will name the CD. We are working on it and we don´t know when it will be out, either. I wonder whether we will make it even this year....

Maelstrom: What's next for Lykathea Aflame?

Petr: The very next thing is to create a wonderful and amazing new CD. The most important thing for Lykathea aflame.

Maelstrom: Mockrát dekuji, Lykathea Aflame, You have provided us with an album to give us joy in our hearts. You have energized us with your music and spirit. We wish you all the best and hope to hear from you again.

Petr: If we really did as you write, I feel a big gratitude in my heart because that is beautiful appreciation that gives me power to go on. Thank you very much and to all of you I wish to succeed in creating such life as your hearts want to have it.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

With the recent break up of Centurian, God Dethroned has become the clear cream of the crop in Dutch death metal. The band’s last album, Ravenous, showed a group that was just getting better and better with each release. This despite having to find a different drummer for each recording.

Strangely, though, God Dethroned ditched a lot of what was making it so successful on the new record, Into the Lungs of Hell. I spoke to Jens, God Dethroned’s lead guitarist, to pick his brain about the stylistic change and find out if he’d ever tried freedom fries.

Maelstrom: It seems that you change drummers quite often. You’ve had three different drummers on the last three records. How about the guy now? Is he going to stick around?

Jens: I’m pretty sure. Roel (the drummer that left after the Bloody Blasphemy album) was an integral part of the band. He held everything together, rhythm-wise. We would have worked with him for the rest of our careers if it hadn’t of been that he couldn’t tour with us as much as we wanted. It was at the end of the Bloody Blasphemy touring period that it was becoming too much for him, and us as well. We had a tough time then: tour after tour, and a very short time to acclimatize to the rhythm. So we were faced to find a replacement or work with session drummers for the rest of our careers. Tony (Laureano, of Angel Corpse and Nile) was the obvious solution.

Maelstrom: Yeah, that guy’s amazing.

Jens: Yeah, he is. He’s fantastic. We got to know him quite well when we were on tour with Angel Corpse, and as a drum tech for Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel. He was available since Angel Corpse had just split up and he had not joined Nile. We figured if anyone could do the trick of coming to the studio, recording the songs, and going home, it would be him. The songs turned out a little faster than previous material, which was perfect as Tony’s lightning fast. We pretty much were certain that we couldn’t find anyone who could do those paces. We toured with drummers we knew, like Janne (Saarenpäa from the Crown).

Maelstrom: So you’re saying that Janne isn’t as fast as Tony?

Jens: He is.

Maelstrom: Yeah, that guy’s amazing, too.

Jens: Absolutely. We were quite content with working with session drummers, ‘cause we knew we wouldn’t find someone on the open market, so to speak, who was not yet taken by at least a dozen bands. But there were four guys who wanted to audition. Three of them could match Tony’s pace. We were really surprised. Ariën was by far the most hard-hitting and tight one of all. We decided to go with him, and he’s really been the main axel.

Maelstrom: On the last three records, at least, you’re blessed to have been able to find all these drummers that can play. Obviously, Tony isn’t Dutch, but do they grow on trees in Holland?

Jens: There’s a lot of good drummers and musicians here. But we were not in any way expecting to find someone who could even match Roel’s pace. We wanted to make this new record to show that we were alive and kicking. Ariën is, in my opinion, even tighter than Tony, but just a fraction slower. He’s like a human metronome. Only one or two times in all the shows we’ve played so far have I actually heard him play something wrong. He hits his grind and blast parts just as hard as his other parts.

Maelstrom: I wanted to share this story with you, because it’s too funny. It’s about how stupid my government is. They have cafeterias in the White House. The US is a little unhappy with France because France won’t help out in the war against Iraq, right?

Jens: Yes.

Maelstrom: Since they’re irritated with France, they’ve changed the name of french fries and french toast in the cafeterias to freedom fries and freedom toast.

Jens: ...I’m sorry, but can you get any more lame than that?

Maelstrom: Isn’t that amazing? (Laugh)

Jens: I’m really sorry, but your country’s political agenda is not mine.

Maelstrom: It’s funny. No one that I know thinks that any of this (war) is a good idea, but there must be someone who thinks it’s a good idea.

Jens: I’m sure that the weapons industry thinks it’s a good idea. But to change french to freedom...I suppose they’ll have freedom kissing, too. I mean, I’m not really fond of France’s politics. They have this specific position that’s more or less opposite to the Dutch view in drug policy and some other policies as well. They’re our sort of nemesis, so to speak, in a political sense. For once, I’d agree with Germany and France. The United Nations, in my opinion, is the most important body and it should not be ignored. If you go around it, you might as well disarm the whole organization.

Maelstrom: I don’t see there should be any obligation for France to help out by sending troops. But it’s a very, very frightening time.

Jens: I can imagine. I just hope that everyone has the sense to back down if they have to back down and not live up to their word or reputation. Iraq and Saddam Hussein has to be dealt with, but in what way is open to discussion. Of course, there are many sides to this political story, and I’m not one to comment on that. But I will comment on the fact that french fries is no longer french fries. That must be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.

Maelstrom: I think they actually voted on it. There’s a bit in the article that the French embassy pointed out that fries actually come from Belgium. It gets funnier and funnier.

Jens: This has got to be THE news of the day for tomorrow when I see the band. We can laugh at it around the coffee table. My god. Thank you for sharing this. You’ve made my day, actually.

Maelstrom: You mentioned a little bit about the differences in politic between France and Holland. I read this interview with that band Severe Torture, from your country. The guy being interviewed was asked if he would like to go live in the US. He said no, that the United States was nice to go tour through for two months, but he wouldn’t want to live there, because “Holland has so much more freedom.” What did he mean?

Jens: I do agree with him totally. I don’t know if I’d refer to it as “freedom” exactly, but it’s an atmosphere. Going to the States and comparing that to Holland, Holland is much more mellow. The freedom that he means is the freedom of speech. The influence you have as a civilian here on the system is more than there. In the States, the word “freedom” is used very often, but I think in the actual sense, I’m not sure if it’s actual freedom. I think that the stories that reach us are colored, but the way that the police handles in the States compared to how the Dutch police handles it is the difference between night and day. There’s a different approach to social and political issues. If you step out of the plane like I did here (after we came back from the New Jersey Metalfest), the atmosphere between the airport in Holland and Newark Airport is so immense. It’s a totally different mentality. It’s difficult to put a finger on it.

Maelstrom: I understand. I’m half European and have been to Europe many times. I think a big difference between the two places is that in Europe, there’s a lot more of a cultural awareness and knowing about the world.

Jens: That is true, especially in the sense that Europe has more of a culture anyway, as in an ancient culture. The US, Western lifestyle hasn’t been around for that long and in general lacks that backbone, that structure of culture. I think it may be lacking in the education of the people. Also, looking at the media in the States, they play a big, big role. At least the images we’ve been sent in Europe is that TVs in the States are on day and night. You get fed information day and night. This is information that is colored. It’s always a biased opinion. I think when a TV is on day and night, you see truths instead of opinions. That is also maybe what limits the sense of freedom. Europeans are maybe better at relating. In the US, it’s difficult, as all you really see is that TV screen. You get the same messages repeated over and over again. I think that may inhibit the sense of development and freedom.

Maelstrom: Isn’t it funny that, despite your comments, that this Western lifestyle that you’re describing seems to be taking over world culture more and more. Ironic, isn’t it?

Jens: It is ironic. Looking at Holland right now, media is beginning to play more and more of a role. That’s why our lyrics are more socially critical this time. In the media in Europe, these 24-hour news stations, as well as the half hour infomertials, they go on forever. That’s one of the many examples of American culture taking over the rest of the world. In part, that’s a good thing, ‘cause it enriches an already existing culture here. But it also means that the society becomes homogenized.

Maelstrom: You brought up the topic of having the lyrics in the booklet. I think it’s unusual and pretty remarkable, in a good way, that you have little explanations for each song. The ideas for the songs are pretty cool. I never listen to death metal for lyrics, but if I ever do look at them, I don’t know what the heck they’re all about. They don’t make any sense to me. You know? I wonder if there are any sense to them. But here, you’ve got songs about animal rights, and quite a few media-related songs. You’ve always had wacky lyrics: stuff about poison apples, 1562... but now there’s a focus on writing lyrics that are more socially relevant this time?

Jens: I think the reason for that and why our lyrics sometimes turn out a bit wacky is that we only take, like, 5-6 weeks to write our music. Usually, the lyrics are also born in this period, or right after we enter the studio. They come out in a really spontaneous way. Anything that we see that interests us at the time might show up in the lyrics. We have a lot of time during touring (touring is 90 percent waiting, 10 percent hurrying to get the hell on stage and off again). In that period you have a lot of time to discuss your views on the world; your fears and your concerns; as well as your disgusts for religion as well as other political issues. When we were in the studio, we had no government. It had fallen. There was the bombing in Bali, the hostage situation in Russia, the pressure with Iraq. That gets reflected. With the animal rights topic, we were talking about this with our Swedish producer, who said that the bio industry in Sweden was just about the worst one in Europe. We started talking about that and realized that it’s basically like a concentration camp, the way these animals get treated. It seemed like a logical topic to discuss, as it disgusts us. We’re all conscious meat eaters. It’s way too fine to leave it aside, but if we can get organically raised meat, we’ll definitely take that. When Henri wrote the lyrics and we read them, we thought, “if we print this, people are going to think we’re anti-Semitic.”

Maelstrom: Really?

Jens: It handles about gassing the masses.

Maelstrom: Yeah, but that’s a stretch. I think there are so many more things you can pick on other bands about that.

Jens: Yeah, true, but we don’t want to be associated with that, ‘cause we’re not like that. We’re strongly against racism in any form. This way we can consciously make liner notes saying what we’re doing to animals is exactly what Germans did to the Jews in World War II. It’s just other living beings with less of a soul or a mind, or whatever. It’s the same kind of careless behavior.

Maelstrom: How can you be anti-war but death metal?

Jens: hehehehe... Music is a form of expression. That really is the focus for us. The lyrics are something that get added in the end. The music is like a ball of frustration and anger. The lyrics have to reflect on that. You’re not going to sing about flowers, for example, in a brutal death metal song. So it’s sort of a tradition to use lyrics that are aggressive. It fits the picture. I see it as a reflection of a moment when you write this music. It takes away negative energy and creates positive energy. With the speed and intensity of that in itself is a good motivation to make this music, not necessarily the aggressive facet of it. It just turns out aggressive. If there’s any scene in the world that’s free of war and aggression, it’s this scene.

Maelstrom: What do you mean, “free of war”?

Jens: Free of conflict.

Maelstrom: I’ve found that metal people give the best interviews and are the nicest people and they have the most brutal music. It’s an interesting contrast.

Jens: Talk about a weird contrast, but it’s true. This sounds really cheesy and cliché, but you get rid of all this negative energy. It might make a more mellow person out of you. I’m not sure. It probably takes a certain personality, maybe a split personality, to be a nice guy and to make this sort of shit. Still, I think it makes you a healthier person. That is, talking in general: there are very unhealthy people in death metal. The prejudice against metal, as being destructive for our youth, that sort of stuff is not true.

Maelstrom: I know when I go to shows and see five totally brutal metal bands, at the end of the night I’m thinking, “wow, I’m so brutal-ed out.” This energy is fine for one night, but I can imagine if I had to be on this tour for 2+ months, and being every night in this total aggro atmosphere... doesn’t that wear you down?

Jens: It does, in a way, but it gives a lot of energy back as well, being on stage and expressing yourself and focusing on a product that comes from you as a band. Feeling the power when you get it right gives so much more energy than what you lose from the level of sound or the beats per minute. It is a fact that when you are touring for that long, you don’t watch the support acts that many times. You watch a couple of shows completely, and for the rest of the tour you see five or 10 minutes, and that’s all. You need to get away. For myself, when I’m in a night liner or a van, I’d rather hear very mellow music than death metal all the time. I remember when we were touring with Cannibal Corpse, for example, some of those guys would listen to Krisiun afterwards, and others would listen to very, very mellow music. When I’m on tour, I rarely listen to metal. What you said earlier gets to be too much, but playing every night is no problem. It wears you down in the sense that we play in a very physical way. It is heavy doing that every night. I have to stretch good my legs and my arms and my neck to make it through a tour like that. Mentally, it’s not demanding.

Maelstrom: It’s funny how you start the new record off with the slowest and most relaxed song of the album.

Jens: hehehe... Yeah, I don’t know. We had the lyrics written for that song first. We thought it might be a good title for the album. When we got into the studio, we thought it might be risky to make it the title track. Because it’s a very strong song, the melody sticks very well and it’s easy to sing along, we took the risk and put the slowest song on first.

Maelstrom: I have to say that I’m personally a much bigger fan of Ravenous and even Bloody Blasphemy. The reason is that I see you’ve gone away from the contrasts you had on those records with solos or piano pieces that would come in that were prettier in comparison to the riffs. You’ve gone away from that. Was that a conscious decision to make something more brutal or less soft in some parts?

Jens: Not really. It’s good that you said that. Most people think [Into the Lungs of Hell] is a more melodic album than the previous ones, which I disagree with. We worked for two weeks in a row for this recording, instead of working for a couple of days at a time. We had a lot less time to arrange the songs. What’s on here is a very spontaneous way of writing, one that wasn’t thought about that much.

Maelstrom: Yeah, it seems that way.

Jens: Aha... You’re the first one to remark this.

Maelstrom: It feels more rushed than the other records. I mean, I don’t mean to come into the interview and tell you I don’t like your record...

Jens: No, no! It’s fine that you say this. It’s true, in a way. Well, in a way, it’s not, ‘cause we weren’t rushed, but we didn’t have as much time for the arrangements of the songs. The melodies are strong in our opinion. It seems so as a lot of people think it’s more melodic. But there are less melodies and double melodies.

Maelstrom: You still have the cool harmonies that you have always been doing. There’s less stirring melody. It’s much more chuggy and pulsating.

Jens: Exactly. The brutal atmosphere isn’t in the speed anymore. In general it’s a slower album, and more heavy. Ravenous was definitely the most contrasting album, having completely over the top speed and very melodic parts. My best work is on that album. A lot of people seem to think otherwise. My recognition for my leads comes more now for Into the Lungs of Hell.

Maelstrom: No way, man. The leads on Ravenous are the best ones you’ve done.

Jens: Thanks. I agree with you on that one. It’s fun to hear different opinions.

Maelstrom: It’s a nice, tasty tidbit of contrast. You have these melodic parts that aren’t necessarily totally in character. You had mentioned once in an interview about injuring your arm.

Jens: Uh-huh. That’s still a factor, actually.

Maelstrom: So, what happened?

Jens: I just played too much. Right after the Bloody Blasphemy sessions, I had three days of intense drumming. I had already strained my arm during the recording of Bloody Blasphemy. Right after I started to pace my drumming with metronome, and I just went too fast. Within two hours, I wrecked my arm for three years. Mostly I play at half speed now because I can’t play at full speed anymore. Well, I can, but for short periods of time. For the <Ravenous>, I didn’t do any rhythm work at all. Now I have found my rhythm and know my boundaries. I did three and a half songs on the new record. That was quite an accomplishment because I never thought I could do that again. I recently recorded an album with another band of mine, which is much more thrash oriented. I’m doing quite well with that. I’ll never get rid of [my injury].

Maelstrom: You can’t get medical treatment for it?

Jens: I’ve tried physical therapy and all sorts of medicine, but it’s not working. It’s strained. It’s a chronic thing. But I can tour ok. The Metalfest in New Jersey went quite well.

Maelstrom: Did you have much hand in the production of the new record, Jens?

Jens: Least of all this time. Ravenous was produced by Henri and me.

Maelstrom: I have to say again, that the production on the Ravenous is the best one you’ve done. I don’t think it could get much better than that.

Jens: ...well, thank you again! I’m glad to hear it.

Maelstrom: What do you think about the production on the new one?

Jens: I’m part happy with it, though I haven’t really heard it that well yet. We laid down four open tracks on the guitar this time, which was good. It’s more heavy than ever. I think we will return to this studio for next time, but with a bit more influence on the production from ourselves.

Maelstrom: I think the production has lost a bit of its power. The drums on the Ravenous are a lot more full and kick more ass.

Jens: That’s probably because the last one is triggered and the new one is not.

Maelstrom: The last one isn’t triggered?

Jens: Nope. That’s just how he played.

Maelstrom: I’m really surprised. I was sure that the new one is triggered.

Jens: There are triggers on the kick drums that give that extra click, but they’re underneath. You hear the original signal with a little bit of the click.

Maelstrom: Wow. You learn something new every day.

Jens: This is the amazing thing about this drummer. He did this thing in six hours. It was perfect. The guys in the studio worked with guys like The Haunted, and they said, “whoa, we’ve never seen a drummer as amazing as this one.” Six hours is usually quick in itself, but usually you have to shift the signals with the computer a bit to make them in sync when you trigger them. But this is exactly what he played. When you put triggers on them, usually that makes the signals stick out so that you hear every beat that’s not tight. With Ariën, you could throw away the acoustic signal and it would still be dead tight. He’s the best drummer I’ve ever worked with.

Maelstrom: What’s the highlight of being in God Dethroned?

Jens: These last bunch of songs and the last shows we’ve played with Ariën on drums have created so much energy on stage, that it’s been the most fun to play in a band, ever. The new tours coming up will be the high point of our career.

Maelstrom: Thank you so much for your time.

Jens: Thank you, man, for the very interesting interview.

from left to right: Jens (guitar), Beef (bass), Henri (guitar and vocals), Ariën (drums).

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

As a band, Falconer's a grower. This is coming from the perspective of one who had been a staunch believer that power metal (especially coming from Europe) had to sound a certain way, with high vocals and a certain kind of riff style.

So it took me about a year and a half to realize Falconer's brilliance. The music may seem relatively generic at first, as may the relatively unassuming vocals, but upon shedding one's preconceptions and listening again, Falconer shows that it has a wealth of cool riffs and wonderful, atypical vocals and melodies.

So it was a shock to hear that Mathias Blad, the voice of Falconer, had left the band. The reason was that Falconer wanted to tour more and Blad had too much other stuff on his plate. Was this a huge mistake? Many would think so, but bands have pulled it off before. I contacted band leader Stefan Weinerhall to discuss his thoughts about the change. Weinerhall totally understands the importance that this decision could make, but brings up some good arguments as to why Falconer will have a new voice.

Maelstrom: Hello, Stefan! Thanks for accepting to take the time to do this interview. Certainly the first thing I have to ask you is about the departure of Mathias Blad. No doubt you are sick of answering questions about this, but such a move is really huge. Certainly everyone has his own opinion, but I question the reasoning behind this move. Your official statement concerning this said the move was made in order to permit Falconer to tour more, as Blad was unable to commit enough time year-round. However, Falconer's music is rather simple and the main anchor is Blad's voice. Assuming that the departure was based only on the official reason, is being able to play a few more shows really worth losing the defining voice of the band?

Stefan Weinerhall: Hello to you!! I do understand that this is a question of great importance so I'll give you a proper answer. After the festivals we did last summer we felt that YES, this was fun, we wanna do more of this. Since we don't get out any financial payment for what we - and especially I - put down in the band (aside from the joy of satisfying myself), we saw the chance to also get to experience the live thing and all that comes with it. Of course our label was not late to encourage us to do tours and so on. Then I realised that we couldn't do it anyway since Mathias did not have the time. After the release of this new album a tour would be suitable, but Mathias was booked for the whole fall with a musical and we had already cancelled an offer to support Saxon on a European small tour. Well, I felt like I ran into the wall with all great opportunities that came along, all this could be fixed if we got a new singer. So, I told him how things looked and he went with his musicals, which I totally understand. It's what he have lived for for so long, but since I have lived for my own music for so long I didn't want someone else to hold me back. So to sum it up, we will gain something of this personally, some fans will lose on it. But since Mathias' vocals seem to be more important to some fans than it is to us we can only win on this decision, especially since the amount of sold copies haven't given us anything so far, so we can't really lose anything there. We still have as fun as before but now we can gain something more on it.

Maelstrom: Well, on to the future. Please tell us about the new singer. The official statement you made says he doesn't sound like Blad at all. Can we expect more of a standard, high vocal power metal style?

Stefan Weinerhall: Kristoffer Gobel is more of a Dickinson than a Blad, yes. He can sing high, yes. But we will still have the vocals normally pitched mostly, with the possibility to go higher. For me variation is important, so to use low and high is perfect.

Maelstrom: You are credited with writing all the music in Falconer. Do you also write the vocal melodies, or was that Blad's job?

Stefan Weinerhall: I do that too, so there will be no change in the vocal melodies. I send you a groovy midi version of what would become “Decadence of Dignity.” This was what I showed the rest of the guys in the band. The music is what I had wrote, although I recorded it in a slightly different style………………he he!

Maelstrom: I was happy to have been able to see you play at Wacken 2002. Matthias Blad in particular was very unassuming in terms of being a metal frontman. I liked that a lot. It was a nice change to see a band that wasn't all about posing on stage.

Stefan Weinerhall: Well, most people don't agree you with you there. They thought he looked boring, that of course made us feel like we had to show but hey, we have enough to do with the instruments so you'll see a change there. Something's got to happen on stage too.

Maelstrom: I understand you're a butcher… That's a pretty metal job…

Stefan Weinerhall: Yes, isn't it! Not a suitable job for a guitarist though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not planning to stay there for too long, I just had to take the job since the people at the unemployment office started to feel more like leeches to me.

Maelstrom: The last track on the debut album is a traditional Swedish one. What does the title mean?

Stefan Weinerhall: Per Tyrssons daughters in Venge. It's a murder ballad that is told to have happened in a place not too far from where I live.

Maelstrom: The song "The Clarion Call" was the one that REALLY got me into your band. That may be my single favorite song of 2002. Since discovering that song, I found that gradually I came to love all Falconer songs. At first I honestly thought the music was too generic, but then I noticed that it was unique. I don't think there's any other band that sounds like you. I particularly like your approach to riff writing - sort of Celtic, sort of bluesy.

Stefan Weinerhall: Hmm, sounds like a good description. I like the folkish or Celtic feel and I also like bluesy riffs and solos. I think there are too many bands having these neoclassic styled riffs, and I'm bored with it. I grew up with Motley Crue, Kiss and Iron Maiden and then I came to love Bathory, Mike Oldfield, Jethro Tull. So I guess if you mix all those together you will get Falconer.

Maelstrom: The last song on "Chapters from a Vale Forlorn," "Busted to the Floor," has a sharply different mood to it. It's kind of this 70s rock feel to it. It's a cool transition on the record. What was the musical inspiration for this song?

Stefan Weinerhall: None in general. I listen some to the "old ones" too and happened to come up with the opening riff and it carried on from that. It didn´t feel like a very serious song for me to do but it was fun and turned out the way I wanted. Iguess the ones that
I thought of when doing it was: Deep Purple, Whitesnake.

Maelstrom: I also understand that you're into obscure Swedish prog bands from the 70s. Can you tell us about this passion (if it's true)?

Stefan Weinerhall: Kebnekajse rules!! Contact is cool too and so is Hedningarna. I don't know if I would call it a passion, but it's something I love to listen to as well as some of the more political kind of prog music we had here in Sweden during that time.

Maelstrom: The lyrics on "Chapters from a Vale Forlorn" deal a great deal with selling out one's country. In "Decadence of Dignity" you talk about stagnating economies and the shame of the negative results of capitalistic greed.

Stefan Weinerhall: Yes, I have written some songs that could be seen as political or even, environmental. Not only dragon and steel
bullshit here. I do also have an opinion of the today.

Maelstrom: The "Clarion Call" has perhaps the most interesting lyrics. Again, how much is this rooted in actual social commentary (and if so, what is it about)? What is the clarion call? "The nation's split by false hands... hell is what this our land will be...Who will win and who will fall?" Who, indeed?

Stefan Weinerhall: It's about war in all times. The people have to suffer for their leaders greed or need to play a game. Very up to date in these days with the Iraq issue: Saddam is an asshole who's torturing his people but has really no real capacity to be any threat to the west. Bush on the other hand wants to be in the big league of heroic presidents who've had their wars. To have some more control over the oilrich east also itches in his eyes, but every thing is justified by the "big threat" that Saddam is. The ones who will pay the price for their eager to show their muscles is the common man. Hmm, I guess you won't agree with me on that one. He he.

Maelstrom: Not at all. I agree with you completely. It's funny that although Bush is president and apparently Americans support him, I nor anyone I know has ever met such a person. Ok, Stefan, thanks again for the interview. I know I'm not alone in loving Falconer and keep my fingers crossed that you can pull off something like what Iron Maiden did between 1981-82. Cheers and good luck. Any plans to come to the US?

Stefan Weinerhall: Thanks a lot for the interview. Yup, I hope the same as you do. We will come to the BW & BK festival in Cleveland, OH in June. After that I don't know anything.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Peter Beste is an American photographer who became interested in the visuals of black metal. He went to Norway to take pictures of some of the genre's most famous musicians. His first exposition of this work will take place on May 26th, 2003 from 6Pm-1Am at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London. Beste’s work has appeared in publications such as Mass Appeal, Vice, GO (Spain), Hell Awaits (Spain) and Metal Hammer (UK). We contacted Beste to talk to him about his experiences. You can check out his entire body of work at www.peterbeste.com.

Maelstrom: Please start by telling us how you got involved in photography in the first place. What do you like most about what you do?

Peter Beste (at left): I started photographing in 1996 when I would borrow my mother’s camera and photograph at punk rock shows, so my photography has always been connected to music. I love many things about this trade, but most importantly, I love the feeling of going overseas and coming back with 100 rolls of film documenting a fascinating culture that the average American has never heard of, but is intrigued by.

Maelstrom: Tell us about your project to photograph Scandinavian black metal musicians. Where did you go to do this and how long did you stay?

Peter Beste: I started when I lived in Austin, Texas about two years ago. It originally started as a film idea but mutated into a photo project. I went to a few shows in Texas (Dimmu borgir, Marduk, etc) and then to the Milwaukee Metal fest, which is where I met Gorgoroth, who has been one of the strongest parts of my project. I decided to become serious about this project the following year. I moved my stuff into my parent’s house, saved money, and spent five weeks in Norway last spring. I’m returning again this month.

Maelstrom: Did your idea to photograph black metal musicians come from a prior appreciation of the music? How did you first come across these people?

Peter Beste: I grew up on metal, but I was first introduced to Black Metal around 1997. I was instantly drawn to the overall aesthetic - the record art, the names and look of the band members, everything. Over the next couple years I read more about the genre and my interest grew. It’s an ideal project for me because the subject matter is visually interesting, but more importantly, there is substance behind it all. Most of it is very relevant culturally.

Maelstrom: As you may realize, these black metal guys, especially the ones from Norway, exist as sort of mythical figures, deified by the cult fans from around the
world. What was your impression of the musicians you photographed? Could you please tell us about the most interesting of them, and maybe share a story or two?

Peter Beste: I wasn’t sure what to expect from these guys. Almost all of them turned out to be very friendly. I hate to disappoint, but most of them were very normal. I was
surprised by many of their education levels. Most of Gorgoroth has Masters degrees, and so do many other band members. A few of them are teachers, and Fenriz works for the postal service. Yep, he still has a day job. (below, Fenriz at left, members of Gorgoroth at right)

Maelstrom: I think I'm especially interested in hearing about Gaahl of Gorgoroth, mainly considering that he has been convicted of some heinous crime ("torture-like violence"). I've heard stories but don't know what to believe. Do you know anything about this?

Peter Beste: I’ve heard many stories about him, and even though I’ve become pretty friendly with the rest of the band, they are still vague in the specifics of the crime. What I have learned is that he has violent tendencies, and if he gets messed with, especially while drunk, he’s ruthless. A friend of mine over there told me that they were at the pub one night and some guy said something rude my friend’s girlfriend, not Gaahl’s. Gaahl (bottom left) chased the guy a mile through town and when he caught up to him, he picked him up by the throat, headbutted him, and knocked him out. They say he’s been certified insane by the government. I think there’s a level of truth to it, but hey, it makes great publicity!

Maelstrom: What do you think these black metallers' impression of you was?

Peter Beste: I got along with most of them great. Fenriz was a bit out of his mind, but we got along partly because we’re into a lot of the same music outside of metal. He’s into a lot of hip-hop, some electronic and indie, which is rare for that scene. I got weird vibes from Frost of Satryicon, I’m not sure if he liked me, but overall, they were as friendly as my neighbors. (Carpathian Forest's sink, below)

Maelstrom: Do you exist amongst a circle of artists with whom you share each others' work? If so, what are these people's impressions of your black metal work? Have you exhibited your work? What was the reaction?

Peter Beste: Yes, I have had good feedback, but I plan to get much more in depth with this project and eventually put out a book. The only thing that has been really public about this project is a 7 page feature in a NYC magazine called Mass Appeal. I am having a small
exhibition in London in May, and there are talks of one in Brooklyn this summer.

Maelstrom: I'd like to also talk about your photography work outside the black metal project. On your website, www.peterbeste.com, you've got a couple other series
of photographs.

Peter Beste: The other bodies of work are URBAN PORTRAITS, RURAL AMERICA, MUSIC, and COLOR. As for the first one, I like to take candid portraits of people on the streets in the cities I visit. I am a big fan of early- to mid- century photographers like Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Helen Leavitt, etc, who popularized this style. Basically my goal is to create a perfectly balanced, and interesting photograph in the midst of a chaotic urban environment with no preparation or staging.

The RURAL AMERICA work is actually a college project. I photographed people (mostly truckers) from truck stops and diners around America. I plan to continue this project. (A diner patron, below)

The MUSIC section is made up of photos from concerts and a few proper bands shoots (Dougie Payne of Travis, below).

COLOR is basically a miscellaneous section with everything from abstract color work to a couple landscapes. (The Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik, Iceland, below)

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

True heavy metal albums are few and far between. The ones that are any good are even more rare. Pharaoh’s debut, After the Fire, is one of those albums. I’d been anticipating this album for nearly a year since Chris Black, Pharaoh’s drummer, played it for me at Metal Haven in Chicago. You may also know the name Black from his days writing for Metal Maniacs as Professor Black. I contacted Chris to chat about his projects and his ever iconoclastic thoughts about the music he loves so much.

Maelstrom: How did you hook up with the guys in your band, and Tim Aymar in particular? Am I right he hadn't done anything since Control Denied?

Chris Black: He's been jamming with a few different bands and also doing some engineering work, so he's keeping his teeth sharp all the time. We found Tim through a mutual friend, actually a mutual friend of our guitarist Matt Johnsen. Tim and this guy Jim Dofka are playing in a band together called Psycho Scream. Matt came to the project as it was first forming. He and I had been in contact through the huge suburban Philadelphia metal scene. I'm being sarcastic there. It was basically me and Matt and a few other geezers that constituted the Philadelphia suburban metal scene. Not much action there! So it was good to run into a like-minded musician. Chris Kerns and I went to college together. As Pharaoh was coming together, there really wasn't anyone else in the running for the bass position. Kerns is a longtime friend and an even longer-time Iron Maiden maniac. He also had a small stash of material that was ready to go. Perfect!

Maelstrom: It sounds like Pharaoh sort of fell together.

Chris Black: In a way, yes. We had very clear ideas of how Pharaoh would sound, as far as what kinds of things would be acceptable and/or useful, and what kinds of things would not. The boundaries were discernable from the start. The lineup kind of fell together as well, if that's what you're refering to. Finding a singer posed the most difficulty. But it wasn't as if we had these great gigs waiting or anything, and in the end our patience paid off. We weren't going to settle for 99 percent when it came to the vocals.

Maelstrom: I remember once you telling me your favorite drummers are guitarists, or something like that. You can tell on the recording by your simple and solid style. How do you feel your performance came out?

Chris Black: Honestly, I'm not happy with it. I didn't rehearse to the extent that I should have. Next time around, I will be much more prepared, and you will be able to hear the difference. Some of the playing on After the Fire really comes through, but I hear a lot of room for improvement in some of it. This is partly due to the bizarre circumstances under which we had these sessions. There aren't any blatant fuck-ups, or anything like that, because I do have a good ear, and we did use a click track. But I could have really fine-tuned the stuff under better conditions. I would say it was 50 percent my own attitude and 50 percent the way we were going about making the album.

Maelstrom: When did you record this album?

Chris Black: We laid down the click tracks and rhythm guitars in May of 1999, and the finishing strokes were done in July of 2002. (By "finishing strokes" I mean some little guitar leads, the whisper vocals in "Flash of the Dark," things like this.) Everything else was done in between those dates. I believe the drums you hear were recorded in October of 2000,
although I recorded a set of takes in May of 1999 during the initial sessions as well.

Maelstrom: Can we talk about your zine, Metal? How's that going and what have you got in store for this issue? What made you start the zine and what does it have to offer other zines don't?

Chris Black: I finished the third issue of Metal in February of this year. It is a self-titled issue as just Metal. It features Bathory, Turbonegro, Agalloch, and Dark Tranquillity interviews, in addition to a lot of album reviews. It's a little more structured than the “Reborn through Hate” issue, and it differs from both of the previous issues in that I didn't have any help from other writers. At the moment I'm pretty certain that there won't be another issue. I haven't had much energy to promote or distribute this issue, so I'll have to rely on word of mouth (heheheh) to spread the word. I feel it is the best Metal issue yet. It's somewhat of a redemption after the swamp of negativity that is ”Reborn through Hate.” Plus, this Pharaoh album release has really taken up a lot of my time, just the promotional legwork, etc. So for these reasons, I'm not shoving the s/t Metal down people's throats. It's more of a personal project than anything else, and I'm very comfortable with that. To answer the other part of your question, I decided to start making Metal after 15 issues of my previous fanzine because, ironically, I wanted a more structured and professional platform. I envisioned Metal initially as a glossy, all-inclusive magazine that would ultimately become the leading metal periodical in the US. I had big ideas. But as it developed, I realized that what I actually had to say in this forum was by no means fit for the masses. Soon enough, I had arrived at exactly the opposite ideal for marketing the publication. I've still sold less than 200 copies of the first issue. What you can find in Metal that you can't find elsewhere is its unique combination of bias, enthusiasm, infatuation, depth, and hatred.

Maelstrom: You once wrote in Metal something like, "I'm able to enjoy metal only by ignoring certain aspects of it." Please tell us more about that.

Chris Black: That was an epigram from our beloved and distant colleague Gregory Whalen. I cannot speak for its origin in his mind, but it struck me as quite true, so I put it in the mag. Think of it this way. When you're listening to Manowar, you're not like, "Yeah! That's SO homoerotic! Fuck yeah!" Or are you?

Maelstrom: I dunno. I don't get Manowar. I mean, I get the fact that it's the most stereotypically metal band possible, but I am profoundly bored by their music. It seems like it's too big of a joke even for the fantasy metal world. It's like Spinal Tap, but in real life. It's funny, 'cause if it's totally ridiculous like Lost Horizon, which is maybe even more stupid, I can deal. In fact, it makes it cooler in Lost Horizon's case, as it seems like the most true thing in the face of being the most ridiculous thing; like the band is totally serious and not terribly aware of how preposterous they are.

Chris Black: My point is in reading that epigram, I think of all the albums that I have to take as a whole, rather than as a sum-of-parts. And there are a million examples. Joey DeMaio's underpants are one of them. Quorthon's vocals on Twilight of the Gods are another. If you dwell on these little less-than-perfect elements, you'll ruin it for yourself.

As for Manowar. I went through a little crisis after seeing them live in 1999. I didn't-- scratch that- I COULDN'T listen to them for several years after that, and I'm not over-dramatizing. I really didn't listen to a single note of Manowar for at least two years. From their albums, I always considered them a highly professional act from the old school. And I don't just mean the old school of metal. I mean the old school of music, where the vocals and lyrics are important, the song writing aims to entertain, there are dynamics and drama, etc. These guys are really serious about what they do, and they present themselves in a way that predates a lot of the crappy ideals that came to be in the 80s and 90s.

Anyway, then you see them live, and the whole machismo and crowd interaction totally obscures the amount of preparation that is in their music. I should add that the crowd positively eats up the antics, and that there sure is some degree of preparation in those antics, but I just wanted to hear them play. I was kind of heartbroken. It didn't help that we saw Motorhead the very next night, and they played for nearly two hours, including "Shine" and "Too Late Too Late." Now THAT'S a professional rock band, and with the letdown of Manowar fresh in my mind, it only turned me away further.

I haven't heard the new Lost Horizon, but as far as I know, they are aware of how silly it is.

Maelstrom: Speaking of Bathory, the Nordland II may have his worst singing ever. But it's part of being a Viking, I suppose. Viking males aren't supposed to be able to sing well, unless it's the o-o-o-o style, which they've mastered.

Chris Black: I love Nordland II. It's his strongest and most musical work since Twilight of the Gods. I think it got just the right amount of time in the studio, and the experimentation is finally healthy and relevant to the Bathory tradition. It was easy to argue that Nordland I was a throwback, but this is much more ambitious, forward music from Bathory. And I think the vocals are better than usual, as a matter of fact.

Maelstrom: I agree with everything you said except about the vocals. the vox on the last record, 'cept tracks 3-4, are way better. You know, I finally checked out Requiem. I think it's really good! I don't get what all the negative opinions are about. as soon as Octagon shows up used, I'll get that too. is there any point to getting the Jubileums?

Chris Black: I always thought Requiem was cool. The guitar sound is really thick, and the songwriting goes somewhere, whereas Octagon is just undirected savagery. The value of the Jubileum volumes depends on your need to have every Bathory track and/or CD release. A better bet is to pick up one of those bootleg South American LPs that's got all of the rare tracks compiled.

Maelstrom: You used to be half of the dynamic duo that worked at Metal Haven record store in Chicago. How did you work there and practice and record this album? Was it all on weekends?

Chris Black: There was no conflict between my job and Pharaoh. And there will never be a conflict between any job and any musical project. Any acceptable job for me includes the flexibility to prioritize my music. With Metal Haven, this was especially easy, since it was a laid-back job. It's also the same food chain, if you know what I mean, and I never had to ask twice for time off to work on music. With Pharaoh, it's almost a non-issue. We're a studio project. We write songs together through the mail. Actual rehearsals where we're in the room playing together are extremely rare.

Maelstrom: I always find this fascinating. I mean, it's one thing with drone ambient bands like Stars of the Lid (who live in Chicago and Brussels), but when everything has to be perfectly on time like that....

Chris Black: I don't see it as weird. It has been that way the whole time for Pharaoh. The only thing that really was recorded through the mail was the vocals. We got a CDR of only vocals, multitracked and even mixed with delays and reverbs, the whole mix. And pasting that into what we had was kind of a strange way to work. At first we were paranoid about whether there would be too much reverb or something like that, but it turned out pretty well. Everything else was done in the same studio, just at very different times and without having the whole band there at any given time. It's the writing process that happens over distance. For example, Chris Kerns had only these silly lyrics for "Heart of the Enemy," and he sent me a cassette of himself playing acoustic guitar and singing these lyrics, so that I could write the actual lyrics according to the melody he already was using. So I wrote the lyrics, then took an instrumental mix we had made of the song, played the melody on top of it with a keyboard, and sent that plus a lyric sheet to Tim. A few months later, the CDR comes back with the finished vocals, and we fly it into our mix. Next time around, the process will be much more organized and condensed.

Maelstrom: What's Cruz Del Sur Music (Pharaoh’s label)? What else have they put out?

Chris Black: It's a brand new Italian label. The Pharaoh album is CRUZ001. They released an album by Narcoze at the same time as ours, but I haven't heard it. They also have Asterius and Jezabel on the label, and it is probable that they will have the next Dawnbringer album, which is being cultivated at the moment.

Maelstrom: So, Dawnbringer is still together? Please take a little time to tell us about that band. You've released three albums, right?

Chris Black: Dawnbringer formed in 1995 and I was more of a creative guide than an actual contributor at that stage. The demo was a mini-CD called Sacrament in 1996, and then in 1997 we had a full-length called Unbleed. I played drums and produced for the full-length, and I still regard it as a personal favorite. The response was excellent, but things were fragmenting within the band as we prepared for the second full-length, which eventually came out in 2001 as Catharsis Instinct. But it was a struggle, a difficult album made only more difficult by our bad attitudes at the time. Well, my bad attitude. We had planned to record an album called Snake after that, which is a very ambitious and complex piece of music I wrote during 1998-1999. But there was no momentum either in the band or on the label side, so this went on hold indefinitely. Now there is some interest in a new Dawnbringer album, and I decided recently to scrap Snake for now in favor of a more up-to-date album. Snake is written down. It's not going to change. We can make that album whenever we have the energy and resources at our disposal.

So I'm finishing up the songs that will be this new Dawnbringer. The new material is along the lines of Unbleed, but with tidier songs, no growling, and a more developed lyrical component. We're preparing a demo right now in order to secure definite label support, and after that we'll start recording. The sessions will probably happen in August, and the current lineup is me (bass, drums, vocals) and guitarists Scott Hoffman and Bill Palko. Most likely the album will be called Fear No Reaper, and there are some songs like "Attack of the Spiders," "End of Earth," and "The Snitch." Expect to be surprised. Naturally, Dawnbringer is a studio project also. My only live band is Superchrist.

Maelstrom: Stand up and Shit!

Chris Black: Good advice.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Trying to comprehend Sunn’s music by approaching it from the more accepted perspective of music - song-based constructions with more or less apparent hooks or points of interest - can be baffling. The intent of Sunn’s sounds is so simple that it begins to become complicated. According to Stephen O’Malley, one of the two main players in this group, the guitar and bass drone of Sunn is a palate cleanser. It offers sounds and sound pressure to allow the listener to make his or her own deductions and impressions. In this, it is as primal as music and sound can be.

But Sunn has progressed quite a bit since its first albums. Please read about those progressions in our review of the latest Sunn record, White 1, in this issue. The latest big news in the Sunn camp was the performance at London’s All Tomorrow’s Parties, which featured guest vocals by Attila Csihar. We interviewed Stephen O’Malley (in the first of two parts concluded in the discussion about the Lotus Eaters, also in this issue), whose energy and voice turned out to be as laid back as some of the music he creates. Sounding a bit like the slow, distorted Jarboe spoken word parts on Swans records, O’Malley shed some light on what goes into a Sunn record, and what the listener can get out of it.

Maelstrom: Do you pronounce the band name “sun”?

Stephen O’Malley (below): Yes.

Maelstrom: The guitarist from Aborym calls you “sunno.”

Stephen O’Malley: That’s kinda common. The symbol and the name is supposed to represent sound pressure.

Maelstrom: Let’s talk about the progression of Sunn. The only other record of yours I’ve heard is the 00 Void one. I thought of you before as a better produced Earth, but Earth was better. Now, you’ve got all this cool stuff happening. I wanted to get what you think about how your band’s progressing,

Stephen O’Malley: Ok. 00 Void was recorded about two and a half years before White 1. There’s another record between the two, called Flight of the Behemoth. The main reason for the difference on White 1 is that Greg Anderson and I wanted to do an album of all acoustic instruments, actually - try to do a drone record using other instruments and other amps that we normally do. We ended up working with some people who brought a lot of other character to the table. What ended up happening was a lot different than what we were intending. It was pretty cool, nonetheless. I think there’s a lot of charisma on White 1 that’s coming directly from the other players.

Maelstrom: You’ve got so many great people on this record. You’ve got Runhild (Gramelsæter, the vocalist of Thorr’s Hammer) back!

Stephen O’Malley: Yeah.

Maelstrom: She was with Thorr’s Hammer, and then she went back to Norway. She disappeared for a while. How did you get her back and what’s she doing?

Stephen O’Malley: She and I remained friends since those earlier days. She was very young during the Thorr’s Hammer’s period - 17.

Maelstrom: What was she doing in Seattle?

Stephen O’Malley: She was living with her parents, who had moved to Seattle, and going to high school. She ended up going to university there for a while, but ended up transferring to a program in Oslo for a number of reasons. She didn’t really continue with music because she was studying. She was back in the United States last year on an internship program in Richmond, Virginia. We ended up meeting. She wanted to participate, so we invited her to.

Maelstrom: I was expecting her to do the brutal vocals, but she’s doing more of the Norwegian talking, mystical stuff. Now, she’s supposed to be track three, but I’m sorry if I tell you this, but I don’t really hear any vocals on that one.

Stephen O’Malley: heheh. Yeah, there’s two vocals on there. It’s her and Joe Preston (Earth, Melvins). It’s a duet of them doing a mantra type of chant. It’s very subdued. Her vocals are pretty identifiable in my opinion, but I mixed the record. Joe’s vocals on that track are pretty identifiable as vocals. They sound more like sub bass rumbles. The Norwegian folk song she does in there (on track two) was taken from a live show we did in Portland during the time of the recording. (Loud musical sounds are heard in the background)

Maelstrom: What’s going on in the background, Stephen?

Stephen O’Malley: Oh, I’m just playing a record. It’s a group called Growing, from Olympia, Washington. It’s sort of a melodic instrumental band. Their new record is going to be on Kranky.

Maelstrom: Speaking of Aborym and Attila, Seth, Aborym’s guitarist, said that Attila was all frisky because he played with you in London for Sunn, and that you played with Aphex Twin, and that it was a really good show. How did that come together and what was that show like?

Stephen O’Malley: The show was at a festival called All Tomorrow’s Parties (www.atpfestival.com) in south England. It’s a three day festival in which an artist or group is invited to curate the festival. So the artist chooses all the people who will be performing based on their own preference, whatever that is - there’s no pressure or expectation, they get full reign. In the past, it’s been bands like Mogwai and Shellac and Tortoise. This year the curator was Autechre, and they invited Sunn to play. We were one of three bands with guitars over three days. A lot of it was electroacoustic, lap tops, DJs...stuff like that. It was a pretty great experience for Sunn, breaking through to some open-minded, contemporary music fans.

Maelstrom: How did you get Attila to show up?

Stephen O’Malley: I’ve been in contact with him for years. I actually released a record of his in the mid-90s.

Maelstrom: A Tormentor one?

Stephen O’Malley: Yeah, a picture LP version of the <Anno Domini> record. I invited him to do vocals on a track on the <White 2> album. It came out great. Sunn was doing a European tour last month. He did two shows in Austria and the show in London. In Austria, we had a guy called Peter Rehberg (who runs Mego Records www.mego.at) doing laptop for us. He has a group called Pita. He does a label called Mago Records.

Maelstrom: When you say he does laptop, what does that mean?

Stephen O’Malley: In his case, it means making the speakers sound like they’re on fire (chuckle). It’s all improvised. He’s got filters on there. I think he was running the full mix of the PA through his lap top as his source material.

Maelstrom: When you write Sunn stuff, do you go about it writing a riff like other bands do and then playing it really slow later? I read this brilliant interview you gave with Marty of Wormgear, and you were talking a little about that; about Sunn being a lot of improvisation when you play, but that you go with stuff already written that you throw in.

Stephen O’Malley: When I write, I certainly don’t slow things down on purpose. That’s the tempo. If anything, we have to speed it up. There’s no tempo difference, unless it’s in the live setting. Sometimes it calls for an actual bending of the tempo depending on the feel and what’s going on physically with the sound pressure.

Maelstrom: Sound pressure...that’s an interesting idea.

Stephen O’Malley: It’s not an idea, it’s an actual presence when you have tons of speakers and amplifiers [around you]. That’s a huge part of Sunn. It’s like filling and pressurizing the room. At least for Greg and I playing in front of the amplifiers, it’s really a physical experience.

Maelstrom: So are you talking about actual pressure when it becomes uncomfortable and you have to back off?

Stephen O’Malley: No, I mean like the actual sound waves are hitting your body and vibrating the stage and room. That’s a huge part of the Sunn sound.

Maelstrom: Objectively, when you step back from this, you wonder what there is to get. What’s interesting about your music is that it’s really easy to understand on a surface level, but it’s kind of difficult to understand what you’re doing and why. On a surface level, as you were saying, there’s all this physical energy that affects you in a primal way...

Stephen O’Malley: Why is that surface, then?

Maelstrom: Well, I don’t know. It’s a very simple level. There’s nothing wrong with simplicity. In terms of music, do you ever get asked by people why you do this?

Stephen O’Malley: Yeah, occasionally, usually from journalists. Hahahaha. Sunn’s really non-verbal and non-linear in a lot of ways, even though there are certain progressions we’ll follow when playing live. It’s really about escaping linear thought process and regressing, which results in a certain time manipulation effect, at least when performing the music. It’s really about exiting normal thought processes of music, as far as I know it, and letting an open palate stand in front of you so you can get whatever you want out of the sound. It’s open to interpretation. I don’t necessarily agree of disagree with a lot of the interpretations of the music. They’re all pretty correct. There’s no vocal element - well, there are some on the new record; absence of vocals removes humanity from music, at least in Sunn’s case.

Maelstrom: Let’s talk about Julian Cope. That monologue he does on “My Wall” is pretty cool. It has an interesting rhythmic pace to it and I like how it’s structured like a song in itself. What was it like working with him.

Stephen O’Malley: It was great. I’m surprised he wanted to do it. As far as the composition of his piece, he’s a big fan of Lindsay, the American poet who wrote poems like “Johnny Appleseed,” especially some recordings Julian had heard of his in which he has a very direct, oratorial, preaching style. The style on “My Wall” is memorable in itself.

Maelstrom: Yeah, it sort of has this Edgar Allen Poe meets “The Ride of Paul Revere” mix. How much of it was totally prepared?

Stephen O’Malley: I don’t know. He recorded that in England.

Maelstrom: You guys never actually met?

Stephen O’Malley: No. It was discussed, but I wasn’t at the session. He’s really into Odinism. There’s many different levels to those lyrics. Again, they could be interpreted in a number of different ways. It depends on how deep you want to get into it, which I think is a compliment.

Maelstrom: When you play live, do you go up there with the plan to play a certain amount of tracks, or do you just play and fill up your time, or do you stop when you want to, or all of the above?

Stephen O’Malley: We don’t really do the first one, but we certainly have sections that we plan on doing. But there’s a lot of open parts as well.

Maelstrom: When’s White 2 coming out? Is there going to be a White 3 and White 4?

Stephen O’Malley: The plan is to do two sections. The main reason behind that is that we recorded enough material in our last session that’s of the same mind set. So we wanted to have a two part record. It’s coming out at the very end of the year, or early next year. There’s also a 12" coming out called Bales of Light. It’s sort of a prequel to White 1. It’s a remix by James Plotkin. That should be out in June. Khanate has a new 12" coming out in June, as well as a new album in September. Lotus Eaters is having a new record coming out in Autumn on Alien8 Records.

Maelstrom: Stephen, how hard is it to make a Sunn record? Like you were saying, it’s mostly about the sound. Would it be easy to put out a bunch of records, ala Merzbow?

Stephen O’Malley: No, because it’s not one person and it’s not direct to hard disk. You made a couple comments that it’s just noise, but there’s actually a lot going on. It takes good engineering work to capture the sound correctly because of the range of frequency.
Maelstrom: You are partially right. I wouldn’t be interviewing you if I didn’t enjoy the record, but I am trying to get more of a sense to understand what goes into this. I think it’s common to say, “they’re just playing their guitars and making it fuzzy and heavy. What else are they doing?” I think it’s interesting for people to read about so they can get a better appreciation of it. This is something I say about Khanate as well. The parts are so very long, and they take a longer time to digest before they get that familiar aspect to them. A hook in a song grabs you right away, but a hook in a Sunn or Khanate song is actually going to take quite a while to find. But they exist, there are parts there. There are patterns and they’re very dense, but it’s stretched out so far that maybe a metal listener won’t be able to find that as easy. But I think that’s part of the appeal with Sunn: it takes a lot more digging to unveil the core of it. Once you become familiar with it, you realize that there is a lot of charisma and difference between the parts. It’s deep music that has a lot of power and authenticity as well.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Vital Remains has released an impressive record in Dechristianize. You can hear how much work and time was put into the arrangements and writing. Equally remarkable is that the band is composed essentially of two men, founding member Tony Lazaro (rhythm guitar) and Dave Suzuki (who plays everything else). Rounding out the lineup is legendary death metal frontman Glen Benton, whose vocals are in top form. Take a listen to this record and you’ll see what a quality piece of work it is. I chatted with Tony Lazaro about his dedication and what the fans mean to him.

Maelstrom: I want to start by talking about Dave Suzuki. It’s really remarkable that this guy plays all these instruments with this degree of skill. It’s really funny, because on previous records he didn’t do all this stuff. I looked at the list and thought, “I don’t know if he can play all this stuff,” and I listened and was like, “holy shit!”

Tony Lazaro: (laugh) Well, he’s always done the leads and the drum work from the beginning, like on Forever Underground. With this album, there was so much more that needed to be done that he had to help out with lyrics. So I pretty much wrote the music to all the songs and then he put all his touches on it. He’s a prodigy.

Maelstrom: You don’t even need anybody else in the band.

Tony Lazaro: (laugh) He even sings. His style is black metal. So I said, “shit, between the two of us, we could make a record.” He stepped up and we really worked our asses off on this record. We wanted to blow Dawn of the Apocalypse (the previous record - Roberto) away. When we listened to it, we were like, “holy shit, we went to the extremes!” I wanted to have the dynamics and different things. I didn’t want it to be all [about] brutality straight through without the hooks and tempo changes.

Maelstrom: You can tell when you listen to the record how much time you put into arranging it. Like you were saying about the dynamics, you have these guitar leads that are really not that brutal, but that’s what’s good about them.

Tony Lazaro: Thanks. Yeah, they’re more old school. Dave’s harmonies and stuff, you can almost hear Randy Rhoads stuff in there. He wanted to pay respects to all the great guitar players that he grew up on. Rhoads, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen - shredders. He wanted to go off in that area. There are so many and he can play their styles. I think it works. It’s not like playing all this fast stuff. It’s tastefully done. It took me over a year to write the record. I wouldn’t settle unless it was the best riff for the part, and I wasn’t done until it was done, and as you know, the songs are all long! Some people are like, “oh, man! They’re too long!” But I write for myself. It’s kind of a selfish thing. After, I present it to Dave in the practice room. When I write, I get the beats in my head, so I’ll tell Dave to put a blast beat or a real fast up beat, or some double bass 16ths. On this album we did a lot of pre-production, so he got to throw down a bunch of the harmonies. We were getting excited. We had yet to hear an album that sounded like this. We left a little room for some lead work. Telling the truth, watching Dave was amazing, ‘cause he would bust out 20 leads for each song, and he’d go, “ I can do better!” And I’m like, “no! It’s killer!”

Maelstrom: It’s amazing, Tony. I started playing drums a few years ago, and I can’t even imagine trying to start playing guitar, because it’d be so much to learn. How can somebody play all this stuff and get this good? What did he do, start when he was four?

Tony Lazaro: Yeah, he started playing around four years old. (Laugh) He’s actually a guitar player first. He comes from a musical background. His father was a trombone player that played with Sinatra. His stuff is incredible. His mom is a classical pianist.

Maelstrom: And he ended up in a death metal band.

Tony Lazaro: So what would happen is that over the years, Dave would stay in. He would lock himself in the room and learn everybody’s stuff. He was telling me that at 11, he was playing Yngwie Malmsteen. I’ve seen pictures of him doing almost 12 fret stretches with his fingers, and he’s just a little kid, man! It’s insane! He’s got a perfect ear. When we practice, he’ll be like, “oh, you’re a half step out of tune.” And I’m like, “how can you hear that?” And I’ll check my tuner and, that mother fucker, he’s dead right! (Laugh) Then he started playing drums eight or nine years ago with his band. He made a demo that Mitch Harris of Napalm Death produced. I got wind of it when we went on tour in ‘94 with Autopsy. That’s how he met us. Mitch told me that the guy laid out all his drum tracks first and then busted out the rhythm tracks afterward. He was telling me what an amazing musician he was.

Maelstrom: How did you hook up with Glen Benton?

Tony Lazaro: Well, I’ve known Glen for 12 years. When I was on tour, I let him listen to some pre-production and asked him if he would be cool to do some guest vocals on the record. He said sure. He was supposed to help us out with something like that in ‘94, when we recorded Into Cold Darkness, but at the time he was going through his divorce. So it wasn’t the right time. As we were doing more rehearsing and trying to get ready, and as the record company was putting more pressure on us, we realized that the singer we had at the time just wasn’t there. He didn’t have the experience to go into the studio. He wasn’t close to prepared. So we were like, “now what do we do?”

Maelstrom: Are you talking about the guy on the last record, the guy who called himself Thorns?

Tony Lazaro: Well, with him it was another thing.

Maelstrom: He was kind of a loose cannon, wasn’t he?

Tony Lazaro: Yeah, he was into partying and doin’ his thing. His work ethic was different than ours. He had a different outlook on what it was to front Vital Remains and be part of a death metal band, and to be true to the band and the fans. He had kind of a warped sense to the way he was approaching it, which he didn’t agree with. I corrected him. I told him that’s not how we go about things. We’re more professional than that. It’s all about the fans and people who support our music. He had more of the ego thing going on. It was getting in the way at shows. People were coming up to me and saying things about him that were negative. I told him, “you need to knock it off and be professional.” He almost wanted to be a Marilyn Manson, which has nothing to do with what this band is all about. I work too hard to let someone like him to disrespect us and the fans and the people in the underground. So I told him he had to change his ways and that we were going to do some shows. He ended up pulling out, so we just let him go. He hasn’t done anything since. Back to this, the singer who wasn’t working out was a friend. We had to make a decision to let him go. That’s when Glen stepped up and said, “I’ll do the whole record and help you guys out.” Otherwise, Dave was gonna do it. It would have been a totally different album. We weren’t going to pass that up. It’s Glen Benton. He’s the best.

Maelstrom: Yeah, of course. You’re going to sell some records just for that.

Tony Lazaro: He was totally into it, that was the thing. It was amazing to watch him singing our lyrics to our music. It was kind of surreal, like, “man, that’s Glen Benton in there!” We were totally blown away. He made sure every line was right. He’s totally pro. It was almost like we’d rehearsed for years together. He did an incredible job, and that’s why we’re forever grateful to him.

Maelstrom: I looked on the site a little bit, and it seems like he’s going to tour with you guys.

Tony Lazaro: He’s pretty much leaving it up to the fans in the underground. If the demand is there, he said by all means, he wants to do it. We’ll leave it up to Glen. Like I said, we’re grateful he did the record. If he wants to tour, that would be the sickest. From [the feedback] I’ve been getting back, it’s incredible. People are flippin’ out over this thing, which is great. It’s a good feeling, like a reward.

Maelstrom: I just saw Deicide play a few weeks ago with Behemoth and Amon Amarth. One of the things I like about Glen Benton is that between songs, he uses his regular voice. He bullshits with the audience, and it’s really cool.

Tony Lazaro: Right. He’s got a great personality. He knows how to talk to the audience. People love it when he interacts with the fans. I heard he did great on the tour. I just seen Behemoth on Sunday, and they blew me away. They were praising our record, and I was like, “no, we were listening to Satanica at Morrisound!” Their new one is brutal and awesome.

Maelstrom: It’s funny, Tony. You get all these bands, and they’re all so talented. These records are all so perfect and tight that you start to take it for granted. It’s amazing that all these bands can do this. Are there any tricks?

Tony Lazaro: I don’t think there are any tricks. Death metal, if you notice over the last couple years, has become way more extreme. Everyone is pushing the limits and really working hard, especially drumming. It’s refreshing. When Morbid Angel came out with Altars of Madness, it kicked everyone in the ass, like, “wow! This is brutal!” It was so new and refreshing to hear that type of death metal. It just set a new standard. And now, bands are pushing it again to where everyone is buckling down and trying to write heavier and put more into the music, which I think is great. It’s the years of playing and dedication to get to that level.

Maelstrom: Speaking of Morbid Angel, it seems that you life revolves so much around this sort of music. When Deicide toured with Morbid Angel in 2001 and I was in Chicago, I think I saw you. You were a roadie, or something. I was like, “isn’t that the Vital Remains guy shuffling around backstage?”

Tony Lazaro: Yeah. I was guitar tech.

Maelstrom: Do you do that a lot?

Tony Lazaro: I did it for three tours with Deicide.

Maelstrom: What’s it like being around this kind of music and this scene all the time?

Tony Lazaro: For me, metal is my life, so it’s normal. I’ve been in the scene in New England for 20 years now. It’s what I know. This is what I like to be around. It’s not that I listen to it and then go home. I sleep, eat, shit and breathe it. There are days when I may come home from practice and just sit there, but there’s other times when the music’s playin’ 6-8 hours a night.

Maelstrom: I read that you have a girlfriend. How does that work out with this kind of music, or is she into this kind of music?

Tony Lazaro: I met her at the Milwaukee Metalfest. I always had to meet girls that were into similar things.

Maelstrom: And how tough is that?

Tony Lazaro: Yeah! It’s been crazy. They’ve come and gone. Music for me is first. Sometimes girls don’t want to take a back seat to that. She’s very supportive and totally into it. She’s got a wider, more open-minded view of music. She listens to more than just death metal and black metal. She likes old school rock and southern rock and all the stuff in between. But she’s very supportive. She worked while I took off a year from any kind of work to do this record. So, I’m very thankful to her for puttin’ up with all my shit for all these years that I’ve known her. Havin’ that support is great. It’s hard havin’ to bang heads with someone, so that’s a plus with her. She’s behind me 100 percent; she knows that what I’m on this earth to do is lay music.

Maelstrom: That’s what good women do. I was looking at the site and it says that there are a whole bunch of other bands that you either are or were in.

Tony Lazaro: Those are bands that only people that knew me locally, like older guys who are pushin’ 40. Those are bands that I wanted to put on there to let people know that it wasn’t just like I started when I joined Vital Remains in ‘89. No, I was in death metal bands as early as ‘83, ‘84.

Maelstrom: How old are you?

Tony Lazaro: I’m 35. Me and Glen are the same age.

Maelstrom: Are you in any other bands now?

Tony Lazaro: No, ever since ‘89, it’s been Vital. Me and Dave have thought about puttin’ out a black metal album, ‘cause we like a lot of black metal, too. We didn’t want to do it under Vital and have people criticize us, “now they’re jumpin’ on this black metal thing.”

Maelstrom: I think the black metal thing is over, though.

Tony Lazaro: Yeah, I know! (Laugh) You know how people can be if you change your style completely. There has been black metal influences in our music. Sometimes we’ll jam a different style and have talked about it, but we’re bound by contract so we can’t do anything on the side, anyway. But maybe down the line. We even talked about doing a power metal record.

Maelstrom: Would Dave sing? (Laugh)

Tony Lazaro: Who knows? He probably could! He’s goofed around with it. But with his style of playing, we could really...

Maelstrom: Yeah, if he can play Malmsteen...

Tony Lazaro: Exactly. We’ll see what happens.

Maelstrom: Every time Vital Remains puts out a new record, there’s a totally different line up. It’s like a phoenix that burns up and comes back. Isn’t it tough to have a band under those conditions?

Tony Lazaro: It’s tough, but the fans know I’m not going anywhere. The way I look at it, whoever is with us at the time, is with us. You can find people who start out 100 percent into it, and as time goes by they start to get less and less, to the point where you’re carrying them. And I that point I don’t think you can be productive. When you have a bunch of people pushing 100 percent, you can accomplish things and progress. But shit happens with people. Sometimes it’s stressing, but the thing that’s kept me going is that I’m going to continue to write the music. If people are with me, then that’s the lineup. Me and Dave have decided to have hired guns [when we tour]. Who it’ll be will be unveiled soon and put up on the site. The way I look at it, bro, is that if they want the gig, they should work for it. In the past, we’ve taken people aboard too quickly, without letting them go on the road and see if they could hang and make it through. People have this perception that it’s easy and all glamorous. It’s far from it. They think it’s all kinds of money, which I think is funny. If you want to make money, this is not the way to go. No, you get in a van with a bunch of guys and go across country. You work your ass off, you barely get any sleep and you don’t get to take showers every day. It’s rough. You might come home with a little; you might not. But the love for the music has got to be in your blood.

Maelstrom: What’s your best experience or memory with Vital Remains?

Tony Lazaro: When we went over to Europe in 2000, that was really, really cool. We went and played countries that we had never played before. We didn’t know what kind of fan base we had, like Poland. We got to experience having that many people that embraced the band and had Polish flags with Vital Remains logos on them. It happened in Russia, too. They waited till 9 o’clock at night for us to show. It took us all day to get across the border, with all the paperwork. They didn’t have computers then. We literally waited there 10 hours. Finally, when we got to the gig, as they were starting to walk home, they saw the bus and came and started shaking it. Coming off the bus and having people shouting your name and, “Vital Remains, you made my life complete by playing here!” Shit like that is what charges me, the charge to say, “see, it’s things like that - the appreciation from people. It’s a whole different culture and language, but they appreciate what you’ve written.” The whole band was overwhelmed. Or, like playing in Mexico, and having those people embrace us as well. Knowing that there are people out there that love our music, we don’t ever want to let them down.

visit Vital Remains at www.vitalremains.cjb.net
         

from left to right: Dave Suzuki, Glen Benton, Tony Lazaro.

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interview by: Abhishek Chatterjee

Psychotogen are one of the more talented death metal outfits today. You only need one listen to their Perverse and Unnatural Practices CD to convince yourself of that. Below is an interview I conducted with the drummer, Chris....

Maelstrom: Your CD seems to be almost like two different bands. The first three or four songs are in a traditional death metal style while suddenly in the second half of the CD there is some crazy (and awesome) experimenting going on.

Chris: There's a reason it's that way. We originally started out as a two-guitar band, and the second guitarist really brought a lot of old school influence into the sound. In the Dust of Your Own Nothingness was written before Jeremy, Tony or Rob were even members of the group. That was written, with the exception of my input regarding arrangements, solely by the original second guitarist.

It wasn't until the 2nd guitar player left that we started to really gel as a unit. Then we started to broaden our horizons and write songs like "Death of the Old Ways" and "Follow Me." That's why the album sort of changes towards the midway point, the songs where roughly put on the album in the same order that they were written.

Maelstrom: So right now you guys are happy with one guitarist? Isn't there something that you feel having a second guitarist could help improve?

Chris: At the moment we're pretty satisfied being a one guitar band. That's not to say that we won't change our minds tomorrow though. It would be nice to have a second guitarist to play harmonies, counter point rhythms, etc... but it's also nice to have a nice clear sound in a live situation, something you don't always have with two guitarists. Tony's actually able to be heard because he doesn't have to compete with two distorted guitars blasting through the speakers.

Maelstrom: The sound is pretty fantastic with every instrument shining through in their clarity. Psychotogen must be pretty happy with the work done by Ron (Vento, producer)?

Chris: Oh yeah, it's killer working with Ron. It really helps that he's a metal musician as well (with Aurora Borealis, interview in issue #11 - Roberto), so he can really relate to what we're looking for in the way of a strong production.

It really is a challenge for Ron, as he's got to somehow squeeze Tony's bass lines in the mix somewhere. There's not many extreme metal acts that have bass players of Tony's caliber and it's really difficult to get the bass to come through the mix well when it has to compete with double bass, thick guitar tones and screaming vocals. Just knowing that Ron is willing to rise to that challenge is enough for us. I highly recommend him to any metal band out there looking to record.

Maelstrom: I agree with you there, Tony's bass-work is totally killer! So is the rest of the instrumentation! How long have you been playing your instruments?

Chris: All of us have been playing for some time now, we all started playing in our early teens if not sooner. Our ages range from 25 to 30 (with Tony being the youngest) so we've all had at least ten years of playing. I don't think that any of us have had any formal training, as far as I know we're all self-taught.

Maelstrom: Can you give us some insight into the recording process that you adopted. which tracks were laid down first?

Chris: We record pretty much the same way most bands do, we didn't record live or anything like that. I record 25 to 50% of my drum tracks without a scratch track, that's about the only thing that we may do that other bands usually wouldn't.

If I remember correctly, the album was recorded in the same order that the songs appear on the disc. The instrumental "Psychotogen" was recorded last, that one was actually created in the studio so we saved it for last.

Maelstrom: I remember getting a mail from Greg about some line-up change but don't quite remember the details. Can you give us some info about that?

Chris: Yeah, unfortunately things weren't working out between Rob and us, and although we both made an effort to make it work, a parting of the ways was inevitable. It's kind of odd for us as Tony and I have jammed with Rob, between Pessimist and Psychotogen, for almost nine years and we've all been friends with him for longer than that.

Fortunately, Mike Harrison (ex-Misery Index/Pessimist) is there to fill that void, and he's undoubtedly going to do one hell of a job at it. Mike's gonna be the one to take us to "the next level," and really add to the diversity of the next album.

Maelstrom: What happened? Was the split due to musical differences or personal reasons?

Chris: Basically, Rob had moved to Florida to complete his education, and unfortunately was having a difficult time finding work back here in Maryland once his education was complete. We waited for a year and a half for him at which point we were quite frustrated, so we came to the conclusion that Rob would have to leave the group. Although it was an extremely difficult call to make we feel that it was a necessary move if the band was to continue. There's no doubt in my mind that the band would have eventually disbanded if we had not made the decision to ask Rob to step down as vocalist for Psychotogen, as we definitely found ourselves spinning our wheels and not moving forward. Nothing sucks more than pointless idling.

Maelstrom: How many of you were in Pessimist? Why did the split happen?

Chris: All of us were in Pessimist for varying amounts of time. Both Jeremy and Mike were second guitarists for a couple of months. Mike did a video shoot with us in New York and a handful of shows.

I joined the band sometime in late '94 and Tony joined shortly after the release of the Absence of Light demo sometime in '95. Tony left shortly after the release of Blood for the Gods, and I left sometime around the end of '99.

As for why we split, I guess it was just the old cliché of "creative differences." I think that Kelly ultimately wanted to steer the band in more of a Krisiun/Hate Eternal direction (something that eventually did happen with the Slaughtering the Faithful CD) and Tony's style, as well as my own, just didn't fit into that style.

How we all ended up coming back together again as Psychotogen was really just dumb luck, it's not like we all left Pessimist with the intent of starting a new group. I actually jammed with the original guitarist for about six months before any one else agreed to jump on board.

Maelstrom: As of right now, what is Psychotogen up to?

Chris: Right now we doing pre-production for our next release, which is scheduled to be recorded in late April for a possible early/mid-summer release. It's called The Calculus of Evil, and it's gonna continue with the style we had on songs like "Follow Me," only much, much more diverse and intense. Once again we are going to work with Ron Vento/IQ studios. Fans of metal bands that are a bit left of center like Believer or Gorguts are going to dig this one! We're also preparing for our first post-Rob gig at the Maryland Death Fest -- www.supremebrutality.com/fest/ -- along with bands like Suffocation & Pyrexia. That is going to be one hell of a killer show!

Maelstrom: That surely is something to look forward to! The news about Suffocation being back in action is something that every death metal head is looking forward to, and I imagine it's going to be an awesome experience to get to share the stage with them! By the way, have you played with them before when you were in Pessimist?

Chris: I'm fucking psyched!! We played on the same day as Suffocation at the '98 Milwaukee fest (their last show) and we played with them in Baltimore along with Forbidden and Testament, both times they kicked ass.

Maelstrom: I've heard Necrophagist will be playing there too. Have you heard them before?

Chris: Nope, I must admit that I'm not really up on all the underground bands that are out there at the moment. When it comes to the Maryland Death Fest I'm familiar with Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia, Suffocation and Dying Fetus and that's about it. That's the one thing that I really dig about festivals such as this one, there's tons of opportunities to get turned on to new bands that you may not have heard otherwise.

[Ferg (of Bring Out Your Dead Prod.) says: I've heard of them and have their CD Onset of Putrefaction. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not what I expected (given the title of the CD) they are acutally quite technical and not a Carcass or Cannibal Corpse "clone" band by any means! Excellent guitar work. (hell, yes! Check out Maelstrom's review of Onset of Putrefaction here, and read the interview with Necrophagist! - Roberto)]

Maelstrom: How would you describe the new material you have been writing? With respect to this Perverse... CD ?

Chris: I think we take the sound that we had started to develop with songs like "Follow Me" and "Death of the Old Ways" and run with it. This next album is gonna have some Spanish-styled flemenco playing and acoustic runs, and at the same time it's gonna have a ton of double bass and more blast beats than the first album.

We've tried to write without putting any limitations on us. I think the guys that are solely into Cannibal Corpse and Deicide are probably going to not like this album, but I guess you can't please everyone. Fans of Opeth, Dillinger Escape Plan, Death, Anacrusis, Gorguts, Cynic, Believer, Atheist and Nevermore - bands that attempt to color outside the lines - are really going to dig this album.

Maelstrom: Psychotogen is one of the few underground death metal bands to have a professional management agency (Bring Out Your Dead Productions). How is this helping out the band?

Chris: Bottom line is there probably wouldn't be a band without BOYD Productions. Surely we would have choked the living shit out of each other by now without them, as they handle the business end of things, freeing us up to create and thus alleviating a lot of stress. Tony and I had been a good bit dissatisfied with how things had worked out in our previous group, so it's fucking killer to be able to enjoy playing music again.

Maelstrom: How did you get in touch with them? Were they friends that you knew from before? Many bands might not feel comfortable with handing over the business aspect to someone else.

Chris: They've come out to some of our shows while we were part of Pessimist. They saw us play at the '98 Milwaukee fest, which is probably the best show Pessimist ever played. Rob was the one that was really instrumental in bringing the Fergs and the band together.

As for the issue of trust, the Ferg brothers are two of the coolest guys you'll ever meet; trusting them was never a concern for us. The Fergs help us out because they liked what Psychotogen was doing, as well as the entire scene in general. They do it because they enjoy supporting and being a part of the scene, death metal doesn't exactly bring in the bucks!

It's too bad that more bands couldn't enjoy the sort of support we have, I've seen a lot of really good bands dissolve because of that lack of support.

Maelstrom: What are the major musical influences of the band members?

Chris: There's a wiiiide variety of influences that go into the "Psychotogen sound." We all dig everything from the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Bella Fleck to Suffocation and Gorguts and a ton of shit in between. I think it's best to steal a little from a ton of influences, rather than steal a ton from just a few.

Maelstrom: Mahavishnu Orchestra?? wow! It's quite difficult for me to imagine you guys sitting around and listening to that!!

Chris: Yeah, we've all got diverse influences. In my CD player right now is Duke Ellington, Tower of Power, Into Eternity, Evanescence and Destruction's Live Without Sense - I dig all kinds of shit. I never understood why an artist would intentionally want to limit one's self by only using a small handful of influences.

Maelstrom: How often do you guys jam?

Chris: On Sundays - that's it. In Pessimist we jammed three times a week, and in hindsight that may have been a bit too much for us. Jamming once a week keeps it kind of fresh for us, we're not just dragging our asses in from work just to go through the motions and go home.

Maelstrom: And what is your own daily practice schedule like? Or do you have a daily practice schedule?

Chris: Now that we're so close to recording our next album, I've been running through the entire album at home almost on a daily basis. I don't have a kit at home, I just jam air drums to the rough demo we have. That's how I learned drums, I was too poor as a kid to actually buy drums so I learned through playing air drums to stuff. To this day that's still how I learn new material and rehearse old stuff.

Maelstrom: What do you think is the most important quality of a good death metal drummer? Concentration or stamina? I've tried playing the drums a few times and no matter how much I used to concentrate, the moment I tried to use my feet I used to forget what the hand was doing. Any tips on how to get about stumbling blocks like that?

Chris: I guess it really comes down to a matter of opinion. A lot of death metal fans seem to dig the real fast blasting stuff like Krisiun or Angel Corpse. That stuff is really impressive and definitely requires a shit load of stamina, but I tend to lean more towards the over-the-top technical drummers like Flo from Cryptopsy and Chris Pennie from Dillinger Escape Plan, stuff that makes ya say "how the fuck did he do that!!"

As for learning drums, I would suggest 1) playing very slooowly at first and 2) playing to as many CDs as you can. A lot of drummers in death metal tend to go straight to learning the blast beat first, in the process neglecting the very rudiments of playing such as maintaining a constant tempo and playing in the correct time signature.

Maelstrom: What are your professions? Do you have a hard time getting leave and stuff fro work when you go on tours or are the people there understanding?

Chris: Mike works with computers, Tony's an electrician, Jeremy repairs photocopiers and I do landscaping work. So far we haven't had any problems with our employers, but we also haven't toured for more than a week at a time yet due to our situation with Rob. Now that we have Mike in the group I'm sure we'll be playing out much more frequently.

Maelstrom: Can you tell us about the equipments which you guys use?

Chris: Well, I don't know much about Tony and Jeremy's gear other than Tony plays an Ibanez bass and Jeremy plays on Jacksons and Les Pauls. That's about the extent of my knowledge regarding their gear. As for my stuff, I've got a black nine piece Pearl export series kit, Sabian cymbals, Remo pinstripe heads, Axis pedals, Pro-mark sticks, DDrum triggers, an Alesis D5 and a full Tama power tower cage.

Maelstrom: Name five albums with the most fucked up over-the-top drumming

Chris: Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Cynic - Focus
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Death - Individual Thought Patterns
Spastic Ink - Ink Complete - Ink Complete is enough to send a guy into full-blown seizures!

Maelstrom: Okay, Chris, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview. Wish you all the best with the band and please use the remaining space to type out your contact addresses and anything else that you might wan to say to our readers.

Chris: Thanks for the interview. Our new CD, The Calculus of Evil, featuring new vocalist Mike Harrison will be released this summer. Check out our web site at Psychotogen.com for updates, mp3s, photos, etc.

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

This is part two of two of our chat with Stephen O’Malley. This interview focuses on his ambient project Lotus Eaters, in which O’Malley joins Aaron Turner (Hydrahead Reacords, Isis, Old Man Gloom, et al) and James Plotkin (Atomsmasher, Khanate, et al). Please check out O'Malley's website at http://www.ideologic.org.

Maelstrom: I like to think of Mind Control for Infants as being the soundtrack to a ghost town. What do you think of that idea?

Stephen O’Malley: I like to think of Lotus Eaters sounds as old. Not ancient, but... old.

Maelstrom: I picture these dusty streets... there’s a part that sounds like a door clanging. It sounds heavy, but it fits in with the theme. The hinges are falling off, and it’s smacking with the wind. It conveys this image of past memories of people who used to live there. Now it’s desolate. It’s a cold feeling. There are a couple parts of warmth, but most of it’s very cold.

Stephen O’Malley: Yeah, that’s where it starts out. That’s great to hear that you got so much visual out of that music. It’s definitely something we’re trying to do. Evocative sounds inspire more visual things.

Maelstrom: You worked with Aaron Turner on this. I’m a big fan of his House of Low Culture (interview in issue #7) project. He was telling me how he was really inspired by his house. I don’t’ know if you’ve ever been there, but he said it’s really old, and how he gets sounds out of his radiator ‘cause it’s super old. It might have been perfect that you picked him to help you out.

Stephen O’Malley: Actually, the entire record was recorded at his house.

Maelstrom: Ok, well, there you go!

Stephen O’Malley: He has a room in back that’s painted orange. It’s the recording room. It was something we talked about doing for a few years. I ended up moving to New York and we finally got together in Boston. We brought James (Plotkin, of Phantomsmasher and Khanate) along, too. We started making stuff in late 2000. It turned out to be a great collaboration. I love working with James and Aaron. It’s inspiring and a lot of fun. As cold as the sound can be, there’s a lot of passion put into that. We’re friends who respect each other.

Maelstrom: The design of Mind Control for Infants sort of has a Hydrahead (Aaron Turner’s label) like design. I know you’re big into design and have done some important things. Who made this art?

Stephen O’Malley: I designed the logo and art directed the piece. The photos are pretty significant. They relate to the old aspect [of the record]. On the cover is a picture of my grandfather and his twin brother in the 20s. James’ great uncle is getting into the biplane and Aaron’s grandfather as a student are the other two main photos. I did some initial design, and Aaron worked on it, too. That’s another fun thing about Lotus Eaters, is the fact that I get to work with designers I respect and collaborate on the visual side of it.

Maelstrom: I understand that Lotus Eaters is improvised by using whatever is available in terms of instruments. Did you get together with Aaron and James in this orange room and say, “ok, let’s go with it!”?

Stephen O’Malley: Yeah. It’s not purely improvised. The actual recording is improvised, but we have a starting point in mind. Just going in blind doesn’t work as you end up spending a few hours figuring out just what you’re doing. That’s a similar way that Sunn works as well. We don’t have a completed structure, but there are some rough ideas.

Maelstrom: I was reading that you made that cover for that In the Woods record Omnio. First of all, I love that record, and the cover is really interesting. I’d like to take a guess on what that is.

Stephen O’Malley: Ok.

Maelstrom: It looks like pancake batter. That, or a membrane of some sort. It’s kind of gross, but it’s definitely the cover for that record.

Stephen O’Malley: It has humor. That band had a lot of humor.

Maelstrom: So what is that, Stephen?

Stephen O’Malley: It’s not pancake batter. I think it’s light through a blown glass vase.

Maelstrom: So what does that have to do with humor? What’s funny about that?

Stephen O’Malley: Well, it’s abstract. I thought it looked like foam on the sea, or molten something. But I think it’s humorous: you can see a food element in it. In the Woods was pretty light hearted, even though they’re music is pretty...

Maelstrom: ...right, pretty heavy! (Laugh)

Stephen O’Malley: But still, they had personality; very happy people. Plus they’re open about interpretation and don’t really want to be too straight and narrow about what they’re doing.

Maelstrom: Why did you stop putting out Descent?

Stephen O’Malley: It got boring. I got sick of writing about other people’s music and wanted to make my own. Dissecting hundreds of albums per issue belittles the music after a while, and it was burn out, for me, anyway. You have to translate all these non-verbal things into language and explain it in a relatively short period of time. It got to be too much.

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interview by: Abhishek Chatterjee

Scent of Death: You might not have heard of them, but beware...such a devastating force will not go unnoticed for long. Savage death metal with technical twists, this is a band you need to check out immediately. Bernardo (guitars / vocals) answers some questions for Maelstrom...

Maelstrom: Hi Bernardo. Your MCD is really stunning. How long has the band been playing? Is this the first recording that you have done?

Bernardo: Hi, Abhi. Thank you very much for contact us and for your support. I'm going to introduce you in the world of Scent of Death. You are going to smell the Scent of Death!!!!! Well, to answer your question, we started in September 1998. We have been playing since then with original members Nuno (drums), Jorge (guitars), Carlos (bass) and Bernardo (guitars), and only that we had for one year a vocalist called David, who after the first concert left the band. We began to record on September, 2001, at Taller de Música, Ourense, Spain. As a result, we released our first MCD, Entangled in Hate, which was produced and edited by ourselves. The MCD contains a total of six songs, four of brutal and fast death metal and two pure instrumental. We had thought to record this MCD a year before, but some problems with the studio delayed the recording. So, we can say we have been playing for three whole years before recording this MCD, and now we are four years old than when we started, hehehe…. I know it's time enough for having released at least another demo or MCD, but we have no hurry. We prefer to have things well done, than fast and done wrong.

Maelstrom: Any luck in finding a label yet?

Bernardo: Yes, we have signed a deal with Necromance Records from Spain, for the edition of our new full-length album. It will be at the end of 2003, I hope, hehehe… But we still have not worked together. Necromance Records is only one of our distributors here in Spain, and a big friend of the band. The manager of Necromance likes our music a lot, so I think this fact is very important for a good promotion of our new album later. I think he is going to give all for us in the promotion. So I have no more to ask him for. He is the editor of Necromance Magazine, which is devoted especially to death metal, which I think is good for us. Please check out his website for the latest news about Necromance Records at www.necromancemag.com.

Maelstrom: So what plans have been finalized for the next recording?

Bernardo: We are working very hard on the composition of the new songs, and I hope to be able to make a handful of good songs that destroy the ears of the listeners, hehehe... For this moment we have two songs finished and other two songs in progress. New songs are in the vein of the title song of our MCD Entangled in Hate, but perhaps much more technical and brutal, with a lot of tempo changes, and perhaps more dark too. On the other hand one of the other two songs is a mid-tempo song, no blast beats, no speed, only heavy and dark riffs, in the vein of Morbid Angel with that double bass drum very fast. This song will become in the point of contrast between the other songs of the album.

Maelstrom: So are you planning to record all new songs for the full length or will any of the songs on this MCD be repeated?

Bernardo: It’s too early to say anything about this, but it's possible that one of the songs of the MCD will be re-recorded for the new album. But what's for sure is that the song will have the same sound as the rest of the album… What we'll never do is to add the song as it's recorded now in the MCD, because we want Luis to put his own personality in the chosen song. We have thought to include a cover as an extra track, but nothing is still decided.

Maelstrom: Which bands would you say you are mainly influenced by?

Bernardo: The inspiration… Well, I think everything you listen to can become an influence for what you play, but I'd say that we prefer those bands that play brutal and technical music. But our influences come fundamentally from the American brutal death: Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus, but the reviews that we are receiving say that we have influences of Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Immolation, Incantation - and even Death. This may be, and from my point of view, and only hearing four songs, means that there is a lot of variety of rhythms in our music, but only in a brutal dimension. I think that we are doing very well for a band that is just in the beginning. But the listeners should judge for themselves. Each member of Scent of Death has a lot of bands between his favourites. For example, Carlos is a maniac of Slayer (the old stuff, of course, hehehe…), Jorge likes a lot the classic music and bands like Opeth and similar, Nuno likes some gothic and industrial bands and the most extreme black metal, Luis is a great fan of the old gods as Venom, Destruction, Possessed, and many more, and I like too some guitar players as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and the classic heavy metal as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest,… But we have in common one point: our love for brutal death metal. This is really the kind of music we like to play, so bands as Cryptopsy, Gorgasm, Immolation, Morbid Angel, are constantly in our cd players, hehehe… Only brutality shall prevail!!!!!!!

Maelstrom: Now who is Luis?

Bernardo: Luis is our new vocalist. He entered in the band at the end of November 2002, and now is a fixed member of Scent of Death. He has a powerful voice and I think he's the vocalist we were looking for. Luis has a great quantity of vocal registers, appropriate for guttural voice and for the screams we use in some parts of the lyrics. I think he is an essential part of the band now and has a better voice than mine.... He has to travel each weekend about 100 kilometres to jam with us because he lives in other city, but he does it because he loves to be a member of Scent of Death. We wanted a five member line up… This way we could be dedicated to our respective instrument at the 100 percent of our possibilities. And what's more important, this line up makes us much more aggressive live, hehehe…

Maelstrom: The liner notes say that the instrumental song "Perpetual" was written by Daniel. Who is he, an old member of the band?

Bernardo: Yes this song was written and recorded by Daniel, but he's not an actual member nor an old member of the band. He is just a good friend of the band. We had thought about including some instrumental pieces in the MCD, and we want it was a melancholic and melodic piece. We could do it by ourselves, but we liked having more people going to the studio and taking part in the record. And he is a good friend, and came a lot of times to our rehearsal room to see us, although he doesn't like death metal at all; he comes from the classic music and likes some progressive metal bands. But, after requesting his collaboration he consented without any problem and there the result is, over the sea of sound you can find quite a melancholic and melodic piece. The same happens with the violin in "Epilogue." It was recorded by another friend. We wanted something different to close this MCD, something that makes the listener stay astonished for a while, hehehe… And I think the sound of a violin is not usual in a brutal death album.

Maelstrom: Have you been playing in any bands before Scent of Death? What about the other guys?

Bernardo: No, I never have been in any other band, at least serious ones, but all the other members come from other bands. Nuno has been in a band called Osmosis, a death metal band, but not brutal. They had released a demo with five songs, but after that they had to leave their rehearsal room with no luck to find another in a short period of time… Meanwhile Mingos (guitar and vocals) accepted the offer of Unnatural and left Osmosis, so the band disappeared… Carlos was the bassist of Osmosis too, and before that he had played in Mugre, a death-thrash metal band, in the earliest 90's… Jorge came from Suffer Age, a death metal band too, and they had recorded a demo tape that never was released. It was a pity because I think it was a very good demo at that time… And Luis is the vocalist in Immacula Mortem, a black metal he is still singing with.

Maelstrom: Which city are you from? Are there a lot of shows where you live?

Bernardo: We live in Ourense, which is part of a region called Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. This is a problem too for playing live, because we have to run a lot of kilometres to go to other cities in Spain… and for the other bands to come here!!!! In our city there is only one live club, and lately they do not want to do concerts, at least with extreme metal bands, because they say that they lose money. But in Galicia, in one city called Vigo, where I'm studying, there are a lot of concerts. Here some important bands as Obituary, Napalm Death, Vader, Behemoth, Marduk, Decapitated and Krisiun have come. Now tours with Deeds of Flesh, Dying Fetus, Hate Eternal and Severe Torture are planned. But the small bands usually play here, because people support the live shows. In this city there are a great underground scene, and the most important for our region, I think.

Maelstrom: Most of the bands I get to hear from Spain are grindcore or goregrind. Which are the other bands out there that play your style of brutal, technical death metal?

Bernardo: Well, good question, my friend, because I'm very anxious to tell everybody that I think we are in rebirth of Spanish underground. As you say perhaps the most known bands outside Spain are the grind ones, as Haemorrhaghe, Tu Carne, Forensick, or Machetazo (although now they are more in Brutal Death...), but now in Spain there are a lot of bands in the vein of brutal and technical death metal. A good example of it is Baalphegor, a very talented band which have just edited their CD debut. Totally recommended!!! Other bands are Chamber of Shred, Dyspraxia (ex-Impacto Fecal… then they played Grind and now changed into brutal and technical death…), Cerebral Effusion, Human Mincer, Rotten Minds, Velocidad Absurda, Holocaust, La Matanza, Nemesis Aeterna (dark death metal), Kevlar Skin, Imbrue (now in Necromance Records too…) and many others…. But the most important thing for me is that bands are starting to record their albums, MCD's, demos and other stuff in order to promote worldwide, and this is the first step to build a good underground scene here in Spain. Perhaps the second step, the support of people at shows, will be harder to reach. It is a pity that bands so incredible as Absorbed (ultra technical death metal and gods for me, hehehe…), Unnatural (Gods!!!!) or Uncreation have come undone with the musical level so high that they had reached.

Maelstrom: Have you ever had the opportunity to play outside Spain? Which country would you like to visit the most and for what particular reason?

Bernardo: Yeahh!!!! I received this question just in time, hehehe…. Because this past weekend we have played in Portugal for the first time, in a three days festival, with 25 bands …and some of them a very great and big bands as Enthroned, Sanatorium, Internal Suffering, Katatonia, Damnable,… It was great to play there and we had a lot of fun with the guys of the other bands we played with, hehehe… Two days drunken and with no time for sleep, hahaha… And it was a great fest of extreme metal, brutal and blasphemous!!!! Certainly we would love to play more times outside our country!!!!!! A European tour would be great in principle, and then to continue to the United States. Once there down through all of South America... it wouldn’t be bad, hey? Hahaha… But our desires are one thing, and reality another. In this world it is necessary to have your feet very well positioned in the ground. For that reason I think that it is necessary to proceed calmly but without falling asleep. But to answer your question, I'd say that an USA tour would be the most we liked, because the best bands we like come from USA. The underground market there is biggest than in other countries. In that way our music could be listening more easily by metal maniacs.

Maelstrom: How often do you guys jam?

Bernardo: Well, now we do it only a day per week, usually on Sunday. But one year before we jammed two times per week. This change was because our drummer is now doing collaboration for the recording of the new album of Fermento, which is near to be recorded. This way is impossible for us to jam the same days we did before, because he has to part his time between Fermento and Scent Of Death, and all along the rest of the week he is working very hard. Our bassist, Carlos works during the week and I'm studying out of my city, a hundred kilometres away, so it’s impossible too for me to stay continually rehearsal from Monday to Friday. In this situation we can't do more than we do now… This is the reason we don't compose songs so fast as we want to. You'd say: "yes, but you can compose a song at home and then finish it in the rehearsal room…", but this is not our style to do it, because we need to see how the song is looking like with all instruments before continuing the composition of the song.

Maelstrom: Who writes the music and lyrics?

Bernardo: Jorge is the main compositor in Scent of Death. He has done musical studies that no other member of Scent of Death has. He realizes the composition of the song at home, and come to the rehearsal room with the guitar riffs… If we like the riffs he brings, then the song continues, and if not this riff is forgotten forever, hehehe… So we can say that, although he is the main composer, all members in Scent of Death have a great participation in the composition of the song too. And sometimes when he is in a dead point, all members collaborate to continue the composition… The drum parts are composed by Nuno. He does that in his own way, but with the same condition for being accepted: all must like what he plays. The lyrics are written by Jorge and Carlos.

Maelstrom: Your music seems to have some elements of Gorguts Erosion of Sanity, to my ears at least. And especially your vocals...Have you heard that album, and what do you think about this comparison?

Bernardo: Yes, of course I know Erosion of Sanity… Gorguts was and still are a great band. I like a lot their first two albums and their last two, too. I suppose not many people likes Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate because it’s music difficult to assimilate at first. About my voice, I agree with you… I like this style of vocals because it’s much more whispered than the current death metal voices but very aggressive at the same time. Perhaps other examples to compare my voice could be the voice of Carcass in Heartwork and Necroticism... albums, not so whispered but in the same vein, you know what I mean… But I think you are wrong in terms of the music, at least it's not a deliberate influence… But thank you very much for this comparison. If our MCD really reminds you of Gorguts, we are proud of it!!!! Hehehe….

Maelstrom: Name some of the best albums ever, in your opinion...

Bernardo: Well, you can see this question in our website in the "US" section, hehehe… There we have indicated the best albums ever for each of us… But I'm going to name only five, although it is very hard to do, hehehe…
- Morbid Angel: Domination
- Suffocation: Pierced from Within
- Immolation: Dawn of Possession
- Disincarnate: Dreams of the Carrion Kind
- Cynic: Focus
But in no particular order, and as I said before, a lot more of them should be added, hehehe…

Maelstrom: Could you tell us a bit about the gear and instruments which you guys use?

Bernardo: Ok. Nuno uses Ludwig drums, with double bass drum, four toms and about seven cymbals. Carlos uses Ibanez five string bass and Fender 140 W amplifier. Jorge uses Marshall Valvestate amp and a second right hand guitar, but he is left handed. I use Marshall Valvestate amp and Assia Guitar which is fucking big, hehehe… Jorge and I use Boss Metal Zone pedal and an equalizer pedal, but of course we want to change all these fucking guitars when we have enough money, hehehe… And finally Luis uses a normal microphone and his powerful voice to destroy the ears of those who listen our music live, hahaha.

Maelstrom: What do you guys do to earn a living?

Bernardo: Nuno is working in a wood factory, a very hard physical work, which limit him to play his drum all days he is able to, because some days he is very tired after work. Carlos is working too with wood, but I think is not as hard as Nuno's work… Jorge is finishing his musical studies with the piano… Luis is in the university studying history. I too am in the university finishing my studies to become a full engineer, hehehe… For today I'm only a half engineer, hehehe.

Maelstrom: The cover is a bit too dark. Was this a problem with the printer or did you want it that way?

Bernardo: Well, when I did the artwork of the MCD, we wanted to use the photo you see in the cover, with the tank and the carbonized cadaver, because we think is very representative of the title… But we have not bought this photo and its rights for using it. This would be impossible for us, for monetary reasons, obviously… The photo is downloaded from the Internet. The best way avoid any problems was to make some changes in the photography and make it darker than original picture. In this way we got the second effect we wanted, which is to make that the name of the band more legible and the first thing you see. But I'm with you that the cover is a bit too dark in the final version, perhaps more than I see in my monitor.

Maelstrom: Okay Bernardo, thanks a lot for taking the time. Wish you all the best with the band, and please use the remaining space to write down any last words.

Bernardo: Thank you very much, Abhi and the Maelstrom Zine team, for this interesting interview. I hope this interview will introduce a little bit more to maniacs worldwide into the world of Scent of Death. And to you, metal head, if you want a copy of our stuff or ask us some other question, you can write to this e-mail address: info@scentofdeath.com

Check out our recently online website at www.scentofdeath.com and write some blasphemies in our Hatebook, hehehe… Or write to this postal address: Nuno Miguel Pérez; Ntra. Sra. Do Viso 4, 2º Izq.; 32005 Ourense; Spain. Sure response!!!!! Thanks.
SUPPORT THE TRUE UNDERGROUND!!!!!

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

1349's music has been described as audible hellfire. That pretty much says it all. This Norwegian group’s first proper album (after their self-titled MCD from a few years ago) sees the quintet reaching levels of extremity and skill before unseen. As vocalist Ravn puts it, they like to play “on the edge.” Sounds like an apt assessment. (all photos taken from www.peterbeste.com by Peter Beste, whom we interview in this issue under "black metal photography.")

Maelstrom: The new record that you put out is certainly a lot different than the mini-CD that you did. It’s a huge step forward in terms of sonic art. The first thing I have to ask you is, it’s so fast to the point I wonder if it’s sped up at all.

Ravn: (laugh) I can assure you it’s not sped up.

Maelstrom: That’s impossible!

Ravn (left): Hu-hu. Well, I have to tell you that this was recorded in autumn 2001. Since then we have developed ourselves a lot musically. We are currently working on a lot of new material. I can also tell you that it will be faster.

Maelstrom: Oh, come on! How?

Ravn: Hahahaha. Well, the songs demand it and Frost is up to it.

Maelstrom: Wow. Most people can’t play with two hands what he plays with one hand.

Ravn: We’ll, we’re very delighted. That’s why I asked Frost to do the drums in the first place. Originally I played the drums, but it was too much for me. I had to make a decision to play drums full time or do the vocals. The early material didn’t affect him so much, but when he had the new material, he was very impressed and wanted to join us on a full time basis!

Maelstrom: I’ve heard that Frost is a rather strange guy, or, that he’s a true black metal guy - he embodies the sense of the word. What is he really like?

Ravn: Frost is a guy that does everything 110 percent. He can’t stand for less.

Maelstrom: You can tell by his playing style.

Ravn: He’s really a remarkable person and a great inspiration for us in the band to have his strength to push us to develop ourselves in extreme ways and to play on the edge.

Maelstrom: What’s it like with you and your role? What is challenging for you in terms of the vocals?

Ravn: I can focus more on how we build up the songs. I can sit there during the rehearsals and listen and figure out different ways to play it. That’s kind of hard to do when you’re playing drums, as you have to focus on what you’re playing.

Maelstrom: Let’s talk a bit of the sound of the record. Going back to my impression that it was sped up, the resonance of the drums is very short and clicky, not like a triggered sound. It sounds different than most other records. In terms of production, what did you go to the studio to do? How is it different from the album before?

Ravn: I produced the album. I chose an analog studio. We used a 2-inch tape recorder and 24 tracks. If you listen to just the drum track, you will hear that it’s not sped up as you can hear a depth to the drums. The resonance is short because, to make them sound as fast as they are, you have to compromise a bit by using gates.

Maelstrom: What does that mean?

Ravn: You use an effect that opens for some milliseconds every time you hit the drums. He’s playing so fast sometimes that it’s hard to adjust it.

Maelstrom: So you’re saying that if you didn’t gate them, it would sound like one big blur?

Ravn: It’s a bit give and take in the recording process. We didn’t trigger the drums. That’s why we have to use the gate thing. Most other bands use trigger sounds.

Maelstrom: I like your way better. It’s more organic sounding.

Ravn: Frost was a bit against triggering before. He didn’t do it on the Volcano album (of Satyricon - Roberto). Live, we trigger.

Maelstrom: Can you gate live?

Ravn: Yes, you can. It’s an ordinary effect. What you gain mostly by using triggers in live situations when you’re playing so fast on the drums - which you have to take a lot of time adjusting in the studio, because you’re always playing on the edge - is that all the sound is there at once. You just adjust the triggers. You can use microphones inside the bass drums to get the clicking sound and you can have the deep sound coming out of the triggers.

Maelstrom: But doesn’t that change your sound so totally? For me, listening to this Liberation album is so much about the experience is this sound, which is not very bassy. If I go to see you live and you have these triggers, I would imagine that would change the sonic experience.

Ravn: That’s kind of part of the challenge. We’re very focused on not having the drums sound like triggered drums.

Maelstrom: Like, you know when you go to see these death metal shows like Vader...

Ravn: Yes.

Maelstrom: Yeah, of course you know what I’m talking about.

Ravn: Yeah, of course. I don’t like this sound. You can hear the bass drums, of course, but you can’t feel them.

Maelstrom: The big fault I find with this sound is that, when it’s badly done, all you can hear is the bass drums. A funny thing about metal is that a lot of times they don’t make the snare loud enough on stage. I’d like to hear the snare. It’s sort of like ambient music otherwise.

Ravn: That’s normally no problem with Frost. He’s hitting so fucking hard. (Frost pictured at left)

Maelstrom: I’ve never seen the Satyricon DVD (or seen Frost play live). Can you describe how he plays? Is it all fingers?

Ravn: He uses his fingers, yes. He sits home, watching TV with a drumstick, hitting a pillow using his fingers. So he has worked up this incredible speed in his fingers.

Maelstrom: The record is called Liberation. Liberation from what?

Ravn: First of all, it’s a liberation for us to get this album out. I have to tell you that the mini-CD wasn’t supposed to be released.

Maelstrom: Why not?

Ravn: It was a demo, but Holycaust Records enjoyed it so much that unfortunately, we said yes.

Maelstrom: So you’re not happy with it at all.

Ravn: No. As you said at the beginning of the interview, the sound was very different. It was a demo, and it was unfortunately released, but we can’t complain about that now.

Maelstrom: What else is the album a liberation from?

Ravn: It’s meant to be a liberation from this synth style black metal. As you may have heard, we don’t use synthesizers.

Maelstrom: Right.

Ravn: We do, however, use a pump organ. Have you noticed?

Maelstrom: I have. It’s toward the end, isn’t it?

Ravn: Yes.

Maelstrom: What’s a pump organ?

Ravn: It’s an old organ on which you have to use your feet to pump the air for the organ.

Maelstrom: How cool. Where did you find that?

Ravn: We have a guy that has one at home. We went in a car and picked it up. First we wanted it on just one song, at the end of the song “Liberation.”

Maelstrom: So you thought about the pump organ before you knew the guy who had a pump organ?

Ravn: Yes. The bass player realized he knew this guy who had a pump organ. I said, “great, bring him in.”

Maelstrom: I think the big problem with the synths is that, essentially, synthesizers synthesize: you can generally tell that it’s not the real thing. If you had a synthesizer playing a pump organ, it wouldn’t sound as good. I don’t know if you’ve heard the new Solefald, but it has a loto fo non-synthesized instruments, like trumpets and saxophone. That’s really cool. Why synthesize a flute when you can get someone to play flute for you?

Ravn: I like to work with organic sound. That’s why I chose the analog machine for the recording. I did also record it digitally. You just don’t have the depth in the sound. I was struggling very hard to get this. I’d like call it the bottom of the picture. It isn’t there.

Maelstrom: You said the record was recorded in autumn of 2001. That’s quite a bit ago, or is it not?

Ravn: Yes.

Maelstrom: What’s been going on since then?

Ravn: We tried to sign a record deal.

Maelstrom: I’m surprised that is was that difficult. Were you very picky?

Ravn: Yes, we were. One thing led to another and I think things got a bit out of hand. Candlelight has been very patient with us. We tested them a bit, but it’s good to know they really wanted us. It was supposed to be released on Holycaust Records, but both me and him found out it was too big for him. He said, “the potential of this album, I can’t fully handle it for you. I don’t have the distribution.” Also, Candlelight were already interested. The lawyers took a lot of time. Our lawyer is in France, for some reason. He has a lot of other bands to do. As I said, one thing led to another. I have a lot of work, also.

Maelstrom: You mean, outside the band?

Ravn: Yeah, unfortunately.

Maelstrom: The non-black metal stuff.

Ravn: Well, I try to keep it a bit black metal.

Maelstrom: (laugh)

Ravn: I work with other bands. I do lights and pyros.

Maelstrom: I understand that 1349 is the year the Black Plague came to Norway.

Ravn: ...yes! Correct. You’ve done your part. (Almost dead laugh)

Maelstrom: Yeah. I did a little research. Can you give us a little bit more of a history lesson on that?

Ravn: It came to Norway and wiped out one third of the population. Norway was the country in all of Europe that got struck hardest by the Black Plague.

Maelstrom: What’s next for 1349? I imagine you’ll have another record within a year.

Ravn: We’re going to record it hopefully during the summer, and it’ll be released early next year, if we keep with the schedule. It’ll be a bigger album in every way. The sound will be a bit different.

Maelstrom: When are you coming to the States?

Ravn: As soon as possible! I have a feeling Liberation is an album that will suit Americans more than Europeans.

Maelstrom: Yeah, like it real hard here.

Ravn: Yes. It’s real intense and aggressive. If they like death metal bands that are aggressive, this will blow them away.

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interview by: Tom Orgad

Even when viewed and referred to within the context of their local avant-garde and experimentation-infused Czech Metal scene, Forgotten Silence still notably stand out as a remarkable phenomenon. While aesthetically adhering to the traditional attributes of extreme metal, including dominant segments of vocal growls, blast-beating drums, heavy guitar riffing etc... this assembly of musicians hardly deserves to be counted as a part of the flourishing underground Eastern European current. During the years of their existence, the varying line-ups of Forgotten Silence (fronted by the core of Krusty on bass/vocals and Medved on guitars) gave birth to manifold conceptual pieces, dealing with unusual themes as The House of Spirits novel, and Senyaanâ - an aphoristic wintry myth, and lately mostly focusing on oriental tales.

When reviewing the multitudinous aspects of their creation, noticing the lengthy, epic compositions, atypical of the metal world, delicate melodic movements and rhythmical nuances, featuring hints of jazz and classical music, and the aforementioned leading concepts, one may reach the conclusion that Forgotten Silence is actually a progressive rock band wearing a superficial outwards robe of extreme metal imagery. I was thrilled when I had the chance to approach Krusty with some questions regarding the works and views of the band, trying to learn more of the origins and motives of their ideas and creative urges, which lead to their unique form of musical expression.

Maelstrom: Could you state any common denominator, a guiding motive present in all of your active musical creation? do you consider your art moralistic, aesthetic, religious?...

Krusty: Hmm, this is a very interesting question. I’ve never though about it this way, honestly said. But I think there’s no higher philosophy or religion behind our music and lyrical concepts. We are no philosophers or preachers! Look, we are normal people who want to live our lives. We want to be good and honest...and we want to meet and cooperate with good and honest people, too. That’s it. Of course, I could say we are inspired by higher magic, kaballah, djinnism, necromancy and gore activities, but that’s bullshit. Our main inspiration (and topics of our texts) is and forever will be (probably) life itself. Dreams, love, desires, sadness, hate... I know very well it´s like the usual cliché answer, but it´s true .

Maelstrom: Your conceptual works don't seem to imperatively fit the Nihilistic, rebellious metal principles (growls, ultra-heavy riffing etc.) Why do you choose to keep embedding such elements in your works? do you find yourself compelled to match the definition of a "metal band," thus obliged to the typical aesthetics?

Krusty: We were and still we are fans of metal music. That´s the answer. A lots of zine editors think metal riffing and guttural voice are too simple and almost stupid. Maybe, but I still like energy and intensity jetting from metal music. On the other hand, we really like progressive music and art rock. We´ve fallen in love with such music about eight years ago, and it still lasts. If you ask me about 100 percent ideal music, I’ll answer, “fusion of energy, atmosphere and musicianship.” Isn´t that a definition of art rock ?? Good news for opponents of metal attributes: we plan to use clear vocals only on our new release. We also want to use more acoustic guitars than distorted ones. We will see.

Maelstrom: Let us talk about some of your releases. I find the idea of Thots intriguing. What led you to beget a creation derivative of "The House of Spirits"? Why did you choose to convey it using such aggressive, stout sonic foundations?

Krusty: Thanx for your nice words. Thots was very successful release for us and for our then record label, Obscene Productions. Something like breakthrough for Forgotten Silence. Some people still think it was our best release ever. The theme of “The House of Spirits” (or novel La Casa De Los Espiritos, which the movie itself was based on) simply amazed me. What an overwhelming and simple theme at the same time !! It is story about life; Nothing more, nothing less. Just read my last answer again. Ha, ha. Do you know this book or movie? It is too dull to say: it is a story of one Chilean family. It might sound like “The Simpsons” or “Married with Children”..ha, ha, ha!! But the novel /book is more serious and much better (although I´m a big fan of the family from Springfield!). I can recommend it to all your readers. All the song material was composed by me and guitarist Medved only. We were a two piece band at that time. It was so funny to rehearse in our rehearsal room with bass and guitar only. Then keyboardist Marty joined us [and since left]. We still miss him. He was very skilled and very creative. Unfortunately, he joined a stupid religious group and quit his musical activities. Drummer Milon wasn´t bad at all, either! Good line-up, good song material, a piece of luck?

Maelstrom: Could you shed some light about the idea of Senyaan? is it a fairy tale, does it convey a certain message? What does the title mean (The story leaves it quite ambiguous)?

Krusty: Surely it is a quite ambiguous. We want people to use their own fantasy and imagination. Senyaan is simply something we´ve lost a time ago. And it might be anything: independence, mental freedom, connection with nature, dead human feelings and emotions, love, tolerance, or an ancient realm/promised land - just like in the story of “Senyaanâ.” Senyaan is like a symbol for me: you can find this word even in The Nameless Forever...the Last Remembrance (MCD from ´94) and our Thots (MCD from´95 + CD from ´96). I remember I was in a strange mood while writing these lyrics. I was really negative and pessimistic about our lives and Senyaan’s lyrics follow this path. Total hopelessness. For me it is the darkest and most hopeless album of all times. Freezing, cold, and white/blue coloured. The story tells about a bunch of people marching through the snow covered plains, dark forests and high mountains and searching for their promised land: the forgotten empire of Senyaan. Only one of them survives. Any message? Huhu, maybe: create your own life and enjoy each day. Don´t let others rule your life. We will keep our fingers crossed, because it is a futile fight.

Maelstrom: On Ka Ba Ach (and earlier on Hathor's Place) you feature a strong influence of oriental, mostly Egyptian themes. How were you inspired to take this direction? Does it have anything to do with your travels around the world?

Krusty: Oh, friend, don´t tell anything about Egyptian themes. A lot of journalists write about Egyptian music, but it is a big mistake. What the hell is it, anyway? I bet NOBODY has ever heard true ancient Egyptian music. There are no dots or sheets of music, played or composed 2000 years B.C. So let´s speak about Arabic or oriental music. Sure it is connected with my traveling. I visited Egypt twice, and it was probably the best time of my life. I´m interested in ancient Egyptian history, architecture, religion and culture. I read a lot of books about this part of history, but I don´t dare to say I understand it. The more you read, the less you know, ha, ha, ha! It will surely sound a bit cocky (just like, “look, I´m an experienced traveller,” but it is BULLSHIT!!), but I visited Al-Uqsur, Abu Simbel, Al-Qahir, Valley of the Kings, pyramids in Saqqara and Al-Jiza, temples of Kawm-Umbu, Idfu, and I was just like in a dream. Wow, I can not write about it. I wrote everything in the <Ka Ba Ach> lyrics. I love this country. That´s all I can say about it. Arabic music attracts me also a lot, so percussive and filled with (for us) strange melodies. We all know about oriental metal bands like Orphaned Land, Pentagram/Mezarkabul, and Vintage Solemnity, I´ve got also artists like Raksha Mancham, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ahmed Abdul Malik and a lot of folk music from Turkey and they are more true, if you know what I´m talking about. And I can not forget my private goddess Natacha Atlas. I have a lot of friends in Turkey. And I´ve discovered very interesting music thanks to them. Our new 7"EP, <Yarim Ay>, is also inspired by oriental music (and it is dedicated to all my friends in Anatolia). Lyrics are also inspired by my traveling through the Anatolian countryside. Unfortunately, we, the Czechs, aren´t able to compose authentic oriental music, simply because we aren´t from the orient. Look, I love Nile (I mean death band from USA) and I respect them. All their albums are magnificent. But their “oriental” metal is so superficial and imperfect in comparison with the original from orient.

Maelstrom: It seems that you have been focusing on the aforementioned
middle-eastern elements for quite a while now. Should we conclude that Forgotten Silence has finally reached its constant conceptual destination? Or is it just another temporary, slightly longer phase?

Krusty: Ha, ha, I really don´t know, man. Maybe it is our final destination, maybe not! Never say never. As I said, such music inspired me a lot and I will always try to compose such sounding music. Maybe I will form something like a side-project one day. Maybe. I don´t know. Anyway, oriental music is closer to my heart than Irish, French or Czech folklore. More exciting.

Maelstrom: Let us know some more about your process of composition. What comes first, the lyrics or music? How do you match the texts with the accompanying musical background? is there any specific main composer and lyricist in the band?

Krusty: Lyrics or music? Hmm, maybe lyrics are completed sooner. But I wrote lyrics for six songs. Then we made six compositions and finally we matched song and lyrics and put them together. Sad lyrics to sad music. Texts full of energy to intense music, etc. But we have about 10 minutes of new material and no lyrics now. So it differs from time to time. Definitely lyrics are very important and some lyrics are more important than music for me. Music is a result of all band members, but the main composers are guitarist Medved and me. The majority of musical ideas always come from our heads. And I´m the only lyricist.

Maelstrom: I imagine a Forgotten Silence gig to be an outworldly occurrence. Do you manage to arrange such complex compositions to be performed on stage? How does the crowd handle such a challenging experience?

Krusty: I was always totally against us playing live. It was something unthinkable and unimaginable for me. But the rest of the band forced me into it, ha, ha. Our first gig was organized 3.4. 1999 (three days before my travel to Egypt). We played with our friends Sad Harmony as a support band. And this evening was excellent. People from the whole Czech Republic came. Really nice!! And it was not the end of our live performances at all, because we played at Dynamo North Power Jam fest (three days festival with really big names!!) and as a support of mighty Testament the same year. It was in 1999. Then we did one gig in 2000 and three in 2001. I was really afraid of the audience´s responses, but people know our music and they know it is not something extremely catchy and groovy. Our fans are open minded and they don’t expect a straightforward musical holocaust. And if they do, they should visit an death/grind festival, ha, ha! I like death or even grind, but I don´t like to play it.

Maelstrom: I'm very interested in your artistic influences. Please don't only specify the obvious favorite bands and musicians, but also external fields, as visual arts, literature, philosophy...

Krusty: Obvious fave artists firstly: Yes, King Diamond, Asia, Emerson/Lake/Palmer, Vader, Nile, Natacha Atlas, Madonna, Uriah Heep, Rush, Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, Spock’s Beard, Pentagram/Mezarkabul, Orphaned Land, U.K., Sade, Mercyful Fate, Sodom, OSI, Testament, Sebnem Ferah, Mayhem, Bathory... Visual arts? Do you mean graphic designers or painters? Maybe Yes/Asia/Uriah Heep designer Roger Dean. His landscapes are extremely fantastic and almost drug influenced, ha, ha! I know, that guitarist Medved really adores Giger´s artworks. Also, Bosch´s pictures drive us crazy. Literature? Frankly said, I’ve been reading non-fiction literature last four years. Everything about Egypt. But as I remember, I read De Sade´s 120 days of Sodom two months ago, and now Flaubert´s Bouvard + Pecuchet. My big problem is that I bought another book about Egypt again, so another non-fiction literature awaits me again, ha, ha! Philosophy? No, no, nothing. I believe in myself and in nature. I don´t find it interesting to read about another one´s philosophy. I know it is not a very intelligent opinion, but I haven´t needed it this far.

Maelstrom: I believe one may locate two notable characteristics of the Czech metal scene: first, it features much avantgarde experimentation, including a relatively large amount of bands not sticking to the "standard" metal routine. Second, there doesn't seem to be much fascism and racism apparent in it (a situation which is not similar in some of your neighbouring East European countries). What do you think is the reason for these attributes? please, correct me if I'm wrong about any.

Krusty: Hmm, what to say? About fascism and similar shits: you are right, there are more such bullshit in Poland or ex-USSR countries. I absolutely don´t understand it. But I can list you some very dull black metal bands, flirting with nazi/rasism from Czech. Their music isn´t
bad at all, but their image is so strange and I´m very sorry for that. I mention one band only, because I think their music is good: Inferno. Unfortunately, I don´t agree with their philosophy. And avant-garde/experimental bands? Maybe in the past, because for example
Demimonde split up. And they were probably one of the most experimental bands. Most people say we are experimental band and some of them say we are the best Czech experimental crew. But I´m not the one to say we are the best one. It is not my business. The truth is there are some more or less experimental doom bands like Let Od Raje or Dying Passion, but are they really avantgarde/experimental bands?? And what does that mean, anyway?? There is a lot of REALLY experimental artists, especially in our area near Brno. Bands like Boo, Rale, female singer and violin player Iva Bittova, Dunaj, Tara Fukiâ, but there is no connection between them and metal music.

Maelstrom: What is your opinion regarding the creations of racist and fascist artist? Do you find the artistic output to be necessarily connected with their extreme opinion? do you oppose listening to it?

Krusty: Yes, I oppose to listen to it. Lyrics and artist´s image are important for me. It is good to know what your fave singer sings about. That´s why I hate Benton´s Deicide and bands like Graveland. Maybe it is not so good to connect texts and music together. Maybe music itself is the most important and the rest is just like needless ballast. Maybe. On the other hand, I have to admit I listen to artist which lyrics are more or less unknown for me.

Maelstrom: Any new promising rising forces in your local scene you would like to inform us about?

Krusty: I recommend Insania, Sas Harmony, Cerebral Turbulency, Kaviar Kavalier, Hypnos, Anime (band of our ex-guitarist Biggles), Dying Passion.... there are also promising combos like Dissolving Of Prodigy, Endless, Hermafrodit, Ingrowing, Silent Stream Of Goddless Elegy, Avenger, Isacaarum, Dark Gamballe, Vuvrâ, and all the avantgarde musicians from the Brno area I mentioned.

Maelstrom: What are the future plans of Forgotten Silence - albums, gigs, sideprojects...

Krusty: Our last release is still quite actual, because it was released in the end of 2002. It is our fourth 7"EP, called Yar Äim Ay. You can get it both in normal black and picture edition. Our first plan is to form a brand new line-up. The core of Krusty + Medved and new members. Very skilled guitarist Paia joined us a few weeks ago and it is a pleasure to rehearse with him. Everything reminds me our Thots period a lot. Two or three guitarists in the middle of empty rehearsal room trying to make some noise, ha, ha! It´d be great to compose a new album during the next three months and to record/release it in the end of this year. Keep your fingers crossed !!!!!! And then: a few concerts!

Maelstrom: Thank you very much for the time and effort.

Krusty: It was my pleasure to answer your nice questions. Thanx for all and hail to all your readers. Thanx for the support!

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interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Everyone’s got ‘em. Those songs that bring you back to a certain experience you had that was marked by a strong emotional state. Students of a technique called neuro linguistic programming call these things anchors. That’s kind of a cold way to think about it. It’s more like flavors. The Gathering’s latest album, Souvenirs, is about such connections.

It’s certainly been a huge transformation since the group’s first record in 1992, when they were a doom metal band with pinch harmonic riffs, weedy keyboards and growly vocals. From the release of the first Anneke van Giersbergen-fronted record, The Gathering slowly eschewed their metal leanings, but never lost the emotionally heavy yet exquisite melody.

Since their last triumph, 2000's if_then_else, Holland’s favorite melancholic rock band has embraced the jazz/ trip elements from that record and devoted an entire work to them. It’s been a metamorphosis of somewhat Ulverian proportions, which is quite fitting as Kris Rygg, Ulver’s main man, guest sings on Souvenirs. I spoke to drummer Hans Rutten about how things were going.

Maelstrom: Tell me about the new record.

Hans Rutten: This time we worked a lot on the rhythm section. We wanted more drums and bass oriented songs.

Maelstrom: You have a lot more of this jazz-type drumming. It’s more laid back and a lot of interesting use of the high hat. They’re not odd times, but they feel sort of odd. It’s a huge contrast with your first record with Anneke, Mandylion. Just in terms of the drums, it’s a lot more interesting now.

Hans Rutten: Thanks very much. I think so, too.

Maelstrom: What was the impetus that made you start to go in this direction?

Hans Rutten: We never said to each other, “let’s not make a metal record this time.” It just sort of happens. We listen to a lot of music. We let our compositions run freely. There are a lot of exciting bands right now that affect us. We’re not trying to copy them, but we’re trying to rebuild the Gathering sound every album. We had some feedback on if_then_else; we discussed what we liked and what we didn’t like. Things we liked a lot were songs like “Amity” and “Analog Park.” We flirted with a bit of stoner rock things with “Colorado Incident” and “Shot to Pieces,” but it’s not our strongest point. There are better stoner rock bands.

Maelstrom: I don’t think there are enough of them.

Hans Rutten: That also!... We at really at our best at songs like “Amity.” That was the starting point of Souvenirs. Hugo (Geerligs, bass) and I also wanted to achieve something more organic, and as you said, laid back. We wanted to have a groove in it.

Maelstrom: You don’t play with your hi-hat open on the new record. The result is that it’s a lot quieter.

Hans Rutten: It is. It’s all to achieve a crystal clear sound. The bombast is gone. At first we had massive guitars. Those are gone. With an open hi-hat, you fill the entire high spectrum. I come from a doom metal band: Always, our first record, has doom oriented drums. There’s more in life than doom metal. I still love doom metal, but you want to grow and do new things.

Maelstrom: Kris Rygg does a duet with Anneke on the new album. Have you met Kris Rygg?

Hans Rutten: No.

Maelstrom: How did The Gathering hook up with him?

Hans Rutten: I bought the Ulver Perdition City album, and I really loved it. The development of Ulver touched me a lot. It’s more or less the same story as The Gathering. I really love Perdition City very, very much. I think it’s a masterpiece. I sent him an email and wanted to give him a CD. He was very enthusiastic. We sent him a demo, and he sang on it and made some piano lines in his own studio. He promised us that he’d sing this song with us when we play in Oslo, though he hates to play live. It’ll be a very cultish kind of thing.

Maelstrom: You mentioned briefly about things you didn’t like about if_then_else. Like what?

Hans Rutten: Production-wise, it was a total mess. We did some stupid things. Going from analog to digital, some things went wrong. We didn’t have enough time or enough money, so we had to finish the album not totally satisfied, though we were satisfied about a lot of songs. This time, we said to each other that we would finish it first and then make an announcement, which is obviously quite difficult to do. We had already written a good bit of it in 2001. It’s like a good bottle of wine. “Kill your darlings” is a good term for it. We killed a lot of darlings, because we had the time.

Maelstrom: I have to say that in spite of your comments, if_then_else is my favorite Gathering album. I like the songs a lot. Speaking of this record, I wanted to ask you about the last track, “Pathfinder.” It’s a wonderful end to this record. Is there any sort of theme about this? You’ve got this sort of bee-like, humming sound. It’s really wonderful.

Hans Rutten: Well, it’s just a nice title. It was a sort of imaginary film title track. At that time, we wrote the theme from “The Cyclist.” We love to create movies in our head - maybe it’s a stupid hobby - and then write the music to it. That’s what happened with “Pathfinder.”

Maelstrom: One of the big contrasts I find between Souvenirs and the last records is that Souvenirs is a lot more cut and dried. What I mean is, the last two records seemed to have a theme or a lot of parts like on “Pathfinder” or “Analog Park” that have this ambient wandering in it. It gave a lot more fullness to the record, whereas this one sounds like 10 separate songs that start and end.

Hans Rutten: Exactly. We wanted to have a more homogeneous idea. The diversity on the last record was maybe a strong point, yet also a weak point. “Pathfinder” is totally different from “Shot to Pieces.” It’s a bit too much diversity. So we decided to create an atmosphere to stay in for Souvenirs. We wanted too much on if_then_else. It was too much a playground.

Maelstrom: I really discovered if_then_else when I took the promo of it on my trip to Norway in 2000. I went to Bergen and was checking out the famous Fantoft church. It rains in Bergen like, 265 days out of the year. It was pouring down rain, and I’m standing there, listening to my walkman, listening to “Amity.” Whenever I hear that...

Hans Rutten: ...you’re back.

Maelstrom: I’m back there, wandering through these little patches of forest, visiting this church, and it makes me so happy.

Hans Rutten: Exactly. So “Amity” is a musical souvenir for you.

Maelstrom: Yup.

Hans Rutten: Well, that explains a bit the title of Souvenirs. I think that’s the best compliment we can get. “Amity” is connected with some image you have. That’s really great to hear. I have a lot of songs myself - not Gathering songs, of course - that draw me back into time to very good moments; sometimes bad moments. Most of the time good moments: holidays, ex-girlfriends, whatever.

Maelstrom: Can you think of a song that brings you back like that?

Hans Rutten: Well, I’m a big Police fan. If I hear Ghost in the Machine, which was the first album I ever bought, I go back in time to my youth. I’m with my mother and she’s making sandwiches for me. I smell the air, I smell the house, I smell the old cat walking around. When I put on that album, no matter how depressed I am, I’m there again. It’s a sort of catharsis.

Maelstrom: Where do you live in Holland?

Hans Rutten: In live in a small city near the German border, called Nijmegen. It’s a very old city, built by the Romans 2,000 years ago. In fact, I live in a house that dates from the 15th Century, or something. One of the first stone houses in Nijmegen. That’s interesting, and sometimes a bit spooky, because it’s really alive. It’s an organic building. That’s what I really like a lot. I had two American friends from Chicago stay with me, and they didn’t sleep at all. They heard a lot of noises. Not animals or mice...the house is very old and you hear everything.

Maelstrom: What are you most fanatical about?

Hans Rutten: I’m quite fanatical about defending things. It could be my girlfriend, the band, whatever. If somebody comes to the band and says something negative, I’m in flames, really. I’ve got a bad temper. Not killing somebody, but flaming. I know it’s not that good, but it’s there.

Maelstrom: You you’re the aggressive, passionate one in the band?

Hans Rutten: (laugh) Yeah. My brother (René Rutten, guitar) also.

Maelstrom: So it runs in the family.

Hans Rutten: Our name is Rutten. We originally come from Norway. It means “rotten” in Norwegian. I think our ancestors were a bunch of Vikings - really harsh and loud and drinking beer. Roaming and plundering the little Dutch rivers. I think there’s still a bit of that left.

Maelstrom: If you guys are the fierce ones, what about the other people in the band?

Hans Rutten: They’re the more relaxed ones. René and I are by far the most hot-blooded ones. The other ones are always telling us to take it easy. So there’s a balance.

Maelstrom: If you look for Gathering records, you can still find them in the metal section, at least in the United States.

Hans Rutten: In Holland also. It’s a stigma we can’t get rid of.

Maelstrom: You’re not on Century Media anymore, right?

Hans Rutten: No.

Maelstrom: Why not?

Hans Rutten: The contract was fulfilled.

Maelstrom: They gave you pretty good promotion, didn’t they?

Hans Rutten: Maybe in America... We wanted to go on and continue and do something else.

Maelstrom: So you’re on your own label now?

Hans Rutten: Yes, Psychonaut is our own. It’s very good to start our own thing.

Maelstrom: Are you going to have other bands?

Hans Rutten: Not this year. We are a very big band on a very small label, so we have a lot of work. In the end, we will sign bands.

Maelstrom: On your upcoming tours, whom are you playing with?

Hans Rutten: In our tour in Norway, we’ll play with Pale Forest, a very interesting Norwegian band.

Maelstrom: They’re also considered a metal band, though.

Hans Rutten: Yeah, but they’re not metal at all.

Maelstrom: I know, but...

Hans Rutten: ...but they’re still in the metal section, yeah. But, what is metal? Maybe we have to redefine metal, then.

Maelstrom: I’m not arguing with you about that.

Hans Rutten: No, I know.

Maelstrom: It’s kind of funny that you’re going out with bands that are...

Hans Rutten: ...post metal...

Maelstrom: ...considered metal, but there’s nothing really metal about them.

Hans Rutten: There’s a post metal scene going on... Art rock. Of course we still feel connected because we’re still in the metal scene, but we make more friendly music. Strange. I think maybe we have to redefine metal. For me, metal is not only distorted guitars and loud drums and making strange, satanic poses. It’s maybe a bit more broad than everybody thinks.

Maelstrom: For example, we were talking about Kris Rygg before. Kris Rygg sells most of his Jester Records albums through metal channels, even though Jester has nothing to do with metal at all.

Hans Rutten: It’s the darkness. There’s still a sort of doomy darkness that’s present in his material. You have to get connected to something, or else you don’t have an audience at all. You need a starting point, even if you’re a pioneer. With metal, you can experiment a lot. It’s a very healthy, experimental playground.

Maelstrom: Will you see yourself ever playing the Wacken Open Air festival again?

Hans Rutten: Uhh...we’d have to consider it.

Maelstrom: What was your experience like?

Hans Rutten: We played in ‘99, after our American tour. We had enormous jet lag. I don’t even remember anymore. I was half awake. It was a good response. We played quite a lot of How to Measure a Planet songs, so the reaction was quite mellow, which is normal. There was sun, a lot of drunken Germans sitting in the grass.

Maelstrom: Do you think your fan base is mostly male or mostly female?

Hans Rutten: It think it’s around 50/50. It’s good. Metal and rock and alternative kind of people come. It’s really great. We’re really crossing over, and it feels good.

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