Twinmusix chat with BELPHEGOR tabot their new Album and more
You released you EP ‘Bloodbath in Paradise’ in 1993, how would you describe your music to have changed between now and then?
Yeah next year we celebrate having achieved 25 years as a band. its still unreal to me. We always were able to develop and increase intensity, and that has been the main goal since ca 15 years, as long as we are excited and can challenge ourselves we are unstoppable.We have become way better musicians now over the decades of course. Our focus also changed regarding some things, but we still represent the same attitude and never joined any trend nor split up. We are still here, ready and loaded to march in worldwide and are stronger than ever before. Nowadays we are one of the spearheads of the extreme Metal genre. There is no other band you can compare with BELPHEGOR, we definitely achieved creating our own signature trademark sound.
What can fans expect from your new album “Totenritual”?
First off, I'm not so into the word "fans", that word is kind of degrading, in my view. They're the reason we get to continue doing what we live for and shred on maximum capacity. Thank you to all the people that support us, stay loyal on our site, get our merchandise/ LP´s, listen our soundcollages and attend the rituals. For „TOTENRITUAL“ we said we wanna experience and try a new really low tuning for guitars. A new challenge and an interesting experiment,…it was a great decision and it opened a new realm to my playing. It is another state of extremities soundwise and everything exudes total DEATH even more. I despise restriction or stagnation. We always try to outdo ourselves you know. We do this by changing up the recording/ writing process as well as studios and producers and add new arrangements to the musick etc.
Your new album “Totenritual” is being released on the 15th of September, what is the inspiration behind your album cover and who designed it?
We worked with Seth from Greece for the first time with the PESTAPOKALYPSE VI album 2006, followed by CONJURING THE DEAD 2014. 8 years later and now we collaborated with him again. And it was the right decision. together we created a „cold - obscure homage to the dead“ piece of artwork that we are all proud of.You can hear these ceremonial influences throughout the whole album. It is very different from the rest with the lyrics being very philosophical. Old magical manuscripts and works of Crowley are also referenced in the lyrics; sex, magick, and self-creation. It celebrates the inner ecstasy and self-empowerment that comes from sex for pleasure. Every sexual act is not meant to create new life and that is as blasphemous and insulting to the Christian ideas of human relations. I relish in this idea and practice. The mood is elevated and holds the spirit of what Friedrich Nietzsche preached: self-overcoming. That is what is represented within the artwork.
In 2014 you toured with Sepultura, what is your best memory from this tour?
To be honest that wasn't a really great tour for us. We didn't get treated as we expected. But ok, not every tour can be a great one, and we learned a lot as always, so I wouldn't want to miss out in the end, so to speak. Some exceed expectations, some fall short of them. That's life. Anyways I don't want to talk about it as its in the past. We have 2017 not 2011. It was a over eight weeks run, long exhausting raid, and we made it til the end and could recruit a lot new soldiers for our crusade and met many interesting people along the way. So it was something valuable.
You have performed at a large range of festivals, such as Wacken and Bloodstock Open Air what is your favorite thing about performing to such a large audience?
Yes its great. We played almost all huge events worldwide. some before a smaller crowd , others up to 20.000 people. Load of interesting have still yet to be destroyed and we hope 2018 we get invited and can play again as many as possibleopen airs in Summer Season. Its great you meet other bands, friends and all,..I adore summer festivals, always a great time to hang around. The ingenious Wacken open air, and Dark Esater Metal Meeting is already confirmed for 2018, and a few more that I'm not allowed to mention right now. Onward we will march to new territories to be conquered.!
A BELPHEGOR concert nowadays is a Ritual more than a typical metal show. As soon as I hear the intro, smell the incense, my mind switches to another zone or reality and I descend into another dimension and get into a trance-like ste . I adore leaving my body for plus one hour during a BELPHEGOR stage presence, letting the demons take over and get into total possession with the musick, its a pleasure, I almost cum if the ceremony is great and the audience get grazy and wild, and glorifying Lucifer with the band, it isMagick,…still one of the best most interesting things to me.
That's the essence of BELPHEGOR, to bring our sound to the next level, develop, get more intense and combine it with an authentic, possessed - raw Ritual show.
What is you music making process, do you sit in the studio and write it all together or do you write it individually, please take us through your process?
We start everything from the scratch, I've been responsible since 2006 for most of the musick, but also Serpenth became an important composer over the years and created lots of great stuff and helped with drum patterns and arrangements. For “TOTENRITUAL” he wrote his first full song, titled “SPELL OF REFLECTION”. Ca. two weeks each session and two times a day in our rehearsal bunker, the way it is meant to be if you ask me. I wanna feel the vibe/ the musick, let everything grow. I dont wanna produce plastic on a computer you know and just sending tapes around, meet in studio and track a half-hearted album. That isn't challenging in my opinion. The feeling between us three was amazing and we tried to make our most brutal offering so far with a Ritualisitc vibe througout all 9 sound-collages. Serpenth [Bass, screams], also does tattoo when he is not busy with BELPHEGOR and it he inked theoriginalBELPHEGOR logo on drummers stomach. That display of dedication made it more clear we wanted to take on the German drummer Bloodhammer in the band as a permanent member. He's absoluetly into Metal, which is great and a must for us. He plays a very dynamic and technical style. With him in the band, we were able to bring all aspects of our sound to the next level of extremity. For live ceremonies we alway srecruit a second session guitarist.
If you could have any band perform one of your songs, which band would it be, which band would you pick and would the song be in your style or there’s?
I would pick a classical composer like Brahms, Mussorgski, Bach, Beethoven or “THE DEVIL´S SON, Mr. Paganini. Would be an interesting experiment, of course only with classical instruments/ orchestrastation.
What is your view on the metal music scene today?
I dont care about any scene worldwide, I support what I dig and ignore the rest, no sense to spend energy nor time on shit I dont like, isnt it? Extreme Musick is not here to calm you down, it must get the blood pumping, heart racing, provoke rebellion and perhaps shock the mind. This is what BELPHEGOR stands for. I hope people can't wait to get the new offering, titled “TOTENRITUAL”, and support us, so that we can continue marching with maximum strength worldwide! As an artist its better to do your own thing in your own immediate circle. That's my opinion about it and it's the only way to gain strength and create for me. We always stayed hermetic and rather closed off to influences from each scene. Don't get me wrong: we adore Metal and loads of bands. To name them would produce an endless list.
Whats your favorite moment with your fans?
I don't like the word fans, nor do I use it, kinda decadent to me. We appreciate the dedication of the people who come to our concerts. I will start and work on a Biography in 2-3 years you can read it there, but be sure you re over 16 or there will be massive brain-damage after reading, I have a lot to tell about the “suicidal lifestyle” that almost killed me and that I lived and practised for almost 2 decades. We've been around +2 decades so we have sometimes two generations of supporters attending our Rituals. And it is great and often impressive when you for example see a couple like in Canada last time, waiting outside the tour bus for a photo and telling you they have been together for 10 years and bonded as they listened to the LUCIFER INCESTUS track. Many dedicated peopel that respect what we are doing and how we things do and how we roll. Or when people ink a BELPHEGOR relatetd tattoo under their skin it's an incredible honor to me. Also some people nowadays show up at Rituals with their kids, so that's the point in time when you realize how long you have been playing and doing what you do.
Do you plan on coming to Australia anytime soon?
It's a big priority for us, and we will cease trying only when the opportunity comes to us. Australia is still the only continent missing, which is crazy. I really hope we finally get the opportunity and can march into Australia 2018. Always when we got some offers, we have been in the studio or already had lined-up another tour/ festivals etc. Heard a lot of great stories from over there and that the Metal community is just loyal, strong and supportive, exactly what we dig and why we still marching on with maximum strength.
Who is your favourite band to perform with?
We played with so many inspiring bands/ artists in the course of the last two decades and it was great and exiting, you know there is a lot of passion, darkness and energy left and we will see what happens in the future. Just can't wait til we release “TOTENRITUAL”.
Furthermore, I'd like to mention that the digipak version of the album comes with two bonus live tracks, both recorded in April this year at Inferno festival in Oslo, Norway with the titles "GASMASK TERROR" from the "CONJURING THE DEAD" LP and "STIGMA DIABOLICUM" from "BONDAGE GOAT ZOMBIE".
As we are promoting your band, is there anything coming up like album launches or tour dates you would like us to promote on our site for you?
After the release of the new album we have ca 55 Rituals on the map til the end of the year, first we start tour Europe, followed by North America and mid December we do our last indoor festivals 2017,in Sweden, “BLACK CHRISTMASS”. So yeah we are solid booked til end year. As I've been saying, I hope we can come over to Austraila and bring full gear and glorify Death/ Black Metal with the people there in 2018. Hell awaits!
Check out Belphegor Album relase Link here - Belphegor band
Website Here http://www.belphegor.at/news.htm