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Deathbound

From: Vaasa/Oulu, Suomi/Finland/Perkele Members: Pete - Guitar Kai - Throat Sami - Drums Hannu - Bass Year Formed: 1995, but morphed into this in 2002 Violent death metal from Finland. Kai (vokills) talked to us... Welcome to Slay The Masses! Please tell us a little about the history behind Deathbound... The core of this band was formed by three metalheads in the small town of Haparanda, Sweden (1995). Check it out on the map! It's fucking nowhere. Well time passed and demos and shows were made/executed, all with good response from the crowd. Many members were replaced and deleted, some 'cos of stupidity... others just 'cos of the impossiblity of rehearsal. 2002 was the time for something more than demos and occasional gigs. Pete moved to Vaasa, Finland. There he met our previous drummer Q and his replacement Sami. To put this very long and borign story short, Pete moved and that's where all began to function with new fuel, Pete and Kai are the last ones remaining of the original line up. "To Cure The Sane With Insanity" is your lastest opus with a twisted title. What is the significance of the title? Is it Deathbound's mission to corrupt the minds of the masses with brutal death metal, driving them insane? I'm not lying when I tell you that I really don't know what I was thinking when I came up with the title. Something out of my mind, things just tend to pop up. But your point seems to have something to do with it. I would like to drive them insane with this, just to wake them up! "To Cure.." is released on Woodcut Records, and is your first label release I believe. Are Woodcut a good label to work with? We just switched to Dynamic Arts! A split 7" with Deathchain should be out as an introduction, sometime this year! What can I say about Woodcut Recs? They released the album, so I'm satisfied? We didn't expect anything more at the time, it just gets shitty when people promise too much you know. Deathbound I notice that in the band links, you mention countrymen ...And Oceans and Alghazanth. Is this evidence of strong kinship between Finnish bands? Yes it is, well mostly. The good thing with such a small country as this is that you can travel and get to know many in a short period of time, which isn't possible like in the states. Most of the metal population are easy to get to know, of course there are assholes here but I don't want to know them. As you can see in most of the booklets you read with Finnish bands, the friends are many and mostly the same names pop up. Continuing a similar theme, do you think Finland currently has a healthy metal scene? YES! Big "metal" bands get aired on radio, people aren't as narrowminded as before. It's great, lets just see what the future brings. By that I mean, will the melodic and not so heavy bands still keep selling lots of records, or will people seek for something more violent? Hopefully...but I doubt it. Not that we are in it for a buck, but it would be nice to get some recognition for years of struggle. I noticed that Deathbound have not had an easy ride with various problems over the years, do you think overcoming rough times as a band forges a stronger unit that are able to perform and write better? Hopefully it does, otherwise this is just too much hassle! Hehehe. To put it this way, new members bring in a fresh breeze of inspiration, which is always welcome. The choices we've made are nothing we regret. It's all gone for the better and we sound better than ever! What are Deathbound's musical influences? As you could imagine, I'm going to say death metal and grind in general! Music is our inspiration and of course we are influenced by all the bands we listen to. How would you describe Deathbound's sound? A train running at a million miles an hour, imagine that blurred with distortion. Who would you like to tour with? Entombed! What do the band members get up to when not writing or performing with Deathbound? Work, go to school and play in other bands like: ...And Oceans and The Duskfall Any last words for the readers and fans? Go and buy our album! And force your local clubs to book us for a gig! Check out www.deathbound.net for all stuff that is going on with the band. Stay heavy! Thanx for the interest.

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Theatres Des Vampires

From: Rome, Italy Members: Alexander - Singer Scarlet - Female Vocals Fabian - Keyboards Robert - Guitars Zimon - Bass Gabriel - Drums Year Formed: 1993-4 Fabian Necros filled us in about the new record 'Nightbreed Of Macabria'... Give us a quick description of 'Nightbreed Of Macabria'... 'Nightbreed Of Macabria' is a real change in our music style, which is now more gothic. Always as horrific as the previous albums, but we definitley abandoned the black metal influences. This album is a kind of gothic horror metal. To be honest with you I consider this one of our best albums ever for the production and the quality of songs. With this one we had the opportunity to have a real orchestra working with us, this made everything more dramatic and symphonic. What is the significance of the title? This is a concept album. Macabria is a land lost somewhere, a kind of land of dream and nightmare. This album tells the story of this forgotten land, a land where people lose their soul and body. 'Nightbreed Of Macabria' is released on Blackend records, are they a good label to work with? Blackened give us top priority as they consider us one of their best bands, so they always work in a nice way for us. Theatres Des Vampires Are you touring to promote the new album? If so who are you touring with? Yes we will tour for that. We will do some gigs now and some in the summertime, then we will start our tour massively from mid September to November. We will tour countries where we are already weel known so we will be headliners. In May, we will be the headliners of a gig in Zagreb, Croatia. 30th May we will play in the London Gotham 5 Festival, and then we will turn back to Italy for some gigs and festivals. From September we will tour again, in London, then Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Italy again... What is your personal favourite song on 'Nightbreed Of Macabria'? That is a difficult question. As I said it is a concept album, and you need to listen fully to the album to understand all the songs are linked to each other like a horrific soundtrack. It is difficult for me to explain, but I really have a problem considering this album as a song by song cd. I prefer to think of it as a long journey in a land of darkness, as a long unique song. Who designed the cover artwork for 'Nightbreed Of Macabria' She is an artist that lives in Italy, she works in television and cinema and she has had several awards for her works. Her name is Giada Giusti. In Italy she is quite famous, but in England you probably have'nt heard this name!! This is not the firts album of Theatres Des Vampires where she has designed the graphics, this happened in 1998 too for the artwork on 'The Vampire Chronicles'. We love her graphic style, so we contacted her again to ask for something nearing a Tim Burton atmosphere, and I think she had done a wondeful job!

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Alghazanth

From: Jyvaskyla, Finland Members: Gorath Moonthorn - Drums Thasmorg - Guitar A. Simonen - Synth Nebiros - Vocals Grimort - Bass Infection - Guitar Year Formed: 1995 With an interesting approach to black metal Alghazanth are a musically fascinating band. We got to know Gorath Moonthorn of the band... Welcome to Slay The Masses! Tell us a little about Alghazanth... Alghazanth is a six-piece group that performs Black Metal in a majestic yet aggressive way. During our nine years of existence we have conceived two demos, one promo and four full-length albums. I think that's the essential about us in a nutshell. What are Alghazanth up to at the moment? Are you recording a fourth album yet or is that in the future? Actually, we recorded our fourth assault, "The Polarity Axiom", already in November last year and the release date for Scandinavia is 31.5. I don't know the actual dates for its release elsewhere but just keep your eye on our site because we will post the information there as soon as we get it. What inspired you to start Alghazanth? Any bands/people in particular? The main impulse was the need to transmute our own ideas and visions into something concrete. Of course I can't deny the impact that bands like Emperor, Mayhem, Marduk, Immortal etc. had on us but I guess that listening to these groups just created a compulsive urge to present our personal viewpoint to this great art of Darkness. How would you describe the music of Alghazanth? I prefer the definition "majestic Black Metal" because it gives the most appropriate impression of what is to be expected from Alghazanth. The term "majestic" gives at least a hint about our use of synths and that there are a lot more layers in our music than there are in more straight-forwarded bands like, for example, Marduk. Some people have quite strong opinions about synths in Black Metal but I personally can't see how such musical elements could lessen a band's ideological aspect (by which the concept of Black Metal should be defined). Anyway, majestic Black Metal is a perfect description for Alghazanth. What are the lyrical themes behind Alghazanth? What are the songs about? I am responsible for all the poetry in our band and it's quite obvious that the lyrics are presented from my personal point of view. The main themes revolve around Satanism, the interaction between the causal and the acausal worlds, the disgust towards all religions and things like that. Even though everything is filtered through my own beliefs and thoughts, I have always tried to write the lines in a multidimensional way so that other people can relate to them without having to see every single thing like I do. Alghazanth How strong do you think the Finnish metal scene has become? When was it at it's strongest? When it comes to Death and Black Metal, I think that the scene here is currently at its strongest. I mean, if we should compare today's situation to the one we had when Alghazanth came to life in 1995, both the quantity and quality of the bands is totally on another level. Back then the scene was almost completely underground-based and very few bands had even a remotely decent record deal. Today the thing is quite the opposite as there are loads of bands around that have released an album through some rather professional label. Of course, a lot of shit is released but in most of the cases the band has really deserved a chance to be heard by a bit wider audience. I have a lot of nostalgic thoughts when I look back at the more ug-oriented times but it's not possible to return to such situation and therefore we should make the best of this current one. At least, now it's easier to reach more people with our art and to light up more Black Flames in the hearts of man. I read about the trend in Finland, "spine-metal" where the 'cool' kids buy Spinefarm bands (such as Norther and Children Of Bodom) music to show they are 'cool'. There is a similar pattern in the U.K. with nu metal like Linkin Park, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit. It is disgusting watching kids buy up these bands commercial music to proove that they are 'metal'. Do you think it is a big problem for real metal outfits in Finland such as Alghazanth? Yes, unfortunately you are correct. And this is the downside that has followed the growth of the metal scene. People who listen to some bands just to show that they are cool or shit like that are in my eyes equal to nothing. They are just sheep with low self-esteem trying to compensate their lack of character by wearing shirts from bands that are somewhat disapproved by the majority of people. This phenomenon pisses me off but it really isn't any kind of a problem for Alghazanth because these trendy kids are only into the most selling and known bands. I really think that this is just a passing phase and I can't emphasize enough how much I wait for it to be over. Which bands have you most enjoyed playing with? We haven't played that much live with Alghazanth but I guess that the show with Satyricon and Khold here in our hometown is one of the best experiences on that field. What do 'The Circle Of Six' get up to when not working with Alghazanth? Nebiros is studying at the moment and the rest are working on more or less regular basis. I personally am unemployed at the moment and try to get some work every now and then so that I'll get by somehow. Apart from the things mentioned before, we put our energy in Alghazanth and our other Black and Death Metal orientated musical projects. What are your favourtie alcoholic drinks? If it's free, I'll drink nearly anything. When I have to finance it by myself, I usually buy a large bottle of Finnish vodka called Leijona and/or some bottles of beer called Karhu. Strangely enough, I seem to be fond of the animal kingdom because Leijona means Lion and Karhu means Bear, hah. Have you played any gigs in the U.K. yet? No, we haven't. But it would be great to get the chance to do so. Who would you say are your musical influences? It's hard for us to point out our sources of influence because all that happens on a subconscious level. But if I sum up some reviews and other feedback concerning our releases, names like Old Man's Child, Emperor, Mork Gryning and even Dissection surface more often than others. And, of course, when a band uses synths in the same scale as we do, it's difficult not to be compared to Dimmu Borgir every now and then. Given the chance, who would you most like to tour with? If we cast all musical differences aside, I think that it would be great to tour with Deicide or Cannibal Corpse because those bands are the first ones we started listening to when we discovered this extreme branch of metal. When it comes to reality, a tour with two or three of our fellow Black Metal hordes from Finland would be just perfect. Any last words for the fans and readers? Thank you for the support! To the readers: check out our new album, "The Polarity Axiom", as soon as it sees the light of day! Hail Satan!

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Frostmoon Eclipse

From: La Spezia, Italy Members: Claudio Alcara - Stormguitars/Acoustics Gherardo Giannarelli - Bass Gionata Potenti - Nighthammers/Vocals Year Formed: 1994 Slay The Masses hassled these very talented Italians, and here is what they had to say... Tell us a little about yourselves.. Gherado: My warmest greetings to you and all the readers of Slay The Masses. I'm Gherardo and I've been playing bass in the band since 2000. The band was formed around 1994 by Claudio in the wasteland named La Spezia. I was playing with one other band and I just read reviews of the demo and of the mini-cd called "Supreme Triumph In Black" I had the first meeting with the band during a radio show that I was hosting. Claudio: Hail Slay the Masses, we're really glad to be here... I'm Claudio, the guitar player, and I'm 26 years old. My city is small and boring, though we have some nice landscapes, from wild nature to post nuclear desolation. Gionata: I'm Gionata, the drummer and also vocalist for the last two albums… I'm 26 year old too and I live in a small town of Tuscany, central Italy. Life is sad and grey here… a perfect background for my life. Your latest release 'Death Is Coming' is described as " 8 hymns of disgust and hatred for mankind. Skilled and fast old school Black-Metal influenced by acoustic and melodic parts. A perfect soundtrack for your sleepless and endless night." Would you say this is accurate? Claudio: Yes, quite accurate... we are old school, we are fast and we have many acoustic guitar breaks. "Death Is Coming" is a right disc to listen at night... It has some very hopeless concepts. Gionata: I wrote this definition just because I wrote all the lyrics so I tried to describe with one phrase the entire album's mood. I think I reached the goal… "Death Is Coming" is the step before the end… is a journey through endless desolation. A sinister and macabre path to fear of. Gherado: The description is accurate but just to add something more, I think that the listener should get closer to the album after killing one bee or one other little insect and think about its life and his life... if he feels there are no big differences and that our life is always on the verge of non-existence, he might have understood one of the deep aspects of this album. Are you pleased with 'Death Is Coming'? Claudio: We did the best we could... It was done into 3 days of the hardest work you can imagine, but everything worked out good and found its space. Gionata: Definitely I am. When you listen an album like "Death Is Coming" you should consider the extreme low budget and the extreme fast condition we were forced to work at. We mostly recorded everything at first time and without the chance to loose the time in finding great sounds. We did everything as quick as we could but I have to be sincere: I love "Death Is Coming" also for this instinctive side… Gherado: After a lot of months I think I started to getting along with it. I don't know but it took me a lot before I could deal with it in a peaceful way. I remember the recording session in a frozen chamber, with the fingers getting blue and all the ideas that I had getting improvised again. I'm pleased but I feel that we got further with our songwriting and that our experiences (live and in studio) took us a little far away from "Death Is Coming". I still like to listen to it but I just prefer to think to what the future holds for us. What are Frostmoon Eclipse's views on the new Mayhem and 'Chimera' ? Claudio: I haven't heard "Chimera" yet (and I don't know if I will), but I don't like the "WLA" nor "GDOW". I don't know if there were commercial purposes in their reunion, and I wouldn't have minded if the music had been good to my ears... but it is not. I don't like the vocal parts, I don't like the guitar riffing, I neither like the sound or the general mood. They have of course a great drummer, but they are definitely not my favourute band. Of course I like "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" and the "Deathcrush" MLP, but they come from days forever lost..... Gionata: I got it from a friend. Well, I have to say that the album got a very great production and the drummer is awesome but music isn't able to transmit some feeling. The music is empty and have no groove at all. "Chimera" is an useless album… it's a shame that they have still a such as big name. Gherado: I think it was a good album, with a very good production but after some listening it turned a little monothematic. I really like the riffing, the weird parts that get inside the track as the rhytmic section was little too flowing. It's like when you listen to a costant noise and then you just get used to it. In that case you know it's there but you don't feel it anymore. But some guitar riffs are great. I like the new Mayhem, "Wolf's Lair Abyss" is one of my favourite mini-lp, but I think that they're one of those bands that won't be listened to with a normal approach. The history behind them has really left its mark so that you can never take an album without thinking of the beginnings and so on... It's a pity because I believe that they offered some good stuff and maybe but it's just an idea "Grand Declaration Of War" turned out like that as a hysterical answer to every expectation. Why do Frostmoon Eclipse take a more melodic approach to black metal? Gherado: I can't really answer to this question, or better I never thought why we sound like we do... It's something that comes up in the rehearsal room and grew naturally during the years. I listened to the old demos and the mini-cd before getting involved in the project and yes the demos were sounding as a band should sound in '95 and '97 as the "Supreme Triumph In Black" was getting more Dissection and Emperor influence in it. The new songs, the ones in "Gathering The Dark" and "Death Is Coming" sound melodic but there's a core made of aggressive sound. It's funny to mix the two aspects, acoustic parts and sharper ones... A creeping light in an abyss of despair. Claudio: I don't like the word "melodic", it reminds me of Dimmu Borgir or Dark Tranquillity... Ours is a personal approach. I probably have in my DNA some kind of weird taste that finds its way into the songs, giving their trademark, but it isn't done on purpose... It happens. Frostmoon Eclipse Tell us about the upcoming split with Chinese band 'Ritual Day'... Gherado: The split will be out during this year and it's going to be produced by Mort Production, one of the few chinese labels. Our cooperation started thanks to Bao Yining, a guy who signed our guestbook in 2001. He did an interview and let us know some chinese band. Ritual Day was one of the best and the crazy idea of making an exclusive cd with them followed right after. It took some time but at the end Mort agreeded and now we're just waiting to see the lay-out and see it pressed. The split is going to host 4 tracks on each "side" and ours bring some new ideas and old ones ("A Death To Share" and "Lurking..." are from 2000 and 1994/1995). The two new songs are a kind of "work-in-progress" tracks, since we did them in a hurry (we had no real deadline but we had to move our asses anyway) and I think we might take them again and re-arrange them for the new full-lenght. We're currently playing live one of them "Black Hole Nemesis" and there'snothing better than that in order to leave a track grow and develop to a higher level. Claudio: We are really happy and excited, the Chinese world has been really kind to us till now... We'll try to introduce them our band at our best... We are curious to see what reaction they may have, and I think they are interested in our western approcah to Black Metal. Who would you most like to tour with? Claudio: I would like to tour over Europe with Krieg or Judas Iscariot, if they were still alive. Or The One, or old Maniac Butcher... there are tons of bands. All in all, I would like a band of nice fellows. Recently we've been around Italy with Sakhaiter and we had a big time... It's important to play with easy going people. Gionata: It's not a secret that Judas Iscariot is one of my favourite act in Black-Metal but unfortunately they're not a band and they don't tour. I would like to chose German Lunar Aurora or Nagelfar because I really love their music but also Krieg, Azaghal, Belphegor or The Legion. Gherado: Apart from the personal aspect of the matter, that is really important when you have to share a lot for a consistent period of time, I'd like to tour with Bolt Thrower. Watching and listening to one of my favourite bands every day would be priceless! Is there another Frostmoon full-length album planned? Claudio: Yes there is. There are many songs composed, it just a matter of time to sit down and begin to rehearse the chosen ones. Gherado: I think we'll pass this summer reharsing and putting down some new ideas, maybe we'll leave some tracks off the album, keeping them for 7" or stuff like that, but they won't be b-sides eh eh. The album has no release date, no lyrical concept, nothing at all. We just know that we'll make it and we're looking forward to it! Would you say Italy has a strong black metal scene with competition from the rest of Europe, such as Norway, Germany and France? Gionata: The scene is not as good as in other countries! Anyway there are some great acts here like: Unholy Land, Nefarium, Forgotten Tomb, Sakahiter, The True Endless, Handful Of Hate, Noctifer, Hiems and so on. Gherado: Expressing opinions on the Italian scene is quite hard to me! There are good ideas and somehow I'd suggest weird bands to a foreigner. Somehow we're not so original, the influences of other scenes is still very strong! Let's say that being personal is really a mess and when a band is making personal music somehow they get lost in a void! Being here it seems that there is a lot of movement but I believe that every person involved should ask themselves how much our bands, our activities are known abroad. Maybe the oldest ones but then few names and that's all. What do you guys like doing when not recording/writing/performing music? Claudio: I like to read Bukowski's books and watch Buttgereitt films..... Or listen to other music, especially old, drunk and sad artists. But I am writing music all the time, so when it's not for Frostmoon Eclipse, is for something else, or just for myself. The most of the times, if I find a tune I like, I record the line with an acoustic guitar and just keep it. So I guess I would have plenty of material when I'll be old and want to record a solo album, ahah...... Gionata: I used to listen to music and I usually spend a lot of time with my girlfriend and my family. It's hard to hang out with someone but sometime happens, especially with friends or band mates. Social life doesn't interest me. Gherado: I read. A lot. "V" by Thomas Pynchon and a couple of Tanizaki's works have been my latest readings. I'm still attending university, I study modern literatures and I wish to end it in about a year and a half. Aside from that I like hanging out, drinking (sometimes a lot) and playing soccer... I don't have a very grim life, digging up graves or drooling in darkness... Shame on me. Any last words for the fans and readers? Claudio: Thank you very much for this space, we really hope to hear from you again... My email is ordog@libero.it , and you could find some mp3's on our website http://deathiscoming.altervista.org... Stay forever dark. Gionata: Thanx for the space and support. Keep yourselves up-dated about Frostmoon Eclipse through our web-site and feel free to write us for whatever you want. Keep the black flame burning. Gherado: Thank you for the question and sorry for our broken english! We're always eager to get some printed flyers and if you want to. Gherardo Giannarelli , Casella Postale 92 , 55046 Querceta (LU) , Italy.

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Sinphonia

From: Denmark Members: Line-up on the first two albums has been: Monika Pedersen - Vox Henrik Rangstrup - Guitars Dennis Buhl - Drums Thor Jeppesen - Bass Peter Jensen - Keys Year Formed: 1999 This Danish prog/gothic metal band have reformed and are ready to get back to work. Henrik Rangstrup revealed the story behind Sinphonia... Tell us a little about yourselves.. Sinphonia was originally formed in December 1999 by Thor and Dennis (bass & drums), who wanted to create a progressive metal band with the hope of finding the typical male prog singer. Fate wanted it different though, and this very talented girl Monika entered the band after a few months. This affected the music style which became more a mixture between dark and progressive metal. After a short time the first and only promo was made. This gave the band a management and record deal, and in October 2000 the first cd "When the tide breaks" was published. After a few promotional concerts the band entered the studio to record the second album "The Divine Disharmony". With this recording the music took a more dark and atmospheric direction to support the storyline of this concept album. You say that Sinphonia are re-united. What caused the break up in the first place? Well, we split because of several reasons that all together made us loose all lust to play in Sinphonia - even to play music. Half a year after the recording of the second album, we were still waiting for something/anything to happen with management and record label. Besides that the recordings had been quite a bad experience, we were without keyboard player, etc. etc. So around two years ago after a(nother) fight with the management we simply agreed that we had come to a limit. Now that you are back together, are you eager to get back to work? We are very eager to get back to work and we are very excited about where we are going. The first half year after the split I myself, and several other bandmembers basically did not play any music at all. But now all the bad tensions are history, and I think we are actually much stronger now as a band, because we know what to watch out for in the business. We are more focused now. Tell us about the upcoming demo to present to record labels... Sinphonia The upcoming demo is mostly made to get us a new record deal, but of course it will also be available for others. The music style will be following the more dark and moody songs on "The Divine Disharmony", but still it will be quite aggressive. Once again the album will be built upon a story line, that will be supported by some very atmospheric metal. So the upcoming demo will most probably be selected chapters from this story. Did you feel that you needed to change from Lucretia Records International? I did not hear anything from Lucretia since I got my copies of the second album. I have nothing good to say about that label, so maybe we should just go on to next question, hahaha. If you had to name a band that Sinphonia most sound like, who would it be? Difficult one... I cannot mention one band, but I guess we could say a mixture between Therion and Nightwish. We always seem to get compared with either Nightwish or The Gathering. But I think this is only because of the female vocals and probably it happened to all the smaller bands with female vocals, you know like Atrox, Edenbridge and so on. Nightwish is far too power metal for my taste, while The Gathering is too soft to be comparable. Which bands have influenced the music of Sinphonia? Most metal inspires us, but I will try to mention a fave band of some of the members. Monika: Deicide, Thor: Pink Floyd and myself: Nevermore. All these different idols inspires us and get blended together in the music of Sinphonia. What are the lyrical themes behind Sinphonia's songs? In time I have become the writer of the lyrics, and I am very fascinated of describing or "investigating" the differences between the physical and the spiritual world. Never in any religious way though. With the second album we made a full story divided in ten chapters being the songs. The story is described shortly about a woman that undergoes different trials set by the gods. She does not know herself of these gods, but gains divine powers in one song, but only to have the gods make her realize in the next, that divinity demands more of her. Any last words for readers and fans? I know we have some fans out there, that were very disappointed when Sinphonia broke up. For those I just want to say thanks for the nice words, and spread the word about us. We are not gonna accept the second best this time.

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Arcane Church

From: Shropshire, U.K. Members: Naberiux - Guitars / Vocals / Samples / Vocoder / Synths and Programming Agares - Percussion / Programming and Additional Voice Danuk - Electric Bass Guitar / Additional Guitars Adonnai - Main Synths / Loops / Samples / Vocoder / Additional Voice Year Formed: 1999 Arcane church are one of the U.K. bands on the rise. Their fanbase is ever increasing and with recently being voted as #5 in the top ten unsigned bands in Terrorizer magazine, it seems that they will be causing a stir near you very soon. Their unique blend of cyber-black metal is fresh and very appealing. I picked the brain of Naberiux, guitarist and vocalist with the band... Tell us a little about yourselves.. Hail to all. We are Arcane Church from the UK. We play a hybrid of Fast Black Metal, Hard Electronics and Industrial Noise. Have our first release (DCLXVI – A Chapter of Mega Therion) out on Dawn of Repulsion Records, and we are now planning a full length release for end of 2004-2005. How would you describe your music? Our music is very personal to us, in the sense that we create from our own ideas and concepts with out letting anything ruin that concept. Our music is based around various modern theories and beliefs such as the evolution of war, bio-weaponry etc. But we do not discard more traditional beliefs we have for example occult belief and practice. We allow this to show in our music. The general sound we are achieving is something slightly different as well as something you can relate too, for example we experiment with hard electronics, strange effects and hyper speed tempos but also use catchy guitar riffs to grab the listener and really let the music guide them. What inspires the themes behind your music? Our main inspiration as I mentioned is modern theories like war evolution etc. But always creating a ritual style feel to the music. All our music is written in a very intense ritual style atmosphere. I personally feel that you can achieve the best from ones self this way, not all would agree with this but this is my way of looking and writing material for Arcane Church. Our DCLXVI MCD was inspired by Aleister Crowley (Mega Therion) and his practice in Thelema etc as the more traditional influence to the music. The introducing strong terrorism and war theme with it added a more modern concept. We feel that in the past few years that acts of terrorism being preformed are becoming the new form of war. We are not supporting Terrorism just viewing it as a new age of war. Peace does not exist, and never shall. Would you say the U.K. has a healthy b.m. scene? Arcane Church Becoming stronger and stronger all the time. The UK now has a very healthy scene. We are friendly with a lot of UK bands and all show a good amount of support. The only down fall in the UK scene is that I feel that a lot of acts live in the shadows of the 1990-1995 era Scandinavian scene. I personally don't look at this as a problem. For bands in the UK to create a new style and unique scene is what should be happening, and there is plenty of great bands in the UK to make this happen. Are there any other U.K. bands that you feel should be heard? Yes a lot, but depends what you like. The UK is full of a wide range of extreme bands and there is something for most people tastes. But to mention names is unfair. As all bands deserve to be heard by people who enjoy similar styles. Are you pleased with 'DCLXVI - A Chapter of Mega Therion'? Yes we are, it's something that we didn't have a lot of time to do and because of lots of past fuck-ups and bad recordings we really wanted to get something out. But for the time we had and the pace we had to work at I am very pleased. Was a stressful time as we fired our bass player before we went into the studio and just lack of time really, but every one preformed very well and we were very pleased with the final outcome. It was exactly what we were planning. What was your reaction when you were voted 5th best unsigned band in the Terrorizer magazine poll? Was very pleased, we were going through a bad patch with people putting us down and past and present members screwing us around. So it was something to get us properly motivated again. We received the E-Mail from the Terrorizer staff telling us of the results, we are now just waiting for the issue to come out with the results in. Should be in the February/March Issue. End of 2003 we also did an interview with Stu Banks from Terrorizer for the magazines breaking faces section. We are also waiting for that to go in. How did it feel to have Atilla Csihar himself compliment Arcane Church? Attila is a great guy. We are all very big fans of his work, and I personally have followed the work of late Plasma pool and Aborym for some time now. Its great to be in contact with the guy as he supports what we do. We sent him a CD and he commented on it so it was nice actually that he showed interest in what we do. What do you guys like doing when your not making or playing metal? General every day stuff really. Myself, Adonnai and Danuk all work and Agares attends a music college and also runs an underground distro in the UK and promotes various bands in the UK. I do not let my work effect my life. It is just a job that funds my real work which is music. I dedicate my life to my belief and Music. Also make sure we have a good time doing it. Any last words for the fans and readers? Thank you for the interview, Please check out our website and also our songs online. Thanks for the support of everyone who helped us in 2003 and the present. Prepare for the 2nd Viral Infection in 2005. Chaos is closer than you think!!! Hail Satan Naberiux

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