DYING "Born From Impurity"

DYING “Born From Impurity”
“Born From Impurity” is a self-released debut of Spanish brutal death Metal band DYING. Brutal death Metal that’s clearly in the European vibe rather than that from the US. And that is what it is. I mean, what more could be said about a European brutal death Metal being done just right; adding none and leaving none? Or maybe that would be a problem for some, the fact that you couldn’t, or better still shouldn’t; ask for anything else rather than that. For those who are content with the album being what it is, let me just add that it’s decently composed, decently produced, and decently released. I’m sure there are some parts in it that will excite those of you who’s brutal death Metal at heart. Right.
www.dying.es
www.myspace.com/dyingband
dyingbrutal@gmail.com

Interview with THY SERPENT in Issue#4, 2000

THY SERPENT. Interview with Sami Tenetz. Otherworldly craft. But we are all humans anyway. Read.

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THY SERPENT. Anything to do with your fascination of the creature ‘snake’ and the mysticism surrounding it?
There’s no deeper meaning behind that. First it was just meant to be “SERPENT”, but as I found out that in Sweden has already a band called SERPENT, so I just put THY front of it. I was tired of all those pure satanic and gore name, and it sounds good and original, so I chose it.
Is it true that your two earlier albums before “Christcrusher”, “Forests of Witchery” and “Lords of Twilight” are some kind of a collection of old and new materials?
No, “Christcrusher” is our second real full length album. First was in 1996, “Forests of Witchery” contains six tracks, all of new ones and the length of the CD was almost 50 minutes. “Lords of Twilight” is some kind of collection of old material, but all the material was re-recorded at TICO-TICO Studio.
The covers of “Lords of Twilight” and “Christcrusher” flourished from the same idea, it seems…
Yes, and the first one was too… you know the nature and the colour. This was our first trilogy. Next three ones will be different ones. New layout, new logo, new line-up… just wait and see.
Ever since the formation of the band, you’ve labeled the music as ‘dark Metal’. A couple of bands too, but none of them including yours sound similar with each other. So what’s ‘dark Metal’ from your own understanding…
“Dark Metal” is simply Metal music with dark lyricks. Lyricks are not a satanic ones, not gore type and not any other, just dark. Even our lyricks are very antichristianic, that’s not mean that we’re a black Metal band. You know, you can be an antichristian person without being a Satanist or satan worshipper. And you can play stereotype sounding black Metal without being a black Metal band.
There’s a remarkable progression of THY SERPENT from the demo-stages right through the present days.
Of course, that’s a very natural thing. Over five years has passed since the “Frozen Memory” demo and if THY SERPENT hasn’t progressed at all by that time… I had stopped this thing few years ago.
And what may be the different between those one-man period to this full line-up formation?
Nothing else except that Azhemin is handling better bass, vocals and synths than me, and Agathon is better chose than a cheap drum-machine. It’s better and easier to work out now…
How did you finally decided to get a full line-up for the band?
As I wrote a contract with SPINEFARM in ’95, I thought that I can get a better final result if I find some players in the band who can handle their instruments better than me… as I still was just a guitar player back in ’94 and ’95. And that subsequently explains why THY SERPENT finally agreed to play live-shows?
Because there has been so many peoples asking about it. We’ve had many chances to play tours with more or less known bands. Still I don’t like to play live, but as far it’s okay to me when I get some promotion and money from it.
Is THY SERPENT still your definite spawn or becoming a kind of communion now?
Yes, THY SERPENT is still my band as Azhemin and Agathon has their own bands. I do the major music and job for the band.
Haven’t lost your possession in the band?
As I told you in the last question, THY SERPENT is still a band lead by me, and therefore I haven’t loss any venom.
I found that there’s an enormous feelings of weird sadness enshrouding your materials. How’d you explain that?
Hard to say. Material that me and Azhemin write is coming very natural. We’re very misanthropic persons… we do not even know each others, even that we play in the same band!
The lyrics in “Christcrusher” are mostly done by T. Maensivu…
He’s just a friend of us and he wrote nice lyricks. We just liked what he has done, that’s why we took his lyricks.
From my point of view, most of the Finnish bands sound different from each other. Why does it turned out that way?
Once again, really hard to say. In my opinion the Finnish scene at the moment is a really strong one. Just wait and see… there’s a new label in Finland called SPIKEFARM, it’s a division of SPINEFARM Records. SPIKEFARM is led by me and I surely chose only good and quality bands in it, mainly Finnish ones.
Your music is quite inhumane, so do you see yourself as a human?
Yes, I’m human… Quite an eeevilllll one, aaarrghh!
And what about life after death?
I don’t believe there’s something spiritual after death. Your life just ends…
What’s the highest prospects that you would like to achieve with THY SERPENT?
I don’t have any special goals with THY SERPENT. If I could get so much money that I can get my wife and two childrens lived… that would be cool. But I think that would never happen.
What’s the band will up to next? Do you still in tape-trading nowadays?
Just a new album in the year of 2000. And no, I haven’t done that since ’95.
What happened to that beautiful girl on your second demo’s cover?
She died. So, it’s quite hard to see her anymore.

www.thyserpent.net

Interview with DOXOMEDON in Issue#4, 2000

DOXOMEDON's "Evanesce" EP is still one of the best produced, best performed hidden gem of the Southeast Asian Metal scene till today. It is fast approaching 10 years in age (and it's fast approaching 10 years too that we have waited for their debut full length to emerge) ! If you can prove me wrong, do it, because here I am, armed with "Evanesce" and I'm going to force-fed it into the foul mouths of the non-believers.

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You should know that I’ll always feature great, talented bands from Malaysia and Singapore scene, and I regard both countries to be in the same scenery. And it’s not hard to guess that DOXOMEDON will have the honour to be interviewed in this issue, so here you go; a great brutal death Metal band from across the shore…

First off, the “Evanesce” EP is impressive. Most particularly the sound produced. How did you managed to get those kind of sound?
Well thanks a lot for the compliment. The whole recording process was done solely in Singapore as we find it cheaper rather than do it elsewhere and we are lucky enough to have good sound engineers who really know what we want for our album. As this is just our debut, we are satisfied with the whole production although we knew it could be done better. We will improvise the quality of the recording if we had a chance to release our debut full length in the future.
The songs presented are more than strong enough, if we are to judge whether the band is able to make a full length. So why chose to release an EP instead?
Originally we wanted to release a full length album instead of EP but since we are still an alien in the underground scene, we thought that we should release an EP first. That would be a better way to introduce us in the scene. Conclusively, the music is brutal all-around, but with penetration of some keyboards passages and emotional parts… We tried not to use too many keyboards in our music ‘cos we believe that our music doesn’t really need the keyboards stuff. We might use it if we feel it’s necessary. Of course, variety in melodies is our main priority in every song we write.
The song-titles are very vague, so what are they really all about? What about the cover?
We don’t like to write something very straightforward, as it may look too plain and basic. Most of the lyrics don’t mean anything with our life or societies we live in… just from our fucking misanthropic perversion imagination. About the cover concept… it does more or less related to our songs.
It’s released by DARK ARTZ… and do you have any kind of deal with PSYCHIC SCREAM?
DARK ARTZ may sounds new to the underground scene but its existence has been around for quite some time now (I believe it’s the continuation of INTO DARKNESS distro-ed.). I don’t know much about them either. Ha! Ha! We signed with them because no other labels want us actually. I don’t know much about PSYCHIC SCREAM too.
How’s the reaction to “Evanesce”?
So far we got positive reviews from media and those who have bought or listen to our stuff. Too bad, promotion wise is very slow and lack of publicity. Should blame to whom huh?Tell us how the band composed the songs. Does surrounding has some kind of influence?
Most of the songs been composed by our lead guitarist, Sham. We got influence not by surrounding but from our friend Man D.D. He’s our unofficial mascot and our inspiration. I’m actually in the dark about the band, including those years when the band was still called ITNOS. We were formerly from ITNOS. Our 2 original members left the band due to hamstring injuries. Then left 3 of us decided to form a new band and later 2 new members joining in and here we are now… DOXOMEDON.
So why change the name to DOXOMEDON?
We have no idea.
I think the band has shed their onwards adheration towards black Metal, be it in donning war-paints and song-titles alike… Did trends back then had some effects?
ITNOS was a black Metal band and was formed by our first guitarist, Abominathroe. He was a Satanist and he’s the main guy in ITNOS. Since he left ITNOS, we decided not to play anymore black Metal music as majority of the band members are more into death/grind Metal. We still dig up some good black Metal albums and will always support the black Metal scene. People still consider us as a black Metal band although we have told them many times that we aren’t a black Metal band. The reason I think is that we kept contacts with many black Metal bands/friends all around the globe. We are too long in the scene to be in the trendy shit.
So what’s the real difference?
As I told you earlier, ITNOS was meant to be black and DOXOMEDON is purely deathgrind.
Do you ever regret your years as ITNOS?
NEVER.
Don’t you think that the musical direction changed drastically?
It’s naturally meant to be that way for all bands or musician but not drastically.
“Christ Mary Bitch” 7” EP was released by a European label (MIDIAN CREATION I think). How did you guys (ITNOS then) obtained the deal?
That foreign label was just helping us out. They are good friends of us. It’s a good way for Asian bands like us to have a decent deal with international labels. A stepping stone for worldwide recognition.
Is there any possibilities to work with foreign labels again? Will the band accept those kind of offers?
Of course we will. We hope we could get a good deal with any foreign labels but there’s a better deal from the locals, we don’t see why we can’t take up the offer.
Is it really hard for a South East Asia band to gain recognition in the international scene?
If we (the Asian bands) play good or even better than the foreign bands, I don’t see why we couldn’t make it to gain recognition.
Do you believe there really exists some kind of skepticism?
I’m not sure.
When will the new output is going to be released? Your live-sets were very impressive, so is there any plans of live shows?
We look forward to perform in Malaysia and hope we could play in other parts of the Asian region. If there’s no offer from labels to sign us up, we may release our debut full length on our own. We’ll see how it goes.

Doxomedon@operamail.com

Interview with GARDEN OF SHADOWS in Issue#4, 2000

GARDEN OF SHADOWS is one of my greatest find during the lead-up to the release of Issue#4. Much less is needed to elaborate if you listen to their massive demo "Heart of the Corona". They execute prime epic atmospheric melodic death that doesn't sound Swedish, a thing that's hard to achieve if your band is going the melodic ways back then. The band had split-up, but not before leaving us with a masterpiece of an album,"Oracle Moon" before bowing out gentleman-ly. Brian has always been a great friend too, I wish him all the best in whatever he's venturing into nowadays.

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I’ve been listening to the demo “Heart of the Corona” ever since from the day I’ve received it until now, and I guess that it’s not that hard for all of you to guess how high I regard their demo is. It’s been a while since then, so perhaps you all could just fukk off and read this nice conversation with Brian, the guitarist.

How’re you there, Brian my friend?
I am doing fine as I hope you are as well.
And what about the band?
We are all practicing hard and getting ready to record an album!
I think we should start with the MCD release on X-RATED RECORDS, shall we?
Okay, it’s actually a re-release of the demo; with an extra bonus track “Shards of the Sphere”.
What leads to the deal? What’s the purpose then, since I think that your demo sold quite a lot?
We received the deal from X-RATED unexpectedly. We sent them our demo because we hoped they would be interested in distributing it. They were interested and they offered to release it on CD. We received offers from several labels to release it on CD, but we went with X-RATED because we had heard that they were very honest and we knew that they had done a good job promoting their first release (WITCH-HUNT “Prophecies of a Great Plague”). Our demo has sold fairly well – we only have 40 left of the original 900 – but there were several reasons for releasing it on CD. First of all, we were not very happy with the presentation of the demo, and the packaging of the CD is much better. It includes an 8-page full color booklet with all the lyrics. Another reason for releasing it on CD was so that it could have better distribution. There are a lot of distros that do not distribute demos, and we felt that the music on the demo was worth getting it out there. Also, many people prefers CDs to demos because of the convenience, durability, and improved sound quality. But the main reason for releasing it on CD was the re-mastering and the inclusion of the bonus track, “Shards of the Sphere”. In my opinion, that is the best song on the CD, and it will remain exclusive to the “Heart of the Corona” CD.
Apparently there’s some problems concerning the recording of the track “Shards of the Sphere”. Could you tell us what actually the problem is? You have to do the mixing in another studio… why don’t you use Oblivion Studios again?
We didn’t use Oblivion Studios again because we wanted to get a better quality recording and we hoped we could get that at a more expensive studio. We thought that if we were just doing one song it wouldn’t take too much time (we had to pay for the recording ourselves). We were wrong! Here is what happened: We let the engineer handle everything and we wound up really regretting that. To start with, he miked the guitars poorly and we were so unhappy with the sound that we completely scrapped the first days’ guitar tracks, re-positioned the mikes ourselves, and re-recorded them on another day. This didn’t force us to go to a second studio, but it did cost us a lot of money! On the day we mixed we were even more unhappy with the final result than we were with the first guitar tracks. The entire recording sounded very muddy and we didn’t know what to do. We called several studios and one told us that it was probably the drums and that if we went to mix with them they could add compression onto all the drum tracks to make it sound better. We went there to mix and then we realized it was the drums – you could hear the entire drum kit on every drum track! There was hardly any separation of the elements of the kit. That studio couldn’t help us either, so we went to the third studio that had automation. There they were able to help the mix by raising the levels of specific drum tracks when they were supposed to be playing and lowering them when they weren’t (for example, bring up the floor tom track when it was being played and lowering it at all other times). By doing this we were able to generate a mix we could accept.
I know that the keyboardist Scott has left the band due to musical differences, right? And there’s also the inclusion of Owen as the bassist. Could you tell us more about him, and probably more insight about Scott’s departure. So who will handle the keyboards next?
Yes, there were musical differences between us and Scott. He wanted to play in a more improvisational style and we wanted everything to be structured. After a while, he had joined another band that was more improvisational and we both agreed it would be best for him to concentrate on that band, so he left. Owen joined us a little before we recorded “Shards of the Sphere”. He was a guitar player, but he offered to buy a bass to play with us and so he became our bass player. After we recorded the cong and released the CD, our old bass player Sean, who had first joined us after we recorded the demo and left (because of his job) a little before Owen joined, rejoined us on bass. Since we did not have a keyboardist, Owen agreed to play guitar synth. We have played several shows with guitar synth, but there are a lot of limitations to the guitar synth (we didn’t want to record using it), and so we are still looking for a keyboard player. Since I don’t think we will find one in time to record, I will play keys on the recording.
It’s no secret that you’ve penned a deal with WICKED WORLD, the sub-label of EARACHE Records, and the album is scheduled for release in January 2000. Probably you could inform us a bit about this debut. What’s the working title for it?
It will be titled “Oracle Moon” and it will consist of seven new songs. Some of the song titles are “Oracle Moon”, “Citadel of Dreams”, “Desert Shadows”, “Dissolution of the Forms”, and “Continuum”. Most of the material is similar in the style of the demo, but I think it is a little heavier and more involved than what we have done before. I think that anyone who liked the demo will like our new stuff at least as much.
If you could, then tell us what might be different between it and the demo?
To start with, I hope the sound quality will be better! I think the material is more mature than the demo, but it is not a huge departure from the demo material. We are happy with our style and we have no plans to make drastic changes.
Your music is in its totality death Metal alright, but you seem to add up lots of musical style into it…
I think it is just that we listen to a lot of different styles within death Metal and we draw on influences from everything we listen to. Death Metal as a genre seems limitless to me because it can incorporate elements from so many other areas (for example, ORPHANED LAND incorporates a middle eastern feel into their style of death Metal).
But what important is, the music contains lots of emotions…
I think it is important for music to evoke an emotional response, but it is not something we consciously think about when writing a song. We just make sure the song sounds good to us. We listen to music that we feel is emotional and that is an important element to us.
What might be different is the use of growling vocals in it. I mean, music like yours usually have that kind of screamy-type of vocals these days…
Other people have said the same thing, but I really don’t agree. I remember a time when the term ‘atmospheric death Metal’ referred to releases like SEPTIC FLESH “Mystic Places of Dawn”, or THE GATHERING “Always”. I would say these are examples of atmospheric death. Now there are many atmospheric black Metal bands… so many that a lot of people seem to think that if the music is Metal and melodic it must be black Metal influenced and have black Metal vocals. There are black Metal bands in this vein that I enjoy, like DIMMU BORGIR and DISMAL EUPHONY, but I think many of these bands could be considered atmospheric death Metal if they changed the vocals in pitch slightly! We enjoy the sounds of older bands that combine death vocals with atmospheric music and we plan to continue to do this ourselves.
You don’t seem to utilize Mary’s vocals that much though…
That is true. She will sing a little on our upcoming full-length, but it will not be too much. I think she has a great voice, and many people have asked if she could sing more, but we do not want to exploit her vocals to jump on a trend. We just use them when it feels appropriate and I do not think they would fit properly over much of our music. But for those who want to hear more, there are a few places where her vocals will fit quite nicely with our new material… but I guess I will leave that up to the listeners to decide.
Can you delve more into your lyrics? I’ve read them, of course; but it’s still pretty vague for me to understand it wholefully. I hope you could give a clearer vision on them.
Each song is an individual piece which is designed to be a poem in its own right. It is our hope that listeners will interpret the lyrics their own way. Of course we have an intended meaning when we write them, but I think that different people might take different things out of them. As for the song on the MCD, “Shards of the Sphere” deals with knowledge and uses a sphere to represent all possible knowledge in the universe. As we gain knowledge, we are collecting the pieces, or shards, of this sphere. Just one shard enables us to do so much…imagine what we could do with the entire sphere… “Heart of the Corona” deals with the paradoxical nature of the sun – its power to sustain life and to destroy it. “Lovely Cold” is a mythical tale of ancient civilizations who destroyed each other and all of their achievements were lost to time. “Apollonian Realm” is about the ancient cult of Apollo, and “Company in Solitude” deals with desperation and loneliness and takes place as an inner dialogue inside one person’s head.
I know that you have a band before this, FUNEREAL OPERA. Could you brief us about the band? And, if there are; any other band that you involved in before GARDEN OF SHADOWS?
There were no other bands I was involved in before GARDEN OF SHADOWS. When I first joined FUNEREAL OPERA, I was the only guitarist, and I had just picked up my first guitar, so it is probably not a surprise that we were terrible! Everyone in the band wanted to go in different directions and we had no real focus. We never did anything worthwhile in FUNEREAL OPERA, so believe me, you aren’t missing anything there!
I hope you could tell me something about the US scene. Don’t you feel a bit left out, as the US is renowned for the massive number of brutal bands?
It is true that the US scene has a large number of brutal bands, and there are several festivals here that are almost entirely brutal in focus, but I don’t feel left out. It seems like things are changing here. There are more melodic bands than ever before and the list keeps growing. Just a few of the American melodic black and death Metal bands include FORTY DAYS LONGING, IN RUINS, ASSISTING SORROW, SORROW BEQUEST, WITCH-HUNT, RAIN FELL WITHIN, DAWNBRINGER, EDENROT, DISINTERMENT, ESTUARY OF CALAMITY, THORNS OF THE CARRION, SCHOLOMANCE, EPOCH OF UNLIGHT, AGALLOCH, SCULPTURED, ABOMINANT, and more and more are appearing all the time. Things are changing and hopefully we will have entire festivals dedicated to extreme melodic Metal soon!
Give us your opinion, why there’re lots of bands like that in the US scene…
I really don’t know why there are so many bands of that style. The European sound has always been my preference, so I never wanted to play in a purely brutal band myself. Perhaps it is just that many of the great melodic death Metal bands didn’t have good distribution here in the USA and so more people into Metal here heard bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE and used that as their main influence.
People almost succumbed to the fact that US bands could only excel by just reproducing that kind of sound…
Well, I think if you listen to some of the bands I mentioned, you will be able to hear that it is not necessary to reproduce the same brutal sound to be an American Metal band!
Probably I’m running out of ideas, so maybe you could add up things that I’m supposed to question you Brian.
Well, I think you have done a pretty good job of thinking of questions! Seriously, this has certainly been one of the most complete interviews I have ever done. I hope you have enjoyed reading my answers. Thanks for this opportunity to be in the pages of RANDOM fanzine and for your support. KEEP THE METAL FIRES BURNING!!!

http://gardenofshadows.tripod.com/

NIGHTMARE "Demo(niac)"

NIGHTMARE "Demo(niac)"
If the band’s own description of ‘necrowicked raw symphonic black Metal’ baffles you, here I am to help things a bit. “Demo(niac)” is actually a straight eastern blackened Metal affair. The structures, the riffs; all are pointing unashamedly towards that direction. Which brings a smile to my face since I’ve thought that after all these years, there must be some ‘shifting’ going on in the local scene in terms of musical approach. Or maybe I’m wrong, being an ignorant scene onlookers I am, heh. Something proved by an offering like “Demo(niac)”, which take me down to the mid-90’s of the local scene, when releases from the local scene will almost surely guarantee you this kind of musick-ness even before you push the ‘play’ button. But hell, eastern Metal still has its own charm. Just ask those diehard ‘exotic’ Metal freaks all over the world. NIGHTMARE here produced it the usual Malaysian way. They even took ‘catchiness’ to the hilt with “Nightmare… Perjuangan 12 Tahun” here (locals, remember DARK NIRRAJIM’s “Perjanjian Syaitan”? You got a clear, mega-pixelated view there, hehe). If you’re familiar with ‘eastern’ Metal, then expect what is to be expected.
blackend_nightmare@rocketmail.com

Interview with AETERNUS in Issue#4, 2000

This interview was primarily, or perhaps solely; initiated by THAT album, "...And So The Night Became". MAGNIFICENT. PURE BRILLIANCE. I dare you to have a listen.

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Simply put one of the original Norwegian act, the band Aeternus has never compromised on bringing music with strong characteristics and distinguished charisma. After the demo “Walk My Path”, “Dark Sorcery” followed and received good response thus re-released in MCD format by VIEW BEYOND RECORDS, this one being very hard to find these days. It is later re-released again by HAMMERHEART RECORDS, and it’s also initially sold out by now. After the impressive debut “Beyond The Wandering Moon”, “…And So The Night Became” followed, and this interview was done prior to its release (and as usual your editor fukked things up, inevitable it seems). They’ve released “Shadows of Old” ever since, but surely this interview could still give you something…

AETERNUS has become the supporting act for DEICIDE on some of their European Tour shows not so long ago, so how was it?
In general, this was a great tour for AETERNUS. Good promotion and good inspiration. We had some shit-shows, but that happens. It’s not cool to play first out of fuckin’ 5 bands, you know… You start at 1900 and 40 people shows up. Anyways, this only happened a few times and like I said: In general a great tour for us.
How’s the crowd managed to get along with your sets? I’ve been thinking that most of your songs need to be listened in full-concentration of the senses before it finally shows up its true magnificence. AETERNUS is also known for their great live-sets, so it just makes me wonder a lot…
We argue some before we really know how we want our live-sets to be, always the same thing… It’s kind of hard (in ways) to pick songs for live shows. Especially when you got a lot of ‘long’ songs like we do. I believe we choose songs wisely every time, the crowd seems content (at least and at worst) so it’s cool. It’s true that it takes some ‘listen-to’ before the essence of our songs reveal on our albums. Some of our new material is much more to the point, so that’ll be good for our next tour (they’ve toured with CANNIBAL CORPSE for the latest album-ed.). Some songs will kick ass regardless if you know them or not.

Three-piece… also when you’re performing live?
No, we need 2 guitars live. So far, we’ve had Døden from OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT helping us out on 2 tours and a festival. On the DEICIDE tour, Mr. T. Reaper of MALIGNANT ETERNAL helped us. We’re slowly working on getting a second permanent guitarist. We’re kind of fed-up with the session-thing. So future will tell if we find someone suitable for us and what we do (and they have found one ever since-ed.)
Let’s talk about the “…And So The Night Became” album. Personally I find it not that different from your earlier offerings, but it would be better to know your opinion about it instead.
In ways, it’s different, but it’s not so different in other ways, you know?! That’s how I see it. The musical progress is clear, I think. “…And So The Night Became” has more pounding sound, better arrangement and more ‘focused’ emotion than “Beyond The Wandering Moon”. Our third CD “Shadows of Old” will be strongly different compared to the differences on our earlier releases. Guaranteed. Await in October ’99.
I find the guitars sound to be much darker and evolving…
Yes, and it will keep on being dark and pounding. We’ll have it clearer too, on our third CD. I’m work a lot on the sound for this third release as it is important because our new songs require a clearer and even more pounding sound. Developing?! Most fucking definitely!!
Your songs are usually long in its duration. Is it intended to be that way?
Usually, our songs end up lasting 6-7-8 minutes. It’s just the way it is. There’s no special reason for it, it just happens. It has never been a vital thing for us or anything, to focus on having ‘long’ songs.
I understand that AETERNUS take the lyrics seriously. Mainly what would be the main theme for all of them?
Basically, to put it down shortly, our lyrical realm speaks of dark emotions. Plain and simple.
I think the band is so obsessed by the night, and things surrounding/revolving around it. What’s the night really represents to you (and the band as a whole)?
Night time is an enchanting time, nature becomes more beautiful in ways, etc. etc. I could go on and on about what the night can give me emotionally and so forth, but I see no reason for that. The night is enchanting for those who knows and feels its bare essence and power.
Dark Metal, as what you call your music as. Tell me what sets it apart from black Metal?
Musically, AETERNUS stands between black Metal and death Metal mostly. We have our own style and the term ‘dark Metal’ suits it all perfectly, if one wants to label our music.
The members of AETERNUS also involves in various other bands, is the situation still going on till these days?
Today, we don’t play in any other bands. AETERNUS is it for us.
Lots of these new bands from Norway are exploiting their nationality to gain recognition. What’s the way it should be then?
Whatever makes people content with what they do. We focus on our thing, we don’t compete, we creat dark music and we do what we do best. Our way. Others do their thing their way, we don’t care too much.
Also, most of their materials appear to be sounding almost the same with each other.
Yeah, a lot of bands sound the same. If they can ‘see’ it, they don’t care or they want it all that way.
And what about using Norge in songs?
AETERNUS has 5 songs with Norwegian lyrics. Ain’t nothing wrong with my language, man!
Since that Morrigan is a woman, why not use her voice for your forthcoming releases, just like most of the bands these days? Or, is this ‘female-vocals’ thing is not to your liking at all?
Morrigan is a bassist, not a vocalist and I don’t think we would have used her vocals at all if she could sing ‘cause (like you say) it’s not our thing at all.
What do you think would happen to the always fascinating Norwegian scene in the future?
I have no idea. All I know is that we’ll keep on doing our thing until our destiny says otherwise.
Your music comprises of three elements: originality, beauty and darkness. So tell me where these elements could be found in the music of AETERNUS.
When/if one finds originality, beauty and darkness in AETERNUS, one will know exactly what we are about.

www.myspace.com/aeternusnor

Interview in MORTAL FLAMES#4, 1998

Here's an old interview being done by the late, sadly departed great friend Rohaizad of Mortal Flames 'zine back in 1998. One of the better interviews I've ever answered, to be honest. Some information about RANDOM is to be find here, the era is post-issue#2. Absolutely unedited, yet most of them are still eerily relevant till these days.

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RANDOM is another good 'zine from Pahang. Its second issue has been released in May, committed to metal genre. Below is a chat with the editor, Shahrizwan.....

Sejahtera Shah. Would you mind to give us a retrospect of the beginning of RANDOM? What's the sense for using RANDOM as the name of your 'zine?

First of all, greetings to you and the readers. The idea of unleashing a fanzine came up in my mind in the year 1994. But there's nothing done and planned until the year 1996 when things started to happen and finally, the first humble issue was revealed to the masses in July of the same year. Nobody, except me knows exactly why RANDOM was destined to be the name of the fanzine, even if I try to explain it. So, it's pretty useless to tell more about it. Besides, I think that the name is easy to be remembered and will not make your tongue twisted in order to pronounce it, right?

I would like to felicitate you for the release of your second issue. How you see the improvement compare to the first issue? How about the selling, so far?

When you're comparing the first issue with the second issue, the improvement is very vast I think. I'm not very lucky with the first, I mean lots of unreplied interviews and so on. I even had to ask friends too to type it all. In short, lots of obstacles and problems. For the second, it's vice-versa. I've stopped selling the first issue after the number is slightly over 150 copies, and right till now, the second issue have been spreaded for about 100 copies so far. I don't care so much about how many copies have been sold actually. It's the satisfaction of the readers that counts.

What are the things you emphasize on in the making of your 'zine? Do you have any inspirational 'zine? Do name some good 'zines from your point of view.

Just like what I've been said above, it's the satisfaction of the readers that counts. I try to make the readers enjoy it as much as I do. I try to show some progress with every issue released. I think any good 'zines that I have encountered inspires me in one way or so. Some good ones might be Morticianumbskull, Fear of Life, Tales of the Macabre, Skogen, Isten, Imhotep, Voices from the Darkside, etc, etc. (ed-how about the local ones?)

You have worked the 'zine all alone. Are you really please to work alone? Does the work bother your life, study?

Yezz, I'm very pleased to work alone. And I think it will forever be me, myself and I. It's better to work this way, but of course you have to do it extra hard. You do it all by yourself too, Rohaizad, so you should know. Of course it affects my life, studies whatsoever but this is what I've chose and I'm ready to face the risk. I'm not complaining. In fact I never will.

Regarding the second issue, it has only featured one interview with local band, that is PURNAMWULAN. What's the reason for the barrenness of local features?

I only interview bands that interest me and willing to co-operate easily. There's too many big-headed, uninteresting bands in the local scene these days, but I can sense this will change soon. Besides there's too many interviews with local bands that you can read in various local 'zines. Whatever, you could always find interviews with worthy local bands in future issues. It's a must for me to support my own scene.

How you provide the interview questionnaire for bands? By the way, what would be your favourite question? Which feature do you tend to, the new rising bands or big name bands?

Of all the process in the making of the fanzine interviews is the most important aspect for me. And of course it consumes a lot of my time. I try to make it as interesting as possible. I hope that I succeed to make it that way. Every questions were carefully thought of and arranged, at least that's what I try to. I can't name any favourite question, it never came across my mind. I don't care how big or small a band is, what's important is the music that they play. I'm looking for capabilities rather than popularities.

Again on your second issue... Sorry, but I must say that the cover is not attractive enough, so does the logo. The artwork is not very convincing, people might think it's not an interesting 'zine although the contents are rather good. What do you want to say about that?

Many people told me that, and what can I say. It's their own opinion. As for the logo, I've decided to use the original one instead of the second issue's, so what do you think about it? Do check out my third issue cover soon, it might be more interesting. As for those who think that they can draw better than the guy who made that cover artwork, why don't you try to send your artwork to me? It's more than welcome. By the way, 'don't judge the book by its cover', ha!ha!

How goes with your third issue? Tell me something about its possible features.

I'm sorry. I can't reveal anything yet. It might be more interesting than the second. Just keep on waiting. Good things take time.

I'm interested to study your musical taste. What are your favourites to date?

Mostly it would be Metal, although I could say that I listen to everything that's decent enough to my distorted ears. There's too many favourites to mention, but Sweden's death and black Metal bands rarely dissapoints me.

How's your view on our local scene in general? I conclude that the people here are mostly adhered to black Metal. Don't you realised that the scene lacks of doom Metal bands? What's your opinion towards u/g commercializing?

I'm more or less agree with you. But I think it's getting better day by day. More power to the local scene. Commercializing the underground? The word 'underground' itself shows clearly that it's out of the concept. What's been 'commercialized' is not 'underground' anymore... Think about it.

I've recently been informed about the establishment of a black Metal circle in Johor. Have you noticed about that? What do you think of such movement?

Hmm... I think it's called Black Pentagram, right?(ed.-Black Penthagram Johore Club). I don't know much, so I couldn't comment more. But if it's just for fun and image... FUCK! Another example of worthless scheme. (ed.-I've read the interview in UPANISHAD #2. They are totally stupid kids who were mindlessly shocked by black Metal. I'm wondering how evil they are. Again, honest from me... FUCK!!!)

Give your personal view on IMPIETY's boycott.

Again, I don't know much about it. But, as long as it doesn't involve me, who am I to interfere and shout about it? Tell me more about it, Rohaizad. IMPIETY is one of the strongest band in the regional scene, musicwise. (ed.- The boycott was evolved by their former circlemate, AS SAHAR's One Barchiel. He declared Syaithan a great hypocrite. Syaithan egoistically condemned Malaysian scene back then but when Ultra Hingax Prod. released Impiety's first album, "Asateerul Awaleen", he pretended to be kind to draw sympathy from Malaysian metallers to buy the album. Furthermore, he started to answer interviews from Malaysian 'zines. That's what I quote from the flyer. Hey, haven't you got the flyer?)

The number of the scene follower is increasing day by day. Do you see this as a positive progress? Do you really support new entries?

It has its negative and positive. I don't know whether I really support new entries or not. But it really makes me laugh when I'm reading some of their letters. Maybe we should give them more time huh?

Well Shah, we have to part now. Do leave some parting words.

Thanks to you, Rohaizad for granting me this interview. It is very much appreciated. Nothing much to say, just believe in everything that you do.