Busy.
How does it come that you
wanted to release a full-length 13 years after the band split ? Furthermore,
back in the 90's you only released demos, so why didn't you record a full-length
during the early days ?
We did record a LP on 93. Releasing material is not related to time scale.
This time we wanted to release a full length as our hymns were all tied
together.
I'd like to congratulate
you for the "Whore Of Bethlehem" CD, it's one of the most amazing
Black/Death release in this Metal genre. You really captured the old and
ugly feeling from the early Finish extreme Metal scene. I felt like his
album was a kind of lost release you found in a chest. How is your view
on this full-length and was it hard to come back with crushing tunes ?
The process of composing hymns varies. We have always had our vision how
ARCHGOAT hymns should sound. "Whore Of Bethlehem" ended up like
we wanted. We did all the sound engineering ourselves to achieve this.
Angelslayer
and Ritual Butcher you're brothers, how does it come that you were interested
in Metal and its blackest side, and who came up first into Metal land
? By the way isn't it a bit difficult to play with his brother ?
We have always shared same interests. Lyrics of old Hell Hammer and Possessed
releases made us curious of this philosophy called Satanism when we were
young. From that point we started to study more about this philosophy
and felt it as our cause. I do not think it's any harder to play with
brother compared to other people. The level of commitment is totally different
when you have your own flesh and blood on the same project.
I
was wondering either all tunes on the new release are new compositions
or either some of them back from the demos' era ?
There are in fact few old parts from the 93 hymns. All other material
is composed between 2004 – 2006.
ARCHGOAT
started back in '89 in Finland and was one of the first band to play row
Black/Death Metal. If I'm not wrong Beherit released their first demo
in '90,while Impaled Nazarene had their first demo tape in '91. So, the
scene was just starting, how was your view in the early day on the Finish
extreme Metal scene ? And were you aware that something special was rising
in Finland ?
The scene was smaller and people more dedicated than today. You did not
end in the Finnish Black Metal scene by accident and this personal devotion
is what I like compared to modern days. I have never thought too much
about the nationality of the band. We shared the same country as Beherit
and Impaled Nazarene, nothing more.
A while
after the Scandinavian B.M scene got attention with the underground scene
and bands such as Darkthrne, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Fimbulwinter, Satyricon,
how did you see this new scene ? I remember there was a kind of competition
and even animosity between Norway/Sweden and Finland, Mika Luttinen was
always spiting on Norwegian bands….
I have never liked the Norwegian style of Black Metal. Most of the bands
are focusing more on their own rock star mentality than on the essence
of Satanism on their music.
While the Norwegian
and Swedish 90's scene turned famous because of satanic activities, Finland
was rather quiet when it comes to grave desecrations, church burning,
at least from abroad the Finland seemed exempted from brutality. Was that
right ?
Yes.
Back in the 60's there
was a strong Satanic revival through Anton Lavey, Charles Manson and so
on. There were lot of activities around the occult theories and even well
known bands such as Led Zeppelin, Beatles, or Rolling Stones used the
Satanic elements in their lyrics. Have you even taken care of that and
are you into early bands such as Coven, Led Zeppelin ?
I found the whole CoS orientated Satanism to be just a joke. People are
calling themselves Satanists and living by the quote “do as thou
will…” True Satanist would say “do as He wills”.
60´s satanism is just a radical hippie movement who seems to use
this term Satanism only to shock moral standards, not because they would
be devoted.
The
Satanist ideas' from the 60's were a kind of rebellion against the established
government and rules, against the Hippy trend, and Flower Power ideology.
They wanted to break all the rules, and it was more a kind of "do
what you will" than anything else. Is your philosophy too ?
I am a traditional Satanist and worship the devil.
How
do you see Black Metal music ? According to you is it a mean of war against
religious ideologies, a way of enforce private thoughts or an aggressive
hobby ?
As a large part of my life it is everything of those. My own philosophy
in the form of noise.
I agree with you about the fury of the old bands except Metallica. Music was much harder to release back then and this situation prevented the large scale of crappy releases unlike today.
Those bands concentrated of creating their own music instead of copying somebody else's music and this gave them their unique sound and style.
According
to you, how would you define an extreme Metal band ? Through Metal forums
I sometime read reviews of B.M release done by fans then if fans tell
bad words about production or originality of the CD, all of a sudden a
member of the review band needs to give explanations as if he was trying
to say "hey how come that everybody can't love my music ?" I
think that behaviour is fucking ridiculous, if you really play in an extreme
band then why should you care about others views, extreme music needn't
to be consensual, don't you agree….
True to their own values and ideology.
I do not know much about which bands released material via NR. The deal we made with them was suitable for us and served the cause.
Who
was responsible of the 93 EP cover ? I thought it was Chris Moyen but
I didn't find hat cover on his web site…Furthermore that kind of
black and white drawings were very much linked with the extreme Black/Death
Metal scene of the early 90's don't you think so ?
The idea was ours and Chris Moyen drew the painting from that. Moyen did
the arts of many influential releases and his style is pretty original.
I like his style, because it is raw and brutal.
Has
there been any plan to create a video clip of a ARCHGOAT tune ? Do you
think that your band could fit to that media ?
I could not think of any meaning for creating any videos. We have live
recordings and that's enough. We do not aim to get material released MTV.
Thanks
a lot for your answers, is there any plan to come and play in France in
the future ?
We'll be popping to France with Black Witchery on May.