Band: ANNIHILATUS
Country of origin:
Finland
Style: raw black
metal
Questions by:
Kai Mathias Stalhammar
Answers supplied
by: Serpent (vocals)
Firstly (and generally speaking), what is ANNIHILATUS, and what were you aiming starting this one? Needless to say, the black metal scene is more than just overfilled with acts of one kind sounding almost identical to each other, therefore you definitely must have a forcible argument to form yet one more band…
- ANNIHILATUS is a outspoken, straightforward,
crude and primitive
destruktion metal band from the southwestern
shores of Finland. One might consider as a black metal band, some might
not. We don't care about that classification so much, we just have our
own style and agenda what we are all about. We don't need any artificial
argument to exist. We play music what we want and combine it with our thoughts
and visions. Simple.
Haven’t
you thought of making the song titles and lyrical content at least a bit
more intelligent? Don’t get me wrong – I mean, NOT softening but “ennobling”
‘em?
- Actually no. It wouldn't be ANNIHILATUS
anymore if we wrote more
"intellectual" or "symbolic" and "softer"
lyrics. We state and say what
we please and our opinions and thoughts
are more powerful when outspoken, not by using too many metaphors etc.
We say it crudely and people have to live with it.
Don’t you think that accusing those few (black metal acts) who have already managed to reach a certain popularity as well as commercial success, whose name is widely spread, in anything your imagination might tell you, is beyond any sense? I believe that handling the antichristian propaganda and purposeful assault on social morality as well as the Church institutes, whilst sitting in some fucking cellar with no one around knowing what and who you are, isn’t the right path to go.
- Accusing bands just because they may have
got more attention from people
and media doesn't mean that band is a sell-out,
but there are these sell-out bands as well. For spreading propaganda, bigger
editions work naturally a lot better, but spreading the word for the "few"
selected ones / UG scene(s) is another thing of course since some albums
are meant to be as "collector's items" or then just small editions because
of a small label or whatever reason. I am not concerned so much with size
of editions, but I understand that some bands / labels just don't want
to put out an edition of 10000 copies because it's simply fucking expensive
and there's always a risk that those albums will fill their storages for
next 50 years. Each band has to decide whether to be a cellar band or not,
but I don't see any problem of principle there whatever the choice is -
those principles should be far more deeper than that.
Going deeper: once you have received an offer from major record company, would you ink it?
- Maybe. Hard to say for sure. It depends
on the label and the offer. But,
I am not interested in written deals with
labels since fucking underground scene should work with trust and mutual
interestes, not by a fucking law!
Many are enormously fond of dragging such bands as f.ex. CRADLE OF FILTH into shit, accusing ‘em in betrayal of the black metal ideals… but what the fuck, they (CRADLE OF FILTH and others of that ilk) NEVER claimed to be what and who they weren’t! How can you blame the betrayal (what a word!) on a band which never followed the ideals YOU attempted to consider sacred, moreover, the band which never actually was a black metal one?! Why should I shred my mind with some one-chord piece of shit (true one, though!) instead of pleasing my essence with a tremendous music, almost an art, which is being brought forth the light by CRADLE OF FILTH in particular?! Probably they aren’t worth a shit personally, but should that be my problem? Nah.
- I've never blamed CoF for being a traitor
towards black metal scene as
they never called themselves BM (as far
as I know), but their gothic dark metal, or whatever, is still shit to
me. I'm rather annoyed by irritating CoF fans than by the band itself.
I've even liked some of their songs / albums in the past but that doesn't
mean that I respect them or whatever. There are many musically shitty,
but ideologically great bands, but of course, that goes otherway around
as well. Why should I be interested in those insignificant bands when there
are way more important things to be taken care of?
Going even more deeper: BEHERIT and HORNA appear(ed) as one of the most (musically) extreme, true-to-the-core BM acts of Finnish origin, however I always perceived ‘em as nothing more but a joke, at least judging by the personal experience. These chaps are billion times more arrogant and self-confident than any of those “sell-outs”. So, NOW what would you tell me?
- What should I tell you? I was never into BEHERIT musically and I don't know them personally. HORNA is no more than just OK musically, but some of 'em are great individuals. And there's nothing wrong being arrogant if that provokes people since provocation is always good. But these bands and their style etc. has nothing to do with ANNIHILATUS and we don't have to prove ourselves to anyone or anything.
Any comments of this uprising movement, the so-called “modern BM” (represented with THYRANE, … AND OCEANS and THROES OF DAWN in the State where you reside in)? These ones almost don’t have anything with what most of us used to name “black metal”. And this MODERN, disgustingly polished sound execution… does it really fit the idea behind black metal?
- The idea and ideology is more important
than the external values, such as the music itself, when talking about
black metal. But if you want to think black metal as just plain music the
thing is quite different. This "modern BM", as you called it, doesn't have
much in common with more crude and primitive black metal since the sound,
riffs and basically everything is different, but so what. That's not the
fucking issue in the first place. I may not like 'em musically, yet I can
agree on the ideas they have. I'm not interested playing such "modern BM"
myself, but that's not a problem my problem either.
Finland’s metal
scene seems to be the rapidly growing one… However, I mostly see more and
more HIM copycats popping out here and there… and what about black metal?
Any new names worth mentioning? What’s your attitude to FINNTROLL, MOONSORROW,
WALHALLA, UNHOLA…?
- HIM, spit. A lots of those pussy metal
bands are coming out, yes. It's sort of a trend, but I'll bet it'll pass
soon enough. But about BM bands in Finland, yeah, there are quite many
good, or at least decent bands around. It's hard to tell for some bands
how old or new they are to this stuff Annihilatus is quite young band as
well, but like who the fucked cared. Bands as BLOODHAMMER, CLANDESTINE
BLAZE, PEST, OPFERBLUT, FUNERAL FEAST, UNCREATION'S DAWN and DARKEMPIRE
for example are definitely worth
checking out, but there are many others
as well. About the bands you mentioned I don't even know band WALHALLA,
but MOONSORROW is ok, even though its sorta ENSLAVED clone-band, FINNTROLL
is amusing, but definitely not black metal and UNHOLA is ok as well. Its
impossible for me to comment those bands' ideological views since I don't
even know them.
You’re
in love with vinyl, aren’t you? Why? Those who still own a vinyl player
are doubtlessly few in number, hence wouldn’t be more reasonable to issue
the works of yours in the shape of CD?
- No, I'm not. My vinyl player isn't working
atm. so I can't even listen to them. I prefer CD for many reasons, but
we're not to decide on what format our music will come out, and that isn't
a problem.
What is contemporary
underground to you? In my opinion (doubt it as many times as you wish),
it DOES NOT exist at all, and, honestly speaking, it never really existed
(believe me, I’m in the scene for many-many years). There are and there
were flocks of idiots who sputtering tell the world about how true they
are, and how worthless are all the others, there is and there was a circle
of bands supporting each other (perhaps due to the fact all of them have
a couple of beers each night at the pub nearby), but would you define it
as the underground…?
- Basically underground scene or activity
is nothing that mystical or
mysterious thing what some people think
of or hope for. Just a bunch or flock of people knowing each other, maybe
arranging gigs, doing side projects and bands, tape or album trading etc.
My view on this subject is that it's not an issue of opinion. It exists
in a way or another, and that's it. If people don't agree with me, fine.
If they do, well, all the same. It is there but it isn't anything *special*.
The gap between mainstream and underground is theoretically very small,
but the only what's different, I think, is the fact that bands are "smaller"
and less known than in the mainstream.
“These are the End Times. The Apocalypse. Gotterdammerung. Ragnarok. The Void. Endsong. King of Battles. Jutenborg. The Great Conflagration. The Death of Stars. How many names to tell of this warring end? To tell of this violent time when Time itself is smashed asunder?” That’s the statement attached to all of your emails. Where have you taken it from, and what is implied under this assertion?
- It's taken from a war game book which describes a very dark future filled with war, destruction and death. I found that text extremely splendid as a signature, so I started to use it. What it implies is that the end and total death have many names and everything is coming to that end at certain point, no matter whether you call it armageddon or whatever. Fits quite well to the idea of Annihilatus anyway.
Do you know anything regarding Russia? Any metal bands coming from the country of mine you’ve heard lately?
- Of course I know since Russia is our Eastern neighbour. I know some bands by name, but I've heard only one or two bands from there, though.
The end is here. Final words…
- Thanks for this interview. Good luck with
your zine. Stay metal - stay
true.
ANNIHILATUS contact -
Email: sinister@pikabaana.net