Band: DARK FUNERAL
Country of origin: Sweden
Style: black metal
Questions by: Kai Mathias Stalhammar
Answers supplied by: Emperor Magus Caligula (vocals, bass)
 

First off, how has the feedback to “Diabolis Interium” been so far?

- It’s been really-really good. For example, “Diabolis Interium” was voted as an album of the month in Legacy magazine, and in Metal Hammer we had like nine and a half out of ten - and it’s almost the same thing with most of magazines around. So the response has been tremendous and we’re really-really satisfied with the result of how everything developed. I mean, we were a bit worried that people might have forgotten about DARK FUNERAL because it’s been so long since we released a new album... and now we're really happy.

Despite all the advantages “Diabolis Interium” has, I just can’t pass on the fact that actually it doesn’t bring anything new, doesn’t really differ from your former works. Everything’s just the same… the same old thing, y’know; one can hardly find any peculiar difference between f.ex. “Vobiscum Sathanas” and “Diabolis Interium”. Didn’t you ever attempt to diversify your music at least a bit, do something you haven’t done before?

- Well, in my personal point of view, there IS difference between “Vobiscum Sathanas” and “Diabolis Interium”. Of course, I can understand that some people don’t see any big difference because of the same speed, although maybe even a bit faster than before, but we like this kind of style, and we will maintain this style until we decide it’s time to do something different. We do only what we really-really want to hear, and if you think all albums sound the same it’s just because we’re happy with the sound that we have achieved so far. Probably we will stick to it until we think we have to change something.

“Diabolis Interium” has been simultaneously issued in the shape of regular CD, vinyl and limited edition digipack, right?

- Yeah.

Why so many editions? Do they differ from each other in any way?

- Well, the limited edition digipack… it’s a leather-fold… bloodred leather. And also it’s like a smelly CD (*laughs thunderously*). So if you smell the actual CD, it smells like leather (*laughs*). That’s what the record label came up with. We actually got the test print today (22nd of August - ED), and actually I was laughing because the CD actually smells. That was quite funny, y’know (*laughs*). There gonna be hand-written numbers, printed in the CD, from 1 to 666 copies. That’s the main difference. It won’t contain any bonus tracks or anything, so it’s just case which is different. And of course, the smell of the CD (*giggles*).

What was the reason for bringing forth the light “Teach The Children To Worship Satan” EP? It comes with one and only track by DARK FUNERAL, whilst other tunes appear courtesy of SODOM, KING DIAMOND, MAYHEM and SLAYER. Moreover, that “Apprentice Of Satan” track was later featured on “Diabolis Interium”. You know, I often heard people saying that putting out CD like this is nothing but one more way to cheat your fans, make ‘em pay their money for the CD which doesn’t really feature anything valuable…

- Well, the reason why we did that album was because we did this for a kind of tribute, a tribute made up of four different CDs. We had questions from our loyal fans, saying like why did we do this, because they wanted the whole DARK FUNERAL collection, all the songs that we have ever recorded, and that meant they have to buy four different full-length albums for the “full-length” prices. So they actually asked us to do this. And we said like: “well, if we have to do this, we’d better add a new song and also a MPEG-video”. So this MCD was released because of our fans. They obviously didn’t want to go out and buy four CDs because of only four songs, with many others they weren’t interested in whatsoever. Yes, I can understand that some people might have said that we wanted to rip-off our fans, but in fact we released it because, on the contrary, we DIDN’T want to rip-off our loyal fans.

As far as I know, you have performed a successful tour all over the Europe back in 1999. However, what made me somehow surprised, you’ve been touring together with… DIMMU BORGIR. How come? They’re considered the most false black metal band that ever came into existence…

- I personally like DIMMU BORGIR. Then, also, they’re very close friends of mine. We always hang out as much as we can - I go to Oslo, they come down here to Stockholm all the time. That was the best tour I’ve ever done, because we were all friends in the tour-bus and everything worked just well. People usually expect us to go on tour with such band as MARDUK, for example, however we didn’t want to do a tour with a band which sounds almost the same. We wanted to combine our sound and that new-age black metal sound. And as we weren't willing to go on tour with CRADLE OF FILTH, so DIMMU BORGIR was the only (and right) choice.

There’s a three-years delay between all your works. I mean, “The Secrets Of The Black Arts” was unleashed in 1995, “Vobiscum Sathanas” – in 1998, and finally “Diabolis Interium” – in 2001. Most of contemporary metal acts release CD once a year, however you don’t. May I wonder why?

- We always tend to tour quite a lot - actually I think DARK FUNERAL tours more than most of the black metal bands in the world. That’s why it takes so long. And also, we don’t want to rush into anything. If we have a DARK FUNERAL song, the whole song has to be perfect. We don’t want to have a single tone that we are not happy with, because one tone can make the song crumble down to ashes. We’re very-very dedicated to our work and, as I already said, don’t want to rush into anything. And of course we're probably a bit lazy… (*laughs*). But mainly it’s because we’re busy touring all the time, and then there’s promotion, and so on…

Have you ever heard about BLACK MESSIAH and SHINING OF KLIFFOTH?

- No, I don’t think I have…

Both bands feature a guy named Nabahm on drums and vocals. This chap is fond of telling who’s true and who’s not, at least it looks like this. And what’s most entertaining, he once said that Lord Ahriman doesn't know a shit regarding satanism. Like, “screaming out “ave Satan” is all that he’s capable of”. Quite a provocative assertion, don’t you think?

- (*laughs, this time pathetically*) Well, we hear this stuff all the time, and all we can do is to laugh on this. I mean, if anyone would like to judge me for what I am, or judge Ahriman for what he is, both of us actually don’t give a fuck about what people say. We have our own personalities, we have our own beliefs, and we do know we’re strong… but unfortunately, most people have to go around and talk shit about others. And that’s the proof of being weak, by the way. They have no talent whatsoever, so they need something to get the attention they want. So, as I said, they go around and talk shit about us or anyone else, which I never do. Although if people say things like that, let them do so, because personally I believe in the freedom of speech. I don’t care anyway. If you don’t like something, just don’t buy it. That’s what I do. If I don’t like something or someone, I don’t buy the CD and don’t give the band my support. And also, this is what makes me stronger. I mean, if we see people talking about us, in a good or bad way, we know that we have achieved our goal.

Do you know anything concerning Russia? Ahriman told me he would love to come over here with the band...

- Well, we once played in a country located near Russia… It was Belarus, if I’m not mistaken. We would gladly go back, and also play in Russia itself, so it’s the matter of invitation. We were discussing a possibility to come over there and play, although something just didn’t work in the end. We still hope that once it will come true, because I know that the crowd in Russia is simply fantastic… So just contact us or our label, and we’ll be glad to discuss any suggestions.