Occult
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomasz Osuch
You should know this band so no serious introduction is needed here I guess. Occult released recently their new album called "Elegy For The Weak" via Karmageddon Media. If you need fresh, modern and fast blackened thrash metal with touch and elements of old school thrash, you must try this album as fast as possible! I invite you for an interview with Maurice from Occult. 
I do not know many bands which play a mixture of thrash and black metal and do it well in such a modern way. Here the 'blackened thrash' is really appropriate. Do you think of Occult as of a unique band?
"I think that bands like Bewitched from Sweden are more black/thrash than we are - there are tons of bands that are playing it and many of them are great. We have some death metal elements in our music as well and in no way we are unique!"
Mixing thrash with black metal is not a common thing; some people can say that there has never been a black/thrash scene. Why did you mix these two genres?
"It's all in the eyes of beholder. Some feel that our music is mixture of death and thrash and don't see any black metal in it. I am fine with both. We are simply playing what feels and sounds good to us. It's not like we sat down and brainstormed about creating a new style of music."
Almost two months have passed since the release of the new album - "Elegy For The Weak" and I guess that it is not too early to ask about the response to this album. What are the opinions about it when compared to the previous album "Rage To Revenge"?
"Its going very good; so far we got only positive reviews. In comparison to our previous album "Rage To Revenge", "Elegy For The Weak" is more aggressive and the production is more solid and sharper."
You inked a deal with a very active label Karmageddon Media. How did you get in touch with them and arranged this deal? Did you have any other interesting propositions? What was so tempting in the contract that you decided to sign it?
"Actually we were not seeking for a label. Painkiller was supposed to release "Elegy..." but then due to some financial problems the album was not going to be pressed. Patrick from Karmageddon Media (also vocalist in Callenish Circle) knew about this problem and introduced our music to Guido who enjoyed our latest material and offered us a deal. We took it because we just wanted to get this released. It was already delayed by 7 months."
You are a band which has existed a couple of years and is an experienced bunch of guys. What do you expect from Karmageddon Media?
"Loyalty, trust and friendship. The cd must be well distributed and we hope that we will get to play at some festivals."
So far you had no luck as far as labels are concerned. You were in a few labels and none proved to be good for you. Do you think that, after 10 years of playing metal, you will be luckier? What went wrong in the past with all those labels?
"It was basically lack of promotion and distribution."
Let's talk about Painkiller a little bit more...why did you leave Painkiller Records? I am asking about it because people say many bad things about them - that they do not care about their bands and that in general promotion sucks. Prejudice with their new album can be an example here.
"I have already touched up on this. It seems that Painkiller does not have resources to properly promote and distribute their bands. On the other hand they helped us to join 2 tours so I cannot say that they did absolutely nothing."
Apart from the album you released DVD - "To Be Thrashed - By Occult" recently. How can you recommend this DVD?
"The DVD was released last year in October. It's available through Lowlifemedia or Occult. I would recommend it to everyone who wants to watch episodes from a career of a metal band. The DVD is basically a documentary revealing a closer look at our distant and recent past. This way those who know us can have fun seeing antiques or footage that was never released before and those who know nothing about us can learn how we started and what we went through - from our first shows to recording of "Elegy For The Weak"."
What do you think about present thrash metal scene? Everyone knows albums of bands as Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Testament, Megadeth and many other classic thrash bands but those less known bands have a hard time getting known. Did you notice that?
"I don't care much about present thrash metal scene. We are not well known and we don't mind because fame is not our goal. Maybe there are some great bands and we will never know about them, but those are the limitations of life and we are not surperhuman to cross them."
The strongest and most popular thrash bands come from US and Germany. Which of the two thrash metal scenes do you prefer?
"It's hard to tell. I think both. I mean Slayer influenced us the most and we also enjoy other US bands like Vio-lence, Testament, Possessed, Exodus... but German Kreator, Sodom...are also on our top list."
They say that Occult plays old school thrash metal in a new form. You sound a little bit different. Musically you use few elements of the old thrash metal - Occult sounds clear and modern...
"It is our production that makes us sound modern. Our music is traditional in line with old Slayer. We tried to use ‘older' sound with "Rage To Revenge" but it makes the album sound weak."
In the past you shared the same scene with great bands like Immortal, Marduk, Morbid Angel. You also took part in Dynamo festival. Recently you have not played a lot. I guess that the last tour you played was the ‘Bonded By Blood Over Europe'. How was it? What are your future concert plans?
"The last tour with Exodus was a bit disappointing although I have no regrets. I am a big fan of Exodus and playing with them was great. But going on big tours is not our thing. For now we are only planning mini tour across Holland with Dismember, Callenish Circle, Judgement Day, Hearse."
I am curious what do you think about black metal - is it dead or alive? Are you interested in what is going on in black metal music? In the past you played covers of Acheron, Samael, Sathanas... Did you listen to anything interesting in the past few months?
"Black metal scene is not what it used to be. Just like thrash or death metal is not what it used to be during it's peak. Even the darkness that you could feel when you went to a black metal concert in late 80's or early 90's has withdrawn and now it just feels like any other metal show. Next to black metal fanatics you will also see mainstream people at these concerts. This would have never happened before. I really don't care about this scene anymore though I still enjoy the music. New Nattefrost for instance is excellent. Mostly however I listen to old gods like Samael, Mayhem (Dead era), Dark Throne, Immortal..."
"Elegy For The Weak" was released not long ago but music for the next album is being created now. Can you tell us anything about that, about the plans with this album, release date etc? What I know is that you will again records with Andy Classen...
"One year has passed since "Elegy..." was recorded so of course we have new songs already. Our next album will be recorded in October this year and again at Stage One Studio with Andy Classen. The cd will be probably out sometimes in spring of 2005."
That would be everything for today. Thank you for your time bro.
"Thanks to you for the interview and all hail devastating thrash metal!"
