Belphegor
Wywiad przeprowadził Andrzej Papież
Austrian hellcommando Belphegor is recently destroying Europe along with Marduk, Napalm death and Vader on X-mass fest... Anoyone have seen this aritllery? Few weeks before the tour I had opportuninty to talk with Belphegor main blasphemer - Helmut, the vocalist and guitarits. Check out what he confessed me...
Hi Helmuth! Any nuns fucked lately? How are you?
"Hell yeah, everything`s fine maniac, thanks... Pretty busy at the moment, "Lucifer incestus" is in the stores worldwide, the previews are more than brilliant and outbid one another. Got some troubles again with fukkin censorship. Germany will result in an "indexing" of the album - a blatant form of censorship that declares it illegal, takes it off the market, and prevents further sales in its current packaging. Fucking hypocrites, religious fukks should be removed from the face of the earth. What the fuck? Music/Art has to be provoking and controversial... Since the beginning Belphegor putting out the eyes of christianity and leading their views ad absurdum... others workshipping sathan, we fukk with sathan u know, har har."
I am quite sure that you're totally satisfied with your latest, 4th in your career, album "Lucifer Incestus"! But, what was the scene response for this effort? Was there anyone who disliked this album?
"Love it or leave it, we are not here to please everyone. We are not going to change, we try to get better on our instruments and try to create music that survives and will still be listened to in let's say 10 years. I'm talking about the obligation for hard music, call it metal death or rock, I don't give a damn horseshit.. I'm living for this glorious music which I'm hooked on since years. My life 's been ruled by this sound for more than 2 decades now. Belphegor = blood & fire! And yes, we are very satisfied with "Lucifer incestus". We`ve put all of our potential and heartblood inside this piece, 9 soundcollages (incl. Intro) will take you straight to hell. So every soundcollage on "Lucifer incestus" is a highlight to us nd has it`s own elements and story."
"Lucifer Incestus" is your fastest and uncompromising album so far. How did you find the applicable drummer? I remember Belphegor always had problems with drummers...
"Right, and let me tell u´ the music has absolute priority in the Belphegor camp and thrones above ll. Becoming mightier, more intense with every opus has always been our aim. Torturer is a tight and fast drummer, hell yeah, this maniac has done some outstanding blasting on "Lucifer incestus", but we are all experienced musicians and practising a lot to gettin better and better. Torturer enables us to play out our "whole" musical potential, he´s a machinery who tears down evrything not just in the studio but live as well. Our goal has been to exceed "Necrodaemon terrorsathan" and this we achieved a 100%. The increased speed of the blastattacks alone blows apart everything."
Belphegor never sounded so tight and heavy as on "Lucifer Incestus" ! How was the whole album created? How long did it take you to arrange it ? What was your focus recording this album?
"Lucifer Incestus" ( Jan 04 ), is a conception album, the lyrics deal with the sick history of the church, sexual-fetish-excesses, immaculate conception and so on. "Lucifer Incestus" means "The goat of fukk". All the enormous impressions and experiences we lived to see in 12 years Belphegor give us the ultimate kick for our strongest release yet. Belphegor play extreme metal, thats so fukkin all, and let me tell u that we'd never practiced and arranged everything that intense before, nearly "2 years" we improved every slightest detail of the tunes."
How did Alex Krull (of Atrocity) manage with recording of such aggressive music?
"Alex like our blasting stuff, so there were no problem at all. And let me tell u that we had the best equipment/studio/producer yet, the whole recording sessions were awesome, so the conditions were perfect. Nearly four weeks we'd been to the studio, so the conditions were perfect, I've been looking for such a rich sound for Belphegor for years and Alex did a brilliant job at the German Mastersound studios. Anyways, digital recorded and analogue mastered."
You did some tour promoting this album. What was it like? I must admit that it wasn't easy to see Belphegor playing live during the previous years...
"The "Lucifer incestus" over European-Terror-Tour in May were amazing. We layed the concert halls in flames with the swedish The legion and some killer local supports and we are very happy with the great response we received. The highlight definately was Paris/La Locomotive, where more than 230 demons were banging like hell and turned the hall into armageddon. NL-Sneek/Baroeg, Gent-Frontline, D-Glauchau/Krefeld/Munich, Salzburg-Rockhouse, CH-Sedel were fantastic for the crusade. The final show in Germany-Munich/Titanic, was one of the sickest, we partied til the morning and celebrated the trax in hyperspeed into the awesome, brachial crowd. Massive thanx to all demons, for making the tour the great sucess that it was... U´ know, there are many places we've never played and it's about time that we do so. Playing live is really important for us, I couldn't imagine Belphegor without stage performances. We did a bunch of tours, sometimes it can be a real pain in the ass, but we all love being on the road, seeing other cultures, metal communities and meeting other metal maniacs. To me metal is a form of art and something I've dedicated my life to, and we have some big plans for the future, so hopefully things will work out."
I saw three Belphegor's videos... And I think they're killers! Especially last one, for "Lucifer Incestus". Where did you find so perverse nuns? And who the hell let you into the church?!
"We love churches, so the overwhelming church-shots were taken in the famous dome of Salzburg, (Austria) a huge nazarener tempel, without permission of course This time we had immense difficulties, because we brought a gun and a fancy succubus . Some of those hypocritical apes nearly ran amok. Some of the monks were even kneeling down in direction of the altar making the sign of the cross. They must' ve thought: "Jesus, the last judgement has come, remit our sins!" In the last decade we had so many problems that I could fill books with it but it's getting boring to repeat that stories over and over again. Worst difficulties with this institution we had in 1995/96/ 97 already, but we didn't give up, so they recognized that it won't lead to anything and that they haven't got a chance anyway, on the contrary. We had trials about blackest masses, sacrifices, lootings and so on... I could fill books with things we had to laugh about brainwashed sheeps. I hate restriction in every form, for me it was clear from the beginning that I would walk a different path and take my own decision. Great Andrzej, that you like the clip. It's very archaic, with a female succubus some sculptures and a snake ( phallus symbol). It's about the triumph of sin like in the lyrics of the titletrack. In addition we put in some live sequences of two Belphegor concerts in 2003. We produced it on our own again completely and that's why you can talk of a typical Belphegor video, very raw ´n ´dirty, so we are satisfied with the result. Steve "El Oasch" our merchandiser edited the whole scenes..."
You guys seem to be deeply involved into perversion and sexuality... Am I right? I hope you're not addicted to sex? Is metal connected with sexuality for you?
"Sex is great and one of the best things to sweeten up our life on this planet and fukk yeah, we are addicted to everything that deals with sex. But let me tell u we are not sexists, but to be honest, such a well shaped body of a woman is definitely something graceful and magical. People ought to fuck far more, so there wouldn't happen that much shit on mother earth."
Over two years ago you released 10th anniversary album on your own Phallelujah Productions. Are you satisfied with it? Do you plan to release more stuff, sign with other bands?
"We started up Phalleluja Rec.exclusively for the "Infernal live orgasm" 10-year-anniversary CD, to be fully in control of everything, to make it our way-covers and so on-because a 10-year-anniversary is something special, the whole musical turned out exactly the way we wanted it to....uuuuarrrghhhh!!! The reaction from the press was amazing/overhelming and yes, we're satisfied with the 10 years anniversary album "Infernal live orgasm". No further releases planned, the metal-market is glutted with dead fish, swimming with the current, so why should we join."
Polish Agonia Records will release "Necrodeamon Terrorsatan" on vinyl soon. Why did you decide to do it? Are you vinyl maniacs?
"We are very happy to see this jewel released as LP, the sound on vinyl is more alive, the moment when you put the needle onto the record, this crackling sound, this is it - vinyl forever, so demons check your copy. Limited to 1000 cps., 700 with gatefold/heavy vinyl/innersleeve and 300 pictures with gatefold and all with A2 poster. The pictures LP´s came with an special-surprise,...be prepared - release date via Agonia Rec./ Sept. 04."
Napalm records scheduled your new album in March'05. What it will be like?
"In Sept/Oct/Nov 04 we enter the Mastersound - studios again to play in our new, yet untitled, work. Release date will be in March 05 via Napalm Rec. At the moment we are in the middle of the songwriting process,....yet again # 5 is going to be a milestone in extreme mighty metal."
Helmuth, if you would have an opportunity, would you play in porno movie? What kind of?
"Fukk you har har,...we have an offer for ´05 from the wellknown "Private Fetish Collections" to join the set with an Belphegor song, but not as actor....time will tell."
That's all, thanx for the interview. Last blasphemies are yours!!
"Thanx Andy, for the space. Goathails to all demons out there, who' ve been supporting and accompanying Belphegor for years, so see ú on the road to hell, fukk the church - Amen!"
www.belphegor.at
