Nefarium
Wywiad przeprowadził Paweł Boroń
Furious and frosty scream from proud tops of Mont Blanc. Cold black metal from warm Italy. Hell, passion and blasphemy. Nefarium. I was spoken with Carnifex - vokalist and guitarist of this diabolic horde.
First off - congratulations for your great latest album "Haeretichristus". It's an outstanding piece of Hell. How long have you been working on this CD and what was it like?
Thanks for your words, We hope that our "Haeretichristus" could be equally appreciated by lovers of the strongest black metal and extreme metal music in general. We worked for long time to achieve the desired result, but today we are satisfied in having created a project fast and brutal, essentially Black Metal and capable of representing Nefarium at its best. We planned all the Haeretichristus project since the autumn of 2006 and all the songs was composed during winter and spring 2007, It was an hard work and we decided to look at any deepeset details, Carnifex and Adventor meet every night for long time working untill very late in the night...
Does the final effect of your work satisfy you?
People who like fast extreme Black Metal are appreciating our last album through NEFARIUM attitude, so we are very satisfied and we hope to continue to play as we are done today.Comments and reviews we've received untill today are absolutely positive and this is pushing the band to work on the tracks for next album with hard engagement and total devotion. Haeretichristus represents the fulfillment of our musical ambitions; we worked hard to produce this album and, in spite of some difficulties, today we can consider ourselves very satisfied.
What stands out about "Haeretichristus" when compared it to your earlier releases?
Haeretichristus is quite different from our earlier material although all the Nefarium's albums offer the same kind of fast black metal. Since our first record we had very clear ideas and a strong desire to propose an uncompromising kind of music has developed very well in our latest work. "Haeretichristus" represents "Praesidium" (our first cd) evolution in many aspects: technical composition has improved , as well as the speed of drumming and enforcement in general, the atmosphere is more dark and unsane while the overall sound was planned to valorizare each instrument. Concept in "Haeretichristus" album is more explicit, now and the message we want to send to our listeners is more direct. Nefarium are moving firmly towards one stylistic and conceptual direction and trying to evolve through the experience and the engagement.
What is your own vision of black metal music like?
Nefarium believes in their intellectual capacity and its spiritual power, through the rational vision of a sick world in which the concept of good is opposed by a higher power magnitude.
We believe in a sort of universal antithesis in which we could recognize everything, and we try to understand what may be concrete ways through which read certain messages.s.Black Metal is the bridge to express out thought and to well understand ourself through our deepest feelings.
In the review, I stated your music is like homage to traditional northern black metal, and in some parts, reloaded like a shotgun, with typical European thrash influences. Do you agree?
Our main intention about music style is to distinguishing Nefarium as an unquestionably Black Metal band, although rooted in each of us and reinforced by personal thoughts, it doesn't suffocate differents kinds of inserts and creativity but ensures a sound and a unique style, among the songs of the whole album. The melody through music helps Nefarium scanning individual instruments and sometimes to develop more original aspects but the impact that we offer must be strong and immediate, not too interpreted, but dedicated to a specific type of listener. Anyway we prefer to be simply considered a Black Metal band.
Dark Funeral, Setherial - those bands inspire you. How did your co-operation with Chaq-Mol and Infaustus begun and what was it like?
The choice to call to participate Dark Funeral and Setherial members in the recordings of "Haeretichritus" has honored ourselves and has tried to bring conceptually Nefarium closer to those bands that contributed to the development of the extreme metal scene. Since its origins Nefarium wanted to express itself through Black Metal typical swedish style and at the end of the first records of the album "Praesidium" we asked Chaq Mol and Infaustus to listen to our music to receive some advice. Both the musicians have appreciated our work and from there was born a good relationship that led us to cooperate in Haeretichristus records. Chaq and Infaustus, showed great professionalism, but even more deep availability and kindness and we thank them a lot.We have been in Sweden for Haeretichristus mixing and mastering session in the studio where Dark Funeral have worked for their first official Live Album, following a suggestion from Chaq and at the "Hitfire Studios" Stockholm we could enhance our experience of musicians.
Can you tell us what's the origin of the bands name and what idea is behind the title of your new album "Haeretichristus"?
"Nefarium" is a latin word and his meaning is "Delict". "Haeretichristus" word, born from a union of 2 words from meaning strongly contrasting and finds its origin in a more simple concept of religious antithesis. We want to express our point of view regarding the dual personality of Catholic Christ, through a unconditional thought and far from any religious dogma; A man who teaches forgiveness, but who destroyed temples, A dubious messiah characterized by human weaknesses such as anger and revenge that through the father denies an angel rebel forgetting piety. We also believe that the concept of Christ, as focus of their religion, extends to any alleged prophets teaching through confusing methods, inculcating values sometimes trivial and childish and sometimes hypocritical. More 'simply want to describe an inconsistent Christ and too easily interpretable, whose stock moves walk through their fears and illusions worthy of a primitive tyranny and devoid of truth.
Giulio from Italian death metal band Hour Of Penance said that death metal scene in Italy is "still poor". What about black metal one? chociaż chyba nie trzeba nic zmieniać
The lack of support for the extreme metal scene in our country is very similar both for Death metal and Black metal. The local bands are poorly supported and the concert organisers are often not up to; After some experiences outside of our country we can say that the italian metal scene is not good except for a few realities also because bands are not well supported. Italian metal bands are often composed by young guys who want just amaze and "artist" or "musician" concept is still far from extreme music.
Are you familiar with Polish black metal scene? What is your opinion about our devilish stunts?
We know better death poland scene, but we appreciate a lot Vesania music. One of the best metal bands today is Behemoth and it's also one of Nefarium favourites groups. Polish scene is good and bands are very professional that causes the fact we decided to sign on a polish label.
Can you tell us more about your cooperation with Agonia Records? How did it start? Does the label accomodate your needs?
The Swedish label Downfall records that produce our older "Praesidium" album gave us an almost good support, but distribution was generally quite inadequat, we felt the need to be more well known and we decided to find a new label.The proposed deal from Agonia records honored us, we already appreciated the choice of this label about its bands, extreme and talented, and become a member of that "angry" crew, has certainly helped us to grow and become more secure. Agonia is working very well with us, and on our part we try to cooperate in promotional phase, The current label staff is helping us a lot and shows every day more professionalism, we are very satisfied to have taken this path and we are confident for the future.Haeretichristus album will be distributed throughout Europe, USA and Japan by major agencies.
How about your live activity? Do you plan to promote "Haeretichristus" outside Italy? Is there a chance to see Nefarium in Poland in the future?
We 'd like playing live in the Scandinavian countries, where the Black Metal was born and where the culture about is more deep, in order to be judged and appreciated objectively. We think that Inferno Festival could be one of the best golas to keep for a band like Nefarium. In Germany there's a good support for metal bands and generally any proposed concert will be accepted with pleasure. Nefarium will surely play outside Italy and Agonia is planning now a tour for the band, so we think we 'll probably play also in Poland. We would like to play more uin live shows, perhaps taking some tour to spread better Nefarium name and to be able to share the stage with those bands that are contributing to develop the black metal in the world.
Does 'European black metal' style exists in your opinion? I mean, as an autonomous genre, but ingrained in snowy forests of Mother North of course.
We do not exactly know if there is an autonomous European metal scene well distinguishable despite there are excellent band. However, the black metal comes from north of europe and right there is still developing in a good way. We are lucky because we live on the highest europe mountain, the "Mont Blanc", a half hour to France. The place where we live, from a geographical point of view, possesses a charm that has undoubtedly influenced Nefarium. Landscapes winter, due to distance from population centres, transmit a strong feeling of isolation and snow accompanies us for several months of year, affects our daily life from a practical point of view accompanying every action during our day. At the foot of the Alps legends abound about spiritual entities closely linked to the concept of nature, Nor missing stories about Witches and Devils in a particular region by history and by the many medieval references that were able to persist over the years, often taking casualties and mysterious details
Anything more I shoud ask you about? (hehehe) Just add anything you want.
We just wish that our music could be listened and considered as simply and good Black Metal, and that could still give to listeners a particular feelings violence, that are slowly coming unless in many bands, so we invite all those who love Black Metal to listen Nefarium, trying to grab our message in its clearest expression of anger and hatred.
Thanks for your time - wish you…black luck.
Thanks to You! Hell is not so far... See you there!
www.nefarium.org
