Diabolical

 This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hails Guns. Can you give us an update about the band status.? 

Diabolical until now still planning our next major attack for our new material, but if I have to speakthe truth this year is a bit hard for Diabolical campcause there is so much delay...but of course we will never surrender.

-In 2020 you released ‘’Hooligans Regiment Of Terror’’ on Total Death Records.What feedback have you received from the underground so far?

After the released of our album, there is lot of offer from event organizer for live perform (eventhough we more picky for performing live show that we consider it worth to perform) and also we got emails from zine and media from several countries that want to do interview and review...the response from our fans and metalheads so far so good, even some those of response is negative (but we dont fucking care).

-Can  you tell us more about the 4 way split ‘’Four-Beast Resistant’’?Can you recommend some Indonesian bands?

‘’Four-Beast resistant’’ split is split from a number of bands from the same syndicate that ofter share stage and have the same idea to become one to spread terror in the form of cd (The Dagger Klan Prod.) and cassette (Throne Musikness Records) that will be release on limited editions for Indonesia only.I can give recommend severalbands from Indonesia for now that you should look out :Derage, Deklaration, Martyrdoom.

-What are some  bands that influenced you the most?

We have to much influenced to mention one by one,but if we have to mention it, is Sarcofago,Slayer, Urn,Revenge, Black Witchery, Blasphemy,Beherit, these are the band that in our major playlist.

Semper Mors (Blast From The Past)

 

Interview by Sakis

01. Hails Deviant. For those that are not familiar with your project, can you give us a brief history of the band?

Greetings Sakis! Semper Mors started with an outlook of a one-man band, experimenting with D.I.Y. recordings in 2001. The tracks were composed during 01-03 and got their final form in 2004 when Submersed joined the project and played the drums.   

02.What is the meaning behind the band name?

Semper Mors is Latin for “Always Death”.

03. What were some bands or music styles that had influenced S.M.?

I remember listening to some particular albums that I think shaped the style of sound I wanted for In Endless Despondency to be like, some of them were Under the Sign of Hell by Gorgoroth, Nattens Madrigal by Ulver, Skotos Aenaon by Naer Mataron, of course with personal idiosyncrasy towards the writing of music. 

04 Can you tell us a little bit about the lyrical content?

The theme of the lyrics was about depression, suicide and general hate and contempt towards life and society.  

05.The demo was self released on Cd-r. How had your music been received by the black metal fans?

I gave a handful of copies to some people but I really don’t remember and to tell you the truth, I didn’t care much about feedback.  

06.What are you listening to nowadays?

I listen to mostly obscure genres of the broad term “Electronic Music”, I like weird sounds and track structures. One of my favorite bands is Nový Svět an Austrian duo and a favorite label which is releasing some great music is Janushoved from Denmark.    

07. Any final words or thoughts?

Thank you Sakis for including Semper Mors to your zine.

Hoplites

       This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hi J.L. and thank you for your time to answer the questions. For those that are not familiar with Hoplites, can you tell us a little bit about this project?

Hoplites is a one-man metal band that explores progressive sound by combining elements from different genres. One interesting thing about this project is that everything is written in a dead language, i.e. ancient Greek.

Hoplites released two full-length albums this year, and would probably release another one within this year.

-The band’s name and the lyrics are in ancient Greek.Can you tell us about the extensive use of the ancient Greek language in your project?

It’s like a bold linguistic experiment. There are a lot of bands that quote some Latin here and there, despite some grammar flaws. But could we actually try to bring back a dead language in a musical project? That’s one huge motif of Hoplites. I really had fun doing this experiment.

On the other hand, you can consider the extensive use of ancient Greek as a mockery of some big names in the scene. I’ve seen bands citing ancient Greek and Latin while making a ton of stupid mistakes, like what I’ve said in an interview before, “Satan can’t understand your badly written Latin”. It’s quite imbecile for a band to do serious religious stuff while writing lines that are grammatically awkward in dead languages.

-All 3 releases have amazing covers[Works of famous painters].With which criteria do you choose the album art?

Topic, expressiveness, attractiveness...

-You also have another one great project Vitriolic Sage[梦路 is my favorite V.S. album].Give us some info.

VS is my first musical project. Basically you could see how I’ve grown musically by observing this project’s works.

For the moment it doesn’t grow in an avant-garde way, though VS definitely aims at modern sounds. Compared to Hoplites, VS has a more melodic approach. You can even call it mainstream-sounding.

Kala

This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hi Aryo and thanks for the interview.For those who don’t know your band, can you give us a brief history of Kala?

Kala was formed in 2018. At first, It was my black metal duo project with Daniel Mardhany (Darksouls/Ex Deadsquad) but then we changed the concept into a full band after we released our first album “Litany Of Dissonant Souls”in 2019. In, 2021, Daniel Mardhany left the Band, and right now Kala is consist of Aryo as Guitarist, Andrian as Bassist and Litong as Vocalist. We’ve just released our new single “Constant Hollow” last month.

-What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name ’’Kala’’?

I remembered for the first time i saw Interstellar and its magical quotes “I’m not afraid of Death, but I’m Afraid of Time.Thus, to remind me of the quotes, I took name “Kala” because it is often used to refer Time in Indonesia.

-In 2019 you released ‘’Litany of Dissonant Souls’’.What feedback have you received from the underground so far?

We’ve got some good feedback for our first album. We were lucky because because one of the best illustrator in Indonesia, Morrg of Raja Singa, made the artwork for the album. Thus, it boosted the album to be more recognizable.

-You recently released a new single.How would you describe your music progress from the album your until now?Also who did  this amazing cover of  ‘’Constant Hollow’’ single?

Our new single indeed is more complex than our previous material. We are trying to challenge ourselves to explore more music for our new material, therefore we can make our upcoming album more experimental. Yeah for the result,It took 4 years to release a new single hahahaha. Litong, our vocalist, made the artwork of “constant hollow” single. He is so good as an illustrator.

Mysterivm Xarxes

This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hails Homvnkvlvs and thanks for the interview.For those that have never heard of Mysterivm Xarxes before, can you tell us a little bit about this project?

Of course . It all started when I decided to learn the guitar as a second instrument in the summer of 2020.I've been a drummer for 25 years, so I felt it was time for a new challenge with a new instrument. I used to be active in death metal, grindcore and back metal bands as a drummer, then in 2015 I stopped being active in bands , there was a lack of time and motivation to keep the whole thing going.But now back to the actual topic, after a few months of playing the guitar, the idea of ​​making a kind of solo project came up for the first time. We were all in the middle of the pandemic right now, I had a lot of free time, practicing like a maniac on the guitar, listening mainly to black metal at the time, and then I suddenly realized that I wanted to embark on a new musical journey.At that time there were also some things happening in my environment that I had to deal with and so from the beginning this project was like therapy for me to process things and to express emotions in the form of music, which I found to be very healing.

And so Mysterivm Xarxes was born and has been an integral part of my life ever since.

-What are some of the bands that have had an influence on your music?

The influences often change depending on what I'm listening to. I often listen to 1-2 bands for a few weeks and literally absorb the songs, then there are phases where I hear everything all over the place.

But the main influences on the first album were certainly classics like Darkthrone and Burzum, but also from the early US sector, leviathan, weakling, xasthur.

I'm now more of a us Black fan, these bands often have more complex arrangements or go More their own way than, for example, in the Scandinavian region, this is just my personal opinion.

While writing the 2nd album I listened to bands like Këkht Aräkh, Mrtva vod, lamp of murmuur, trhä, so More newer modern black metal that stays true to its roots but is  also creative and complex.

But what is most important besides the influences: trying to go your own way, staying true to yourself, making your own mistakes so that you can make something better out of them.

-A new album is in the works.Can you give us some info about the musical/lyrical direction?

The new album is certainly not very far away from the material of the debut, but it goes a little different way, it's harsh, raw, sometimes faster and a bit more aggressive, in contrast to the first album where the songs were slower and more melancholic.

Realm Of Void

         This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hails Shadowsoul.Can you give us a short biography of the band?

Realm of Void is a personal project that I started in late 2016 with the purpose of creating atmospheric/post black metal music that would lead the listener to imaginary soundscapes. I had created some demo tracks that involved to the debut album released as a digi in 2017 (Askio Prod./Realm of Void Prod.). The underground scene accepted the new born and thus RoV was introduced to the scene. After releasing the first album, I felt I should head up to a different musical direction for the second album, with more elements from fast black metal and some technical-avant garde-atmospheric elements-melodies as well. The second full-length is completed and I am thinking about releasing it by myself in early 2024.

-What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music?

It is really difficult to answer this question, because when I write music I don’t think about the direction, it comes out naturally. I just let myself play and write with no real intention. I have been a metalhead since my teen years and many bands have influenced my style: black metal, atmospheric metal, atmospheric doom, melodic black metal etc. I think that some bands that I listened to during the last years before writing the first album were Eternal Valley and Hermodr, really nice atmospheric-melodic material. Maybe I was in some way influenced.

-What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that you are a part of?

My main band Dark Messiah is preparing the recordings for the next album via Drakkar Prod. I have many other projects that I work on and soon I think you will be able to listen to the result. Enipeas is an atmospheric black/doom band, Chrismos is an atmospheric doom/death metal band IΧΩΡ is an epic/pagan black metal band and there are some more projects that I’m working hard to complete, like Haunting Scars which is in the veins of depressive/melancholic black metal like Afsky, Coldworld etc. I hope we will have the opportunity soon to talk about the next releases!

Jacc

This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-For those who don’t know your project, can you gives us a brief history of the band?

During the lockdowns in 2020 I was craving some kind of creative & productive outlet. Some friends showed me how to use a DAW and we started making some basic drumbeats & melodies together for fun, but I was instantly hooked. I soon recorded some guitar riffs & programmed drums by myself to create what was “I” from my first demo. My friends gave positive feedback on the track, so I kept recording for the next month until I felt there were enough tracks for afull demo. From there I wanted to improve on my songwriting and improve my DAW mixing & mastering skills to create better music, and also wanted to trying out different styles like Death Metal & Raw Black Metal. I’ve continued to record & release ever since, drawing inspiration from whatever I am listening to at the time, and am currently most proud of the recent duology releases “cathartic sorrow” and “melancholic bliss”.

 

 

-What is the meaning behind the band name?

 

I wanted a basic and nonstereotypical artist name for Extreme Metal “standards”, and the logo is also designed in a similar fashion. 

 

-Can you tell us about the lyrical content?

 

Most lyrics are improvised live around the current feeling for that section of the song, but I write them down afterwards if I need to re-record some takes. I’d probably share them if I could land a re-release of the albums physically on a record label.

-So far you have released 4 album and one demo, very productive for the 3 years of existence of the project?

Thank you for the kind words.
My main inspirations have been Leviathan & Burzum who are both one-man bands, and I thought if Wrest can do 16 Leviathan releases in his first 5 years (plus a few each year after that) and Varg could make his first 4 records in a little over a year, why couldn’t I try at least 1 per year?

Cemetery Lights

This is an excerpt from the full interview that will be published in issue #1

Interview by Sakis

-Hails Corpse and thank you very much for this interview.When I found your band and ordered the ‘’Lemuralia’’ ep.[self released on tape and later on Lp by N.W.N],I was impressed by your unique sound.‘’The Necromantical delirium rooted in the sounds first pioneered by early European ancestors’’ as you describe it on your Bandcamp page.What prompted you to bring back the early 90s Mediterranean black metal sound?

My favorite black metal style was played by those Mediterranean bands (as well as Tiamat, Samael, Moonspell, etc). It had its own evil, mystical atmosphere. Their music gave me vivid mental images of foggy graveyards and secret rituals. I wrote and rehearsed some songs from 2011 - 2012, then took a break because of personal matters. Years went by. I worked on the project slowly. An opportunity to record came up. I resurrected the project and finally recorded the “Lemuralia” EP.