IMHOTEP ZINE #3 ( wywiad z Fernando )

MOONSPELL! A name of mysticism. Could you tell us the conception of your name and the band?

- "The band started as any other I suppose. The main goal which still relates to us as the main essence of Moonspell was to experience by ourselves the sensations we had from experiencing others works and hopefully that our music could grow out of a small circle and become a kind of universal form of art. So it was basically to fulfil what can be called a creative hunger that we started the band. In Moonspell we found a kind of response to this need and even if we started with basic ideas like this I believe our concept is still forming itself and hopefully evolving with us. I mean, we want to play dark and somewhat subversive music but we hate to repeat ourselves and that is why we change so much."

MORBID GOD, a name which sounded quite weak in comparison to MOONSPELL, came to an end in 1992/1993.

- "On the other hand, Morbid God was a very poor name, that attached us to a lot of obvious things and that we tried to set apart from our music. Moonspell is more ambiguous for a start and allows us to go further and further with our not so balanced ideas."

Portugal! A country of which is not known for a strong Black metal scene (MOONSPELL is then not exactly what we can define as Black metal!), but more for the colonisation some years ago (100 - 300)! What do you think of the history of Portugal? Are there any special events you will tell us about? If so, the next lines are yours!

- "I and whoever else could really say how rich and proud is the Portuguese history and naturally I could spend like more than your entire space due to us relating the special events, as you call it, that have occurred during the seven centuries of our history and even for the pre Portuguese civilization period known as the lusitanians. But I will not because I like not to preach about it personally, I have a different relation with our history now and even if it is an undeniable influenza on all the Moonspell concept, I am not the kind of person who would like to be a warrior, hanging out with swords and furs, it is not my kind of period, it is not my kind of historical ecstasy and everyone seems so fascinated with it. I prefer the grey times of the end of the century, all the works that had blossom from that time rather than all the Conan inspired mythology. So for me history is rather a lesson to adapt than to follow literally, if you know what I mean."

I guess I should not follow the way of life of the Vikings, or something like that.

In Rites of Elêusis #1 you say that you envy your ancestors communion with Nature. Do you feel that humans of today are too far away from Mother Nature in general?

- "I said there was, in my opinion, a better understanding of what nature was about and for me, together with other kind of Nature appreciations I still relate to, it represented a healthier way of living ,definitely, than the one we have now. On the past man had to adapt to nature and now nature has to adapt to man. I am not saying that I am the ultimate ecologist or activist since I share humanity's evils myself but I feel that even the way of picturing nature on art or philosophy or whatever is poor now and that nature has abandoned man's inner world and if we have to save something we can really start from saving our own conceptions on the first place. Nature is not restricted to an agglomeration of trees or green spots. It is interior.

But I am not preaching the morals of Nature myself and I really do not know or care if Earth needs to be saved or if it deserves. It is a question we can ask us every minute of our lives."

Is materialism the major enemy of Nature?

- "Materialism against nature? Good question. It depends how do you concept matter and nature, they can oppose, they can be the same, they can be corrupted and totally out of their own concept but I still consider materialism as a necessary evil or something eradicable."

Yes, I have to agree. Materialsim is a necessary evil. I guess materialism is not you fave influence, so let me introduce the readers to your influences. You mention a lot of influences upon your music and lyrics in the earlier mentioned magazine. How do you use your influences into the creation of your music?

- "It is simple to use our influences in our music as it is breeding. Moonspell was always a band that never deny our influences and that never will because I find it dishonest to oneself. You are not born with the capacity of doing everything by yourself and you have to learn. And learning is pretty much following and adapting. In the genesis of Moonspell two bands could be quoted as main musical influences: Bathory and Celtic Frost and each time I listen to our music nowadays I am more than convinced that they are our truly basis. This goes for all our releases I suppose."

Lyrics, how is the process for writing a song's lyric?

- "Lyrics are a slightly different perception. I can not say I have a method of writing lyrics or that I am struck by a supernatural bolt of inspiration and run to the nearest forest on a winter, rainy night. I do not know if it really works for someone out there but not for me. I live thinking and that is how I get my ideas. Usually I describe a general concept or a story to myself and then work on it to give it the words and the shape of a lyric, sometimes I create from a single sentence, others from a verse, others from nothing. It depends of the nature of the subject and the degree of intensity it has for me at a certain moment. Of course sometimes I spend hours writing ideas, searching for the right words, sometimes it is almost a scientific procedure because it is exhaustive but I can spend long days without writing a lyric or whatever."

About your lyrics, are they only dealing with occultism/ satanism, or...?

- "My lyrics deal with everything that somehow impressed me: real stories, books, images, desires, frustration, it does not matter if they are exclusively mine or from others. They impress me, I print them out. I am a collector of small pictures, details and words that can help me to build a literary composition, I am always awake to that. Occultism and satanism impress me in their own way, different from the way they impress you or a christian individual. I am very comfortable when people say that my lyrics are satanic, I am flattered because I think they are. Once again to my conception of Satanism, so even if people mean something else I like the tag anyway."

Why do you not write about 'saving the planet' or something like that?

- "I am not a humanitarian so I don't write humanitarian lyrics, I am not informative, hopefully formative. That is why I am not hypocrite to write save the planet and to daily destroy it progressively, I would rather prefer to educate someone differently so that she/he could understand why."

What is your message as a band?

- "Our message as a band is simple, we try not to preach, not to influence, not to broadcast, hopefully we subvert people enough for them to awake and grow their own interpretations of what Moonspell means, the message is find the message!"

The introduction song on UNDER THE MOONSPELL, named as «Allah Akbar! La Allah Ella Allah!», what does it mean?

- "It means "Allah is God, praise Allah!"."

Being satanic (among other things), weren't you afraid that the Arabian aspects would be a negative aspect concerning UNDER THE MOONSPELL?

- ""Being satanic": thank you! "among other things" why not?, we are enlightened enough to use and to understand the beauty of a culture different from ours and instead of childishly condemn it using our so diverse cultural patterns, to enrich our music with it greatly. Under the Moonspell drinks from the Arabian culture indeed as the Arabian culture left great evidence on the Portuguese culture itself."

Thinking of Satanic music, Arabian influences are not what I expect! Personally, I like it!

- "If you were shocked or surprised, fair enough you can not say we are a predictable band and that is a compliment. Maybe you expected Norwegian horn, if it exists. Sorry to disappoint you there. People in general had the same reaction you had but fortunately there were some valuable exceptions (I do not mean your reaction was not valuable itself). People recognized it as different, fresh, and needed for a time everybody was copying the dull coldness of Norwegian bands. We gave them a fiery option with our flick flacks and our bric à bracs."

Hmm, can I comment upon your irony without being ironic myself? Norwegian horns would be cool, you know, The Gjallarhorn! I did not expect anything special, but I did not expect Arabian influences because that was not what I combined with Black metal, as I thought MOONSPELL was. But I was wrong, and sorry for that. The 'being satanic' thing I had from the interview earlier mentioned. It was not me, I am not guilty, ha ha...

The music as a whole is very complex! Do you consider your music to be intelligent?

- "Complex does not mean intelligent and Under was composed that way because we were all into intricate lyrics and music and tried to perform and compose something slightly epic ourselves. Maybe we got a little bit over the top sometimes but..."

Why not compose straight forward tracks which are easily remembered?

- "Now we do more memorable/simply structured songs definitely but we still retain a dangerous taste for intricate arrangements."

Music which grows upon the listener, is that what you want to release? Is the growing part important to you? You see, it takes its time to notice all your instruments...

- "We like people to grow with the record, to discover it, to find new things each time they listen to it. It is vital for the Moonspell sound what you call the growing part. Why? Because I like growing Art, something you experience several times in one work."

«Tenebrarum Oratorium (Andamento I / Erudit Compendyum»! I guess 'the Majestic Horns of Baphomet' are those we can see at the front cover, isn't it?

- "Bingo! Indeed occult banners proudly up in the air, I would say."

God! What is God? You want to/are going to hurt this God! Why? In what way?

- "Good question, what is God? Maybe a projection of all human desires and ambitions in a perfect like being that reflects conceptually what Man would like to be himself. Maybe a purely human creation, powerful enough to dethrone its rightful creator, and became a sum of not only man ideal characteristics but also of its whole spectre of abominations, intellectual abortions and perversities. We want to hurt this idea, not the boogie man that sends thunder when he is angry and decides about your future post mortem. Because we recognized the usurpation of the centre of things, and we are above all anthropocentric individuals. There is not God but man and that is the way. The sole and naked truth. Do I sound like a preacherman? I am terribly desolate."

I also wonder, in what way does 'the dawn of knowledge have a Southern Sign'?

- "The dawn of knowledge has a southern sign is a reference to the birth of philosophy and systems of thought of whole the then civilized world in Greece a country located in Southern Europe and that I personally respect very much."

You have played live, also in Norway (Together with Immortal and Morbid Angel, 1995)! Give us some information of your live performances! In Norway, the audience just stands there like their feet have been placed within cement, just like statue-like creations! What do you think of this?

- "Our live performance is a honest tentative of visualizing and reproducing in loco the atmospheres we create with our songs and therefore honour the concept of a live show bringing more to the eye and the ear than just a dry performance. That is why we incorporate scenic elements, having a rather considerable light show and hopefully performing not only as musicians but as actors, animals whose environment is the stage.

About Norway I do not miss at all the first show but it was important to show that there bands that do not only talk but actually play and act professionally enough to perform to a hostile crowd, in a country that was origin of many death threats to our persons."

You also toured in October 1996, together with Samael. How was the reaction this time from the Norwegian living-dead league? I hope they have changed a bit or two thousand bits by now...!

- "Actually we played already three times in Norway and we, as a band, were always satisfied with our shows. With Samael people were not so afraid to let themselves go with our music and with Type O the reaction was good. As you see even ice melts and ven snow dies."

Do the listeners walk around like zombies all along Europe, or is this just a Norwegian behaviour?

- "The rest of Europe was a different reaction from Norway as they are different countries, they move, they clap, they act normally in a gig or sometimes not so normally. It depends on a lot of things, there is not an exclusive behaviour to a concert I suppose. It is made of variation, hopefully!"

In these days of True Northern Black Metal, your way of Black Atmospheric metal differs a lot from the usual stuff! Why, in your opinion, does the Southern way of playing dark music include a lot more emotions that the one-dimensional Northern hate? Are you more 'warm' down in Europe? I think of Italian bands, they all use more feelings that hate! Thinking of the weather, could it be that the cold climate makes us a colder people, or is my thought just pure nonsense...?

- "We are warmer here definitely! And I like it very much! I do not know if southern black metal includes more emotions than the northern one and honestly I do not waste any sleep over it. The fact is that each time I am shown a Northern band which is dubbed as original and the new breed of Norwegian Black metal I find it vulgar, seen and listened a thousand times and with a pathetic amount of innovation that sometimes ends up being the inclusion of an acoustic

guitar or whatever. And sometimes when I listen to a southern band or more occidental band and is brought to me as an emotive piece of gothic atmospheric black metal I see it as cheesy, childish, with a pathetic need of introducing everything dubbed as gothic from deep vocals to female, to acoustic, to violins, etc. We have used all of it ourselves but we always tried to use it differently. You do not go to a studio and do a list of instruments that you should use to sound gothic or black, or whatever. The innovation is not in what but in how. And it starts from the moment you write a song, you do not write a song for the sake of the arrangements, you write a good song and then arrange it to make it better. We could have used tons of female vocals on Irreligious but we felt it was complete without it, so we used them only on Raven Claws in a more jazzy, rock way and it enriched that particular song! Music is not a fill in and new bands mostly do so I am afraid.

It is not up to geography if you sound fresh or not. It has a strong influence for sure but I can not accept that bands from a country or a region to sound alike in detail. Our weather clears up our mind I may conclude."

And after such a conclution I guess it is time to take a closer look at WOLFHEART! An album of beautiful and emotional aspects, and with variation as an important part! Are you pleased with the ending result?

- "Almost two years after recording Wolfheart I may say I am indeed happy with the album even if when we got out of the studio we felt all in all a bit frustrated with it since we could have done better with that material musically and lyrically. But that means for us it was a challenging album and an ambitious effort from us and that the songs remain with interest enough to keep the album selling and for future versions we would definitely do when we have time."

At once, you thought that it became a bit too soft, so why did you choose to release it so 'soft' in the end?

- "The soft thing was that we came from a faster, harder album and experienced a lot with melody and gothic stuff for the first time in a serious scale and we felt we should have done it harder because of our following into harder music. But fortunately it was a very temporary cloud over our heads, typical when you release an album."

You have said (Ares said) that people were probably not ready for such a release! I wonder, were they? How has the response been?

- "At the beginning nobody, except us, believed on the album and we thought nobody was ready for it. I still do not know if they were but the fact is that even though the first months after its release were pretty lame, just after the Morbid Angel tour Wolfheart was discovered and we became one of the most important bands in our style and in our label. That felt and feels good, we do not believe in overnight sensation and success for Moonspell but I believe in our work and that in only two years we went somewhere with our music definitely!

The response turned out to swept a considerable number of people off their feet including us and the record sold around 50000 copies and it is still selling. It was the best selling debut ever on Century media."

What has people emphasized as the best parts with WOLFHEART? (PS; it is one of my favourite albums...)

- "What got people attracted to Wolf was (they say at least) the freshness and all the variety of the album because it was so diverse that somehow people always found something of their own taste in our music which is really flattering! Vampiria and Alma Mater were the distinguished tracks."

What does the 'wolf' mean to you? Does it symbolise anything to you?

- "When we composed Wolfheart myself and Ares especially were passing through a moment of deep and hard solitude and anger basically due to past relationships we had. That was a main influence on us and we were searching for a symbol of it all to illustrate the title of an album whose songs dealt mostly with Woman and her surroundings subjects. Ares was always very close to natural icons and he came up with the name of the album and all the imagery of the wolves since that, in the wolf figure we could find a perfect language to fit into our concept. The wolf was and it is taken by us as more than just a natural predator who destroys cattle. We found on it a social symbol, an icon to our love for women, the sweetness and the savagery of our music."

Why this attraction to wolfs and their nature?

- "We have researched on the wolves' lifecode and we are still surprised how we felt so identified with it. Wolves understand misanthropy and solitude better than any human, and understand love and fidelity as many would give their soul to."

I have read somewhere that the wolfs on the cover of your album (digi-pack) symbolised the members of MOONSPELL! In what way?

- "In fact the six wolves were the then six members of Moonspell howling to their main icon (the moon) and for us it was a metaphor to a lot of things as I said, a metaphor for nightly creation and darkened hearts."

«Vampiria»! What is «Vampiria»?

"Vampiria began to be just a song inspired by one immortal love and death novel that inspired me heavily. Therefore I wrote this song and we were very careful in its preparation since we wanted to grant it with that special edge that soundtracks possess themselves in order to create a very visual song where you could be transported into a deep, heavy atmosphere. We must have been successful because Vampiria got a life of herself and we created a character that a lot of girls (especially) identify and call themselves Vampiria at least here in Portugal mainly."

In what way is «Vampiria» your destiny?

- "I see vampirism itself as a huge exchange of energy and that way I can not assure you that Vampiria was the destiny of anyone or myself but maybe the woman we all love or would love to have in our arms or our bed. Vampiria is a very special song that created a character and became an essential energy therefore a vampiric song without a doubt."

Evil is most often defined as 'negative' and 'destructive'! What is your opinion of evil?

- "Evil is one of the most misunderstood values of humanity since we refuse to accept its purity bound from a purely natural genesis, it is most defined as negative for sure but maybe Nietzsche was right when he said that all the human values are misplaced and that we should re-analyse all of them, to clarify it. For me evil and good are two human words based on human concepts, that are mixed in something you can not divide: intelligence, the ruler of human behaviour. Evil and Good are maybe two adulterous lovers."

What is «Alma Mater»? What does it mean?

- "Alma Mater means in English Mother Soul and it was used by the Latin poets to describe their homeland. It can be dubbed as a creative soul that lives inside all the diverse peoples on the universe and that reflects itself on the love for your country, your culture, your pantheon, your art. That is something that, as a Portuguese, is dearly attached to me as it was for centuries to a people always dwelling in pride and adventure."

'Am I alone in my belief?', you ask. What is your belief?

- "Anyway, it is not an exclusive Portuguese feeling. Norwegians, I know they have (at least as a fashion), and everyone who feels this way be it African or oriental. It is a sort of universal conscience of our small role on a larger cosmos. This was the belief I asked on the song if it was only mine. I answer myself then that I am not (hopefully) alone on my belief, in Portugal I know I am not. The key to answer it to yourself is to search alone, and with others what your alma mater means for you. The song is as simple as this."

I also wonder, do you believe in superstition, or do you trust only your Powers within?

- "By the way I am not superstitious and I mainly believe in the powers within, I can only count with them."

IRRELIGIOUS! Where is God? Has the christian community done wrong in claiming that there is a God? I believe such...

Anyway, let us take a closer look at the cover (LP-version)! I don't know the symbols which are drawn in there, but whose eye is it that looks straight at us? Of course, being so green it looks more like an alien or something, than the eye of a human figure... What do you want to tell us with the cover? To me, it seems like there is a kind of fog (the orange colour that is) which hides something green, maybe a God or something... But as I don't know the symbols I cannot go any further into it. Please help me here...!

- "God is on his and other millions' knees. I think I have already said enough about God or gods so if your memory is short get back to question 7 and read it once again, please.

The cover of Irreligious is a collage of different symbols directly or indirectly connected with two strong aspects of the album: freedom and knowledge as a tight unit. The dominant eye is the called eye of Horus, an Egyptian symbol that occidental culture adopted when they say the eye is an icon of awareness, of foreseeing, of knowledge. This was already common between the Egyptians and even among other civilizations. The inside eye might be from a cat: a sacred animal in Egypt, the favourite from the pharaohs or from a serpent which are both symbols of wisdom, of the dominance of animal sapience of the things of this earth or not...It looks for you not at you.

There is a tarot wheel behind it all that is also an icon of foreseeing, of anticipation, of awareness and it is all wrapped up on an orange bottom which somehow hides and contours figures that symbolize a big fire (once again a symbol of purity, freedom and knowledge). It is an irreligious cover."

The music is not as angry as on WOLFHEART! But it does not differ that much. How has people reacted to IRRELIGIOUS?

- "Hopefully a lot of people including ourselves are very pleased with the album and think it is a major breakthrough from Wolfheart and a definitely more solid album, with more consistent song writing and deeper darkness."

Positive and negative aspects, if any?

- "The positive aspects is the excellent reaction to it both from our old time fans and especially from all the new fans we gained with our second effort not to mention pontual things, the worst is that we can not please everyone and there is a few people that preferred we went this or that or that we stopped with our evolution or whatever but as long as they like other releases of Moonspell is still Moonspell and we reserve and deserve ourselves the right to choose and to build our own path into music."

But I have to ask: What is your relationship to King Diamond's The Eye? I ask because of the track «Herr Spiegelmann» compared to the song «Father Picard» from The Eye. Have you noticed that the chorus ('Look Me in...') in these two songs are very similar when it comes to the tunes? Are you inspired by King Diamond? PS; what do you thing of his The Graveyard?

- "Our relationship with King Diamond is that I am a huge fan of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond first albums (until Conspiracy) and even if I think he is one of the artists that have the most extraordinary quality in all his albums with both bands I am not familiar with The Eye album I am sorry, but you made me curious so I will check it out. Maybe it is one of my many unconscious influenza. I am not familiar either with the new one but I surely love Fatal Portrait and Abigail for the record!"

«Awake!» Awake from what? To me this song seems as a kind of cry for a new era, an era with thoughts from a past not forgotten by you!

- "Awake is a simple song about the poisoned sleep of the nineties called alienation. The song deals with disrespect for tradition and with the loss of the golden chance we have of learning with the past, humans are the visionaries who feel the weight of a rope around their neck when they try to awake from this sleep."

Who are the visionaries with a rope around their necks? You and your kind, I believe...

- "The rope is different to each one but many share the same. It can be fear, it can be sex, it can be society, the neighbour you hate, your parents. The message is not a cry to cut it or to build a new era. I am not so arrogant or such a dreamer. I only say what I feel happening and the ones who should awake are the ones who want to awake. I am as anyone."

Respect to you for your thoughts. And now to your discussed song, Opium.With a song-title like Opium, I guess you won't be overwhelming surprised when I ask to you: What is your opinion of drugs?

- "Opium is a narrative about the creative power of drugs especially Opium that have influenced a considerable number of my favourite pieces of art from pictures to poetry, from theatre to powerplays. I was basically impressed by a poem called Opiarum from a Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa who has a quote on the Portuguese narration at the end of the song. It is also a way to awake young people to the hidden aspects of literature they do not learn in school and to attract them to more dignifying activities."

Your song, is it a tribute to the drug named as opium, or am I totally on the far side...?

- "I wrote Opium not because I am in favour of hard drugs but because this particular drug instead of purely destructive had an undeniable beauty on itself and allowed people to get away from their human shell and produce remarkable works of art. I do not use drugs at all myself but I do not condemn people using it, it is up to each one and I feel everyone is responsible or not to deal with it."

I interpret the lyric s a kind of hailing to opium. If it is such, are you not afraid to become boycotted by those against drugs; resulting in a lesser sale of IRRELIGIOUS? (I am not against drugs)

- "About boycotting yes we were. It did not affected directly the sales of Irreligious but we had tentatives of gigs cancellation by a German teacher on the South of Germany (which is a living evidence that teachers nowadays are mostly everything but educated and free minded people, then they complain about it...) and our video does not receive broadcast on MTV because it was considered by the ruling society of television work, whatever bureaucratic association, like a praising of an A class drug because I am smoking a pipe together with other bohemians on the video. It does not matter since MTV was never into Moonspell and vice versa but it is depressive to see bands with serious drug problems like Nirvana and Alice in Chains being the bread and butter of MTV. Anyway I can not imagine how many of the censors do not take drugs themselves. I just write about it..."

I know what you mean. I am not a satanist or a only Black metal fan. I just write about them, and interview them.

My favourite song on IRRELIGIOUS is Full Moon Madness! When I state that this song sums up the music side of IRRELIGIOUS, what is your premium comment?

- "I disagree since it is a very different song from all the others and was meant to have a slight more epic feeling to it in order to finish the album properly just like we did with Alma Mater on the end of Wolfheart. More of an apotheosis than a summary if I may disagree."

What I mean in the former question is that Full Moon Madness starts off with a soft intro of beauty, it enters a chorus of majestic and monumental feelings (I hail this chorus!!) and ends in an angry and brutal way.

Can we sum up MOONSPELL as soft, majestic and brutal tunes composed together with harmony (except for Raven Claws which is disharmony to me)? How would you define/categorise the music of MOONSPELL?

- "I don't understand your definition of Moonspell but if it is the way you see us fair enough. I would say we try to play visual music for the mind and for the senses, as honest to ourselves as possible and to experiment with our wide range of influences and adapt it in our mysterious ways."

«(Herr) Spiegelmann!» After leaving the circus-like intro, I wonder: Could you please reveal to us the interpretation of this song? I have tried to understand it, but I have failed...

- "This song is based upon my reading and interpretation of a book called "The Perfume" (story of a killer) by Patrick Suskind which relates the story of a man which is born with a dangerous appetite for smells and tries to create the perfect perfume out of human odours killing for his art. A particular scene of that book impressed me tremendously and I just had to quote it and to work out a lyric from there. I collected the image of a mirrorman from there, in who all the people see whoever or whatever they wanted to and forgot about the real mirror image which was of disgrace, mind and body poverty.

Spiegelmann is a mirrorman on which we see what we want and that reflects our dark side we are ashamed of admitting, so he is a monster we avoid daily but that is our reality and our fantasy at once."

What do you want to tell us with the circus-like introduction to this song?

- "The circus like intro is something I wanted to use for a long time already in Moonspell because I am very into circus, carrousel music since I think it is very scary and grotesque and we wanted a bizarre intro for one of our most bizarre songs and lyrics."

Well, a number of questions has come to an end! If you will finish by spreading your visions upon what could be named as underground-scene, I will be satisfied!

- "Underground scene in many ways have became what people wanted it to become. People always complained that nobody paid attention to underground music and bands and when they get recognition they regret it and say they lost the spirit or whatever. So why so much hand work and promotion on the first place? I hate this new fashion that say that underground is dead and the true spirit is lost, people that say this mainly just arrived to this environment and think they are judges or have moral to say this is underground or not. Underground changed, evolved to something wider and I still retain my relation with it since for me underground was never exclusively a movement of tape trading or fanzine printing of the metal scene. It was a cultural movement that overcomes things such as money and music borders and that I feel proud dealing with as singer and lyricist of Moonspell."

And finally, if you have strong wish for adding something the cosmos is yours...

- "To finish off I would like to ask you if you really think that after 21 in depth questions and answers and mental exercises I would have something to add????? Thanks for the interview."

THAT'S IT FOLKS. THIS INTERVIEWS WAS ORIGINALLY PLACED IN IMHOTEP MAGAZINE #3 (AND IT STILL IS IN THERE IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM), AND THE ANSWERS WERE WRITTEN DURING AUTUMN 1996. HOPEFULLY THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU FIND IT OUTDATED. I DO NOT. AND LET US ALL WAIT FOR THE NEW ALBUM WHICH IS TO BECOME RELEASED QUITE SOON, "PECADO".

R.K.

® imhotep zine, issue#3

SARCASTIC TRUTH ZINE 1997

"Irreligious" - tell me the first thing that comes in your mind when you hear this word.

Freedom! Not of human kind. Misanthrope. Hatred. Wrath. Revenge. Power.

The feeling must be great now that you released one of the best Cd's of 1996 (personal opinion and not only) ? Am I right, or you have the feeling that lots of things should be changed in "Irreligious" so that it'll be one of the best Cd's in the year that passed?

I don't know, what is done is done. I believe we did our best, more we couldn't do. It feels like corruption, the butterfly effect, it starts far away, very small and suddenly it becomes bigger than we can carry and so near. Future will tell, it might be in our hands or it might not. I don't think Irreligious is one of our best albums, there are tons of much better Metal records before Irreligious.

How are sales going ? Is Century Media sattisfied generally and what do you think of your cooperation with Century Media? Any problems ?

We don't exactly, around 80.000 maybe? Century is not kind enough to provide us regularly the exact figure sales. I hope they are satisfied, after all our work we had I think we deserve it at least. No problems at all, just the usual complications of a small young band in a big young label. Nothings 100% perfect. I'm not the most optimistic person to talk about this matters.

I'm sure that you must have answered this question thousands of times,

but tell me did the rumors of being bad musicians (because of Waldemar's

participation) effect you or better hurt you? And is "Irreligious" the

answer to all those, who claim the previous?

Live shows ate the best proof, and by the way it's the first time I'm asked about this so... But Waldemar also produces other bands, including his own band Grip Inc., does that means they are bad musicians too? Is Dave Lombardo a bad drummer? What about Samael, Tiamat, The Gathering, Sentenced, Are all this bands bad musicians? I don't think so. "Irreligious" is not an answer, is just a record with music, the Moonspell live shows are THE answer to all "those" critics.

How, do you think, the whole story with you being useless musicians started ? Do you think jealousy is the main reason of rumors like that ?

I don't know, I never heard about it, it's the first time someone is asking me about it. What can I answer? We are not guitar genius but I do have a heart that bleeds painfully, a WolfHeart that I use to try to create music. I'm not a musician, I'm a wolf in a human shape.

About your songs now.... "Opium" made me think lots of things. Do you use drugs? Or more generally do you seek other forms of inspiration except your mind ?

I don't. Unfortunately, I'm so buried in my own pain and suffering caused by mankind that I need nothing else but myself, mind or sex, to be inspired. Drugs means money, and money is something I don't have.

"Awake... for all is dying, even the dead; We are Past failing to come back; All of us visionaries with a rope around our neck..." Are all visionaries with a rope around their neck? Do you think that this world will awake from religious fanaticism, stupidity and ignorance ?

I have a rope around my neck, and someone is pulling it. This is the price I pay for loving Moonspell in the name of Art. I don't think the world, or humanity wants to awake from religious fanatism, that would mean reality, problems, and courage to face them, and that's something mankind has not, courage. Humanity is of coward nature.

And now that we have talked about religions and stuff... What is your opinion about Cristendom ? I know that you ideologically consider your self as supporters of Satan or I am wrong ? At least that's what I believed about Moonspell (at least for the person who writes the verses), before 'Irreligious'.

I'm not a supporter of anyone but myself! I don't believe in the existence of satan or any other so called God. Christendom is a desease like Aids, or humankind. In fact I think it fits really well with people, it's dirty, corrupted and vile so it's of human nature. Ideologically I'm atheistic, misanthrope, against anything human, anti social, nihilist, pessimistic, negativistic and anti christian of course.

Now are you up to anything else ? I know that Mad Lion Rec, will re-release your demos in Cd version. Except that you made a world tour with Rotting Christ, Samael, The Gathering and other bands. Tell me about your experience of this tour.

Fantastic, Rotting Christ are my brothers, Jim & Sakis are honest and carry the true spirit of Dionisius. I love them and their music, I wish I could tour eternally with Rotting Christ. Samael are great too, excellent music and very intelligent beings, I think they are not of human kind too. I don't know yet about Mad Lion rec. Yet, I still have to see some points.

From the great Greek scene, you know only Rotting Christ ? Other fave bands from Greece ?

I know a lot more bands from Greece but as far as I remember Rotting Christ is the best band and the most serious one. I think Greece is full of "Only Studio" bands, pseudo satanists and pseudo warriors.

Do you think Black metal as a trend, a fashion of childs or childish people that use make-up and scream ? Because that's what I have read in your interview in Greek Metal Hammer (kind of).

Black Metal is shit! I'm not into it, I listen to Leonard Cohen, Depeche Mode, Type O Negative and Sisters of Mercy, so you can see that I'm not the right person to talk about Black Wimpy Metal. Black Metal was Venon, and nothing else.

Anyway I wish you the best for your future, thank you for this interview and I hope that in your next release you will have a song about ancient Greece ! I don't know how the history of ancient Greece didn't inspired you! Aren't you interesting in philosophy, history, mythology etc?

I think you have much better bands to write about ancient Greece, Moonspell could not rise to the occasion and write about something so rich and fantastic as the ancient Greece, and you just have to check Rotting Christ last album, it's full os tales and Greek melodies. I'm everything that means destruction of the human race.

Ok, this is the end. There are so many things that I want to ask you,that I could use all the pages of my 'zine ! So, I close this interview here. Send your messages to Greek people and close this interview with curses instead of wishes and thanks (for a change!) !!!!

I curse all of us that walk on two instead of four.

Thanks for your interview!

® Sarcastic truth zine 1997