1. “But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). At least one quotation from the bible may concern your band, so what would you like to tell Matthew and his god, Jehovah’s son called Jesus, in response?
-I couldn’t care less to be honest. I still spit on the cross today just like as I did in 1991 when we formed the band.
2. I’m sure that your band for you is a kind of true real life instead of the reality of common people. But, at the same time, you have to live/work/socialize in this “common reality”. So, what kind of people you are in that “common reality”?
-Hard to say what is common reality as I don’t know it to be honest. Some of us work, some of us only do music, but it’s never a normal life. Everyone needs money to survive, but who we are in private is really not for everyone.
3. Is there anything out of the world of extreme music that inspires you and gives you fresh ideas for creativity?
-Many things outside extreme music give me inspiration too actually. I am inspired by way more than just music. I am also inspired by things like nightmares, spiritism, hauntings, books etc. If you simply mean non metal music I guess sometimes we are a little inspired by horror movie soundtracks too actually.
4. Analyzing some aspects of horror aesthetics of MISFITS I can find some common elements with you – lyrics of narrative type, horror atmosphere and importance of visual elements. Which bands or books inspired you to start D.O.G. in 1991?
-Although we are big fans of (old) Misfits I have never seen the connection to them apart from the fact that we both deal with horror subjects in the lyrics. When we started the band we were influenced by bands like Mayhem (still good at that point), Hellhammer, Infernдl Majesty, Mercyful Fate, Alice Cooper, Bathory, Death SS, Ripper etc and it’s still the same bands we enjoy nowadays. Books too. Mostly about occultism and superstitions.
5. One of “Death And The Beyond” topics concerns feelings of a man buried alive. As far as I remember, the famous Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol had a strong fear of being buried alive (taphophobia), and some legends about him affirm that when his grave was exhumed, his corpse was in a position not typical for a dead man. Some people say that a really creative person always touches the world of his fears. What kind of the world waits for your band?
-Interesting thought and kind of true, I guess. Being buried alive is really some of the worst I could imagine, but it’s not like I took one of my phobias and wrote a song about it. But I like the saying with creative persons that touch the world of their fears as I think it is true as these people often take one step further into darkness than the rest and often even embrace the dark. I always say the best musicians are the ones with fucked up personalities or deep mental trouble. There is no make believe.
6. It’s possible to think about Ragnar Redbeard, Nietzsche, Crowley, and La Vei in a context of your lyrics, but as an author and his audience 
may have different opinions, it would be interesting to know your opinion on these historical figures.
-Interesting personalities for sure, but I don’t see how they involve with the lyrics we have at all. Our lyrics are tales of horror and nightmares. I have them on my shelves, but they don’t inspire the lyrics. I like to study occult books and own quite a few, but the books that mainly inspire me are about superstitions and the supernatural. Not Satanism etc. We keep that part for ourselves.
7. In what way you consider your live shows? Rituals? Theater performance? Acts of anti-x-tian propaganda?
-First off we are not your usual shitty black metal band who refers to all their live shows as ’rituals’ to make it all sound so occult and esoteric even if they never even read an occult book, so fuck that. We don’t call them gigs, because that word doesn’t cover enough and sounds too much like a happening in a normal life. We call them shows and actually I’d like to call them performances too. It’s like a catharsis to me and hard to explain. Our shows are rather crazy, energetic and summoning feelings of sheer terror. Every show is a tribute to darkness.
8. When I visited Denmark in 2003, I paid attention to the presence of pentagrams in some old large and little architecture forms (buildings and monuments) in Copenhagen. Is it a kind of heritage of some secret societies?
-There actually was occultism involved when building a few famous buildings in Copenhagen, but I can’t say I have seen the things you’ve seen yet, so I can’t really comment on it. As for societies, I don’t know any there except the O.T.O. which is still alive and well nowadays.
9. So-called Nordic demonology concerns a lot of chtonic creatures, and their variety is wider to a considerable degree than in demonology of x-tian period. And of course the legends or horror stories of pre-x-tian times are more dark and interesting. So, why do you prefer pay more attention to some “standard horror” topics connected with x-tianity instead of explore and discover “the new horizons” of old Scandinavian dark myths and legends?
-I honestly don’t understand what you mean here. Denial Of God is not just limited to one topic of horror or demonology at all. We will write about whatever we find suitable and useful. I don’t know what you call “standard horror”, but if you point at the debut LP dealing with werewolves, vampires, witches etc., that is exactly what we wanted to do then. An album about classical horror and let it work as a tribute to the beings of the night. The next album had a different concept and dealt with death and spiritism. I don’t see how old Scandinavian tales would have fitted in in any of them. We are a lot into old tales of superstition, so you can be sure we will touch the subject later on, but only when the time is right.
10. As I see, you’d chosen English as the main language for your lyrics. At the same time I found one of your songs in Latin and one in Danish. Have you ever thought about using Enochian language?
-Not really. The Latin one you refer to was just an intro and the Danish one we did as it suited the track well to be in Danish and we couldn’t find the right word to describe it in English. I prefer English at any time. I think all our material in the future will be in English as well. Enochian would be something new though.
11. Morbid Angel’s drummer, Pete Sandoval, was recently converted to x-tianity. Just imagine a fictitious situation: a member of D.O.G. is converted as the above named “brother in faith”. What will follow in such a situation?
-Most of our ex-members nowadays live a completely different life then back then, but that is probably why they are not in the band anymore. You go in wholeheartedly or not at all. Period. If one became a Christian I’d only laugh at them and feel pity.
12. When we are talking about Denmark scene, the main bands the people recall in their mind are King Diamond/Mercyful Fate, Pretty Maids, and Artillery. But what about some undeservedly forgotten underground Danish bands? Can you recommend some? What about the bands of your ex-members?
-There are more bands than you mention luckily, but only a handful or two deserve the attention of the world if you ask me. Too many metalcore shit bands etc. You should check out bands like Altar Of Oblivion, Cerekloth (RIP), Oath Of Woe, Nortt, Church Bizarre, Undergang, Wьrm’s Tongue, Ogdru Jahad etc. None of our ex-members’ bands are still going. Too bad ‘cause Apollyon and Feikn were really good and original bands, but I guess they found better things to do.
13. I’d like to express my gratitude for your Black Art and your devotion to the chosen path! It’s your turn to say something for our readers and our magazine at parting.
Thanx a lot for the interview and the support. I hope we’ll someday play in your country. I want to see your cemeteries.
(c) Sergei Pavlov [AR]
Sponsors:
[AdSense-A]
If you really would like to support Antichrist, you can just Share our article.
You can also support Antichrist by sending a couple bucks to cover some webhosting expenses. =>> PayPal
[ad 1]
