Allegiance is a black metal band from France, recently on the metal scene. The band have released a demo album entitled ‘’As the Entity Did Rise’’. Below you can read an interview I had with Asgorn (vocals and guitar) and Alakihel (bass) about Allegiance.
Greetings to both of you Asgorn and Alakihel, how things are going?
Asgorn: Pretty fine!
Alakihel: Fine, thank you!
You Asgorn have a new band, Allegiance, before you were focusing more with Havenless, but how the idea started to create a new band?
Asgorn: I listen to black metal since a long time and I always wanted to create a black metal band. I was busy with Havenless but one day I said to myself why not to start a new band, last winter I created Allegiance and I found some music players, I started with Alakihel.
You recorded a demo under the name of ‘’As the Entity Did Rise’’, but why haven’t you released it as an EP or as a full-length?
Asgorn: I think is a good way to start a band, a demo is a pretty kind of production that many bands started with this and I decided to release this way too, an album at first I think is too fast, a demo is a good way for promotion…
Alakihel: Making the audience to know the band even better, I think in my opinion to release an album directly after 1 year of activity can be risky, with an album can be mistakes and I think is a normal way to step into music with a demo album.
Speaking about the themes and the lyrics, what are these about?
Alakihel: Yeah well, all depends by the lyrics, of course, I tend to stick on one main theme, mostly it’s about nihilistic, mystique, black magic, I try to stay close not to medieval stuffs but to remain at least in the medieval atmosphere, I hope that we made the audience to dream about what they would want to be about.
Have you thought to release a new album then, maybe next year?
Asgorn: We are working on it, yes. It’s almost ready, 2 or 3 songs maybe but soon will be ready.
What can you tell me about the cover artwork, who is the artist who made it?
Alakihel: The artist who made it, I mean the original artwork was made by Gustave Dore, a French graphician who did the illustrations of the Paradise Lost, the Holy Bible, we found the artwork very attractive and our guitarist made some slightest modifications, the layers were reduced as the cover to look more like is mist.
You call yourself as Emperial black metal, why is that?
Asgorn: (Laughs) If we talk about our main influence and my first favorite band is the famous Norwegian black metal band, Emperor.
Alakihel: The name of Emperial black metal is a reference and a reverence to the mighty Emperor, because they released a live album ‘’Emperial Live Ceremony’’ and we are all fans of Emperor since the band started and we also want to show respect to Emperor.
What other bands can you mention as your influence beside Emperor?
Asgorn: We like a lot of bands like Satyricon, maybe Dissection, the first album of Dimmu Borgir was good too, Summoning is great…
Alakihel: It also depends by the band members aswell, this question is kind of personal but if I speak for myself I am also a fan of heavy metal but related to black metal I would say Dissection, of course, Windir, Satyricon, we have a French metal band called Nehemah…
Asgorn: We forgot one important band, Bathory (laughs).
Alakihel: Bathory of course.
What about gigs, are you planning to tour over Europe maybe next year?
Asgorn: In France is really complicated to organize some shows but yeah, we are working on a tour, we did 2 shows, one is Bordeaux with Negura Bunget and the second one was in Tolouse . we have a big list of contacts and we’re working on it.
What other plans do you have in mind, maybe doing a video?
Asgorn: We haven’t thought about it, I prefer to release the album first.
Alakihel: Making a video, apart from the cost, in the black metal universe you can be cought in a kitch, I think videos don’t belong in the black metal world, except for a few ones like, I don’t know, the video Emperor made for ‘’Empty’’ which is very, you know, very easy…
Asgorn: Just dark, black and white.
Alkahiel: Is something very complicated in my opinion.
But the other plans?
Alakihel: Play, play, play! Gigs!
Asgorn: As said we want shows in France, maybe trying some fests in France, maybe playing in other countries near France.
I hope that you will get shows outta France also, I would like to see you live!
Alakihel: It would be a really good pleasure!
Asgorn: Maybe we will try to plan something for the Eastern Europe, but we need contacts, a booking agent. At the moment, we want to focus on the shows in France and the new album.
I would like to ask you Asgorn about Havenless, is the band on hold or still active?
Asgorn: Is going to continue, I am very busy with my bands, yeah I am working on the second album, I have 4 progressive songs, very long songs. Not next year but in 2 years maybe the new album will be out, I hope.
To quit this interview, would you like to send a message to the people who discovered your music?
Alakihel: Well, thank you a lot for your support, we really appreciate this, it gives us more strength to keep going on this!
Asgorn: Same here, and please know that our site will be out very soon, created by Alakihel.
Alaihel: We will keep you all updated about the new site and other stuffs on our facebook page.
Thank you very much for this interview, hope to see you soon. Cheers!
Both: Thank you Carla!
https://www.facebook.com/Allegianceemperialblackmetal/
https://allegianceemperialblackmetal.bandcamp.com/releases
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