Interview: Blasphemy

I had the occasion to have an interview with Death Lord, guitarist of the mighty black metal band, Blasphemy. Read below:

Hails DeathLord! A first question would be how are things going with Blasphemy, will we hear one day a new album from you?
Things are going great with Blasphemy. We have some live shows scheduled this year. Something will be recorded eventually.

Talking about your debut, ‘’Fallen Angel Of Doom’’, every song has an intro, why did you decide as every song to have the intros?
The overall concept was to evocate feeling of evil and despondency when listening. The intros and outros helped convey this atmosphere.

How was the first time when you have joined Blasphemy and tell me how did you get your stage name.
Blasphemy has been my favorite band since I bought “Fallen Angel of Doom….” upon its release in 1990. So getting to join was something that can only be described as a dream come true!  My stage name was evoked in a ritual at Ross Bay Cemetery! A baptism in blood!

What are your favorite songs from ‘’Fallen Angel of Doom’’ and ‘’Gods of War’’?
I think that every song on those albums KILL!!! Impossible to choose. I was going to type out some stand outs, but then I would just type out every Blasphemy song ever written. Songs like “The Desolate One” and “Fallen Angel of Doom….” are total genius to me!! But you can’t forget the total killers like “Demoniac”, “Necrosadist” and of course “Blasphemous Attack” and “Ritual”!!!

What are your beliefs?
Only Death is real!

Most of the black metal bands have their lyrical themes about darkness, myths, paganism, when you sing about satanism, war, death, how do you describe black metal in your opinion?
Black Metal is Satanism put to music. There are a lot of non-Satanic bands calling themselves Black Metal, but to me they are misguided. Some people think that if you dress up in corpse paint and spikes and/or play music that sounds like Black Metal, then that is sufficient. But to me, those bands are missing an element that they can’t convey into their recordings. Only someone truly on the path of evil can produce that certain Black Metal atmosphere. I can see right through the fakes.

Explain to the readers what Ross Bay Cult was, is it still active, if yes, what is happening with this today?
Ross Bay Cult is still active. The website should be back up by time this interview is printed. Ross Bay Cult is a way to properly distribute our releases with our full control. When this is left to outsiders, too many issues arise.

But what about Ross Bay cemetery?
There is something about that place…. If you are ever able to enter this cemetery on a trip to Victoria, Canada, you will have inexplicable feelings of desolation and impurity. Some say that this is a portal to Hell itself if you are to believe such words. I can’t describe the inspiration that I get from Ross Bay. Once Ross Bay Cemetery came into my life, everything took towards a focused direction!

You seems to be the ones who started with the satanic skinhead, what does it mean for you?
Definitely the Satanic Skinhead concept was first created by Blasphemy! It is a stance against all wimps and trendy idiots that try to infiltrate our scene. It is also a form of our brotherhood amongst other things. There is much more to the concept, but this is enough of a description for the readers/outsiders.

Tell me a few of your favorite albums of all time or a few bands that you take them as Blasphemy influence.
Early Bathory and early Sodom are still the best!! Blasphemy comes from those bands as well as others like early Venom and Hellhammer. These bands will forever remain our main influences and stay on our record players as much as possible.

What about live shows, are there shows confirmed for this year, are you also thinking to tour in Europe? More about your performace and the audience, what is the crowd more excited about Blasphemy on stage?
No one can recreate the power of Blasphemy onstage. We are the ultimate manifestation of darkness, evil and ferocity! We put ourselves together to look like our own visions of what Black Metal on stage should be like. More European shows scheduled in 2017 and 2018 already! See you in France, The Netherlands, Italy, and Austria!

Blasphemy has influenced a lot of black metal bands like Beherit and others and some fans call your music so called ‘’extreme’’, how would you define this extreme?
If the band on stage makes you feel uneasy and unsafe, then that is extreme already! But Blasphemy can still add to that as we all live such extreme lifestyles that most can’t comprehend or especially handle, so this is all conveyed on to the stage when we preform and on the records that we’ve recorded.

Conqueror is a band you’ve been active DeathLord, and you also formed a new band along Black Winds called Death Worship and you got an EP released last year. What is the main genre and the themes you focus on DW?
Death Worship is a tribute to the downfall of man and the loss of all hope! We are Black Metal in its most extreme form. Don’t come looking for melodies or familiar sounds from other so called Black Metal bands. We are the ETERNAL Ross Bay Cult!!

Thank you for this interview DeathLord! All hails!!
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