Ave Belfagor! 13 years ago Nefandus was at it’s prime and had just unleashed an album through Secula Delenda. Then, all of a sudden, all went silent… What happened that caused this abrupt end to this chapter?
I wouldn´t call it the band´s prime for 13 years ago. Now we are at our prime, while for 13 long years ago musically we were just another Black Metal band, perhaps a bit rawer and with a more authenthic feel to it than most bands of that time had, but by my standards we were crap. But then again I have very high standards for what I create and release. Back then I had very little insight in the occult sciences and the true Left Hand Path, meaning the illuminating powers of Lord Lucifer and the Qliphothic Anti-Worlds, and this mirrored in my music, it being just music instead of Death Magic, as the Nefandus of today is. I was simply not satisfied with the album we had just created and so I decided to put Nefandus to an indefinite sleep in order to aim all my inspiration in my at that time new creation, Ofermod. And I´m very glad I did this, because it gave me a distance to the disappointment Nefandus was for me at that time and at the same time I could prove to myself that I am indeed a worthy creator of true cult Black/Death Metal. In my book, if you´re not a brilliant musician and composer you might as well stop performing Black or Death Metal, because no-one needs mediocre bands polluting the scene, that in fact should be a CULT. We need brilliant bands with something relevant to say in their lyrics as well, and with relevant I of course mean a luciferian message.
More importantly, as we are here to shed light on the present more than the past, what was it that got Nefandus back on it’s track? The members of Nefandus having gone unto new paths over the last decade or so, what was it that shook the chains off of Nefandus and awoke the sleeping beast?I have for many years been thinking about starting up Nefandus again, but as a one-man band. But as myself and Ushatar were co-operating on some Ofermod T-shirts, released by I Hate Productions was a kind of starting point for it all. We did both the layout and pressed the shirts, the Death Cantata shirts as they are called, at Ushatars company Stonehard Design, and started talking about the "good" old days when we created chilling Black Metal stormwinds in the rehearsal room, and how we fought until everyone was bleeding just because I had such a temper in my youth and could not tolerate that someone played a single tune incorrectly, so I simply fucking attacked my own bandmates, ha ha! All this talk of violence and chilling Black Metal and the life/deathstyle we lived back then made us both very inspired to record the album with Nefandus that we both felt that we never achieved back in 1996, and this was the beginning of Nefandus as a two-man band. The third member that was on our debut album, and completely destroyed it with his guitar style, and above all his chicken like vocals has fallen into oblivion. The bastard, who is a childhood friend of mine, goes and hides when he sees me these days, I have heard that this is because I have in the past had very much to do with organized crime, and I still socialize with these people, because they are my dear friends, and they accept that I don´t want to take part in any illegal activities, but for my childhood friend, who was supposed to be a true Black Metal fanatic behaving like a pussy is unacceptable indeed. But he has nothing to fear from me. I will simply ignore him if I happen to come across him and he has nowhere to hide, the poor bastard, ha ha! Today I only resort to violence as a last resort, as that kind of behaviour is not the Draconian way.
How long did it take to prepare the new album and were there equal contributions? On Nefandus’ previous album you were responsible for almost everything (lyrics + part of music) and on the latest Ofermod album you created almost everything except the Eu Angelion lyrics which were created with Frater Nasko of Teitanblood.
Well, the material ranges from 1993 to 2008, so one could say that "Death Holy Death" took it´s time to complete. Actually only one of the riffs is from 93, the rest is created between 2005 and 2008 when it comes to the 5 songs that I´ve written the music to. The two songs that Ushatar has written were both written in 2008, and the instrumental piece by Henry Möller of Arditi was created and recorded in 2008, after I had given him some guidelines about what I wanted it to sound like. Nefandus is definitely not a political band, so the last thing I wanted was that the song would sound like some fucking propaganda song for fascism or some other stupid manmade ideology. We stand for qliphothic magic, for luciferian illumination and the forces of the Sitra Ahra, but above all we stand for the Draconian Current, and the Ancient Serpent of Chaos, and I wanted Möllers song to be a reflection of the initiation process, when one has to enter through the womb of Mother Lilith to gain one´s first initiation in the worlds of the anti-cosmos. Lyricwise, I wrote all but two of them, namely "Malach Ha-Maveth" which was written by Morgan Håkansson of Marduk, and "Twofold Star of Saturnalia Solstice", written by Thomas Karlsson, founder of the draconian order Ordo Draco et Atri Adamantis and author of books such as Qabalah,Qliphoth & Goetic Magic as well as Nightside Of The Runes, among many others. He has also written many of Therion´s lyrics. Ushatar is no lyricist, so he will not write any lyrics for Nefandus in the future, but I will for sure invite more people from the draconian society I belong to to honour us with lyrics, and maybe some other wellknown Black Metal personalities, as I have both Ofermod and Nefandus, as well as a record label to run, so I need all the help I can get with the lyrics. In Ofermod I think I will always write as many of the lyrics myself as I possibly can manage. I have also written a lyric for the next Marduk album, so sometimes it feels like I take a little too much work upon me, but in the end it all works out well. The forces of Chaos look with favour upon me.
Nefandus’ new album is released by two labels; Satanic Propaganda Records & Left Light Emanations. Why did you decide to start your own label? Does this mean that you intend to become more active in the black metal scene and produce releases by other bands or is LLE more of a means to see that your creations get the treatment they deserve?
I have for many years thought about starting a label that would not only release records, but literature of the Left Hand Path as well. I will start with music though, and all bands that are connected to Left Light Emanations are either Draconian, Luciferian, Satanic or Occult with a Left Hand Path foundation to their occultism. This far the bands that are connected to LLE are of course Nefandus, a band from Greece called Serpent Noir which MCD "Sanguis XI" we, I say we bacause Andreas Herrlin has laid down Satanic Propaganda to be able to be my fulltime partner in LLE, will release as Emanation 002 and the next fullength album by norwegian Dödsengel, an album that is completely brilliant. I´ve not ben that crazy about them in the past, but all of this changed when I heard the album we are gonna release. If it wasn´t brilliant, LLE would NEVER release it, because we release omly the best of the best within the Cult. It is very important that the members of our bands lve as they preach and that they perform music to die and kill for=True Orthodox Black/Death Metal CULT!
I read somewhere that Ofermod will play at a festival this summer so I am wondering if we might see Nefandus out and about before long? One thing I noticed, so I stray a bit off topic, is that your other band, Ofermod, is scheduled to play at a music festival later this year. What was it that got Ofermod to decide play at a festival rather than a "regular show”?Well, this is not just any festival, but a Black Metal "festival", the Hell´s Pleasure Festivity in Pössnek in East Germany, and the main reason for us to play there is that they were the first to come with an offer that suited the entire live band I´ve gathered around me as well as L. Nebiros and myself, and that Devil´s Blood plays there, who are big fans of Ofermod and we are big fans of them. Most of the other bands I really haven´t heard of, and to be honest I´m not that interested either. I Kinda enjoided Absu´s debut album, and we will play just before them. We´ve got only 45 minutes on stage so it´s be short but intense. We bust skip a lot of the rituals we had planned for the show and instead do one powerful invokation to the forces of the Sitra Ahra at the beginning of the set, so that the audiense will truly be possessed by dark and mighty demonic forces. Also we will concentrate on awaking the Kundalini Serpent within each and every one who stands there sober and listenes to and looks at us. The drunken bastards should preferably stay home. Ofermod is no party music, but qliphothic magic! No, we have no plans as of yet for Nefandus to stand on a stage, but it´s no impossibility. We must just find suitable musicians, both mentally and musicwise, which wasn´t the easiest task for Ofermod. When, and if, we play live with Nefandus I will handle only the vocals so that I can rampage like a fucking madman on stage and attack the crowd etc. It´s expensive these days to buy tickets to a consert so I will give everyone their moneys worth with Nefandus, this much I can promise!
To continue a bit here… Over the last few years the opinion that Black Metal should be spread, or rather the meaning of it should, as far as possible. Black Metal bands have become more apparent in general media, although it would be hard to say that they have grown socially accepted. At the same time we have people that think that to go there is to strip the individuality of the genre. What is your opinion on this and what is your opinion on the music genre? Is it a way to create and influence?
It can be a good way for young people to get interested in the darker side of occultism when bands like Watain, Therion, which indeed is Black Metal because of their lyrics, the late Dissection and such bands gain recognition worldwide. Indeed, eventually this is my goal with Ofermod and with Left Light Emanations, but of course it will take it´s time. Dark Magic is not for everyone, and neither is Death/Black Metal, but it can be tiresome not to have money for food because you get your royalties too far appart, and because todays "fans" download your art from the internet so I as an artist would make at least 4 times more cash without this abomination. Death to all downloaders! But, to sum it up; of course I want to sell as many records and T-shirts as possible. Those who listen to Ofermod and Nefandus wil be influenced by the demons invoked to be the guardian demons of our albums, and this is brilliant. It will be a constructive thing for the listener who really pays attention, while the lazy listener will be slowly consumed by destructive forces.
Reading old interviews with you it is quite apparent that you have lived outside the socially accepted box & spent quite a lot of time in the warm bosom of lady law. Has this affected how you view religion and your own relationship to it? Has it also had any effect on how you view Black Metal and the points it is supposed to represent?
I am the same man today, but of course evolved in the occult arts, and hard as a Black Diamond, that I was before I sat my few years in prison all in all. The only thing prison has teached me are the moral codes within the really hard criminal life, and how to rob for example a bank and get away with it, and live the lifestyle of a millionaire for 2-3 months until you have to "work" again to be able to continue snorting cocaine and drinking the most expensive drinks and taking lapdances from strippers. But this is a downward spiral towards an unpleasant hell, while qliphothic initiation leads to hells that are more pleasant than a thousand paradises together. Remember that, my friends...
"Religious fanaticism”. A term more often than not used to describe Nefandus and it’s sibling. Over the last few years it seems Sweden, as well as most of the western civilization, has become overrun by Muslims and fanatic Christians with their apocalyptic preaching of the imminent doom of mankind and the clashes of these two religions. Is this the nature of the world according to Nefandus?
This has nothing to do with Nefandus. The only thing we are fanatic about is the Black and Death Metal CULT. All other fanaticism leads to stupidity and closemindedness, which is something a magician must never allow him/herself become, because it restricts. We must always stay fanatic about our Cult, but when it comes to everything else, we must indeed keep an open mind, otherwise we stagnate, and for that we deserve to die. Hail Lucifer!
Interviewed by Eyvindur
March 2010