DENIAL OF GOD (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. How is everything doing right now with DENIAL OF GOD? How are you feeling being near to unleash your sophomore album?
Greetings from the grave, Tania. Everything is going well with Denial Of God at the moment. We just returned from Transylvania and now we are waiting for the release of “Death and the Beyond” next month. Personally I am very happy to know the album will be out soon because we have put a lot of hard work and heart blood into the creation of this album during the last years, so now we just want to see it out. I am of course curious about what people will think of it, but, ultimately the album was created in the exact way that WE wanted it to be, so that is all that truly matters to us.
– After giving “Death and the Beyond” some spins, I think it’s a good mix between different elements you used on “The Horrors of Satan” as, for instance, there are more slow songs with a certain Doom influence, as you explored a bit with “The Iron Gibbet”. Why did you want to add a bigger dose of this?
The album is very varied as always and actually more than ever. We always strived to have a lot of dynamics within the song writing to emphasize and dramatize the stories told. Every story is a different one and of course the music must tell different stories as well. I will agree that the new album is overall slower, but this was no conscious decision in the sense of “let’s make a slower album”. I always compose the songs after having the finished lyrics in front of me, and since this album is entirely based on the different aspects of Death and the afterlife, I really felt the lyrics called for something slower. On the other hand, we ALWAYS worked with a lot of tempo changes and in fact some of the fast parts on this new album are the fastest we have recorded. Let me stress that there are absolutely NO new Doom influences, my sources of inspiration are the same as they have been from the beginning and much more than by any bands I was influenced for my writing by the lyrics given to me and feelings resting deeply in my soul at the time of composing.
– This being said, despite playing so-called Horror Black Metal, I think you have influences from different music styles as NWOBHM, for example. What bands or music styles have been an important influence for the DOG’s sound?
Absolutely, we were inspired by a wide variety of bands and artists that we grew up listening to. Maybe some will not seem so obvious as others (judging from the way we sound), but being inspired by someone does not equal trying or wanting to sound like someone! My main influences have been and will always be Mayhem, Venom, Death SS, Paul Chain Violet Theatre, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Alice Cooper, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Bathory, Infernäl Mäjesty, Satan’s Host, Ripper, Black Sabbath. Also I would have to mention a band like Kraftwerk as an influence because they were the first band to really offer me something deep and artistic, and their minimalistic yet elaborate song writing showed me how much can actually be achieved with sometimes minimalistic melodies. I should also mention that Iron Maiden has been a very big influence on Galheim’s way of drumming.
– Your style is usually named, as I said, Horror Black Metal due to the theme on your lyrics, a theme you also reflect in many other aspects. Did you have clear you wanted to do this since you started the band? As I think due to this, among others things, you are not just another Metal band.
I think that in the early demo days we were still trying to find our own way, and the direction was not yet as personal as it is now. The aestethics we used were very influenced by Black Metal, but when I look back to before the Black Metal explosion, the Black Metal we grew up with was very horror-like, and this is why we felt so attached to it. While some of these aestethics might seem terribly unoriginal now, one must not forget that this was over 20 years ago, and this was a completely different time compared to now. One had to be there to fully understand. We started using makeup because we felt this could visually enhance the songs that we wrote. Visuals were always very important to us, and in the early days of Denial Of God, looking as normal and boring as possible seemed to be the order of the day when it came to Metal. Most Metal bands had completely lost the visual side of things, and it was absolutely anything but “cool” to use Satanic imagery. But, I am getting carried away here. You can go back as far as the first demo and see that this was already a starting point for what we are doing now and that we have essentially remained the same while still developing in every aspect. But, yes, we knew from day one that we are different and in my humble opinion I think you can hardly find a band out there who has existed for 20+ years and not gone astray with what they set out to do. We have stuck to our dark visions for all these years regardless of the times.
– You reflect that theme with the atmosphere for instance. This time there are more lengthy tunes. Could you say this has helped you developing more and on a better way such atmospheres and the blend between different elements and influences?
Of course, the longer a song is, the more possibilities you have to incorporate different elements. But, again, we never sat down and said “this song should be long” or anything like this. We write songs and work on them until they meet the exact atmosphere that we intend for them to have. I feel that I have made great progress as a composer, and playing with the same line-up for 7 years now has enabled us to work much more perfectly together as a unit and create the right arrangements of the songs.These 7 years of working together can definitely be heard on the album.
– As I said earlier, “Death and the Beyond” mixes all the different details you’ve used in the past, it’s like a mix between today and yesterday. Is this your actual sound? Could you say you have shaped a bit more your musical personality?
I think our sound has always been very diverse from day one, which has enabled us to do different things musically and still remain 100% Denial Of God, because we were never limited to s single way of playing. The personal sound has always been there, but yes, it has been shaped a lot since the beginning of course and I think what we sound like now is what we have always strived to sound like.
– This “Death and the Beyond” is not a conceptual album but all tracks share a common link: death and spiritualism. Where did you take inspiration from to deal with these topics?
It is not a concept album in the sense that the songs tell one long story in different chapters, but other than that it is actually quite conceptual because each and every song on the album is dealing with the various aspects of Death and the afterlife.Since almost all lyrics were written by Ustumallagam, I cannot really speak of what inspired him to write these lyrics, because I do not know. But, obviously a lot of it stems from his profound interest in Death, the afterlife and spiritism.
– In fact your lyrics have always been really important for you and your music so, would you mind to elaborate a bit on what do lyrics on this new effort deal with?
Absolutely. Lyrics are extremely important to us because they are a very important factor of the complete atmosphere and I think the art of writing really good lyrics is almost forgotten nowadays. To me Ustumallagam is a terribly underrated lyricist. “Funeral” (which is the only song I wrote the lycis for) tells about a funeral and the narrator is the one being buried. This leads right into “Behind the Coffin’s Lid” which speaks of the horrors of being buried alive and the horrors that follow even after your heart has stopped beating in your grave. “The Cursed Chamber” is a classic tale of vengeance from beyond the grave, about a pharaoh warning about the consequences should his grave be defiled. “Bones turn to Dust” is about the sorrow of losing a loved one and ultimately reuniting through suicide by self cremation. “Black Dethe” is written from Death’s point of view and has Death incarnated as the Bubonic Plague (the Black Death). Finally there is “Pendulum Swings” which is a story of a group of spiritists who gather in an old abandoned house and are ultimately driven into insanity by the things they get to see in the beyond.
– I’d even dare say this is one of your darkest sounding records. Maybe this sound fits better the lyrics you’ve written this time?
I definitely think this is our darkest recording yet, and yes, the dark sound fits perfectly to the lyrics and the song writing.We wanted a very massive yet clear sound with lots of reverb, and I think every instrument and vocal line can be heard clearly in this production.
– “The Horrors of Satan” was recorded in Sweden with analogical gear. This time, if I’m not mistaken, you’ve recorded at the same studio, and the final output is also really heavy and honest. What’s makes so good using analogical gear? Anyway nowadays digital productions seem able to get a really natural sound as well.
Yes, “The Horrors of Satan” was recorded on analog equipment at Berno Studio which was also the case with the EPs that followed. Actually our “Klabautermanden” mini-album from 1999 is the only release we have ever recorded on digital equipment. And the new album was recorded at Berno Studio and on analog equipment because we feel Berno Paulsson has a great understanding of what we want to achieve, not to mention that this studio is one of a few that still offer analog recordings nowadays. In fact, when we did the basic sound of the drums he came up with a sound that was amazingly massive even if we had hardly uttered a word about how we wanted the album to sound at that point in time. What makes recording the analog way so good for us is that the sound really becomes very natural, very organic, and for example the cymbals sound way better than they would have sounded with a digital recording (something which Berno held a minor speech about when we talked about analog vs. digital recordings during the during the album’s production). Nowadays digital recordings are able to get a very natural sound as well? Well, let me ask you, do you know what “natural” is like? Haven’t your ears been poisoned by listening to too many modern and digital productions? Because this is what you get exposed to most of the time. Nowadays it is very easy to do digital recordings at home and get a better sound than in the past if you used very primitive equipmen. A lof of these recordings can sound okay, but do they really sound AMAZING most of the time? No, they don’t. True production value seems to be another almost forgotten art in my opinion. But, anyway, of course you can get a good sound with a digital recording as well if you have someone who knows how to handle it and has knowledge of a good production. It is just that most of the time the digital recordings get so sterile because everything is compressed to death and instead of recording songs over and over until they are good enough, people simply open up their computer program and perfect things like drum beats by copying and pasting them in the computer, so what you end up hearing was never actually played in the studio. I think the main problem is simply that people do not use but ABUSE the possibilities of digital recordings. With an analog recording there is only so much you can change if you make a mistake, so obviously it takes a longer time to record this way. But, to me the end result is also always way more gratifying and honest, so for me it is absolutely worth it.
– Despite the honest and organic sound, it’s easy to notice the interesting melodies you have always had. Is this something important for you?
Yes, melodies have always been very important to us, just as heavy riffs are important to us.
– If I’m not mistaken, you don’t have a full-time bass player. Anyway The Unknown is both your session and live bass player. Haven’t you thought about having him as a steady band member?
The Unknown does not wish to be involved as a real band member which would involve studio recordings, photo sessions, decisions etc, but this is absolutely no problem for us as he is always there when we really need him, at rehearsals and of course especially live shows. In the studio I can always recored the bass as I have already done so many times in the past. But, even though The Unknown is not a real member, he is still regarded as permanent and has been so for 7 years now. There are no wishes to change anything about this band constellation.
– After your debut opus came out you released, among other pieces, “The Book of Oiufael” EP, which was mainly sold on your Australian your and is already sold out. As Kneel Before the Master’s Throne did with some other releases, haven’t you thought about re-releasing that EP to let more fans get it?
«The Book of Oiufael” was a 1-track souvenir kind of release for our 2007 Australian tour, so this one will never be re-released. The song is widely available on “The Horrors of Satan”. Kneel Before The Master’s Throne released the now sold out “The Dawn of Aemizaez: Demos 1992-1993” LP as well as the “Incubus” 7” EP. This one is about sold out now and of course, should there be demand, it would be great to see it made available again at a later date somehow. The “Resurrection of the Damned” split 7” EP (w/Abysmal Grief) is totally sold out now and it is quite likely that more copies will be pressed in the future.
– I also recall reading you were going to do a split album with PAGAN ALTAR. Will this finally happen?
This is true. We were going to release a conceptual split 7” EP with Pagan Altar about Jack the Ripper. We had long thought of writing a song about Jack the Ripper, and when I learned that Pagan Altar also had a song about him, I proposed the idea of this split 7” EP to Terry from Pagan Altar who immediately agreed. I then received a great demo version of their song and it turned out to be too long for a 7”, so we switched to the idea of a 12” which would prove to be the right format since our song ended up clocking in at 11 minutes as well. When I received the demo version of their song, our song was not even written yet, but when we had written and recorded our song “The Red Terror” by late spring 2009, Pagan Altar had still not recorded the final version of their song. I kept asking Terry what was going on, but all of a sudden he stopped replying to my mails. A lot of people kept asking about the release, so I finally confronted Terry about the whole thing in the Pagan Altar forum. Not that I like to discuss such things in public, but I wanted a reply from him and to let people know that the long delay had absolutely nothing to do with us. What then happened was that Terry started making up stupid excuses about not receiving my messages and was in general being really ungrateful and even downright disrespectful towards me despite the support I/we had been giving to Pagan Altar. Not to mention the mere fact that we actually kept our part of the deal and both wrote and recorded our song. It actually went as far as Pagan Altar re-releasing their first album on a US label in the EXACT way that I had proposed him to release it on my label Horror Records and which Terry had agreed to face to face with me. Anyway, needless to say that we lost all interest in releasing this split 12” (just as it seems Terrry did), so in 2011 the song was finally released as “The Red Terror” 12” EP on Horror Records, coupled with 2009 demo versions of 4 songs.
– And finally, I know you have just played a few shows since DOG was formed and that all your gigs are really special but, is there any chance this will change with the release of your new record?
In the past shows were rare mainly due to the constant changes of line-ups and long years with incomplete line-ups.Nowadays this problem is no longer present, but it is still quite hard to find live shows when you are not on a big label or have a professional booking agency. Furthermore our live act is very often a problem as many venues refuse to let us play once they find out what our stage show involves. Also, the live market is totally overbooked, shows are not as well attended as in the past, and this makes it hard if you do not want to play for close to nothing and with the risk of losing money. But, of course I hope the situation will change for the better once the new album will be out.
– That’s everything from my side, thanks for taking the time. Now feel free to add some final words.
Thank you for the interview – watch out for “Death and the Beyond” – out on Friday the 13th of July!
