– Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What’s currently going on into the GEHENNA’s camp?

Well, finally done with brushing up the entire back-catalog now (with rereleases on Peaceville, The Crypt and Indie), which feels great to be done with. I enjoyed it no doubt, but it was more work than I had imagined. So, a few festivals booked, then we should hopefully get into writing a new album without any further distractions

– Though you have always been a Black Metal band you have never released the same album twice, always having elements from other musical styles, which is now part of the band’s personality. Is this variation something important for GEHENNA? Is it something you strive for?

Yes it is important. We strive for it in the way that we want to keep things interesting for ourselves (and hopefully for the listeners as well of course), and that would exclude doing the same thing twice. But as much as it is in part intentional, it is also a continuing process of learning new things. And I guess we should not downplay the importance of all the lineup-changes we have had, new people in the band can (for better or worse) bring new elements to the warfield.

 

– You have recently re-released «Murder»; why did you decide to do this in this concrete moment? Was it your decision or was more up to the label?

No, that was up to the label. As most will know, Moonfog sold most of their catalogue to Peaceville, and they wanted to make the most of these albums when re-releasing them of course. Fine by us. We wanted to brush up the oldest albums anyway, now we got the chance to improve on all of them.

 

– In fact Peaceville also re-issued «Admirion Black» and «WW», so it’s just left for you to release your first two albums. Have you thought about this?

Indie has already done “First Spell”, and The Crypt will do vinyls of the first two this summer (and they did “Malice” last year). As for cd reissues of “Seen Through…” and “Malice”, I spoke to Cacophonous about it but they choose to pass for now. They let The Crypt do the vinyls though, which is great.

 

– Going back to the «Murder’s» reissue; what does this album currently mean to you?

To me personally, I think it was a bit much into the Death-Metal vein, and I think the production is rather weak. I would actually like to re-record some of the songs, I think they can sound a lot better. Not my personal favourite, BUT I am glad we did it at a time when almost nobody else would use Death Metal elements in their music. It was against the trends to be sure.

 

– And do you now think it was an, unfortunately, overlooked album?

Yes I do. It took a lot of people by surprise, and was poorly promoted.

 

– On this rerelease you have added 8 bonus tracks, 4 of them are instrumental songs. What could you tell us about it? Until now they all were unreleased tunes, so I assume they aren’t new…

No, not new at all, they are just rough versions of songs on the album (outtakes). We wanted to include them to give people an insight into the process of making the album, and also because we feel they have a different energy in their raw form. They are from rough-mix tapes we brought home during the recording of the album.

 

– You have also featured a MAYHEM’s cover for «Cursed in Eternity», which already appeared on a tribute album some years ago. Why did you decide to include it as well on this reissue? I guess it may be a good way to get more people listen it.

Yes, and it also represents a part of the history of the band around the same time. With all of these reissues we wanted to make them as complete as possible, documentation if you will. And Peaceville already owned the rights to this recording anyway.

 

– Many bands tend to change the whole artwork for releases of this kind, but at least the cover is the same as the one for the original pressing. Why did you want to keep that cover?

I oppose the idea of changing the artwork on reissues, the original artwork must either be unrestorable or shitty-beyond-belief to justify changing. The front artwork is a major element of any albums identity, and should not be changed. Besides, we are pleased with all the artwork on our albums. There are changes in the booklets etc, but those were because we wanted to include more documentation.

 

– Anyway there are some liner notes by the band too. Is the whole package something important on this record?

Yes!!! And one can read the linernotes chronologically on all our albums now and get a (short) biography/history of the band. Like I said, we wanted them all to be as complete documentations as possible.

 

– There have been rumours of a new album since 2007 or so. So, are you guys working on a new full-length album?

Yes we are. And there could have been one sooner, but we have scrapped a lot of the material. There is one song on youtube (live recording), but we have scrapped that one too. We will keep some of the elements we have written since 2007, but rewrite and rearrange most of it. It is not that we did not like it, but we kept tinkering with it for so long, we got bored with it all. So in a way it is like starting from scratch this year, and hopefully not be distracted with other things before we get it recorded.

 

– And finally, what are the near-future plans for GEHENNA?

Final gig this year will be in Finland 10.08, then just writing new material.

 

– That has been everything from my side, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add some final words, feel free to do it.

Thanks! People should check out the reissues of course, and check out Razamataz for shirts etc. Keep it burning!

Dolgar

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

 

Deja una respuesta

Tu dirección de correo electrónico no será publicada.

Highslide for Wordpress Plugin