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 A WORLD IN HELLIt’s been a few years since we last heard from the Setherial horde, after their 2006 album “Death Triumphant” and a hectic tour following it. However, they were far from taking a break, and the middle of June sees the release of their “back to the roots” new album “Ekpyrosis”. This was more than enough of a reason to get in touch and have a chatter with their vocalist Infaustus. Enjoy!
First of all, hails and good to see you Setherial under the limelight. What’s been going on in the Setherial camp recently, with the new album coming out very soon and all that? Infaustus – Hails! We recently did a 3 week European tour together with Impiety and now we are doing our best promoting our new album “Ekpyrosis”, dealing with interviews and so on. The new album is coming out after a hefty four-year discographic break. Why did it take that long and what has happened in the band since the last one? You’ve also got a new guitarist, Thurz – what’s it been like cooperating with him up to now? Who’s doing bass duties at the moment? After the “Death Triumphant”-album we toured quite a bit since we didn’t play live for a very long time due tor various reasons. We also had a change in the line-up. Former guitarist Choronzon left the band and Thurz was recruited as a session guitarist. A while after that we kicked our bass player so in live-situations Mysteriis who normally handles the drums plays bass and we use a session drummer called Atum. It might sound strange but it was actually much easier to find a devoted drummer instead of a new bass player and since Mysteriis used to play lead-guitar live in the past it was no problems at all for him to handle the bass duties. Thurz has been really good to work with and he plays on the new album but we will see what happens in the future regarding the line-up. Right now me, Kraath and Mysteriis is the main core and that’s all that really matters. The album was recorded in your own studio, produced by the band itself. Which advantages and disadvantages does this kind of production comprise? The positive thing about recording the album yourself is that you have total control over everything. We could record when we felt the most devoted which made us all perform on the highest level. We could also try out different ideas in a way we have never been able to do before so we will most likely continue to record everything by ourselves. The only “negative” thing I can come up with is that it becomes a quite lengthy recording since we didn’t lock ourselves in a studio and recorded 24/7 for 2 weeks but in my point of view that is not a bad thing at all. Albums that are rushed due to outside factors such as time and the schedule of the sound engineer have a tendency to not reach its full potential. Don’t get me wrong here, “Ekpyrosis” is not at all an overworked and overproduced album; on the contrary it is one of our most organic sounding albums ever. How do you view the new album in comparison with your back catalogue? Which way do you find fitting to describe it? Because of its complex nature I think it has more in common with the older albums than the latest 2 but we have always looked into the future instead of looking at the past and repeating ourselves. “Ekpyrosis” is an album that demands a lot of the listener due to its chaotic nature which in my point of view is a great thing. It is an album that you really have to absorb to fully understand.  What is the lyrical content behind the new album? And most of all, how do you view Satanism? What is Satanism to you as a person? The lyrical theme of "Ekpyrosis" is about a metaphoric connection to the unavoidable conflict of the universe through a satanic angle and perspective. The Ekpyrotic Universe draws its name from the Greek word ekpyrosis, meaning "conflagration" (disastrous fire or conflict). According to an ancient cosmological model with this name, the universe was created in a sudden burst of fire. The album consists of 8 songs all devoted to the destructive/life-obliterating forces of the universe. Individuality is the potent key for personal and spiritual growth. If you do not constantly challenge yourself and are open about different matters and interpretations you’ll end up becoming narrow-minded and limited in mind-perspective, which in my opinion is against all that black metal stands for. I have a constant hunger for knowledge and have personal interests in the subjects and studies of scientific hypothesis and theory, religions, mythology, philosophy, occultism, metaphysics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, symbolism to mention a few... Individually is the freedom to gain perspective and knowledge to draw own conclusions in order for personal development. Who or what has/is the correct interpretation, and who knows the absolute truth/dogma is just the matter of belief and interpretation, the field of knowledge and belief is restricted by just how you can grasp it, on other terms how your brain can receptive impressions and conceptions. Satan is based on my own conclusion and experience. Satanism; in the elemental and symbolic sense is something that attract all of us in Setherial and is used as our language, Satanism is also the light of Lucifer that illuminates the darkness (that is the oppressive way of religions and doctrines that keep the people enslaved). In Satanism there exists no ultimate reference or law like the bible, and it can be adapted to a sectarian practice or in my case an individual philosophy. You’ve shot a video for the album opener, “A World In Hell”. Where was the video shot and what was the entire experience like? Is the video just a means of promoting the album or is there more to it? IJust as the album we recorded and edited the video ourselves in the town we live in during the winter 2009/2010. Since black metal videos in 9 cases out of 10 are boring, generic or just plain ridiculous we worked really hard to make it as good and professional as possible and I think the end result speaks for itself. We made the video not only to promote the album but to spread our black art in a different media. It is always easier to fully understand something when you use as many senses as possible and a video is a very good way to make people understand what we are about and what we are saying with this album. Since the first video became so successful we are in the making of recording a second one later this summer. This is your third album on Regain records. What is your impression of the label, especially today, when a good label is hard to find? They have been doing their work really good so far and been supportive and loyal to Setherial. There are of course always things that can improve but that is things that will be sorted out in the future. Setherial is one of the biggest representatives of the so-called “Swedish” black metal sound, yet fame and attention seem to constantly shun you, unlike Dark Funeral or Watain. What do you think might be the reason for this? Is Setherial underground by definition? Since we don’t make over the top statements in magazines, brag about how much we cut ourselves and how depressed we are and don’t have any homosexuals in the band the general public that prefers seeing black metal as a fucking tabloid paper don’t know of us and that is great in my opinion. We have always let our art do the talking and that is a thing that we will continue to do. We have so many die hard fans that have followed us since day one and fully understand what we are about. I rather have such a following than bored middleclass kids that just follow the latest trend like mindless whores. Setherial is of course an underground band even though we sell much more albums than most of the black metal bands out there. We have stayed true to our concept since 1993 and will continue to do that in the future. We have never felt the urge to promote ourselves in a way that we cannot stand for just to sell some more copies of the albums. Other bands can do what they want; I couldn’t care less to be honest. What are the band’s touring plans for the upcoming period? Any chance of visiting Eastern Europe? It was an absolute hell of a show when we watched you here in Belgrade in October 2007, playing the same night as Watain by chance. We get a lot of offers regarding tours and we’ll see what happens in the future. Eastern Europe has always been great for us to play in and we will return as soon as possible. The Belgrade show was incredible, perfect atmosphere, great audience and good organisation. It was in fact our first visit to Serbia and it was truly a good first impression. I think that all bands that played there that night put on a really good show. Thanks for the interview and hope to see you guys soon. Any final words for fans in Serbia? Thanks a lot for the interest in Setherial and good luck with the magazine in the future. Information regarding upcoming show and future releases will be found at www.setherial.com or www.myspace.com/setherialsweden so keep yours eye open. Worship the end! Answers by Infaustus |
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