First off, what is your name and what part do you play in the
band (instrument or vocals, etc.)?
vokalist, disease holder of AntaeuS. Satanik stigmata & preacher of
the Void. 27 years old up to this day, non dead to most humans.
Frontman & main voice for AntaeuS, I do speak for Him.
Now to the real questions. Black Metal's legendary "first wave"
included so many legendary bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and
Immortal. Many conclude that the evolution of BM ceased after this
period, so what do you think Antaeus' relation is to the progression
of the art? Is it justifiable to be merely more extreme? Can
anything be added to the music at this point that has not been done
already?
Black Metal does mix both ideology & musick, on this level, I would
have to point out that most of nowadays bands have no linkz with the
real meaning of this Art.
Immortal never really took part of the bm kult, though their sound
is very similar, their concept would be more based on northern
landscapes, while bands like dark throne & mayhem had a more
nihilitic death feels to the lyrikz & the aura was a bit more
depressive in most cases.
We are payin hommage to those bands of the second wave, for their
dedication in the early days & the message they did spread. We do
evolve in the same vein, we hold the same message & our speech is
based on hatred, denial of life & anything that would be related to
"holyness" any religions wise, anything "human" related would be a
target.
Black metal = SataN in its most strikt vision, we here speak of
death, total death & the praise of the vortex that would swallow
all. Though the utopia of such an ending is known of us, we do work
in this way, spreading our disease & disgust of life and the concept
related to it.
Sound wise, we are more extreme than the suscited bands, we couldn't
perform the same of art, for multiple reasons : we do breed violence
more than depression (as individuals) & we do perform what we are &
breath. The band is composed of 5 individuals more or less evolving
on the Hate path. Me & Set being at the forefront of this, & since
we are the main composer (him for the music & I being the sole
responsible for any lyrikz & propaganda), we are the trademark of
AntaeuS.
Also our approach is more destruktive than the "90s" gloomy approach
of darkness, while they were opening gates of despair, we are
opening gates of torment & pain.
Both are as effective, I truely find my inspiration in both, but
violence is our key, our vektor.
Feel his pulse through us.
We are one stone of the edifice.
Black Metal is like a kathedral of Hate, it is not a question of
evolution, the "evil"ution within takes place within the rankz of
devotee evolving & praising the kult.
You have expressed dissatisfaction with the Cut Your Flesh and
Worship Satan album as being too rushed in the studio. To me, I can
say I do not think it harms the record and adds to the urgency of
the album. However, you have a new album coming out and will this be
different and in what way a "representation" of the band that we
have not already seen?
Somehow you are right, now that the album is older to my ears (two
years or so) I get to listen to it in different perspectives, not
rekalling all the shitty detailz about its conception & its
spreading.
CYFAWS was a gathering of mostly old trackz, like demos & reh
tracks, all gathered on the same full lenght. Only one track never
appeared anywhere before the cd release (though I am not even too
sure about that now, I should check the live tape on chanteloup
creations...) also the cd had three different rekording on it, which
was a bit messy & made it sound more like a recollection than
anything else.
Now, I think that baphomet did allow the band to put all together
the most efficient earlier track of the band (inner war, devotee,
nihil khaos...) but a rerecording of the whole album would have been
best, now that would be the main complain about this lp.
Also this album did cost us a lot of money, but I do not fool
myself, it is the same way for many bands around here, still having
labels to cash on your work without being fair to the band is
something I will never tolerate. That made me freak out, the band
never got a fuckin cent out of the sale of the band, considering it
did reach around 3000 copies (which is amazing to us, we never
expected this much) one could easily guess that we got massively
fucked on this one.
DE PRINCIPII EVANGELIKUM the newest release presents a more compact
release, being composed on a two years basis, the whole has a more
"united" strukture & lyrikz wise, that did allow me to have
something fully solid. This time the lyrikz are included, I had the
time to type all in time so people will finally get to understand
what lies behind antaeus, though it will remain obscure to most or
simply fucked up.
DPE is less easy to get into, it took me a few month to get into
some trackz myself, having one hell of a hard time to lay vokalz on
those & get the whole strukture in the reh' room
The band does reh' around 6/7 hours per week in the reh' room & more
when we get nearer to live exp or studio rekording. We get ridd off
a lot of material, our work is very serious & we are making sure to
have the most efficient offering to the black metal kult.
I think that one thing that would lack on DPE would be the intro
sektion that are truely important to me, this time the drummer & I
did lack time to meet & do something of my taste, that is my main
"negative critic" to the new album. Next release shall see a return
to those sonic landscapes & all the frustration that did hide behind
those.
You would mention there strongminded individuals that had one hard
time finding the right members to perform their art with, or simply
couldn't deal with others, due to ego conflikts.
I was just a session member in the early days, being too busy with
my zine & my distribution (& my former band)
When AntaeuS turned into a virus in me, I felt like it had to evolve
further than the limitations that the main man back then had for it.
I think that all took shape when I got hold of all the strukture of
AntaeuS, getting set as main guitarist was the best move ever, since
we have known each other for years & we had the same musikal taste
(for the early 90s sound, nowadays we tend to listen to different
aktz yet our basis are the same).
Drum wise, we decided to get ridd off the drum machine & never
changed since.
Bass & rythm guitar wise, we might have had more than 20 different
members within the band, but in 98 we did finally find the right
one, being also involved in Eternal Majesty with whom we did a split
demo back then. I did know them since they were working a lot with
SPIKEKULT (since their first demo, "dark empire").
Since then, the line up is perfekt & all of us are united & work on
the musikal struktures.
For all the rest, interviewz, ideals, propaganda, kontaktz, ALL is
done by me & me only. Mostly due to the fact that I am the only one
speakin & writtin in english.
That does take a lot of my time, due to this I did stop all others
implications (my zine, other bands & even spikekult for some
months/years).
We do not seek gigs really, since conditions are always fuckin
ridiculous or awful, I try to avoid to the max getting to play live,
though we had two or three great shows since 94; mostly over the two
past years.
Getting gas money & some beers seems to be the VERY best we could
get in europe, even if we perform in front of 300 people... the cost
to rent a place is so high that none could ever pay the band.
A couple reviews I've read of CYFaWS, while positive, have
accused the band of not bringing anything new to the table.
Stylistically, I would say that Antaeus is a) faster (I'd say only
Krieg is as fast), b) more "grind", c) less atmospheric, d) more
brutal and divided into penetrating structures of noise than in an
"epic" sense of many bands. Agree? What is the aesthetic you are
going for here, other than just "fast." Because it is definitely a
unique and not just a retro sound.
Hate is a large concept of the band. Does this reach over into
politics at all? Many BM are clearly fascist, a politics based on
hate, while others are nihilistic (and in that sense, partially
anarchistic). Views of politics in yourself and in the scene?
In what sense is Antaeus a "do it yourself" band that controls
the aspects of recording, promotion, management, and production
itself? You are clearly dedicated to the underground, but many
people are not familiar with the metal underground as much as the
more-established and cohesive American punk underground. How does
the underground work and how much is Antaeus a separate entity from
outside control and influence of labels, promoters, etc?
A would be my band then, since I would be responsible for most of
those aspects.
Being honest, I am not too aware of the punk scene, though got to
meet up with some labels from around here pressing punk vinylz &
their scene seemed much more "supportive" & less "inner war" in
between labels & so on. I might have a wrong of it though.
I would be totally dedicated to one aspect of the ug scene, which I
could describe as the only real scene, with true sick freakz & not
wannabes & morons of any kind that would pollute the bm kult.
those idiots are numerous & for the past years, I would have spent
way too much time on those inbreed fags instead on workin on my code
of life & supporting what had to be supported with the scene (bands
& labels wise). Now we are viewed as traitors to most, since we did
sign to Osmose.
Osmose allows us a studio rekording budget & having the whole
distribution in their hand, I could never deal with that myself, my
daily job takes around 50 hours per week now (compared to 70 h per
week for last year) which makes it nearly impossible to cope with
the mail & any correspondance in general. Even reh' with the band
got closed to impossible for me. All is getting better now, but as
far as I am concerned, if A didn't sign to Osmose, all would have
stopped. I couldn't go on paying 300 usd per month for the band, not
having enough to cope for my own living cost.
Now we do loose less cash, but we still loose. So when I get to read
that we did become fucking rockstars or sell out, I might ask to
whom did we sell out???
A band selling 5000 copies (which even ain't our case) could never
live out of it, I am sure that you are aware of that, but many
readers out there that did write us do think that we do earn enough
money with the band to live with....
It was ok to reply to those questions the first years, but after a
while, it killed me that most people wouldn't get how it workz...
But hell, we are talking about fuckin labels detailz & how bands are
getting fucked most of the time
Right now with Osmose, all is doing ok, we just did spend around 400
usd for this one, (lay out & mastering) since we did excess a bit
the budget allowed for the studio rekording.
How is the French "scene?" Are there many bands, zines, or venues
to play in? Are there a lot of posers?
Scene in france is not my fave subjekt, I did support many bands
from around here in the past, being proud of my "local scene", but
all those bands did fuckin backstabb us for no reasons or so.
"allies of today are the backstabbers of tomorrow", thus I don't
mention too much about bands from around here.
There is a fair deal of akts though, most of them are amateurish to
the core & spending more time in front of camera or doing shirtz
than working on the musikal parts.
All of them are envious little morons who are offended when they
realize it is not that "easy" to have a cd out. They all think that
demos are useless & that the underground is just a chat room on the
net.
For the older ones, we had either conflikts with them or totally
different views.
Apart from a few dozen individual in the whole france, we don't get
along too much with individuals from around here.
I had my fair deal of war around here.
In the newer band ; dark opus & aosoth are among my faves
DEATHSPELL OMEGA must be the ultimate black metal band the
traditionnal way. END ALL LIFE is without any doubt the best vinyl
bm label, they must have by now the CYFAWS on lp out, & that is one
Honour for us to be on that label.
Zines? well 666 is the best in the extreme bm/dm way, eternal fire
was killer too but defunct (or simply no newz from them since long),
stregoica was kult in its dayz, now they are doing ordealis rekords
which is very promising (killer work from their part),
deadfuckinchurch is a good zine but he said that his final issue
will be the next...
Some distro are great too, like paleur mortelle & warchangel.
AntaeuS will have a split 10" with AOSOTH on Paleur Mortelle
(akhaeus@aol.com) in the comin month btw.
Gigs wise, the audience is way better than any us gigs that I got to
visit (& I had my fair deal of us deals over the three or four stayz
I did over there), we usually get from 150 to 400 nowadays, but
places are not so numerous & each venues does cost around 2000 to
3000 usd to rent for a night, with such prices, no bands would get
any payment, asking for gas payment is already a dream for bands.
Due to that, in 2001, antaeus only performed live Once.
We did perform a bit more over the past months, with bands like
nargaroth, taake, enthroned, eternal majesty...
The last hellish gig we did do was in Paris with taake & enthroned,
our best set ever since 2001
In nov 002 we will be among the opening bands for the DEICIDE
european tour, we shall desecrate new countries & I do expekt that
tour I must say.
"It's nothing you'd understand, but I do have something to say. In fact, I have a lot to say, but now is not the time or place. I don't know why I'm wasting my time or breath. But what the hell? As for what is said of my life, there have been lies in the past and there will be lies in the future. I don't believe in the hypocritical, moralistic dogma of this so-called civilized society. I need not look beyond this room to see all the liars, haters, the killers, the crooks, the paranoid cowards -- truly trematodes of the Earth, each one in his own legal profession. You maggots make me sick -- hypocrites one and all. And no one knows that better than those who kill for policy, clandestinely or openly, as do the governments of the world, which kill in the name of God and country or for whatever reason they deem appropriate. I don't need to hear all of society's rationalizations, I've heard them all before and the fact remains that what is, is. You don't understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil, Legions of the night -- night breed -- repeat not the errors of the Night Prowler and show no mercy. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells within us all. That's it."
--Richard Ramirez
Most BM has diverged into "symphonic," commercial crap. I'm sure
you have some ventings on bands like this (Dimmu Borgir, Anorexia
Nervosa, Ancient), or on "retro" bands like Dark Funeral. To many,
Black Metal must remain underground and elite, and yet within it are
elements that are more palatable to the masses- a band like Immortal
proving that BM can be commodified over time. Thoughts on this
phenomenon in Black Metal?
Like anywhere, when you get an artistic style that would be
perceived as elitist & underground, one will have the wish to
"extand" it on a different level, for various reasons.
Some considers that the message should not be limited to one handful
of individuals
some seems to think that they would sell more rekords having an
"evil" image Some just find it "cool" to use such imagery Others are
living the black metal kult, on a daily basis.
Music wise, I am closed minded when it comes to black metal, not
opening myself too much to new genres, though I did try to pay
attention to all those bands poppin up & crossing goth, indus & so
on with black metal.
I must admit that diabolicum & mysticum were the only one that did
match my expektations when it comes to the aura created.
On the other level, I also pay attention to the "performers", for
example : Anorexia Nervosa is often quoted as fag band, mostly due
to the COF sounding of the musick. But on a personal level, the
frontman is really a sicko & is among those few individuals I
consider. Yet he would be a bit too much "rock n roll" sometimes eh
too much drugz & autodestruction for me (which does provide a smile,
that does you an idea on how fucked the man can be) aktually I think
that when you get to meet him, he would be more in his place
belongin to sadistik exekution than anorexia (musick wise) Ancient &
dimmu borgir never made it to me, not even one track from their
early days (the ep of ancient was ok though).
You did qualify some elements of black metal as "palatable" for the
masses, yet we have to redefine masses then, since those masses
would be the "extreme metal scene" which is not that wide, only a
few thousands people I would say.
Not something that could be play on the air of any local radio show
& musical tv shows or whatever. We are not dealing with "pop" music.
But I do agree, black metal did sadly evolve to a wider audience &
that doesn't mean that the real audience did grow bigger, just that
it did expand to people that simply don't get a clue of what real
black metal is about.
Having some individuals to compare napalm death to dark throne
amazes me... the only link between those bands is mostly in the
instruments used & some beats. (& some would kill me for the "rythm"
comparaison)
Anyway, on our level, like other bands, we remain an underground
band, you will most likely always find "cyfaws" & "dpe" on cd
format, but we will go on doing limited tapes & vinylz. Only for
those few sick ones that are also the pulse of the band.
It does mean a lot to us to be supported by like minded individuals,
band members or zine editors or just listeners.
I do not get much letters in that vein, but with those few with whom
we share visions, getting to read some comments on AntaeuS work is
always rewarding.
Our satanik audio violence would be a weapon & only some individuals
know how to handle it & how to view it properly.
Carcass or Bolt Thrower? Pick one.
When can we expect the new album (on Osmose, right?) and will
there ever be an American tour??
To you, what is most important in sustaining black Metal into
the coming years, as it is increasingly an "endangered" form of
music?
Your top 5 BM records?
Thanks for the interview! Good luck on your upcoming record and
in the inevitable Satanic victory over the forces of light. Have a
nice day
Many BM bands are one-person projects (Burzum, Bathory, Taake,
Krieg, Ildjarn, eventually Emperor, and at times Darkthrone). What
is the band construct of Antaeus? How does the song-writing process
work and who does most of the "legwork" for the band, ie: setting up
gigs and record-related business. Any comments on past members or
development of the band over time?
In the future, who knowz? but I wouldn't be surprised if the band
never gets to perform over there.
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