Interviewed by Emiliano Verrecchia & answered by Xaphan What about your past? We formed in 1999. We've since released some promo cassettees, a mCD titled "Order of the Fly", did a split CD with Krieg and just recently the new one titled "Triumph of Fire". 'Triumph of Fire' is direct, evil and back to the roots black metal, isn't it? Well this all depends. If this is the first time hearing anything we've done then one would think this. The thing is that since our formation we have always been true to the roots of black metal. Too much shit out there is considered black metal nowdays and we will not buy into that gay trend. Kult ov Azazel will always embrace the hate and evil that true black metal is all about. If I'm not wrong sometimes your riffsare influenced by thrash or not? That would be correct. I grew up listening to a lot of thrash and speed metal in the 80's. Many bands such as Sodom, Destruction, Possessed, Exodus among others have influenced me as I was learning to play so I'm sure at times these influences show. How do you get in touch with Pavement? We were signed by Arctic Music who has a distribution and marketing deal through Pavement so that's how we ended up getting hooked up with them. It seems you are a satanic black metal band, isn't it? Why? We are Satanist yet to say that we are a satanic black metal band is sort of painting us into a corner. Our lyrics deal with much more than just Satanism. Our hate goes far beyond just religion; it also involves repulsion for human life. We are the embodiment of extreme misanthropy and imposed anti-christianity. 'Le Messe Noir' lyric is taken from Anton LaVey script, why? Can we consider it a tribute to Anton LaVey? In a sense you could say that. LaVey's Satanic Bible had a big part on shaping my philosphies and to be granted permission to use his work was an honor to me. Truth be known the reason we decided to use it was I had written a song just weeks before recording and did not have time to write lyrics for it. I decided to use excerpts from LaVey's Satanic Rituals and blend it with some of my own lyrics in order to be able to include it on the album. What do you think about Anton LaVey? Do you follow his ideas? I don't follow anyone! Like I just said his ideals did have some influence on my beliefs but so do many other things. You come from USA and we know it is not the best place to play black metal or not? How do you judge the actual situation in USA? Personally I think the States has a lot of bands that are true to keeping black metal the way it should be - raw, hateful and satanic. The majority of the bands that I have been in contact with are very passionate about black metal and keeping it in the vein that it's meant to be played. Not tainting it with sugar coated keyboards and homoerotic stories about vampire escapades or trolls hiding in the forest. I don't see being from the US any hindrance and have enough confidence to say that we could handle our own against any European black metal band. In fact we destroy most European black metal bands and will continue doing so! What do you expect from this CD? Nothing more than to show motherfuckers that black metal is still as satanic and hateful that it was in the past. And this same expectation can be applied to all future Kult ov Azazel releases! What are your future projects? Right now we are still looking for a drummer while we write new material for what I hope to be an ep/mcd that will be recorded sometime during the fall. If you're reading this and think you can you have what it takes then contact us. As for other projects, I'll also be doing bass on the next Hateplow CD and will be doing some shows as 2nd guitarist for Demonic Christ, so until the drummer situation is solved I'll be concentrating on the above mentioned bands and as well as writing new songs. Either way expect another full length to be released by summer of 2001. Leave your final message to all Grind Zone readers. Thanks for the interview. Smash the cross of the christ whore!