Originally this interview was to be conducted with guitarist/vocalist Xaphan, but the plan was for him to travel to South America with Malevolent Creation to mix sound at their live shows. Consequently, vocalist/bassist, Xul, capably conducted the interview in his place. Both are core members of the band and it mattered little which one actually did the interview, as you'll see from Xul's thoughtful answers and firm grasp of what KOA is all about. As it turns out, the South American Malevolent Creation tour got cancelled anyway. The Florida black metal band takes its music seriously. KoA's new release on Arctic Music, Oculus Infernum, is a vicious slab of black metal that the quartet are clearly proud of (with good reason, I might add). Here is Xul and KoA's story. Interviewed by Scott Alisoglu.
Did I read that the South American Malevolent Creation tour got cancelled?
Yeah, it did due to some sour contracting. Pretty much that and the guy that was putting it on didn't have his shit together. Their visas didn't come through after the guy screwed up a couple times with his end of the contract. So it became chaos.
What do you guys have going on right now?
Right now we're doing a show in Philadelphia with Blood Storm, Decieverion, and a few others. It's probably going to be the only show this year due to everyone's schedules. It's gonna be August 8th at Club HP. We really want to do a tour but due to everyone's schedule…. Goss [The Hammer] lives in New York, Buffalo specifically, and he's on tour with other bands probably 75 percent of the year, doing drum teching and tour management. Nocturath lives in Orlando. Xaphan and I basically live in the Fort Lauderdale area. We pretty much get together whenever we're ready to do some hardcore work on the new material or if we have shows coming up.
Wow, no touring for the entire year?!
Doesn't look like it, unless something comes our way that's too good for everyone to pass up.
Does it bum you guys out that you can't get out on the road more?
Yeah, it does. Myself and Nocturath have corporate jobs and it's hard to take extended time off because there is no money in what we do; we do it for the love of doing it. Xaphan and Goss are on the road anyway; they're definitely more proactive to do Kult ov Azazel, but it just hasn't worked out that way.
Does Xaphan do a lot of sound mixing for other bands?
Yeah that, and he also plays bass in Hateplow. He just started two years ago doing some live stuff. He hasn't been on any of their recordings though. We're all pretty much a tight-nit group down in the Fort Lauderdale area with Malevolent, Hateplow, Kult ov Azazel, the scene.
What's the origin of the name and how did you decide on it?
Originally we had two different projects going. I had my own four-track thing with a drum machine and Xaphan had Azazel going with just him and a drum machine. I met him trying to mix and record some of my stuff on CD-R and start passing them out; it was originally called Erebus. We took over his name because I liked it better. The whole meaning behind it fits our style. Azazel, there's twenty different meanings out there, but one of them is interpreted as the demon who betrayed Christ and taught women how to seduce men, and brought weapons to man to bring war to the earth. It just kind of developed into that. The whole name change from Azazel to Kult of Azazel was pretty much just to differentiate ourselves from another hardcore band, I think, and someone in Israel. We just didn't want to be confused with them.
I read that it means something in Moslem demonology also.
Yeah, with every religion it's referred to. It's known in Muslim, Catholicism, Christianity. It's evil no matter what religion you go to.
So you got together with Xaphan and it went from there.
Pretty much. We're on our 11th drummer with Goss.
Like Spinal Tap.
Yeah, we've got the plague of drummers. So far he's been, as far as mentality is concerned, the only one who could really cut it, who has the same views and we all want to go the same places with the band. He's worked out pretty well. One of the problems with changing drummers like that so often is that the drummer really marks a big part of the style of the music. We've had to reincorporate and reinvent ourselves 11 times over with different people. We've definitely fought and we're still here.
Goss started out as a session drummer and is now a permanent member.
When he started jamming with us, we pretty much knew that he was gonna be the guy to fill in the shoes. We had no one else and he was right there. The dedication he had… Like I said, he lives in New York and he would fly down here in between tours with his other bands and jam with us to make it happen. That was pretty much the deciding factor. No one else has ever put that much into the band.
I was reading the reviews on your last album, Triumph of Fire, and you got quite a few compliments on the drumming.
That was done by Gus. He did some Malevolent Creation work a while back, still kind of jams with them every once in a while. He's pretty much just the local guy here. He's very talented. He's pretty much a drum tech around here that has been in the metal scene for the past 10 years or so. He's into it, but he's not looking for a full band commitment.
As you are aware, black metal has several different strains, including the more symphonic and/or keyboard-heavy material. How would you describe Kult ov Azazel's style of black metal?
That's a good question. It's really hard for me to say because I'm the creator. I would say it's definitely more melodic. It's straight forward, but there is some melodicism in there without it being completely boring and dull.
I think you've got to dig a little bit for the melodicism, but I hear what you're saying.
Like I said, we create it so I can hear every little nuance versus someone who has only listened to the CD. I think with this new album we varied a lot compared to Triumph of Fire where it was more straight forward because the drummer was primarily a death metal drummer - we were pulled in that direction. The new one is completely more in the black metal vein.
People throw out old Emperor and Marduk to describe your music.
Yeah, we get a lot of Marduk, some Dark Funeral. I think that's primarily the speed and maybe the minor chords. I think that's a primary characteristic of black metal in general. We don't try to sound like anyone, in any direction, but our own self. Myself, I try to distance myself when I do start writing to not listen to the stuff that's out there so that I'm not influenced; I don't want it to show too much in the music that we create.
You've got several releases under your belts. Talk about your recorded output prior to Oculus Infernum. You mentioned that Triumph of Fire was a little more straightforward.
Oculus Infernum is definitely not Triumph of Fire, Part II. It's got it's own sound 100 percent. That's one of the good things I like about it because a lot of bands get to a stagnant style of creating the same album over and over again; you have one album by a band and you've got them all. All of our releases have shown strong improvement, which is encouraging for our future releases.
Prior to Triumph you had some splits. We had a split with Krieg. We had Order of the Fly, which was the first demo we released. It was four songs that I wrote as Erebus after I left one of my prior bands and two songs that Xaphan and I wrote together. It was pretty much just to get some material out there and build a name for ourselves. After we released that, we did the split with Krieg and that was pretty much a joint effort between Xaphan and I. We've done some compilations too.
National compilations, local stuff?
Looking Glass Black, Black Metal Assault, a couple tapes. Some of them are so obscure I don't even have copies of them, like limited to 50 copies. We did a four-way split and a couple other little projects. We have a primary contract with Arctic Music, but they were really good with letting us do underground releases without them interfering at all so we can push ourselves in the underground. That's definitely a bonus because a lot of other labels think that they own the band for good and they don't want you to do anything except whatever their name is on.
Arctic is actually in Fort Lauderdale too.
Yeah, it's actually Phil's [Fasciana of Malevolent Creation] label with his entertainment lawyer [Scott Hecker], which is now our lawyer.
Triumph of Fire was your first release on Artic Music. What was your label search like and how did you end up on Arctic?
It was our first full-length as well. We sent out a bunch of different demos and everything that we've done to a bunch of different magazines, webzines, labels, and just started talking to people and tape trading, how you'd normally do it. We got a couple of interested labels. We happened to playing with Gus and rehearsing and Phil came in the rehearsal. From there, he pretty much wanted to take control and sign the band. Phil just pretty much saw us live and took it over.
Arctic was trying to expand somewhat into other genres if I recall.
They're more like death metal. Celebratum is on there; they've got a few other black metal bands. I think they are doing a sub-label, Frozen North. We're still on Arctic.
Were you happy with the way Oculus came out?
Yeah. Truthfully, at first it was a lot different writing it and I didn't know how it was gonna come out because there was a lot more piecing together of parts due to the fact that band members were scattered across the U.S. most of the time. The final product is definitely rewarding.
How was it received by the metal press and metal community in general?
It's pretty much, from what I've seen, 90 percent complete praise and 10 percent complete hatred toward it. To me, it's either or. It's fine for me. I've definitely seen 10 out of 10 or 4 out of 10. For the most part, it's been good.
You got a positive review out of me. The only thing I said is that my personal preference would have been to hear the guitars up higher in the mix.
Yeah, I heard that from a couple different people. Now that I look back at it… We did a lot of harmonies that you really can't hear. One of the reasons that we did that is we didn't want the guitars too loud because a lot of times we play as a three-piece and it's very hard to duplicate the sound. We like to sound how our albums do.
What does Oculus Infernum mean?
Oculus Infernum means "Eye of Hell." We pretty much came up with that as we were writing the songs. We wrote around the title really. It's not a concept album in any way.
What song from Oculus Infernum would you recommend to the uninitiated as a good representation of the album?
My personal favorites would probably be the first song, "Rex Infernus in Excelsis. It's definitely got a conglomeration of every little aspect I think. Maybe the title track itself. We definitely tried to vary out the songs. I think it's more of an album than a song and that's what we wanted to achieve.
You also put a cover of Beherit's "Black Arts" on the album. Why that one?
We did that a little while ago for a compilation on an 8-track with computer equipment. It came out pretty good and we just wanted to kill a bunch of time in the studio and get as much done as we could. Everyone knew it and we just went for it. I think it came out as probably one of the sickest songs on the album.
The vocals are actually more decipherable on that one.
Most of the vocals on that one were done by Xaphan. It's more of his style of singing compared to mine.
You guys are both vocalists.
I do about 90 percent of the vocals.
You've got the second guitarist [Nocturath] listed as doing backing vocals as well.
On Triumph of Fire there is only one song that Xaphan does back up vocals on. On this album he does more. We did some variations. Nocturath has been contributing to that as well.
The vocal style is unrelenting. You don't let up.
Coming into this band we were looking for a vocalist and I just kind of came into it. Personally, if I'm gonna listen to black metal I want to hear pain and disgusting vocals.
Your lyrical content is not even close to being basic. It's clear that a good deal of thought go into the lyrics. Who is the chief lyricist and what topics do you explore on the album?
Primarily on Oculus Infernum, Xaphan probably did 60 percent of the lyrics. I did about 35-40 percent. I think Nocturath contributed some to it. Every song is pretty much the same concept. We're anti-Christian, anti-Judaism and the Judeo-Christian world. We don't segregate against one particular religion. We're an equal opportunity hater. I am personally against any religion, even Satanism. I just take what I want out of it. I don't live by any standard as far as that's concerned.
You're really against the whole concept of blind faith.
Yes, but it definitely has concepts of Satanic imagery and mythology intertwined with hate towards all of that.
You're clearly not in favor of any religion. Is that the case with the rest of the band?
Xaphan belongs to the Church of Satan. We have no real ties to anything like that. I know Goss the Hammer is pretty much like me and so is Nocturath. Xaphan might tend more on the Satanic side, as far as being Anton LaVey style. I wouldn't quote myself on speaking for him though.
I take it you are well read on the subject matter, unless you do a really good job of fooling people.
The lyrics I did write, I wrote in the studio because of the situation we were in. There was no preparation; it pretty much just kind of flows out some times. It was a little forced as far as the timing was concerned. I have no religious background at all, but occult books I have read in the past. Xaphan wrote a lot of the lyrics; he definitely does his reading on the blasphemy topics.
How difficult is it to put together a Kult ov Azazel song?
It depends. The new stuff had participation from everyone and it came pretty easily and naturally. The more time we have with writing the songs, the more the songs change. Even from when we had them written in the warehouse to when we got into the studio they changed significantly. This album was the easiest/the hardest album to write and record for us because of that. With all our members spread out across the United States, it was Xaphan and myself working on it full-time. Getting everyone's participation and waiting for everyone's "ok" was probably the hardest part.
Why did you decide to add a second guitarist?
Mainly because we wanted to keep going with the guitar sound and we wanted to add more to the music as far as harmonies are concerned. We can do a lot more live and more as far as participation is concerned in the band. We can write second guitar parts and not make it so straightforward and droning, even though it kind of is the same way. It adds a thicker tone to the songs. I think the songs sound a lot fuller and even faster during the fast parts, the blast parts, with two guitars doing different harmonies and they complement themselves.
You mentioned that there probably wouldn't be a tour this year. Have you played live a lot in the past?
In the past, we played mostly in Fort Lauderdale. We did CBGB's in New York. We did the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child Festival in Texas. We do more one-off shows, but if we got the opportunities in the future to go on a full European or American tour, we'd definitely try to snag it up.
I've heard a lot about the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child Festival. Tell me about your experience there.
We played with Absu - one of my favorite U.S. black metal bands - and Krieg, Thornspawn. The best of the best played and you get to hang out with everyone. It was an awesome experience.
It was probably a true black metal crowd.
Oh yeah. I'd rather go to something like that nowadays than the Milwaukee Metal Fest, which is filled with a bunch of shitty bands from the local area who are forced to pay some dickhead "x" amount of money to play and no one really gives a shit. When you play the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child fest, it's more of a kult experience. Everyone's there and the people you want there are there, not some band you couldn't care less about.
Scandinavia has always been a black metal stronghold. Did you have any doubts about forming a U.S. black metal band at that time? How did you feel about the scene?
I was in a black metal band before I was in Kult ov Azazel when I was younger. I had no doubts about my geographic region compared to the ability to play this style of music, the feelings that are needed for this style of music. That was never a consideration by anyone in the band. I don't think it matters whether they're in Norway, Sweden, Finland, or the United States to be able to play black metal. My sense of the scene from back then to now is a little jaded, more because I know more of the people in the scene and have dealt with more people than when we first started. You learn who can be relied on, who can't be, who is a rip-off and who's not. This whole sense of the Internet has progressed the scene twenty years time in a matter of two years on the positive side, as far as getting the music to those who need to get it; as opposed - on the negative side - to the 14 year old who is behind the Internet who suddenly thinks he's grand master of all and knows everything. It's going strong, but there are ups and downs.
Do you feel like a lot of U.S. black metal bands and the scene in general has been overlooked?
I think that was the case more so in the past, but now that there is more attention in the U.S. black metal scene… Sometimes I even think there is more than there should be. Time really tells what a band is all about and these bands that are popping up left and right are getting more credit than they deserve. I think a lot of bands are very underdeveloped who consider themselves great U.S. BM bands that are crap.
Is there anything you wanted to end the interview with?
Basically to check out the new album. Check out the site for news, www.KultovAzazel.com. All the merchandise is going through there. Get on the mailing list. Tours and shows pop up every now and then. I say that we might not be touring for the rest of 2003, but things do change.
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