In a scene plagued by poser bands postuering as true evil, where pathetic fairy worship & odinism runs rampant and Satanism is dismissed as something that is "cliche", "unpopular" & (fasely) "jewish" comes the true USBM band Kult ov Azazel. If you're sick of all the watered down crap today, then KOA is the band to watch as their one of the forerunners in uncompromising, hate-filled USBM! Death to False Metal!! Interviewed by Fenris Wolf & answered by Xaphan I noticed you changed your name from Azazel to Kult Ov Azazel, is this because of the trouble you had with the 'other' Azazel from Europe? Also, I noticed that the lettering of the band is similar to that of the Chaos/Pagan group "Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth", are you in anyway influenced by them? We did have some trouble with another band going by Azazel but nothing ever came of it and this is not the reason we changed the name of the band. At the time we made the name switch there were a total of at least 6 bands that had or were going by the same moniker. We were always being confused with this Azazel or that Azazel so the bottom line came down to us changing the name a bit in order to distance ourselves from the confusion. We had worked hard on establishing ourselves as a force in the black metal underground and felt it would be best to add on to the name than start from scratch. As for what we're influenced by it's pretty obvious after hearing our music that our influences lie in Satanism , occult and nihilistic philosophies, not by any group. Your music is obviously very Satanic. Where would you say you draw your influences from? There is a myriad of things that we draw influences from so trying to narrow it down to fit into a few sentences is not so easy. All I can say is what you hear in our music is because that is the way we feel. Our music is the output of our true selves. What do you think of all the so-called "true Satanists" who claim to whorship Satan, sacrifice animals, etc.? Well it's evident that if you worship an actual deity known as "Satan" then you are no better off than the worthless scum that claim to follow "God". Theses are not "true" Satanist but rather just disgruntled christians. Satanism, like Nihilism, is a philosophy and has everything to do with smashing christian concept rather than the worship of an anthropomorphic deity. One of your slogans appears to be "Burn The Church". Do you feel that church burnings should be carried out, or is this a bit of imagery, or what? I think any kind of attack on religion is needed in order to bring about its demise. Destruction to all things holy by any means necessary!!! The christians in the inquisition didn't seem to mind that they pillaged and destroyed anything they deemed antichristian or non conforming to their beliefs. The idea behind "Triumph of Fire" is an inversion of the christian inquisition where the ones that have had it with religion and it's mindless followers rise up and begin our own satanic inquisition destroying anything that has to do with god or religion. So "Burn the Church" is more a comment than a slogan. The US BM 'scene' tends to get put down by Europeans and others as being shitty, but yet there are quite a few good BM bands in America. What do you think of comments like this? I laugh at these comments. It's obvious that anyone that says this has never even heard a lot of black metal from the States. I will say that there are indeed some shitty fucking bands from here but these are the same bands trying to mimic and steal from European bands thus making them nothing of importance anyway. But all in all these trendwhore bands are small in number and the majority of bands playing this form of music are dedicated and totally into the ideology that black metal holds. As for the Europeans talking shit, just pick up a copy of Triumph of Fire and prepare to be crushed by a barrage of blasphemous attacks on humanity and christianity!! What are your musical influences? Venom, Darkthrone, Sodom, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Mayhem, Profanatica, Possessed, Destruction, Exodus, among many others. Mostly early/mid eighties thrash/speed metal and early 90's black metal. I noticed that on your website as one enters it has a "Crush The Cradle" sort of e-flier pop-up. I take it you dislike Cradle of Filth? Care to elaborate? I think that the e-flier says it all. No need to elaborate. What do you feel is the future for Satanic Black Metal? I don't know what is in store for the future of black metal. All I know is as long as Kult ov Azazel is still together we'll be doing the same thing that we are now. No compromising.. we'll always hold true to our beliefs and musical style. Well, it has been a great interview! Anything you would like to say as a closing statement, feel free. Hail Kult Ov Azazel, Hail Satan! Fuck your world, fuck your god, and fuck you! Ave Satanas!! Hail Satan!!!