Interviewed by Alex & answered by Xaphan Hail Xaphan! How's Kult Ov Azazel doing? First we'll talk business; you're new CD "Triumph Of Fire" is out now on Arctic records. It has been really well received by the underground and, thanks to the distribution from Pavement, even beyond the underground it seems to be embraced. Any comments on that? Hails Alex! Yeah, the new CD has been doing quite well and that's mainly because Arctic along with Pavement have upheld their end of marketing/promotion end of the deal. Unfortunately the distributor we were using which was DNA screwed us and buried us in their catalog and basically tried to make it impossible to find here in America. So we dropped them and will be going with a new distributor now and will re-release Triumph of Fire back through them here in the States. AS far as the going beyond the underground, I have to disagree. People tend to think that once a band's album can be found at any record store or if it's easily accessible that they are no longer underground. This is not the case. What do you think of Kult Ov Azazel reaching a sort of worldwide status? I can see, with the great distribution you receive now, very everyday type metal heads becoming fans of Kult Ov Azazel without a real involvement in the Black Metal underground. What do you think makes Kult Ov Azazel stand out and deserve this recognition? We have pretty much had a worldwide status before this deal with Arctic came about. Just from the release of "Order of the Fly" we had gained listeners and killer reviews from zines worldwide. We have been a band that has worked hard at spreading our propaganda and haven't been the type to sit around waiting for something to drop into our laps. AS far as our distribution deal goes, I can see where you are coming from. The thing is though that just an everyday type metal head would not be able to get into what we do. We do not play music that your everyday jump on the bandwagon metal poser can identify with. Our music is not pretty and conveys true hate and evil and this is something a trendwhore would not be able to identify with. You guys play a lot of live shows here and reach more than just a Black Metal audience at gigs. Does it bother you when you see some short-haired hardcore fag out there in baggy pants and a wifebeater moshing away to your music when he's probably never even heard the shit, his annoying pitting making it difficult for the real fans to get into your set (sort of a personal beef of mine hahaha)? To be honest I don't notice anything when we're playing shows. I am in my own world for the 30 to 40 minutes that we play. But I also agree with you about the moshing part. Our music has nothing to do with moshing and people should be bloodletting rather than pitting. I'd rather people that come to our shows to be bludgeoning each other and cutting their flesh. I know you to be quite a Metal Warrior type into elite bands like Blasphemy of old and Belphegor of new and such, what's your tolerance for those not so truly and involved in the Metal world? I think a lot of gay marketable crap is getting attention it doesn't deserve while a lot of good, very Metal bands are being passed up. Well unfortunately that how it works man, I agree that a lot of great metal bands aren't getting any attention. But that's the way mainstream shit works and that's why mainstream anything is always shit. As for the ones not truly involved in metal, I don't even bother with them. Why should I? In another month or two they'll be jumping on some other trend they think is cool. I have no tolerance for idiots and it seems the majority of this planet falls into this category. Your music is always brutal and fast, but you seem to incorporate many different takes on Black Metal. While most bands like this either choose to clone Marduk or Dark Funeral, you have elements of both plus tons of other sides. Typically Black Metal is one-dimensional (and I ain't saying that's bad), was keeping things mixed up a conscious effort or did it all sort of just come out? It seems kind of difficult to pinpoint right on what makes KOA what they are. Well this comes from the many influences that both myself and Xul draw from. I was listening to the extreme underground metal in the 80's and that where a lot of my influence comes from. Where as Xul has been influenced by 90's death metal and black metal. I think this has a lot to do with it. We never set out to be another clone band or a band that mimics others. We set out to have our own identity and sound. I think we've achieved that with Triumph of Fire. What would you say if I told you the clean part in Forever Heaven Gone could be in a Soundgarden song? Haha! Others have told me it resembles Sanitarium. I'm a lazy motherfucker, I absolutely hate working at all if it ain't for my 'zine pretty much. I know you moreorless share my feelings there, and I admire you for managing Kult Ov Azazel without working. How do you manage to live without a job? I have to give a lot of credit to my girlfriend. She's put up with a lot and without her support I would not be able to focus 100% of my attention to this band. But I do work, just not all the time. Due to the fact that I run sound for a living it all depends if the club I work at has any shows or not or if I'm contacted by any bands to do their sound on the road. So I'm not that lazy, haha. I know you're a bit of a drinker, half the time we talk at shows you're damn near too tanked to form full sentences haha. What's the best beer out there? You got any amusing stories to tell involving you being intoxicated? I understand marijuana is important to you as well so please elaborate. Haha, I'm always tanked at shows, you gotta be! The only beer I drink is Heineken. As for weed, I enjoy smoking it but it's not really an importance to me. In other words I don't need it. I don't jones for it and can go without it if need be. I just seem to write the best riffs while I'm high. I wish I could explain it better but I can't. I guess it's I find creativity in being fucked up. As for an amusing story this wasn't amusing when it happened but now looking back at it is. Back in 95 a friend and me got all fucked up at a local bar and when it came time to go home he didn't want me driving. So as we were going to the car he snagged my keys and made a mad dash to where we were parked. By the time I got there I was pissed and he refused to get out of the drivers seat. He started the car and began backing up and I jumped on to the trunk and lay down on the top of the car to where I was looking at him through the front windshield. By this time he was driving straight probably about 7 mph and I was yelling and screaming profanities at him telling him to stop the car and let me drive. Well he stopped the car and when he did I did a face plant into the pavement at 7 mph. I woke up the next day in my bed, blood everywhere and a hole in my chin the size of a quarter and about 1-inch deep. Never went to the hospital and still have the gnarly scar to remind me of how fucked up I got that night, haha. Doesn't get more brutal than that. You also play bass for Hate Plow now, how was the European tour? What was it like touring with the band as people? I know you and Phil have been buddies for a long time, how'd you meet and what is your relationship with him now? I met Phil back in 91 when I was doing a zine and was inquiring about an interview with Malevolent Creation. It wasn't until I moved down here in 93 that I met him in person. I had started a band with an ex-malevolent drummer Crazy Larry who also was the drummer for Hateplow until he passed away. So Phil and I have been friends since then and still are. This is one of the reasons that I was asked to do the Hateplow European tour. Plus he knew I could handle the craziness that comes with being in and playing Hateplow material. The European tour was fucking killer. It was one month of metal madness and drunken debauchery. I wanted to speak to you a little about Satanism, as I know you're a member of the Church Of Satan, but I understand you don't enjoy speaking about this topic? Why is that? Because I feel it's a waste of time answering these questions. I'm not here to educate people; I'm here to eradicate people. The ones that know what Satanism is all about don't need anyone to explain it to them. It's the ones that do not know that feel the need to ask these questions and in my eyes all I'm doing is enlightening them. The only people I like speaking about this topic about is others as myself and then it's not in a public forum. Occult knowledge and Satanic practice should remain obscure and unattainable to those not deeply seeking it. The lineup of Kult Ov Azazel has been shakey from the beginning to say the least. I understand you had some problems with the other guitarist recently, and of corpse there's the horrific history of your drummers. What is your current lineup and what changes/additions would you like to make in the future if possible? Let me first say that Kult ov Azazel will always be a 3-piece band. It will always consist of Xul and myself and whoever is playing drums. We have been plagued by drummers in the past and have just recently added Goss "The Hammer" as permanent drummer. We just spent a week practicing with him and everything went well. Due to his work schedule he won't be able to commit to the band much until after December and in the meantime we'll have the drummer that played on the CD to do shows with us. As far s the other guitarist goes.. He was only a fill in for live performance and just wasn't working out. He was mainly a bass player and I felt it just didn't sound right. We will however find someone to do live shows with us so we'll be able to present the songs live with harmonies and all. What is your family like? How was your relationship with them in the past and now in the present? Do you have any plans to spawn some little hellions of your own in the future? My family life was normal. I mean when I was younger I was always getting in trouble and doing shit I wasn't suppose to be doing just like most kids do. My parents and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things but now that I'm older and shit we get along fine. They've come to accept that I'm their son and I make my own decisions. As far as kids goes, never ever ever will I bring a kid into a world that I myself despise! In fact I support mandatory abortions!!!! How long have you been Metal? Were you involved in any other scene in the past? I heard a rumor that you were once heavily involved in punk or something. I have been into metal since I got my first Kiss album when I was 6. This would have been 1978. Then in 1983 I discovered Venom and that's when I got into the underground. They started everything for me. Then came Possessed, Exodus, Slayer, Destruction, fuck man I could name bands forever. It was a whole new world to me back then and it was music I could identify with. I knew that I wanted to play extreme music but finding people that want to do the same was not so easy. So yeah that rumor would be true. I played in a band called Faust back in TN in 89/90 and we started out as a typical punk band but because of our metal influences quickly became more of a crust/metal band. We put out a few demos and played some shows with bands like Destroy! and Apocalypse among others. Faust basically broke up because I wanted to start playing more extreme music and they did not. So the other guitarist from Faust and myself went on to form a death metal band. That wasn't working out because we couldn't find a good drummer or vocalist so we moved to Florida and formed Coprophagia in which Crazy Larry was the drummer. So to really answer your question I've been into metal for a lot of fucking years… Metal has been my life!! Ok man, that's about it. Let us know what's happening in the future for Kult Ov Azazel and whatever else you wanna say. Thanks for the interview man. Smash the cross and keep spreading the hate!