Interviewed by Federic & answered by Xaphan How has "Triumph of Fire" been received up to now? I have read a lot of great reviews... I don't even care how it's doing. The only thing that matters is that we have managed to spread our musical blasphemy worldwide. The purpose of this band is not sells and money, it's to release black metal played with conviction and not under false pretenses! This album was done to show all that black metal is still black metal!! I think we have silenced all those who disbelieved and fuck off to those who still have a death wish. Which are the aspects of the new songs that you are more proud of? Have you evolved as musicians? I think the harmonies that I added into the songs on this recording make this album stand out much more than our previous attempts. Every musician evolves with the more they play their instrument so I would say that we have evolved in a sense. We are much better now at writing and composing the songs than we were 2 years ago. How would you compare "Triumph of Fire" with the MCD "Order of the Fly"? Both I think are good representations of us as a band but Triumph of Fire we had much more time to record it and were able to actually put time and thought into what we wanted the final recording to sound like. Order of the Fly and also the Kult ov Azazel/Krieg split tacks were recorded by us and the recordings have a more raw and unproduced feel to them where as Triumph of Fire is still raw yet mixed alot better making everything more even sound wise. How did you achieve the great sound that "Triumph of Fire" has? We went in knowing what we wanted and basically took our time instead of rushing into things. We spent 6 weeks recording/mixing the CD as opposed to the 1-week we spent doing all that on our past attempts. What can you tell me about the experience of doing a split CD with Krieg? Can't tell you much. Our portion of the split was recorded here in Florida in our warehouse and Krieg's tracks took place somewhere in New Jersey I believe. Not much of an experience there. If you don't already own a copy of this split you should just kill yourself! Which is the problem that the band had with drummers (Von, Hellspawn, Vetis, etc.)? Who is your new drummer? Doesn't matter what the problems were with our past drummers, the bottom line is they are gone and never mattered to begin with. Xul and myself are the backbone of this band and the drummer problems hinder us in ways but it's not going to stop us. So at the present time we have no drummer. We will begin rehearsing with a guy in July and if all goes well he'll become our permanent drummer. If it doesn't we'll continue searching. Why did you choose the name Kult ov Azazel for the band? In order to understand the significance of Kult of Azazel one must know the meaning behind Azazel so let me give you a little lesson in myth. In Enoch I, Azazel is one of the chiefs of the 200 fallen angels (Revelation speaks of one third of the heavenly host being involved in the fall). Azazel "taught men to fashion swords and shields" while women learned from him "finery and the art of beautifying the eyelids." In The Zohar (Vayeze 153a) the rider on the serpent is symbolized by "the evil Azael." Here he is said to be chief of the order of bene elim (otherwise ischim, lower angels, "men-spirits"). Irenaeus calls Azazel "that fallen and yet mighty angel." In The Apocalypse of Abraham he is "lord of hell, seducer of mankind," and here his aspect, when revealed in its true form, shows him to be a demon with 7 serpent heads, 14 faces, and 12 wings. Jewish legend speaks of Azazel as the angel who refused to bow down before Adam (in the koran the angel is Eblis or Iblis) when the 1st human was presented to God to the assembled hierarchies in Heaven. For such a refusal, Azazel was thenceforth dubbed "the accursed Satan." According to the legend in Islamic lore, when God commanded the angels to worship Adam, Azazel refused, contending "Why should a son of fire (i.e. an angel) fall down before a son of clay (i.e. human)?" Whereupon God cast Azazel out of Heaven and changed his name to Eblis. In Paradise Lost I, Milton describes Azazel as a "cherub tall" but also as a fallen angel and Satan's standard bearer. Bamberger in Fallen Angels inclines to the notion that the first star which fell (star here having the notation of angel) was Azazel. And in demonology Azazel is the god/demon of war. How was your participation in the "Visionaries of the Macabre - Vol.2" compilation? It was like an elite of American black metal... We were very honored to have been asked by Lost Disciple to participate on this compilation. We contributed a song from "Order of the Fly" to it. I'd have to agree with you that it was a good representation of what is going on over here as far as black metal goes. Another comp worth mention is "American Black Metal Assault" from the Dutch label Infinite Darkness Records. Regarding again the great sound of "Triumph of Fire". What do you think of black metal bands like Dark Throne that despite having the means to do a godd recording and up having a primitive sound in their recordings? To each their own! Personally I like necro sounding demos and albums but at the same time it's not the way I want my own recordings to come out. Too many bands are using that "necro" sound to hide the fact that they can't play their instruments. I'm not knocking Darkthrone, which by the way are one of the only bands that matter to me, but all I can say is it works for some and we're not one of those bands. But on the other hand we're not into all that over produced black metal shit that is coming out. I think with Triumph of Fire we found the middle between "necro" and "over produced" and that's what makes this stand out from others out there. Why did you choose to reissue "Order of the Fly"? Why did you choose Blood Fire Death Recs.? Blood Fire Death Records chose us. Imperial liked our first mCD that he said he wanted to reissue it to 50 copies with an added live track. I had been asked numerous times by people for it or if copies were left and just decided at the time it was a good idea to reissue it. Are you planning to present "Triumph of Fire" live? We have performed twice since the release of Triumph of Fire but at the time there are no plans for anymore shows. Once we get settled in with a new drummer then we will concentrate on this. Until then we will continue writing for our next offering. Why did you decide to record a 4 way split with Obitus, Humanicide and Thylord? Did this recording give the chance to listen to your music to people that maybe wouldn´t have listened it (fans of the other bands)? Once again this is a case of the label putting this out coming to us and asking if we would do it. The reason we agreed was because it had bands that we feel represent the true spirit of black metal. The tracks we supplied are old tracks from the "Order of the Fly" mCD and the "Of Evil and Hate" sessions (songs that appeared on the split with Krieg). Although these songs are very old I felt they still represents us very well and by participating it allows others that are not familiar with us to be crushed by our satanic assault! Any final words? Hail the way of all Flesh... Hail Satan!