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Raw Black Metal from USA. Kult ov Azazel have realised a big and brutal Black Metal album intitled "Triumph of Fire", full of brutal music solutions and raw as it must be. Here I contacted Xaphan (guitar and some vocals) to ask him about the band, the album, the philosophy and so on, here's what... Satanic Hails Xaphan! How's going on in the world of Kult ov Azazel? Hails! Things are somewhat slow right now but all is well. Well, here we have "Triumph of Fire", a really raw and brutal album, how did it was created? What were your expectations about it? Are you satisfied of the final result of the album? Yes I am very satisfied with it. It was created in pretty much the same way our past recordings have been that. I think it is by far our best work to date and did not expect it to receive the praise it has gotten since its release. I know you have realised an album called "Order of the Fly": can you tell us something about it and, for those who haven't listened to it, how was the sound of that disc? Can you find many differences between it and "Triumph of Fire"? It's still available in some ways? There are many things that differ between "Order of the Fly" and our last recording. For starters "Order of the Fly" was recorded on an 8 track in our warehouse as where "Triumph of Fire" was recording in an actual recording studio. Also "Order…" was recorded in about 7 days and with "Triumph…" we took our time and in the end in took us about a month to finish the album. As for the sound on "Order…" I think it is still pretty decent for what we did at the time, it's no "Triumph of Fire" as far as production and sound goes but still good otherwise. For availability, it is being re-issued to 300 copies on vinyl by Crooked Crosses Records and there are discussions between myself and Blood Fire Death to re-issue it again in CD format. Why did you decide to call it "Order of the Fly"? This title reminds me something, but I can't remember what… Well in all honesty I came up with the name for the band when we first started out. Xul had been doing his project Erebus and I had been trying to do something under Azazel and when it came to choose a band name I offered this. Xul wasn't happy with that as a band name and thought we should just continue to be known as Azazel, so this instead ended up as our first mCD title. Order of the Fly is the order headed by Beelzebub the "Lord of the Flies" which is probably what you are thinking of. In your lyrics there are many Satanic references and, in "Triumph of Fire", even many words like fire, flames etc… Why? Do you find a connection between these two topics? What topics are important in your lyrics to make them right for your music? And how important are lyrics for you? Well I do not write the majority of the lyrics, this is Xul's task. I do however think lyrics play an important part in the composition of the song and the topics I find that make these right for our music would be anything anti-religious. But like I said Xul writes the majority of the lyrics so this is more a question for him and not me. He puts a lot into his lyrics and many have underlying themes that you must look deeper into the lyrics for. And, about Satanism, what's your point of view? Do you believe in Satan or it's just a philosophical ideology? If I name persons such as Crowley, La Vey and so on, what do you think about them? It's a philosophical ideology to me. I don't believe in any "gods" or "devils". Religion was created by man and therefore so was everything it entails. So more or less Satan is nothing but a scapegoat that religionist use to cast blame on rather than themselves. Satan to me is more a metaphoric meaning of the dark side of human carnality and nature to me. As for the question what I think of LaVey and Crowley, both have influenced me in one way or another along with other writers of occult/satanic works. In the vinyl version of "Triumph of Fire" there's a cover image showing a church burning; why did you put that image on the cover? Do you think it's the correct way to fight christianity? And what's your opinion about the arsons made by Scandinavian bands in the past decade? On the vinyl release we put a burning church on there because it's like this, in the break on the song "Triumph of Fire" we whisper "Burn the Church" and therefore the vinyl edition reflects this motto. Do I think it's the correct way to fight christianity, in some ways. If more churches were burnt to the ground I think it would in one way or another cripple their agenda and would put a damper on their activities. Yet this only one of many ways to combat the christians, an illegal one at that but yet effective. On the Scandinavian arsons, I applaud them for attacking the filth that ruined their countries with the cancer of christianity. Ok, back to the music, you have realised a split with Krieg, the one man-project of the mighty Imperial; now, what's your opinion about him and his music? And, about your band, what are the songs included in that split album? Imperial and I are very good friends. I have admired Krieg for a very long time and after Imperial heard the "Order of the Fly" mCD he contacted me and since he's been a huge supporter of this band. My opinion of him is he's one of the few that really understand what black metal is all about; he's like myself, not into this for the popularity or money. His art is created from passion and honour and that's really admirable and something in which people could fucking learn from. As for his music, I have everything Krieg has released, minus some demos and even have the Imperial demo and Devotee demo and I think his music defines black metal in one of it's truest form, hails to Imperial for being able to create such mayhem and hate without compromise!! For the songs that appeared on our side of the split it was at the time all new songs with the exception of the last song, which we re-recorded from "Order of the Fly". The track listing for the split goes as such: 1. Intro A small curiosity: I know that once you called yourselves simply Azazel, but then you changed into Kult ov Azazel. Now, I'd like to know why you made this change and if it's caused by some legal problems with other Azazel bands or other scum like this. And why do you write your name in that way (ex "Kult" with K, "ov" and not "of")? This thing, as above for the other name, reminds me something of archaic… Well
that is why we choose to spell it in the way we did. It's more sinister
spelled this way and has the archaic look. It also has to do with my
roots, as I am ¼ German, my grandfather was of German decedent.
We changed the name though just because we were constantly being confused
with other bands of the same name. Nothing more than that. In this album the band is made of three elements, with Vetis at the drums. He's a permanent member or just a guest? Are you satisfied of his work on the album? Vetis was just a session player on the album and I think I can say we are both totally satisfied with his work on the album. As for the permanent drummer, that would be Goss "The Hammer" and that will be who shall be showing up on future Kult ov Azazel blasphemies. Will you play live dates? And will you come here in Europe to spread your hate? Yeah we play live shows pretty much every 3 months or so. Use to be more often but that was in the early days of the band. We have done a few dates in different places in North America and I hope to one day be able to come and invade Europe with antichristian hate!! When will this happen you may ask, well my only answer to that would be who fucking knows. I suppose when diehards that bring bands like Krieg, Inquisition and shit over contact us. Yet I have been told and the general consensus seems to be we are hated in Europe which is perfectly alright by me so I don't expect any inquires from European promoters asking us to come over. I read somewhere that you are planning to record a live album. Do you think is right to realise a live album after just some tapes and two full lengths? Beyond this, what are your future plans? Are you recording some new stuff? I don't know if it's a good thing or not to do just yet but the idea was to record 3 or 4 new studio tracks to go along with it just so the true maniacs had something to tide them over until the next full length. Plus I have many board tapes from past shows and we thought it would be an excellent way of letting those that don't get to witness such an event the opportunity. There is no new stuff recorded yet but we will begin working on new songs for the next full length in about one week. Ok, the last question: what are your musical influences and how do you think the big death metal scene of your country has influenced you? Personally, I can find some death references in your sound… My major influences were the extreme bands of the 80's which are Venom, Bathory, Destruction, Possessed, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, Sodom, Onslaught, Hobbs Angel of Death, Kreator, Bloodfeast, first 3 Slayer albums, Exodus only on "Bonded by Blood", Metallica up until Cliff died, mainly just shit like that and then the bands that revived black metal such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Blasphemy, and Bestial Warlust. I really followed the death metal scene from the beginning yet almost in a short time it seemed to have gone stale and it became nothing but a few original bands with an over abundance of clone bands. It got really stale quickly to me and around 94 I stopped caring about any death metal bands except for the ones that spurred the genre. These bands being Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Deicide, Suffocation, Carcass, Napalm Death, Grave, Pungent Stench, Hypocrisy and so on. So I could see where you hear hints of death metal in our shit but all in all I don't think it really has a big influence on our sound. Ok, I give you the last Hail and I leave you return to the infernal flames of hell. Add what you want if you think I have missed something… I
think you about covered it all. Hails for the interesting interview!
All agenda and propaganda for Kult ov Azazel can be found at www.kultovazazel.com
or our horde can be reached through postal mail at Kult ov Azazel, PO
Box 23308, Ft. Lauderdale FL 33307 USA. Hails Xaphan!!
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