INTERVIEW with FILII NIGRANTIUM INFERNALIUM

The following interview should have been out a long time ago, but for several reasons, it has not been able to see the light until now. Anyway, it´s always a blasphemous pleasure to talk with Belathauzer ato learn about FILII NIGRANTIUM INFERNALIUM. Last year they released “Hóstia”, another powerful, raw and dark album on the band's discography. To dig up more details and to know the current news of the band, read on.

How are you Belathauzer?  Did the lovely cold weather come to Portugal already? Hope you are in the mood to answer some questions about the new album.  (Yeah, some time has passed since then... - Chris)

Hello… Yeah, finally some cold has arrived. I hate the summer hot, unless you take some thermic rest in a church, tasting the gourmet taste of unholy flesh. But I’m never in the mood to answer questions, that wouldn’t be trVue, would it be? Let’s goooooo! [Some months later:] So it seems we’re still here.

Personally “Hostia” is what I expected, your recognizable blend of black, heavy old school metal is stronger than ever, in that dirty and blasphemous way. What were your influences during the composition process? (Musical and non-musical influences)   

HOSTIA is what you expected? What a burnout! (yeah, although with some gothic keyboards ala C.O.F. I would have had a good laugh ;) - Chris) Anyway, unfunny reactions like mine apart, thanks for your feedback! Yeah, we’re proud to be dirty and blasphemous! Never take a bath unless you’re raped by a priest, and then the bath should be a BLOOD bath. Our influences were the same as always: Priest, Accept, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Venom, Slayer, Sarcófago, etc. Lots of bloodred wine and beer, tobacco, and specially a pilgrim trip I did into the Lungs of hell…I mean, the Vatican. Problems, lots of problems, this fucking fake slave-life we have to carry out along the days. We hate this society, all societies. So we are always fucked up but trying to party and CREATE art anytime this time-stealing humanity allows us to do.

How long did the process last since you started writing music for this album until the last touches in the studio were finished? How do you usually feel during the whole process, more anxious? More tense? Absolutely fucking normal…?

This album was created throughout years, even decades. It’s always like this… Riffs come along the years and then, in 2 months of years of decades we assemble the stuff and then the matter is created. About the whole process mood… Man, are you really interested on this?? Well, in fact I find the recording process a real creative cauldronwise process, where satanic miracles happen, where we can introduce new melodic and different nuances we tend to overlook in the compositive garage days. Now we’re recording 4 new tracks, one of them is 10 minutes long and we’re experimenting and melting so much diverse instruments, like baroque trumpets or real heavy metal voice, with guests and so on… That this is the supreme moment in our band life.

The album cover is one of the most blasphemous seen in the last times, at least as far I can remember. Who was the idea of that concept? Paolo Girardi certainly did a great job, what was the first thing you thought when you saw it finished for the first time?

It was my idea first, I was those days (june 2017) in São Paulo, trying to survive that apocalyptic city, maybe I’m exaggerating but it’s so overwhelming and massive (I like smaller towns, and specially no so massively populated), and then this idea came out to me, the idea to join all three monotheisms which come from Judaic postmesopotamia and create this kind of three headed Madonna Culona, wich is a kind of a feminist statement anyway, about the sadomasochistic way women are controlled and impaled in these three religions of “Love” and “Mercy”… I don’t know, cerveja Brahma and my nihilistic readings of Jean Paul (Richter) and my works on the Grotesque surely helped.  At first, my drafts were expressionist drawings, extremely rude, thinking on the War and Pain’s cover by Away, or the RRROOOAAARRR LP artwork. But the awesome Girardi came in, thanks to Hervé and Osmose support, and the whole initial idea was pushed quite forward: I sent to the great painter my idea and we spoke about our favourite painters, etc. Then I evolved from the dark and grim tones and raw, basic drawing, into a revivalist perversion of one of the most perverted periods in religious art: XVIII century. Between the baroque and rococo art, and since Girardi studied thoroughly and deeply that period, working as restorer of actual real Italian baroque frescoes… That’s the idea behind the Madonna Culona sodomized by the Supreme Impalement Inquisitor, the High Pig-Cardinal and his pig flying roseflesh virginal cherubs. It’s a grotesque depiction of Catolic imagery but it refers to the 3 global psychopath religious corporations, because any monotheism is in its dogmas far more grotesque than what any blasphemy could ever express. It’s also a homage to the – in fact – great art of those times, because Paolo Girardi paints in the old way: no photoshop or shit like that. You can sense the brush and its traces, in the shadows, the clouds, the skin and the flesh.  So it’a quite ambivalent cover. Not the usual dark and gloomy death or black metal cover. Ah, a curious note: it got a censorship action in Spotify… And Osmose put a hilarious combinations of cucumber and tomatoes to protect the viewer’s innocence of the bloody excrementous impalement of the 3 faces Madonna culona.

Would you name five of your fave album covers? What do you think about Sarcófago´s Rotting? Name the album covers that you would define as classic or iconic.

Five are ONLY five! But… Slayer – Reign in Blood; Celtic Frost - To megatherion; VoiVod: War and Pain; Motorhead: Overkill; Darkthrone: A Blaze in the Northern Sky.

Hell, I’ll add some more covers which do not end to fascinate me, us: Iron Maiden’ Powerslave, Bathory’s Under the sign of the Black Mark, Sodom’s Obsessed by Cruelty, Mercyful Fate’s Don’t break the oath and King Diamond’s Fatal Portrait.

The Rotting cover is quite nice, although technically it fits the title, since it’s a very kitsch and floppy use of spray. But the result is really sick. When I was in Belo Horizonte I got me a shirt in Cogumelo Records store.

Now please tell me about the concept behind the album title, its meaning and the blasphemous words of the album intro, “Prece” (prayer).       

It’s a prayer (Prece) or our own: «Our Lord’s Lady, slaughter of mortals / Curse us, sinfully generated…» Man, we love Catholicism, it’s an awesome source of delight and perversity! Just like the Hóstia concept, the liturgy of eating a bad cookie for the sake of Christ. The kneeling sadomasochist ritual which every Sunday in all catholic temples represents the oral sucking addiction to Christ phallus sintetized into a small and extra-thin (like menstruation tampax) cookie. Every Sunday, kneel (to Christ and in some extention, to Allah or Yaweh), for a major divine collective rape. In order to have faith, either you have to be completely idiot or desperately idiotical. Which comes to be quite alike, anyway.

One of my fave tracks, is “Lactancia Pentecostal”, tell me about this track. Do you have a personal fave on this album?

I love «Autos de Fé», but «Lactância» is certainly one of my favourites, and of course «Pó» and Virtudes da Prostração (Virtues of Kneeling) are fave ones. And SMRT/NADA, a nihilistic poem created in Czech language in homage to Master’s Hammer and Root. Fascinator!
As you did on the previous alum you included one track sung in English, “Raze the dead (of Death)” did the lyrics came spontaneously or did you plan to do it that way.        

When we composed this song, as always happens, music came much before than lyrics. But since voice is an instrument as everyelse, I put during rehearsals some lines in a mix of intuitive words, and the refrain / chorus came to me as something like “Raise the Dead”, with Bathory’s song in the back of my mind. Then, on the recording day I told Helregni: «You should write a lyric to this song», which he did, in English, while waiting in the Bus Stop. And then I told him: «I’m not singing this one. It’s up to you». And he certainly has the necrorocknroll tone this track needs!

Tell me about the video clip you did for the track “Po”.

The previous other guitarplayer, Ironfist,created this clip. We wanted to do something in a low-fi tone. I like watching live playing images. But what I really would love is to film an absolutely black clip. I don’t care much about images of bands: music should be and is mainly music. So soon we’ll create another videoclip, with weird stories. So you know our «Guerreiros do Trovão» clip? That’s a meaningful clip. (yeah, really cool, I shared it when I posted our previous interview - Chris)

How were the contacts with Osmose, and how was the possibility of the reissues of Fellatrix and Pornokrates?

Nuno, the guy behind the label CAVERNA ABISMAL and a very fine death metal band, ARCHAIC TOMB, did the job. Do please allow me not explore this subject… About FELLATRIX, IT IS NOT A REISSUE, but a new and different LP based on the music and lyrics which in FDP (2005) came out to be recorded in a way which 1) does not matches  the fiercy intensity that we have achieved when we play the songs nowadays, and 2) the 2005 FDP was cool at the time, but it had the wrong lineup. I mean, the drummer who created all the drumlines was kicked out by a junkie guitarist who only thought on how fine and beautiful and how many chicks he fucked. And the drum… I could tell you some things about that 2005 false drum. But lets go on… So I always wanted to make FELLATRIX real.  And my voice has many flops, there. My voice control is nowadays far more accurate. So when Osmose agreed to publish a new (and more real) FELLATRIX, man, we grabbed the chance and RECORDED the REAL FELLATRIX. IT IS NOT A REISSUE. (Yeah I know, mea culpa, but I fixed it in the next question - Chris)

The Pornokrates is also a grat idea by CAVERNA ABISMAL and we’re glad Osmose was interested. We’re so proud of these records, which hadn’t been as well spread as we would have liked, due to the labels magnitude. We hope that now FILII NIGRANTIUM INFERNALIUM will conquer the world! The world war III, I mean. Obviously.

Las time I asked you about “Fellatrix Discordia Pantocrator” you told me you were not satisfied with some tracks and with the drums, and the possibility of a re-recording, so you finally did it…  

Yes, as I said in the previous question. Check it on the youtube or, far better, in our bandcamp.

Last year you released “Inmunditia Odii Plena” featuring Bactherion demo and FNI (in)famous “Os metodos do pentagrama” on mighty vinyl, and a special version including cassette, tell us about this cool release.

Down With The Most High and Chaosphere dis the job, long yeartime project. But it certainly was worthy. All the artwork was prepared by Helregni and myself, but specially him. I think that the tape is a real valuable document of early 90’s black metal underground in Portugal, since it contains our 2^nd gig, with the participation of Langsuyar, Nisroch and Isenputh (Moonspell and Decayed members). And the same goes about the full length magazine which was printed and it’s a very, very special part of this release. I must confess that I wasn’t quite fond of that demo, but this magnificent production changed radically my ideas relating that infamous 93 release. It all sound terrible, but that’s how things were in  the underground… Graças a Deus.

You were quite busy on stage last summer, do you have any cool anecdote from the festivals, or perhaps good memories from any show?        

Yes. But I don’t lake too much festivals. I prefer smaller shows, both as audience and as an artist. Well, not an artist…Fuck art.

If you had the opportunity to represent a character in the remake of an old movie (or get into the skin of the original character), which character would you like to play?

I don’t know, really. I never feel really identified with characters in movies. I mean, if I watch Star Wars or Mad Max, it’s fun but I don’t feel any desire to be in there. When I was a teenger, maybe. Not now. My favourite movies come from expressionism and weird stuff like Fellini or David Lynch, or Kubrick, which avoid the identification from the audience with any of the characters. Jesus Hitler, ha! Well, I’d enjoy a lot to be the Hitler burners in Tarantino’s Unglorious Basterds.

Tell us about your next plans, more gigs, working on new songs?

Yeah, new songs, We now have a new guitarist, Cardeal Aborto XIII, and as I said we’re in studio, recording, So hopefully this year we’ll deliver new songs, maybe 4 for an EP or so.

Once again thanks for your time, a pleasure and an honor from my side, last words are yours…

THANK YOU! Keep the tenebrous grim flame burning on and on!