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.
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 2nd 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.
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!
