Ancient
(01-05-2005) |
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After a long e-mail pursuit anda couple of live gigs, now we're able to present you Aphazel's interview on our pages.
He's the great singer of the norvegian black metal band called Ancient, an historical name in Black Metal Scene.
Ancoent's history starts like an Aphazel's solo project in 1992. After a few time he began to play with the Drummer/Singer Grimm, and with this lineup was born them first works " Svartalvheim" e " Trolltaar". After Grimm's departure, Aphazel move to U.S.A., where he met Lord Kaiaphas, that became the new singer.
In this period they sogn a deal with the powerfull label Metal Blade....so saw the light them great work "The Cainian Chronicle" that became a classic.
From Jesus Christ's meeting was born "Mad Grandiose Bloodfield". After that, Aphazel, bored about living in the U.S.A. moved again...he moved to Italy after he has met the singer Deadly Kristine. The lineup was ended with Grom at the drums and Dhilorz at the bass guitar, and Aphazel at the guitar and voice with Kristine.
The rest is recent history...speaking about them last full-lenght "Nightvisit" that like never has got good reviews worldwild....also without Kristine.
Let's stop with silly word.......keep us in Aphazel's hands:
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| Pondro & Evil: |
Hi Aphazel, is an honor to make an interview with you! Let's go immediately with the first question: Why did you come here in italy? Where are the Ancient's original members now? |
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| Aphazel: |
Hi, well in 1998 I decided I wanted to move back to Europe, as I started to get a bit bored of life in the USA, it didn't feel so much like home, and the scene over there is also not as good as in Europe, I like Italy and at the time I also had a girlfriend here, so it was a natural choice to come here I guess, I didn't really feel like moving back to Norway as I like to be in a place where I can travel around easily to many places, Norway and Bergen is very much isolated on the map, although it's a nice place. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
I have appreciated a lot your last job Night Visit, I find it aggressive, modern and dark at the same time, tell me something about the recordings session. |
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| Aphazel: |
Thanks, Night Visit was recorded at Mirage Studios a bit north of Milano in February 2004, it was produced by our manager Alex Azzali and engineered by Andrea Trapasso, the studio owner, then we went to Studio Fredman in Sweden and did the mixing there, and the mastering was finally done by Alex Azzali at his Alpha Omega studios. We're satisfied with the result this time, the album have a powerful and good sound. We also worked very effectively in the studio this time and it was an enjoyable creative atmosphere, which is very important. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
Night Visit's songwriting is very charming, which is your method of composition? What magazines and fans said about this work? |
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| Aphazel: |
It's different with every song, sometimes the lyrics are written first, and the music afterwards, but usually it's the opposite. If I start to make a song before the lyrics are done, I usually have the lyrical concept of the song in my mind though, what it's about and the general theme. The press in general have been giving excellent reviews to the album, many even gave us 10/10 reviews, so it was nice to see, I think it's a lot cause we created something a bit new and fresh while still keeping the roots of the characteristic Ancient sound, and that the album has a great production as well. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
Around you a mysterious and dark aura was created, do you want to speak to us of the thematic and philosophies in your music? Did you have a particular concept? |
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| Aphazel: |
We don't really have 1 specific theme we're concentrating on, I just see us as a gang of individuals living the life on the dark side, and themes we have been into include vampirism, Satanism, lycanthropy, various dark fantasies etc etc. , we're all into this stuff although all band members are quite different from each other. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
You are a historical band in the black metal scene, what is changed in the scene from the beginning? And what you think about the actual black metal scene? |
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| Aphazel: |
The scene is very different today, a lot because back in '92-'93 the genre was new and exciting and there was a very big hype and general strong underground interest for black metal, then later on, it happened what happens with every genre, it became bigger, more commercial, the bigger labels saw the money in it, it became commercial and a lot of bands popped up, many of them saw it as a way of getting signed easily etc etc, and after some years the bands started to lack creativity and was running out of ideas and original elements in the music, and in the end the scene became oversaturated, there was too many black metal tours going on and eventually people got bored by it, and a lot of bands split up after low interest from the people. I don't actually follow today's black metal scene very well, I enjoy mostly the albums that came out in '92-'94 when the bands were new and original, there are also good bands out there today in black metal, but it's a lot less than it used to be, and a lot of them are doing a cross between black metal and other genres. There's also many good underground black metal bands nowadays in Germany and Belgium especially. As for Ancient, we always just went out own way and did what was right for us, we're not a pure black metal band, we just care about doing our thing and not follow standards, we have developed our own sound over the years and people often tell me that they can easily recognized the style of Ancient, even though we are changing a bit from every album, I think this is some of the reason we have managed to keep going as long as we have. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
You're able to unanswer the following question: what do you think about the facts happened at the end of the nineties in Norway about the Inner Circle? Which was your position on this? |
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| Aphazel: |
I think I prefer to not comment this as I don't have so much info. That I want to release in public.... |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
Your deal with Metal Blade is off, now which will be your next programs? |
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| Aphazel: |
We'll see, at the moment we just plan to do a lot of touring, it seems this year will be our most busy touring year ever, and that's a good sign, after all that is over, we will start thinking about a new album, and see what offers to consider from the various labels.. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
You are back from the European tour with Illdisposed: anything about it? |
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| Aphazel: |
Yeah, it was a cool tour, quite a big difference in the music of the bands on the tour, but I think it worked out well in the end, some people who came didn't like Illdisposed, and some people didn't like Ancient, but that's what we expected anyways, I think the tour was a good one, and it's possible we will do another European tour in November or so, we're still working on the plans for that. |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
What
you think about italian metal scene? Whick band you like? |
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| Aphazel: |
I think there are many good bands in the Italian metal scene, but unfortunately there is also many unserious people, and a lot of people tend to give up quickly, it seems. In Italy, the government gives zero support to young musicians, which is different than in countries like Norway, which makes a difference in the motivation of a lot of people here. A lot of Italian bands seem also to have problems with the Italian crowds as they often tend to prefer foreign bands, just cause they're foreign, and not necessarily better. I like especially bands like Mortuary Drape, Stormlord, Necrodeath, Opera IX, Hortus Animae, Delirium X Tremens and a few more |
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| Pondro & Evil: |
Well, this is the end. Thank you Aphazel! For us it's been a honour to speak with you.
Your last words...... |
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| Aphazel: |
Thanks also to you for the support ! |
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| www.ancientband.com
By
Pondro & Evil.
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