There's a reason why I tend to not interview bands from outside the USA; the gaps in thinking and culture are too damn great, something no unbridled passion for metal can hold together. We all know I hold very strong political views and a general disgust towards mass media, and though I'm loathe to admit it, I might as well suck it up and admit that even being in disagreement with someone is what often makes them unique. Behold in the interview below with Summoning just how glaring our differences in opinion are.
DC: How do you divide time between Summoning and Abigor? Do you have a preference to give one priority over the other?
Silenius: First of all, I must say that I have not been part of Abigor since many years ago. I left the band after the release of "Supreme Immortal Art" because the musical direction of this band was going into a more and more progressive death metal sounding direction that was not my cup of tea at all. After two more releases this band split up but nowadays I hear that the two founding members are working on a reformation but for the moment I definitely would not be integrated again because I have enough to do with my own bands. Not only Summoning but also Kreuzweg Ost.
DC: Do you feel that The Lord of the Rings series has lost its meaning after becoming such a Hollywood darling?
Silenius: No, not at all. Even before the realization of the movies, Lord of the Rings has been a big trend since the 70s and was read by millions of people so it can't be said that this was a total underground book for just a few, so I really appreciated the movie and a lot I think Peter Jackson has done a really great job. Even at first I was very doubtful about this movie because Peter was first just known as a splatter movie director.
DC: Do you think the Tolkien universe provides enough inspiration to continue producing new material down the road?
Silenius: Of course it is true that we already have used the best poems of Tolkien for our releases, but regardless there is still a lot more to find. Besides that, since "Stronghold" we started to use poems and lyrics from different known and unknown writers to integrate within our concept and we even started to utilize our own lyrics or rearrange lyrics. In the end everything should build upon a strong concept and a mixture of different lyrical inputs that nevertheless are totally dedicated to Tolkien and his Middle Earth concept.
DC: Not many bands from Austria get quite the international notoriety as your projects. How is the scene there holding up?
Silenius: Well there are many bands from Austria who are well known within the international scene, not only from the metal scene but also the industrial one. Just think of bands like Pungent Stench, Belphegor, Der Blutharsch (GODS! –FA), Allerseelen (Likewise! –FA), and many more. I think the Austrian scene is a small but very creative one and we are thankfully in the position not to have tons of clones from the same musical direction.
DC: Will Summoning ever do a more "aggressive" project similar to what Abigor did with the "Apokalypse" MCD?
Silenius: In the past I always provided session vocals for Amestigon; a black metal band in the tradition of rough mixed black metal in the Norwegian style of the early 90s and of course I have my industrial project Kreuzweg Ost; the first release which I have done with Martin of Pungent Stench was a very noisy release dealing a lot with World War II. The second one Edelrost has now been released by the English label Cold Spring Records. Now we changed our style a bit to a much larger mixture between military industrial with neo-classical elements.
DC: Are you still very much into collecting ancient weapons? What in your collection are you most proud of?
Silenius: No, those times are over. I still like things like that, but I simply don't have the energy and time to gather just any kind of weapon that is available. I focused on different topics meanwhile.
DC: How do you feel about Schwarzenegger? Any opinion at all with you being from the same country?
Protector: Well Schwarzenegger does not mean much to me. To me he is just a guy with muscles who is a lousy actor (Was this guy even alive in the 80s?!? –FA), that's all. And the fact that he is not a politician actually from the USA is in my opinion not connected to the political abilities he has, but to money and the popularity that he got through his films.
DC: Even if it was damn well near a century ago, do you have any nostalgia for the Austrian empire? What is the general sentiment among your countryfolk?
Protector: No, I have not nostalgia at all, not for the Austrian kind or for any other king. Singing about wars, kings, emperors, etc. is something fine for music like Summoning, but this does not mean that I would like to be under the reign of any stupid king. And I don't know anyone around me who would like to have a king or some shit like that. I think it is fine that I live in a time where even without aristocratic blood I can make any music I want.
DC: Do you feel the European Union actually did well for Europe, or does multiple nations and tribes pretending to be one because of past guilt seem like cheap and pretentious political correctness to you?
Protector: I have no problems with the different nations, and don't see any political correctness as reason for the EU. Actually I did not understand what you meant; what guilt you mean? The guilt of Germany and Hitler (I was hinting more at colonialism, but whatever. –FA)? Actually most of the countries in the EU are not connected to this at all and have no reason to be "politically correct" (Oh give me a goddamn break! It's beyond the realms of obvious! –FA), thus forcing them to combine different nations.
For me the reason for the EU is so that the rich and mighty mega companies can earn much more money than they could before. I see that politicians are telling the people how much better our economy became since the EU, and I also see that things get more and more expensive whereas the average salary is becoming lower and lower, and the great companies are becoming richer and richer. I voted against it in those times, but I was only the minority.
DC: Ever been to America? Would you ever live here? It's fantastic! We are forced to have diversity and are told that wealth and opulence are wrong and are taught that we should atone for our past when nobody within the last 150 years had anything to do with it.
Protector: No I never went to the USA, but I have a coworker from the USA who lived in New
York for a very long time. He told me that it was a fine cultural center in the past, there were many creative people around and total freedoms, but then since the changes in politics, it became sort of fascistic and the police were controlling everything so he left this city. I definitely would not appreciate this at all, and am glad that I am living in a city like Vienna where I am not controlled so much by the police.
And about this "guilt" (guilt seems to be a very important theme for you as i see ;-)). I think it is stupid for any American to feel guilty for the red Indians (I guess this is what you meant); I also don't feel guilty for what Hitler did although he was Austrian. I don't feel guilty for any person that makes shit expect me, and blaming any person personally for what his country did is the greatest studio shit I can imagine (That being said, life must be just one big movie, I guess. –FA).
DC: You've been doing this a long time. What is different from more than 10 years ago than today in the wonderful world of underground metal?
Protector: The greatest difference is the much better technology. Now with a simple PC I can make thing that 10 years ago only a super rich person could have done. I can record my own music, mix it, etc. and take as much time as I want, whereas in the past we only had 3 days for mixing and recording and always some kind of gigantic money pressure.
DC: Leave us with some wisdom, preferably not in any Elven language.
Silenius: Thanks for the interview and up the hammers to all our fans in the USA!
No comments:
Post a Comment