Interview by Thomas Mitchell
| 1. First off, I must ask: How would YOU describe
“Lucifer Incestus”? Helmuth: Ave helldaemons!!! The blastmusical is voluptuousness, blood & fire at the same time. "LUCIFER INCESTUS" is in the stores in European, the previews are more than brilliant and outbid one another. Arrghhh, the guitars shredding like fukk, and the sound is the ultimate overkill!!! You know man, to create a compact album at that speed is very rare, ...proud as fuck! So, becoming mightier, more intense and brute with every opus has always been our aim. When it says BELPHEGOR on the outside, its BELPHEGOR what you get. 2. There aren't many flaws on this opus, “Lucifer Incestus”, whether you're into pulverizing the Christians or not. That said, what sorts of sadistic hatred (specific horror movies or what?) were entrusted to the creation of this album? Helmuth: Austria is very old fashioned and especially Salzburg, where we live, is ultra-catholic. I just have to take a look around, ...double standards, hypocrisy, catholic rats, ...it's not difficult to come up with lyrics as such. “Lucifer Incestus” ought to be seen as a total artwork. Beginning with the music, over blasphemic/sexual lyrics up to the artworks. I give a shit on every single kind of institution or person that tries to dictate with whom I've got to fuck and how I ought to act and think...go to hell! You know, for me it was clear from the beginning that I would walk a different path. We are enemies to the cross...no slaves of any kneeling-praying-crawling sect or religion! BELPHEGOR putting out the eyes of Christianity and leading their views ad absurdum. Anyway, Art has to be controversial, anything else is aligned shit that has been here a 100 times before, ...you know man, death fuckin´metal has to excite not to calm!!! 3. As a fan of brutality and aggression, I am also a fan of technicality and progressive music. I found a lot of technicality mixed with the immense brutality and aggression. To you, is this always very difficult to accomplish? Helmuth: Thanks for liking the stuff. We are good musicians and practice a lot through all the years, so it’s not that hard for us, ...har har. But to create a "compact" album at that speed is very rare. So you can say that classical music and all sorts of metal are distinguishing for the symbiosis of the intense-obscure Belphegor sound. 4. What is Belphegor and what sort of musical label would you describe Belphegor? Helmuth: "Blasphemic Hyperblast Black/Death Art" Concerning music we've always tried to give our best according to the stage of development. Again we managed to increase and lead death metal into the new year and century without riffs everyone heard 100 times before. Belphegor never sounded so tight and fucking heavy! We'd never before practiced and arranged everything that intense. Nearly "2 years" we improved every slightest detail of the tunes on the new opus. "LUCIFER INCESTUS” is a conception album; the lyrics deal with the sick history of the church, sexual excesses, Immaculate Conception and so on! 5. Napalm Records has always been one of my favorite labels. Bands like Tristania, Falkenbach and Vintersorg to name a few are among my favorites... now another has joined their ranks. What motivated you guys to sign with them? Helmuth: We'd been negotiating with four labels who seriously were interested to invest in BELPHEGOR. Napalm laid the best offer on the table and we signed for three musicals. Napalm are profs & best choice for Belphegor. We nearly were unrivalled at the Napalm rooster; I mean on the hard sector there were only Belphegor and our comrades of Enthroned at start and not 15 other death or black troups. That had been an important point for hiring them too. They did so much in advance already. Also important is that they stand behind the songs and the music of this album; this means a lot to me. 6. Is playing LIVE extremely important to Belphegor? Helmuth: The next tour is planned through Europe in June 04 as support for DEICIDE. In the next weeks we will see if this support slot will happen, we hope so. Six dates for Italy, Austria, and Germany, already confirmed, check our homepage for further info on that. You know, playing live is really important for us. I couldn't imagine Belphegor without stage performances. It is like an escape from the material world towards another dimension. We did a bunch of tours in ´03 and they were great. We all love being on the road, seeing other cultures, metal communities and meeting other metal maniacs. To me metal is a form of art and something I've dedicated my life to... 7. Feedback is awfully important for bands, especially underground metal bands, is there considerable recognition for Belphegor in your country or would you say it's the same way for metal bands everywhere? Helmuth: We never felt belonging to something or even ran along, since nearly 12 years now we did what we wanted and always gave a shit on people who told us what to do. The only thing I can say is, if you like our music...great, if you don't...fuck off! That is and has always been the BELPHEGOR religion. 8. I see more and more bands releasing their own DVD's. Are there any plans for releasing a Belphegor DVD? Helmuth: No man, not yet... 9. Regardless, there isn't enough you can say about your latest release. Can we pretty much assume that Belphegor will remain a cult-like, brutal and aggressive metal band? (I sure hope so, he he) Helmuth: BELPHEGOR = BLOOD-PERVERSION-BLASPHEMY & HIGHSPEEDTERROR! The way it meant to be. We will always be playing the brutal metal of Death, as long as this outfit exist, trust me on this. 10. What are the chances of seeing Belphegor in the United States in the near future? Helmuth: Har har, we wish..! We are still negotiating about tours with some bookers, we'll see. We'd really love to tour in the States, because we had to cancel some offers in the past. “Lucifer Incestus” has to be promoted there live. So bookers get in touch. Conquering a few more countries, where we never played before. We have some big plans for the future, hopefully things will work out. Closing: We all at Metal Fanatix want to thank you for the interview. Take your time, and get back to us as soon as you can. Later…METAL!! Helmuth: All right, bye man, thanks for the interview and ya support. Big Hails to all demons out there, who' ve been supporting and accompanying us for years. Honestly regards from the camp to those helldemons. Enjoy yourselves, do not let them break your will! "LUCIFER INCESTUS" release date in the States should be in April 2004 via Napalm Records. So Incubus´/Succubus’ see ya on the road to hell, I hope this year we'll get the opportunity to raze your stages in USA to the ground...its time to make fire, total death fuckin´ holocaust nears!!!! Further news: www.belphegor.at |
