Rockezine.com interview with Bestial Mockery on Apr 22, 2006

with Warslaughter on Apr 22, 2006

Yellow, red spotted eyes pierce the virgin flesh. The Chainsaw Executioner bows over its trembling victim. The sour sweating nun is paralysed by fear and she almost collapses at the sight of the huge rusting chainsaw. Coming rattling and coughing back to live the machine prepares itself to bite off another limb from Christianity.
		1. Do you enjoy watching or performing body mutilation of any kind? Warslaughter – I used to cut myself in the past, but it was not because I enjoyed it. It was more because I wanted some pain and some blood during certain sessions. I’m not masochistic, so I don’t find pain very enjoyable, but it suited some circumstances. I don’t mind watching body mutilation on others, but it’s nothing I particularly enjoy if I’m not in a very special mood.
		2. Are Christians a lost flock of sheep gathering in fear of the unknown, is religion necessary to remain order or should Christianity continue to exist for the sake of black metal? In other words: what is your view on religion? W – So what you mean is that if Christianity was no more, then black metal would be out of business? No, I don’t think so. Even though one of the “functions” of black metal is to work as an antagonist to Christianity, it is essentially so much more. The dark side is not merely a twisted mirror of god or something like that, it has a substance of its own and black metal works as a channel for that. As for my view on religion, I think it has its pros and cons. The bad thing about it would be the morals it spreads. They work as a treacherous disease and smother the beast in man, leading to weakness of action. On the other hand, religion can work as a catalyst for action, albeit in a slave-like behaviour, and can thus cause destruction and hate. That in turn generates animosity between people on a larger scale. We see that very clearly in the Middle East these days.
		3. What black metal or non-black metal bands do you like to listen to? Were they influences for Bestial Mockery? W – I listen to all kinds of shit, even though metal dominates supremely. It would be hard to list all bands I like here, but I can tell you which bands have influenced Bestial Mockery the most. They are: Slayer, Bathory, Sad X (Sadistic Execution, red.), Anti Cimex, Sodom, Bestial Warlust, Venom, and some others like Darkthrone and Onslaught, etc. Besides metal I like to listen to garage rock, punk, psychedelic rock, some classical stuff, plus all kinds of other stuff. As long as it’s good, you know… But metal is always closest and will always be.
		4. Why did you start playing in a black metal band? Is it because of your personal situation? Were you raped -or did you rape- a local priest? Or did you want to join in the war against Christianity in general? W – We started playing black metal because it was an obsession. We had to do it to satisfy our needs for twisted fucking metal. It was also an urge to sing the Devil’s praise and glorify the forces of Darkness and Hell. One might say it’s a personal situation, but it was the personal situation for both me and Master Motorsåg that made this band come into being, and not just for one of us. Seeing things in retrospect I think this had to be done sooner or later. Bestial Mockery was meant to be, and it was meant to be raw.
		------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bestial Mockery hails from Sweden and was formed in 1995 by Master Motorsåg (vocals) and Warslaughter (drums). During the years of its existence, several more members joined and left the band. In its current state, Bestial Mockery consists of Micke Doomfanger (guitars), Ted Bundy (guitars) and DevilPig (bass), in addition to its two founders.
		5. Is there any deeper meaning in your band name? W – The band name describes who we are and what we are about. We are a bestial mockery of the legacy of Christ and his wretched spawn, his moral legacy and the ideas of equal and human rights. We’re a bestial mockery of peace and love. We’re Fuck Off!!
		6. How does Bestial Mockery prepare for creating songs and lyrics and the recording thereafter? W – It’s quite simple really. Lyrics are written first and taken to the rehearsal place where we try to put music to them. Sometimes riffs have been written in advance and are fitted into the song, and sometimes we write the entire song during rehearsal. It all differs from time to time. After that it’s just a matter of rehearsing the songs repeatedly until it’s time for them to be recorded or performed live. Simple as that!
		7. Several Bestial Mockery members play in other bands and side projects? Can you give me the names, musical genres and perhaps some additional information about these projects? W – Right now there aren’t as many other side-bands as there have been in the past, but here are some: Rawhide (raw garage type rock ‘n’ roll with Devilpig as vocalist/guitarist), Illdåd (old school crust punk with Doomanfanger as bassist/vocalist), Mastema (resurrected black metal band with Ted Bundy as guitarist). There are some other bands, but I think these are the only really worth mentioning.
		8. How do people react on black metal in, or nearby the place you live (or Sweden in general)? Also, is there a local ´scene´ in or near the place where you live (a gathering place, perhaps a bar or concert hall)? W – I think that the people who don’t know what it (black metal) is don’t care in general, and people who “know” what it is think it’s strange and fucked up. People in general are not very religious in Sweden , so there is no wide-spread moral outrage about black metal nowadays. They think Satanists are weird and potentially dangerous people though, which they are right about. The situation was different during the 80’s, when all Metal was seen as dangerous, but now people don’t care if they aren’t Christians. There is a local scene in Uddevalla where we come from which is alive and well, with bands such as Suicidal Winds, Axis Powers, Matricide, Grief of Emerald, Holocaustia, Mastema, and some others. We don’t have any specific place we hang around at, although there is a bar called Agassis where we go to every now and then. I haven’t been there for ages though, since I live in Göthenburg right now.
		------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gospel Of The Insane is the third full length album of Bestial Mockery (after Christcrushing Hammerchainsaw in 2002 and Evoke the Desecrator in 2003). In addition, the band has released lots of demos and split albums.
		9. Can you explain the album title Gospel Of The Insane? W – The title comes from a line in the song ‘Hells Vociferation’ that goes’…Gospel for the insane’, so we just changed it and made it the album title. We chose it because we wanted the atmosphere of the album to be chaotic and mental – insane – and we wanted a suiting title for it. That’s the simple reason. Personally I think the end result of the album goes very well with the title.
		10. Is there any feeling or atmosphere you wanted to create on this album? W – As I said above, the aim was to create a mental feeling surrounding the whole album. That is the reason we used all those noises and intros between the songs, to bring the intensity up and never let the grip of madness go until the album is finished.
		11. The black metal by Bestial Mockery has lots of thrash metal influences. Are you also interested in the current and/or past thrash scene? W – Naturally I’ m more into the past thrash scene since the 80’s were the glory days of thrash, but I’m also interested in today’s thrash bands. Some of the great bands today are Nocturnal, Witchburner, Toxic Holocaust, Force of Darkness, Witchtrap, and Victimizer, who all carry the legacy of thrash with honour. Then of course Sodom never let go. They still rule!
		12. How much is this album evolved in comparison to your earlier albums? W – I can’t possibly measure the evolution between the albums, so that is quite impossible to answer. I think that the evolution between all our albums has been a natural step-by-step process. It’s just a matter of learning to play better and arranging better as your abilities increase by time. The only thing we did on purpose when making the new songs for this album was to make them chaotic and to make them fit with each other in the “musical concept” which is the new album. But we did that on the last album as well, so that is no new way of making album for us.
		------------------------------------------------------------------------- Near the end of the 1980’s a raw wave of unholy black metal erupted from Scandinavia. Influenced by Venom, Bathory, etcetera, the first black metal bands emerged from utter darkness. The formula was written and copied and mainly in Europe and America a large amount of black metal bands were formed to join the endless war against Christianity. Several black metal types were found and some of the older bands began to change their style into death metal, melodic black metal or totally unrelated ‘music’. A True ‘underground’ reacted by producing large amounts of ultra-limited demos.
		13. After this very short and very generalized history of black metal, can you give me some details of the current state of the Swedish black metal scene and how Bestial Mockery fits in. W – I think that, band-wise, the black metal scene in Sweden pretty good, but there are too few gigs, distros, zines and labels here nowadays to really call it a scene. The Swedish “scene” only consists of bands, which of course is the essence of any scene, but there is nothing else. Nothing supports the bands, so there is not really any scene in reality. I’m exaggerating, but you get my point. Bestial Mockery has its place like any other band that has been going for a decade or more. We sit tight.
		14. Also, can you tell me your opinion on the future of black metal in general? Is there any future for black metal, and if so, what is your view on how it will evolve? W – There is definitely a future for black metal. Black metal is a conservative subculture strong enough to survive the hardest blows. The past is very much alive in this scene and the traditions are kept sacred by the diehards and the cult of black metal worshippers. I believe that black metal will evolve pretty much as it is doing now and has done in the past. There will be different directions that go up and down in popularity as underground trends come and go. Maybe the awful synth based style from the mid-90’s will become more popular again, but it doesn’t really matter, since it only will be another trend among many. The ugly will always prevail in the end.
		15. And of course, what are the future plans of Bestial Mockery? Are you currently working on new material and do you have any plans to release this material soon? Any concerts planned? W – There are two split EP’s on their way right now. One is with Destruktor and is to be released by Hell’s Headbangers, and one will be with Force of Darkness, label yet undecided. As for gigs, a couple are planned for Sweden this spring, and in early June we will also take part of the Festung Open Air Festival in Germany . After this we’ll probably do another split EP and a few gigs before we start working on our next album.
		Thanks for answering these questions. Is there any more vomit you wish to spit? W – Thanx for the intie. All bastards out there watch out for Gospel Of The Insane and future abominations. Kill the cunts! METAL FUCKING DEATH /Warslaughter
(Mart Kwakkel)