Rockezine.com interview with Bewitched on Feb 13, 2002

with The Hellcult on Feb 13, 2002

The Hellcult is back and they are impatiently awaiting the rise of Antichrist! In the meantime the band found the time to answer a couple of question about the new album Rise of the Antichrist, the way they combine the numerous bands the various members participate in, and when Bewitched will unleash their pure evil and utter blasphemy on the European stages again.
		Congratulations with the new album Rise of the Antichrist. My first obvious question is of course: are you satisfied with the endresult? Thanks. Yeah, we are very satisfied with everything. This was the first time we recorded an album in my own studio and than made everything so much more simple. We could be totally relaxed, not worrying about the studiofee and since I know the equipment so well I knew exactly how to get the desired sound.
		The album was already recorded in May 2002. The release was originally scheduled for November ’01 but the album just recently saw the light of day.
		Is there any particular for the album being released about 8 months later, which is a relatively long time..? We are a bunch of lazy bastards, haha! No, the main reason was that we had a lot of problems getting the photos the way we wanted. Hellfire is living in a different city than the others of us and it simply messed up time after time. Also we had to get the cover artwork finished and that took longer time than expected.
		You have found a new guitar player in the form of ‘Hellfire’. Could you please introduce him and how did you team up with this guy? He has been a friend of ours for many years and when we were about to do a gig in Mexico City we asked if he`d be interested in joining us as a session guitarist. Things went very well, both musically, and most important personally, so we asked if he wanted to join the band on a permanent base. He also plays in a band called Auberon who has released two albums on Black Mark.
		Is it a difficult thing to keep a stable line-up of Bewitched as most members are actively involved in at least 2 other bands? How do you all manage to combine playing in so many other bands? No, it is not difficult at all. All the bands are of equal importance to all of us, and actually it is only Bewitched and Naglfar that are rehearsing and doing gigs. Ancient Wisdom and Havayoth are only making albums, so there is no problems at all.
		In what way do you think this new album differs from the previous Bewitched releases? Do you see the album as a return to your earlier work on ‘ Diabolical Desecration’ and ‘ Pentagram Prayer’? Yeah, in a way I do. Still it is way more professional and production-wise it is way better that any of our previous releases. The thing is that we made an mistake by releasing "At the Gates of Hell", because that album turned out to be too melodical and soft. Bewitched has always been about creating aggressive and evil music and that is what we has done again.
		Judging from the album and song-titles I still sense a strong aversion against christian religion.
		Does the ‘evil and Satan’ theme still provide enough inspiration to write about or is it just part of the package (in other words this kind of metal just requires these kinds of lyrics)? Bewitched has always been, and will always be, the soldiers under Satan`s command. Being in a band that we take as serious as Bewitched we wouldn`t waste our time writing about something that wasn`t important. Our lyrics are written in a very primitive way, quite simple but that doesn`t mean that they aren`t serious.
		When REZ interviewed Bewitched in ’99 the band’s motives for writing this kind of black-thrash metal were basically to show bands that claimed to playing this type of music how it should be truly done.
		Is this still your main goal or is it more and more becoming a ‘fun’ thing to do? Our main goal is to show the world that Bewitched is a band that means serious fucking business, and we are here to remain seated on the highest throne of hellish black-trash-metal!
		Can we expect a full European tour this year or maybe an appearance on some of the major Summer festivals in 2002? I assume it’s pretty difficult to plan a full length tour with other band obligations being involved? We are having some discussions with a booking agency but nothing is decided concerning a tour yet. If is definitely not a problem for us to tour, that is all we want to do. We did our last tour in 1997 so it is about time the Hellcult went on the road and thrashed some venues again. About festivals, we will be playing at Party-San (Germany) and Southcastle Metal Double Day (Portugal) in August. I advice people to check out our website for further information about upcoming shows and tours. www.hellcult.cjb.net
		Is there anything you would like to add or share with your fans? I just wanna thank everybody for their support and I hope that we will see ya all on a tour soon. Worship the Fire!
		(Maura Kampstra)