Underground Metal Interviews

The best way to explore metal beyond the music is to ask the people involved some questions about their participation. The anus.com interviews section goes into further detail with several accomplished members of the scene to determine their viewpoints on life, metal and ideas.

Abhorrent
An instrumental technical death metal band from San Antonio, just starting out, gives some opinions on art and music.

Acerbus
Guitarist Cory answers questions about the essential knowledge of the minds behind the progressive, anti-aesthetic, circuitous yet eminently logical technical deathgrind band Acerbus.

Adversary (Ray Miller)
The man behind death metal band Adversary, metal label and distro Cursed Productions, and the infamous and ecclectic Metal Curse 'zine takes us on a mental journey through the land of the disturbed.

Amebix (The Baron)
Innovators of crustcore, inspired by metal and making a genre that straddled metal and punk and just about ended the latter, Amebix take time after reformation to give us a few opinions.

Antaeus (MkM)
Vocalist and progenitor of third-wave black metal peak Antaeus, MkM forked over some answers about the nature of life and black metal.

Are You Morbid? (Devolved)
Death metal radio presenter Devolved delivers old schoold underground death metal, black metal, speed metal, dark ambient, grindcore, thrash & punk to revive the healthier traditions in metal.

Autopsy (Chris Reifert)
A founding member of Autopsy, Chris Reifert has providing percussion and guidance for many fundamental bands in the scene and now hangs his hat with Abscess, a grind/metal project with a mortal fecal obsession.

Averse Sefira
The legends of Texas black metal in the oldest school of epic art, vocalist/guitarists Sanguine A. Nocturne and Wrath Satariel Diabolus gave us a piece of their collective and individual minds.

Bane
Underground metal warriors from Los Angeles speak their minds about Nietzsche, black metal, pornography, and Christianity in addition to chronicling their own endurance and accomplishment in the "scene."

Bathory (Quorthon)
Mainman of the original black metal band Bathory speaks to us about the origins of his music, its significance, and where he's going in the future.

Beherit (Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance)
Early black metal innovators and crystalizers of knowledge on the occult Beherit shared with us thoughts on their new album, Engram, and the soul of black metal.

Mr Blaash
The iconoclastic creator of Where's My Skin? zine speaks his mind on black metal, life in Houston, Texas, and the need for insurrection in daily life through violence, self-mutilation and appreciation of loud noise or music.

Blaspherian
Those who renew an ancient style without aping the past or becoming inflexible deserve our ears. We spoke to two members of Houston old school death metal band Blaspherian on the way to create new old school metal after metal's collapse.

Blood (Eisen)
Longstanding underground maniacs Blood, who combine the brutal attack of grindcore with the dramatic aspects of death metal, give us some thoughts on music, life and the need to live independent of parasitic ideas.

Lori Bravo
Best known for her work with Nuclear Death, she now fronts a new project called Raped.

Cadaver (Anders Odden)
A founding member of Cadaver, Odden now works in the proto-grind band Cadaver, Inc. and shares some of his insights and inspiration from more than a decade of metal musicianship.

Chunqiu/Tang Dynasty (Kaiser Kuo)
Bringing metal to China and fusing it with that nation's ancient traditions took a strong will. We talk to Kaiser Kuo of Chunqiu and the country's first recognized metal band, Tang Dynasty.

Ian Christe
Pioneering metal journalist and now publisher of underground-metal-related books, Christe wrote Sound of the Beast, a history of metal's evolution, and donated some time to us for a few questions.

Cianide (Mike)
From deep industrial Chicago comes the booming sound of Cianide, like Master and Hellhammer fused into a force both more technological and more primordial. We asked a few questions and found a few surprises.

Cruciamentum
Cruciamentum (UK), reveling in the inspiration of death metal's earliest creators, have managed to transcend the banality of "old-school" with a musical spirit that carries the mystic weight of the occult.

Cryptic Slaughter (Les Evans)
When thrash meant blazing fast crossover, Les was at the guitar helm in Cryptic Slaughter, one of the bands that captured both the abundant spirit of hardcore and its metallic counterpoint.

Deceased (King Fowley)
One of the longer-running American death metal bands, Deceased have produced music for years as their style has gone from technical death metal toward the occult heavy metal of their influences. Vocalist/drummer King Fowley gave us his insights on death metal, Deceased and survival in an age of twisted truths.

Deeds of Flesh (Erik Lindmark)
Deeds of Flesh have established themselves as brutal death metal's most consistent and poignant band, and are a flagship of style for those trying to make something intelligent in an often blunt and mind-numbing subgenre. They continue to astound with their intuitive technical and songwriting ability as they help re-invent their brand of metal from within.

Deteriorate (Thorous)
As early death metal got crowded with imitators, Deteriorate attempted to stay true to the spirit of older death/black melded with the higher speed technical metal just emerging.

Daniel Ekeroth
Bassist for Swedish death metal band Insision, and author of Swedish Death Metal, a book chronicling the rise of our favorite subgenre of death metal, Daniel Ekeroth took the time to give us his thoughts on the scene's evolution.

Emit
We talk with Unknown I, protagonist and progenitor in ambient deconstructed tonal stratographic art project Emit, about the nature of art and sound that cannot be quantified.

Fearless Iranians From Hell (Omid)
In our search for the most provocative thrash band ever, we were fortunate enough to catch Omid of the Fearless Iranians From Hell while he was cleaning his gold-plated AK-47 in San Antonio, Texas.

Ildjarn
One of the forerunners of the ambient black metal movement, Ildjarn makes microsymphonies in tribute to nature with misanthropic and feral spirit. This band remains controversial for many because of their music alone, yet Ildjarn was kind enough to share some insights on his motivations and vision.

Immolation (Ross Dolan)
NYDM innovators Immolation take time out from a busy schedule of writing and touring to talk about their 21-year career and its evolution, the importance of seeing past production values, and the necessity of believing in what you do.

Imprecation (David Herrera)
We ask questions of the evil pioneers of Texas death metal Imprecation on the origins of their occult style and future plans to devastate the landscape with whiskey-fueled demonic chaos.

Jon Konrath
Many of us remember Jon Konrath from his zine, "Air in the Paragraph Line," which like some web sites we know (?) blended literature, pop science and metal. Now Jon is in the midst of his second book, but was bribed with free Pabst blue ribbon(tm) to get some words on paper about his career and literary ambitions.

Krieg (Lord Imperial)
Demonic vocals and impassioned composer from Krieg and Weltmacht, Lord Imperial has been a stalwart of the New World black metal movement since its disturbed beginnings but now is spreading blasphemy worldwide in a black metal/indie rock style.

Nuclear Cath
Guerrilla leader of Leather'n'Spikes zine, and general inspiration to the Québec metal scene, Nuclear Cath took some time to reveal a few thoughts on her zine, its purpose and context.

Dan Lilker
Has played with metal bands from Nuclear Assault to Brutal Truth and speaks his mind on metal genres, attitudes and lifestyles.

Martyr (Francois Mongrain)
Part of the new wave of technical/jazz-influenced death metal bands filling in for Atheist and Pestilence, Canada's Martyr make technical, free-flowing metal that bridges genres to find a universal language of music.

Master (Paul Speckmann)
Starting in 1982, Master has been helping invent death metal. Bassist and vocalist Paul Speckmann took the time to chat with us on why he does it, how, and how it's turned out.

Mike Albert Project (Mike Albert)
Get some answers about the music business and heavy metal from an old hand -- Mike Albert was the guy onstage with Megadeth during their most fertile period of touring, and he gives us the downlow on the heavy metal machine.

John Gelso/Profanatica
The disruptive but life-affirming blasphemers from Profanatica have sodomized Christian deities by making superior black metal. Here guitarist John Gelso gives us the facts of life without Christ.

Rigor Mortis
Years after this band first broke ground and established new standards in metal music, vocalist Bruce Corbitt talks about the band that influenced many and created an important step on the way to death and black metal.

Mike Riddick/Metalhit.com
Experienced underground metal guru Mike Riddick (Yamatu, Equimanthorn, The Soil Bleeds Black) has launched a for-profit MP3-based label that sells MP3s, and sends promotional MP3s to zines and radio shows -- but somehow, he's not worried about MP3s "ruining the music business."

Brian Russ
An early pioneer in net-based metal information, Brian Russ has faithfully maintained the BNR Metal pages over the years, contributing careful and efficient criticism of the esoteric metal genre.

Salem
Ze'ev from long-running Israeli metal band Salem was kind enough to give us a few moments of his thoughts on being caught up in a misanthropic genre, yet being from the holy land itself. His answers may surprise many.

Sammath (Jan Kruitwagen)
The songwriter and creator of the black metal band Sammath shares with our readers some of his thoughts on creativity, motivation, and art in the context of a decaying and chaotic postmodern era.

Sedition
Turner Scott van Blarcum of Texas bands Sedition, Talon and Pump'n Ethyl gets his day in the sun via an in-depth interview from Texas metal writer Bruce Corbitt.

Suffocation (Mike Smith)
Burst speed precision drummer of percussive death metal innovators Suffocation, Mike Smith gave us his views on art, the impetus behind Suffocation, the problem of record labels and how to stay steady on the death metal path in a time of confusion.

Summoning/Ice Ages (Protector)
Protector of Summoning, Ice Ages and Die Verbannten Kinder Eva's gives us his thoughts on art, the compositional process, the state of metal and future directions in music.

Spear of Longinus
Australian black/speed metal band of longstanding underground status takes a few moments to have words with our roving reporter, and in doing so, unites politics, occultism and the raison d'etre of metal music and its ever-present withdrawl from socialization.

Timeghoul
Gordon Blodgett from the obscure, complex American death metal band Timeghoul was kind enough to share some of the interesting history of this short-lived band from the early 90s heyday.

Until the Light Takes Us documentary (Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites)
The filmmakers who want to show black metal as an artistic movement that ended in violence and fire, and not drama with music attached, lend us their thoughts for an insightful interview.

Wolves in the Throne Room
Looking further into the bonds between black metal and naturalism, we ask a few questions of shoegaze/indie/emo/black metal hybrid band Wolves in the Throne Room, and get responses in full flower.

Xasthur
A one-man battering ram for an aural decimation of any complacency in the subconscious mind, Xasthur spreads unrest in the style of European psychedelic anti-humanist black metal with a honed detachment from socialization.

Bill Zebub
As editor and lead writer, Bill Zebub made The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds from a tiny metal 'zine into an empire with a large circulation and semi-fanatical following with his use of humor and literalism to slice through pretense.