howdy,

thanks in advance for answering these questions. i've always enjoyed the first sammath album and am hunting for the second from the ex-folter rep who is an acquaintance. it is awesome that you are continuing your metal mission. without any further complication, here are the questions.

1. what event or idea triggered your desire to release music? it seems like many play instruments, and only some go on to publish or be in bands.

2. are your songs designed around emotions, visual perceptions or purely musical "shapes"?

3. what things inspire awe in you?

4. if you patterned your music after anything you found in your outside world, what were these things? or do you see the patterns of the outside world as stylistic inspiration, and the poetic content of your songs deriving from somewhere else?

5. what is the hardest part of songwriting?

6. you had a promo tape and a demo before your first album; how did the music of sammath change across these three releases?

7. how is the new album different from strijd?

8. what do you think of mp3 trading (napster, winmx, kazaa, audiogalaxy); has it helped or hindered the underground?

9. what things do you love? hate? do most things fall in between?

10. is belief, or logic, more powerful to you?

11. what do you see as the differences between black metal and rock music?

12. which were your earliest influences in black and death metal?

13. you are referring to sammath's music (on the site) as being "furious black death metal." how do you conceive of the unifying factors behind the labels we use for music and other things? is black metal an ideology, a musical style, an attitude or an artistic style only?

14. it seems to me these days people are negative about nationalism for the most part, but i always think they have patriotism and nationalism confused. after all, nationalism used to mean pride one's specific tribe or culture, and didn't have much to do with the flag-waving and iraq-bombing we see these days. what are your thoughts on this?

15. what are your favorite sensations while creating music?

16. do you listen to much metal? if so, anything notable of late?

17. do you think that popular music will ever turn toward being more like classical music?

18. what bands do you think are most responsible for the black metal sound as we know it today?

19. what activities do you have outside of music upon which you rely for inspiration?

20. where do you hope to take the band next? any future evolutions of the artform?

21. do you think there is an ambient or atmospheric quality to your music?

22. please speak on anything i've forgotten, and talk about anything you'd like.

i appreciate the time you are investing into this, which is complicated by it being long, but hopefully some interesting ideas will come out in the dialogue. hails and vomits

SRP