by Morgan Y. Evans
Everyone has fears. Many fear the invader or "other", be it a different culture, a weed infesting and choking off native species, or just concepts from an opposite paradigm. Everyone has feared something different at some point. Consider the concept of the Incubus, it could stem from a fear of the devil (not teenage girls being totally unafraid of being visited at night by Brandon Boyd). To others, the idea of an incubus could symbolize a liberating encounter with the unknown or tapping into vital symbolic or metaphorical forces and fantasies in the hidden mind that we can learn about our true desires from.
It's funny, everyone is repulsed by something, and it is often based on their background. One of the scariest concepts I've come across recently, which I think most people would be horrified by, be they fans of Mayhem or Miley Cirus, unless they were truly kvlt enough to not flinch, are the "blood flies" from Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule—horrid, bloodsucking flies who find wounded victims for the "gar", a hideous, blood-smeared beast who uses the flies to flush prey out of hiding. We can all probably agree that this is gross (although I bet some of you corpse-painted freaks are spankin' it right now), but it is different when considering sound. In college, I was in such a dysfunctional relationship that I couldn't sleep unless I listened to Reign In Blood every night before I tried to close my eyes. My jock roommate (who had tons of porno and pictures of Carmen Electra hidden under his friendly Beatles poster) thought I was crazy. I was in turn repulsed by his taste in music (Beatles notwithstanding), and his unfailing ability to kick my ass at John Madden video games.
When it comes to black metal, whether you like the more "commercial" sounds of Dimmu Borgir, Aura Noir, Bathory or whatever appeals to your dark heart, you should respect a band like Malfeitor. BM will always be vilified for the Oslo church burnings, but the beauty of those crimes is the symbolism of taking the hypocrisy of hundreds of years of religious conformity into account. I am not condoning the burnings by any means, just mentioning that there is also another background of social context to consider. Like the Iraqis whose perspective of rage at the U.S. sanctions and bombing done to their country (which affected innocents more than the evildoers), there is always another side. At the same time, if you become a prisoner of only seeing your perspective, you sell out the passion and integrity that made even a flawed and violent reaction somewhat poetic in the first place. It is the same as becoming the same conservative, so called "Christian" force that vilifies all others, and is also why Republicans will always misinterpret the true beauty of Ayn Rand.
Fanatics are so retarded in the long, and usually short run. Consider the Dutch cartoon scandal when illustrations of Muhammad stirred the pot and "provoked" Muslim violence. Muslim groups recently responded by making cartoons making fun of the Jews for "complaining" about the "overblown" holocaust! The Jews didn't even have anything to do with the Dutch cartoons in the first fuck-all place (not that it matters). My question is, what God or prophet is so insecure (considering the vast scope of the Universe), that they could ever be threatened by a comic strip. Jahweh, watch out! Garfield is gonna punt your bearded twat off the table like Odie!
Anyway, the point I want to make is that Italy's Malfeitor, which means "evil one", have released one of the most forward thinking black metal (or any metal) albums in years, while simultaneously staying indebted to black metal's storied, traditional, and very bloody roots. The guitar playing on their sophomore disc, entitled Incubus (I forgot to mention that earlier), is worthy enough of adulation alone, but when coupled with the depth of (un-ironic) philosophy married to unbridled yet intelligently voiced frustration, you have a serious black diamond in the rough. This band is unafraid and very, very empowered. Most importantly, they seriously, seriously, seriously fucking rock!
MORGAN Y. EVANS: How does it feel to have the new album complete and to be able to show people the development of Malfeitor? The band is really taking on more and more of a life of its own, even though people also know about your other associated projects.
HEll:I0:KABBALUS(Guitar): It’s always absolutely satisfying releasing a new album, although, at the same time it could be a moment for doubts and questioning about your work. After every single release, you suddenly find yourself analyzing your work with detachment, comparing it to fan and critic opinions, and sometimes you might face the chance that your work—in which you spent most of your energies and time—is not as high as it was expected to be, or simply, not understood. Anyway it’s a moment of growth and self-criticism, something that will lead you beyond the place you’ve just reached. In fairness, I should say that reactions have been fantastic, even higher than those ones for a well-appreciated work as Unio Mystica Maxima, even if we decided to present an album that is not the same as the previous one—as many people wished—but an evolution of it toward something darker and more complex, in the main theme and sound.
M.FABBAN (Vocals/Mastermind): Step by step, Malfeitor is a band who’s growing up, evolving, who’s starting to shine with its own light. Obviously, all of Malfeitor’s members are committed with other bands, but it has never been a problem. I believe that Incubus is an album to calcify the essence of the band, especially now that we have a new line-up with the entry of Goraath (drums) and Narchost (bass). We’re complete now. And finally we gained the right atmosphere to do what we really want to.
MYE: What was the writing process like for Incubus? What did you know ahead of time you wanted to accomplish? Your old material was very well received. A song like "Baphomet" comes to mind. Did you feel you had anything to prove? Also, you just got some new members, as you said. This is old news by now, but something happened to M:Fabban's right hand and so you are just doing vocals now, right?
M.FABBAN: I’m absolutely fine. Two years ago I had a bad motorbike crash. That’s why I couldn’t play for a while as both of my arms haven’t been really…fine. As time passed by, even if I could have started playing the bass again, I realized that I was feeling much more comfortable by only singing during our “lives”. I like interacting with people during the gigs…when you play live, people make half of the show. The other half is the band, of course, and if there’s not a connection between them, then everything is pretty much fucked up. That’s why I decided to sing without playing the bass at the same time, which is now in Narchost’s hands. Back to your question, when we wrote Unio Mystica Maxima we wanted to do something that we liked, without giving a shit about reviews, agreements, and eventual promotions. We didn’t have any idea that Unio would have been appreciated that much. Most of those tracks have riffs that I took from songs I wrote back in 1992-1995, that I didn’t use for Funeral Oration or Aborym. So I decided to use them a bit, without expecting much out of them. We don’t want to show anything to anyone, we play with other kind of motivation compared to all of the other bands who aim for mega tours lasting 4 or 5 months and huge takings. Our feet are well stuck to the ground, and this is the place we want to stay. For this reason, everything we recorded in Incubus continues somehow the path we decide to take with UMM, this time with the purpose of musically “supporting” an esoteric path, partially described by our lyrics and artwork. Incubus has been created in a few months, and the two guitar players’ work is absurd: simple, disturbing, and dark.
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: A musician has always something to show up, first of all to himself—his personal growth—then to the listeners. If this motivation doesn’t exist at all, it’s better to end the career and go for something else. Talking about new members of the band, we’ve been changing the line-up a lot during the past 2 years, but we finally found out our balance thanks to Goraath at drums and Narchost at bass. The live impact will be devastating.
MYE: I'm glad you are pleased with the line-up. Let me say, your band seems to excite people who are not just black metal fans, which brings more attention to what you are doing. You have your own unique qualities despite being well-versed in traditional black metal. Another band I can think of (who don't sound like you at all) is Moonspell, who started out early on very black metal influenced and have really expanded their sound. You guys are more traditional black metal, but how did you decide on what elements from the different scenes of BM history that you wanted to include in your style/sound?
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: It’s never something that you can plan. That’s what can happen when you can assimilate many different kinds of music and not only the melody and the harmony of a song but also the structure of it. You can then realize that particular idea or musical influence in a special personal way, without crossing the line. What makes the skills of a good artist is the ability of mixing up all together the influences he assimilated and by then, to create something new. Nobody can create from nothing, not even God.
MYE: Good point. It is better to occupy your own space as an artist and lend a recording your own voice. I wanted to ask you about the song "Promethean Fire". I was watching the Jack Black caveman comedy Year One that was in theatres recently. Jack eats a forbidden apple off the tree and says, "It has kind of a knowledgy taste", which was funny. I was thinking though about the story of the Tower Of Babel and how divided man actually makes more unrest on Earth, so "God" screwed up. Not that their shouldn't be many cultures, because the Bible also argued that people were challenging the sky, so to speak, and that God wanted to spread them across the Earth and have more than one culture. There is the belief though that the dividing of man in the story of Babel is also done out of fear and also jealousy over our desire to know all we can. But why shouldn't we use our faculties to learn as much as we can? It seems a caring "God" would be pleased by people trying to learn and evolve/better themselves. Prometheus, likewise, is punished for daring to steal fire in Greek mythology. What are your feelings on this. Assuming a God existed, are we just vain and ungrateful or is it hypocrisy? Do you care? Your band name means “evildoer”. [laughing]
M.FABBAN: Uhmm…"Promethean" is a term I’d prefer to be connected to the meaning of transformation, perseverance, audacity…the fire of perseverance. The same one that lights up our strength to go on every day. The exact same strength we find and we have to find whenever we fall down and we can’t stand up. After all, I think those lyrics are pretty simple and direct as well. Quite often our unconscious acts as an engine that starts up that deadly unknown labyrinth which is our mind. Lets us light up that fire, the same one we use to find our path during the night. Everything originates inside of us, from our unconscious. I'll forward you a part of the lyrics…
Human, divine, diabolical
Evil, animal, things: consciousness.
All deities and demons
all heavens and hells are internal
released from the cycle of birth and death
Recognition of truth: liberation
MYE: That is...extremely awesome.
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: Knowledge gives us the power, that’s why people are afraid of it. When you finally go out from the dark hole of ignorance, you can start your walk to freedom. I’m not talking about the same freedom that the media push to the masses, which is nothing more than vice and dissatisfaction, but I’m talking about the consciousness of ourselves, the fulfillment of our deep “ego” through the union of materialism and the corporeal just until it's overtaking. The knowledges that feed just our spirit like it’s against nature, it’s a lie that monotheists spread through the ignorant, making them subdued and passive towards existence. The path towards the light, the fire of Prometheus, is bitter and fulfilled by sufferings and doubts, but it’s the only path towards the numinous and the fulfillment of ourselves, in the body and in the spirit, in life and death and in the opposites mixing up.
MYE: I admire how much you consider these things. It's funny, some "Christian" bands (by no means all!) are too close-minded to muse on these subjects because they feel threatened by philosophy! For a lot of bands, Satanism is about rebellion and adopting symbols as a tool, but to others, they very much believe in following the idea of the devil as a master. I personally think that to be beholden to anything like that is just another form of orthodoxy, but was hoping to discuss/debate that with you guys since you are obviously an anti-Christian band. Then again, my grandfather was a well-intentioned Protestant minister and here I am a few generations later a big metal fan, but I am not close-minded and am also against the horrors that religious strife has caused in history. There are different sides to it all. I also believe in Carl Sagan's path of skepticism and paying attention to the actual scientific facts we have learned of the Universe, not just blind faith. The more you learn about astronomy, the more I feel we all come from a powerful beginning, but not exactly what it says in the Bible. But, at the same time, I am not against some ideas of acceptance that “Christ” was supposed to represent, but it often is true that some of his followers just hate and condemn others, hypocrites!!! Think of the Bonfire Of The Vanities in Italy in the 1400's where the Church burnt tons of priceless works of art!
M.FABBAN: Yours are really good remarks. Too often Satanism is pushed close to the meaning of rebellion. Rebellion from what, though? I don’t think [of] myself as a religious. I am not a Satanist, not even someone with no political views or a fanatic new age. I’m first of all just a man who believes in himself and who’s continuously looking for his real “he” through dark, lightened, impervious or less impervious paths. A man who’s walking a path that has to lead to the knowledge of himself. All the religions of this world ( monotheistic, polytheistic, Henotheistic, pantheistic, Animistic) are just a complex device made by beliefs, rituals, behavioral, ethical, and cultural attitudes made by the uncertainty of tomorrow, by the fear of death and of whatever is unknown. Only the fact that there are so many religions, it explains the vulnerability of human beings.
MYE: That is well said.
M.FABBAN: If it really has to, it should exist only a religion for the human species, but it’s not the way it is. I always find loads of contradiction in every single religion, together with amazing concepts—some of them quite Utopian and not really alike for what is mankind's nature—as I also find so many lies and so many truths, whenever I read sacred texts like the Bible, the Koran, or some Jewish ones. What I want to say is that every single religion gives the chance to a man to grow up through a belief, although I personally don’t find any advantage in that. I believe in the man as centre of the Universe. I believe in myself and in the eternal searching of the real “me”. This is my only religion: to walk a path that, I hope, will lead me to the real knowledge of myself. And I don’t need any religion for it, any belief. I’ve been walking this path for ages, through the darkest moment and the most enlightened ones. I walk on narrow streets or wide-open ones. Light exists as darkness does. And there’s the chance to find the light through the darkness itself. Whoever undertakes this way has not to be considered as a Satanist or a fool. In the past, I’ve been blaming religions for all that wasn’t exactly the same as my ideas and personality. Now I only concentrate on my path: I don’t fight against anything, and I don’t want something to fight me. This is not new age, but a clear ethic and behavioral demeanor. For there is nothing after life. Death is part of a cycle: we should be born, live (and not exist) and then die. In my opinion, during this cycle, religions are just something dangerous needed to control mankind and his fears. And finally, I even think there is kind of a paradox talking about “fears” when men should be at first afraid of themselves. They should be afraid of all the miserable actions that are devastating our planet. They should worry about all the demons and ghosts that they’ve been giving birth to, who look perfectly alike to themselves.
MYE: Yes, to their worst nature. As Johnny Cash says ,"God help the beast in me", used entirely out of religious context but still fitting this interview within another! "Dark Saturnian Chaos", what can you tell us about writing that song? The (great) title seems to symbolize all black metal!
M.FABBAN: Each one of us has different influences and tastes, that’s why basically how we go on so well. There should be many influences which can be perceived in this album, but even using all of the concentration, it’s quite hard to really find a single one.
MYE: How would you describe the musical climate in your country today as far as the best and worst aspects of it?
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: What actually piss me off more than everything is the division in “parts” that end with a “hating-each-others” for no reason whatsoever, people who listen just to black metal, thrash, or brutal, and all the rest is shit, giving out about everything and everyone. It’s so pathetic. It’s for this reason, I believe, that the Italian scene is meager of high-level bands. People just pretend to make music, by only knowing 3 or 4 bands, without knowing the skills of their own instrument, harshly judging everyone.
MYE: My favorite song on the new album is "Mysterious, Mystical, Majestic". It's just amazing all the way through. Were there any parts of the record you are especially proud of or satisfied with?
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: I’m personally connected to “Void of Voids”, a really oppressive and gloomy track, which composition is strictly connected to the premature passing of someone I really loved.
MYE: What can you say about the Polish Label Agonia Records and how working with them has been?
HEll:I0:KABBALUS: So far, everything is going great.
They’re doing a very good promotion and the first reactions to Incubus
have been really positive. We’re pretty satisfied with them.