ASMODEUS – Interview withTyr

ASMODEUS is a quite well known Black Metal act from Austria. So far they have released two full-lenght albums which speak in their honor. They are planning some live performances, so if you have a chance to see them live do not miss it. Read below to see what they are up to.

There has been few years of silence from Asmodeus. Can you tell me what have you been doing meanwhile?

We were not that silent as it may seem and it was only one year, which was more quiet than before.

We worked hard on new material and of course besides that we had some line-up problems, which forced us not to play live.

But after some necessary changes we are strong enough again to proudly present some new stuff also live, although the work on the new album is still not finished.

The writing process suffered a bit under those past circumstances, but this is history.

You made some line-up changes. What happened to the old members? Lost interest? What is different with the new line-up?

Basically we had to part ways with our drummer due to some problems, which should stay in the background. That was a big backlash in our career, but shit happens and we are stronger and even more steeled now and looking forward into a blasting future.

Also our second guitarist – who was only a session member – thought to concentrate more on his main project. That was nothing new and special to us, but in the end it also caused a reason for our live absence, because we decided after our tour with Dark Funeral in 2006 not to perform live as a three person band any more (the exception proves the rule).

We need our full line-up with 4 persons, as usual, because most material is not possible to be played without a second guitar, too much atmosphere is lost and if we perform live, then it should be killer.

The new line-up is now: Tyr-guitars (alltime member), Desdemon-bass, vocals (alltime member), Garm-guitars (new member), Nordger-drums (new member).

Especially our new drummer is a machine. He destroys everything by blasting upon 280 ppm, but also the new guitarist Garm proved himelf as a full member now.

I think never in the history of our band in the last 14 years, we had members working in the band with more than 100%.

Who writes the material now?

That is tradionally Tyr, who is writing all music and Desdemon writing all lyrics.

It cannot be excluded, that this will change in the future, maybe also for the new album, because our new comrads have got also good ideas, which may find their places in the songs.

You have some gigs planed. Do you also plan a new release? If so, what can we expect from it? New or old Asmodeus?

It was planned to form the new line-up until a specific point, let's say to mid of 2010, first to get tuned to each other and second to intensify working on the new stuff.

But obvisously the scene cannot wait to hear us as soon as possible, so we took the chances and fixed some gigs – we need to play live like a vampire needs the blood, you know!

Due to the fact that it happened in two weeks, to get all songs perfectly done by all members, it is no problem to play some gigs and write new songs.

I cannot, and maybe I also don't want to tell you too much of the new material.

The only thing I promise is, that it would be fast and slow, atmospheric and melancholic, devastating and relaxing, a real bastard maybe?

Where do you get your inspiration for the lyrics?

From Desdemons fucking (fucked up) brain.

There is no need for special drugs, I can calm you, this is all real, real thoughts, real nightmares, real stories, which are written down.

Maybe he fails to write lyrics, better should write books, but that's the case.

What do you think about Austrian Black Metal? Any bands you would especially like to point out?

There have been and there are some good bands in Austria, sometimes more, sometimes less, it would not be that fair, to point someone out and forget others.

Which bands are currently your favourites? Are you limited to Black Metal?

I think that the alltime favs are nearly the same for everybody who understands Black Metal: Emperor, Marduk, Immortal, and some else.

But that's not that important, to like or indentify with special bands or cliche.

The essence of music and atmosphere is, to deal with the real living through the daily horror, collecting all impressions and to get sick of them. This is enough for hundrets of nightmares and gives you enough to understand and to accept and the music is only the speech, through which this could happen or helps you – depends if you are listener or musician (or both).

It's not only Black Metal, which can generate this, also other kinds of music can do that.

We personally all like classical and symphonic music too (and perform it also in other projects).

Does any of you have musical education? How much do you work on your musical skills?

Yes, all of us have got more or less musical education from a few years practice in high school to graduate degree and of course we train every day.

Good musicians are rare and like red wine: the older, the better.

What are your views on life, let's say – what's your philosophy – and how is it connected with Black Metal? Once you said that Black Metal is not just music.

As mentioned in point 7, Black Metal is one way to get out of this crowd of cowards and dummys, which follow suit an ideology of consumption, beauty, prosperity,…. what ever.

The real sense and truth and the freedom in your being and doing should be effaced by medias like newspaper, TV, or what ever.

To manifest yourself and enjoy the nature and the real important things in connection with music and spirit, that's maybe Black Metal as an art of live.

Let's talk about live performances. We will be able to see you in april 2010, you are confirmed for Vienna in War II. What can we expect from your live performance and what does it represent to you?

As said, performing live is important to us.

It is the chance to let fans know and understand, what they hear on CD, Internet, etc.

Although you can get nearly everything today through internet and other medias, the sound and the feeling of an live performance is for both, the listener and the artist a special thing, if not: stop it and do something else (fishing,…).

We stand for brutal speed and high quality performance, so watching us live is always an experience with a new facet.

What about the public? Do you have time to concentrate on the public at all? What's the feedback today? Has the number of fans grown a lot?

It is not important how many fans we have got, it is important who they are and if they really appreciate what we are doing.

We don't want to be and I think we are not a temporary hype like many others.

We are a constant force, which is always there and nails on the backwall of your head.

Thank you for your time! Anything you would like to add to this interview?

See ya live and enjoy it, we will challenge you all.

http://www.asmodeus.at/
http://www.myspace.com/6asmo6deus6