Noctem
Arcana Noctis: Darkest hails to all Noctem members! I know that you are in a full promotional campaign for your last material called "Divinity"; a full length released since a while on Noisehead Records from Austria. How are the things going on right now?
Exo: We're on tour now with Hate and Incantation presenting the album, all the feedback from the metalheads and press is being really brutal and the gigs now are going fucking well.
Arcana Noctis: In April 2010 you're going to celebrate your band 9th anniversary; but your discography is a very poor one! What can you tell us about your past materials and what will be your point of view concerning this subject?
Beleth: The last 8 years were like training for us. Changing line-ups and experimenting with different styles to reach our definitive style. What I can say about our past materials is that were necessary steps to create "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: Honestly I was very surprised to see that your second release is a live CD, although Noctem's first material was a demo recorded in 2002 under the name "Unholy Blood"! Why you decided to release such a material and what can you tell us about your past live acts that you had in that period?
Exo: The band started in a most melodic way, the past line-ups and our short age as band in that period were decisive factors to understand it. We were influenced by our desire to create dark music, and we were just experimenting with our sound in that moment. We can consider "Unholy Blood" the first step to create "Divinity", mixing melody, dark lyrics and extreme drumming parts.
Arcana Noctis: "God Among Slaves" was released in 2007 in a MCD format. In my opinion you spent a lot of time to record just a MCD, if we take into consideration that "Unholy Blood" was recorded & released in 2002! What took you so long to release a new material and why in such a format?
Exo: It was not a time for create new material because the band was not prepared in that moment. "God Among Slaves" is the end of the last solid line-up in Noctem until 2007, for that reason it was a better idea to record a MCD and not waste to much time in a complete album.
Arcana Noctis: "God Among Slaves" has a very occult name and reminds me about Nile somehow; but I'll let you tell us a few more things about this and about the whole lyrical concept that you used for this material!
Beleth: That story is based in the war between good and evil, you can feel the war and suffering in all the songs in the history of "God Among Slaves", but the real concept of this album is the war inside every in this world, their fears and the dark way that everyone walk in his life.
Arcana Noctis: Soon after that you started to play in the whole country and you opened for big names of the Metal scene! What all is about and how do you feel spreading the plague in such events?
Beleth: It's a real honour for us to present our album supporting awesome bands like Malevolent Creation, Vomitory or Napalm Death; they are great people and very good musicians.
Arcana Noctis: Last year, 2008, you signed for Noisehead Records! What can you tell us about this deal and why did you signed out of your country? We all know that Xtreem Music is one of the most important extreme Metal labels; but did you ever thought to ink a deal with Dave Rotten's home recordings?
Beleth: Noisehead Records is doing a good job for us, we needed just this to start in a strong way. We have distribution in Spain with Locomotive Records and we are very satisfied with their work for the moment.
Arcana Noctis: I know that after inking that deal with Noisehead you played a European tour. Could you please reveal us a few aspects that we should know about such a great step from your career?
Exo: That was our first European tour, touring Portugal, France, Belgium, United Kingdom and Italy. You know, that's always a big step, to begin touring outside of your country and spread the bloody word in different countries, every gig gives you more experience, you grow up very fast as musician touring in that way.
Arcana Noctis: The first baby of this collaboration with this Austrian label is "Divinity"; band first opus and a hard work that took you a few years to release it! Could you please introduce us its atmosphere by telling us the most important technical details that we should know about "Divinity"?
Exo: Divinity is the first part of a trilogy, it tells the story of the disappeared Atlantis, its rites to reach immortality, its society under our dark point of view; and we basically use all our influences composing it.
Arcana Noctis: The whole recording process was supervised by Mario Jezik; but we must to add that you had 2 special guests: Leal (Forever Slave) and Christos Antoniou (Septic Flesh)! Tell us more about the working process that you had in Mario's company and what will be the main purpose in using special guests on "Divinity"?
Beleth: All the recording process was very fast and successful; we recorded the album at the Noisehead Studios in Vienna (Austria) in January of 2009. The idea of using guests is a good tool to share with our friends and musical partners our dark vision of our music.
Arcana Noctis: Musically speaking, "Divinity" combines a kind of Symphonic Death/Black Metal, with Thrash Metal aggressively and some Deathcore lines, extremely attractive mostly thanks to its modern guitar riffs and a growling vocal score well emphasized by some high screaming lines. What will be in your point of view the whole musical content of "Divinity", and what will be the main difference between this first full length and your previous material "God Among Slaves"?
Beleth: "Divinity" was created with that idea; we were thinking about create an album very powerful, not sounding classic at all but not only modern. Experimenting with our influences to create our definitive sound. Finally, the difference is based in how mature we are now as musicians. We were really ambitious creating this album.
Arcana Noctis: The whole material contains 12 songs, one of them being recorded in 2 different versions! But we are going to talk later about this subject. For "Divinity" you imagined a very interesting and attractive lyrical content based on long lost ancient civilisations that changed our future. Could you please explain us what exactly do you want to express through such a concept?
Exo: It tells the story of our past, present and future. There is no better way to describe the darkness of the human being than explaining our ancient societies and civilizations.
Arcana Noctis: In my opinion this subject is a very good one, but we know almost nothing about one of your preferences, the Atlantis Empire; the most important "news" we have from Plato's Dialogues of Timaeus & Critias! And if I'm not wrong you're going to use this story as a trilogy; am I right? What exactly are you going to use on the other chapters?
Beleth: It's a part from a trilogy because it tells the story of a past civilization that, in a part, changed our world that is the point in common with the next albums.
Arcana Noctis: Looking in your playlist I was very attracted by your first title track "Across Heracles Towards"! Mostly by its title I have to recognize, although its musical content seems to be a very good one too. I'm sure that you speak about Gibraltar straight! But do you know that in Romania we could find an area named in the same way? It says that Heracles was looking for Hesperides garden and he did the same way we all know he does with that straight I named above! By the way, do you know that Heracles wasn't a Greek but a Trac, forefathers of the Romanian people?
Exo: I didn't know it. Sounds like a very interesting story.
Arcana Noctis: I saw that you are using extremely rare religious themes! The Atlantis Empire had a monotheist religion as the ancient civilisation located on the actual territory of my country! As in our case, there aren't too many references on their god. In the end what will be your point of view about organized religions in all the forms?
Exo: We are completely against organized religions, they are shit for taking people's money.
Arcana Noctis: As I can see you are combining their mythology with Greek and even Sumerian themes if I'm not wrong! It's sure that we have not so much time and space to talk about such things, but Sumerian Empire and its civilisation comes from Romanian ancestors Ramani! Probably the most important civilisation in early European days; a complex nation that we know few things today, probably the same that gave birth to Greek nation about 5000/6000 years ago! And I must add that decades ago Nicolae Vlasa discovered at Tărtăria a few clay sheets with the same writing manner as mighty Sumerians but with about 1000/1500 years older than that! A writing manner still used by old rafters on Bistriţa River! Do you know something about that? What do you think about such info? And what will be your point of view concerning a deep checking of our myths and legends around the world, to see how our past was it for real?
Beleth: Yes, I have heard about that before. I think it is really necessary, our myths and stories talk about us and represent the human society, our fears, hopes... our minds.
Arcana Noctis: I don't know if you agree with me, but these long lost civilisations did not changed too much our life; mostly because they are still enveloped in fog, second because crazy motherfuckers burned, destroyed or hidden the last relics! All in all, these civilisations changed almost nothing because we are very close to our end!
Exo: Well, I think we are now who we are because of all the things that configured our past, and these civilizations are basic modes of culture and life. They do almost the same we do now in a long time ago.
Arcana Noctis: Right now people speak about long lost planet Nibiru and its entire links with Sumerian Empire! I suppose that you know the whole story with Annunaki's arrival on Earth searching for gold, long, long time ago when the whole planet was ruled by monkeys! Do you think that all these long lost civilisations could be the missing link between our race and an extraterrestrial one? Because we must recognize that UFOs were and still are present in our lives!
Beleth: Maybe this is the strangest question that I have answered in my life. I listened about this story, I am an absolutely lover of cosmos and universe history and this matter is really interesting for me. I can't say that nowadays UFOs really exist, or someday they had a connection with us. But I am sure that this universe is really too much big for us and it must be full of life.
Arcana Noctis: In the end, do you think that all our history should be revise as soon as possible? Considering that we could be a result of an extraterrestrial experiment, our all history will fall!
Exo: In that case, it should be.
Arcana Noctis: The cover artwork was made by Marcelo Vasco, and I must to recognize that this image was a very good one to emphasize the whole content of this material called "Divinity"! Could you please tell us more about this subject?
Exo: We contacted Marcelo because we saw his fucking great job expressing abstract concepts, his designs are very impressive and his cover based on the Icarus was perfect for "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: Exaltation, hate, misanthropy and violence are the main ingredients expressed through the whole material! Cold and apocalyptical, "Divinity" fits in my point of view in all its compartments: musical, lyrical and visual! What will be your opinion about that and what exactly do you want to express with such an aggressive and solid esthetical?
Beleth: For us it is really important. We need to express all our brutality and this is the best way. All these elements make Noctem an extreme band. We know long time ago that we needed all of this compartments, but you forgot one. The most important for us is the show, we need to destroy all the stages and cover everything with blood. This is the real message of Noctem, the absolute destruction of this pathetic world.
Arcana Noctis: Looking on your photos I had a strange impression about something like a déjà-vu, if I could say so; your make-up reminding me about some strange personages from Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings" book! With such a look I suppose that you have something much more special for your live acts! Am I right?
Beleth: In the beginning it was not inspired in "The Lord Of The Rings". We need to express our music at our performances in a dark and epic way, the same that we use to create music.
Arcana Noctis: Released about 8 months ago, I suppose that "Divinity" received quite feedback until now! Could you please reveal us what all is about with this very important chapter?
Beleth: Yes, the answer from the metalheads and the press has been really good. Some months ago we saw in Heavy Rock magazine that "Divinity" is in the top 20 of the most sold albums in Spain 2009. For the rest of Europe is the same in countries like Germany, U.K., Italy, France etc. The feedback is really good. I can say that this chapter is really important for us.
Arcana Noctis: Very soon you're going to tour the whole Europe with mighty Incantation. I must to tell you that John McEntee is a new collaborator of mine, thank to his work with Ibex Moon Records; and very soon our interviews link will feature a very interesting interview with this person! What exactly do you expect from this tour in such a great company? Tell us too if you prepared something special for these live acts.
Beleth: In this moment we are in the middle of the tour on the back stage and Incantation is playing. We have a very good relation with John, he is amazing. Well, we are really happy to work with The Flaming Arts agency, they are a really big company and they do an amazing job. We are doing bloody and aggressive shows in all Europe and is really good that all the people can see this.
Arcana Noctis: In just 2 months from now on, February 2010, you're going to record a video clip. What exactly all is about and what will be that song you're going to use for this action?
Beleth: For the moment everything is being secret, we will record a preview for the video in February; but I can tell you that in April/May it will be ready.
Arcana Noctis: Are you going to change something in your musical style in the near future? Because I like a lot that "Divinity" orchestra version that reminds me a lot Nile! How did you manage to record this version, and what do you think about its final result? Did you record it as a joke or as something that could help you in the future? Could it be possible to record an entire material this way?
Exo: We wanted to create a very epic ambient for that song, and the collaboration of Christos was perfect for that matter, the result is much better than we expected. Not in the next one but it could be very possible for us to create an album like that in a few years.
Arcana Noctis: What will be the next step in this trilogy concept? Are you going to continue in the same way you did on "Divinity"?
Exo: That is secret for now my friend; but for sure is going to be linked with "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: In the end, what will be your future plans concerning Noctem? Also, what should we expect from you in the near future?
Exo: After finishing our actual European tour we are going to record our next video, the third one from "Divinity", also with Miguel Ángel Font Bisier from HT Producciones, and we are going to continue presenting our album in different tours and festivals...
Arcana Noctis: Thanks a lot my friend, for this interview and for your time. If you have something to add, feel free and use this space properly!
Beleth: See you on tour motherfuckers! Stay brutal!
Exo: See you soon on tour!!!
Exo: We're on tour now with Hate and Incantation presenting the album, all the feedback from the metalheads and press is being really brutal and the gigs now are going fucking well.Arcana Noctis: In April 2010 you're going to celebrate your band 9th anniversary; but your discography is a very poor one! What can you tell us about your past materials and what will be your point of view concerning this subject?
Beleth: The last 8 years were like training for us. Changing line-ups and experimenting with different styles to reach our definitive style. What I can say about our past materials is that were necessary steps to create "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: Honestly I was very surprised to see that your second release is a live CD, although Noctem's first material was a demo recorded in 2002 under the name "Unholy Blood"! Why you decided to release such a material and what can you tell us about your past live acts that you had in that period?
Exo: The band started in a most melodic way, the past line-ups and our short age as band in that period were decisive factors to understand it. We were influenced by our desire to create dark music, and we were just experimenting with our sound in that moment. We can consider "Unholy Blood" the first step to create "Divinity", mixing melody, dark lyrics and extreme drumming parts.
Arcana Noctis: "God Among Slaves" was released in 2007 in a MCD format. In my opinion you spent a lot of time to record just a MCD, if we take into consideration that "Unholy Blood" was recorded & released in 2002! What took you so long to release a new material and why in such a format?
Exo: It was not a time for create new material because the band was not prepared in that moment. "God Among Slaves" is the end of the last solid line-up in Noctem until 2007, for that reason it was a better idea to record a MCD and not waste to much time in a complete album.
Arcana Noctis: "God Among Slaves" has a very occult name and reminds me about Nile somehow; but I'll let you tell us a few more things about this and about the whole lyrical concept that you used for this material!
Beleth: That story is based in the war between good and evil, you can feel the war and suffering in all the songs in the history of "God Among Slaves", but the real concept of this album is the war inside every in this world, their fears and the dark way that everyone walk in his life.
Arcana Noctis: Soon after that you started to play in the whole country and you opened for big names of the Metal scene! What all is about and how do you feel spreading the plague in such events?
Beleth: It's a real honour for us to present our album supporting awesome bands like Malevolent Creation, Vomitory or Napalm Death; they are great people and very good musicians.
Arcana Noctis: Last year, 2008, you signed for Noisehead Records! What can you tell us about this deal and why did you signed out of your country? We all know that Xtreem Music is one of the most important extreme Metal labels; but did you ever thought to ink a deal with Dave Rotten's home recordings?
Beleth: Noisehead Records is doing a good job for us, we needed just this to start in a strong way. We have distribution in Spain with Locomotive Records and we are very satisfied with their work for the moment.
Arcana Noctis: I know that after inking that deal with Noisehead you played a European tour. Could you please reveal us a few aspects that we should know about such a great step from your career?
Exo: That was our first European tour, touring Portugal, France, Belgium, United Kingdom and Italy. You know, that's always a big step, to begin touring outside of your country and spread the bloody word in different countries, every gig gives you more experience, you grow up very fast as musician touring in that way.
Arcana Noctis: The first baby of this collaboration with this Austrian label is "Divinity"; band first opus and a hard work that took you a few years to release it! Could you please introduce us its atmosphere by telling us the most important technical details that we should know about "Divinity"?
Exo: Divinity is the first part of a trilogy, it tells the story of the disappeared Atlantis, its rites to reach immortality, its society under our dark point of view; and we basically use all our influences composing it.
Arcana Noctis: The whole recording process was supervised by Mario Jezik; but we must to add that you had 2 special guests: Leal (Forever Slave) and Christos Antoniou (Septic Flesh)! Tell us more about the working process that you had in Mario's company and what will be the main purpose in using special guests on "Divinity"?
Beleth: All the recording process was very fast and successful; we recorded the album at the Noisehead Studios in Vienna (Austria) in January of 2009. The idea of using guests is a good tool to share with our friends and musical partners our dark vision of our music.
Arcana Noctis: Musically speaking, "Divinity" combines a kind of Symphonic Death/Black Metal, with Thrash Metal aggressively and some Deathcore lines, extremely attractive mostly thanks to its modern guitar riffs and a growling vocal score well emphasized by some high screaming lines. What will be in your point of view the whole musical content of "Divinity", and what will be the main difference between this first full length and your previous material "God Among Slaves"?
Beleth: "Divinity" was created with that idea; we were thinking about create an album very powerful, not sounding classic at all but not only modern. Experimenting with our influences to create our definitive sound. Finally, the difference is based in how mature we are now as musicians. We were really ambitious creating this album.
Arcana Noctis: The whole material contains 12 songs, one of them being recorded in 2 different versions! But we are going to talk later about this subject. For "Divinity" you imagined a very interesting and attractive lyrical content based on long lost ancient civilisations that changed our future. Could you please explain us what exactly do you want to express through such a concept?
Exo: It tells the story of our past, present and future. There is no better way to describe the darkness of the human being than explaining our ancient societies and civilizations.
Arcana Noctis: In my opinion this subject is a very good one, but we know almost nothing about one of your preferences, the Atlantis Empire; the most important "news" we have from Plato's Dialogues of Timaeus & Critias! And if I'm not wrong you're going to use this story as a trilogy; am I right? What exactly are you going to use on the other chapters?
Beleth: It's a part from a trilogy because it tells the story of a past civilization that, in a part, changed our world that is the point in common with the next albums.
Arcana Noctis: Looking in your playlist I was very attracted by your first title track "Across Heracles Towards"! Mostly by its title I have to recognize, although its musical content seems to be a very good one too. I'm sure that you speak about Gibraltar straight! But do you know that in Romania we could find an area named in the same way? It says that Heracles was looking for Hesperides garden and he did the same way we all know he does with that straight I named above! By the way, do you know that Heracles wasn't a Greek but a Trac, forefathers of the Romanian people?
Exo: I didn't know it. Sounds like a very interesting story.
Arcana Noctis: I saw that you are using extremely rare religious themes! The Atlantis Empire had a monotheist religion as the ancient civilisation located on the actual territory of my country! As in our case, there aren't too many references on their god. In the end what will be your point of view about organized religions in all the forms?
Exo: We are completely against organized religions, they are shit for taking people's money.
Arcana Noctis: As I can see you are combining their mythology with Greek and even Sumerian themes if I'm not wrong! It's sure that we have not so much time and space to talk about such things, but Sumerian Empire and its civilisation comes from Romanian ancestors Ramani! Probably the most important civilisation in early European days; a complex nation that we know few things today, probably the same that gave birth to Greek nation about 5000/6000 years ago! And I must add that decades ago Nicolae Vlasa discovered at Tărtăria a few clay sheets with the same writing manner as mighty Sumerians but with about 1000/1500 years older than that! A writing manner still used by old rafters on Bistriţa River! Do you know something about that? What do you think about such info? And what will be your point of view concerning a deep checking of our myths and legends around the world, to see how our past was it for real?
Beleth: Yes, I have heard about that before. I think it is really necessary, our myths and stories talk about us and represent the human society, our fears, hopes... our minds.
Arcana Noctis: I don't know if you agree with me, but these long lost civilisations did not changed too much our life; mostly because they are still enveloped in fog, second because crazy motherfuckers burned, destroyed or hidden the last relics! All in all, these civilisations changed almost nothing because we are very close to our end!
Exo: Well, I think we are now who we are because of all the things that configured our past, and these civilizations are basic modes of culture and life. They do almost the same we do now in a long time ago.
Arcana Noctis: Right now people speak about long lost planet Nibiru and its entire links with Sumerian Empire! I suppose that you know the whole story with Annunaki's arrival on Earth searching for gold, long, long time ago when the whole planet was ruled by monkeys! Do you think that all these long lost civilisations could be the missing link between our race and an extraterrestrial one? Because we must recognize that UFOs were and still are present in our lives!
Beleth: Maybe this is the strangest question that I have answered in my life. I listened about this story, I am an absolutely lover of cosmos and universe history and this matter is really interesting for me. I can't say that nowadays UFOs really exist, or someday they had a connection with us. But I am sure that this universe is really too much big for us and it must be full of life.
Arcana Noctis: In the end, do you think that all our history should be revise as soon as possible? Considering that we could be a result of an extraterrestrial experiment, our all history will fall!
Exo: In that case, it should be.
Arcana Noctis: The cover artwork was made by Marcelo Vasco, and I must to recognize that this image was a very good one to emphasize the whole content of this material called "Divinity"! Could you please tell us more about this subject?
Exo: We contacted Marcelo because we saw his fucking great job expressing abstract concepts, his designs are very impressive and his cover based on the Icarus was perfect for "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: Exaltation, hate, misanthropy and violence are the main ingredients expressed through the whole material! Cold and apocalyptical, "Divinity" fits in my point of view in all its compartments: musical, lyrical and visual! What will be your opinion about that and what exactly do you want to express with such an aggressive and solid esthetical?Beleth: For us it is really important. We need to express all our brutality and this is the best way. All these elements make Noctem an extreme band. We know long time ago that we needed all of this compartments, but you forgot one. The most important for us is the show, we need to destroy all the stages and cover everything with blood. This is the real message of Noctem, the absolute destruction of this pathetic world.
Arcana Noctis: Looking on your photos I had a strange impression about something like a déjà-vu, if I could say so; your make-up reminding me about some strange personages from Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings" book! With such a look I suppose that you have something much more special for your live acts! Am I right?
Beleth: In the beginning it was not inspired in "The Lord Of The Rings". We need to express our music at our performances in a dark and epic way, the same that we use to create music.
Arcana Noctis: Released about 8 months ago, I suppose that "Divinity" received quite feedback until now! Could you please reveal us what all is about with this very important chapter?
Beleth: Yes, the answer from the metalheads and the press has been really good. Some months ago we saw in Heavy Rock magazine that "Divinity" is in the top 20 of the most sold albums in Spain 2009. For the rest of Europe is the same in countries like Germany, U.K., Italy, France etc. The feedback is really good. I can say that this chapter is really important for us.
Arcana Noctis: Very soon you're going to tour the whole Europe with mighty Incantation. I must to tell you that John McEntee is a new collaborator of mine, thank to his work with Ibex Moon Records; and very soon our interviews link will feature a very interesting interview with this person! What exactly do you expect from this tour in such a great company? Tell us too if you prepared something special for these live acts.
Beleth: In this moment we are in the middle of the tour on the back stage and Incantation is playing. We have a very good relation with John, he is amazing. Well, we are really happy to work with The Flaming Arts agency, they are a really big company and they do an amazing job. We are doing bloody and aggressive shows in all Europe and is really good that all the people can see this.
Arcana Noctis: In just 2 months from now on, February 2010, you're going to record a video clip. What exactly all is about and what will be that song you're going to use for this action?
Beleth: For the moment everything is being secret, we will record a preview for the video in February; but I can tell you that in April/May it will be ready.
Arcana Noctis: Are you going to change something in your musical style in the near future? Because I like a lot that "Divinity" orchestra version that reminds me a lot Nile! How did you manage to record this version, and what do you think about its final result? Did you record it as a joke or as something that could help you in the future? Could it be possible to record an entire material this way?
Exo: We wanted to create a very epic ambient for that song, and the collaboration of Christos was perfect for that matter, the result is much better than we expected. Not in the next one but it could be very possible for us to create an album like that in a few years.
Arcana Noctis: What will be the next step in this trilogy concept? Are you going to continue in the same way you did on "Divinity"?
Exo: That is secret for now my friend; but for sure is going to be linked with "Divinity".
Arcana Noctis: In the end, what will be your future plans concerning Noctem? Also, what should we expect from you in the near future?
Exo: After finishing our actual European tour we are going to record our next video, the third one from "Divinity", also with Miguel Ángel Font Bisier from HT Producciones, and we are going to continue presenting our album in different tours and festivals...
Arcana Noctis: Thanks a lot my friend, for this interview and for your time. If you have something to add, feel free and use this space properly!
Beleth: See you on tour motherfuckers! Stay brutal!
Exo: See you soon on tour!!!