"A thousand years? Damn! I guess 50 are more than enough within this world!" - Peter Kubik in response to how he would organize and plan his life differently if it could be extended to 1000 years (taken from my interview with Abigor in 2001, first published in Erebus Webzine and then Convivial Hermit 1).
Embedded Files
One of my top 5 black metal bands of the 90s was Abigor whose every recording from that era was and remains pure gold to me. During the late 90s and early 00s, when zines were still somewhat relevant and not a niche curiosity as they are today, I managed to interview Peter not once but twice, and in both cases he made no complaints or qualms about quickly moving into interaction, a true supporter of the underground. Back in 2001 I was already feeling some uneasiness with where the band were going with Satanized (Silenius was replaced by Tharen, and TT left the band), but it still wasn't nearly as bad as Fractal Possession which completely alienated me (I still think it’s about 99.5% crap to this day, with maybe 2 riffs that I liked). For the next nearly 20 years, I couldn't enjoy a single thing they recorded, it's strange how that happens, but nevertheless I've always kept track of what Abigor was doing, was amused by the 5 or whatever re-releases of Channeling the Quintessence of Satan (which I personally thought was absolutely fine as it was with its admittedly odd production) and continued to appreciate their awesome and unique artwork. When I read that Kubik suddenly died in 2024, I could not help but felt real sadness, although he already gave me a foreshadowing of this event in my interview with him years earlier. It seemed there was always something troubling him. Like the best of artists and humans, Kubik was not of this world, perhaps a man born out of time, eventually taking his own life and leaving his wife, child and band behind. Surprisingly, however, the band remains, according to the Metal Archives, still active, with T.T. and Silenius remaining in place. Since Kubik was the main songwriter, it will be interesting to see what happens next, though in my view Abigor already said all they had to say in their first 10 years of existence.
PETER KUBIK
JUHANI PALOMÄKI
"The world is full of suffering anyway, so I think it's quite futile trying to measure what's the most painful misery. We live, suffer and die and one just has to bear it; it's just as simple as it is. The best thing about banging your head to the wall is when it stops. Erasing mental pain with medicines is of course in its place when needed. We would end up to chaos without them-A nuthouse called the world." - In response to what is the most painful part of the human condition (Convivial Hermit 1)
Yearning came to my attention through the first Holy Records compilation and their song Autumn Funeral, which still sounds totally original and amazing to date. During my years of tape trading, With Tragedies Adorned initially having heard as a dub, I bought every Yearning record that, at the time, still regularly releasing albums, made consistent cause for celebration (oh how I miss those days). Yearning could do no wrong... every album an original and unpredictable mix of doom, death, classical music and even electronics that to me defined the Finnish sound of the time: that is to say, a sound without definition, a breeding ground of originality. I would argue those days are far, far gone now, with the majority of bands from Finland's totally oversaturated present scene doing absolutely nothing interesting at all... save a few outliers perhaps. Be that as it may, from the 90s to the early 00s, Palomäki was indisputably at his most creative period and was simply nailing it with a series of amazing albums. Little did I or many people know that something was brewing on the inside and he would take his own life in 2010, three years after the release of Merging Into Landscapes, a killer album like all his others, and the final 3rd Chapter of Colosseum. I suppose those of us on the outside will never know what happened, though it’s safe to say that Juhani was his own man and just didn't give a fuck (there is a photo existing of him in a Hitler shirt, captured here, I will leave it here for you to judge), one of the best musicians in his country bar none, and it was an honor I will never forget to talk to him back in 2001.
"It is a matter few (if any really) know anything about...." - Answering my question on if death is the final step of the human ladder, or if there is some sort of continuation (from Convivial Hermit 1)
Norway's Funeral was one of my most important bands back in the 1990s being one of my first exposures to what is now called funeral doom (a genre I love so much I dedicated an entire zine to it, Ethere). Without exaggeration, I must have listened to their Tragedies album 100 times back in those years... the production and the riffs and the emotional voice of Toril is incomparable to much of anything that came after (and hasn’t aged a bit, I would argue). It was emotion made music, like something that wasn’t written for pleasure or reward but out of necessity, pain made sound. That was the ethos of the 90s doom scene, arguably, before social media and the internet destroyed most of humanity's collective brain. Bassist and guitarist Einar, who also contributed to The Flesh, Paradigma and Anti-Chord, my first contact with the band, answered my letter inquiring about an interview and was very receptive to a conversation. As I understand from what his girlfriend wrote to me shortly after his suicide, he was enthusiastic about working with me and the magazine, though now that I think about it, he had never received it... or how could it be otherwise, as he never even completed our interview. Nevertheless, out of respect for him, I decided to print what he did send to me in my first issue, incomplete but at the same time as complete as it could be, like an analogue to his life. Funeral went on to record a superb second album called In The Fields of Pestilent Grief, also with Einar on guitar, before the band went silent for a year after his death and was resurrected again. But the new Funeral was no longer the same. Anders's Funeral is a different band altogether. Be that as it were, my respect to Funeral for keeping the funereal pace going for 35 years and counting, having formed way back in the year 1991. That is the epitome of dedication and the antithesis of the trend-seeking popcorn hipsterism which drives most of new bands around today. R.I.P. forever, Einar Andre Fredriksen.
EINAR ANDRE FREDRIKSEN
NEGRU (GABRIEL MAFA)
"The modern world, and especially the European one, is a totally alienated one, alienated from its own tradition and past. And all of that started with the imposing of Christianity..." (from Convivial Hermit 1)
Whereas Negură Bunget is typically associated with the progressive music they began unleashing from around 2002 and onward with N Crugu Bradului (and then really ramping up on Om and all of the albums they released after), my introduction to the band was the awesome Zirnindu-Sa album released back on Judas Iscariot frontman's Akhenaten's Breath of Night in 1997, arguably a different band altogether. The first three releases of Negură Bunget were extremely special both then and now, back when they were crafting a very idiosyncratic and raw “pure” black metal with a strange Romanian, haunting touch. Not to exaggerate too strongly, but those were the days before post-black metal really fucked things up! There are a few good post-black metal bands, sure, but the majority of bands truly have no idea... anyway, Negură hit the arrow right dead center back in the day, Negru being the leader and as I understand main composer of that period. Though later albums lost me, especially the last few, I feel like artistically their journey was an indisputably original and powerful one in the beginning and is outside of any single person’s taste. Negru went on to appear on every album, as the sole original member, outside of the final album, Zau. I am not sure what the circumstances were for Negru's death years after our discussion in 2017 except for what is listed online as a heart attack, which is unusual at such a young age of 42. It was a loss for the metal scene, no doubt, and for one of the most important bands from Romania. The early albums, including his work in the classic Wiccan Rede, will live on forever in me.
"As we know, vocal is really important in black metal and it’s difficult. Murkmyth is trying so hard - he is sense and serious in singing each song." – Sadsoul (from Convivial Hermit 4)
I did not interview Murkmyth directly, only his comrade Sadsoul (Sina Winter), but I wanted to add this text as a tribute to his memory and the band anyway. The duo Sorg Innkallelse is one of the most obscure bands I’ve ever interviewed over the years but still has a special place in my mind and my history. To say this Iranian band is underrated or unknown would be an understatement, if even lacking much sense since too few people knew about it for it to be rated at all! But back in the latter half of the 00s it was one of my favorite black metal discoveries. Murkmyth, whose age was never publicized, died from a heart attack at a presumably young age judging by his photos. He had an absolutely excellent, tearing black metal vocal delivery on league with Silenius of Abigor and Summoning... just vicious... and the music, despite an obvious low (or no) budget, in the band's short but very prolific existence between 2003 and 2008 was in my opinion top class, full of extremely catchy riffs and leads with an unique, non-kitschy Middle Eastern element. Only their final three albums were released on CD-R by Hexenreich in limited quantities. As I researched online, Sadsoul has been very busy with From The Vastland since moving to Norway, but for whatever reason From The Vastland does not resonate with me at all, suggesting that Murkmyth possibly was the main songwriter of Sorg Innkallelse. A great band I hope more people will discover after reading this. I would be glad to own proper reissues someday.
MURKMYTH
DARKUT (ANDREY MARISYI)
"When I write music I always go into a small trance and start to feel a thin line of unity with nature, the universe and the world beyond" - Andrey Marisyi (from Convivial Hermit 6)
Featuring one of my favorite winter art covers of any album, Dalina's Cold Mysteries (Далiна – Холодные Тайны... in original cyrillic) appealed to me like few recordings of its type have since, a rare case of the cover actually matching the content and substance of the record. Cold Mysteries was the work of just one man, Andrey Marisyi, its music something like contemplative and somber ambient, but not without structure or melody... perhaps best described as a cross between wintry ambient and folk music enveloped in an unique, light (not overdone and overbearing) ethnic Belarussian core. Marisyi died about 10 years since our interview in 2012, for reasons unknown. He told me at the time that he had no children or family, allowing him the opportunity, in his words, to not only write his music but also help other bands (as he has done as a drummer in Thelema, Stormhold, the killer Zmrok and others). Though there are countless winter ambient or folk releases out in the world today, Dalina’s unique vision still stands out. It's sad that it turned out to be his one and only album, as judging from the lengthy track he released digitally a few years later he still had a lot of excellent ideas in him. In retrospect, to be able to talk to him and introduce other readers to his music is one of the things that I am most proud of in the 6th issue. At least from my side, his music will not be forgotten.
"I am pro-death. Mainly because i am anti-human. Of course, at times the innocent get executed, that's a real tragedy for sure. As for the state: well, it's a rightwing haven so of course they're against abortion and then line up to see you put to death. Seems the righties are pro-life and pro-death, a little hypocritical in my view. But this is where I live so I have to deal with these Christian nutjobs."- Wes Infernal (from Convivial Hermit 8)
An important part of the Texas underground metal scene for decades, Wesley Weaver started his own radio show in the late 80s before getting involved in the local scene with bands like Imprecation followed by Infernal Dominion and finally his own Blaspherian starting in 2004, unquestionably one of the best bands of its type if you ask me personally. Here I have to make a confession, in case you don’t know me or my writing: "Bestial death metal" or “war metal” is absolutely one of my least interesting sub-subgenres of death metal and also, I am convinced, by far the dumbest outside of thrash and speed metal, but Blaspherian was an exception to the rule, with not a single recording I heard that I didn’t like. Who would have imagined? One of the things that delighted me when talking to Wes was how his home state Texas, a haven for white Christian rightwing nationalists, gave rise to someone who so vociferously opposes everything those scumbags stand for... that was a real breath of fresh air to me and I got the impression that overall Wes was a really good guy that I could probably get along with well if we had ever met in person. For a while, around the mid-2010s I was following Blaspherian more or less closely, enjoying their somewhat sporadic output since the 2011 full length, until things abruptly ended with Wes dying of heart failure in 2021, about 5 years after we talked. Imagine asking someone the question, "If you will die in five years, what would you do now differently?" , with the certain knowledge that it will become a reality? My thanks go to Wes Infernal in The Beyond and all in Blaspherian for responding to my interview request and for writing such ferocious and tasteful death metal over the years in a style that in my view is pretty much dead and gone now.
WES INFERNAL (WESLEY WEAVER)
RODOSLAV (ALEXANDER SHERSTNEV)
"I wish everyone to remain yourselves independent of the times in which you live, to be faithful to your convictions and your position in life" (From Convivial Hermit 8)
Alexander Sherstnev was one of the key musicians of the Russian folk metal underground, part of one of the most internationally famous black/folk metal bands to this day, Temnozor. He worked with Vo Skorbyax, Oprich, Sonnenbrand and Shexna and contributed vocals and flute in a few others from his native Rybinsk, over 300 kilometers far north of Moscow. Unlike perhaps most others who only heard of him via Temnozor, my introduction to Alex’s work was via the folk music of the immortal Krynitsa, my favorite of all Russian folk projects. There is a rare feeling of elation, rarer now than ever, when a band whose work has really touched you in the past comes out with a new album, and not just once every 10-15 years or whatever the case is for the many bands I continue to follow today. Between 2005 and 2016 Krynitsa was actively producing great music, maybe not as frequently as I would have liked, but certainly more prolific than the others from the same Rodoslav. Sherstnev was kind enough to quickly accept my interview request on condition that we talk in Russian exclusively. He was pretty matter-of-fact in his answers, reading them again now, but still gave a respectable response which I was happy to include in my 8th issue. For some time afterward, Krynitsa seemed to disappear, 7 years after В Bихре Mетели, until I caught the news that the man died from cancer, 6 years after our conversation. Rodoslav's vocals were absolutely one of a kind, more distinctive and unique than many of the dime-a-dozen folk vocalists one finds in the Russian underground (and more broadly Slavic scenes) today, and his music was original and unmistakable. I wish his family and everyone around him the best and for his works to be preserved forever by the pagan gods. Apparently a few of his bands like Shexna and Sonnenbrand are now in unknown status, while others like Temnozor continue to exist though have not released anything in years.
Thanks for everyone who made it this far for reading. All available issues of Convivial Hermit can be found via Zurz Zinez as well as our distribution partners worldwide including Paragon Records, Dark Horizon Records, Hells Headbangers, Grau, Bleeding Heart Nihilist Records, and others.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse