Wywiad z Archaic Tomb / Interview with Archaic Tomb by jesusatan

With no introduction bullshit this time – an interview with Portuguese Archaic Tomb, evil souls responsible for creating the best death metal demo I’ve heard from that country in years. I was talking to D.S. Listen to the voice from the tomb.

First of all : cheers man! I’m Just having a cold beer, hope you’re sipping one as well replying the questions.

I’m drinking wine actually, while listening to Hyperdontia’s Nexus of Teeth album. This is fucking sick man! I’ve just ordered my copy to Me Saco Un Ojo, along with some other goodies like Merciless’sThe Awakening, Spectral Voice’s Necrotic Doom CD and new Intemperator’s demo.

Wine you say? What kind of? Do people in Portugal generally prefer wine to beer or vodka? If it comes to Poland, it’s anything that kicks the head is what counts haha!

Well, regular table wine, from a demarked Portuguese region called Pias. This place is located in Alentejo district, a region with high quality wines for a very cheap price. I travelled once to Dublin for a fest, organized by Invictus Productions by the way, and I was wondering in the town and found a wine shop with a lot of varieties. There was a huge wall with wines from the entire world: Australia, Chile, France, Italy, Spain, etc, and Portuguese wines were there also, right in a corner, like the ugly duck in the lake. French and Chilean wines were fucking expensive like for some other countries, and the Portuguese wines were the cheapest. And the truth is that, is not because of the cheap quality, but because of the relative cheap life standards in Portugal. So I was actually wondering, are the Portuguese wines that bad? Not really. As good as any other. If you want cheap and good wine buy Portuguese, you won’t be sorry I guarantee you. So basically there’s a lot people drinking wine rather than vodka certainly. There’s no fancy culture on vodka here. It’s an occasional drink, sometimes to make cocktails. On the other hand, beer is normal here too but there are just a few main brands, unfortunately. The good thing again is that is very cheap as well. You can drink several liters of beer with less than 10€!!! And then there’s a lot of good brandies. Cheaper than a ninety-year-old whore. The first time I got drunk in my life I drunk 4 glasses of one of those brandies and I spent 2€. Fuck, that was cool, ahah.To make the story short: If you want to turn into an alcoholic badass, move in to Portugal!! ARGGHHHH

Portugal is not much metal country if it comes about the music. So how come you became interested in those ugly tunes? Was there any Portuguese band that had influence on you, recently or in the early days?

Portugal is not indeed a country known for metal bands and for any kind of scene or whatever but, truth must be said that there are some pretty good bands in Portugal, especially in some genres I follow. But before I go into that let me tell you that I started listening to metal in the early 90’s, when I was just a kid. And there are no surprises here. I guess mostly people starts to get interested in this world from the classics Maiden, Sepultura, Metallica and so on. Honestly I just came across with bands like Venom, Bathory and the likes quite after I listened to Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Deicide and Slayer. I know I’m a weirdo. Anyway, I think I pretty much listened to every kind of metal. In Portugal, in the early 90’s there were some sick bands I followed somehow (information wasn’t easy to get like nowadays!), and I’m talking about bands like Thormenthor, (early) Sacred Sin, Grog, (early) Moonspell and (early) Disaffected and Decayed. There were some other acts I enjoyed but I believe those were the major for me at the time. Nowadays I highlight some really cool bands like FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium (one of the most psycho-necro-black-metal bands of all times), Ravensire, Midnight Priest, Tod HuetetUebel, Festering, Infra,Ironsword,Irae, Summon, Pestifer, Onirik, Corpus Christii, etc, just to name a few.But in fact, in recent years, you might be aware that Portugal became somehow noticed by black metal bands with numerous acts of infamy and an incredible putrefaction feeling. I’m sure you’ve heard of Black Cilice, Candelabrum, Israthoum, Monte Penumbra, Mons Veneris, Lux Ferre, InThyFlesh, Satanize, etc. So, overall, in a way or another I get influenced by what happens here. Albums that come immediately to my mind are Decayed’s Conjuration of the southern circle, Thormenthor’s Dissolved in Absurd, FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium’s Era do Abutre and more recently Infra’sInitiation On The Ordeals Of Lower Vibrations.

What was your first experience with death/black metal music? Who infected you with it and what is your number one classic from the old days, the one that you return to regularly?

This question is obviously difficult to answer, but I dare say that probably one of the most remarkable death/black experience I had was Deicide’s debut. It is record I still return now and then and still enjoy it. Other than that, and maybe not so obvious are Amorphis’sThe Karelian Isthmus of ’92, Darkthrone’sSoulside Journey, Tiamat’s Sumerian Cry, Emperor’s In The Nightside Eclipse, Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane and so many others (tomorrow the list would be different). 

Man, you’ve just enumerated very similar albums that I would (among others).  Do you still follow those? Some of them still play similar music (Deicide) but at drastically low level, some others (Amorphis) totally changed their style. But there are still bands from the 90s that keep the face, like Napalm Death or Immolation.  Has your taste as a listener evolved through the years, or would you rather call yourself an orthodox?

I really don’t follow those bands anymore, not even Darkthrone. I mean, there are cases I eventually still follow but I think there must be very few examples. Maybe Immolation, Incantation, Napalm Death, Candlemass, King Diamond or even Immortal now. But mostly of those references for me were momentary, as what they play today has nothing to do with what they used to be. How can we compare Samael, Rotting Christ, Sepultura, Satyricon, Therion, and so on, to what they are today? No way. And eventually my taste also evolved through the years. When I look to some CDs/LPs of my collection that I bought when I was younger I think to myself what the fuck are they doing there. But, I guess that’s a normal process till you finally find the sound that really identify yourself.

What is the origin of AT? I mean when did the idea of having a band first came up and who was the initiator? Was it difficult to find the right people to complete the lineup?

Well, the idea was born years ago in a culmination of friendship with Deimus (the drummer). We know each other for a long time now and we’ve spoken since then to found a death metal bandov death. Unfortunately, over a decade has passed due life circumstances before we actually gathered in a rehearsal room, few years ago, in 2015 to be more precise. Finding members to play with us wasn’t difficult at all. D.C. is also a great friend and a fantastic musician so we invited him to join the ranks and he promptly accepted the challenge of playing bass. A.C. just worked on a few samples for the demo so, right now we are a power trio and we want to keep this way. Ideas are discussed in a simply manner, straightforward and the processes are smooth and clean. No bullshit. Just Death Metal.

How long did it take you to complete and record the material to your debut demo?

Things started moving in the right direction (of Satan) around 2016 and the songs to Congregations for Ancient Rituals were written and arranged since then. As all of us are busy as fuck (we just can’t stop drinking and listening to blasphemous records!) the process took a bit longer than we thought but to be honest, I think the songs matured a bit more. The recording was fast though and the mastering too. We knew exactly how we wanted to sound like and that made our life easier I guess. Basically we recorded Congregations…in our rehearsal room (Rock n’ Raw Estúdios) and in some other pits of carnage to which we are quite familiar with. This way there was no pressure at all, we took the necessary time to make it and at the end we’re quite satisfied with the final result. It sounds obscure, heavy, cavernous and putrid. Just the way we wanted. Fuck yeah!

What is the Rock n’RawEstudios? You say it’s yours, so do you also record some other bands?

Rock n’RawEstúdios is not mine, it’s just the place where we rehearse. The place was born few years ago and it’s located in a very active region of Lisbon in terms of bands. Great bands rehearse there regularly like Ironsword, Decayed, Corpus Christii, Ravensire, Process of Guilt, Summon, Irae, Necrobode and many others and recently has become also a reference studio for recording in Lisbon. The conditions are really cool and the owner is a very versatile guy and a good friend, so we really feel like at home.

The recording sounds massive, like an album really, not a demo. Why didn’t you decide to record one-two more tracks and hit the world with a full length?

We really didn’t want to start with an album. We felt we needed to record a Demo/EP to introduce our art. In its almost 30 minutes long we believe the songs display enough diversity within what we wanted to create. We don’t establish any boundaries to our creativity and that was somehow visible in Congregations… The Lord is the leader and master of all darkness. Therefore, He will give us the right inspiration to create an album when the time is due. 

What is your way of listening to the Lord? Do you perceive Him as a supernatural feature or is he the embodiment of your thoughts? Like “Do what thou wilt”?

Beelzebul is in everybody’s heart. He runs in every vein. Fighting and against what’s good. Good is Evil, like God. There’s nothing supernatural here, as this is born with anyone. It’s quite human actually. The way of listening to Beelzebul is to listen to yourself and reject the obvious, the subjugation, the moral and the weakness. But I also believe this energy might be transformed as soon as you’re Death. You rot, you decompose into something. Beelzebul invades others’ hearts in the form of perverse sadness and joy, in many forms. And those forms are taken in many ways. These ways to find Death are the false convictions and ignorance of the flocks. And my way to listen to the Lord is to observe. Observe the madness and despair of the deceivers. 

Why did you choose Caligari Rec? Did you contact them or they asked you to release the demo? Are you satisfied with what they are doing for the band?

Caligari is one of my favorite tape labels and since the date it was founded I came across with amazing bands I started worshipping. I really respect the work its owner makes and for me became obvious to whom to write inquiring about their interest in releasing the Archaic Tomb demo. Very fortunately Caligari fiercely embraced this band and maybe because of that you’re making these questions to ustoday. Unexpectedly, Caligari released the demo in cassette tape and CD formats and we couldn’t be more pleased. 

Caligari release mostly tapes. What do you think of this medium? Do you collect tapes? Don’t you think it is a kind of “fashion” to become more oldschool?

I don’t think is a fashion to become whatsoever, because from my point of view is a normal thing. I buy/record tapes since I remember and I never stopped using them. I still have the tapes I used to record radio programs so I could listen to new bands later on. I still buy tapes and to be honest is one of my favorite formats. There’s a cult and ritual intrinsically related to tapes that is strongly bonded to metal history and culture. The sound couldn’t be better for me. I love the dirty analogic sound of it, and I wouldn’t change to anything else when it comes to listen to demos, live rituals and rehearsal tapes. Anyway, FUCK hipsters and fucking fashion baby-boys. The cross will come upon them.

Did you also use to record radio programs? I remember spending eves and nights recording some polish programs… What were those you used to listen to? Do you have a radio station or TV that plays that really heavy metal tunes in Portugal?

Yeah I used to record radio programs, but not many though. There was 2 or 3 main radio shows in my region, but there were other cvlt radio shows. One of them was called Empacto, emitted by a cvlt personage in the Portuguese underground: Mr. Kepler. But unfortunately I just got to know the existence of this radio show few years ago, post-mortem. Death is everywhere, even for radio shows. Nowadays I still can recall 2 or 3 radio stations passing metal and some interviews to local bands but honestly I don’t have time or patience anymore to listen to it. In the TV there are no Metal shows whatsoever. The closest we have is a TV News channel (CMTV) that illustrates hilarious death and murdering to the exhaustion.

What is the response to the demo? I guess it’s megapositive, as the material is really worth wider interest.

Some people like it and most people hate it. Nevertheless there have been really good reviews! But we don’t care much to be honest. We make music to ourselves, for our own joy. If someone will enjoy our visions of death then we’re honored with it but we won’t go on fake hysteresis. Let’s keep our bare feet on the ground and follow the stream and see where it takes us. Our main goal is to make music we like and explore the thematic we’re fascinated with. Everything else is a plus.

What was the first review you got to the demo? What was the feeling before you started reading it? Were you afraid of what would people think about it or you were certain it is a kick in the nuts?

I’m not sure what was the first public review but the first mentions to Archaic Tomb ended up to happen in sites like Cvlt Nation, NoCleanSinging, Toilet ov Hell, and the likes so, yeah, we were kind of surprised for being featured in so illustrious webzines. I believe Caligari Records had an important role on this and that has to be highlighted. Anyway, we weren’t expecting anything really so, like I said before, all the good reactions are satisfying of course but they won’t influence any aspect in our path. We know what we want to create and that’s the most important for us. 

Have you had any response from Poland? I know there are some maniacs that really appreciate your tunes.

Hm…that’s a good question. I have no idea. If you google for a review there’s a lot of them but I couldn’t identify any from Poland. Maybe you’ll be first?

What do you feel if people compare you to older bands? I’m not going to give you the names that come to my mind, do it yourself. And tell me if it honors you more, or annoys?

Comparisons are inevitable. People do it all the time in order to have a spatial musical reference, just to know where to place X or Y band. I have no problem with that at all. People can compare AT to older bands, new bands whatever, that’s part of each knowledge and perception and it’s a very personal view. Just like the reviews. Every review is personal and cannot be taken as granted to anybody else. I do understand that you see old-school influences in our music but honestly I think we are more influenced by what’s being done nowadays than before. I certainly get into VON, Beherit, Celtic Frost, old-Therion and old-Tiamat or even Black Sabbath, but I find myself listening to a lot recent stuff that I really like. Amazing bands like Cadaveric Fumes, Bölzer, Grave Miasma, Dead Congregation, Black Crucifixion, Sartegos, Tod HuetetUebel, Urfaust, Teitanblood, Malthusian, Possession, Cult of Fire, Malokarpatan, Spectral Voice, Desecresy, and a big etc, are only some of my main influences nowadays. For example, Abiogenesis by Burial Invocation. What a monster of an album! Fuck! Does that influence me?? Well, perhaps. The only common factor is definitely darkness and somber atmospheres meeting good music. 

There are 2 types of musicians, those who follow the scene and get inspirations from it openly, and those who don’t give a fuck about other bands and concentrate rather on putting into tunes whatever plays in their dark souls. What type of musician are you?

I don’t think that there’s people who doesn’t give a fuck about other bands. Even that can be considered a trend or influence. Otherwise they would create something completely out of metal music. There’s always a boundary (even if tenuous) and the main genres are now created. I can’t see much more evolution on metal music than this (call me a dumb ass). But answering your question, when I write for AT I don’t limit myself at all. If I feel that a black metal riff fits in the music so why not to use it? You might have realized we don’t play plain death metal, and you can listen a bit of doom and black metal in our music as well… this is part of our perception of what we want to design. Is it creative? Is it different? I don’t know, you tell me. We just follow what feels right at the moment. As you could read on the previous answer, I myself don’t listen to only one genre, as that would be boring as HEAVEN. So, now I leave you a question: A blend of genres is a creative process or only an imitation of other bands?

I’d say it depends how you combine all the ingredients and how much you add from yourself. Which band would you call original lately then? Which of them gave you a real kick in the ass, even if their music is based on something, that had been already played? To me they would be all those Portalish bands.

There’s definitely a lot cool bands coming up and it’s hard to say what indeed kicked my ass lately but I think you might right. Bands in the same vibe of Portal, Chthe'ilist, and the likes are impressive and stand out by their massively constructed wall sound. There’s not much new on there in my opinion, just a matter or intensity and sound engineering that eventually was hard to reproduce decades ago. But there are really unique albums lately that stretched the boundaries of some genres like Bölzer’s Aura, Howls of Ebb’s Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows, Onirik’sCasket Dream Veneration, or even the eclectic Wolvennest (call me a CVNT – Is this metal? I don’t even know).

You have “Tomb” in the band’s name. many bands have the graveyard names, do you sometimes attend graveyards to catch the inspiration to your music, to feel the omnipresent death? If not, what is your secret place where you feel inspired?

Graveyards certainly inspire me. I do visit graveyards now and then, mainly for the feeling you get walking beside those authentic pieces of art that contains the last remains of so many damned souls. It’s quite interesting also to figure out who’s there and what they were in life. At the end, no matter what you do in your life, you’ll be just a pile of bones and dust, feeding the worms and propitiate rejoice in the stench of your own dead body. 

What inspires you most while writing lyrics? Do you think a regular listener of AT should read them or you don’t care?

The main inspiration to our lyrical content is basically the atrocities and the ways that religions endeavored in name of (whatever) God. We like to explore the evil side of subjects like human sacrifices, religious judgements leading to death, occult rituals to ancient gods and so on. The way humanity always found death to be part of any cult in any part of the world is something wickedly glamorous. Punishment and suffering are conditions that always walked side by side to humanity. Pain, agony, ignorance, madness, fear, arrogance, faith and evil are only some of the weaknesses to find in our lyrics so if you identify yourself with these values, please make sure you read our message.

The digital download I got after purchasing your demo contains a bonus track “Self-Immolation”. Why didn’t you include it on the CD release? It’s a great track of a band I hadn’t known before.

Well, initially this track was not meant to be part of Congregations for Ancient Rituals. The idea came up later when we thought on re-issuing the demo after being sold out in 3-4 months in Caligari. So, to make a slightly different edition of the demo, CavernaAbismal Records released the demo with that extra track. Self-Immolation is a song by Thormenthor, a cvlt band in Portugal who had destroyed a lot stages around here in the ‘90s. Their attitude and music were perfect at the time, and this cover is nothing but a small tribute to their legacy. Hails THORMENTHOR! I wish these guys could return, shit! By the way, Congregations For Ancient Rituals will be released in LP format by Duplicate Records/CavernaAbismal, next year, and this track is going to be included. 

The cover art of your demo is simple and devilish, it screams it’s not music for Christians. What’s your attitude to religion of any kind? Do you feel religious repression in your country?

This music is certainly for Christians. That’s the only way to educate them and make them feel how ridiculous the Catholic Christianity has become. The same for all the other religions, especially the desert religions. Every kind of Islam-Christian-Judaism religions are nothing but addle-heads fanaticism for weak minds and souls. It clouds peoples’ minds and hearts. It’s the worst nightmare in the history of human kind. Satan worshipped cannot be anything else than the rebellion against all those religions and the negation to stupidity, ignorance and institutionalization of religions! Nowadays I don’t feel any religious repression in Portugal. Young people cares less and less about Christ even if they say they are Christians. It’s only a cultural thing. Like Christmas. What’s Christmas today? – An occasion and time to spend with family and make the kids happy. What the fuck. It’s just cultural, not religious anymore. Ah, and there’s Fatima of course: the great apparition of Lady Mary in front of young shepherds, in 1917, revealing the famous secrets. Is it real?? – Is as much real as people wanted to be. F.O.A.D.!

Man, I must tell you I knew a guy who was a christian listening to metal music, and you know what? Once he admitted, he had to confess from listening to Slayer and asked the priest if it was right? So do you really believe there’s any change Christian fucks can listen to this kind of tunes and have any thoughts? No shit!

I do not know anyone that listen to metal and goes to the church honestly, so I can’t say anything about it. But I do believe many kids who had a Catholic education will change their minds after listening to metal. I was baptized, like most the kids in the past and I assisted masses till the age of 9, maybe. I guess I didn’t have a choice or even opinion about it. Just after that age, when you start seriously thinking by yourself and your own believes, and you have the capacity to search impartial information things get different. And so, like me, there are certainly many fuckers out there. Listening to metal opened up my mind and changed my life drastically with all what involved, including the subjects and philosophies explored.

Have you managed to play many shows in or outside of your country so far? Any plans for the future concerning live performance?

We only played live once atMasmorra Fest, this summer and we felt really good. We were fucking thrilled to play alongside with FiliiNigrantiumInfernalium, Balmog, Summon, Flagelador and Martelo Negro, all bands we deeply respect.We will play next year again, and we are certainly open to play throughout Europe soon but I believe is still early for that. We have some new releases in the pipeline, which I believe will give us some more visibility and probably call the attention to some foreigner promoters. Possible visits to other countries now include the UK, Hungary, Spain and perhaps Germany. We would love to go Poland also of course, a country I never been!

Do you know any bands from Poland? Which do you value most?

Come man, of course I do know bands from Poland. Who never heard of Master’s Hammer doesn’t deserve to live!!! --- ahaha. Just joking. Poland was always a prominent country in terms of metalov death. Besides all the superstars: old Vader rules! Decapitated, Christ Agony, Behemoth, Pandemonium, and the likes I’m a great fan of bands like Mgla, Cultes Des Ghoules (stunning band!), Blaze of Perdition, Doombringer (so good!), KultMogil, Chthonic Cult, Loathfinder, Death Like Mass and Outre (another amazing act). Graveland is also cool, I have a lot of albums but I’m not really listening to that kind of stuff nowadays and Evilfeast is also very, very good. Evilfeast is probably one of the most haunted black metal projects I ever heard. Ah, and Throneum of course!! Veterans as fuck! For me they are the Polish Nunslaughterahah. Another band I wish they could do something else is Abysm. I think the band has a lot potential but as the guy moved to the UK I believe things got a bit swampy. AH, and just for the record. I don’t like Batushka. So much for visuals and so poor for music. Have said (just my opinion)! 

If you could change something in people’s minds, like inject them one thought, what would it be?

As we all need to die one day, let’s fuck and drink in clerical orgies till ejaculating the blood of Christ!! Die in Pain and live in Luxury!   

By the time the new issue of R’Lyeah will be released you may have recorded a new material. Are you already working on it? Have you got any tracks completed?

We do have new material recorded right now. We are just working in the layout right now. This new material is a split 7’’ with Cryptworm, a band we feel quite close for the friendship and for the good music they make. Make sure you go to listen this band if you’re death metal fan, in the old school way. This split will be released by Blood Harvest in vinyl and cassette. As I said before the demo will be also released by CavernaAbismal/Duplicate Records in LP. Other than that we are working in more material to release probably in an album but I can’t say much more about it right now.

Thank you so much for your time man, hope the questions were not too silly as for a drunk interviewer haha! Hope to meet you one day on a gig in Poland. Any last words?

The Lord forgives you as you’re a sinner! Thanks for your time and for the killer support! Hope we could step in Poland one day and meet you personally, till then don’t forget to rotten your guts and heal it with large amounts of alcohol. Cheers!

-          jesusatan