Interview with Goatpromoter Lava of Amok 2007

By Bradley Smith

You guys just released your new album Necrospiritual Deathcore(NSD).  Can you tell me a little bit about the concept behind it and how you went about constructing it?  Have you received a lot of feedback about it yet?  How has it been?

The concept behind NSD is religious fanaticism. The main lyrical topics on the album are: black masses, rituals, exorcism, holy war, flagellation, doomsday prophecies and mass-suicide.

The three last tracks have their own concept. “Goatflesh  Removal (Corpus Christi)” is twelve points that describe the logic behind a cult, and the mental doctrine in a cult.

“Goatflesh  Removal (Memento Mori)” is eight points that describe the logic and driving force behind a collective suicide.

“Goatflesh  Removal (Gloria In Excelsis Deo)” unveils the final ritual.

The album title, Necrospritual Deathcore, is also our own way of describing a suicidal doomsday cult.

We have not received many reviews yet, but the ones we have gotten are very good. A good thing is that each reviewer seems to have his/her own favourite track, which differs from the others.

On NSD I feel there is a huge diversity in your writing style from the more straightforward styled death / thrash songs to the more industrial and sample laden material towards the end of the album.  How were you able to successfully unify these two divergent styles?  Is this a sign of things to come?

Amok is more a medium than a band. The important thing is to achieve a certain atmosphere, and it is less important through which genre we achieve it. We work within very wide musical frames, even though I feel that our frames are stricter than many other acts in the same genre.

You are not the first to describe the last part of the album as a bit industrial. But I feel that the “Goatflesh Removal”-trinity is more analogue and organic than the rest of the album. The instrumental “Postapokalyptisk Korstog” is the only industrial sounding track on the album, and this track's function is to divide the albums two parts. The “Goatflesh Removal”-trinity is very ambient but I don’t see any other connections between it and industrial music beside the use of samples.

This album has been a vision of mine for a long time, and I was pretty sure that the parts would function together. Things can always change while working in a studio, but it but it turned out just the way we wanted it. Something which was more of a task was to mix it, because NSD consists of many different recording-sessions in different studios. Sverre Dæhlie (hail Audiopain!) did a superb job as always mixing the album, and we are very satisfied with the final creation.

These two parts introduce the listener to how Amok will sound. The next album will go deeper into the darkness of true death metal, and the album after that will go further into a more ambient and ritualistic style. But again, expect nothing – only darkness and doom.

You guys used a lot of samples of the Reverend Jim Jones speaking to his followers before their mass suicide at Jonestown.  How does this play into the concept of NSD? Where did you get the material and why did you choose to use it?

The samples are authentic recordings from Heaven's Gate's last hours.  This is a recording done by FBI and we found the “Jonestown Death Tape” through the internet.  The idea was to strengthen the presence of  religious fanaticism through this mass-suicide, and not necessary to create a concept around Jim Jones himself.

Recently Amok participated on a Tribute to VON.  How did this tribute come about and what song did you cover?  What makes VON so special as to deserve a tribute and what do you think of your fellow participants on this compilation?

Hoest from Taake wanted to cover a VON track, and he also knew that Tormentor and Infernus had done a cover of VON some years ago. Then he came up with the idea of making a tribute to VON, and Amok and Urgehal joined.

We did a cover of the track “VON”, this has been my favourite VON song since I heard the band for the first time.  It was either this track or “Chalice of Blood”, but we ended up doing “VON”.

VON are pioneers within minimalist black metal, and definitely deserve this attention.  VON was spawn in San Francisco, but managed to avoid the typical Bay Area sound.  With their hypnotic and raw sound they really created something unique, a necro-trance.  I guess a lot of bands performing such music these days are not even aware of VON.

Some years ago Nuclear War Now! released a killer collection of all VON's works as “Satanic Blood Angel”.  This release contains the “Satanic Blood” demo, the “Blood Angel” demo and a live recording.  People ought to check it out.

“A Norwegian Hail To VON”, which the tribute is entitled, has been released by Holycaust Records as a double gatefold 7”EP, red wax and limited to 1000 copies.

I think that all the participating bands did good interpretations of classic VON tracks.

Pray Satan!

As a band Amok has been really active throughout the years of its existence. You guys have had so many releases such as your split with Audiopain and the split 10” with Taake and so on.  It is surprising to me that this is your debut album. What took so long and do you think having all these smaller releases helped or harmed you in your quest for a debut full length?  I mean did they take away from a body of material you could use to make an album or conversely did they help you gain enough label interest?

We started up in 2000 and released two demos and one promo before we released our debut album in 2006.  But we started to work on NSD already in the end of 2003.  The delay of the release was caused by several different reasons.  First of all we had already decided to sign to Planet Satan Revolution, but we had to wait for them to establish.  NSD was originally meant to be a mini album. But while we waited for P.S.R.  I started to write more material, and we decided to go for a full album.

Iscariah was living in the UK at that point of time, but we knew that he soon was coming back to Norway.  He had recorded some bass in England, but we wanted to include him in the mixing/mastering process.  The rest of the recording was therefore postponed until he came back.

At the end we also decided to use real drums on the rest of the tracks.  In the beginning only the “Goatflesh Removal”-trinity had analogue drums, the rest was programmed.  So we had to find a drummer, he had to learn the songs, and then we had to go back in the studio.

I think that the split-releases you mentioned has gained Amok attention, and not harmed the release of NSD in any way.  The splits with Taake and Audiopain contain only material from our demos, so we have not used any extra time for writing/recording songs.  These releases with more established bands have helped us to spread Amok's music in a much larger scale.

There is a big difference between your old material and some of the new songs on NSD.  How do you intend to Translate new material to the live environment?  Is it a difficult task or is it relatively easy?  What is your goal in the live environment in regards to the audience?

We have no plans to perform live in the near future.  I am personally quite tired of metal gigs, and I want to focus on creating music instead of entertaining.  But we will do some concerts after we have released our third album. We will only perform material in the vein of the “Goatflesh Removal”-trinity live.  We have some plans on how to recreate the atmospheres, but I will not reveal them yet.  I can only tell you that it will be a hybrid between a concentration camp and the Vatican, and the audience must be sober.

Since we are talking about concerts, I just want to mention my fascination for Sunn 0))), Khanate and Earth when it comes to good live bands.  The way they create the atmospheres is fantastic.

As an insider within the Norwegian scene, do you feel that it is stronger now than ever or has it been watered down with bands that lack quality?  What bands from the old scene do you still respect and what bands from the newer scene do you think are deserving of attention from the world outside?

I do not care about any scene at all.  Good bands come and good bands go, but their music remains.  I therefore want to mention, in no particular order, both existing and non-existing Norwegian bands that are important to me:

Mysticum, Orcustus, Furze, Audiopain, Cemetary Droids, Aura Noir, Manes, Carpathian Forest/Nattefrost, Cadaver, Molested, Old Funeral, Nidingr, Amputation, Burzum, Thorns, The 3^rd And The Mortal, Aghast, DHG, Ved Buens Ende/Virus, Darkthrone and Ulver.

I am sure you probably see yourself as an artist in one aspect or another.  Besides music what is your favourite artistic medium?  What are some of your favourite artists and why?  Do you base your opinion solely on the way the piece makes you feel or does the reasoning and philosophy of the artist influence you in any way?

I think that religion is the best art form.  It includes both strong atmospheres, reasoning and freedom through manipulation. Religion is also a very strong source of inspiration to me as an artist.

Sometimes it is enough that art moves me just by pure feelings, but I mostly appreciate art with a strong philosophy behind it. If the philosophy behind it is something I agree with the artist becomes the art and vice versa.  This way the art becomes alive in a sense, and that is a much more powerful experience.

You guys have a Myspace page as do a lot of bands, Zines, and labels these days. Do you think that it is important to have a page out there?  Has it garnered you more fans? How important is it to keep connected to your fans and the scene at large?

I think that Myspace is a good way to promote the music.  A lot of people have discovered us through this page.  It is a very easy channel to use to find a band and via that page go further on to a bands homepage etc.

I stay in touch with some of our listeners, but we use this page mainly as pure propaganda.

How does one achieve salvation through fundamentalistic religious fanaticism?  I noticed that phrase on your website and It made me wonder exactly what you meant and how a person might go about achieving it.

As I said before, I am very fascinated by religion.  But a lot have been destroyed and religions have been watered out. Religion should stick to it's core and not try to adapt to society.  Fundamentalism is pure misanthropy in my eyes.  This aspect is lost when religion has to please everyone.  The lack of fear of God is a loss of a strong and important value.  Amok is the upheaval of all fundamentalists.  Await the white throne judgement!  

Since you used all that material by a group that was made famous through their mass suicide, what are your thoughts on Suicide?  Is it a revolutionary act as Jim Jones claimed?  Is it the coward’s way out?  There are so many ways a person can view this issue.

It depends on the situation.  I mostly think it is pure weakness.  Before, at least in Norway, people who committed suicide were buried outside the churchyard (one example of religion adapting to society).  Suicide was looked upon as an ungodly act.  I can totally understand and respect this, because I find most humans not worthy of life.  So if they are so lucky that they are born, they should cherish it.  But people who commit suicide for a religious cause, like suicide bombers or people who commit ritual suicides, have my respect.  There is a huge void between people who kill themselves to escape problems and people who die for their beliefs.  I am also very fascinated by mass suicides, and that combined with religion is a revolutionary act.  

When it comes to Heaven's Gate, I think it was a combination of a revolutionary act and an easy way out.  But the main point here is not the act of suicide, but the act of mass manipulation.

Now that your debut is out there and you are basking in its glory are you resting or have you already begun preparing for some more upcoming recordings?  Can we expect another album or will it be more EPs and comps?

We are going to record two new tracks for the LP version of NSD. The LP is licensed to Nuclear War Now! and will be released in the first part of 2007.  The LP will be released in 1000 copies, and the first 300 will include a bonus 7" EP.  This EP will include two exclusive tracks: "Chapel of Embalmment" and "Silent Worship".  The drums have already been recorded by our new drummer Taipan [from Orcustus].

We are also designing a totally new artwork for the LP-version.

Agonia Records will release a split 10" EP with Iperyt early 2007.  Amok's side will be the 2003 promo Effective Mass-Torture, including the bonus outro "Ritual Suicide".  Agonia Records will also release some new merch soon.

Further on we will focus on our next album, “Cumming in the Massgrave”.  Some material has already been written, and the album is heavily inspired by blood libels.  This time the Devil will be called from a Vessel of Blood.

Any final words before you drink the Cool-aid?

”His blood shall be on us and on our children" [Matt. 27:25]