Interview with The Devil's Blood 2010

By Bradley Smith

Your new album, Time of No Time Evermore, embodies the perfect balance of musical freedom and spiritual depth.  Can you please describe its creation?  What does this album mean to you personally and how does it feel to have liberated the music and philosophical load from your mind and body and into the world?

When we finished the album and the master was sent to the pressing plant it felt like a great release to be sure. However quite some time now has passed since that day and it has become hard to remember what emotions exactly played their parts in my head. I was thoroughly exhausted and extremely proud, of that much I am sure. The exhaustion has dissipated and has made place for the eagerness to create new material, which is what I am doing now. The pride of my creation lasts though, the album stand for a closure of a period in my life that led to its creation and I listen to it with great pleasure still.

You state that the new album is the first step on a long path. Where do you see this path leading or is the future unclear?  If this is the first step then what do you consider all your efforts prior to this albums release?

I have no idea where the path will lead me, it is a vivacious and perilous path I am walking. I cannot even be sure it will be a musical journey all the way. The essence of The Devil's Blood will remain within me but how I will feel compelled to speak of it remains to be seen. As to your question about the past, the past, when viewed in the chronological sense of time as most do, is merely a vehicle that brings you where you are. All steps on the path where needed to bring me here. From the greatest victories to the lowest depressions, each phase has to be gone through on the road to Self.

As I understand it, success is fleeting and temporary, but don t you think that in general, passion and integrity can help ensure that success endures?  I mean immortality of sorts can be achieved if the music is quality and possesses personality.

I was mostly referring to success as referred to by the label executives and marketeers, success as a quantifiable result of the balance of cost and profit. In other words all that of this world which does not in anyway interest me. I have written the album and that is all the real success I need. There is no other greater glory than knowing I have spoken the words of Satan to the fullest of my abilities. If others see this Art as worthy of their interest and perhaps as a gateway to devotion then my success is furthered even more.

Music and spirituality seem to be very much intertwined for The Devil’s Blood.  How do these two similar crafts work in harmony within your creative mind?  How do you channel your Satanic dedication into your musical art?

In my life they have become One. There is really do difference any more between, for example, meditation or invocation of certain aspects of Satan, and channeling sinister energies through music and words, these things are sometimes frighteningly close to each other. The great difference being that music allows for fairly easy communion and that ritual magick takes far more time and more effort. In the world of musical incantation I can call myself an adept but at Ritual magick I am yet a novice.

A lot of people want to know how Satanism influences your music, however I am interested in knowing how the reverse occurs.  Has your musical art changed the way you view your relationship with Satan and the Occult? 

I believe that, in the beginning at least, Satan spoke through the music. So my first revelations lie in the realm of musical creation. As I have said before they are One. And from this oneness comes a powerful surge of inspirational influence. Everything I do is a result of that influence it is hard to say where lies the head and where lies the tale.

Being as the title of the album is a take on the End of Times, the Apocalypse, what is your vision of what exactly that means?  The extinction of all life, or more than that?

More than that, the apprehension of all physical law, the total and utter destruction of the pre-requisites of life as we have come to understand it.

How was it collaborating with Erik of Watain on some of the music and lyrics of the album?  What exactly did he contribute and do you see yourselves as ideologically aligned though musically dissimilar?

He wrote the lyrics to "The Yonder Beckons" and also wrote the chord progressions in the bridge of the song. It was a great thing to have him on board as he is a truly creative, philosophical soul and has a great deal of art to offer in him. Also we see eye to eye on a lot of issues where Satan is concerned and our respective creative outlets: The Devil's Blood and WATAIN share many similarities in ideology and substance.

I read that you view Satan as a “breaker of Chains in your Mind.” What chains exist in your minds that needed to be broken?  How has that allowed your creativity to flow freely?  Do you think your music helps others to break their chains as well?

The "chains" are many, and different for each individual. They can hold you tied to dogma, to lies, to love, to hate, to whatever illusion has forced your way of living into something that drives you away from reaching your true Destiny. Each and every thought or rationale that enslaves you rather than sets you free. This might sound simple and straightforward but when meditated upon most people choose slavery above freedom. I don't. I have taken, and am taking, great efforts to become the absolute proponent of Chaos and Freedom. 

Since your music is often compared to 60s and 70s era rock I wanted to know if you felt that the music from that period had a laid back sort of freedom and adventure in the work of the artists?  Does this feeling of no real boundaries appeal to you and do you feel modern music styles are very restricting?  Do you feel you have managed to avoid the stereotyping and genre cornering that so many other artists today are limited to?

I have never really thought about it to be honest. I create what needs to be created. And through the landscapes of my soul The Devil's Blood flows in accordance with that necessity. I care not about scenes or even decades in musical development. I listen to music from all eras and enjoy many different styles in music, art, cinema, literature and what have you....

How personal for The Devil’s Blood is it to share a live ritual with the audience and what emotions and atmospheres do you try to impart upon the audience/participants?  Do you feel like it might be a similar equivalent to a mass in a church but for followers of darkness and chaos instead?

It might very well be, and in truth at a few occasions it has been exactly that. It can be a most powerful union between all those involved and then a strange Dark Love engulfs us all. In other cases nothing but Hatred and Scorn is invoked and violent thought and urges come to fruition. Both in a way have the same effect. Chaos is brought from behind the universe to taint, in a small way, everything we touch.

What are some of your upcoming plans for The Devil’s Blood?  Any special Live rituals forthcoming?  Any bridges to cross or to burn?

A great many festivals and perhaps some recording of new material later this year. Nothing is ever certain when swimming in the deadly current of the River of The Devil's Blood.

Thanks for the interview and I will leave any final invocations of the crawling chaos to you.

Hail Satan! May His flames burn away all doubt from the hearts of those few born under the mark of Cain who are still searching for their heritage. Awake now! Children of the Serpent, hearken, for it is the word of Truth that shines here. Do your will and your will alone.