Interview with SauroN 2007

By Bradley Smith

You have recently released your new album, The Channelling Void.  How do you feel it is an advancement of SauroN from your earlier material?  How do you view it now and what has the public and media response been?

Well, the responses are great and I also think this is the best album so far.  The Channelling Void has become an epic blackmetal giant.  The blasts are reduced to an effective level and the songs are longer and more balanced.  This time more attention was paid to details.
The responses say the same.  Although we weren’t sure the mix was exactly how we wanted it to be, after the mastering at Necromorbus Studios it became clear the balance of the songs was good.

Carnal Records is your new label.  How did you get turned towards this label and how do you view your past labels?  What do you think of your fellow bands on Carnal Records’ roster?

Well, we signed to Dark Horizon Records for 1 album, Universe of Filth.  After that we got a new offer from Dutch Neurotic Records, which was better, so we signed to release our 2^nd album here.  This became ‘For a dead race’.  Neurotic evolved to a death metal label so we decided we were not the perfect match.  I contacted Carnal Records and a few months later we signed for our third album to Carnal Records.  For us, Carnal Records is the best label so far, because it’s a blackmetal label and eventually this serves our music best.  Also Carnal has several other great acts like Craft, Svartsyn, Arckanum and Shaarimoth signed to their roster.

There is a SauroN Video on Youtube.  What is it of and how does it represent the band? 

There were two video’s.  We removed the Council of the Impious video, because the sound sucked.  It was compressed to much.  Anima Mundi (from our previous For a dead race album) is still online.  It’s made from German live footage and images from very old horror movies about Satanism and occultism.  It fits the lyrics of the song and of course the atmosphere of the song.  The lyric deals about the escape from life’s agonies through ritual Satanism.  The clips are made by Herr AIDS, just for use on the internet.  There not professionally edited.

One of the aspects of Channeling the Void that really stands out is the Quality of the Artwork and the artistic direction of the album.  Can you tell me what it represents and how do you feel that the packaging should reflect on a band?

First of all I think an album cover should ‘tell’ you what you can expect music and lyric wise. So the cover’s really important. The artwork of the channelling void represents the void of life, the questions of life and the utter sickness of human life. You can see humanity is deformed. It dwells in a void and doesn’t know where to go.

SauroN seems to me a band with deeper philosophical roots than a lot of bands these days.  Can you tell how that plays into the Lyrical subject matter and what are some of these dearly held beliefs of the members? 

First of all we are a band that deals with several aspects of the dark side of humanity.  Humans are always searching for an Archimedes point.  Something they can hold on to, which eventually is a void.  People need this, if they have nothing to hold on too, they would extinct. So people need the illusion of an Archimedes point to survive.  So the void is channelled by themselves.  Humanity created it’s own tunnel.  For ages men liked to believe the gods were responsible for the architecture of reality.  God’s presented it to them.  God was the answer to all questions.  We all know this is not reality as we know it, but still this point or void is something humans can’t life without.

Do you view Black metal as a serious art form?  How serious should it be and what do you think of bands that have abandoned their serious roots?  Should a band hold on to their obscurity rather than seek wider scene acceptance?

Yes.  Black metal certainly is a serious art form.  If you play black metal it should be a way to express the dark side of humanity.  If bands abandon their serious roots they usually make themselves look foolish.  Black metal is about expressing the darker state of mind, if you choose not to do this seriously you won’t be taken seriously.  A wider scene acceptance is possible as long as you know where you stand for.  

It seems to me that one element of SauroN is a strong affinity for Occultism.  Is this true and what are your views on mystical subjects?  What forms of occultism/mysticism appeal to you?

The most interesting for us is to deal with the blindness of man.  As you might know the most ‘evil’ written texts are written in holy books like the holy bible or the Koran.  If followers of these religions would really do to their enemies what’s written in these books they should do to these enemies, well, what a nice world it would be then.  Paradoxically they do, what so called sinners might do too, but then it’s in the name of God, so it would not be a sin anymore?

Also these books are rewritten so often to keep gaining control over their followers.  I wonder how many of these followers realize their beliefs are man made and not divine.
 

Speaking for myself I appeal to earth.  I believe there’s a spiritual world, but I do not believe in a God.  I do not worship the devil.  The devil is made up by the fuckin church.  Also the use of an inverted pentagram and a goat is made up by the Christian church. These symbols are scapegoats.  To me, Satanism is to do what you want to do and not being bound by the rules of some religion. (And there I am, channelling the void again.)

Hatred can be a focussing force for artistic creation.  Do you agree and if so how does this view reflect in your music and other artistic output?

I agree, in the early days our whole music evolved around plain hatred.  Nowadays it’s more philosophical.
There are thousands of subjects to deal about,  which can be a lot more interesting.  But hatred keeps on being an interesting element. You need to release fury. You can do this through music and lyrics and there will always be some amount of hatred in our songs.  It can also be anger of course.

I visited Holland in the recent past and found it a “nice” place full of liberal ideals and friendly people.  How has living in this society affected your world views?  If you were king for a day, what would you change if anything about Holland?

My world view hasn’t been formed by this society but by looking at what’s going on in the whole world.  Living in Holland isn’t an agonizing trip although there are always things that leave room for questioning.  If I could change one thing I would forbid religious education.  There are still schools in Holland who make you believe you should pray 3 times a day, all bad language is bad and your life should be dedicated to God.  It would be nice if people knew better in 2007 or at least choose for there selves.

In another interview you stated that “Beginning of the end started with the creation of the human race.”  What did you mean exactly by this comment?  What can we do to eliminate this problem or do you welcome the end?

Well, I do welcome the end, because humanity is very good in working its way up to the end.  It will end.  I think that of all species, humans are the most wasted beings ever.  They will extinct themselves by their own means.  That’s also what I meant by saying ‘the beginning of the end started with the creation of the human race’.

What does the future hold for SauroN?  Have you already started constructing new material for the next album or are you guys taking a break or concentrating on some of your other projects?

We never take break.  We are constructing new material as always.  We want to play more foreign shows and release more albums.  We also work on other projects, but we always do.  We do not play in bands that tour a lot, so we do not need to take breaks.  Maybe if we have a writers block.

If his word is yours then what will he say in the end?

As above, so below.