Swedish black metal legends Lord Belial are going to release a new album called "Rapture" on May 27th via Hammerheart Records which is going to be a killer album I believe. I asked the band if they were interested in answering some questions and guitarist Niclas Pepa Green was kind to answer them very quickly and detailed via email. Thanks for that again! Enjoy reading the interview and check out "Rapture" as soon as it is available. You won't regret it!

Michael

Hey Pepa, how are you doing? I hope you all got well through the pandemic and shit around that?

Hi, Michael! Yes, everything is ok! I went traveling during the pandemic, I was in Naples, Italy, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, on different occasions. Frankfurt had by far the worst restrictions! Armed guards at the mall, guards at restaurants, paperwork to sign before having a meal, etc. In Sweden, there was not much of a difference - a face mask was not mandatory, and you could go to restaurants and the mall without any problem, however, all competitions and such were canceled.

You had an on/off status with Lord Belial the last couple of years, majorly because of health issues Micke had. Since 2020 you are active again – is all fine with him again?

Micke's health issues were never physical, he just had bad tinnitus. He is in very good shape! He exercises a lot and keeps up with the drumming all the time now. (I was amazed when we recorded the Vassago-album in 2020 because he said he had barely played anything for five years. Yet it turned out excellent.) By now, we all have tinnitus - but we have learned to live with it. We have pretty advanced equipment in the rehearsal room nowadays, we don't play as loud as we used to because we have a monitor system in which you can choose what you need/want to hear more/less of - it is like being in the studio more or less! In the old days, we just turned up the volume more and more on the guitars in particular, so in the end, it was a very chaotic sound (which has its charm of course) with feedback noise from every speaker. It was cool but it hurt like hell after every rehearsal.

You are currently on the Dutch label Hammerheart Records. How did this happen?

The contract with Regain was filled and we were free to search for a new partner. We asked around and we were pleased with the offer from Hammerheart. The cooperation is progressing as we wanted from the start, thus we are pleased with our decision to join Hammerheart.

In May you are going to release a new album called "Rapture". I was pretty surprised to read this news. When did you come to this decision and why? I mean the last album was released in 2008 and a lot of things have changed.

After the recording of Vassago, we (Lord Belial) said that we should just jam for a bit and see what came out of it. Three weeks later, we had all purchased a lot of equipment and we went for it 100%! Suddenly, we were feeling very creative and were filled with fresh ideas, because Lord Belial has its own sound and that part had been missing from the other projects/bands. We felt at home again, we labeled ourselves "The Unholy Trinity" of Lord Belial.

How was the feeling of being in the studio again, writing new songs? Did you have some problems writing new stuff or did you have some trouble getting into it after such a long time?

It became the best studio session ever! We were quite focused and worked really fast. Afterwards, we were exhausted, but we all said that it was the best session ever.

What can you tell me about "Rapture" in general?

We really dug deep into ourselves when we discussed the title. We were in the studio at the time and discussed different titles. The concept of Rapture in its essence for us is that Belial is exalted, the beast is unleashed in its purest form. Then, there is also the concept from the bible, about Paul, in which he uses the Greek word harpazo, meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize," a concept where believers in Jesus Christ would be snatched away from earth into the air. It is an end-of-all-time thing for Christians and Christianity. There are a number of people that have looked into the concept through history; e.g. Edward Irving's idea about the snatching of Christians being followed by the rise of the Antichrist. The concept of the album reflects the idea behind the concept of the rapture, and also, the cover art; it reflects the concept in a phenomenal way.

I had the chance to listen to it in advance and I have to say that it is a typical Lord Belial album with the fast-melodic black metal you used to play in the past. What would you say makes the album more different to its predecessors if there is such a thing?

The album is in many ways a salutation to Belial, for instance in 'Rapture Of Belial': "Northern prince of evil, unleash your power onto this withering earth of human filth, Trample its burning soil"

Also, the song titles spell out Lord Belial:
1. L(egion)
2. O(n a Throne of Souls)
3. R(apture of Belial)
4. D(estruction)
5. B(elie All Gods)
6. E(vil Incarnate)
7. L(ux Luciferi)
8. I(nfinite Darkness and Death)
9. A(lpha and Omega)
10. L(amentations)

We have made a salutation to Belial, and the lyrics and the music reflect and represent our way. There is a common concept of rapture in its true meaning on the album; to make way for the antichrist and it is communicated not only in the lyrics but also in the music. "They shall cover the world in flames, The higher the flames, the greater the shadows" (from 'On A Throne Of Souls') "Lust and power for absolute annihilation, Winds of obliteration, fire, and death, Storms of destruction reaping all mortal souls" (from 'Destruction'). The frustration of being caught in the age and in the system/social function we all have to be caught up in is also reflected upon and is also from that same theme of rapture "Possessed by a thousand burning souls, Bound in human flesh, torment, and confusion, Centuries spent in chains" (from 'Legion'), etc. I think this album is a fresh restart for Lord Belial. Sure, we have been around for 30 years and we have seen many bands come and go. It is very flattering that other black metal bands make cover versions of our songs these days! We get a lot of feedback from people that ask about how certain riffs are played, they want to show us their own riffs and we communicate a lot with the fans via email, messenger, Facebook, Instagram.

One of my all-time favorite bands is Bathory, which holds an "unreachable place at the top" in Sweden. Then, underneath Bathory, there is nothing, and then nothing again, and then there are some 20 bands, and Lord Belial is quite high ranked in that league. Maybe you can tell a little bit more detailed about the different songs? What about a song-by-song walkthrough?

'Legion' - This song is about the frustration of being shackled in chains, be they mental or physical, still the same feeling. To not be able to do what you want because someone else says so - be it a dogma of religion or politics. It is about Legion from history as well, when a demon who is possessed by a multitude of demons is given the collective name of "Legion". It is a very fast and aggressive song, it is quite intense as well, you will probably feel that you need to breathe after it because you have held your breath while listening to it(!). Some short intense guitar leads drive the song forward, and then in the end it goes faster and faster, ending with a break and some feedback from a guitar and then the rhythm guitars + bass drums in unison, the end.

'On A Throne Of Souls' - It is about the destruction of the world as we know it, "Kill The King" (Rainbow) sort of theme - join the dark side, plunge yourself into the everlasting fire, join the hordes of darkness against the light. This song has a chorus that appears twice, the first time with the chorus riff and Thomas' vocals, the second time with a Pepa-choir and Micke's screams. There is a mid-part where a second chorus is played that goes "They shall cover the world in flames, The higher the flames, the greater the shadows, They shall bring me the heads of fallen kings, The higher the flames, the greater the shadows" where all three of us scream in the background, we call it "the choir of mental illness"!

'Rapture Of Belial' - A hymn to Belial, finally the time for the antichrist to be unleashed, the entity is in ecstasy about it "Ecstasy and morbid lust, feel the Rapture of Belial". The song begins with drums of doom and heavy slow-paced guitars that then continue to rise in intensity, along with double bass drums, and then it intensifies further with a harmony lead and blast beats + a disharmonic solo + even more drums of doom, then the drums and rhythm guitars follow tightly, moving into a death-metal sort of riff with darker vocals and then some twisted disharmonic chords, moving into a tempo-slow-down, and then back to the blast beats.

'Destruction' - This is a more old-school black metal song. The drums follow the guitars, it is a rather fast and aggressive song, but not blast-beat-fast. There is a chorus that goes "Life is torment, Death is liberation, Destruction is all" this song was originally more than 7 minutes long! We shortened it in the mix to 3:48. It ends with a chaos solo.

'Belie All Gods' - A clean guitar plays the harmony, backed by massive rhythm guitars and heavy-paced drums, a Georgian choir sings in the background. This is the most "progressive" song on the album, the chorus has some clean singing by Pepa and Micke in the background on the second and third time "The unholy trinity, slayer of gods, Faceless, fearless, dark shapes of perdition, Dressed in cloaks of burnt angel wings, We come to cleanse the earth". Towards the end, there is a break and a new riff appears with a harmonic lead. The song ends with Micke exhorting us to "Belie all gods".

'Evil Incarnate' - "In the deep murky chasm only darkness dwells" If you don't bang your head to this one, you need more beer. This is pure black metal, mid-paced yet forward-going. Towards the end, there is a slower part with an extinguished solo, then back to the chorus, and out.

'Lux Luciferi' - Explodes with energy and Thomas' fantastic voice tells us about a salutation to Lucifer - the fallen angel of enlightenment. This is a very dynamic song, one minute in - there is the chorus. Super heavy, with Thomas' scorching vocals "Let shine thine luminous light from within the realm of the dead, The radiant light of the son of the dawn, Hail to, the fallen one, hail to the flame, The radiant light of the son of the dawn" backed by Pepa and Micke on "Hail to the Flame". Background choirs and piano. Then the song explodes forward again, followed by a super-heavy riff that will put your speakers to the test. Then, a second chorus "Tu verus mundi lucifer". The song ends with heavy drums, a harmonic lead, massive guitars, Thomas vocals, choirs in the background, this is a really massive song.

'Infinite Darkness And Death' - This song begins with clean guitars followed by massive rhythm guitars and heavy drums, soon it explodes into blast beats, quickly followed by the chorus "The one we call our dark lord drains your temple of breath, Legions of war burning those of the light" that makes your hair stand up on your arms. It is followed by a speech by Thomas, exhorting us to crush all and kill all. The song ends with massive rhythm guitars, topped by clean guitars, and blast beats!

'Alpha And Omega' - This is a sort of reversed salutation to the most common religions of our time, "I deny your beliefs
I deny your gods and prophets" It explodes with double bass drums, massive rhythm guitars, topped by a clean guitar, into a really cool downward going marking, into a pre-chorus with mid-tempo drums, and then by the markings with the clean guitars, Mr. Andy La Roque makes a guest appearance. In the end, we talked about fading it, but we just cut it and it became really cool.

'Lamentations' - This song begins with strings and clean guitar, then comes the rhythm guitars and drums, as it continues more and more guitars are added. It is a very beautiful song, with lots of emotions, a perfect way to end the album. In the middle, Thomas says "I called upon thy name, O Dark Lord, out of the lowest of dungeons, Thou have heard my voice; hide not thine ears at my breathing, my lamentations". Then, as it goes on, there is a Georgian choir and then a beautiful solo.

You all are all 50+ years old now (except Thomas who is a little bit younger). Do you think that people still take it seriously when you are singing about demons and the Devil? I guess you all have families and stuff like that, haha!!!

We are always reading more and more, and we research everything thoroughly, the theme of Rapture is eschatology, and the subject is esoterism.

What do you think has changed in the black metal scene the last 20 years? I guess there are a lot of things. And would you say that the scene has changed in a more positive or negative way?

We grew up in the pre-internet era, it was totally different - we had to write letters via the underground movement, and we met other metalheads at parties before a show, during a show, and after a show. We had to listen to taped vinyl or the actual vinyl itself and then word of mouth spread via underground magazines. Today, it is spread globally with access to anyone, instantly. In that aspect, Black Metal has lost a lot of the mystique surrounding the genre in the early years. Like, going to East Germany to play before the wall fell. Quite the adventure compared to clicking on a Spotify-link!

Do you already have plans for touring or play at least some gigs or festivals?

We are talking about doing maybe some festival gigs, but nothing is yet settled.

What albums did you purchase lately, and which are your all-time faves?

I am mending the holes in my vinyl collection, last I bought Bathory "The Return" for the fifth time in my life.

My last question is one I have had in mind since I bought your first album "Kiss The Goat" in 1995. Why the hell did you choose this pink color for the cover? This wasn't too evil at all (at least for me being a teenager back then), haha!!

I know, it was supposed to be blood red, apparently, that is a tricky color to print!

German progressive deathers Dark Millennium have recently released their fifth full-length album "Acid River" (read review here), which at least in my opinion, is one of the highlights of the early 2022. I had a very nice telephone chat with vocalist Christian Mertens about the quite interesting history of the band and about the new album, too. Enjoy reading!

Michael

Hi Christian, how are you?

I'm fine, thank you. I just got home from work, was on the road all day and am now relaxing at home in the warm living room.

On January 7th your new album "Acid River" was released. Do you have a certain expectations regarding the reactions?

Well, that's difficult to say that we have a certain expectation. I would say that we are curious about the reactions. Every album we've done has been different from the previous ones and it's no different with "Acid River". It's quite a difference from the previous album and I think it tells a new story again and is a new chapter. On the last album, except for the closing track, we recorded relatively short songs because we felt like it, it's different again with this album, and there are fewer but longer tracks on it. It's not an expectation in the sense that it would be totally important for us if we get many negative reactions. And it's not a decision criterion, whether we continue to do it. This is not meant to sound arrogant; we have always done what came out of us and what we simply had the desire to do. I would say that we are curious and it would be great if a lot of people like it and is well received.

After listening to the album umpteen times now, it still leaves me pretty amazed because it's so incredibly diverse. I've always felt like I'm in Alice in Wonderland or on a trip when I listen to Dark Millennium, but this time it's all a bit more whacky. Was that your intention to evoke such feelings?

When we started songwriting, of course we thought about what we felt like doing and what we wanted to do beforehand. We felt that we would like to write longer songs again, so also record fewer ones and we didn't want the typical verse / chorus scheme. Apart from that, we went into it with certain adventurousness and just went for it, not knowing ourselves where it would lead us. We tried to surprise ourselves and I think you can hear that adventurousness in the album. With most of the songs, there's not a lot of repetition and you never really know what's going to happen next and that unpredictability factor was a principle after we wrote the songs. We didn't say we wanted to make a totally whacky album; we approached it with a certain spontaneity and let ourselves be surprised. I think that it has become quite an adventurous album that you probably have to listen to or at least can listen to several times and I think that this aspect has been quite successful. It is certainly not an album that you just consume.

But what I never feel when listening to your albums is joy. I think your compositions always drag you down tremendously. Do the songs reflect your soul life?

Let's say that it reflects an aspect of our soul life. In the genre in which we move - which can be roughly described as atmospheric death metal or something like that - it fits and we have always wanted to musically set dark moods to music and accordingly the lyrics are also relatively dark. But we are not a bunch of completely depressed people who go through life with a great death wish, but we simply have a certain joy in transporting different gloomy emotions. It's basically like the pleasure of watching a horror movie or reading a mysterious book. It's the fun of playing with negative emotions and it's also a kind of outlet, of course. It's also a bit of mental aggression release. If you would experience us, we often sit together, laugh and have fun (laughs) and at the same time we just make this dark music. That's one aspect of our personality that we enjoy expressing through our music.

Haha, you don't sound really depressed now!!!

Haha, I'm not, but that's just because I'm making this kind of music, haha!

I read in the promo that the songwriting was much more spontaneous and flexible and everyone in the band could contribute their part. How did you manage that?

I had written the lyrics in advance, before we composed the music, and I got stuck on seven songs. So I had lyrics for seven songs and then we met again and again in the studio in different compositions, sometimes in twos, sometimes in threes, sometimes in fours and I explained the themes of the songs to the guys. Then we looked at what each of us had up our sleeve in terms of ideas that could fit in and then we got through them relatively freely from part to part, tried to let a structure develop and we recorded it spontaneously. We made song sketches and I also sang spontaneously to it, something that I thought would fit and then seven song sketches came out of that, all very spontaneous and situational and in different combinations. Then each of us had the opportunity to let these song sketches work on themselves and practice a bit. Because I had sung the things directly, our drummer had a better feeling at which point he should play dynamically or more reservedly, it was a very free process. It also happened that we used some aspects of these spontaneous demo recordings in the final recordings, which can be found on the album. If a take was particularly successful, then we said we'd leave it, we couldn't record it any better.

So did a dictatorship rule before by a few band members and the others were just "musicians"?

No, you can't say that. Since the reunion we always compose relatively freely and everyone has the opportunity to add different things. When we recorded the comeback album "Midnight in the Void", I composed the songs mostly together with Hilton (Theissen, M.) and Michael (Burmann, M.) and on the last two albums the others joined in as well. But we don't have such a real dictatorship.

What would you say, is your musical development in the last years, rather backward or a pure further development? I personally think that by now you perfectly combine the progressive elements of "Diana Read Peace" with the early death metal approaches you had on "Ashore the Celestial Burden".

I'm really happy about that! These are statements that I find very interesting. I don't know if I would call it development, because that means that you keep working your way from one point. It's more of a jumping between things that we've done before and things that we haven't done yet and we mix something from that. I would say it's more like playing with the possibilities. We reused, as you also said, elements of the first two albums and at the same time put some progressive stuff in there and tried to stir it all together into a good mix.

"Diana Read Peace" is 28 years old these days. With this album you have pushed a lot of people in front of their heads or at least irritated them tremendously. How would you judge the album in retrospect?

That was a very radical step from the first to the second album. At that time we also had a lot of other listening habits, we listened to a lot of progressive, grunge or pop and that's where "Diana Read Peace" came from at that time. Apart from that radical cut to the first album, I'm glad we did it because it had to be done, but if we were to record it again today, I would do a few things differently. I always feel the album is a touch unfinished. We should have taken a little bit more time for the album in retrospect and what aspect is essential for me is that we should have played through the album a few more times together in the rehearsal room before we recorded it. It was pretty much a head thing and that's the thing that I still don't like so much in retrospect. Nevertheless, the album had to be made at that time, because all the ideas had to come out somehow.

Lyrically, especially in the opener or also in 'Vessel', I have the feeling that you are trying to deal with the situation in the world today, which is truly not as simple as it was a few years ago. "A long cold winter in our world begins" or "Submission, Demolition, The world we know explodes". In addition then still fittingly the title "Acid River", something that etches itself into society....what is it about?

In principle, I must say that "Acid River" is an album that has many occult themes. It's about the penetration of the occult world into our reality and it's about people. I tell seven stories of people in whose reality something changes. Something is happening that they can't grasp and that is disturbing. This always has an occult background, although you can also infer these cross-references to the present day from it. It's about worlds changing and in today's world worlds are changing because of real things like a pandemic, war or whatever and "Acid River" deals with that more figuratively. 'The Verger' is about the Antichrist sneaking into a community and the people there sense that something is changing but can't grasp it. 'Vessel' is about a world in a vessel, that's kind of influenced by Clive Barker, one of my favorite authors. 'Threshold' is about something changing in an unreal way. That threshold - often it's not what happens that's really bad, but that moment when something changes that you can't grasp yet. You sense that something is wrong and something threatening is happening, but you can't grab it. The title "Acid River" is basically a generic term. The "Acid River" is the thread that flows through the songs. It flows through the stories and changes something.

What are your favorite songs on the album and why?

I find saying about favorite songs difficult. The first song we wrote for the album was 'Lunacy', so it has some meaning for me. When we started composing and writing 'Lunacy', it became clear to us while writing into which direction we collectively wanted to go on the album. So I think it's quite charming that the song is in the middle of the album and on vinyl it's divided into Part 1 and Part 2. When the question of vinyl came up and we were thinking about where to make the cut on the album, we said we'll take 'Lunacy'. At that doom part, where there's an opening door, that's where we make the cut. From there the meaning for me is that it's the starting point for the album as well as now the centerpiece and the second song that I find very interesting is the opener 'The Verger'. We didn't say we're going to compose the opener now, but we were into it and at some point one of us said that's the perfect opener and then we did it that way. I then wrote the line "A long cold winter in our world begins" and thought that the album should start with that. That's a good way to start (laughs).

I was a bit surprised when I saw the playing time of the 7 songs. They are all the same length!

Yes (laughs). It was a result of the process. The fact that we do seven songs was kind of on my mind, because I wrote the lyrics and because I thought it would be cool to do an album with seven songs (laughs). When we were writing the songs, the idea came up that the songs would be longer anyway and it would be charming if they were all around seven minutes long. That's when we started having fun with the idea, while also saying that if we feel like a song needs to be longer, we don't stick to that corset. But we somehow managed to compose the songs all at seven minutes. So it's a mixture of intention and coincidence (laughs).

When I look at the cover, I can't see much on there. There we go again with the trip, haha. And what I noticed is that the album title has to be read from right to left.

Yes, because it's kind of upside down. I talked to our cover artist Alex Freund, who has painted all of our covers so far, about the themes of the album and with artists it's always like you have to give them an inspiration but at the same time give them a lot of freedom. Alex tried a few things that didn't quite fit the context and then at some point he painted this picture. It's basically like a mountain with lava flowing down from it and ending up in a sea at the bottom. There are also faces in these seven lava flows (laughs), no matter how you hold the cover. These faces are basically the protagonists of the stories we're telling about. And we wrote the album title upside down to motivate the viewer to turn the thing around....

...haha, so the smart ones and not the dumb ones like me!!!

Haha, no, no problem!!! The thought behind it is this: Music has become so consumable these days. You stream more and more and who buys a record or a CD today like in the past and deals first with the cover and the lyrics? That's an aspect that is completely lost and we wanted to make the viewer a bit curious with the upside down cover to just take a closer look.

Are there any plans for the future? When was your last concert?

We don't have any concrete plans. In principle, of course, we definitely want to play live and present the new songs and we would also like to play a few songs from the last album, because Corona came fully in between. I think with the last album we had a gig and then Corona came, so of course we really want to mix the current songs with older songs live. But the situation to plan something is still not that easy and it's also that we all have our regular jobs and we have to plan that then. If we got the offer to do a 3 week tour next month, we wouldn't be able to do that at all. From there, it's more focused on targeted gigs on the weekend somewhere. But if that continues to not be possible, we will continue to compose. We still have tons of ideas for many more recordings.

What albums are you listening to at the moment?

It's a pretty colorful mishmash. I listen to a lot of older records that have accompanied me throughout the years. Of course a lot of death metal, for example the first two Death albums, the first Possessed, but I also listen to a lot of grunge like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden. Those are bands that have never let me go over the years. Nick Cave and P J Harvey are two artists I absolutely adore. I also like to listen to Norwegian black metal and what I really like right now are bands that combine post hardcore and black metal a bit - stuff like Oathbreaker or Deafheaven.

Do you have any words for our readers?

Apart from wishing everyone good health and a good start into the new year, I would be very happy if one or the other would deal with "Acid River" a bit more intensively and not just take a quick look, because there is something or the other to discover, even at the risk of people saying: okay, that's not mine after all. I would also like to thank those who have been involved with the band over the years and supported us even after the reunion. I know that our band doesn't always make it easy for the listeners, but it's also nice to follow a band that can surprise you every now and then.  From therefore I am very grateful and appreciate it when our listeners keep faith with us and follow our whole jumps a bit.