Inteview conducted by Veliccia with Beldaroh (Bass) of Besatt.
-Veliccia-
-Beldaroh-
Please give a brief history of the band for the readers.
To be as brief as possible, Besatt was brought to its unholy life by Beldaroh. The first years of its existence were full of continuous searches for the suitable musicians and the struggle with the various problems connected with the rehearsal rooms. It all stabilized in 1994 when Fulmineus joined the band. The first official demo tape was recorded in 1996. After that, the following evil acts were generated by Besatt:
1997 - the first full length album "In Nomine Satanas"
1999 - the second album "Hail Lucifer"
2001 - third album "Hellstorm"
2002 - MCD "Roots of Evil" (Korzenie Zta)
2004 - fourth album "Sacrifice for Satan"
In the meantime, various songs were recorded as well for different split albums.
Besatt is obviously Satanic. Do you have your own Satanic beliefs or do you share your beliefs with the common form of LaVey's Satanism?
I share certain Satanic views with LaVey but I want to emphasize here that my opinions are very personal and I've got my own individual thoughts and views concerning the surrounding world and universe. I interpret Satanism and the whole demonology connected with Satan in my own unique way. Besatt is the art by means of which I pay homage to the Dark Side of Life which utterly fascinates me. Besatt exists to praise the name of Satan!
On the albums, your songs are in English, but on the demos and cassette releases, they are all in Polish. Is there a reason for this or is it just coincidence?
It was done on purpose. On the full length albums we always record vocals in English. But when we appear on split albums, because we are Polish, we do it in our native language. However, it is not a rule. Personally, I think the English language is more suitable for our music and that is why all of our full length albums will always be in English.
Yuor part on the three way split with Unhallowed and Tragedy Begins has a very raw feel to it and the vocals are more reminiscent of early black metal bands such as Bathory, but still manages to keep true to the "Besatt sound" to the music. Was that what you were going for?
In the studio all was recorded on the tape reels, without the use of the computers. Actually, there was no computer equipment at all in that studio. We were recording in some of the same conditions as some bands from the late 80's and early 90's. In this way, we could achieve this raw sound. But still, the style of Besatt remained unchanged. I must tell you that we used the same studio for the recording of our MCD, "Korzenie Zta."
You seem to have a problem with guitarists. There has been many in the ranks of Besatt. Actually, just many lineup changes in general. What would you say is the reason for that?
I really don't know the reasons for that. Since the recording of our first official demo tape in 1996, we'd already had three different guitar players yet after some time we were forced to part with them in various circumstances. As for today, I think the problem has been solved succefsfully because Fulmineus, our drummer, took over the position of the guitarist.
I noticed that Morbid is pictured on your site. Is he the new guitarist? He also played with Fulmineus in Unhallowed, right?
Morbid became our new drummer after Fulmineus had taken over the guitar. The tow of them did play together in Unhallowed. We've already played together a few shows and all seems to be OK!
I also noticed that Fulmineus does most of the vocals but on the three way split and on "Korzenie Zta," you do the vocals. Why the change?
I did all the vocals on "Korzenie Zta" because Fulmineus did not participate in the recording of that MCD. He had some problems at the time and for a year he was not a member of Besatt. As for the split tape with Unhallowed and Tragedy Begins, I did the vocals because I wanted to experiment a bit with the vocals. However, on all of our full length releases, it will be Fulmineus who will be doing the vocals a his voice is perferct for our evil music.
Who are your personal influences as a musician? Personally, I hear a lot of old Immortal coming through from the music, especially the guitars.
I'm not sure if we have the perceptible musical influences. There are bands that I have a lot of respect for - like Gorgoroth and Enthroned - and perhaps, subconciously, we are, to a certain extent, inspired by their music. But we do not intend to recreate or imitate the music of other bands. We play Satanic Black Metal the way we like it. And that's all there is to it!
This space is yours to say whatever you would like. Hails, curses, anything that comes to mind.
HAIL LUCIFER FOREVER!