MALEVOLENCE INTERVIEW

Krepuskulum: Talk to us about the recording and production of the album " MARTYRIALIZED ". As went work with Frederik Nordstrom?

Kariano:  It looks like nowadays we are a bit like a non-standard metal act based unto Portugal. We never followed too much the natural procedure that other Portuguese bands like to follow and we have always tried to improve when it comes to entertain and please ourselves in terms of musical achievements. Fredman Studios was a very natural choice for Malevolence after we have decided to cancel the potential recording over Abyss Studios also in Sweden run by Peter of Hypocrisy. We have made this option for Fredman but do not look at it thinking that we made it just for the great important role this Studio has nowadays unto the underground metal scene. If you ask me I will tell you right away there’s no great importance to have the name of the Studio typed upon the promotional stuff of the band. I am even against using all those procedures just to get some extra exposure in the end of the day. When we decided to record over Fredman Studios the main intention was just to get a perfect qualitative sound plus a very powerful crystalline production above everything that you might think. I know that nowadays people do have a great syndrome to get all those famous studios & producers to have half of the work already done when it comes out in all levels. I also have to admit that by the fact we have recorded this new one over those studios has helped us in some aspects as well but in the end of the day we were not even interested in the methods used by that single producer over his own studio just because he’s actually one of the main gurus upon the recording scene. Of course it was a phenomenal experience to record in such a great place like Fredman Studios under the support of Fredrik Nordström & Anders Friden from In Flames but I guess all that is just secondary to us. This new recording was way more relaxing & even faster than when we recorded "Dominium" unto all thy levels. In view of the fact that we have made some mistakes unto the previous recording of our musical creations this time we just decided that we had to catch one professional Studio with some professional sound engineer that would also make a final powerful mixing of all the ideas we were going to record for "Martyrialized". So to speak this was for sure an unusual task to accomplish for a Portuguese band but we will keep proceeding like that over the future since in Portugal we might have good Studios but there’s a great lack of good sound engineers and mixing persons to help you to achieve the final perfect recording result that you have in mind.

B). For this album we never had the intention to work under the normal production procedures that you usually get over Studios like Fredman. We expressed that to Fredrik Nordstrom that we were only looking for a recording engineer in the end of the day that would be capable enough to record all our ideas. We assumed the pre-production and full production duties for "Martyrialized" while Anders Friden sounded like a normal choice to do the full recording of the album since he does have some experience unto those procedures as he also works over there in his spare time from his duties with In Flames. We had 15 days to record the new album & I can assure you that on the seventh day we had almost everything completed down there as well. The recording, the mixing, the production & the final mastering have worked perfectly well because in some extent we had already made all the pre production of all the individual tracks by ourselves before leaving Portugal. We all knew in advance the ideas that we wanted to capture & to put in practise over there for the final result. We needed that crystalline quality & powerful sound from the Fredman Studios unto our audio bastardisation in such a level that we ended in choosing that one as the perfect room to record all our annihilating production opposed to the raw production idea from the Abyss Studios. This time we were not only looking for a satisfying result like we did for the "Dominium" recording as we also thought like that in the past & now there’s many elements that we would have liked to change from the initial recording. We were just looking for the highest & final perfect result in order to live also with the album upon the future without even wanting to change anything. After 7 months since the album is released we still feel the same level of passion for all the songs gathered there so definitively we made the right choice this time & we are very proud of this record in all levels. The differences are evident & in our own opinion and "Martyrialized" speak for himself without need to resort to any Swedish external influences. Fredrik just made the final mixing of the entire musical product and we also think he made a phenomenal job. I still remember that Fredrik told us that we were a very talented band & that he was not expecting such a professional tight metal unite from Portugal to record over there. He told us that while we were just accomplishing the final mixing for the 9 tracks from "Martyrialized". He also told us that he was more than surprised with our natural & powerful ability to not sound Swedish all over our musical pores as every goddamn band that goes there strikes only for that single purpose & achievement. I also remember his own words: "This material sounds really good, definitively not Swedish, but that’s also twice good for you as a metal band".

The music of MALEVOLENCE can be inside of the new tendencies of the DEATH metal, among the bands that began that movement we have IN FLAMES and AMORPHIS, which you find of those bands and which are your musical influences?

Malevolence does not possess actually a singular influence or even a determined source of inspiration. I really believe that from day to day we are loosing a lot that idea of listening an album just for the sake of catching some particular influence. I mean we cannot deny either that we don’t had any exterior influence upon our past or even affirm that we don’t have any nowadays ‘cause in fact that would be lying definitively. But I guess we are just in the opposite procedure of many other metal bands nowadays at a certain inspirational extent. However I do understand why you define our band closer to the works from bands like Amorphis and In Flames even if we are not influenced by them or even listening to their musical approaches. I know that those bands were innovative in some aspects so we do not bother to be compared to them unto those same levels if you do understand what I mean. In fact Malevolence is also a very innovative band with strong musical innovating ambitions as we are always trying to develop & incorporate new musical elements upon our devastating extreme metal approach. If we are trying to be original & unique among all the competition it’s because nowadays the technical development of bands is increasing from day to day & everybody, including us, feels an urge to present something new to the masses to keep them full entertained by catalysing all their flowing deep towards the current metal scene. There are too many bands overflowing upon the Scene nowadays and those who want to keep their music a step further have to work twice as much as well as to learn how to compete with all their enemies. So with this spirit in mind I can advance you that Malevolence is still of those few that are still loyal to their own metal roots. This also means that we can make a great evolution and bring some new original twists upon our musical approach without even loosing our own integrity in order to become more commercial or something like that. I believe there’s still a lot of aggressive & brutal metal fields unto our diabolical sound & philosophies that we have not explored yet so if we do have the weapons and the machinery skills to break all the boundaries of metal why shouldn’t we use them? Our major aim with our music trademark is also to achieve the perfect symbiosis between our Machiavellian literature with the dark music we create in order to originate a very burning image unto the mind of the most attentive listener. So the multidimensional musical element that we use to make the audio hybrid bastardisation is something that we use since our creation as a band. We definitively have a very strong musical passion to include all those elements all over our metal skilled compositions without the need to resort to any external influences at this point in our musical career. We really love to make that special musical hybrid of slower darkening atmospheres melted with our devastating diabolical passages & the new album carves that phenomenal idea as well.

Portugal has been revealing great bands for the world, like MOONSPEEL and now MALEVOLENCE. How is the metallic scene in your country?

The Portuguese underground metal scene is developing at high-speed in terms of quality and professional attitude. I believe that all the Portuguese bands, magazines, radios, labels & distributors have been striking more and more for their own metal niche lately with their strong conviction to conquer the metal World. Actually we do have one of the biggest and most talented scenes from the entire metal world with almost 200 underground metal acts polluting the scene around here. Nevertheless the negative aspect from our scene is that the biggest band over here had made nothing to support the upcoming bands to get out of here. I am just talking about Moonspell even if I don’t think that nowadays you can classify them as a metal act. I did never seen in their interviews some mentions to support some other metal bands from Portugal considering the advanced place that they have out there in terms of strong recognition. It might be only my schizophrenic point of view but to be honest I remember that in the beginning of their career they even said to the media out there that we had no underground metal scene unto Portugal or even some metal bands to look for. That’s not the true and I am very ashamed of that closed attitude from their side. I reckon that they had a very hard task to be where they are now but some support to the other Portuguese bands would make things easier for all the ones living and striking over here. Just seek some of their interviews and let me know how many Portuguese acts do they mention over their interviews to open those gates for the Portuguese underground metal. Everything we have been accomplishing with Malevolence is also a direct fruit from our hard work (including the killer support from the label) behind the existence of this band and nothing else in my sincere suggestion. The fact that they are unto a very large record company does not mean that all the Portuguese bands will get more credit just for that single reason. One thing is for sure. Malevolence now is able to be among all those higher level acts & is even capable of surpassing some of them in terms of achieving now better reviews & amazing rejoinder from all the media metal press. We are even respect over some Countries out there as being the best Portuguese metal band that people have the chance to know even if I do not give a fuck about success as music is the fundamental thing to keep me living. In some cases, believe me or not they only know Moonspell and we just become so amazed how can that be in the World we live in nowadays since bands like Heavenwood are just in a bigger label company than us and have already been acting out there for some years before we had the chance to be presented to the World. This also means that we are finally able to be exposed unto the most underground magazines and also over the most notable & professional radio shows all over the entire World. I have to agree that in some levels certain names involved can just give you a bigger chance to succeed out there as people will watch your work also with other kind of perspective but in the single case of Moonspell I guess that strong success for the band is just for them and does not even help the other bands around. We do have a very competitive metal scene the only problem is that we do have also the double of jealousy over this land and this is not a very positive aspect since I do believe that all the bands, magazines, radios, labels & distributors in general are suffering the consequences from their stupid ego. No one moves their hands to support no one so that’s why in the end you just get to know 2 or 3 metal acts from our Country and you will loose the opportunity to check some other killer metal bands like Sacred Sin, Genocide, Ramp, Heavenwood, Inhuman plus some other interesting ones.

Some of the music of MARTYRIALIZED (and its title) talk about polemic themes and they weave interesting critics to Christ and the Christianity. You could talk us a little about that antichrist posture.

My lyrical creation boosts texts that are always just spinning in this useless hole in time. Over al of them I am often trying to expand ideas of igniting something to perfectly achieve something different, something that’s better than the present state of decline that we face over Humanity. So the conceptual work over "Martyrialized" is not an exception to this rule as the conceptual name just arrives with the major conceptual idea of the album. Upon thy texts no matter if I am taking religion or even perversion unto consideration, I had always tried to expose to people that we will never agree on the schemes from people that always act supreme or flawless than others ‘cause in fact there’s not a global true upon mankind in my strong point of view. No one shall suffer for the sins committed by others. My actual opinion about Christianity is based upon all the previous years I have been spinning in this useless hole in time.

Therefore upon "Martyrialized" you will be able to sense our own inevitable collision course with all those Christian persevering performances that people often take as true reality upon their life. I am not just attacking Christ as the figure that’s already dead for more than 2000 years by now. My main target is to make people understand from my reflection that all the messengers over thy sphere spreading the word of salvation is forged when the speech of their saviours always sounds the same. We are just expressing that we are the opposition to the carnival of Christian madness. This personification does include the despotism of the priests, the short views from all the defenders of the faith, the insipidity of the dogmas and all the mysterious data previously materialised over this earth giving the formation to thy book of apparent truth. So instead of being abandoned in bleeding faith & afflictive penitence when the speech of the saviour (=Christ) always sounds the same, we just prefer to be considered as the new researchers of progressive & supreme apocalyptic art. My reflection just arises from all the knowledge I have from this religion & from all the analysis I have been doing towards the Christian people in general. In my strong point of view inner stupidity is the word, which represents their fake existence on Earth I resent. In every single thematic approach from thy new album you have a small quotation to make people understand the direct meaning of all the concept of each single song. Although "Martyrialized" does possess even greater dimensions of knowledge grandeur exposed unto him than just our apparent opposition about religions. With the thematic side on Malevolence we have always been trying to show to people that we all must unite our own efforts to get rid of the moral raping madness that’s infecting our living path and that’s a fact no one will deny. That’s the same to say that we need to be in constant battle with all the tyrannical ideals upon the carnival of morals & politics that we have to face since the ancestral times not only in Portugal but also all over other many countries. At this point in "Martyrialized" we have expanded a conceptual view about the present state of decline over Humanity in general. The album becomes for us the perfect vehicle to amplify & bring about all these twisted visionary accomplishments because we made on it the supreme reunion of all the biggest aspects that we consider of the highest martyrdom over our own existence on Earth. That does include not only the religions aspects, but also opposite themes like the abuse & exploitation of the sexual fellow creature condition, the usurpation of the power by the higher chiefs of society and overall the racism that we feel nowadays out there towards everything that moves so different from the normal models of living existence. We are just materialising on the album all the entities, which have been previously marked & restricted by the laws of injustice, stealth customs & other several punishments. So as we are actually living unto a society that’s extremely dangerous & often cruel for their kind fellow creatures, "Martyrialized" edifies & exposes to people in general that all those entities that have been suffering these treatments will make an inevitable collision course with all the aspects of thy living martyrdom. Throughout the use of our individual reflection we might be able to start to renounce over & over the same codes & models settled by the entire segregating community we inhabit in. There’s a fine phrase upon the album that sums the entire concept when I say ironically that men teaches men to kill their brother men. Just watch & listen the statement I make: "I send my brothers to teach the brother men, I teach my brothers to kill the brother men..." upon the song "A Shinning Onslaught Of Tyranny" upon the new effort to get a glimpse of that particular conception upon the album. All the themes I am exploring unto the album are very historical influenced as well as authentic since all my knowledge expressed over them are based unto real facts and situations. So our new material on "Martyrialized" possesses a very deep haunting phenomenon easily perturbing the deepest fears of thy apparent Samaritans polluting thy scorched Earth.

Continuing, what do you think about the growth of MELODIC BLACK METAL and of bands as CRADLE OF FILTH and DIMMU BORGIR??

I am not going to waste my time definitively to talk about the traumatic musical syndromes that those bands you mentioned are just following or not. I simply don’t care about what they do in a way, as I also do not like the melodic black metal style if we can still call them metal in the right musical level situation. I mean all the bands need to change from album to album for sure but I really cannot stand those ones that make just the opposite creation to the one that they have initiated upon their own beginning so why take some time to talk about those abandoned cases. I guess that’s why that melodic syndrome is also so absolute all over so many acts including the black metal ones that do not have anything to do with that musical style if you ask me. I can tolerate melody and progressive musical elements but not unto black metal bands since this style was not meant to be composed unto that particular way. Black metal in my opinion will ever be represented by the very first creations from Bathory & Venom and nothing more. I guess the two bands you have mentioned smell the easy money profit by acting like that. In the other hand they loose all their rawness and integrity but if they like to do it that way that’s their own option & I just respect it as long as they also respect our work. In my sincere opinion there’s still a room for everybody so that’s just up to the fans to choose which are the ones that are going to survive in the end of the day.

In the powerful " LES SALLES OBSCURES OF ROSE NOIRE XVIII " a very beautiful space is sung in Portuguese, which the reason of that decision? Do you intend to sing more music in Portuguese??

6.We have chosen to sing that specific part unto that song in Portuguese because we all love the Portuguese dialect. Anyway this is not a new innovation unto the musical sonic devastation from Malevolence since we have already used the Portuguese mother tongue in our debut album "Dominium". We do use the Portuguese dialect upon some songs because we also feel that our Portuguese language does have some words and meanings that are more aggressive or even more emotional when they are sang unto Portuguese than in any other specific language. At this moment in time I do not know if we are going to use the Portuguese language upon the new musical creations of the band since nothing is concrete at this point in time. But as the Portuguese language also set us apart from all the other underground metal bands all over the World it looks like this is still a fine option to keep on following for the future even if we do not have a specific formula to compose the dark musical material we always try to accomplish. It’s just a matter of creating a song to see if there’s any specific sound structure or dark atmosphere that would become more emotional or even more aggressive by the use of the Portuguese idiom. Over the new album we have used Portuguese words and phrases over the song you have mentioned and also over another song called "Diabolical Eve (Chronicles of Mother Lusitania)". That might be considered as a tribute to our Lusitanian ancestors for all the systematic grandeur of their existence.

Your compositions are very complex and deep, talk us a little about the creative process of your music.

I always try to make the gathering of some ideas & extreme philosophies that I am able to absorb during all the period that separates the release of each new audio bastardisation that I create. That’s just a matter of collecting the most significant facts of our past to subject them to some futuristic analysis in order to use all those reflections both on the musical & thematic level. By this procedure I just make the fine extraction of the elements or incidents from reality that I think are the most adequate to incorporate upon our musical gathering madness. I know that others might always consider some of our musical reflections as only acceptable conclusions from the entire vision we have from the individual decline of the World, even if sometimes, they look too much audacious & frankly scandalous to some people’s eyes & ears. The blackening Earth & all the enslaved people living over it are just some of the most inspirational elements that I can use as a major source of creation for a band like Malevolence. I have always to be in the perfect mood to create new musical hymns to remember and I do not like to push things to happen if you understand what I really mean? Per example people might think or even get confused by the fact that we also use keyboards in the same way that so many others do. But when they listen to the album they are confronted with some new & refreshing ideas that no one has ever used before. At this extent we are not trying to make people confused. That’s just the opposite path that we take over our musical structures as we are just showing to people that we are able to create a huge ceremony of diversity/intensity into all the songs as well as keeping them very raw & brutal. I definitively have a very strong musical passion to include all the elements I have been talking about all over my metal skilled compositions. I love to make that special musical hybrid of slower/faster darkening atmospheres melted with some devastating diabolical passages. The new album carves that phenomenal idea supported by a very convincing musical progression from all thy members that are contributing more than never for things to sound the way they are presented lately. I have been the main composer for the material exposed unto "Martyrialized" that’s a major fact. But you also have to keep in mind that this band does work in the strength of each other now and all the final arrangements were made in total co-operation between all the members. For the next full-length release things are slowly starting to change and every member gives in their own ideas and musical contribution. Something that was just impossible with the previous line-up forcing me to handle with all the creative aspects unto Malevolence’s musical audio bastardisation.

How has been the reception of MARTYRIALIZED and the shows??

The reaction to our new full-length effort to far has been more than phenomenal both in terms of promotion & distribution. To be honest with you we were positively the first ones to be caught by surprise this time. I mean we knew since the very beginning that we really had a very good & twisted accomplishment upon our hands when we got of the Studio but the idea that we had from the very first reactions have really nothing to do with all the major & amazing feed back that we have been receiving so far. In Portugal we were able to sell 1000 copies only in the very first weeks of sales & until now we are just reaching soon the 8500 copies sold worldwide including three different licensing deals upon Countries like Poland, Norway & Malaysia. If we do have also in mind that only have passed by now one full year since the release of the album than I guess we are more than in the right path to duplicate the number of sales ‘cause there’s definitively a lot of promotion to be done to the album in the future as well. In terms of interviews we are reaching also very soon more than 750 interviews answered unto the promotion for the record & believe me ‘cause this are not fake numbers as in fact I have been dying to come up with the answers for them all since we also started the promotion. We are mainly doing exclusive interviews for many radio shows around the World including per example so many diversified places like Canada, Australia, France, England, Romania, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Holland, Belgium and a lot more of others. What really surprises me in the end of the day is the fact that we have also been able this time to be included with interesting & deep interviews in some of the biggest & professional magazines from the World including for instance names like Terrorizer, Hard’N’Heavy, Legacy, Nordic Vision, Grinder, Torment, Riff, The Grimoire Of Exalted Deeds, Ancient Ceremonies, Oskorei, Imhotep, Thrash’Em All, Necromance, Black Light, Masterful plus many others all the way around the Globe. All of this sounds very amazing & I am the one still not believing in all this recent happenings for sure. I am more than surprised also with the name that we are spreading at the same time for the label as actually we already have exclusive distribution over Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, England, Holland, Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic, Canada, Italy, Greece, Malaysia, Singapore, Scandinavia, Brazil as well as in Chile. Besides that I know that the label is actually working towards closing a couple more exclusive distribution deals upon some other Countries like Australia & Japan to mention just a few more. It’s just unbelievable what we have been able to accomplish with our 2nd full-length album so far. As the entire rejoinder in general as been so great we are already thinking in doing a support slot to some bigger bands upon the fall 2000 over our possible first ever European Tour. We already had some offers to make some interesting ones with bands like Immolation but we just want to make some more promotion in the meanwhile to see if in fact we can obtain even a bigger Tour pack in the end of the day. If all that was not yet enough I can also advance you that we are receiving also lately some number one position over some radio play lists so what the hell can we complaint about this time when everything goes so marvellous for the band in all levels.

Does MALEVOLENCE think of playing in Brazil?

9.Playing live is great no matter if you play with bigger bands or even with small underground bands so we just hope that we will be able to come to Brasil to make also some shows upon the future. We are receiving a huge feed-back from all the metal media down there so everything is still possible over the future for Malevolence over Brasil. Our label has exclusive distribution over there by Tumba Records and they are doing a very professional promotion all the way down there to promote the band unto all the possible extents. But taking the question again I have to advance you that what positively interests to me is all the chemistry behind the bands and the live situations in general. Playing live has some magic and that’s when you have that special chance to meet a great amount of your fans besides many other people related with metal. Playing live with wonderful down to Earth people it’s always sacred because you have a common place like the stage where you can share all your emotions no matter if they are more aggressive or even more intense. When Malevolence plays live we can express even better our musical views & even get a great dose unto the mind of the attentive listener directly with no subterfuges. No one can stand deeply concentrated on one of our live shows without feeling a strong vibe for moving. More recently we have played with bands like Behemoth, Sinister, Purgatory, Asgaroth and also some others acts from Portugal including Devileech, The Firstborn, Goldenpyre, Holocausto Canibal, Theriomorphic, Sirius etc. Concerning European Tours we had an offer from Metalysee from Belgium during the middle of 1999 to open for the European Tour of thy American act Immolation. Anyway we were at the beginning of the promotion for "Martyrialized" all over the place unto thy magazines and radios from the World and we just had to refuse that one due to the extensive schedule of interviews that Maquiavel Music Entertainment Lda had already booked for the band. At this moment there’s a huge demand from the fans over Europe to see the band live and we are going to try something out during the fall of 2000. If we cannot get something interesting in the meanwhile than we will take our time to concentrate upon the recording of the third album and than we will move towards the European Tour later on. I just hope that we will have some kind of opportunity upon the future to play out there and watch the same relentless emotions on foreign lands all over Europe and in the Rest of the World like we have been able to feel when we play over Portuguese soil. Everything has been fitting perfectly between the sound & the crowd for the new one.

 Contacts: Maquiavel Music Entertainment - maquiavel@mail.telepac.pt