OPERA IX INTERVIEW

This is the most creative, dark and deep new black metal act coming from Europe! The new sensation of melodic epic black metal signed with the legendary label AVANTGARDE and your marvelous third album "The Black Opera - Symphoniae Mysteriorum in Lauden Tenebrarum" is avaible now, KREPUSKULUM called with CADAVERIA the female godess infernal vocal.

Krepuskulum:  Before anything else we would like to say that OPERATES IX is a very dear band in the Brazilian underground from its first CD " The Call of The Wood" that was spread among the brazilianblackmetalers in the form of tapes!!! We considered CADAVERIA the deepest and feeble vocalist of the obscure metal!! Now we are going to the questions. How is to be a cult artist ?

Cadaveria:  Thanks alot for your compliments and for all your support and devotion to Opera IX! I feel great and this give me the energy to do ever better. Opera  IX and the new album "The Black Opera-Symphoniae Mysteriorum in Laudem
Tenebrarum"will not disappoint you!

How appeared the invitation to sign with AVANTGARDE?

The deal we had signed with Shiver Records was made just for 1 album. This was decided by us 'cause we wanted to be free to look around us and see  what would have happened. In Autumn 1999 we were looking for a new label  and Avantgarde Music's guys came and see some Opera IX rehearsals, well they  told to be impressed by our matured sound and this led us to sign a  contract. Actually we are completely satisfied by Avantgarde. They gave us a  good budget for the recording and this time we have had the occasion to go  in a foreign studio, it is a well known label and has a good distribution,  so I think this time we will not have any kind of problems.

The new album THE BLACK OPERA... is a show of music and production!! Talks us about the composition process and the recording sections.

Well, we spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room 'cause the project was   ambitious, being a concept album. Like we are used to do, we wrote the  lyrics first. When we finished the whole story we realized we needed a sound  able to translate in music an endless sequence of mental images, so we built  particularly complex guitars riffs, imposing keyboards melodies that cross
with the guitars, we chose a powerful drum that changes its time very often, the voice itself is performed in different ways according to the meaning of  the lyrics and to the atmosphere of the single parts of the song. With this  kind of material we couldn't do the recording in a bad studio, we needed  someone able to exalt our kind of work. Flegias, who sings in Necrodeath,  had been in Sweden at Underground studios to record last Necrodeath album,  so we had the testimony this studio was ok. In fact there we really found  the right sound for us. We worked with people who are extremely professional
in their job. We spent two weeks in Sweden, working night and day, and then we did the mastering in Italy. The CD sounds great, very powerfull and  aggressive and even if it was recorded in Sweden, Opera IX' style is till  alive!

In the previous Cd "SACRO CULTO", the posture of the band were more linked to the paganism, with entities of the nature and pagan simbols in music as FRONDS OF THE ANCIENT WALNUT. Already in THE BLACK OPERA... the character calls SHAYTAN and one of the music " CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE ". Are you pagans or satanists?

The concept talks about a magic and ritualistic journey into the sectets  of occultism. We described it as an imaginary walk done by a spiritual  warrior, searching for the supreme knowledge. The CD is a real hyms to  occultism, to the power of occult forces and to the way how to reach the  domonion of these forces. The rituals described in some parts of the lyrics  come from withcraft and the divinities we mentioned are taken from different  kinds of mythologies, so I cannot say we have dealt with paganism or  satanism only. Shaytan, who leads the warrior along his travel, is another  name for Lucifer and he is seen as the bringer of light, a symbolic light,  synonymous of intelligence and total knowledge of occult powers. He's the  angel of evil who embodies pagan gods' beauty and honor.

In SACRO CULTO some music as " THE NAKED AND THE DANCE " invested in elements nonsense as palms and flutes, already in THE BLACK OPERA... those experimentations they give place to a larger technic of the guitars and larger speed. Is that a new musical direction of the band?

Yes I think so. The fact is that we put no limits to our music. Each time  we start from the lyric, then the music comes to amplify the emotions and  the atmosphere expressed by the words. Sometimes the sandard sounds aren't  enough so we find new and more original solution. Anyway all this kind of  work is something natural for us, we don't say "now we play more black,
now  doom" and so on, we simply play what we like what we think and feel is ok.   This is why our style is so uncommon and personal.

THE BLACK OPERA... places OPERA IX in the hall of the great bands of melodic black metal of the world, beside CRADLE OF FILTH and DIMMU BORGIR. What do you think about those bands? Did they influence you in some way?

Absolutely no. I respect the bands you mentioned for their  professionality but I can't say we look at them as a model to imitate, we  have our culture and they have their. We don't have any external influences,  we like to search the inspiration inside us.

Talks in full details about the concept and the history of the new album.

The journey we describe is divided in six moments or steps, symbolized by  the violation of 6 seals, each one related to and act of the album.

Act I:  the first seal: this is the beginning, the departure, the description of the  timeless places where the sacred seals are guarded, the warrior's   investiture;

Act II: Beyoun the Black Diamon Gates: the first evocation, the  preparation of the rite, the vision of the sacred fumed incenses, the call  by a spiritual entity named Astaroth-Astarte.

Act III: Carnal Delight in the  Vortex of Evil: the meeting with the evil's essence and the sexual  experience;

Act IV: Congressus com Daemone: talking to the demon. Here the  occultist communicates with his astral spirit and he receives welfare, power  and occult forces' dominion. Act V: The Magic Temple: the consacration of  the ritual's place with blood and with the elements and his magic arsenal.

Act VI:the sixth seal: the last evocation. Here the worrior reaches his  goal and participates to the demonic revelation. The great black diamond  portal is opened to him and he penetrates the shadows' world. Blessed be the  one who dares, if you don't dare you will dye in the suffocating void.

CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE & THE MAGIC TEMPLE is the deepest and atmospheric moments of the album, where we can see the sweet side of your voice. Which the vocal ones more they please it the aggressive ones or the soft ones?

For me it's natural to sing in both the ways and I have no preferences.  The use of a kind of voice instead of another is related to the part of the  song I'm singing. On our last album the voice has been used in different  ways in order to give life to the several characters who appear in the  concept and to exalt the many dialog parts that you find along the tracks.  Act V-The Magic Temple, for example, is divided in two parts: the first one  is spoken (in Italian), the second one is instrumental. Well, there the
clear and recitative voice prepares the listener to following killer  instrumental part, it's like a break, a meditative moment before the  symphonic explosion.

In your opinion which are the 10 best albums of the heavy music?

Don't Break the Oath (M. Fate), Killers (I. Maiden), To Mega Therion(Celtic Frost), Passage (Samael), Seven Churches (Possessed), Black Metal (Venom), Slaughter of the Souls (At the Gates), 33.788% complete (My Dying Bride),
Enjoy the Violence (Massacra), Paranoid (B. Sabbath). and The Black Opera-Symphoniae. (Opera IX)!

Talks us about the plans for the tour of promotion of THE BLACK OPERA... " and the plans for the future of OPERA  IX.

Well, from the end of July and the beginning of August we will be un USA  and Mexico while in October we will tour Italy. There is the opportunity to  tour Europe with Mayhem in September but we have some problems in leaving  our jobs, so we hope in another chance by the end of the year. Actually we  are realizing a new videoclip that will be ready in the end of July. In
the  meantime we are working on new material for the 4th album.

Contacts: Avantgarde Music Site: www.avantgardemusic.com , E-mail: greylife@tin.it