Flagellum Dei (Portugal) 06/02/2011
That kind of interviews is the one I like, when the band has the intention to speak and open up his thoughts to us. Flagellum Dei come from Portugal and they exist since 1997. I contacted Sepulchral Winds, the mind behind the band, and we talked about the past, the present and the future of Flagellum Dei. He proves that apart from creating good true Black Metal, he is also a very authentic personality, something that is very important for me…
1. Hi Sepulchral Winds, thanks for the interview. First of all would you like to give me a brief biography of Flagellum Dei from the band’s formation until today?
Sepulchral Winds:
Hail! Sorry, but I don’t feel like I want to write 13 years of history man… it would seems like a fucking book… so, it’s easy to find our releases dates, past members etc… at Metal Archives or similar sites. That would be enough…
2. Each one of the band’s members participates in other bands too. Do you want to give me some information about those projects?
Sepulchral Winds:
Ok, everyone in the band has other bands except me… well, I had in the past but I had to quit… just don’t have enough time for other projects anymore…
About them, the drummer Skullcrusher plays in Motorpenis, to me, one of the best old school thrash metal actually playing in Portugal. And also in Revage, old school black metal unfortunately only with some demos… hopefully not for too long… The vocal Hellraisor and bass D. Koraxid play in Medo a ritualistic Black Metal totally influenced by the old gods and warriors of our greatest Lusitania. ‘Materia Negra’ (their last album) could be a great trip through our dark medieval times…
3. Your last album has been released about a month now, about four years after your last release Under the Might. Are you satisfied with the final result of Order of the Obscure? What comments did you get by the fans and the press?
Sepulchral Winds:
The official release date was in December 12th, by the way… Yes it’s true, it was a long time between ‘under the might…’ and ‘Order of the obscure’ but we never stopped playing, it was just a change time needed for the band… a time that we dedicate entirely to get the new members together, and with that all the rest came normally, a new musical concept was born…in my opinion we are stronger as we were in the very beginning… Something we didn’t feel for a long time… About this album, the final result could be pretty much better if we had the right resources… This album was an entirely homemade recording, mix and mastering… so, not much more to tell about it… let people decide if its god our bad… but in the global, I think this album fits totally in what we are now, and to the message that we wanted to spread out… which is, total destruction and chaos between the holy spirit’s prayers around this world of shit… The feedback has being quite good so far, and the fans seems to enjoy the new songs on our last live shows, so it’s all running well, so far…
4. This is your first release with Pestilence Records. How was the cooperation with them? Are you satisfied by the support and attention they show to Flagellum Dei?
Sepulchral Winds:
Of course... the relation was great since the beginning. Everything was dialled with great professionalism, showing total support. I’m glad with his work so far... so, I’m totally free to work with him again, if he wants so... wish all the best to him and its label.
5. How do you get inspired to write music and lyrics?
Sepulchral Winds:
My inspiration always comes from my spirit… my music is just the reflection of that…
6. I found in your music many thrash parts combined with old school Black Metal with some newer Black Metal elements. Which bands or music styles do you think that have influenced your music?
Sepulchral Winds:
Actually I don’t think too much about that… our music comes out very spontaneously… specially on the last album. Nowadays everything is composed together in our rehearsal room so, there’s not too much space for influences… things happens very fast now. Of course, everyone in the band has his own influences, and it’s great because combined with a new music concept we’ll try to create something new that could attract our fans even more…
7. I think your lyrics are antichristian and ritualistic with an old school, cult approach. What is Satanism for you? What do you think about religion in general?
Sepulchral Winds:
Yes, mostly in the past our lyrics were clearly directed against the christian church, the word of god and his bastard son… but now are not the predominant matter… now we are more directed to Ritualism, Human disgrace, obscurity and death. Those are the most predominant matter nowadays… Religion is just another way which some entities, named churches or whatever, uses to make money… another way to mass controlling, nothing more than that, I think. Well, Satanism is in our minds… rarely practicing it in our way of life. Therefore, some uses it in their books and paintings… we use black metal, to spread it out… Anyway, this is a delicate matter… there are many ways to feel and to be a satanic… … We are our own gods, ‘Satanic’ or not…
8. I don’t know many bands from Portugal so I don’t know anything about the scene there. What do you think about Black Metal in Portugal concerning both the bands and the fans?
Sepulchral Winds:
Well, actually I’m not too interested in the scene nowadays like I was in the past… things changed in the last few years and few are the ones who still believe in a union spirit between bands and people… those, I’ll admire forever… we still keep a great relationship with a few bands, that’s true… Bands like Corpus Christii, Irae, Nuclear goat, Alcholocaust, Inferno, Celtic Dance, Onirik and a few others (I’m sorry if I forgot someone)… but nothing will be the same again like it was 10 years ago, or maybe less… So, our philosophy about that is simple, we interact with anyone/ band, but, just cut off the poser attitude… or stay away from us!
Even the crowd attitude changes… now, the most of them it’s more like: head banging?! No I don’t want to mess my hair out… instead, they stay still waiting for stage mistakes so they can point the finger on… but curiously they had paid the fucking ticket to stay there and that makes us pleased…
Now, I call a true fan to guy that gives everything, feel the gig with his heart and pushes the band so they can give an even more brutal gig for them… this is the kind of people I want to interact with, drink a fucking beer after the gig… this is a fan! And unfortunately they are so few…
So, to conclude, there is no scene here… hopefully the new generation of black metal bands could change that…
9. After over ten years in music do you think that you have reached the level that you had in mind when you formed the band? How do you imagine Flagellum Dei in the years to come?
Sepulchral Winds:
Yes, I’m quite pleased with what I’ve learned until now and I can play what a have in mind, so… it’s ok. About the upcoming 10 years, well I’m not too good with futurology my friend so, I prefer not to comment that… brings me bad Luke…
10. Are you in contact, cooperation or support with any other band from Portugal or from abroad and how is it materialized?
Sepulchral Winds:
Mostly the bands I’ve mentioned in (8… we trade some mails nothing special… I’m not a great fan of facebook or other identical mass chats… I like it more when we get together face to face…
From abroad we were in contact with some bands, but the time we had away from the world, take care of that… maybe we spent too many years closed in ourselves… maybe this is the time to change that, opening a new chapter on our history and finally to open our bonders to the world…
I hope this new deal with Pestilence Rec. would help us with that…
11. It’s too soon but have you started to compose new material for a future release? Give me some information about it.
Sepulchral Winds:
Well… the next Full length is already composed almost one year ago… like I’ve said, we were away from the world but we never stop playing… only after that we had recorded a split 7’’ Ep with Flagellum dei/Irae, also ready to be release through next year… ‘Order of the obscure’, composed and recorded during the next 6 months, and finally we are about to finish 5 more tracks for a split cd about to announce… this 3 are just nothing more nothing less like a prelude of what is about to come…
Hopefully with better resources and support, we are counting with that…
12. Have you planed any live performances for the promotion of the new album? Where? Have you ever played somewhere outside of Portugal?
Sepulchral Winds:
Yes, we had 2 performances since the recording of the album and we are going to close a festival named ‘Colhões de ferro’ here in Portugal which we will use to create a small launch party… In outdoors we had one experience in Vigo, Spain… at the time we had the ‘Tormentor… of the false creator’ album, no more dates outdoors… but hope that changes, next year we are expecting to spread our plague through Germania…
13. What do you do for a living apart from music?
Sepulchral Winds:
I’m painter of car plastic parts.
14. What kind of music do you listen to?
Sepulchral Winds:
Anything, as long as it’s Metal…
15. Tell me your near future plans and if you want to add anything for conclusion.
Sepulchral Winds:
Our future plans are basically to spread our new album ‘Order of the obscure’ the more we can, to fulfill the next releases, some live gigs including playing out broad and the usual shit… For more info you can find us at: Myspace.com/flagellumdei or write to flagellumdei666@gmail.comThanks for the support.
Sepulchral Winds.
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