Nokturnal Forest (Syria) 01/03/2011

Firstly the thing that caught my attention was the origin of the band. It is not usual that a group from Syria to play Black Metal… We spoke with Demon of Darkness, the only member of the band, and he answered to several of our questions not only about their origin but mostly about the music and the ideology of Nokturnal Forest.

1. Hails Demon of Darkness. Thanks for the interview. First of all give us some information about the projects you are working on.

Demon Of Darkness: Bloody Hails brother. I've just finished writing new full-length for my band "Nokturnal Forest, and some of the songs will also be featured on a spilt with the Italian band "The True Endless". I've also finished writing new album for my band "Guillotine" which is a pure old school Black/Thrash Metal band, also a new EP for my band "Dark Promise" and I've just released a new Dark Ambient full-length for my very personal Black Metal/Dark Ambient band "Funeral Moonlight".

2. I think that you have many influences of the French scene, bands like Vlad Tepes, Mutiilation etc. Do you agree? Tell my about your musical influences.

Demon Of Darkness: Yeah I guess so that I've some influences from such bands but I don't limit my influences to only bands from LLN because many bands or even another musical genres had influenced me but I think my main influences from black metal are the Norwegian 2nd wave bands such as Darkthrone and Burzum and also bands from the American black metal scene like Crimson Moon and Judas Iscariot.

3. In Nokturnal Forest you play guitar, bass and drums. Which is your main instrument and how much experience - "education" do you have on it?

Demon Of Darkness: I think my main instrument is guitar because that was my first instrument but I'm also a big fan of bass guitars and I feel like it's my favorite instrument. I've been playing for about 4 years and I had to taught myself to play those instruments because "teachers" here don't really know about "Metal" guitar skills, most of them teach rock, jazz or traditional music.

4. Why you have formed 4 different projects of Black Metal and you didn't focus your creativity in one main band?

Demon Of Darkness: I formed different Black Metal projects for several reasons. In the beginning I was "Experimenting" with my own Black Metal sound/style and I had lots of ideas and sounds in my head so I decided to form a band for each style.

5. What inspires you to write music and lyrics?

Demon Of Darkness: Many different things. I draw my inspiration from my own experiences and thoughts, Occult, Winter, Darkness, Nature, Myths and of course my pure unholy hatred towards the laws of religion and it's followers.

6. How did you find out about Black Metal and when?

Demon Of Darkness: I found about it in the almighty cyberspace 4 or 5 years ago I was a huge Thrash Metal fan back then (and still though haha!) I was searching for something heavier when I found about BM and started to download songs and I found myself in this genre of music.

7. Another thing based on the previous question is how do you buy albums?

Demon Of Darkness: I cannot buy albums because stores don't sell such kind of music so I can only download them but, trust me I spend lots of money downloading albums from the internet so I'm not getting them for free.

8. I think that Syria is a muslim country. Is that correct? Why you write about antichristianity in your lyrics and not about anti islam?

Demon Of Darkness: Not exactly. Both christianity and islam can be found in Syria and I write "Anti-Religious" lyrics not only anti-christian or anti-islam because for me all religions are just the same and based on the same ideas.

9. What is your opinion about "religion" in general?

Demon Of Darkness: Briefly, religion is just a lie, I can write several pages expressing this idea and I've written several articles about this but, I like to keep it short. It's a stupid lie but, when it comes to believing in god/religion I tried. I really really tried but, I can't "blindly" believe in something, I must think about it first so by using my old good friend "LOGIC" I ended up believing that it's a lie. One of the most funny "tests" I tried to prove my thoughts is I started to pray for a piece of paper every time I needed anything and trust me the result was AMAZING! Same as praying to god or even better because you know, at least you can see this piece of paper and you can even hold it in your hand!

10. How is the relationship between the bands in Syria. Do you cooperate and help each other?

Demon Of Darkness: Actually there's a few cooperation between the "new" bands but there's some bands who are arrogant and stupid enough to think that they're really "big" so they should treat other "new" bands like shit. Fuck them anyway because this attitude reflects that they've no real dedication and that they're playing metal only because it makes them look very "cool" and to get hot girls attention! Yeah, they are fucked-in-their-heads!

11. Are there any other good and devoted bands in Syria that plays Black Metal and you want to suggest me?

Demon Of Darkness: Actually there's only one guy who plays Black Metal in Syria and that guy is me (haha !). But there are really good Metal bands like "Crescent Moon" (Doom/Death Metal), "Ecliptic Dawn" (Extreme Gothic Metal), "Obia" (Death Metal), "Slumpark Correctional" (Thrash Metal) and "Nu.Clear.Dawn" (Progressive Metal).

12. What kind of music do you listen to?

Demon Of Darkness: I mostly listen to anything pleases my ears but what I like most other than metal is : Jazz, Blues, Rock, Classical Music and Dark Ambient and I've a small one-man instrumental Jazz/Blues band which released a single in 2010.

13. What is your occupation except music?

Demon Of Darkness: I'm a student in the college of law and I write short stories/articles.

14. Which bands in general do you respect for music and/or attitude?

Demon Of Darkness: I respect all bands that make music not for money or commercial success. You know lots of bands had turned their backs to their ideology or even their musical style for the sake of being famous and rich and this really makes me puke.

15. Tell me which are your plans about the future and if you want to add something for conclusion.

Demon Of Darkness: My main plan is to keep on doing the music I love and keep on expressing my thoughts and ideology through my music and writings. I want to thank you for this interview and I hope the best for you and your website and KEEP THE HORNS UP!

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