Offense zine #1

Issue No 1 Winter/Spring 2013

Diamanda  Galas

These were the times. Some overrated buildings were blown up or burned to the ground. While nu metal reached Estonia a couple of years after its birth, death and black were here just at the right time. Hereby I would especially wish to thank the tr00 trio of Tartu (Tristan, Eero and Anti) and my mom, who used to bring me records by artists whose names I had been carefully spelling onto a piece of paper while listening to the legendary Klaus Fleming’s radio show “Metalliliitto”. In terms of fanzines in the beginning of 1990s the score between Lithuania and Estonia was 100:1, in favour of the Lithuanians. It is rather difficult to ex-­ plain this situation, but that is how it was. In Viljandi, one issue of Damnation zine was published and in Tartu, Graveside zine was enthusiastically put together. However, due to financial difficulties the zine exists only in the form of the original glued-­together version. The given zine was arranged by Rainer aka Rob Morrison (DND, ex-­Skydancer). Luckily the original version of it ended up in my drawer and throughout my entire life, I have had some sort of weird habit of holding on to memories, including the stuff that seems absolutely worthless for an innocent bystander. I have a basement full of furry stuffed toy animals, plastic soldiers, photos and cuttings from magazines. When I asked Rob if we could publish something from the Graveside, he agreed immediately. Therefore, the zine you are currently holding in your hands includes un-­ published interviews with the death metal legend Bolt Thrower, Norwegian unconventional black metal group Abysmal and with the former UG death band and the current power metal band Nocturnal Rites. I must hereby also admit that my own first interview was also given to Rob’s zine. In the current issue you will also find several interviews that were supposed to be published in my own fanzine „Thou-­Sand“ (later, „Thou-­Sand-­Men“, one of the tracks by Forgotten Sunrise was named after it). My allies were Lemmy (R.I.P., I hope we will meet some day), Urmas Piht (world’s biggest grind fan, who is still writing reviews now and then), Veiko Rebane (the guy who does not know the difference between good and evil and is a die-­ hard fan of Darkthrone and Spiritualized) and Anti Aaver (ex-­Bizarre, ex-­Kurat, Neuronphase both then and now). From the materials that were never published in „Thou-­Sand `zine“ you have a possibility to read in-­ terviews with Burzum (author: Anti), Abigor and Discrucior (author: Anders) and Fleurety (author: Veiko).

At the time of the interviews only Burzum had published its LP and for example Discrucior never released one, as Tharaphita took over and became more important.

So what has happened to the bands whose interviews from 20 years back you are able to read in this zine for the first time now? Bolt Thrower is still active and operating with almost the same people to this day. They no longer wish to release records and consider „Those Once Loyal“ so perfect that it would be difficult to do better than that. Instead, they are organizing a self-­titled festival and donate the revenues to young cancer patients. Abysmal produced their first and last LP a couple of years later and disappeared into the infinity, leaving behind one of the world’s best demos. Nocturnal Rites underwent a decent style change and lived happily ever after. We are all aware of the heroic deeds of Burzum and it is not probably necessary to bring them out here. Discrucior’s case is similar to Abysmal: they never got big, but left behind a demo-­tape that indisputably belongs to the Estonian metal gold pool. Ank is still an active metal head. Abigor released sev-­ eral albums, broke up, made a comeback and is now again active and steers the flagship of Austrian black metal. Fleurety distorted even more and alienated from black (similarly to Ulver), combined filthy humour and ballet with its music and is currently busy with re-­releasing its old recordings. So, examining the details it seems that everything has changed, but taking back a step, you will gladly recognise that the overall situation is still as good as ever. Enjoy the read!

Anders

Diamanda Galas The queen has arrived in Hell

On Wednesday, 26th of October 2011 there was a special mixture to be detected in Hel(l)sinki’s autumn air: Magic, expectations and ghost memories from two decades ago were building up to an enchanting anticipation. The queen, the witch, the chameleon with the voice was back: Diamanda Galás, the US-American avant-garde artist with Greek roots, was performing for the first time since 21 years in Finland’s capital as part of her The Refugee-concert tour. This tour is dedicated to people who were made refugees due to their lifestyles or ethnic backgrounds and is based on poems by writers such as Paul Celan and Gerard de Nerval. With this Diamanda Galás stays true to herself and her longtime engagement for human rights, the fight against AIDS and religious dogmatism to just name a few.

Organized by Blow up the Gramophone that has been delivering many treats to the Finnish concert agenda lately, the concert took place in the venerable Savoy Theatre in the centre of Helsinki. With 36€ per ticket the concert was definitely not cheap but in consideration of the exclusivity of the performance and the greatness of the performer it was still a fair price. Yours truly was lucky to get a very good seat in the middle of row 3 thanks the Svart Records special presale of 100 tickets for seats in rows 2 to 5 with the additional treat of a free poster by the artist Chrzu. When I first received the ticket in the mail I thought the poster would be included but no, there was a bill of Diamanda Galás-money that could be exchanged for the poster at the concert – an artistic way to organize a freebie.

The 735 seats of the Savoy Theatre were sold out and on arriving there was a special atmosphere and one could observe a fascinating crowd gathering: From metal heads in their usual gear to the unfamiliar view of familiar metallers dressed up in suits and dresses to a very artistic looking crowd as well as nonmetal or gothic people. But one thing they had in common was that they all had dressed up in their good clothes in honor of the occasion whether it was the favorite (band) shirt, the good leather pants or fancy high heels and skirts with fitting make-up. A concert sitting down was definitely something different for most but for a Diamanda Galás performance that was definitely the right way to go as it deserves and requires your full attention and should not be disturbed by people talking next to you or walking around to get a new beer. A very Finnish touch was added by some people in front of me passing around candy – Finns really can’t go on without their karkki.

Slowly but surely the hands of the clock approached 8 p.m. and it was very interesting to see that despite most of the people probably were not regular visitors to classical concerts or the opera all the voices suddenly became hushed.

Only a few whispers could be heard in the theatre once the lights finally were dimmed to complete darkness and the anticipation and tension could be felt on your skin like thick fog on an autumn night. Then….complete silence - on stage the beautiful black Steinway grand piano lit by frosty blue light creating an almost otherworldly demonic scenery, the piano being a dormant creature waiting to be awoken from deep slumber. Suddenly on the left side of the stage behind the curtain, only visible from certain seats a thin frame of light appeared and opened up into a full glowing rectangle.

After a moment a slim silhouette materialized: She had arrived! Slowly, almost lazily Diamanda Galás strolled over the stage to the piano. Dressed fully in black with simple but close-fitting clothes, her long black hair open and only a little make-up she looked almost fragile and plain yet ageless despite being 56 years of age.Once she had seated herself and woken the Steinway demon with a soft classical melody it began: Her almost four octave ranging voice started off low, deep and sweet, luring the listeners into the beauty of the melody and the fascinating tones of the Greek language – beauty only created to be broken and challenged by suddenly dissonant notes, loud screeches and oriental sounding vibratos.This was a pattern throughout the whole concert: Diamanda was challenging the preconceived notions of melody, beauty and harmony to in the end leave you questioning everything and your ears discovering music in a new way.

The first half of the concert continued in that manner: Beautiful classical piano music, her hands flying over the keys like little animals, detached from her body while Diamanda herself transformed within seconds from a little girl to a sexy chansonnière in a smoky French bar to a demon in the pits of Hades, a witch invoking Satan or herself being the queen of hell; her voice, her composure and aura supported by the lighting that went from ice cold blue to a hellish red with fog leaping on stage to finally creating a yellow scenery with two shadow Diamandas high up on the backdrop while the original was only a black silhouette. You could almost smell the sulfur fumes of the hellish abyss with her as the devil seducing us with the satanic tritone and her voice at times sounding like she was speaking in tongues.From Greek to English, German, Spanish and French she mastered the languages with their specific individuality and through that allowed the languages to add to the character of the songs. Especially in the second half of the concert - once your ears had adapted to the challenge posed - she turned to some of her blues, jazz and gospel influenced songs like Edith Piaf’s Heaven Have Mercy or Jacques Brel’s Amsterdam.

The audience greeted every song with applause while after a short greeting at the beginning Diamanda Galás reminded quiet between the songs, using the chance to drink some water (one can only imagine what kind of strain this kind of performance puts on even a trained voice) or arrange her papers.

After 90 minutes, including two encores, one of them being the beautiful Artemis the concert was over with probably both Diamanda Galás and the audience being exhausted. This Diamanda Galás concert was one of the most interesting and challenging concerts I have ever attended. It was demanding and of a rare, slightly disturbing beauty that tests your ears and your mind, breaks boundaries of musical and vocal conventions resulting in an enhanced understanding and knowledge of music.

Review by Nira

TK: A song and lyrics can have many ways of manifesting themselves. Sometimes an idea just pops into your head, sometimes it evolves naturally or from some fruits of occult workings.

In the case of the artwork for example I put a lot of effort into it being custom made from two different artists. With this album there is this kind of sincere devotion to certain dark goddesses for example and I just want to express my devotion, love and dedication to those goddesses and praise them and worship those deities.Some lyrics are invocations or celebrations of some dark goddesses and I discuss with the artist in which manor I would like to portray for example a picture of that certain god or goddess. I am also at the moment tattooing the artwork from this album onto my right forearm. Originally some images were just custom made for the measures of my forearm but then it is so natural to use them in the album and with the band as well.

TK: With this album as I said and with Forgotten Horror there is definitely energy involved all the times and a lot of aggression and power as well.As mentioned before, this album is the first step in the qliphotic path and that’s exactly about awakening this dormant energy within the human body for example which in some traditions is called Kundalini, a serpent sleeping within and without.

It is all about energy, transforming and channeling it and with this particular album it

Interview by Nira