Ave! I am personally doing rather ok at the moment and, as far as I know, all the other guys in the band are fine as well. Autumn has indeed descended upon us and I have to admit that everything looks kind of appealing in a somewhat positively depressive way.
At first: is it right that at the bottom of the mask of your vocalist/bassist Goat Tormentor is Mikko, the singer of SWALLOW THE SUN?
And are there other known musicians (from more famous bands) in the band and behind the pseudonyms?
Yes, Goat Tormentor is also in SWALLOW THE SUN under a different name. Only Goat Tormentor and I play in other bands besides ALGHAZANTH, the rest of the current line-up play just with this group. I am involved in one underground-oriented Black Metal band and the same goes for Goat Tormentor (not the same one I am in). But that's all. So, no “surprise names” behind the pseudonyms.
You are often compared to DIMMU BORGIR because of the mixture of Black Metal and symphonic elements. Are you fans of your Norwegian comrades? Do you actually like them?
I like the older albums, yes, but I am not into the newer, more polished works they have put out. They do have some catchy songs here and there on the new albums but the overall material for the past decade has been rather soulless in my ears, both musically and especially lyrically. These comparisons between us and DIMMU BORGIR tend to surface in almost each and every review I have seen. To be completely honest, I really don't get it. I do realise that there are some similarities between us and them when it comes to certain keyboard arrangements but is that really enough for so many to draw an equation mark between the two bands? That happens quite often, you know. I guess that's just a matter of taste but I can't make the same generalisation by just comparing the symphonic elements together. Maybe it has been a bit easier to do that when listening to, for example, our third and fourth full-lengths but it's certainly a lot harder to reach such a conclusion when listening to the material on “Wreath of Thevetat”.
What are your topics generally about, respectively what are you dealing with? Are you rather Satanists, Atheists or do you just prefer creating dark, furious music…?
The topics of the lyrics vary from song to song but the general agenda behind each of them is to examine the mysteries of the Left Hand Path and to promote Occult Satanism in all its various manifestations. For example, there's a song on the new album that deals with the primal descent of spirit into matter, another one that is about the very end of all Existence and so on and so on. But what ties all these different subjects together is the mind of a Satanist through which they are all filtered. I am responsible for all the lyrics and I always write about things that mean the most to me or are otherwise constantly on my mind. Each album reflects what is going through my head at that time and therefore, as the focus of interest changes along the path, so do the topics in the lyrics, too. To sum this rambling up, the lyrics cover a whole deal of subjects in the Left Hand Path context written from a Satanic standpoint.
To answer the second part of your questions, I can tell you that Black Metal is not “just music” for us. It is audial and poetic art composed in the honour of the Opposer and we stand behind this notion both as a band and as individuals as well.
“Wreath Of Thevetat” has been your fifth album for nine years since you received your first record-deal. Do you have an idea, why ALGHAZANTH are still not so well-known even within the Black Metal-scene?
There was some speculation about this in one Finnish review I saw right after the release date of the new album. The person who wrote the review stated that in his opinion we have, in a way, fallen between categories being too melodic or symphonic for those who prefer the harsher approach to Black Metal and on the other hand being too unpolished and in some sense raw for the ones who like their CDs more mainstream-oriented. I don't know, maybe he's got a point there. We've always kept on doing things the way we prefer and it really doesn't bother us if we're not “widely popular” or “well-known”. It sounds like a really worn-out cliché but the truth is that the most important thing for us is to be honest in what we do. If people like it, that's great. If they don't, then so what.
Apart from people's actual reactions towards our albums, naturally both promotion and visibility in the metal media play a big part when it comes to getting people to know about a certain band. You know, just releasing an album doesn't mean that people are automatically going to hear about its existence without any promotion. There were earlier some half-baked attempts on the promotion front outside Finland but with the new album Woodcut Records has really done a decent job. Loads of promos have been sent out, advertisements here and there and some interviews as well. Pretty much the way we like it: some visibility in the right place but not whoring on every possible street corner, if you know what I mean.
Do you plan a tour through Germany? You could perhaps raise your degree of popularity by visiting some of our clubs. Or do you rather see the band as a studio-project with just some small gigs in your home-country?
We have no such plans at the moment. This doesn't mean that we don't want to go on a tour, far from it. We'd love to do that! The thing is that we can't just pack our gear and hit the road in hope of some shows. There needs to be some serious organizing work done in order to make such a thing happen and we don't have that kind of professional forces behind us at the moment. Some individual gigs could very well be a possibility if some gig-organizer over there put the wheels in motion. I don't know, we'll just have to see what happens with that. It sure would be great to play there, no doubt about that.
Do you have some special final words for your fans in Germany?
To anyone who has bothered to read this far: check out the new album (if you already haven't) and stay tuned for what is yet to come! Let the Flame of Nightside light up the torches of your souls... Ecrin Saitan!
