Atmospheric, yet brutal and dark deathmetal from the outskirts of Canada, from the east of the big country, that is NeconomicoN. Rob The Witch (guitar & vocals) answered this questions simply during a cold night in Canada, listening to music from a classical channel on the radio. InterviewFor your long time of existence, there are not so many people who know NECRONOMICON.

There is so many stories that I can talk about after 15 years of existence, that I don’t know what to say. The biography is a real short resume of the band story. I formed the band in 1988, but in the area of the country where I come from, the Metal scene is almost inexistent and it’s the first reason it took so long to release a first effort (1991). The nearest studio to record a demo or album was about 2 to 3 hours of road distance and on top of that, the guys didn’t even know Metallica, so imagine them recording a band of pure Metal. Afterwards, we moved to Montreal and away from our problems (rip-off label, theft, death, crooked management)… These are examples of the things that happened in the past, but the thing that people should know is that the only reason why they never heard about us in the past is due to those circumstances, it is why we got some "breaks” like you pointed out in our bio, but even at that time, NecronomicoN was always active playing shows. The one and only break (if I can use this term) is in 2000; that was when I was alone after my drummer and bass player quit the band for family and health reasons, but that’s all. It’s been 2 years and an half since these extraordinary events ended, all problems seemed to have disapeared and that is something almost incredible for me… Things are going better than ever. Anyway, our name is well known here and we hope the best for Europe as well.

Tell me please, what do you want to express with the name Necronomicon?

Well it’s very simple. The term "necronomicon” was roughly translated from "Things that relate to death’s customs, practices and laws” into "book of the dead”. Actually we’re more into the real meaning of the word because it symbolises precisely the concept of the band, which is to talk about things related to death, but in the spiritual ways. In other words, it is the cycle of life, death and reincarnation. We are explaining things that we have seen and experienced through many states of the universe an others.

What about the comparisons with Nile?

I heard that many people think we are trying to do like Nile, but the fact is that we are older than them… And anyway, we are not hooked on the Egyptian concept like they are, our releases are different and the next one will be different as well. Some are saying that we play Death Metal, others say Black Metal… Personally I don’t care about that. The only thing that I can say for sure is that I’m playing Metal music. But I know that the people wanna hear some terms, so I just classify my music of "Spiritual, Occult, Metal” and I think that’s the best way to call it.

Please describe the lyrics?

I think the lyrics speak for themselves. People understand what their own evolution permits them to understand, it is different from one to another. Like I mentioned sooner, everything is based on personal experiences. I write my lyrics with simple words for the reason that I have nothing to hide, everything is to the point, without funny incantations or difficult languages. For example, "the time is coming to take the truth”… I think it cannot be more clear.

You´re working on a new cd. Tell me all about it. Style-differences, production-things, release-date and so on....

We were in studio from the 1st of February, back in our hometown. A good friend got a studio up there and it will be more relaxing for us to be surrounded by the mountains and the forest than the stress of the city. The new album’s title is "The Sacred Medecines”. It is the logical continuity of "Pharaoh of Gods” in all aspects of the album. What I mean is that the music has a certain evolution, it kept a few things from "Pharaoh” and there will be few suprises too, but overall, people who love NecronomicoN will love the new one for sure, I guarantee it ;) There is no release date for now, I’m the one who’s producing the album and I don’t want to be rushed to do it, but it will be somewhere between Spring and Summer 2003.

What do you think aboput the so-called metal-scene?

I not big fan of Metal and even if I’m more into old stuff like Mercyful Fate and Judas Priest, I’m not the kind of guy who is crying about the "good old days”. I’m just being myself like I always have, an Indian in the city doing what the Great Spirit tells him to do, I’m following my destiny, that’s all.

Why this "re-release”?

Until now, I can say that I’m satisfied of the result considering that the original release was in mid 1999 and the album was practically inexistent on the market due to our ex-label. The critics are always good an even excellent, the sales are much superior from what I was expecting for a re-release 2 years later and the fans grew exponentially this last year, it’s impressive. For the future album, I think it will be great; I mean the worst is over, everything evolves in the good way, it’s almost 3 years now and there is no black cloud at the horizon. I honestly think that this year, we’re gonna do a very big step with the new album.

You did one long Canadian tour, tell us something about it.

That was fantastic and even though it lasted 3 weeks, it was more like a big holyday because we knew each other for so (us and Kataklysm). It is important because over 10,000 km in 3 weeks is deadly. It is rare that when you’re on tour, you don’t have problems with at least one promoter you know. There is nothing else to say about the fans, except that they were just great and very much into it. We will probably do the same great Canadian tour for the next album. We’re receiving a lot of mail from fans who want us back in their town ASAP. They will have to wait for now until the recording is done.

Do you play (played) also some festivals? What do you think about festivals in general? You like it bigger? Festivals I mean! What´s your favourite festival?

Festival are a great way to do something different than a normal show with 1 or 2 other bands. You can discuss with label mate bands or just do your things and enjoy the shows. It’s a good way to expand your possibilities to reach more people and besides, when the crowd is with you, it’s worth everything. For me, I hope to be able to play the European festivals simply because you got the best ones. For now, my favorite is the Montreal Metal fest, it’s the place where we are well treated and the crowd is crazy. The American have a few big ones too but they are a bit careless with the bands.

By the way: Where do you come from exactly? What about your local scene?

Personally, we come from a region called Saguenay, which means "where the water is deep” in native indian. This place is located about 6 hours of road distance, Northeast of Montreal and it looks exactly like Norway. There is not a big scene up there and it was worse when I was living there. I moved to Montreal about 10 years ago. The Metal scene in Montreal is probably the best scene in all of North America, just ask about Montreal to bands like In Flames, Gamma Ray or Dimmu Borgir… the answer will the same. There is a lot of local bands too, but not always ready to put the time and money to do something serious.
Canada, i love it. hockey and nature ...? Tell me something about the conflict between englishmen and francophones. Tell me something about the canadian metal scene, about the problems between US of (fuckin) A and canada, about the social life in the land of maple-trees. Dont hesitate ...

It is quite difficult for me to speak about all of this, I’m not very interested in social life, politics, English/French conflicts and even more in the USA and on the top of that, I hate hockey. I think that war itself is stupid so imagine a French fighting against an English! I just don’t understand, we’re all the same race and more than that, we’re all human. One thing I can talk about is the wilderness, very cold of course in winter and hot enough in the summer. There are many places where you can go to resource yourself and have a quiet time to meditate or just taking some time to enjoy life.

If you don’t like what I Like, than tell me something about your private life?

You probably already realized that we all come from the same area. I cannot speak for the others but for my part I’m the kind of guy who likes quiet evenings, good restaurants, small-crowded relaxing cigar lounges or cafés, where the music is just as background. I love especially everything that comes from Asia like animation, Mangas and sometimes a few games of Play Station. I don’t have a lot of friends and I prefer to be alone. NecronomicoN takes 60 to 80% of my time and I’m doing some production business on the side like management, shows, albums but as I previously said, the band takes almost all my time. I think that’s about everything.