1. Hail! I´m very pleased to be in a position to have an interview with you! Nachtmystium entered into the seveth year of its existence, what memories do you have on the very start of your band? When did the idea of your own musical project occur and since when have been Nachtmystium functional?

Ave. Well, when I started this band, I was actually in another Chicago-area band that I was taking way more seriously (not going to mention the name because its irrelevant), and Nachtmystium was my side project of my own music. When I left said-band, I decided to take Nachtmystium as my main project, and that was around June 2000. At that point, our original drummer, Noctic, and myself started rehersals regularly and were recording all the time. We made our first two demos and the debut Nachtmystium album all in the course of one-years-time. This is the time that Nachtmystium became my full-time priority for music and I’ve never strayed that path since then.

2. Your last album „Instinct: Decay“ was released last year and I must say, that I find it very interesting. It seems to me, that you have sneezed at any limits of creating black metal and there are some moments on this album, which I would even call „psychedelic“. But the characteristic compact sound was kept. I even dare to say, that „Instict: Decay“ is the most progressive album of yours.

I agree completely. We decided to do exactly what we wanted to do on this record, and to defy all boundaries of the black metal genre. Metal is about doing exactly what you want, not about pleasing an audience. With that in mind, we made „Instinct: Decay“, and this we feel is our strongest record to date.

3. This is the reaction or opinion of listener, what would you tell me as composer? And as for the musical production: could you imagime Nachtmystium with clear, distortionless sound?

I’d agree with you completely. And yes, I could imagine a Nachtmystium record with no distortion and heaviness to it at all. Not sure if I will ever realize that idea, but it could happen.

4. There´s an obvious development and „ripening“, when we look at your discography. Do you strive for getting better? Do you aspire after anything big? How long have you been playing the guitar?

Yes, I’ve definitly strived to become a better guitar player, as any guitarist should. I never could play lead guitar when I was younger, so I made it my mission to learn how to do it on some level, and thats what you hear in lead-guitar work on any Nachtmystium album. I’ve been playing guitar for about 12 years now.


5. What should the cover of „Instinct: Decay“ depict? In my opinion it is the skull with its upper removed, which could probably symbolize some tainted mind or empty headedness etc. Am I far from the fact? Though considering your individualism, you´ll probably tell me, that everyone see in it, whatever one wants, heh....

The cover art is supposed to symbolize that ‚decay‘ starts within every individuals mind...personal decay, and then as it grows, it reaches out into the world around the individual and adds to the societal decay that we experience in our day to day lives, especially here in America, the land of lies, greed and corruption.

6. You critise quite often todays black metal bands. What do you dislike most? Lack of creativity, musical crassness? The same talking all the time in an effort to ingratiate themselves with the older black metal bands? You even disavowed from black metal on myspace.com... Do you find the genre „black metal“ too strict or do you just want not to be associate with certain people?

I have very little interest in the genre these days. There are still a lot of good bands that I definitly keep up with, but the overall attitude of irrelevant bands (which there are millions of) and the idea of this ‚kult underground‘ is just retarded and has totally lost its meaning. I know what that idea is and is all about, but I no longer think it has the relevance it once did and that many people taking this attitude are purely losers with shitty bands and bad, unoriginal ideas. Thats not to say all bands, but many of whom I see when surfing the internet or looking at ridiculous forums, etc. We just don’t want to affiliate Nachtmystium with that scene anymore on any level. We’re doing new and different things that don’t need to be a part of that world.

7. U.S.B.M.: What do you think about it? Don´t you find it pointless to speak about it this way, just because you live in „heinous“ America? And what do you think about your country? Are you glad to live there? American society is rather puritanical and intolerant, do you have any experience with persecution from people around you? (e.g. hysterical balming for some mass slaughter and the like...)

I think the whole term „USBM“ is fucking stupid. Our nationality in this (or any country) doesn’t immediately mean you should be grouped with other bands of shared nationality. However, there are great bands from the US scene for many years now. Profanatica, Demoncy, Havohej, Inquisition, Leviathan, Krieg, etc. are all bands of namely stature for me. I don’t keep up with all the hundreds of black metal bands from the U.S. today, I’m sure that many are terrible and that many are or will be very good. Only time will tell. Overall though, nationality should have nothing to do with your musical allies, especially in America. No, I am not glad I live here because I’m embarassed of how my government handles their dealings with the rest of the world. Anyone who watches news will understand that. We have an imperialistic democracy here that wants to be in everybodies business. Its disgusting and I hold no allegiance to it. The only thing I’m happy about is that I’m not (yet) a victim to my governments wrong doings, no war is being fought on our soil and my day-to-day life is rather peaceful as a result, which is great for me. I don’t feel that it will always be this way though. I hope some day to move to Canada and obtain citizenship there.

8. Trends govern the world. Millions of stupid children run to the malls to buy the latest CD of some nigga-gangsta rapper. I think, it´s needless to ask you about your opinion of this shit. I´d like to ask differently: what would you do, if you woke up and all these kids would wear Nachtmystium t-shirt. The horde of crazy teenage girls would occupy the surrounding of your house, your albums would have an enormous saleability; how do you feel, when you imagine it?

Well, I’m not sure how I’d feel. I really don’t ever see that happening, so I can’t really answer the question.


9. Could you tell us anything to each of your albums? Experiences connected with them, memories or the current view, how you are satisfied with them...

Reign of the malicious (2002) :
The first record. Raw black metal, its exactly what I wanted it to be at the time and even though i don’t listen to this album today, I’m still proud of it.

Nachtmystium (2003):
Great experience, good songs, raw black metal again. This record was recorded by Akhenaten / Judas Iscariot, so that was a massive honor to get to work with him, and his influence on that recording (I feel) is very obvious.

Demise (2004):
Our final straight-black metal record. I love this album personally, has a lot of deep personal meaning to me in the lyrics and concepts behind it. Also documents a very miserable time in my life very accurately.

Eulogy IV EP (2004):
This is where everything started to change and we started getting truely our own ‚sound‘ going. The addition of the psychedelic leads and Moog synthesizers brought a dimension to these songs that was not heard in our previous records. This was the demo for Instinct: Decay pretty much.

Instinct: Decay (2006):
This record means the most to me out of our discography for the reasons I’ve mentioned in answers above. This is the first pure Nachtmystium album, 100% us and exactly what we wanted it to be with no fear of a back-lash from our audience. I’m most proud of this record and I hope to make more records that I’ll be as happy with as I am with this one.

10. I can´t help it, but your guitar solo has very strong rock feeling in my opinion... Are you keen on listening to the „oldies“? Who are your favorite ones?

Yeah definitly. I love lots of old psychedelic rock from the 60’s and 70’s. Pink Floyd, Cream, Hawkwind, etc. Lots of influence there. We use the more rock-based solos to help bring a different dimension to metal music as opposed to your ‚shredding metal solos‘ you find on many records.

11. I noticed, that you never use warpaint, even if I guessed, you would. Why? Do you want just music to speak for you or do you find those „paints“ ridiculous?

Yes exactly. The less gimmicks, the better. We used corpse paint back in the VERY early days of the band, but I grew out of that as I felt as our music progressed, it didn’t fit with where we were going. Plus, I hate how cheesy some bands have made that idea, the idea of corpse/war paint...it was special at one point, but now many silly bands have ruined its meaning I think. We will NEVER use traditional corpse paint again.

12. I´d like to ask you about the „all-star“ band Twilight, where you play together with excellent musicians like Imperial, Maleficus etc. (Btw, don´t you mind the word „star“, „all star“ etc.? Does it actually belong to underground? Do you mind, if someone marks you as a „star“?) Wasn´t it difficult to cooperate with so many individualities, who are accustomed to make it their way? Don´t you think about creating anything in the future?

None of us are ‚stars‘. Twilight was simply a project we all wanted to do just to see if we could do it. And we did! Its an „OK“ record, nothing amazing I feel. Just an experiment that the press made seem like it was something way more than. We’re making a new Twilight album starting in 2 weeks from now. Malefic / Xasthur is no longer in the band, so Wrest and myself will be making the record and we’ve added a new member to be announced later. Thats all I have to say about Twilight.


13. Have you ever performed in Europe? If so, could you compare your experiences with performances in America? If not, are you about to or would you like to?

No, we’ve never performed in Europe. We will get over there sometime sooner or later. Its not really high priority for us though. We like touring here and thats been good enough for us so far.

14. What´s your opinion of the early period of black metal and extremity connected with it?

I think it was a great thing at one point, but today, I feel very differently than I did in the day when black metal was what it used to be.

15. What´s your opinion of straight-edge?

Thats a personal misfortune for anyone who choses to walk that path. I’d go insane if I didn’t relax with some beers once in a while.

16. Mortemzine is from Czech republic, so I´d like to ask you: do you know any czech bands, do you like any?

Of course! Big fan of Maniac Butcher, Root, Dark Storm, Inferno, etc. Your country has many great, underground bands!!! Root and Maniac Butcher are total classics to me and are as important as many of the other classic bands in my personal collection.

17. Now a little bit more personal question: do you vote Republicans or Democrats?

I voted democrat during the last election because George W. Bush is a fucking idiot who should be charged with war crimes. I personally side more with a republican point of view, but in this country today, the republicans are why our nation is involved in all this bullshit in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

18. What about your plans with Nachtmystium? Would you like to create something new? Or will you just enjoy live performances this year?

We just recorded an EP’s worth of material for a split CD/LP we’re doing with Leviathan. 2 new songs, and then covers of doom band Goatsnake and neo-folk band Death In June. This release will come out sometime in the summer on Southern Lord Records. (www.southernlord.com)

19. Thanks for the interview, I can only wish Nachtmystium to be very diligent as for music and the last word are as usual yours...

Thanks for your support! Great interview, thanks again.