NOCTIFERIA
ARCTIC
IS A LABEL HIGHLY APPRECIATED BY THE FRIEND OF EXTREME METAL. AND I THINK
THIS IS FAIR CAUSE THE MOST OF THE TIMES RELEASES QUALITY ALBUMS OF THIS
GENRE. NOCTIFERIA FROM SLOVENIA IS THEIR NEW SIGNING AND WITH THEIR NEW
ALBUM "PER ASPERA" WANT TO CATCH YOUR ATTENTION. IF YOU WANT A BAND THAT
MIX WITH SOME ORIGINALITY DEATH, BLACK AND DOOM METAL, THEN STAY AND READ
THEIR ANSWERS...
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND’S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE ITS MEMBERS.
Noctiferia started rehearsing in
'95 seriously and at that time we were only band around searching for extreme
styles. You know we basicly come from U.S. death metal school, but Noctiferia
was allways influenced by diferent styles. From traditional metal, Doom
and in the beggining by 1.st generation of european black metal movement.
I feel like we realy needed some years to get our own style and sound,
because Noctiferia is not here to copy but to proove that there is a lot
of undiscovered in Metal yet. In 1997 we started playing live with Enslaved,
Dark Funeral, Rotting Christ, Old Man's Child, Marduk, Vader, cannibal
Corpse... In 1998 we recorded our first album "Baptism at Savica fall"
and things went on really well. We kept playing and learning from bigger
bands, different stages and opened for Six Feet Under, Deicide, Immortal.
But the big thing with Noctiferia happened with the recording of "Per Aspera"
in 2001, so I would say that with that album we started completly
new season for everyone involved in the band. It is a real start for Noctiferia
and holding Per Aspera in our hands was the first real important moment.
Because we felt this is really us. In march 2002 we toured europe with
Malevolent Creation and we were also waiting for answers from the labels.
We got some uninteresting offers for us from Hammerheartm Avantgarde...
and in the meantime we got offer from Phil Fasciana to sign with Arctic.
We always wanted to sign with fans beside businessman and deal with Arctic
was excatlly what we were looking for. They are friends, Malevolent Creation
is one of only few survivers of 1.st generation of Florida Death Metal
scene and they know how do to business. All respect goes to Arctic family.
We all had that friendly relationship wich is most important if you want
that band to work well. We kicked out two singers, because of ego-problems
and selfish behaviour.
2.WHY DID YOU NAME THE BAND THIS WAY?
IT SOUNDS LIKE A TYPICAL BLACK / DEATH MONICKER. DID YOU DO THIS ON PURPOSE?
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE BAND NAME SHOULD ALSO BE SOME SORT OF INDICATOR
OF THE BAND’S MUSIC?
We got the name about 8 years ago
and we were never forced to change it. It's compound latin word and represents
the end, total darkness, chaos... It may sound as a tipical death/black
monicer, but Noctiferia is metal, it's extreme and the most important is
what stands behind the name - the music is important! Noctiferia is a strong
name and we want poeple to know, tjet it stands for a quality metal band.
3.YOU PLAY BLACK/DEATH METAL WITH A
QUITE UNIQUE WAY. THE MELODIES HAVE A FRONT ROLE AND SOMETIMES IT SEEMS
THAT EVERYTHING SPINS ROUND THEM. HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IS MELODY?
DOES IT HAVE A PLACE EVEN IN THE EXTREME METAL SCENE?
What's black or evil, heavy or
melodic and what is extreme metal? That force can simply be categorized
as metal. Metal itself is a style of music where artist doesn't have to
limit his work to one style but is here to search in all metal styles.
As long as it stands true to it's roots and progresses technically, sound
and production wise. Melodies are important part of metal but if they have
the front role in extreme metal, they must announce atnosphere - the evil
atmosphere.
4.HOW MANY RELEASES DO YOU HAVE THIS
FAR? ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH THEM? ARE YOU IN THE POSITION TO SAY
THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED EVOLUTION?
Per Aspera is the first official
release. Our management put out some our release before, like limited edition
live cd recorded for a famous radio show adn "Baptism at Savica fall" album
where production is the main problem. We live in a poor country and recording
equipment is under normal standards. Also before we could get together
all importrant instruments, backline...it took us fucking years! Conditions
for a musician in our country are really low and here is normal that people
give it up after 2 yeas or so of involement in the scene because it's really
hard to work in conditions like this. but Noctiferia is a surviver and
we went through all that shit and the worst is behind us. We are now only
progressing.
5.TELL US A FEW THINGS REGARDING YOUR
DEBUT CD “PER ASPERA”. WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU
TO RECORD IT, WHERE, WHO WAS THE PRODUCER, ETC?
Well "Per Aspera" was the first
"real" recording for us. We were looking for a producer almost for
a year but nobody in Slovenia has nothing to do with "production". They
mostly talk shit and do nothing. The problem is also that there are nearly
no metal bands around, so there is no market for metal, no equipment and
no producers. We didn't want a garage recording and not even a computer-like
synthetic sound. Our managemant almost book a studio in sweden, but again
we are not swedes and we don't want swedish sound because we are not just
another band from sweden or europe. With Per Aspera we managed to create
our own sound, it's produced actually by us and we had luck to find
a new producer who is the only one around here who knows how to do things.
6.CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH IS THE CONNECTION
BETWEEN THE TITLE AND THE COVER ARTWORK? WHAT DOES THE ARTWORK SHOW?
You know we come from Slovenia.
It's a poor place as i said before. If you wanna reach something, you must
work for it very hard. I mean if you choose a life of musician than you
have to renounce to many things. You know, here in Slovenia we live so
far from center of european metal movement and Slovenia is unkown new country
that you are just not taking serious enough. I know that we would sign
at leat 3 years earlier if we would came from scandinavia. Because if you
check it out, there's million signed bands worth of shit and we know our
releases do not fit into demo sections anymore especially Per Aspera. We
must proove that we are not just everage band and that there is much to
discover in Noctieria yet!
7.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
WHAT KIND OF LYRICS DO YOU LIKE? REAL LIFE STORIES, FANTASY THEMES OR SOMETHING
IN BETWEEN?
Metal is for real, Noctiferia is
real. Lyrics are about the themes we disagree with. Believing the lie...
8.YOU HAVE DONE QUITE MANY LIVE SHOWS
AND YOU WILL SOON TOUR WITH NILE. HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK LIVE EXPERIENCE
IS FOR A BAND? WHICH BAND WAS VERY FRIENDLY WITH YOU AND HELPED YOU? DO
YOU REMEMBER THE WAY YOU FELT THE FIRST TIME YOU GOT ON STAGE?
Yeah we really wanna play as much
as possible. We concetrate to promote releases all the time. Stage is our
home. We really enjoy it. Our manager forced us first few years to expirience
all the stages - small ones and big ones. We didi both...clubs and festivals.
we are pretty expirienced live , we did more 100 shows i guess. On april
21st we start 3 weeks tour with Malevolent Creation, Marduk and Immolation.
We played with all of them in the past. Our first show as a serious band
was in '97 with Absu, Enslaved and Inferno. It was last day for Inferno
on tour so they headlined. It was a great show for us and a start of frienship
with Metallysee booking agency and Pol who help us a lot in our past.
We shared stage with a lot of bands of todays metal industry and there
is a lot of them helping us out so or so...Malevolent Creation, Catastrophic,
Kataklysm, Behemoth, Deicide, Dark Funeral, Impaled Nazarene, Marduk, ...
9.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU RECEIVE? WHICH WAS THE BEST AND WHICH WAS THE WORST REVIEW YOU HAVE
RECEIVED?
The feedback for Per aspera is
great and we felt it will be like this because Noctiferia was ment to be
professional. The avarage review is about 80-85 % which is really
good for debut album. Best reviews come from Germany, US, Netherland...
The worst review came from Greece (65/100), but i don't think it's fair
to compare us to old Satyricon with raw production...it's not us!
10.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FAN TO CONVINCE
HIM BUY YOUR RELEASE INSTEAD OF ANOTHER ONE? WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE
BEST AND WHICH IS THE WORST PART OF YOUR MUSIC?
It's hard to convince that you
are not just another clone this days. Because there is allways somebody
comparing you to someone. But we come from strange place called Slovenia
were metal is delayed for about 10 years. We are first slovenian
metal band touring, recording and only professional metal act with contract
and management. Per Aspera is not ust another Death/Black metal album.
It has all of important self style and unique interpretation of metal.
we bring a new dimension to the world of extreme metal. It's not american
nor tipical european. It's Noctiferia.
11.HOW DO YOU IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT
MUSIC TO BE? IN THAT CASE WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
There is always a way to make music.
Everything we do is art.
12.IF YOU COULD BE A HISTORICAL PERSON
FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE AND WHY?
I know today the importance of
release of Per Aspera album doesn't seem so high but in 20 years people
in Slovenia will recognize that the release proved the existence of metal
and ability to sign a slovenian metal band.
13.YOU ARE GRANTED ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD
YOU CHANGE IN THE WORLD?
I would legalize drugs and prostitution
and give people a chance of a free will - to do whatever they want as long
as it is pretty normal to the others.
14.WHICH IS THE WEIRDEST QUESTION SOMEONE’S
EVER DONE TO YOU AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ASKED AND NO ONE EVER ASKED
YOU? ANSWER IT AS WELL.
We don't like talking about satanism.
Especially in slovenia all the media is really annoying with questions
like; do you sucrifice animals, have black-masses...Let's speak about metal
and art!
15.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE
CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
16.WHICH IS MAN’S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?
greed, war, life, death are topics
of surviving process and we are here to survive!
17.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW
TO HAVE?
Something like new vision of death
metal or third wolrd death metal.
18.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
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