Metal Maniac

 

 

Greetings. Thank you very much for agreeing on the interview and taking your time to answer it. I’ve been listening to your work since the times of Strength & Honour, so it is indeed a fulfilled dream to exchange some words with you. In my opinion, Fimbulwinter is the best Satanic Warmaster album, along with the already mentioned Strength & Honour. Considering your full-length albums, how do you feel about each one of them and how would they differ in terms of inspirations and musicality from one another, if they do, in your opinion?

 

Werwolf – Greetings, it’s a pleasure to do an interview with someone who just didn’t look up the metal-archives and create his interview based on that for a change. For me, my albums have always been entities of their own. Before creating any of them, I’ve always crushed all the settings from previous albums, in terms of people participating, recording/songwriting process, visions and themes and everything that I would consider a burden from the previous works and the expectations they might have created for the next one. It is a central idea of Satanic Warmaster to be born as basically a new band every time I create a full album, and in my eyes I still see it that way. I do this music initially for myself, and to keep it interesting for myself, this is what I must do.

 

 

Connected to the previous question and generally speaking now, still about influences, not only when creating music, but also when writing lyrics, what mainly inspires you? I know you’re “inspired” by Satanism, but are there any other elements or even about Satanism itself that helps or drives you to create your art?

 

Werwolf – Musically I am inspired by the rhythms and melodies that rotate in my head constantly, that originate from everything I see and hear in my life. From sex, movies, video games, NWOBHM, Blasphemy (can), dance music, everything. For me it is the essence of Satan streaming from the darkness of nature and the macrocosm that drives me to gather those impulses and create my art.

 

 

Could you tell us what firstly attracted you into the occult and how this interest developed into an ideology and, being a Satanist, how do you see the world we live today? For those are also willing to learn more, which works would you recommend them to read?

 

Werwolf – I have been fascinated by the occult for as long as I can remember, and my pre-adult rebellion and exploration for my own truths lead me towards Satanism, initially as a more personal philosophy and then expanding towards ritual magic and the spiritual essence of Satan. This world as a whole is still a place of many wonders and mysteries, but sadly our western civilization is in a steep downfall into a putrid mass of worthless humans devoid of meaning, past or future without any hope of recovering any of those when those who control them feed them only false dreams of equality, prosperity and dignity. Might is right.

 

 

Were you surprised that Fimbulwinter entered the Finnish charts on number 14 as well as the Rumba chart in number 2? To what do you credit this? I mean, being a band that has no compromise other than your music, it’s indeed a huge achievement. The same with the number of people following you on Facebook, over 265.000. What are your thoughts about this?

 

Werwolf – I wasn’t really surprised. The record sales in Finland have declined to a level where underground bands can basically compete with artists from major labels in record sales (and surpass them in many cases). I knew if we’d announce our sales to the charts, we’d make it. The only thing all this along with the attention on social media means to me that I must have done something right.

 

 

As informed on Facebook, Satanic Warmaster will be playing in the United States. What do you expect from the show and what can the attendees expect from the band? Has the bitching started already? Can we expect more shows from Satanic Warmaster this year? Still on the subject, which Satanic Warmaster show you have enjoyed the most so far?

 

Werwolf – I am really excited about it, and it will be great to finally make the first U.S. invasion! Don’t expect anything, just take it as it is. Maybe someone wants to complain about us performing the the United States, but it shall be the indignity of those who start moralizing, I don’t care. I think our past concerts in Mexico and Japan were among the best experiences I’ve had. To see insane crowds so far away from home was truly something I could have never prepared for.

 

 

Obviously you don’t make music to get people happy, but I am sure your music has helped many people to go through hard periods of life. Just now, I had to spend a month in a hospital because of a serious pulmonary problem and underwent through five surgery procedures. Of course I was angry, upset, even depressed to have to spend sixteen days at an Intensive Care Unity. But when I left it to a hospital apartment in which I could use my phone and listen to music, your music and from some other bands as well, changed my whole mood, it gave me strength and en energy to face the whole situation. It was amazing to see how much I changed “simply” because of the music. How do you feel when people let you know that your music has helped them to go on? And this is just a “funny” fact that happened in the hospital; one of the nurses liked a tattoo on my leg and asked what it was about. I simply told that it was from a band called Satanic Warmaster tattoo. Well, she kind of avoided me afterwards.

 

Werwolf – After I let my creations to be heard by others, anything can and will happen, and to hear all these stories only gives me assurance of the force channeled into my creation.

 

 

Concerning your other bands, many bands in fact. I say this not in a negative way, as it’s always interesting to hear your different musical styles in other bands. How do you find the time to work with all them? For those that aren’t familiar with, please, enlighten us about the newest one, Vritrahn-Werwolf.

 

Werwolf – I usually work on my side-projects very impulsively, and can sometimes work on a project for a week non-stop, and after completion not even think of it for years. Creation and destruction are compulsive for me, and I will rather prioritize my time into something that will echo for eternity in time rather than f.ex. read a book. Vritrahn-Werwolf is a project of me and Vritrahn from my town, Satanic Black Metal, also created very impulsively. So far we’ve done two demo tapes with very rotten sound, and all copies we got sold out really fast. We just recently started the recordings of a new 7” EP, but it’s still not certain when it will be released.

 

 

Back to your releases, it has been informed that you’re working on a new compilation, the definite edition of “We are the worms that crawl on the broken wings of an angel”. What can you tell us in advance about it?

 

Werwolf – Yes, it will be a definitive version of the compilation with the same name from 2010. It will be a compendium of all the S.W. songs from our split releases and compilations along with some unreleased material as well. So far it seems there will be lots of material, most likely a double CD.

 

 

This is a question I’m used to ask musicians to know their different opinions on this subject. Well, I’m always searching for reviews simply to know what people are talking about the releases and instead of finding more reviews; I found more illegal links to download Fimbulwinter. Interesting enough, the album can be fully heard on Bandcamp. How do you feel about piracy in general as well as when you see your material for free available online?

 

Werwolf – The download thing has gotten totally out of hand, and I’d rather not even think about it. I don’t care about the financial loss, but I feel sorry for those who think they are entitled to such leeching.

 

 

I have a hippie world music project, how can I be signed to Werewolf Records? I am kidding, of course. The question is if there are any new releases planned for this year when it comes to the label.

 

Werwolf – There are several releases planned for Werewolf records, the next ones will most likely be the new AZAZEL (fin), ANGELSCOURGE (fin) and FÖRGJORD (fin) albums.

 

 

This is the part where I always ask a few things about the man behind the music, nothing too intrusive, of course. Obviously this is about what you’d like to share with us. Well, outside the music word, tell us what do you enjoy doing, favorite books or movies, as I mentioned, anything that you’d like to share with us.

 

Werwolf – I enjoy old video games (especially RPGs), movies (such as Conan The Barbarian or Scarface), good food (meat), bestial drinks from morbid chalices and the body of woman clad in latex and used for pleasure.

 

 

We’ve reached the end of the interview. I sincerely hope you enjoyed answering it and wish you the best in your future plans and projects. As I always do, I leave you with the final words.

 

Werwolf – Thank you for the interview. It was indeed much better than most! LUX EX TENEBRIS – HEIL LUZIFER

 

 

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March 5, 2015