Interview with SHYAITHAN of Impiety 2009

By Bradley Smith

Your new album Terroreign has been just been unchained.  To me it is a hellish firestorm of speed and metallic violence.  Can you give us some insight as to how you view this album and what it means to you?  And as it seems ever since Paramount Evil the albums have been getting faster and more bestial?  Do you agree?

‘Terroreign” is indeed the strongest album from the IMPIETY discography, it’s fast, furious and bestial from start to finish with fuckin’ little time to breathe in between. Indeed, a challenge to execute live and that in fact, keeps me going. To always push beyond boundaries. The thing with IMPIETY is always expect sheer intensity, never compromising the way these anthems are executed. So I’m looking forward to the tours already, the time to ritually desecrate and annihilate completely, has arrived only at a better time. Yes, bestial definitely, Paramount Evil was a one of thing and very deathmetal in approach. After that classic album I just decided it was time to dive deeper in the abyss of maelstrom and fury…Hell fires never burned so greatly from Formidonis Nex Cultus, Dominator and now…Terroreign.

Also you released the Dominator EP not too long ago.  What was the motivation behind this EP as somehow it seemed a little different from your regular outputs?

I just felt it was time to do a Mini album, and since it had been a long time we did a shorter release. I mean Split-Eps have always prevailed but a mini album such as Dominator was some thing special I long wanted to do. The last mini album was Funeralight… and that was recorded in 96/97…such a long time back. Anyways Dominator last left only a smouldering trail of terror and demise and only left Legions to hunger for more… In short, Dominator only served to carve a destructive passage for the new lethal terror assault ritual you now hold in your hands.  

I noticed one of the tracks on Dominator was At War with Temujin.  Why did you choose to use Ghengis Khan as the subject matter here and do you think that Eastern history is too often overlooked in the Metal World?

It’s hard to say really, I write what comes from within and not from what surrounds me. The Entire concept (art and music) of Dominator came to mind after Formidonis to do something related closely to Asian Historical Might and Prowess, something close at heart and soul. More or less, it’s in our heritage to talk about the fearless warrior emperor Chinggis and in support for what he achieved, very inspirational for me, personally. Impiety is very much like the Khan’s Golden Horde, unmerciful in battle, and always smashing boundaries, conquering hard yet keeping spirit at heart. From the Introbliteration til the final song At War with Temujin it’s nothing but utter violence and bestial brutality delivered at top savagery.

You have had so many record labels throughout your career.  Why did you leave Osmose?  How did you get with Pulverised for the Dominator EP?  Will your relationship with Agonia continue into the future?

I have my ways with Agonia and such that we can record and do limited releases with other labels, with prior consent of course. So in every way I have liberty to work with any one I want, but again, for limited and special releases. Osmose was a nightmare. Getting a shitty 5% from sales was totally RETARDED for a band like IMPIETY. Not to mention they drew boundaries around us, telling us time and again like little children, that we should not mention Judaism or jews in our lyrics,etc. I hated that. So arguments escalated after Kaos Kommand 696 was released and I demanded we be released even though we had signed for 3 albums then. A good thing they let us go in the end. In 2004 Impiety signed to Agonia Records and has been on this label since. Full Lengths are usually going to be under Agonia. So as in Dominator a mini album, I talked to my label and they were fine to have that under Pulverised. I’ve known Pulverised for many years now and it’s a big advantage that they are situated 15mins from where I live. Not to mention Roy and I go way back since 93 when we met first time in the army. Yes, we will resume releases with our parent label Agonia Records but like I said earlier, we’re open to discuss and work out smaller releases (Eps, or Box-sets or whatever) with any label. I honestly prefer to release 66 copies then 666 copies now. Haha. Don’t ask me why…just personal preference and I know many might scoff cos this is just too little for Impiety.  

Being from Singapore has that affected your development in any specific way?  I would figure being isolated like that would allow you to develop in a method free from a lot of outside influences.

I guess the tight system I’m at loggerheads with continuously add coal and petrol to the fires within me. It’s a miracle IMPIETY exists in such a tight and strict country where fines and ridiculous laws that serve to confine are the order of the day. I’m alright and even with an international line up now for the tours, it serves nothing more than a challenge. For sure I wish things would be easier and that we could be all based in one country but that’s the thing, dedicated and diehard warlords like myself are hard to come by in a fast society like Singapore which compares now to Japan just that we’re tiny…4million on one tiny dot on the world map. Anyways, thoughts to move are always in mind when the going gets tough but then again, miraculously, all seems to work out well, just that the cost of the band for flights are always making us poor at the end. Still, how much richer can one become dedicating and playing when it comes to Extreme metal right? So it’s all cool when it works out and we earn a bit to settle these damn bills,etc.

Since we are on the topic of Singapore, how is it being that society while maintaining your set of spiritual values and anti-Xtian hatred?  Is the concept of Xtianity and its opposition a little alien to your society as a whole?

Alien to some but not to others, to be honest, a majority of citizens here are Christian. But fuck them, they’re having Christian names and going to church blindly just to fit in with the west and with status. No body wants to be called Chang Ching Chong no more. Just a few and I salute those who keep their traditional names. For the rest, complete bullshit to have names like Alan, Tom , Harry when they are Asian. Haha. Mankind is fucked is it not? I’m mixed and more Indian by blood and so my real name is not western at all. Never will be a tom, dick and harry. Haha.  Singapore is multi-racial and multi-cultural but majority are Chinese 60%, then 40% constitutes Malay, Indian, Other Asian minorities and Caucasians. Indeed it is a religiously sensitive society and that’s why it’s good to have demons Impiety sit by them to destroy within the flock. Most komrades here are atheist, but I guess like to all, families may be religious or whatever and that’s probably the only thing tolerated. Other than that I don’t give two fucks who has what background or religion. I destroy and desecrate when I can, whatever I can. I live only to breathe disease and plague and death.

With your new album having the song As Judea Burns are you afraid someone might misinterpret that as anti-Jewish sentiment?  Do you think the western world is overly sensitive when the subject of Jews comes up?  I mean if a person is a Satanist then they are inherently anti-Jewish as well as anti-Xtian wouldn’t you agree?

What do you honestly think? I stand by what I write and it’s what I believe and so do millions if not 1.5 billion others that Judea is a fucked and cursed land. We’ve seen 3 abrahamic religions that dominate the world, rise from 1 place. Yes, when talking about world politics, you’ll see the domination and control the Jews have had since they had the world banks in their hand. I won’t say more cos then it might go out of proportion for this killer mag. If a person is a Satanist, indeed all religions are under their boot. Impiety are goatworshipping satanic desecrators, we serve to blaspheme, demolish and desecrate bearers of the cross, the star and crescent. All Must Die! One law always when it comes to IMPIETY…we don’t pick and choose, young and old, religious and scum, whatever. The more death, only means the world becomes a better place. It’s better to live in disharmony and chaos then to live a double life of hypocrisy. Fuck Mankind to the core! You’ve seen how civilisations and kingdoms have come and gone. The persecutions forgotten and untold. More carnage goes on in the world at present, just that it’s probably the wrong people dying all the time. It would be fair for both sides and all factions good, bad or whatever to perish.

It seems Impiety has some sort of affinity for South American bands with covers of Sepultura, Sextrash, Vulcano, and now Sarcofago being performed by Impiety.  I’ve always thought there was something magical about these early recordings but I want to know how you perceive them and why you keep choosing South American bands to cover? 

As you’ve noticed, I often ‘pay homage’ to my roots. Early Brazilian death thrash along with early American thrash/death, Swedish early death and German thrash/death was the cradle I grew up in. We played covers in the beginning before Impiety and also during Impiety live assaults but I felt it would be special this time to cover The Black Vomit and do it even faster whilst keeping it close to the original version. It turned out really well and I’m satisfied. In the early days I was always in contact with SARCOFAGO, Wagner Antichrist and myself were close friends. Yes, we’ve done Sepultura ‘Morbid visions’, SEXTRASH ‘The Black Church’ and on Dominator you saw ‘The Black Vomit’ by SARCOFAGO. So of course, it’s hard to forget old mentors and friends who also inspired in the early beginnings. I am indebted in very way the metal underworld had such a killer beginning. I mean, most of the first and second generation black/death metal bands release such brilliant albums that I could listen over and over again for 20 years and always get the same unholy adrenaline rush! This time round on Terroreign was a cover from unholy MORBID in honor of Mighty Dead…A perfect way to end a monumental wrath of an album don’t you think? Uggggh!

The lyrics for an album are important parts of a band’s artistic expression.  On Paramount Evil you have a song called Sunset Detonation.  What is your impression of this international struggle being waged these days and your own thoughts on martyrdom?  Would you ever sacrifice yourself for the advancement of your personal beliefs?

I wish I could, I wish a ton of things like you and the Legions out there. At the end, what we can only do, is to spread more nuclear Atomic seeds of vengeance in hopes of a speedy world demise. Power means every thing of course; today we see even more rebel groups and guerrillas waging their own way either for an independent state or for their cause (freedom) from political oppression,etc. Sunset Detonation spoke about the horrors of suicide bombers and that in the end although they successful delivered these blissful charges, it still solved nothing using the name of lame god. But indeed, it’s some thing gutful you know how many would seriously go out and do that? Haha. You’d probably think more than twice before setting off those charges unless you’ve nothing else going on in the world. Yes, if IMPIETY wasn’t just a band in the end, I’d be on the actual warfront. War is imminent within me. I’m still in army you know serving 2-4 weeks Military time each year as a comm. Specialist. Anyways who knows what happens when I reach that level when I feel it’s time to have my soul flayed for good reason, perhaps to kill 1 billion or more at one go? Haha. Damn. Tempting indeed.

It is my opinion that you guys invest a lot of effort into the packaging on your CDs and this really makes them stand out to me.  I take it you feel this is an important part of the artistic experience you are trying to convey?  Why do you think that the artistic direction of an album is important?

Just take a look at tons of crappy and senseless album covers out there! It’s as if a 4yr old kid drew some thing at childcare. Fuck that shit...we’re dead on serious when it comes to putting the ritual art together on our albums. It represents perfect the music and the message conveyed. The art get’s better and better each time and I’m glad we work with the best. Usually I draw/draft out the cover art first and all other art as well. I then go ahead and scan and send that over to our artist Thiti – Lord Sickness 666 from Thailand who crafts it well onto canvas. Very little digital editing is done. I like best the new Terroreign artwork as well as Dominator artwork…it goes hand in hand with the music, and thus, the message of Necro-apocalypse becomes clearer!

You recently did a European tour with Spearhead and Nefarium.  How did it go?  What are some of your favourite memories form the tour and what sort of magic does Impiety bring to the stage when they perform? 

We’ve toured Europe every year now since 2007, and yes, 2008 was with Spearhead. I think it was 23 dates in all we had and it was tremendous response. Desecrating alongside Nifelheim and Nefarium as well as Spearhead was some thing I could always remember. Great maniacs and great bands. We played with Enslaved in Paris on tour in 2007 and these maniacs were very down to earth and as always we had a good time in discussions and chatting backstage to everyone on tour…so it’s good to meet and know more insane individuals and then come to a conclusion, we’re not alone. But of course we meet Superstar low IQ RETARDS. FUCK THEM. Fave memories from tour are too much to mention, we just enjoy fucking up and destroying the stage each time with such insane ferocity and intensity. Isn’t that what utter and total desecration is all about?

What does the near-term future hold for Impiety?  Any additional touring or recording?

Yeah we are talking to a promoter who wants us up North America, but what’s definite at this point is a Mexican tour in July and then a month long European tour in September. So that’s all that is planned for now… But indeed, as far as releases are concerned, we have a fucking limited 6”EP Special Box-Set out soon.  Check the MySpace for updates always if not you’re going to miss it cos it’s terribly limited to just 66 copies.

Any last message for the worldwide network of anti-Xtian warriors out there?

SHIT ON GODS, PISS ON ALL & BLACKEST DEATH TO MANKIND…!