Interview with Black Shepherd ov Doom of Necros Christos 2007

By Bradley Smith

I was immediately enraptured with the Triune Impurity Rites.  What does this album represent for you and what all did you guys put into its creation?  How do you feel it is a progression from your demo material?

That’s very nice of you, hehe, thanks.  Well ... the full band line-up had come together shortly after the release of the “Grave Damnation” demo, so it’s the first recording that fully represents the band that’s been rehearsing and playing live for one and a half years up to “Triune”.  It truly is a summary and culmination of this whole period.  The demos were demos, on “Triune” you hear a fairly rehearsed band.

With pretty much all the true songs you guys use Intros or Temples as they are named.  Why do you use them as preludes to all your songs and how do they affect the impact of each composition?

We use these Temples to connect the songs and to create an overall ritualistic atmosphere.  Each Necros Christos release is an almost meditational current that flows from beginning to end.
 

I have read that Band’s moniker, NECROS CHRISTOS can be interpreted in several different ways. What way do you see it and why do you choose that interpretation?  How did you guys come to choose that name?

It can be read as “Dead Christ” but also as “Anointed Death”, or Christ as “The Anointed One”. So it’s a nice play of words actually, since not only may a king be anointed for inception, but a corpse may be anointed as well in order to preserve its physical shape.
 

Tell me about your other band, Drowned.  How do you feel it differs from Necros Christos?  Do you feel more strongly about one band or the other?  Why?
 

It’s two entirely different bands and concepts, even though the personnel overlaps.  In NC, Mors Dalos Ra writes all music and lyrics and I (only) play bass.  In Drowned, I am creating most of the music, occasionally also lyrics, playing guitar (and bass if necessary).  Theby (drums) is currently writing most of the lyrics, contributing to the music, and MDR so far “only” does the actual vocals, but soon also bass.
Drowned was originally founded in 1992, and has undergone a lot of changes and even intervals of inactivity since.  NC started to manifest in 2001 as a solo project of MDR, which eventually evolved into the band that you can hear on “Triune Impurity Rites”.
 

Luciferus Christhammer recently left Necros Christos.  How does his departure affect you on a personal level and how is the search to fill his void going? What sort of person will his replacement have to be as I am certain this band requires more than just the ability to drum?

I fear that it may affect us quite a bit, since Berlin has a very bad music scene for our requirements.  As a matter of fact we haven’t found a replacement yet.

To me Necros Christos is one of the few bands who truly capture the True underground atmosphere of what death metal should be, a source of darkness and fear as well as a call to the morbid feeling of DEATH. Do you think this is true and do you think that the death metal scene has become too occupied with being flashy and technical rather than staying true to its roots?

What you refer to as roots here is a construct anyway, because ... it’s funny, because I think if you look at the commercial aspect of extreme Metal, whatever that may be, for the most part totally useless bands seem to actually make a living off it.  It’s like ... a band like Morbid Angel did fucking “Abominations Of Desolation” in 1986 and Nuclear Blast boygroups are cashing in on their inventions twenty years later – not by altering the concept but by ruining it for everybody.

It’s basically an educational problem, because, quite evidently, most people that understand themselves as metalheads have never understood classics like “To Mega Therion” or “Don’t Break The Oath”.  Pearls before swine.
 

Anyone who reads the lyrics will see the Influence of middle eastern spiritualism on Necros Christos. What about these forms of religion and philosophy makes a connection to you?  And why do you feel so strongly about them as opposed to practices of a more European nature/origin?

I don’t think that there necessarily is a contradiction as you put it.  In the end, there is only a limited number of themes or constellations in human life and psyche, local or cultural issues don’t make much difference here.  To me, there’s universal truths in certain currents of philosophy and magic that you can find in many cultures all over the planet.  As far as post-medieval European traditions of magic go, they are fundamentally influenced by concepts that emerged in the Middle East and Egypt.  The Qabalah is such a concept, as Alchemy and the Tarot are, too.  We feel the imagery of Sumer, Egypt and the Old Testament is particularly strong because of its primordiality.

One cannot help but see that you guys are a deeply religious/spiritual band. What are some of your Spiritual practices and how do they relate to your music? Do you feel that too many bands do not use the instrument of their music to impart a sense of depth and meaning within their music?

I actually think that somebody like Neil Young has tons more spiritual relevance in my personal universe than any boygroup Black Metal band.

And as for Death Metal ... Death Metal to me comes down to those bands that actually represent something.  Death Metal is not a musical style, it’s a way of communicating truths.  It contains a spiritual essence and it can be a very transcendental experience.  To us, creating and performing our music is nothing less than spiritual practice.

Like I said before, in the Metal universe, there are too many bands that are just not doing the right thing, and for some bizarre reason many of them are getting massive attention. As Isten once put it: In an ideal world, people would start burning down offices of record labels immediately.  Honestly, I often think that there’s a tremendous amount of people who just got it ALL wrong, haha.  Maybe people shouldn’t put that much effort into trying to be what they think is extreme Metal, but first and foremost into trying to listen to music, to develop some understanding of what it actually is or could be before they start recording irrelevant albums.  There are worlds to gain by listening to the old masters, Frost, Mercyful Fate, Sabbath ... by touching the essence and spirituality that they have put in there.  From there you can go on and try to maybe push the envelope a little bit.

With Necros Christos it would appear that every aspect of the band is Imbued with symbolism and meaning.  Is this true?  How do approach each composition when looking at it from all the different perspectives of music, lyrics, imagery, and the layering of deeper meaning into it?

It is less planned than you may think it is.  Of course, Necros Christos is a band with an emphasis on conceptual ideas, but on the other hand it is not that calculated either. Writing music is a creative process and much of it has to do with invoking moods from deeper levels of your mind.  You may put a focus towards which you work, but ultimately you cannot control the process.  You are merely a tool for the music itself.
 

Do you seek perfection of band’s imagery in a live environment and if so what lengths do you go to in order to present the right mood/atmosphere for a live performance?  What should one gain from seeing Necros Christos live?

Come and smell the cadavers.

What does the future hold for Necros Christos and Drowned?

Playing and releasing the music we want to play, playing some more gigs with a few relevant bands.  We’re pretty modest guys I guess, hehe.  We have been into this music since the late 80s, and I’m not exaggerating if I say that we’re more than lucky with how all this is actually making a tiny bit of impact now.  That’s all we asked for really.

I’ll leave any final images or words to you.  Impart whatever wisdom you wish.

Thank you.