Good afternoon, thank you very much for answering these questions, how is everything going in Oulu?
- Okay I guess. Our new album just got released and we are rehearsing for our European tour which starts within few weeks, so things are a bit hectic now.
We run the band activities by ourself, so there are many moving particles to be aware of.
1. Black Mass Pervertor has been active since 1998, what led you to want to create the band? Why did you choose the name Black Mass Pervertor and what does it refer to?
- I would rather say that we have EXISTED in the form or another since 1998. The active years can be divided in two different periods; 1.) the years 2004-2009, when we recorded our first demos and ep's and started playing alive, and 2.) From 2015 to this present moment, which has been the most productive and significant era for the band. During these recent years we really have found our sound and the way to do this thing.
In the late 90's/ early 2000's I had other bands active, so I couldn't focus on this band too much. Anyway, I started this band because I wanted to create ugly and straight-forward music, inspired by Beherit, Repulsion, Darkthrone, Terveet Kädet and early Impaled Nazarene albums. The other bands I was involved, played very different kind of music. The band name doesn't refer to any deeper meaning, but still it reveals more than it hides I guess. In the beginning our lyrics mostly dealt with these kind of topics; perverted rituals and glorification of all things that keeps the spirit bound in flesh. The band name is coarse and obscene, and it easily sticks in your mind, so I guess it's a good name.
2. Despite having been active for about twenty-five years, you started releasing material regularly from 2007 and your first album dates back to 2016, why did it cost you so much to deal with these first releases, was it premeditated or due to another type of circumstances?
- I grew up in a small town and there were no people available for this kind of stuff. I wanted to find people with passion for this kind of music, but unfortunately it wasn't an easy task. So first I had to learn playing new instruments, and for starters; to save some money to even buy ones, so I was forced to start from the very beginning. For 13-year old me that wasn't something to be taken for granted.
When we finally recorded our first demo in 2004, I asked my friends from my other bands to help me out with this, and with that line-up we did our first gigs also. But I never felt that we could go any further with that line-up, it just didn't feel right, because the guys didn't wanna get involved too much.
We released two more demos during those years, but now when I look back, it seems that we were going astray in many ways. I wasn't a strong leader, and no one wasn't exactly running this band like it should have. We didn't have any profound vision what this band stands for, and is all about. We knew how to write songs, we knew how to record them, but everything else was missing.
In 2009 I packed my stuff and left Finland to explore the world. When I later came back home, I felt that I had changed. When I was travelling the world, I was studying occultism and the dark arts, and suddenly many things started to seem meaningless.
Later I tried to reactivate the band, but luckily it didn't work out, because otherwise we would have gone towards way too different direction.
Meaning esoteric black metal with cheesy and wimpy melodies and with clean production and such, ha ha!
So I would say that the band ultimately stopped operating because of its underlying identity crisis which had been there for years.
Years later the band reincarnated and came back with new line-up. I think that the years of non-activity did good for me, because I had time to process my artistic visions. I also have to point out that our return couldn't have been possible - not at least in this form - without our guitarist, who is responsible for our artworks and visual look.
3. You have recently released your third album "Dionysian Rite", an album that we can say fits into the sound that you had offered on your previous "Sodomiittien seura" (2021), can we say that you have found a sound or formula within Which do you feel comfortable with? How has the process of writing and recording this new album been? What brands of instruments have you used?
- After our first album, which felt more or less like a compilation album with majority of its songs written between 2003-2008, I could say that these days we have found our way to do this thing in a way that we all are comfortable with. I believe that at this point we know what elements are crucial for our sound and what we are all about , and within those frames we have plenty of space to act and express ourselves.
The writing process for Dionysian Rite was easy thing for us, but to choose what songs we need for this album, is always more tricky.
I guess that the equipment used for creating this kind of music is not an important factor, nor we are highly qualified or skilled musicians either. We prefer - if not the shittiest - the most economical solutions for creating our stuff. We don't have any fancy or expensive instruments, amplifiers, microphones or recording systems, but we try to make the best we can, when we have managed to get something on tape.
4. In your sound, the weight of the black sound of the nineties is undeniable, in an aspect that also brings us elements of rawness and intensity typical of punk, however, in this new album you can discover some sections that we could understand as death 90s metal, within a range that encompasses diverse influences, sometimes not entirely close to black, how would you define the sound of this new album and what bands and sounds do you think have influenced you when it comes to composing?
- As I started this band, and especially when we were recording our first releases, our influences were obvious; Impaled Nazarene, Darkthrone, Repulsion, Terveet Kädet and such, but soon I realised that in order to keep songwriting interesting for myself, we need to look further and do what feels right. Composing is very intuitive process, and I don't want to limit myself too much, but I guess these days we draw pretty much from everything that fits us, but mostly from the 80's black-, death-, thrash-, and doom metal, and the punk influences are still distinct. I want that the music has dynamics, as well as variation in tempos, atmosphere and presentation, but I still could say that our riffs are very identifiable. Those early influences are still easy to recognize, but I would say that nowadays we have more Celtic Frost, Amebix, Warfare, Killing Joke, Pentagram and Venom in our sound, just because those bands we all like to listen more or less, so unconciousnessly it affects, want it or not. I guess those influences will be even more audible in our next album.
5. On the other hand, your lyrics have always had a rather irreverent character, something that is appreciated in an era in which bands try not to be censorship, however you are not disgusted by dealing with topics such as blasphemy and sodomy, Do you think that this irreverent character in the lyrics is being lost somewhat to the detriment of other more "commercial" or "topical" themes? Why did you decide to deal with these issues in your lyrics? Do the lyrics adapt to the music or vice versa?
- We're dealing with topics which we find interesting, entertaining and meaningful. Hypocrisy and self-deceit being among those subjects which seems to have no beginning nor an end, ha ha. The hebetude, intellectual lazyness, and overall supinity what we can see everywhere, seems almost divine-like and holy.
Then we are drawing from fleshy and promiscous sensations of pure profane hedonism! We are gourmandizing with compulsive urges and lust with sadistic approach, but with aim to integrate these things into some kind of black catharsis and deepened self-awareness. We have no reason to be provocative just for the sake of it, but it's true that if one chooses to use this kind of platform to spread his thoughts or ideas, it gives so much more opportunities for self-expression, than the average daily life where we are usually expected to be more considerate about peoples' ever-delicate sensibilities.
And then there's more personal dimension existing in some of our songs; meaning the spritual, solemn and devotional. Those songs are my prayers for Satan, and my humble attempts to understand how His presence is manifesting in my life - and in myself -while I'm navigating in his dark waters.
If our all our songs would be like these, we would dare to call our music black metal, but because this is not the case entirely in our doings, we don't do so.
We have a strong artistic connection with our guitarist, and we can read each others' minds pretty easily. He's the guy who has created all artworks and illustrations for our last 8 releases, and often it happens that while he's done some illustrations ramdomly and intuitively, I basically create the whole album concept around it. Sometimes it also goes to another direction; I have few lines written down, and he later defines the thematic directions with his sketches.
We basically amplify each others' creativity this way.
6. Another of your hallmarks is the use of a pig on your covers, a pig that is somehow quite humanized, how do you think of using this figure of a pig on your covers, which must already be almost like a band mascot? And how did the design work for your latest album, related to Dionysus and where no detail is lacking, come to fruition?
- Since our first album the pig has been present in a way or another. PHANEROSIS had a pig-masked guy banging a dead cow on the cover, and one another pig-faced creature spoon-feeding a largely obese and horizontally challenged woman. Those were just small details in a bigger picture, but I think that by then we realised that this kind of imagery was something we should look more closely at.
In our doings the pig represents the world of instincts and flesh; and the instant gratification of the very basic needs. This is very easy to picture out, if we accept that apart from this very profane and coarse level there's also the world of higher principles, ideas, archetypes, spirits and gods co-existing. Then again the pig symbolizes us the shadow of man; an ugly manifestation of unwanted and rejected things in human psyche, plus the downcrash of highflown ideals against the walls of harsh reality.
7. Since the 2018 edition of “Life Beyond the Walls of Flesh” through Blood Harvest, all your most recent editions have been self-published, why is this factor, is it related to some issue of censorship by the media? record labels, or fear of being banned from digital platforms, or do you simply want to have more control over your releases?
- I think it's about bad luck and timing combined with the fact that we are not every record labels' wet dream marketing-wise. Want it or not, but even this innocent and care-free messing around in the underground sub-culture is business. How can you sell something, if you don't know what you are selling and who's buying?
You know, the mistake our previous labels did, was that they didn't check too carefully what we are up to. There was probably some elements they loved and something they could relate to, but in the end, I think there was no communication enough between any of us.
But it seems that our pigs with dicks were obviously too much especially for Transcending Obscurity, as we received a fair share of whining about our style and warnings about instant cencorships, and in the end, just when SODOMIITTIEN SEURA was about to go out for pressing, they canceled it. We wasted almost 2 years for this shit. I don't like too much these labels who are constantly looking for new bands to sign, but in reality they just concentrate on those few best selling bands and ignore the rest. If you can't stand 100% behind your artists, don't bother to waste your time! Life is too short!
And also one more thing: if you are running a so-called underground metal label, and all your market strategies are dependent on youtube/facebook/google visibility, then you obviously should reconsider to do something else.
And what comes to labeling and other selling points; sometimes our previous labels have tried to put that black/thrash stamp on us, but I guess we are more than that.
We don't try to sound or look like those 80's bands or the younger bands larping them, but at the same time those old bands have had tremendous effect in our doings. I would dare to say that those who love their metal old fashioned, sleazy and lascivious, in most probability will not shun us.
But all in all we are quite happy with our current situation. By releasing our albums independently, we have all strings in our own hands, and we know exactly how to talk to our audience. This way it's we who are defining what we are doing and how.
Even when our albums have small and limited editions, and you definitely won't find them in every local record store, we rather choose that and be artistically free, than sell few hundred albums more by changing our style.
8. There is not much information about the process of recording, mixing and mastering the album, is it something that you take care of personally without the help of any professional or recording studio?
- Pretty much so, since we have recorded all our albums at our rehearsal chamber, so there really is not too much details to mention about. Plus personally I find those kind of technical details boring and uninteresting.
9. The style you practice lends itself perfectly to the intensity and rawness of the concerts. How is the live presentation of the songs from the new album going? Do you already have some dates booked? Who would you like to share a mini tour with?
-It's an undeniable fact that most of our songs fits perfectly into the live setting, because we are talking about relatively simple and straight-forward songs which doesn't require tremendous technical skills from us, nor special frills from our equipments either. We can perform succesfully no matter what kind of instruments we have in our hands, nor how's the environment like.
From the new album we have played "Pig-headed Self-Deification", "Wanderer of the Desolate Path", "Lust of the Flesh" and "Triumph of the Spirit" for years already. Probably since 2019 these songs have been in our setlist more or less. "Wanderer of the Desolate Path" was originally written around 2007, and it could be that we have performed that song live already back in those days. The reason we did not release this song until now is, that it simply didn't fit in before. And we still play some unreleased songs alive, if they can seemlessly fit in the set. We are one of those bands who actually pays a lot of attention over their setlists, because we have a lot of music and we like to create some kind of storyline and dynamic variations within those 40-45 minutes what we usually spend on stage.
This year we have played a club gig here in Oulu, plus a festival performance at Mangualde HardMetal Fest in Portugal. Then we played two shows in Sweden a month ago. In June we are touring in Europe with Wömit Angel. The tour will cover Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia and Austria. Later this year we have few more shows booked here in Finland.
It's not very easy to say with whom we'd like to tour with. It's important that we get along with people we are expected to spend days or weeks with. Then there's an aesthetical dimension which is important, and this is something we can never underline too much. Like for example it is very hard to imagine that there would be any point to do tour with a band, who are performing suicidal/depressive black metal for example, because we would be just too different.
But to mention few names which could be interesting combination with us touring-wise are; Spirit Possession(US), WAN(SE), Kill(SE) Bahratal(CZ), Mordhell(PL), Flame(FIN)
10. Finland and in general all the Nordic countries have a musical richness beyond any doubt, what do you think is due to this wealth of bands that emerge from your lands? In all these years that you have been active, how do you think it has evolved? the black metal scene in your country? is Oulu a good place for extreme metal bands?
- Well, the second wave hit us hard in the early/mid 90s, so I guess that explains something. We already had bands like Impaled Nazarenre, Beherit, Barathrum and Archgoat at the time doing their own thing, so when the things in Norway and Sweden got all the publicity and media coverage, things just got wild and everyone wanted to have their share from the cake and many bands suddenly appeared out from nowhere. I think the evil aura and its suggestions and images of overwhelming power, spiritual rebellion, and ethos of being an excluded, outcast werewolf standing tall on his feet was fascinating for many of us. Obviously many of those "radical"-minded wanna-be thugs and satanic adventurers have later grown up so to say, and now live their perfectly safe and mediocre family-life and black metal is hardly no more than a teardrop of nostalgia running down their cheeks. Then there are those old unemployed school drop-outs who once had a strong urge to do something radical in their lives, but who failed miserably and are now stabbing people for a gulp of cheap liquor and remains of a smoke. And of course there are people who actually live the black metal lifestyle in their own unique and eccentric way, without failing to live as they preach.
I think the reason for our blooming metal scene here is that most of the guys who got involved in this thing, were basically following the trend and competed boyshly against each other, of who's the most extreme and daring motherfucker, and who's a wimp unmanly poser. It's like in the politics; empty barrels making the loudest noise. I may sound arrogant by saying this, but please prove if I'm wrong, but in this way some bands eventually managed to create something fresh.
But nowadays it's good that we have options, there are different kind of bands for different audiences. Now I'm not speaking about Finnish or Scandinavian bands alone, but generally. Some bands have managed to take black metal to new level, without even trying to push the boundaries too far, not at least intentionally. I guess we are talking about of being inspired by different things, mixing unusual elements fearlessly. But still if you are using these unusual methods to create black metal and you can sense the spirit, I guess then we have something unique at hand.
I myself am not a huge fan of Finnish or Scandinavian black metal in general, as I'm more into the 80's Italian and Eastern-European extreme metal bands, plus the South-American scene. But we have some good bands which I like, but the majority have just nothing to offer for me. To name a few great ones from the undergeound; Morgal, Flame, Ride for Revenge, Vitriolic, Vönülsrëich, Rodent Epoch, Grave Violator, Venus Star.
In our hometown we have a pretty active scene, there are a lot of bands and different kind of metal and punk, but not very good venues for underground bands.
Plus it could be just my own impression, but I could dare to say that the metal scene especially here is rather divided and people are not necessarily aware of each others' doings. These days few have this annual winter in-door black metal fest called Rites of North, which should interest many of you. This year for example we had Archgoat, Sargeist, True Werwolf, And Oceans, Havukruunu, Black Beast and Demilich playing, to name a few.
11. Of course, a lot of time has passed, but how were your beginnings in music: first concerts you attended, first albums you bought? What event in your lives pushed you to want to be musicians?
- Oh man, now I really have to push to remember. I guess the first gigs I ever saw was at the local band contest held in my old hometown around '98. Then a year later, Autumn Metal Fest, also held in my old hometown. I don't even remember for sure which bands were playing, but at least Hellmasker(SWE), Charon, The Lambs, Downfall, My Shameful were there.
The same year I saw Terveet Kädet alive.
The first records I bought were Kiss' "Hotter than Hell" and "Destroyer", Guns'n' Roses' "An Appetite for Destruction", Nirvana's "In Utero". I think the year was 1995. Then only a year later things started to move towards more extreme direction and I bought Iron Maiden's "Killers", Marduk's "Fuck me Jesus" demo, Impaled Nazarene's two first albums, plus "Anno Domini" ep from Terveet Kädet, and then Kreator's "Endless Pain" and "Coma of Souls". That year changed everything, and by then I knew what I want to do with my life. The same year I started to play bass guitar, if it wasn't already the year before. Also around those days I regularly visited our local library's music section, which had a fair share of extreme music available, and I remember I spent lot of time there listening to old Slayer-, Dark Angel-, Sodom-, Sepultura-, Traitor-, Kapteeni Perkele- and Tuomiopäivän Lapset- lp's. For obvious reasons I had to sell my hard rock albums away, when I got introduced to black/thrash metal and punk, ha ha! In my ears, Kiss started to sound music for wimps, Guns'n'Roses for posers! Problem with Metallica wasn't the band itself but mostly the fans, ha ha!
12. What album represents for you the essence of black metal? What last albums have you bought?
- Darkthrone's Ravishing Grimness. That's pretty much the finest example of what black metal can be.
13. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for Black Mass Pervertor fans this is the place. I hope the questions are to your liking.
- Thanks for your interest and all the best!
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