WARDANCE Webzine: GLOOMY GRIM : 2004 interview [In english]

The finnish legend of symphonic Black Metal...

Exclusive interview with Agathon by Hanns Wehrwolf (Hans Cany), made on 19 february 2004, for WARDANCE

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Hans : Hail, Agathon ! Can you please present GLOOMY GRIM to the readers who don't know you already ?...

Agathon : It all started in 1984 from a band called HELLSTORM (I found some of those tapes, and you can download some of the stuff from our website).
I started as guitar "player", but the thing which has always fascinated me most is banging drums, so after creating music with guitar, drums & synths for a few years, I decided to leave all other intruments and started to play drums more "profesionally". Year was something around 1987 or so. After that decision I have played drums in many bands (and still do), but in 1995, when I bought a computer, I felt that I wanted to create music of my Own again, without no compromises with other band members. That was the start of GLOOMY GRIM . I made two demos, and after the release of "Friendship Is Friendship, War Is War !", I got a phone call from Holy Records who made me that kind of "offer y cannot resist".After that phone call, we have done three albums, two videos, and two successful tours in France. Currently we are rehearsing stuff for the new album.

So, a 4th album is planned for this year, right ?...
Please let us know more about that.

Yes, that's true. Seems that we start recordings in May, and keep some pause, then mix it. It will be released sometime in autumn. This time, the composing process has been very different than previous times. This time I have first done the guitar tracks at home, then synths. Normally, we have always done the opposite way, but I felt that I have gone that path to the end, and I practised to play guitar a little bit. There will even be tracks without synths at all ! That is quite unusual for GLOOMY GRIM . Reason for that was that I wanted more aggression/nuances in our music. When synths aren´t playing all the time, they give a better impact when they start.

Please don't take it the wrong way, but personally, I must confess that your latest album, "Written in Blood", wasn't my favourite one. Even though it's very good in its style, it is more brutal and has a more "classic Dark/Black Metal"-oriented sound, unlike your 2 first albums, who featured much more Electronic/industrial sounds and symphonic effects. In my eyes, "Blood Monsters, Darkness" and "Life ?" were two absolute masterpieces immersed in really dark atmospheres, directly inspired by horror movies and so on, but sadly, I can't feel the same magic on "Written in Blood" (although, as I already said, it remains a good album in a more classical vein). Therefore, I just wondered : what can we expect from the forthcoming new album ?... Is it going to be in the same vein as "Written in Blood", or is it going to be a kind of return to the previous GLOOMY GRIM style ?...

You might be disappointed ! On "Written in Blood", I wanted to get out of that "one man band" feeling, and wanted it to be more band-oriented. And I think that real drums did it last time. I feel like a circle is closing, because we are really going to real "old school" style, which in my case means more guitars, less synths, like it was when I started HELLSTORM. But.I think that this stuff is not going to be that different, and that you won´t like it at all, if you did like the previous albums. We are not going to do any kind of nu-metal or that kind of shit...heh, heh

Since your debut album, you're signed on famous french label Holy Records. Are you fully satisfied with their work ?

They have their limitations and it is mostly because of their lack of money (I hope so). The worst thing in their lack of money is that it seems like they don´t have any budget to promote us all over the world (in magazines etc.), only in France. But in general, they have done some great job.

The skeletons artworks on your various record sleeves are quite remarkable. Who made them ?

I have done all the artwork for our record sleeves/covers, but what I hate in Holy Records is the fact that they always put some extra stuff in covers I have made, without asking me. I hate that.

For how long, and how did you get into this fascination for everything related to Horror and Darkness ? Does it have anything to do with your various artistic
tastes ?

When GLOOMY GRIM started, I had collected Horror movies for many years, but not anymore. I have still about 1500 films at home. At the beginning , my inspiration maybe came from them musically, but later it turned into something else. I personally mostly like Italo Horror. Like Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento stuff, etc.

Are you truly interested in strange and "paranormal" phenomenons ? And did you ever have some strange experiences, in your life ?

When I got kicked away from confirmation camp, when I was young, I had a strange dream, or some kind of "vision", and I have followed that since then. I don´t believe in ghosts or spirits. I believe in me. Paranormal phenomenons are interesting things, but I believe that they are mostly man made. Like poltergeist phenomenons or that kind of stuff, which are most likely produced in someone's head, and then he/she "sends" them away from his/her head, maybe without even knowing that he/she can do things like that.

From a spiritual and philosophical viewpoint, how would you define yourself ?
Is your virulent anti-christianism related to satanist views, or is it something totally different ?...

Antichristianism has always been a very important thing to me. I hate all that hypocrisy that christians (or some other god based religious groups) do . When I was young, "of course", I used to worship Satan, but a bit later I finally realized that it was as stupid as worshipping any other god. I decided to start worshipping myself. That makes also sense at an Antichristian level, because that is what they're the most scared about : themselves. All the time they are afraid (or at least should be, if they read their bible) of what they can or can´t do. I might say that I am a satanist, if we look at it with christians' eyes, but in my eyes I am just me. I am God & Satan. Like everyone should be. Religions are made to make people stand in straight lines, and help governments to justify their deeds. Like they did in the USA. If I wanted to be real evil, I would turn into a catholic, a jewish or a christian. Satan represents to me rebellion against "normal" people, who have chosen to stay in that religion made "line". Lucifer's sin (according to bible) was to ask god "why ?", when he was thrown away from heaven. Shouldn´t this tell enough ? Like I have said many times to people: we are all born as originals, but most of us die like copies.

You know, some people who appear to be "True Evil Black Metal" extremists often denigrate GLOOMY GRIM, because according to them this is not "true" Black Metal... What do you respond to these persons ?...

Yes, I know, and that is ok for me, since I have never claimed to be a Black Metal band. Althought we are both "Black" and "Metal", but that is a different thing... In general, I am more than amused about that kind of statements, and I really don´t want to be part of this thing where most of the followers (of course not all) are fucking teenage bastards, whose mom makes them warm milk when they go to sleep. Then, they sneak up for daddy's computer, and start to act as a big hero (of course as anonymous) on the internet !...

Do you have some contacts with some other bands from the finnish scene ?

I know many Finnish band members from many bands... Also there are few ones whose I don´t want to know more than necessary, for the reason I explained in previous question....

Well, thanks a lot for this interview. Any final comment ?...

Check out our website : it features all kinds of stuff that you can download. Also I forgot to mention that alongside with the limited edition of next GLOOMY GRIM album, there will be a DVD, which contains lots of videos, a document about our french tour from 2001, etc. Check it out !