1)What is the current line-up of Hemlock?

Commandos of Armageddon:

His Eminence the wicked: possessed by the spirits of Kim ruzz and filthy
animal taylor
Azalin: Force Field Fists
Balth: the 'ol undertow of bayside
D 777: Mood shifter and bang out teen rock dream

2)Tell us about the bands each member has played in.

We could be here all day. I have a low attention span. But here's some
related rock anyway: TERROR OF THE TREES, TH3 DYING LIGHT, CEREMONIUM...

3)What brought about the formation of Hemlock and does the work of
the members' previous and/or current bands effect Hemlock in any
way?

The origins of Hemlock evolved from the root triad collective: D 777,
Laconist, Jihad 666. His Eminence joined the ranks within the first 2 weeks
of the group-birth. Our debut demo was written/recorded in 3 days with a
drum machine, it featured the tracks Secrets of the black forest and October
sunrise [in its original form]. Since NO ONE in NYC gave a shit about black
metal at the time [late 91 early 92], it was easy to unite with these strong
individuals that were already close comrades and familiar faces from the
early days of l'amours [legendary rock capitol of Brooklyn!] As well as His
Eminence's impressive early works with PROPHYERIA [an early Black/Death
group inspired by BATHORY, and ancient MORBID ANGEL] Jihad 666 left and went
on to concentrate on the mighty and original CATTLEPRESS [and also plays in
TH3 DYING LIGHT]. Azalin from CEREMONIUM joined in late 96 as well as a
result of his
unconditional love of MERCYFUL FATE and VENOM! Balth is also the big
DARKTHRONE fan of Hemlock. The only line-up change as of recent was
Laconist. I still speak to Laconist every so often, as well as hailing him
for his great work with us and his mighty CEREMONIUM. [which by the way,
will be releasing the great "no longer silent" album soon which I played
bass on..] Great TRUE ORIGINAL DEATH FUCKIN' METAL!. The formation of
Hemlock was to bring the sewers and parasites to the streets via the ugly
sounds of cruel harsh unlistenable hymns deadicated to the Ancient Ones.
Where filth embraces the zero and flesh becomes dust. The work of the other
groups is isolated with them. The only effect to the poison is time
managment.

4)How dedicated to the band are the members of Hemlock?

Well since this band is not a money generating machine and we really
don't have any kind of marketable value as far as the record buying
public, outside of people interested in the old sounds of black
metal, their own will to continue with the group and their own will to want
to do the group is basically a reflection of how they feel about
being in the band. For the most part the whole group feels strongly
about continuing on but it's always been me and His Eminence which
have pretty much called all the shots for the group over the years
since he's basically the original member next to myself. So we've
always kind of continued on and made decisions especially as of
recent..we'll be heading into the studio at the end of this month to
do a single for Stephen O' Malley's label called AJNA. It's a 7"
that will be called "Triumphs In the Name of Might" and it will be
more primitive black metal in the vein of early VENOM/BATHORY.

5)Do you think Hemlock will disband in a few years and the members
will go form new bands?

It's too early to say and honestly I don't try to look too far into
the future. I couldn't see Hemlock going on forever because we're
definitely not going to be one of those groups putting out ten
albums. I believe that over-saturation is a bad thing and I think
that the evolution of this group, since we have a very specific
frame that we work around, there's only so much that we can do. But
we haven't reached the point yet that we feel that it's time to
disband. So it could be years, it could be weeks, it could be days;
it's impossible for me to judge destiny, I will let destiny take me
there.

6)You're in a lot of different bands, does this make you less
dedicated to Hemlock?

Oh not at all actually, in fact, it makes Hemlock more pure in its
approach. As I've said, I'm involved with a group called TH3 DYING
LIGHT which features other members of a group called CATTLEPRESS
which they are kind of like a Progressive Metal group; they have
their own sound, it's very Avant-gardish..about TH3 DYING LIGHT, it's along
the lines of..I easily want to call it Street Metal because it has more in
lines to do with MOTORHEAD and early MANOWAR and stuff like that mixed with
some old Thrash. So it's definitely something different than Hemlock and I
don't know how to explain it more than it's just headbanging, beer drinking,
womanizing Metal. I also have something going on right now called REVENGE
which is basically..I don't know if you're familiar with groups like WHITE
HOUSE and groups like THE SWANS..It's very minimalist, electronic, heavy
rhythms, dirge kind of thing and it's really inspired by a lot of
soundtracks like WENDY CARLOS, who did "The Shining" soundtrack, and
composers like Bela Bartok and Pendereki and I guess GOBLIN and stuff like
that.

7)So all the members of Hemlock are 100% dedicated to the groups
they're involved with?

Absolutely.

8)How did you come up with the name Hemlock and what does it mean
in relation to your music?

We came up with the name Hemlock, actually in reference, when I was
looking at an old flyer of an old West German band called POISON and I was
inspired to come up with a name equally as brutal. And since Hemlock is a
poison itself, I decided that would be a good monicker for ourselves since
our music was ugly and most people that were into early '90s black metal
couldn't stand it. So we just decided to use that name and that's how the
name Hemlock came about in reference to the music, because it's uneasy and
uneasy to listen to.

9)When the band began writing and recording, how was the approach
to your musical and lyrical style different to everything done
previously? What did you want to accomplish with Hemlock and what
was your mentality at the time?

Since the inital activation of the group we have found that the organic
process is what suits us best. The music and lyrics from the beginning have
always been an evolution of thoughts and actions representing fragments of
time in our personal lives as well as ongoing inspirations brought by
confrontations [both physical and non] and literature. Each record is more
or less an audio diary.
Hemlock is NOTHING like our musical outlets. This one is solely based on
primal and I mean primal instincts as opposed to "studio project of the
week" or "hired gun". no image. no fashion. no featuring members of. no
catch phrases. no ridiculous outfits. Just pure uglyness. I am still as
hostile as the early days, if not even more since I've become even more
bitter with age! Hemlock will never support the scene then and forever! The
albums are the only outlet I have to speak unspoken truths..especially "Lust
For Fire" was/is inspired by the strife that took place within the group and
as well in our personal lives [98-99] and is a keyframe in a saga that is
ongoing...the result this time around presents our graduation to being one
step closer to hitting rock bottom. Insanity has becone a close companion to
us all.

10)How many demos did you make?

We made two demos; one demo was a two-song promo in 1992 with a drum
machine and then in early '93 we also did another demo for record
labels, namely actually for Metalion, which was just a couple of songs
from rehearsals.

11)How did you get in contact with Metalion/Head Not Found/Voices of
Wonder and what was your deal with them?

Well I was in contact with Metalion because I was buying SLAYER MAG
from him for some time and actually our old guitar player Laconist was
the one who set up the deal. He was the one who kept in touch with
him as far as like what he thought of the rehearsal and Metalion
said "hey I want to give you guys a deal" so we thought it was the
best thing to do for us and we went in, I guess it must have been
three years after we sent him some tapes, and recorded our first
album and we just went on with that from there.

12)Did you get offers from other labels?

A couple of other people were talking to us that our old guitar
player was in touch with, some people from South America..mostly small
labels that we were just affiliated with putting out demo tapes and stuff.
But since I knew Metalion, it was easier to work with someone I already knew
and the fact that he kept good company and put out some decent releases, we
felt that he would do the best promotion for us and we just took the chance
and went with it.

13)How was the response to your first release "Crush the Race of
God"?

A lot of people in South America really hailed it because it was
primitive and I guess it was along the lines of the music coming
out of there, which is totally fine with me because that's kind of
where our roots lie. We had some pretty decent press in Japan as
well. We had a handful of people in the States writing to us because,
at that point, black metal wasn't a catch phrase in America and all
these failed death metal musicians turning over into black metal
didn't exist; so I could count all the black metal bands in one hand
in the States at that point. So we had a very minimal response in
America.

14)How is "Funeral Mask" a progression from the MCD?

"Funeral Mask" is basically songs that we wrote between '96 and '98
and the progression on that was since Balth just joined prior to
recording "Crush", and Azalin as well, we finally felt the chemistry was
coming together in terms of their songwriting and our songwriting mixing. So
it was just a logical progression that really can't be explained except just
through rehearsals and interaction. The songs are quicker, they're a little
less old sounding, but nonetheless it's a combination of four writing
personalities, including myself actually,
so the music is just a natural progression of people rehearsing together X
amount of times.

15)Are you satisfied with "Crush the Race of God", "Funeral Mask"
and the work of the record label?

Well the first two albums we're pretty proud of as concerned of
sounds and songs cause the songs, as I said, we had been playing for
quite some time. But as far as the record label work was concerned,
Voices of Wonder really lacked in the promotional department and the
fact that we were an American group, they felt less inspired to
promote us because they couldn't see any potential money making
because of image and they relied heavily on image where we just
decided that image means nothing and the music and our philosophy
and our actions were more than what people look like on paper. So for us, I
think we were just extremely too primitive for them and not approachable
enough and that's what kind of destroyed the relationship between the band
and the label. But as far as Metalion was concerned, it had really nothing
to do with him as far as the miscommunication because he did his part; he
basically just signs the bands to Head Not Found and they manufacture
everything just kind of like how Euronymous signed everything to DSP and
Voices of Wonder would finance and market and promote. So it was basically
the same deal except it was Metalion. So we were treated equally as bad as
the bands on DSP were treated that were not Norwegian.

16)I heard Voices of Wonder fucked you out of royalties, is this
true?

Absolutely. We wound up just dealing with, as I said, a lot of running
around and since a lot of those guys and Norwegian people by nature,
at least what I saw of them, are very unconfrontational. So were were
never able to get a direct answer and only loopholes..where as I found out
that most bands on that label were getting the same treatment. So they were
really bad about showing us reports, letting us know what the sales
were...so after a while we just had to destroy that relationship and I kind
of told them off quite a few times because, you know, if other bands will
stay passive and not react to their mismanagment..we just decided to call
them out and tell them to fuck off.

17)Tell us about the split you did with Black Army Jacket and
how it came about. Why did you decide to do a split with this band
and how did you decide on which material you would contribute to it?

The split was a 10" and a MCD and the deal was that since we had a
European deal, we didn't have any American distribution at that point
besides the irregular channels that all those kind of labels go
through. So to have it released domestically available was something
that we were interested in, especially since it was a vinyl thing.
BLACK ARMY JACKET were friends of ours, the singer was an old friend
of mine who used to worked at COMBAT/RELATIVITY in the '80s. So since
he was a person I respected his outlook on things..the guy who
wanted to put the record out decided to say "hey you know we wanted
to do a split with you guys" so we just went along with it since it
was going to have decent distribution. That release itself, the
songs that we chose for that release actually were the drummer of
Hemlock, His Eminence, the songs he had for his own demo; which is
his personal project called TERROR OF THE TREES. But since we've heard
the songs and we like the songs, we just decided to do it as Hemlock
as well and we did the recording and it was like our only recording
that we've ever done in a real studio where we did not control the
situation. The recording itself is probably the cleanest we've ever
done. As far as production value is concerned, it could have been
a lot better. But we chose to do those songs and have one of our
records released domestically as well as to have something on a New
York label where we could oversee the promotion and obviously that
backfired as well because they just viewed it as a novelty and we
just viewed it as another release and there was a lot of
miscommunication and they also can fuck off.

18)Even though you guys have released two albums and a split,
Hemlock is pretty unknown in the United States; why is this?

Because we don't play the fucking music industry political game and
I'm not too interested in communicating with others because I feel,
for the most part, that our views are very different from the other
groups in considering that a lot of them are textbook, catchphrase
black metal bands full of failed death metal musicians switching
into another generic music to see if they could sell records. For me
that's not black metal and I don't hate death metal at all but I
consider that just a trend move. So I just decided that when letters
would come about with other groups wearing ridiculous outfits and
ridiculous paint, I felt that they didn't have the spirit of black
metal at all, I felt they were just another circus show so they
can fuck off too. So that's how we just kind of kept low key, we were
in touch with who we needed to be in touch with and as I said
earlier, we're not in this for a popularity game. We're in this to
make evil music and spread our word and I'm not interested in being
the diplomat of the scene.

19)Was your decision to play more live shows a product of being so
obscure?

Well we've always played live shows up until the bands inception. We
first played a lot locally here in New York at CBGB's and we played a lot of
death metal shows...A lot of those shows really didn't work out for us
because black metal in those days wasn't exactly popular yet and the fact
that our music was even more raw than most, it was not going over too well
with the crowd and I have a tendency of hurting the crowd so-to-speak. So we
decided to anti-up the shows even more and more and more and especially
since the second wave of black metal finally hit, we decided that all these
spikes standing in poses like statues on stage was boring and we figured
that beer bottles and blood is better.

20)Hemlock has played live for over 8 years now, tell me about your live
experiences.

We've had our fair share of bad billing [you know, playing with bands we
don't really "fit in" with I.E. Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, etc. also
dick head rip-off promoters treating the local bands badly because they
themselves are nothing but wannabes and failed musicians looking for
acceptance] But there has been some interesting highlights during this span
of time. I'm proud to say we've played with EXODUS, DECEASED, SIGH, USURPER,
GRAND BELIAL'S KEY, IMMOLATION, VADER, CATTLEPRESS, GRIEF. I'd rather play
with a mixed selection so it's a nice contrast. I'm also proud of our
metamorphosising into a REALLY VIOLENT LIVE ACT. In a traditional sense, of
course. We don't overkill our presence here in NYC, so when we play, it's a
cool event.

21)I hear your live shows are really violent, what kind of things
have gone on during your live sets (on-stage and in the crowd) and
what do you try to convey to the audience?

Well since we're products of old l'amours shows and we're a bunch of
old Thrash metal/Black metal fans, we just wanted to replicate the
same feelings we got from seeing KREATOR and VOIVOD and SLAYER. So
after a few drinks, and a few other things, you get inspired on the
stage and we practice what we preach and the hate that's in the songs
are exactly transpired to stage and we figured since we're playing
violent music we might as well be violent and it's nothing that I
really think too highly of, I just do it on my own and everything
just takes place and it's a battlefield up there. So things that have
gone on is chairs flying, mike stands flying, bottles flying, people
getting cut, people getting punched. Our music has to be confrontational,
REAL black metal is ULTRA-violent and misanthropic;
NOT passive, statue, fashionable statements. I am AGAINST the fashion
in black metal I am AGAINST the image in black metal. I'd rather
punch somebody out in the face than have fucking long hair.

22)What do you expect from an audience? Should they headbang, mosh,
thrash or just assault each other? What is your ideal audience like?

Headbanging is awesome, Thrashing is awesome..it's up to them. I prefer to
see violence and we've been fortunate enough to see chairs thrown and pool
tables turned over at shows and that makes me happy cause that's the kind of
reaction that we need to see in black metal. Not moshing, but, as I said, I
could care less what people do as long as it's disturbing and it's usually
when I look out into the audience three songs in, it's a whirlwind out there
of people just hurting each other and that's exactly what I like to see.

23)Tell us how you got in contact with FMP and decided to release
the full-length with them. At one point, both parties decided not to
work together; what caused this and how was this eventually
resolved?

Well I knew Jon for years through the mail-order and through the
zine and we just discussed how our views were very similar...and we've
always talked briefly..or should I just say we've always had a loose
kind of connection as far as, you know, we've worked together down
the line and we decided to work together and the basic communication
between us since I'm not the easiest person to get along with and
actually none of the Hemlock members for the most part are easy to
get along with, so the communication between us was extremely
difficult. So as I said earlier, one of the ways it was resolved was
just basically people going through sober phases and discussing
things in a form where no one was feeling intimidated and basically
we just kind of decided to work together because a lot of other
labels that we were in touch with were not really to my liking of
the acts that they were putting out; and since Jon is into old RAZOR,
PILEDRIVER and old-school black metal and thrash metal, he seems to
be the only person that knows how to handle and market our music and
we felt that that would be our best bet. We could have signed to a
bigger label, because we've had offers, but it really would have
made no sense for us to go that direction. So we decided to take a
different route and return back to FULL MOON and work our differences out
and that's how it happened.

24)How does "Lust For Fire" differ from previous Hemlock material
musically and lyrically?

Lust For Fire is like World War Two German tanks. It's ugly sounding,
we believe that Metal should be unapproachable. I don't believe in
clean production, I don't believe in false smiling, I don't believe in false
happiness; I believe in destruction and hatred..And "Lust For Fire" sounds
like an ugly fucking demo from the early 80's, that's the
sound we tried to re-create, and I think it will be much more harsher than
the last albums and it's much more monotonous and it's unaccessible. So for
the most part we're expecting it to be approached so that people will
complain about the sound and that's exactly what we want; to make it as ugly
as possible and as grim as possible and let the music and the production
coincide and compliment each other. And "Lust For Fire" will definitely be
an album that will be hated by most and only liked by little.

25)Can you tell me about the lyrics?

The lyrics are almost like diary entries and it's kind of strange cause I
look at all the lyrics now and they've been written like over the last year
and a half/two years. It foretold a lot of the future that was about to
happen to me and other people in the group. So when I look at the lyrics,
especially on this particular album, I think it's working on a really
personal side of things, but as I said, it foretold a bunch of different
destinies that was about to happen to the group and the individuals in the
group. So these lyrics in particular I find to be the closest and the
best..I don't know how to explain it more than like a parallel train of
thought become simultaneous with an action. So the end result was predicted
in the lyric before I even knew what the end result was going to be. So when
I look at the lyrics and I look at the things that have happened between
recording the record and now, I think that a lot of that stuff came true and
it's a lot of in-between the line kind of things. It's amazing sometimes how
these types of instances happen, I mean "Funeral Mask" and "Crush" have
lyrics that speak for themselves as far as that fragment of time and what I
was thinking about at the time and whatever I was reading; but all the
natural philosophies I have are still concrete and the same. I just progress
because everything progresses, nothing can stagnate. I think that the lyrics
for "Lust For Fire" especially songs like "Thornpusher" and "Beyond the
Threshold of Pain" say a few things that, as I said, I guess relate to me
personally that are just things that I was going through like all the strife
and stuff. That's what they're about really, it's just about despair, strife
and insanity. There's this one thing I've noticed that everyone in the band
has gotten a lot closer to what normal people would consider crazy. I find
myself even in a crowded room being alone and I find myself talking to
myself more than I find myself talking to other people. So not to
overanalyze it too much..it's just how people's mentality can really really
really take a toll on them after a while. And I think that as I get older
and the other guys get older, we've all discovered that there's a lot to be
learned and there's a lot of things that you can't share with the common
man. I don't know if that really has a lot to do with anything about Metal
or if it just has to do with the personalities involved and their outlook on
life in general and how they deal with everyday things; so that is basically
everything conjured up in the lyrics. I think I talk about real subjects,
but using like different kinds of terminology to express and be poetic, but
at the same time it's a brief look into like our diaries so-to-speak.

26)Your vocals are really torturous, what are you thinking about/feeling
when you sing?

Well when I sing at rehearsal and I sing on the record, it's pretty much the
same cause we capture the way our recording process works and the way we've
kind of calibrated it over the years it's always been like, extreme organic
process. So I don't sit and scream to all these modifiers that are in the
recording studios, we use a hand-held mike.
As far as what I think about, since I'm writing the words I have a very
close relationship with those words and I find that a lot of bands use a
very theatrical almost child-like grasp on things. But the way our lyrics
work, it's just fragments of thought and emotional stuff that just kind of
takes over and when I sing it I sing what I feel; so it's just a reflection
of what's making me say those things. I don't know how to say it more than
just gut reaction and it just seems natural to sing it that way. I don't go
in there with some head thinking otherwise, I just go in there and record
it. Especially on the last album, and the next thing that we're doing, the
way we recorded these was...I was just kind of influenced by specific
substances that kind of just let me relax more and use...I don't know how to
explain it more than the delivery is much more natural than sitting in a
studio holding
headphones..I don't know how to explain it more than we found a better way
and a more natural way to make it sound like what we really sound like. And
I think, especially on "Lust For Fire", that's the most comfortable I've
ever been with my voice. I think it's because we found a way to do it and..I
only use my natural tone in my voice, I don't use any effects, and here and
there you'll hear an echo on it but that's really just because of the way we
recorded it and sound bouncing off the walls and stuff. So it's pretty
interesting to hear some of that stuff now because a lot of people probably
think we were doing some kind of reverb and echo and stuff like that; but it
was really just the techniques that we used.

27)What kind of equipment was required to make such an ugly sound
for the album? What kind of settings were required?

Well for "Lust for Fire" the way we worked it this time was in the past we'd
always kind of set up shop and since before we record our albums we rehearse
a few times a week, we've gotten to really understand/complement each others
playing so there's a chemistry. And now after recording all these records
and the fact that Balth has a lot of recording experience under his belt and
His Eminence went to recording school and myself record a lot of things on
the side. It's a process that's all about how you mike things and how you
use distortion pedals. It's just a matter of re-producing what you sound
live in the rehearsal room to tape and I think this is the closest we've
ever come to it. The process can be frustrating because of changing plugs
and routing wires can occasionally get in the way of recording, especially
in small rehearsal spaces, but we've always found a way to try to make it as
comfortable and less stressful as possible. But on the new record
I think the extremity was pushed because we recorded a lot of the guitars
instead of being isolated it was basically...the cabinets weren't that
isolated this time around and the sound had more jumping around, the mikes
were put close to the amps, and we just tried to listen to scratches more
and like rough cuts, first and foremost, so it actually sounds like the
guitar tones coming out of the amp. Same with the drums, he really made an
effort to make a really bad drum sound just to replicate what he likes. If
you listen to the singles on the record, it's like the closest to what we
sound like live and also the closest that we can get to sounding like
specific things that influence the group; without stealing from them. It's
less thought about and more about letting your ear do all the work.

28)What do you think you'll achieve with this full-length?

It'll be our third war-strike against all these wimps claiming to be
black metal, it's also our third war-strike against humanity and
that's what we're planning on doing is just keep destroying the holy
and destroying humans. That's our goal, just complete annihilation.

29)The cover art is very different from your previous covers, can
you tell us about the artwork for your first two albums and the
imagery behind the new one?

Our first two albums have more of a hand-held art..since I'm the
illustrator of the group, most of the art that I was doing then is
extremely primitive to reflect what I do with our music. So it was
basically a reflection of sounds transcribed to paper, just a visual
side of things. For "Lust For Fire" I decided to change the format and
use some technology to give it a different flare and the cover is
just something I wanted to do with video stills. So that's really just
a case of switching things up out of just wanting to..and things
will be different for our next records as well.

30)Why did you choose that particular video still?

Because I just thought it represented something that I like which is
like the metamorphosising of a person into something evil as well
as, you know, the tornado is something I've always appreciated. I
like seeing natural disasters, they appeal to me greatly, and that's
why I wanted to put it on the cover.

31)Your logo is fairly simple, why did you choose it and did you
consider a different one? Perhaps a more "indecipherable" metal
logo?

Well that logo is actually our second logo and I figured that that logo
represented what I wanted to put on paper because, for the most part,
unreadable logos make me laugh and I think it's just very close to the death
metal thing and, as I said, we just didn't want to be a part of that. We
just wanted to have our own visual and I just put it together and it looked
good and that's how we did it. There was no real insane philosophy behind it
except that I just wanted to keep us apart from all these unreadable logos;
especially since a lot of people use the same logo designers.

32)What about your first logo?

Our first logo was basically my handwriting; it was just some
scribble. If you look at the fonts on the records, all the
handwriting, that's basically what the logo was originally.

33)Are the members of Hemlock Satanists or just violent old-school
metalheads?

Well we're all involved with the old-school. It's no secret that a
lot of the members date back with their roots in the old-school
Black/Death/Thrash scene from the early 80's as well as the early 90's. As
far as the Satanism thing is concerned, I can only speak for myself on this
one and I do have strong parallels to the Satanic philosophy but it's not as
cut and dry as that. I have other interests in the Occult which are less
biblical related and more about self-empowering and where man stand in the
universe and the western world. So Satanism is just a small molecule
compared to the studies that I venture into.

34)Can you tell me about your studies?

Well right now I've been reading "777" by Aleister Crowley and I'm
just learning about the comparisons of all the trees of life in
different religions as well as I'm studying a lot of eastern
mysticism; just learning more about their roots of what stands
actually. Good and evil; there is no good and evil, there is no
contrast. There is just one tone; and how christianity and Satanism,
traditional Satanism, has nothing to do with what I believe in and what
true Satanism is. There is no such thing as a superhuman deity and
it's all very symbolic and I understand that angle and that's how I
view Satanism as far as what I feel connected to about it. It's more
I guess in the LaVey train of thought as opposed to the traditional
christianity's train of thought. But my studies at the moment
actually are more focused on eastern mysticism and it's more along
the lines of self-empowerment and human psyche.

35)What books/authors do you find validity in? Which have contributed most
to your Occult knowledge?

I can recommend some authors like Crowley, Levy. Also eastern mysticism
books can shed some light on the matters Crowley speaks of..some books worth
mentioning are "The Book of Thoth", "Book 4" and "Transcendental
Magic"...it's really up to what intrigues you..follow your own path.

36)Is some of your Satanic ideology pre-christian?

It has nothing actually to do with christianity. As far as
pre-christian stuff, I'm extremely interested in Sumerian folklore as
well as Sumerian history. So the Satanism that we have interests in
have nothing to do with christianity at all.

37)What is your definition of a Satanist?

As far as Satanism is concerned, it's on a per-person basis. But as
far as the christian equivalence, I don't believe in it. I don't
acknowledge the christian religion, I don't wear any upside-down
crosses..I won't even acknowledge the cross to be an entity. So it
doesn't effect me directly. I'm against christianity, but being that
I've ventured deeper into the Occult, besides what a lot of these
posers are just viewing as a shock-related value, we're looking at
it as more of a lifestlye and philosophy. So Satanism to me is man
being in touch with his primal instincts and marching on
unapproachable and going to take what he needs, that is the ideal of
Satanists.

38)Do you find validity in performing rituals or is it only the
literature that you have interests in?

Well actually rituals do not bring in any kind of superhuman
deities or anything like that, but the rituals just kind of awake
different parts of your psyche and spirit; different scents and
different focusing of energy. So I just view it as a ritual just
like eating can be a ritual, I view occult rituals in the same
light. They just heighten your senses and clear your mind and I use
rituals to create focus and also to try to create balance within
yourself. And in a few days actually we will be doing the Winter
Solstice Ritual in the house. So we acknowledge the strong Occult
partaking in the household that I live in. There's a lot of
likeminded individuals, the guys in CATTLEPRESS that I live with
that have the same outlook as Azalin and I have, so we practice
similar rituals so-to-speak.

39)What do you think about devil worship?

Well anyone who wants to be enslaved by a superhuman deity or an
inanimate object has their right to do it on their own but that has
nothing to do with being dark. It's just as bad as being enslaved by
a jew or christianity. I mean honestly, I don't worship any superhuman
deities so I can't relate to it. But the Occult is really about
self-empowerment and about enlightening yourself through literature and
enlightening yourself through the inner-power and the inner-psyche of
yourself and acknowledging the animal instinct. So I couldn't relate to
devil worship because, you know, just because you have a pentagram on your
jacket or whatever doesn't exactly mean that you're involved with the
Occult.

40)Did any books help found your ideology?

My ideology is based on what I take from different philosophies,
there's nothing cut and dry about it. Everything is a learning
experiece and a life experience, so every day I learn a new thing and
it becomes part of my outlook. So I couldn't really sit down and tell
you where it began and where it's ended. No one particular book set
me on the right path; I've always been on the path, and things have
just enlightened me and given me a different view on the western
world and the outlook on humanity in general.

41)You believe Nature = Satan is that correct?

Absolutely. Man is so far removed from his primitive aspects that I
feel that the true Satanist is people who live closest to their
primal origins. For me, I believe in confrontation and I believe in
violence 150%. I believe in primitive acts, most people shy away
from primitive acts because technology has distracted their biological way
or whatever you want to call it. I'm not interested in being a pacifist, I'm
not interested in left wing or right wing ideologies and I don't believe in
human causes. So it's every man for himself, strive to survive, strength
through strife.

42)So you believe in the ideology behind Might Is Right?

Absolutely.

43)Do you think that people aren't as confrontational because of
society's rules not paralleling Nature's laws and that causing a
deadening and dulling of our natural instincts?

Absolutely. As I said, western world has an ugly grip on society and
I feel that, for the most part, man is so far removed from his
element that he chooses..I don't know what else to say more than a
very watered down outlook where he tries to please all. I guess I
could call it the charlie-church syndrome where it's a very passive,
very humanitarian outlook where as people don't believe to confront
and stand alone in their opinion. And I, for the most part, believe
that man should be an animal and I am an animal and I definitely
don't have an outlook that most people agree with and all men are
not created equal whether it's race, or it's not race. All men are NOT
created equal. Some of us are born to conquer, some of us are born
to serve.

44)Do you think our ideology will ever replace the western one?

Honestly, the only way that man will digress back into an animal is
if he has to and so far technology has made it easier and more
convenient to not be primitive. So right now we're looking at people
moving even further away from their instincts. So with technology
having a stronghold on this world, I can honestly not see man
regressing to an animal. The only individuals that will shine
through are the people that will not let technology distract them.
Most men are very weak and easily distracted by technology and
material objects; so I don't see those kind of beliefs ever really
manifesting in large quantities, well at least not in the near
future.

45)Do you think things will fuck up real bad and..

Well right now it's a very apocalyptic time in the States and all I
can say as far as New York is concerned..everyday is extremely
apocalyptic and I deal with confrontation with humanoids on a
minute-to-minute basis..so it could all change for the worse. I
don't know, destiny will take us where it has to..hopefully in the
right direction, but it's too early to tell.

46)You believe man has destiny?

I believe man has destiny and you can't control your destiny too
much. A lot of people try to play god and try to tell others what
their outlook and their future will hold, but only you can hold what
the future will hold for yourself, but at the same time it's like
things are left up to chance and I let destiny take me where it
does. I don't try to look too far into the future.

47)Some would associate destiny with being "the creator's plan".
What is destiny's origin?

I think destiny's origin is primarily based on a series of
transactions and interactions with other people and it just has to
do with peaks and valleys in life. Recording records is basically an
audio diary. Each album is a saga in part of life and a continuation, a
moving towards your destiny. So destiny is basically the human diary. Things
are left up to chance, I could die tomorrow for all I know.

48)I think there's WAY too much talking and not enough violence in
the underground. People threaten bands like Cradle of Filth, etc.
but almost nobody acts upon it. Do you think it's time we see some
violence in the underground?

Absolutely, and actually it's a great thing that you mentioned Cradle
of Filth because we've actually had a run-in with the singer and,
you know, he was basically kind of scared so-to-speak. Every time I
get a chance to confront some of these wimps we let them know and
hopefully in the future it will be more with our fists. But there
definitely needs to be more violence within black metal, there's just
not enough. And a lot of bands are portraying a violent scene by
wearing spikes and making faces with corpse-paint but that doesn't
mean anything; the violence is really when your on-stage and people
are bleeding, THAT'S violence.

49)Do you think bands should root out all the poser/shit bands by
threatening them and using violence?

Yeah, but the bands will weed themselves out. I will take the
passive approach on that. Bad music is bad music; if people choose
to buy bad music on the shelves, let them. I just ignore it. If it's
around I don't have to be a part of it and that's why we're not part
of the American black metal so-called scene is because we can't
relate to any of these groups that play 10th generation DARKTHRONE
riffs and that's not what we're about so we believe in the old way.

50)Could you tell some stories about times you've confronted bands
or times you've met up with christians?

Yeah, actually in my old apartment we had christians, or whatever,
come to the door and I would politely show up at the door with a
machete and ask them to leave or one time these jehovas witnesses
came down and I started singing "Happy Birthday" to them and they
ran so it was pretty funny. I like to torture them as much as
possible when I have the opportunity. As far as confronting bands,
there's a few people that are going to be confronted in the near
future without naming names and giving them free publicity. A lot of
people talk a lot of shit about Hemlock and they don't know what
we're about and they have no idea what the personalities involved
with the group are capable of. So they should go into their room and
polish their shiny pants while we're at the rifle range practicing
our target practice.

51)That's fucking awesome.

We're pro-firearms and I'm happy to say that anyone who stands
against fire-arms is basically a pacifist and I don't believe in the
pacifist ideology.

52)What does a person have to do so you'll beat their ass?

Well, there's a few people out there that I'd love to beat their ass
but most of the time it's just people that try to interfere with my
immediate surroundings. I could care less what people say about me;
but usually if I can get to see them in the flesh, I'm always
interested and inspired to "confront" them so-to-speak. But for the
most part, for someone to want me to beat them up, they just have to
find a way to interfere with my immediate surroundings and that's a call for
violence. I have a very short fuse, my personality doesn't have any room for
apologies and second chances, so in fact that has actually affected the
immediate surroundings here in New York. It's not
exactly like Hemlock is exactly the most popular band here, especially in
the political points of view.

53)Does the same rule apply to women?

(laughing) That depends as well actually.

54)You often talk about keeping Metal unapproachable to new
generation Metal kids. Do you think the new kids don't understand
the heavy/intense black energy behind Venom, Motorhead, Bathory, etc.?
Explain further your opinion on this matter and the new generation of Metal
fans.

Most new generation kids don't understand MOTORHEAD and BATHORY
because they're just...I guess it is a generation thing. A lot of
these kids like really happy, wimpy, synth sounds and melodic and
clean productions and vampyric themes in their music, all of it is
complete bollocks. Black metal is about hatred; so when young people
complain about grim sounds, that's because they don't have a remote
clue what black metal is and that's why I can't relate to the youth
of today when it comes to the sounds of black metal and that's why
I'm not interested in black metal bands of today in any way, shape
or form. I find that they are far removed from the music that I was
brought up on and if you don't like MOTORHEAD and BLACK SABBATH you
don't like black metal; and there's no way around it.

55)What do you think a lot of the newer Metal bands are missing?
Which new bands do you like and why?

As far as American black metal, they are all missing the point, as I
said earlier, because most of them are failed death metal musicians
writing the same failed shite songs in the E chord. So for me they've missed
the boat all-together. You could wear all the paint you want but it's all
about the songwriting and some of these lyrics are so completely ridiculous
that it's basically people transcribing what's been done and done before.
And I have no interests in seeing things repeated, especially in a bad way.
As far as new bands are concerned, in the States it's very few bands that I
am interested in and the only bands that I can honestly say as far as black
metal is concerned, bands that have been around as long...I would have to
say GRAND BELIAL'S KEY. That is a band that I have respect for because their
music is unapproachable and the lyrics are very well written. Also I cannot
forget ABSU are well versed heathens that I respect. It's not looking to
good on the horizon, but hopefully things will change because members of
Hemlock are also branching out into other groups and I have another group in
the works called TH3 DYING LIGHT which is even more old-school and our
drummer His Eminence has something called TERROR OF THE TREES which is in
the vein of the first BATHORY; so we're gonna spread our music WIDE across
the country.


56)So you don't like any new bands?

To be honest, no. I mean the last two albums I actually purchased
was GOSPEL OF THE HORNS and the new NIFELHEIM. There's not too many
bands that I see that interest me. I mean it's impossible to know
what's going on in every part of the world but most of the bands I'm
interested in have been around at least 5-6 years; so when I see new
bands coming out, it's very easy for me to see what sucks and what
doesn't. And if a band is good and I have friends who have similar
tastes, I'll eventually find out about it. I mean the only new band I
really can honestly think that I have discovered as of late, and
they're really not that new either, is this band from South America,
INQUISITION; or I guess they're relocated to America these days. I
find that their music is pretty grim, and I've been listening to the
album a lot. But aside from that, I honestly can't think of
anything.

57)What do you think about the old Metal gods like DESTRUCTION
re-forming and putting out new material?

Actually we have good interaction with the guys in DESTRUCTION. I
honestly couldn't tell you about the new material because I haven't
heard the new album, but I've been a fan since a child. I've seen
DESTRUCTION in the late 80's when they played in New York with the
Cro-Mags, so I've always been a fan and I saw them recently on this
tour at l'amours and I thought they were great live. They haven't
tried to change their sound but, as I said, I couldn't really tell you
about the new album at all, but I thought their music was great.

58)What about the other bands putting out new material?

Well I don't think SODOM should be doing anything anymore and to be
honest, as much as I love VENOM, I really don't think they should be
doing anything anymore either; especially with Abaddon out of the
picture. It's just a lot of bands that are re-forming really shouldn't be.
But there's a few good groups out there that put out good re-union
albums..WHIPLASH was one of them, which was like two or three years ago, and
I'm looking forward to the new EXUMER album, which is also a good friend of
mine, and they're going to be playing Wacken in Germany and I'm really
interested in seeing what they are going to be doing these days.

59)Do you still like the Eastern-European bands? Do you like any of
the newer European bands?

Absolutely, Eastern-European bands are my favorite. I love TORR, I
love MASTER'S HAMMER, I love ROOT, I love DAI. There's also a bunch
of Russian bands I'm interested in like ARIA, MASTER. As far as new
European bands that I'm interested in....not too much. I only listen
to bands like DESASTER from Germany, SABBAT from Japan and a lot of
Australian groups. Especially the Australian scene I feel I can relate to
because the music is violent and there's a lot of Metal personalities out
there and that's what there's a lack of across the
board. And I believe that Hemlock is one of the only bands that has a
personality and many people shy away from it because it's a personality and
it's a beast they don't want to be confronted by because it's a different
view than 99% of the American black metal bands which we laugh at
wholeheartedly.

60)When and how did you get into Metal music and which bands did
you listen to first?

The first band I've ever heard was BLACK SABBATH. I have a lot of
family that was growing up in the '70s and I was around music a lot
and my dad played guitar when we were growing up. So a lot of music
we were hearing, mostly from older cousins and uncles, was bands like
BLACK SABBATH, URIAH HEEP, UFO; there was a band from Brooklyn
called RIOT which was fairly popular in the late '70s early '80s, and
those were the groups I was growing up on as well as KISS and that
was actually the first concert that I saw. So heavy rock and heavy
metal was the first music that I was exposed to and I just kind of
kept with it.

61)What made you decide to start a band? Was it out of disgust of
poser shit bands or to re-create the power behind the old Metal
gods?

Well the reason why I started a band is because, as I said, music
has always been in my family and the way I started playing music has
just been a reflection of wanting to play music inspired by the
groups I was listening to. I mean, being a little kid and listening
to JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA and SABBATH. You know,
jumping on my bed playing with my shitty Fender proto-type guitar
and just wanting to be a musician and Metal was the music I always
related to as a child and I guess it's this appreciation and being
inspired by these groups. I guess that's the only way I could really
put it. More than that is what I couldn't tell you.

62)What have you learned about Metal music over the years?

Well each musician brings different things to the table and the best
thing about Metal music, and what I've learned over the years, is that
I've learned different approaches to songwriting and that's pretty
much it. I mean every group brings something different to the table
and a lot of groups in the old days influenced my songwriting; bands
like BATHORY, MOTORHEAD because I really like the simple, straight-ahead,
down and dirty sounds. So a lot of those groups have influenced me on my
playing and the style of my playing. So it's hard to say how each group has
influenced me but the South American scene and the old German scene and the
NWOBHM scene has influenced me in a lot of different ways, mostly through
songwriting and presentation in the music, and that's what's also inspired
the covers a little bit is when I see how original all the covers used to be
back then and how everyone had their different view and a different way of
packaging the group. Whereas now everyone has the same logos and the same
cover and that's why Hemlock will never do the covers that most of these
groups do which I consider to be the bedroom Metal covers...unreadable logos
and tons of pentagrams and I have nothing against pentacles but honestly
there's more to it than just doing the same old, same old; and Hemlock is
not a band of Orthodox visuals in the black metal realm, especially of the
second wave of black metal. We don't feel any connection to it really.

63)That's what Euronymous was against all along. He'd sign bands
like Abruptum, Enslaved, Burzum, etc. who all had their own sound
and ideas and that kept the label strong and interesting. Do you
agree with Euronymous' ideal of NO TRENDS?

Yeah, but there has been so many trends going through this style of
music and we've seen groups come and go that have had lifespans of
two years become the biggest thing and then fall to the wayside. Hemlock has
always been the same and will always continue to be the
same and records will be even more ugly and more primitive and more
monotonous and that's our plan to make our music even more
unapproachable..and I agree with Euronymous' statement as far as him
bringing different things to the table and DSP at some point definitely had
a severe contrast in musical talents on that label and we feel that those
days, as far as contrasts in groups in the modern day, is non-existant and
that's why we're going to continue to be unapproachable and write music in
the vein of how we feel black metal should sound, not what is the pick
flavor of the month.

64)What is your opinion of Euronymous?

I was in contact with Euronymous in the early days, at the same time
I was in touch with Metalion, and he was very enthusiastic and he was
not afraid to show enthusiasm, as well as I show enthusiasm, and he
was just another personality I was in touch with. I couldn't really
tell you more than that except that he had a similar taste in music
that I had and chances are, if we would have continued our communication
prior to an incident happening, Hemlock would have probably been on
Deathlike Silence Productions. So the reason we were on Head Not Found is
basically because of Euronymous not existing anymore.

65)A lot of the greatest Metal albums were difficult to understand
at first and had to be played numerous times to be comprehended.
Some people trash an album or a band because they don't give enough
of their time to understand it. How can you differentiate between
this and just a shitty band?

Well to be honest, that's the best way of a group growing onto you.
Every record I buy, most of the groups take a while to grow onto you
and that's when you know when there's a lot of nuances in music that
have to be addressed; that if your album is easily accessible on the
first listen the chances are it's bollocks, but that goes on a
per-band basis. I've heard bands that I've fallen in love with
instantly after hearing their first album. DEATH SS from Italy was
one of those groups when I heard first that I felt that this was a
group that definitely represented what I considered to be evil rock/early
black metal. Especially with a band like Hemlock, most
people hear it on face value and they don't understand it because
the sound is so grim that they just decide to shelf it and, as I said,
it doesn't bother me at all because it's just not for them. But for
me, I like when music grows on me. There's more to the layers than
what's presented on the first listen. Just like a painting, you learn
to appreciate things as you look into them further just like
anything..philosophy..FILMS, I'm a big fan of films and I buy films
on a regular basis, especially Italian films and a lot of independent
films, and I feel that they present something that every time I watch
them, there's a different layer and there's a different view that is
presented with each view of the film and I want our albums to be the
same way. When you look at it/listen to it, you can hear what our
influences are but you can also hear the different melodies that
come about because Hemlock is melodic and we feel that the grim
production is just what we consider our way of presenting the
product that will keep the toe-tapping Emperor fans away from us
because we don't have anything to do with that connection of black
metal at all. That's a totally different thing to what we do and we
don't want anything to do with that scene.

66)So you're against all the keyboards, clean vocals and everything?

Absolutely.

67)How large is your Metal collection and what are your most prized
possessions?

Well I have about 3000 LPs and I guess a couple thousand CDs. Some
of my favorite records that are prized possessions in my collection are
my Easter European LPs like TORR, ARMAGEDDON. A band from Japan
called CASBAH, it's a 7" called "Russian Roulette" which I hold in
high regard. My VULCANO LPs, my SABBAT releases. Old stuff like all
my MOTORHEAD collection, I'm a very big VENOM and MOTORHEAD 7"
collector. HELLHAMMER LPs, PAUL CHAIN and DEATH SS LPs. I'm into
Private Press Metal as well like a lot of old independent Metal like
MISTREATOR, HEAVY LOAD and PENTAGRAM from Virginia. I don't know, I
couldn't tell you cause I have so many favorite bands and I'm always
searching out obscure bands I've never heard of on LP so the
collection grows on a weekly basis. But I'd have to say my prize
possessions would be my Venom and Motorhead singles collection as
well as all my Cogumelo releases.

68)So you like a lot of non-Metal music?

Oh absolutely, as I said, I'm a big fan of Prog groups like GOBLIN
and KING CRIMSON. I'm also interested in a lot of film soundtracks;
namely stuff by WENDY CARLOS, it just goes across the board. I'm
into a lot of old primitive music, I mean it's really across the
board. My record collection has Rock records, Jazz records, old
primitive Hardcore records like bands like DISCHARGE, this band from
Switzerland called CRUDE SS and stuff like that. See, when I was
growing up, everyone I knew that listened to bands like BATHORY and
SLAYER also listened to bands like DISCHARGE and, you know, other
brutal European Hardcore groups. So it was never really any
difference except for like, lyrical outlook. Today is the only time
I really see bands like so-called black metal bands saying that they
are not inspired by these kind of groups where all these groups
formed a sound that there would be no such thing as CELTIC FROST
without groups like DISCHARGE and GOBLIN. So it's just like a lot of
different styles of music influenced a lot of different groups. So
I couldn't really just tell you that we're only influenced by Metal
groups, cause we're not. I mean, the music that we listen to most is Metal
across the board, but I would be bored just listening to one type of music.

69)What will be done with your collection after you die?

Well that's a good question. I'll probably bury it with me who
knows, who knows what's to hold in the future and..(laughing)..I
couldn't tell you.

70)Do you think you'll give it to someone younger?

Who knows man, I mean who knows how long I'm gonna live and who knows what's
gonna happen to these records and where I'm gonna be. It's hard to say at
this point, it's just too early. But as far as how I feel about my
collection, I am very protective about my record collection and I feel
that..I guess its this pseudo-teenage thing that I have in me that I'll
never lend my stuff to anyone or anything. So I don't know what to tell you.

71)Some people think Black Metal started in Norway, what do you think about
this?

That's completely ridiculous that people think that black metal
started in Norway. As I said, "satanic rock" which later became black metal
started in the '60s with bands like BLUE CHEER and BLACK WIDOW; all these
early Satanic groups. APHRODITES CHILD, I mean a lot of these Prog groups
had a LOT to do with the sound. To some extent I will definitely acknowledge
KING CRIMSON to give some helping hand because their music was kind of evil
in its own right. But black metal was not
born in Norway and a lot of people do not know that and that is
insane that people say stuff like that. I think it's completely
beyond ridiculous.

72)What is your musical definition of Black Metal?

There's no specific style. POSSESSED is black metal, so is
BLASPHEMY, so is early MORBID ANGEL. It's not a specific sound, you
can't pigeonhole the sound, you have to look at it at a per-band
basis and I really couldn't tell you either than that it's hard
really to pinpoint what a specific sound for black metal is.

73)What do you think determines what a Black Metal band is? Music, lyrics,
or both?

Both, I definitely think that both have a strong part in what black
metal is. Lyrics are just as equally important as the music and I
find that a lot of bands have really bad lyrics and that's why I
can't relate to a lot of these groups cause a lot of lyrics are
really horrible and a lot of the music is 10th generation
Norse-clones.

74)What's your opinion of all these new generation "black metal" bands
like Noctuary, Thornspawn, Krieg, Judas Iscariot, etc., etc.?

Well as far as all those groups are concerned, I don't know anything more
than what I've heard and none of them appeal to me at all in any way. I know
a lot of people are interested in what they do, but I can't relate to those
groups in any way, shape or form. I mean I've heard all those groups, I had
some contact with the guy in Krieg for a little while, but it just didn't
appeal to me. I mean, your talking to somebody who comes from a different
train of thought than a lot of these new groups did. So their outlook and
their appeal and their songwriting doesn't appeal to anybody I know. Those
groups mean nothing to me and it really comes down to taste and it's an age
barrier. Maybe if I was 16 years old now it might be a different story but
none of that stuff appeals to me, it doesn't interest and intrigue me. Also
a lot of those kind of bands sound like Norwegian bands and why do we need
other Norwegian bands?

75)Where would you musically place Hemlock?

I'd say Hemlock is old primitive heavy black speed thrash rock. These are
the forms of music that we commonly embrace in our sound, which in our
opinion makes us stand out from the rest of these Norse clones and
directionless bollocks invading the market these days. Our approach is
completely organic and nothing is "forced". As far as the delivery of our
music, it's extremely black metal. But I can't help but say that there's a
lot of regular heavy metal and thrash metal in there because there's a lot
of dynamics in those styles of music that appeal to us and it influences our
songwriting. We don't only listen to BATHORY and write BATHORY styled riffs.
I definitely think that Hemlock's more of like a blackthrash thing, and I
think we've always kind of been that way anyway since the beginning.

76)What does rock music mean to you?

Without rock, there is no metal.

77)You trash Norwegian bands yet people say Hemlock sounds a lot like
DARKTHRONE, can you explain this?

Well that's actually something that I've never understood because
honestly, I could not see how we sound like DARKTHRONE at all. I mean
there's one member in the group that is an avid fan of DARKTHRONE and that's
it. I think that they're a good group but they have nothing really to do
with what we're doing at all. They inspire us maybe in spirit, but not in
any kind of view or in any kind of sound. So it's really, really, really,
really hard for me to understand why people say that we sound like
DARKTHRONE because I don't think we do at all. I guess it's just the only
parallel that they can draw because of..maybe in the production value or
something, but the songwriting is extremely
different.

78)What do you think about Bill Zebub and the Grimoire of Exalted
Deeds?

Haha, well actually I think his magazines' quite hilarious. I could
particularly care less about the individual and I don't consider him
in the same lines or the same tastes in Metal, but I do find his
antics kind of hilarious and it's good that he calls people out. At
the same time it's a borderline on the ridiculous so I think that
magazine is not based in Metal at all, but it's still entertaining.
So that's my opinion about it, I really don't really care if he lives
or dies.

79)Why do you think his magazine has been so successful?

Because he presents a forum for ridicule and I can laugh at the
ridicule that he does cause it's good to see when bands get called
out and that cracks me up. And as well, the flesh that is presented on the
pages. What man is going to refuse a free Metal magazine with women dressed
in skimpy clothing? So basically he's just playing on male lust and that's
why it's been so successful; your average zit-faced bedroom nerd would
rather have The Grimoire in his house so he could beat off than have SLAYER
MAG. So it's all about choking your shit to oblivion.

80)What do you look for when you read REAL underground zines?

When I look at zines I need to be entertained, not to laugh, but that I'm
learning something and I'm gaining something from that read. And sometimes I
read interviews that I gain no insight on a group, and this is coming from a
fan of music. I look at zines now and European zines are always the leaders.
I look at SLAYER MAG and TALES OF THE MACABRE; I'm always more interested in
reading those magazines because they're providing a source of information,
and maybe it's a generation thing, but I don't want to read about fucking
bands on Moonfog. People who are fans of music, that die for Metal, want to
know about fucking real Metal groups that aren't signed because of who they
are. I look at a magazine like TALES OF THE MACABRE and every time I read
that magazine I GAIN something from it and that's when it's doing its JOB.
It's entertaining, it's giving you an insight, and I'm discovering a group
that I probably never would have come across. There's a band from Brazil
called APOCALYPTIC RAIDS that I'm so interested in and they put out a little
demo or whatever, but that's more appealing to me than the latest release on
Osmose because it's so predictable and boring. As far as the Grimoire, I
picked it up on a purely entertaining level. If anything, the later issues
have gotten lamer because it's not extremely funny anymore. I think he's
done what he could do with it and it's done, but the early issues had me on
the floor half the time. But I didn't read that magazine to learn anything,
except to just laugh at obnoxiousness.


81)Hemlock = ?

Hatred. Of anything that is human.

82)What are your plans after the release of the full-length?

Actually I've been talking with Thorns at FULL MOON about hitting
the European shores cause right now we're in the talks with another
group that's on FMP about heading over to Sweden, Germany and Poland.
But it's all still too early to say if anything will come about it.
There's also talk about us playing some festivals in Belgium but, as I
said, it's very too early to speak about it. But as far as on the East
Coast shores, we are planning to play some shows in the very near
future; hopefully sooner than later, but then that has to do with
schedules of other members. So we'll just continue to play shows and
actually we just played a couple months ago with GRAND BELIAL'S KEY.
It was a fairly successful show, maybe not in turn-out but in spirit
and attitude.

83)Is there anything else you'd like to say about Hemlock?

Well the only thing I will say about Hemlock is...Hemlock is the
enemy of man, Hemlock is the enemy of western world, Hemlock is the
enemy of false black metal and all pretenders to the plastic throne and if
you want to base all your music on fashion..FUCK OFF!!! Our music is
about fury and ferociousness and hatred.