WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: BEHERIT ON RETURNING TO METAL AND THEIR NEW ALBUM, ‘ENGRAM’

I’ve read that you became disinterested in metal in the mid ’90s, and that’s why you started working more with electronics. Why do you feel you lost your interest in metal?
Well, my artistic ambition has always been geared toward new and unknown spheres. There’s only a handful of true black-metal bands I find myself to adore. To my ears, metal simply started lacking originality and the sound got commercialized. I never left metal completely. I won’t say that all new bands suck, but the scene itself has become quite pointless. Well, luckily there’s still innovative and honest groups coming to the scene, so it’s interesting to see the progression of extreme music in let’s say next three years.
 

Beherit, live in 1990
 

In what ways are fans of electronic music and metal similar?
They are all hungry for new music, and they search for rarities.
 

Your lyrics have almost always had some satanic message to them. In what ways does your personal life reflect your lyrics?
Beherit is pretty much my personal life. During daytime, I usually sleep and I live only in the night.
 

You’ve said that, in order to release your debut, 1992’s Drawing Down the Moon, you had to sell your car and become homeless. Tell me about those times.
Yes, I had to sell my car to pay the studio rent. [Our German-based label at the time] Turbo Music never sent us the money, so we canceled their deal and sadly there was no label interested to release the album. At the time, I was doing my non-military service, so I had no income, except some occasional jobs. That was the time before the internet revolution, so it took months to get things sorted out and a new deal signed. Spinefarm Records [who eventually released the album] was just a small record mailorder that time, but they were independent and they were from Finland... So it was also logistically much easier to negotiate and work with them. Very soon, after I got the advance royalty from Spinefarm, I moved to live in Helsinki, and later got employed at their record store.
 

The black-metal community of the early ’90s was known for violence and “scene disputes.” Can you tell me a story about something you experienced firsthand?
We have been lucky to avoid all the worst scenarios. There’s been some threats against us and people really did hate Beherit back then, but there was never any violence that I remember. Impaled Nazarene and Barathrum were the bands to take care of fights.
 

What’s the biggest misconception younger fans have about Beherit’s history?
I heard a story, that Beherit were slaughtering chickens onstage, but that’s untrue. [Laughs] Instead of birds, [our original bassist] Black Jesus smashed a pig’s head. The mutilated head was then thrown to audience and played like football.
 

In many of your old interviews, you talk about Mayhem singer Dead and his influence on you. Did you know him personally? If so, what is your fondest memory of him?
I didn’t know him personally. It was Euronymous in Mayhem, with whom I used to write. I am not sure, if he was [one of our ex-bassists] Daemon’s pen pals. Later, I got Dead’s old T-shirt, the same one I was wearing in the back cover of The Oath of Black Blood album.
 

You were around 18 when The Oath of Black Blood came out, and you’ve lived through a lot since then. What do you know now at 30-something that you wouldn’t have admitted to yourself at 18?
[Laughs] I don’t know... Perhaps, that I would have a short hairstyle or that I’d still even be alive.
 

Who are some musical artists you listen to for pleasure?
[Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV mainman] Genesis P-Orridge and [electronic-music group] the Future Sound of London.
 

In your day-to-day life, what makes you happy?
Friends and solemn conversations, especially about dying.
 

Will Beherit be touring or playing any shows anytime soon?
It’s possible. Hopefully next year. We are yet to decide.
 

Lastly, will there be more Beherit music in the future to look forward to?
Yes, at least some format in the autumn.
 

Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance in 2009
 

Interview by Kory Grow