As I'm writing this, the last texts for Serpentscope #2 are coming together. It'll still need time for layout and stuff, so no release date until it's in the printers!
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"Taking the Demon by the Fucking Horns!"
An interview with B. Southwell of Diocletian.
Originally published in Serpentscope #1, October 2009.
I've never been big on metal brotherhood. Also, I've never really understood why music shouldn't be a bit of a competition. In the very least, metal should be about competition against yourself. A metal band should always be its own worst critic! Okay, you've taken that step to the edge of the cliff. Next thing you need to do is close your eyes. Then, lift up your left foot and grab it with your right hand. Then, lean forward. You follow?
In the recent issue of Zero Tolerance magazine (#30) the Diocletian feature touched on the theme of competition – or war, rather – between metal bands. It has often been said that such masterpieces as Altars of Madness, In the Nightside Eclipse and A Blaze in the Northern Sky would never have been born without the healthy sense of competition in those particular scenes. Like I said above, though, this sense of competition shouldn't necessarily be described as an external motivator. Anyway, how would Diocletian's Atrociter who also goes by the initials B.S. - responsible for 6-string dictatorship and reinforcements - elaborate on the drive that set the band to create an album like Doom Cult?
- From the beginning Diocletian releases were basically pushing us toward the unleashing of Doom Cult! The demo tape in 2005 established a following, so it was important to show everyone who worshipped the demo that we would continue in that vein and that we could back this up and spread our plague with more devastating releases that is always a prime motivation and this is what drove us to unleash Doom Cult the way it is. Total Death without compromise!!!
Doom Cult, clocking at 33:33, is in many ways an over-the-top album. Its level of aggression, its mercilessness and its brute force just go to show that compared to most of today's death/black metal albums, it's just heavier artillery. Just listen to a song like Antichrist Hammerfist. If that doesn't epitomise blitzkrieg, then I don't know what will!
In any case, these days more and more bands opt for an aggressive, even bestial sound, but still like to state that it’s well-balanced with technique, professionalism, sophistication, melody or whatever. Statements like that often read as compromise to me. Then again, bands like Conqueror, Blasphemy, Archgoat and Diocletian are easily accused for being one-trick ponies because of their rather uniform vision. Would you say that chaos and aggression can only be either full-on or not at all – or would you say that Diocletian serves multiple masters in this sense?
- Well we see extreme metal bands compromising themselves all the time and generally it's accepted that bands do so to 'progress' or evolve... I don't buy into that bullshit at all, I like my metal ugly violent evil destructive so why in the hell would I want a band to change something that works??? So I say if bands have strength and willpower they won't faulter, they won't deviate off course from the left to the right, what I've seen over the years is a real fear to move on or change a name from something well established, it shows a lack of courage when a band's sound and style has changed drastically from the original framework... that is a weakness I despise and certainly a constant reminder not to wilt, not to fail like all these weak cunts who have, Order from Chaos is a prime example of how to leave a recording legacy perfect. The root of Diocletian's chaos and aggression is primal and barbaric, the sound comes from my heart, when I don't feel that I will stop and move on to another project.
Musical extremity and consistency can easily be seen as directives for Diocletian. Of course there's a huge number of bands for which those are also an end in itself, but many of them can also be described as blasting their aggression in directionless and unfocused manner. In your opinion, what lends Diocletian its focus and sense of purpose?
- To me Diocletian is taking the demon by the fucking horns.... we are the usurpers!!! Charging at the head of the pack... that is what gives us a sense of purpose with this metal we attack with.
Atrociter's response above should suggest that Diocletian is a band you don't want to get too philosophical about. When I first heard Diocletian on their Decimator MCD, all kinds of cute ideas came to mind. How would one define entropy in a musical context? Nowadays it is suggested that even chaos has a structure... So how can one - not control but - cultivate chaos? That sort of stuff. So for the hell of it, what is the meaning of chaos for Diocletian, then, – metaphorically and in concrete terms?
- A lot of that depends on your lifestyle, experiences, attitude... Violence is chaos, ugly and unbridled war on your flesh and bones, if you're weak of spirit you're fucked.
BRACED WITH A SENSE OF PURPOSE
In the Zero Tolerance magazine (#30, from 2009) interview Atrociter mentioned that the band is already working on their second album, tentatively entitled War of All Against All. Besides the equation total war is total death, what attracts you about war? What does Honour Valour Pride mean to you besides a Bolt Thrower album title?
- War of All Against All will be an album that compliments Doom Cult, the principle concept behind the debut is Apocalyptic and primal agression that reaches that point of no return, conceptially the second record will be total war. It will have the feeling of churning chaos and unhinged violence in its riffs... a lot more of the doom and discordant sound we only touched on briefly in our earlier releases.
In a recent interview with The Left Hand Path web portal Teitanblood’s Nasko stated that the way they work with the band is amateurish and unconscious, but after all, he isn’t a musician nor does he want to be. Is this something Atrociter would recognise in Diocletian? In your opinion, does that imply that the person is a mere vehicle or medium for something greater? Or does that imply the idea that a man doesn’t have to be a soldier to wage war and kill a man?
- Some people can be used as a vehicle or a vessel for another's greater purpose but this would not apply to me, I lead by example, I do not wallow in the mirth of scum and filth of another trying to be something I am not. Soldier or not most of us are capable of murder or warfare this means the law of the strong can well be the only law if one so believes.
So how conscious is the writing process in Diocletian? I mean, would an analogy to premeditated murder do the music more justice than an analogy to a more instinctive, spur of the moment sort of kill - is there method to the madness? How much do the songs evolve from the point of someone bringing a song's worth of riffs to the rehearsal room?
- Riffs are summoned from nothing, then with hammer and anvil we strike and give our destructive metal weapon a shape from the doom of our cult, warped and beaten into berzerk and savage intensity haha... I reckon both analogies you have given say something about Diocletian... the war machine is like premeditated murder, we consciously sound this way because we like death metal barbaric and violent, then there is this spur of the moment energy in killing, we write a lot like that as well... we could be fucking around with some ideas on the deathaxe and one of us picks up something from it and from there we go with it pull out the hammers and start forging.
On Doom Cult an extra hammer is provided by a certain Pete Helmkamp who wrote the lyrics for the song Werewolf Directive. How would you describe his involvement on Doom Cult?
- After a member of the band was removed, I asked Helmkamp if he would play session bass/vokills on a European tour that was being put together and he agreed to do it, unfortunately the tour fell through, sometime later we had the idea of collaborating on a song for Doom Cult! Pete would have done both the lyrics and the vokills for that version on the album but circumstance beyond his control made it impossible to record his hellvomits, it matters not as the lyrics for Werewolf Directive are excellent.
The lyrics for Werewolf Directive are actually the only ones printed on the covers of Doom Cult. Why that is I'm not entirely sure, but the reasons behind it maybe of the same nature that lie behind Atrociter's reluctance to answer personal questions in Diocletian interviews. Although at first Atrociter's stance and the somewhat unforthcoming answers to certain questions felt unsatisfactory, the logic behind it is understandable. So do you think that everything is already in the music or would questions focusing on you rather than the music be degrading, in a way, to the music?
- Yes, as I see it, it is of no fucking importance what I read or what movies I like etc etc this trivialises the intent of the music!!
- I am very aware of not feeding one's desires so easily especially with insignificant pieces of information which have little or no direct bearing on the music I fucking write, even with this interview which has some thorough questions I am conscious not to devulge too much about Diocletian, for me it is important to have some intrigue and mystery surrounding our Cult.
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