Ralph from Planks interviews Michele, Nicola and Matteo from Gottesmörder
Photos by Jan Z
Alright guys, let’s start of with the classics: Who are you? What do you do in the band? What do you do when you don’t play Black Metal?
Michele: I’m Michele, singer and guitar player. I spend the vast majority of my time writing songs (Gottesmörder and my new one man band project, Two Horses). I’m interested in moral and political issues from a philosophical point of view: I got a degree in Philosophy and I care for social theories as well. For the rest, I fucked my brain up with Circle of Ouroborus, director John Carpenter, retrogames…
Nicola: I’m Nicola, the drummer. When I don’t play BM, I also play drum in another band called Chambers (chambersband.wordpress.com), work and ride my bike in the Tuscan countryside… Then I’m into vegetarianism, TV Shows (DEXTER above all), old video games, D.I.Y, gigs, listening to as much music as I can, good beer, beating everything that can make a sound.
Matteo: I’m Matteo, the bassist. I spend my time managing Gottesmorder, running mine and Michele’s label Nojoy Records, studying multimedia arts, playing guitar with my other band (www.facebook.com/litanyofregrets), smoking weed and going to the gigs.
Ok, good. Now that we know names and are all familiar with each other, let’s talk names again. To be more precise, your band name. “Gottesmörder” is a German word which, if translated directly, means “Murderer of God”. On the one hand people could argue “That’s pretty cliche for a Black Metal band, or is it?”. On the other hand, the term, in historical sense, refers to a sort of collective guilt lying with the Jewish people for “killing Christ”. It’s been coined the groundwork for the christian Anti-Judaism. I know you’re smart guys, so both options won’t approve as a motivation. Give us an inside as to the whereabouts, please.
Nicola: I’m the one who proposed the name and it had nothing to share with any black metal cliché, just because when we started the band we did not have a clear idea of our sound,we just wanted to play heavy dark music. It wasn’t supposed to be black metal, we didn’t know each other very well and our common love for this music came out naturally, rehearsal after rehearsal.
The name is inspired by a character in the book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”.
This man, the one who killed god, at some point of the story realizes that all the suffering he has been running into during his life are worth it. So he understands the reason that makes life worth living. Our name comes from that, how important it is not to forget all the things for which a life has to be lived.
Michele: This reading seems interesting to us for its strong ethical value.
At the centre of the thesis that “god is dead” lies the radical liberation that arises from it, which, perhaps, is its also premise. The liberation might touch the individual, as well as the society, the arts, research, and metaphysics. There are, at the same time, the reappropriation of a deep awareness and a serious humanistic projection on times to come.
From this conventional interpretation (at least from Deleuze on) of Nietzsche’s thought, we have embraced the possibility of a double ermeneutical view: one individual and private, the other more properly political. This double position has always considered the liberation as the most luminous experience of everyone’s life.
Now Nietzsche’s writing was said to be among the favorites of a certain Austrian hypocrite who tried to take over the world. People get criticized for reading and referring to this book out of this very reason. The question that comes to mind is: can you distinguish between the content of a book and the way some people interpret? This reminds me of an ongoing discussion ever since Black Metal came to it’s new dawn of hipness. I have to say, this hype and the people that jump on this wagon annoy me almost as much as the discussion if it is ok to say people like Burzum or not – or even worse, the discussion if wearing such a shirt makes you tolerant to fascist ideals. I have a pretty clear view towards this whole issue and we spoke about this in prior mails. Please illustrate how you approach this topic.
Nicola: Personally I do not want to limit myself, to preclude me about reading a book, listen to a record or visit a place, just because someone wants to see them in a certain way.
I try to see things for what they are, keeping my personality and my point of view.
The example of black metal is a good one. When I was younger, I did not want to listen to it because I thought it was just a bunch of clowns, with stupid ideologies and ridiculous imaginary.
Growing up, I found out that I really liked certain things, musically, so I started to listen to it without thinking about what kind of people were used to listen or play it. All that, obviously, without changing my point of view about some aspect. I still hate the Satanic imaginary and all the other stupid cliché.
A good album is simply a good album and I listen to it while being what I am.
Then there are bands that I like not only for the sound but also for their lyrics and ideology and that usually gives me more. It’s not just a matter of sound. A record by Fall Of Efrafa makes me feel in a different way than one of Black sabbath does, but I love them both for different reasons.
About the hype that is happening to black metal lately, it obviously doesn’t make me happy but what can I do? Should I stop listening to a music that I love just because it has become a trend? I have been listening to black metal for a long time and now that all this hype is around it I still go on and I will do the same also when the trend ends.
Back to the beginning of your question on Nietzsche, something of him has been deliberately misread and used to make up an ideology with which I have nothing to share. That’s because when I read Nietzsche, I do that with my eyes and my brain.
Michele: I don’t really think that the hype around black metal is all that bad. The leftist french reading of Nietzsche was sometimes equally unbearable (for it draped all in good manners), yet it gave us a different reading of the philosopher which, at least, it wasn’t the idiotic one of 20’s and 30’s. Similarly I believe that black metal is now, maybe, finally freeing itself of so many ideological shams. Shams which hid the fact that black metal was first of all a way, through music, to testify a certain, very diffuse, sentiment.
I for myself start finding me annoyed by bands that all do the same thing Wolves In The Throne Room prototyped as the third wave of BM. It was fun in the beginning when there was a fresh wave and new ideas, now most bands are just lame. I recall finding the WITTR demo on the web when I tried to score The Minor Times “Summer of Wolves” album (still a pretty dope jam). I heard it and thought “Damn, that’s the best BM stuff in like forever”. Now USBM hasn’t got a history of innovative bands which changed in the recent years. My question: Where lies Gottesmörder’s preference countrywise when it comes to (Black) Metal bands? Also, could you tell us about the general heavy music scene in Italy?
Michele: I don’t know what black metal wave I prefer. I really love early Ulver’s releases, but at the same time I think that now bands like Mutilation Rites or Fell Voices are really doing a great job in the “dominions” of darkness. Anyway, that’s just my personal taste in listening. When I write, I’m mostly interested in heterodox metal. I mean stuff like Crooked Necks, Urfaust or Circle of Ouroborus. Also the gloomy atmospheres of artists such as King Dude, Mount Eerie, Burial Hex or Chelsea Wolfe are an inspiration to me.
At the end I can say I’m not a purist at all. That’s why I can’t tell you a personal countrywise predilection.
Nicola: When I listen to music I don’t usually take care of its country of origin. I just listen to what I like regardless of where it comes from. My first approach to black metal music was with the norwegian bands of the first ’90s. Those cold melodies and that dark and rough sound are still my reference point, also to find out new bands.
I fell in love with the Wolves in the Throne Room exactly because they looked back to some sounds of that kind of black metal but they read it in a modern way and cut away those silly clichés.
I’m not a purist and i like some black metal experiments with other musical genres and styles (Attestupa, Prurient’s “And Still Wanting”, Sunn O)))’s “Black One”…) but not all obviously. In fact, for example, I don’t like the so-called “shoegaze black metal”.
Matteo: Talking about the heavy music scene in Italy, CVLT Nation has just published a good article on this one, with some great underground bands from Sludge to Black Metal, from Crust to Drone.
http://staging.cvltnation.com/from-italy-with-love-curated-by-michele-giorgio/
We had, through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, a great alternative heavy music context (especially during the Hardcore decade, my favorite). During these recent years, the interest to Italy has grown up again, with bands like The Secret (Southern Lord Records), Ufomammut (Neurot Recordings), Lento (Denovali Records) and more, and this “resurgence” has given more credibility to our country, at least in music.
Gottesmörder has his roots into the Hardcore scene, we played most of our shows in squat, I set up some gigs in a squat close to my home base and we always share the stage more with DIY’ bands oriented, than bands close to Black metal.
For sure, we don’t feel part of any Italian Black Metal scene.
Thanks for the inside look. I think one can clearly hear a different set of influences on Gottesmörder’s music.
I know you found a new home on Alerta Antifascista Records from Germany. Timo is an amazing guy. I recently got him in touch with Rituals and they found a home there, too. He has a very widespread set of bands on his roster and I think you guys fit perfectly. I have some questions deriving from this: How did that deal come across and when can we expect your new record? What can we expect from the new record? And what I kept asking myself after seeing your schedules shows for the next months: You seem to get a very positive feedback from Germany already. How well known are you guys in Italy and how is it as a band to be in the situation that you always have to drive super far to get to places like Berlin, Leipzig etc? I mean, there are just so many places you can play on the way?
Michele: Timo just wrote us a couple of lines and we were very excited about the deal. We are working hard, searching for a new sound, probably more melodic and straightforward than the previous one. It’s quite hard to find a personal way through genres, but we’re trying to mix old crusty elements with new suggestions from dark frozen landscapes. Anyway, it’s really a honor for us to be appreciated outside of our country, even if in Italy things are not going that well. Here it can be pretty difficult at times since we don’t have that many spots where this kind of music can be played. And of course we think that it’s not that interesting when a band plays at the same venue twice in a short period of time.
Agreed. So hopefully you will keep up the good spirits for the long drives as I know a lot of people need to see you guys play live. I had the priviledge once and was impressed.
So, to wrap this up we go back to some classic interview things. Two things:
1) Per Person: Name one record, book and movie that changed your life.
2) What are your future plans?
Matteo: Melvins “Houdini”, George Orwell “1984”, Stanley Kubrick “Shining”.
As Michele wrote up, we’re writing new songs for our upcoming full-length. Even if it’s something unknown, we are trying to do our best for the future. Then things just happen.
Aboslutely, we’ll try to tour as much as possible.
Nicola: Neurosis ”Times of Grace”, F. Nietzsche ”Thus Spoke Zarathustra”,
Alejandro Jodorowsky ”Santa Sangre”.
Michele: Slowdive “Just for a day”, Alfred Döblin “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, Ingmar Bergman “Smultronstället (Wild strawberries)”.
Any last comments or shoutouts?
Michele: The time is now. Very soon we will walk together through the hunted dominions of sadness.
GOTTESMÖRDER ON TOUR:
25.05 GGS31, Winterthur (Switzerland) w/ Chratzab
26.05 Feierwerk, Munich (Germany) at Doom Fest w/ Light Bearer + BSON + Zippo
27.05 Kapu, Linz (Austria) w/ Light Bearer + Eschaton
28.05 Sub, Graz (Austria) w/ Light Bearer + Goodbye Fairground
31.05 Lo-Fi, Milano (Italy) w/ Light Bearer + Rise Above Dead + Calendula
04.06 XM24, Bologna (Italy) w/ Planks
05.06 Sidro Club, Savignano sul Rubicone (Italy) w/ Planks
06.06 Dauntaun, Milano (Italy) w/ Planks + Fuoco Fatuo + Houma
07.06 Molodoi, Strasbourg (France) w/ Strong As Ten
08.06 Secret Show, Lille (France) at Anarchist Black Cross Fest w/ Embers + more
09.06 JH Comma, Bruges (Belgium) w/ Year Of No Light + Syndrome + Grown Below + more
10.06 Le Garage, Liège (Belgium) w/ Mörse
11.06 AZ, Aachen (Germany)
12.06 Rote Flora, Hamburg (Germany) w/ Thou + Grinding Halt
13.06 AZ Conni, Dresden (Germany) w/ Vyst
15.06 Container 25, Wolfsberg (Austria)
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