Doomsday Metal

Sabbat

Gallhammer

igh, the japanese black metal band, wrote, “We are not girls!” on the back of their second album. The band was the first ever non-Scandinavian signing to Euronymous’s Deathlike Silence Productions, and allegedly they got bugged by heaps and heaps of love starved men after the release of their first album, Scorn Defeat. But apart from that (and the odd rape conviction), the contact between black metal and girls has been sparse. That’s going to change now, since Gallhammer are sure to ignite the dark flame in all black metal girls thinking about joining the war against Christianity by starting a band of their own. Just like Sigh, the band dwells in Japan, and a couple of months ago we sent them some questions in English. We were told to allow about an eon of endlessness to go by before expecting the answers back. So instead we tracked down a Japanese in girl in Scandinavia and asked her to translate the questions for us (hail Yayoe!). When these questions remained unanswered too we accepted defeat and decided to settle for a boy—Paul at Peaceville, who just recently signed the band. Vice: So how did you get in touch with Gallhammer? Paul: Oh, that’s a difficult one. I think it was the previous owner who came across a mentioning of them in a fanzine, like “Punky black metal from Japan” or something like that. He got in touch with them, and the band sent us a few CDs and a DVD with live performances that impressed us a lot. Why? What are they like live? They’ve just got this power, and the style of metal is very… It’s noisy and very intense and they’ve got this great drive. It’s very in yer face and balls out. Not your typical female performance, with nice singing and all that. This is proper black metal growling. Do you know what their beliefs are? Are they Satanists or Odinists or something? I think Vivian, the main member, said she was brought up Catholic, so I guess there’s a streak of anti-religion in there. There’s definitively a rebellious streak, with songs like “May Our Father Die.” Any other bands with girls in them that you could recommend? I haven’t heard that many actually. There are a few keyboardists, Gehenna had a female keyboard player. But Gallhammer’s style is really different too, it’s a really punky type of black metal, which is very exciting. How do you communicate with the band? Mainly by e-mail. Would you say it’s easier or harder to communicate with Gallhammer then it is with regular British girls? I don’t know, I don’t really communicate with any regular British girls. Kidding. But our work with Gallhammer obviously doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that they’re female. It’s a very professional relationship. Paul also tells us that a CD including rarities and demos, and a live DVD, both entitled The Dawn of Gallhammer, will be jerked from the intestines of Japan at the end of February. Right before the summer a second CD with completely new material will follow them, and the band are also likely to play a few festivals. As long as we’re already dealing with the dark crusade in Japan—a while back we heard rumours that Sabbat were set to play a couple of dates in Europe. The scenario had our dark minds revelling in misanthropy, for about five seconds until we realised it was the wrong Sabbat. Since spiteful forces rule the universe it wasn’t the ancient Japanese insanity warriors of the same name, but the boring UK thuds with Viking flair. We’ve got a slight case of OCD and had already asked them to send us some photos, so here you go. Sabbat also lets us know that they’re looking for a new guitarist. They said: “A foreigner is also OK if you can move to Japan. Please note: It’s difficult to get a working visa from Japanese entrance management bureau. It needs the A certificate or proof that you graduated from a university at least.” Finally, Marduk has decided to spew some of their endless bile onto a DVD by the cursed name of Blood, Puke, Salvation. The DVD contains interviews with both Mortuus and Morgan, and a collection of live shows. The interviews are fittingly tense and uncomfortable, but we’re happy to report that Mortuus’s iron levels have got to be off the dark chart. The amount of blood he gargles for each performance of “Throne Of Rats” is awe-inspiring.