Bestial Black Metal in its purest, rawest form is what this Texan band offers. With a pretty wide discography (consisting in two demos, one Ep, and three splits) at their backs they finally release “Bahimiron - Pure Negativism: In Allegiance With Self Wreckage” a savage Black Metal opus of the highest calibre. So I contacted this blasphemous horde who gently accepted to answer my questions about their debut album and whole carrier…

BB: Infernal hails!! It’s an honour to have you at BurningBlack! For those who haven’t heard about Bahimiron yet, can you tell us about the band’s beginnings?

BaHiMiRoN was ideal borne out of the sickened mind of GRIMLORD, then singer for satanic death metal band IMPRECATION in the early 90s… He wanted to move with a satanic black metal band, influenced heavily by early EMPEROR, BEHERIT, IMPALED NAZARENE.. however.. it did not work out that way.. It seemed that every member he tried to recruit would not work out due to heavy drug usage, violent activity, police involvement or overall non commitment.. So although a song or two was conjured with BRIAN FERNANDEZ (ex PARAGORIC), and a drummer was used from DESANCTIFIED.. nothing really came of this, and no demos or songs were released, though I did some killer artwork for my 3^rd WMS issue.. OKAY..fast forward to 2001,  fucking blow up some US consulates in Africa, and topple two fuggin’ phallic towers in NYC.. and Grimlord finds Mr. Blaash and Mrs JenOside. NOW be it fucking known, I was always, always a violent fucking vomitor of IMPRECATION in the early 90s, and I considered myself both ally and friend since then – and wished the best for BAHIMIRON in the early 90s. I was disappointed when nothing came from this.. However, it was not until 2001, when he met JenOside, a bassist from France with ties to ANTAEUS, and Mr. Blaash, a fucking violent perv who can sort of play drums.. that Grimlord decided to resurrect BAHIMIRON. .not to make band per se (well yeah, that’s what happened) but because all of our fucking sick minds were in the same plane – Jen, Grim, and Blaash, all were fucking sick, violent, depressed, razor wielding social outcasts, who had been in the black/death metal scene in Europe and US for more then 10 years by then.. SOOOO.. October 31, 2002.. BAHIMIRON was unchristened by Grimlord, with vocals and guitars, Jen on Bass and Blaash on drums and backing vocals, when appropriate (possible..heh).. after our first show in April 2003, we decided we needed a second guitarist… Krag Dagon, a known ally of Grim, who had lied to police, pissed on churches, and sodomized a lot of fuggin’ xtian girls while drinkin’ a fuckload of whiskey, was recruited as our 2^nd guitarist.. That is how we stand this day in September 2006…

BB: I’m quite intrigued by the band name… what the hell means Bahimiron? I understand it has something to do with Aleister Crowley… Am I right?

Grimlord:  Actually, the band name itself was an idea of a friend of mine named Brian F. that was very much into Aleister Crowley and we were sitting around trying to come up with a proper name for a black metal terror squad.   This was in 1993 as I had just quit Imprecation to pursue my true spiritual calling in BM, and we were forming what is now executed in Bahimiron.   I know that the name is in the order of the Sephiroth,
translating to 'Bestial'.  I feel that this is especially fitting with our aggressive nature, both personally and musically.

BB: Your band seems to be a very prolific one… you have released 7 works in less than six years, only this year you have released two splits and your first full length. How you do that? Was some of this material composed earlier?

Prolific? Well. .. This was not exactly planned this way.. let me give you a bit of background…The 3 tracks + live track recorded for the Teratism split were done in 2003… We were supposed to move forward in that year with OPEN GRAVE, a fucking killer sick band… but REGIMENTAL RECORDS (who was to release it) ran into some other priorities, and such, and it just took a while to get this put together.. also around 2005 we inked a contract for a full length CD with AURAMYSTIQUE a killer label from France putting out BEKHIRA and DESOLATION TRIUMPHUS.. so.. we finished recording the split CD material in 2003 + 2004 messy as fuck tracks from the AVERSE SEFIRA show we played.. and then full length was done March 2005 on our side… Around December 2004.. we were approached by the fucking mighty SARGEIST corpse stench to do a split EP with them… so. We knew after we finished the full length we had another track to do.. So around March 2005 (after the full length) we recorded “the Raping of Flesh” for the split EP with Sargeist… In 2005 we fully expected the following to happen:

Split cd with OPEN GRAVE, then “Pure Negativism” in December 2005, then Split EP with Sargeist in early 2006…

What you have is the Teratism/Bahimiron “Pact in Dizease and Profanation” cd out in May 2006 , the Sargeist/Bahimiron EP out in May 2006, and finally the “Pure Negativism” full length out in May 2006… 

We did not plan it that fucking way, and we hope it does not confuse people on the progress/regress of our “music” (which is really just vomit put to music).

BB: The past question was because I found significant differences between “Pact in Dezease & Profanation” your split with Teratism and “Pure Negativism: In Allegiance With Self Wreckage”…Your music sounds slightly less chaotic, and the whole production sounds different. Why was that?

The “Pact” tracks were recorded at Shannon Taylor Studios, where we recorded our EP for Blood Fire Death “Hunting Down the Weak” and our demo “Funeral Black”… There was a fuckload of fuzz and it was hard to hear anything except our fucking angst on these releases…

Later we moved to Bigdoor Studios (then SpaceCity sounds) run by Mike BBQ of Deth Kulture BBQ (think old GODFLESH with tits, alcohol and knives) and got properly miked up and shit… We wanted our full length to be a full length of something people could discern – the same violence on a little less buzz, but a lot louder fuggin’ violence…we since did the “Raping of Flesh” for the SARGEIST split, and also our three songs “Blackest Mourning Coming Down”,  “Blessed By Heretic Darkness”, and an intro “Angel of Dizease pt 2”…at his place, but also, as a side note, we recorded the Sargeist track and the double ep tracks “live”….

BB: How was the composition process of “Pure Negativism…”?

It was done by Krag Dagon and Grimlord in Houston…they would compose the guitar rhythms, then send it to us in Arizona… Jen and I went back  repeatedly to record the bass and drums.. it was very expensive, no one paid for it except ourselves, and that’s fucking fine. I’d pay for murder any day…

BB: What do you think the main difference between “Pure Negativism…” and your previous discography is?

Pure Negativism is a combination of all of our material – the slower material with SARGEIST to the fastest material from “As The Sun Burns” and the “Hunting Down the Weak” ep… – its all our same vomit – we have all the same feelings about these things – violence, vulgar, vomit, depression, but NOTHING new, nothing ground breaking – we’ve been listening to what we like for more then 15 years.. so, we don’t want to reinvent anything.. leave that to Progressive Black Metal bands, which you will never find us part of…

BB: Your lyrics are quite blasphemous and explicit… Who is the main composer?

Grim:  all of the lyrics that you read are mine.  All 'composed' through War. Whiskey. Sodomy. (heh heh, WMS plug!)

BB: What are your sources of inspiration? Musically and lyrically…

Grim:  eh, it is definitely a combination between dark, surreal hallucinations that I encounter every day of my existence, and the idiots that I interact with on a daily basis that i would just love to torch with a fuckin flamethrower!

BB: How has been the reception of “Pure Negativism…” so far?

 Honestly – not much. The few psychotics really like the vocals.. the rest think we’re boring.

That really is fine – we are not DSO, ULVER or anybody that is re originating or comino up with neat new riffs – ITS BLACK METAL. That’s it.

BB:  Are you satisfied with the final results of this work?

Yep. IT fucking bloodlets me… It is a very good representation of our machination – a bit “cleaner” in the production department, but we wanted our full length to be a little clearer then our previous releases.

BB: I really liked the name of your first full length… can you tell us the origins of “Pure Negativism: In Allegiance With Self Wreckage”? What this title means to you?

Grim:  Well, the title of Pure Negativism came straight outta Blaash's vodka soaked mouth, during a rare and much needed rehearsal (Bahimiron: Texas/Arizona based) and I thought that nailed our intentions on the fuckin head, and the "Allegiance With Self Wreckage" just came to me out of nowhere.  As far as an idea to have two different songs on the album from the same title, I thought it was good wordplay to have both describe the feel of the album as one, and yet be able to tell different things seperately as well.  That, and I'm just a lazy fuck who didn't want to come up with another song title at the time.

BB: The promo version of “Pure Negativism…” is very limited. Why you decided to spread only 20 copies??

We did not get any official copies from France, so we do what we can. I made a special batch of 20 copies that include the “Raping of Flesh” and as a promo and that’s about it…

BB: What’s your opinion about the current Black Metal scene in the US? Is there any underground band (s) you can recommend to us?

I personally hail it a fuck of a lot more nowadays.. There are, in my opinion so many bands that are incorporating two things = brutality of satanic death metal + early scandic black metal, and then putting a fucking vice grip on the nuts of originality.. of course, this is only me… .there are way, way too many bands for me to name drop, so I guess I’ll start now.. INQUISITION, ABAZAGORATH, IBEX THRONE, TERATISM, SUMERIA, AVERSE SEFIRA, KATHONIK (RIP), UNCHRIST, DAGON, THORNSPAWN, ASHDATAUS, SKIRRHUS, KRIEG, SACRISTY, OPEN GRAVE, TO SCALE THE THRONE, ADUMUS, DEMONCY, LEGIONS OF ASTARORTH, BLASPHERIAN (more death metal style…), PYRE, OBSEISANCE, NOKTURNE, TYPHUS, ENGORGE, ….  I mean, fuck, there's a ton of shit out there.. but these I can personally vouch for…

BB: What’s your opinion about the so called “White” Metal or “Christian” Black Metal? Do you think that it’s a valid musical expression?

Fuck No. How goddamn stupid is that. Seriously? NO. Fuck NO.

BB: What kind of music are you listening nowadays?

Myself, a fuckload of black and death metal, the others, all the way form Diamanda Galas to Fantomas to the Drunks..

BB: I guess you must be very brutal on stage… How are your live shows?

Well.. not really-  in the fact we don’t have pigs heads, dead rats, goat guts, etc.. All we have is a bit of  war paint, and a fuckload of whiskey and hate in our veins as Grimlord vomits assault after assault – I don’t need to tell you we are not a “tight” band, we don’t really give a fuck if we’re not super in time or whatever, we plow through our songs with violent energy and that’s about it. I’m still hoping that I can bloody up a show or two with my favourite razors, but honestly, playing on somebody else’s drums all the time, I’d not want to spread my unwanted and assuredly whiskey diseased blood…We’ve had people essentially say we sound like wall of noize – that’s fuggin’ fine with us…

BB: What can we expect for your next release?  I read you have planned releasing a split with Ibex Throne, Skhirrus and Ashdataus… Can you tell us more about it?

We have already recorded 3 tracks for a double split EP with the bands you mentioned.. Unfortunately, we do not have a timeframe for the release. You would need to contact the Kommandante of Skhirrus for that – he is the one who will actually produce this release.. I’ve been told that Ibex and Ash are working on tracks for this, so we’re hoping maybe by the end of the year (2006).. More then likely it will be early next year.. After that, we are recording in September 2006, hopefully something for a MCD, that will be different then the 1^st and 2^nd LPs .. This will delve specifically into all the members extreme suicidal belief/tendencies, and the music will reflect that…

We are also looking for to see what labels may be interested in releasing our 2^nd lp, to be recorded sometime next year – I can only say do not expect any goddamn fuggin’ progression – it will be in the same vomit mold of the 1^st Cd – fuggin’ vile, blackened hate, spewed forth from our personal devil’s emissary – Grimlord..

BB: Thanks for you words and time. These last lines are all yours…

Hails for the interview… if anybody in Europe would like any of our releases, they're all over the goddamn place, so it shouldn’t be a problem.. South America , I believe evilhorde records has some.. I think.. in America , well, that’s a little trickier.. I know that Ajna Offensive has some.. Maybe Graveless Slumber records, and/or Northernskyproductions…

Vomit forth xtian remains…- Grimlord

Blaash, on behalf of Bahimiron