|
Few bands have
adopted Raw Doom Metal as a way to
express their musical inclinations but
this crude and underground style is
exactly what this Finnish band plays. Paganus
delivers at their first self titled full
length a raw and harsh piece of hellish
Doom Metal in the crudest vein of bands
such Burning Witch and Khanate… So,
after hearing to this apocalyptic album
I decided to contact the band and ask
them few questions about their carrier
and their solid proposal…
BB:
First I would like to thank you for
giving us this interview. Can you tell
us about the band’s beginnings?
We just started
jamming one time after the rehearsals of
another band we had back then, Davida,
in which we all played in. Very slow,
dirty and drunken material started to
form. After a couple of these "sessions"
we came up with Stab and that was it,
Paganus was born.
BB:
As far as I know,
your first release was a live demo
recorded in 2005… What were Paganus
during these five years between the
band’s formation and this first demo?
Before the year -05,
we weren’t that active as a band. During
the year -05 we played our first gig,
and realised that we needed to take this
band seriously. So we started training
and planning to record our songs, maybe
get them released by someone. We have
not made any REAL demos or recordings
before we went to studio to record our
album. Our goal was to find someone to
release our first recording, which is
our debut. And we succeeded in that.
BB:
Why you decided to
record this first demo live? It was a
risky bet…
The live recording is
from our first live appearance, we had
the opportunity to record the gig, so we
did it. It was not planned as a demo or
to be released for bigger audience. It
was just a live recording for us to
explore our opportunities to produce and
develop the songs.
BB:
How you get involved
with Totalrust Music?
Gad, the headmaster
of Totalrust had listened to our stuff
from Myspace and liked it
He knew we were
looking for a label to release the album
and asked if he could get the whole
album for listening. We send it and he
was very impressed and made an offer to
release the album.
BB:
This brand new album
basically contains all your released
compositions… Am I right? But I also
understand the versions this album
contains are slightly different, at
least in comparison with the versions
available at your first demo… is that
correct? Can you tell us more about it?
Yeah, the songs
changed a bit, mainly more noise and
effects were added since
Mikko joined Paganus
in the beginning of 2006. He has added
his touch to the old songs. We also
played the songs much slower than on the
live recording.
BB:
How was the
composition process of these four
tracks?
Stab and Paganus are
old songs from 2000-2001. Blood Soaked
and Skullsplitter
are newer from
2004-2005. Markus is responsible for
Paganus and Blood Soaked and Manu for
the rest. There was no real composition
process for these tracks since they`ve
are from such a long period. Basically
the songs have just evolved trough time
to take the shape
of which they can be
heard on the album.
BB:
My personal favourite
track of this album is “Stab” because of
its varied and inhuman atmospheres… Have
you any favourite one on this album?
“Stab” was in fact
our first song ever, that’s where it all
begun. It’s a great song, but off course
it has developed and changed form during
these years from the beginning. I don’t
really have a favourite, but if I have
to choose one I would probably say “Paganus”.
BB:
Your lyrics are very
crude and vicious… can you tell us where
this inspiration came from?
I get my inspiration
from everyday life. Everything relating
to esoteric and occult beliefs,
different mythologies, grimoires also
inspire me alot. These things are the
basis what I use creating the stories
what I write.
BB:
Is there any ideology
or belief behind Paganus? What’s your
opinion about the proselitysm in the
Metal scene?
There’s no ideology
or beliefs behind Paganus. I don’t have
any opinion about proselytism in the
Metal scene.
BB:
I really hard not to
fall into comparisons when we talk about
Raw Doom Metal… maybe because this
definitely isn’t a massive style, and
there is not a wide scene either…
Anyway, how do you feel when the sound
of Paganus is inevitably compared with
Burning Witch or Khanate? Are these
bands an influence to you?
Well, both are
definitely an great influence to us. I
think without Burning Witch there would
not be Paganus. Burning witch was the
band why we started to play this kind of
music.
BB:
If you had to mention
some bands/albums that unquestionably
influenced the sound of Paganus… Which
ones would you mention?
Obviously Burning
Witch, Neurosis, YOB…
BB:
How has been the
album reception so far? Are you
satisfied with the final results?
The reception has
been really good, over my expectations.
Off course you are always your own worst
critic and you think you could have done
some things better and different, but
overall I’m very pleased with the final
result.
BB:
What about your
band’s live shows? Can you tell us a
little how Paganus is on stage?
We are full of energy
and entertaining, we always try to keep
the audience to enjoy of our show.
BB:
What are the future
plans of Paganus?
We are planning to
play few shows this spring and then we
will probably go back underground to
produce some new stuff and hopefully we
will come out with new album at the end
of this year.
BB:
Thanks once more for
your time and words… These last lines
are all yours…
Thanks for the
interview! ¨
“When you drank the
world was still out there, but for the
moment it didn’t have you by the throat”
|
