Furious Black Metal is what this Dutch duo has been delivering since 1994, “Dodengang”, their third and latest release, is an extreme piece of Black Metal that confirms their posture after these more than ten years in the scene… After hearing this album I decided to contact the band to talk about their carrier and of course about this latest album… here’re the results.

BB: Hails! First of all I would like to thank you for this interview… Can you tell us what is Sammath doing nowadays?

-Greetings, we are mostly preparing for live shows and promoting the new album. We are doing some performances in Holland and Germany for a visual artist called Erik Smith. We are also busy working with our new guitar player. Stil going strong and enjoying concerts. This summer we will perform at the under the black sun festival in Berlin. Live shows and metal.

BB: For those who haven’t heard about Sammath before… can you tell us shortly about the band history?

-Sammath started in 94, we recorded some demos, then folter records hooked up with us in 97, they released the first album Strijd in 98, then I signed on for three cds. I got into metal when I was twelve, I remember hearing slayer and old metallica and I as hooked, haha. Not that different to most other bands, celtic frost, kreator, slayer, blab la. I think I have read about 1000000 interviews with boring history stories of bands….anyone want to read the whole story check out the band website.

BB: I’ve been always quite intrigued about your band name… What means Sammath? Why you choose this name?

-It actually means mountain of fire, its taken from Sammath naur, from the tolkien books, before the tolkien hype. It just sounds evil and metal. No more meaning then that. But it has a certain raw sound to it. I had some other band names but a band name starting with S is what I wanted, it had to sound and feel metal.

BB: You have a pretty long carrier, more than ten years in the scene. How do you think the sound of Sammath has progressed in these years?

-I have progressed from being a bad demo band to a professional outfit with better production and song writing, its great to hear the progression my band is going through. This is mostly due to the fact that I play guitar two hours every single day, if I don’t I think ill go crazy, it’s a lifestyle. But I still think its just starting, im still hungry to improve things.

BB: Can you tell us about your firsts demos? The only one I have heard of was “De Ruïnes Fluisteren”, but you got a couple of tapes before it, “Visions upon Winterlands” and “Zwaardbroeders bij de bergengte”. How were these first experiences as a band?

Do you have this tape, wow, cool. The first tape is a promo with two track, only 150 were made to let people know we existed, I did not sell them but gave them to people at concerts back in 94. The first official release was the demo zwaardbroeders, we sold 650 of this tape, unbelievable. This was due to some great help from rood from goat of the harvest zine in the usa, he ordered like 200 of them, great stuff. The first experience as a band was great. Sammath was only me and someone else who I soon kicked out due to his total lack of spirit for black metal. I knew then that Sammath was going to go on for years, thankfully it developed into something good.

BB: Talking about your latest album “Dodengang”… It seems you take your time to release it… Can you tell us about the composition process of this album?

It took a very long time indeed, this had to be a damn good album. The third album is when a band is made or its death.  I knew i could realize a good album this time around  but I had to take time to get the song structures right. Also some guitar lines I had in my head I could not get onto tape, si spend a lot of time trying to get my own sound going. Whenever a riff sounded to much as another band I threw it out, no matter how could it was.  When writing all the music and lyrics by yourself it takes a damn long time to get everything completed. Also sometimes its just to much, you want to do to much and some tracks end up sounding overdone, so back to the drawing board. Very hard work to get the balance right.  I enjoy the recording and writing process more then anything. Its very rewarding when you can turn ideas into music. Compared to older albums this one is definitely been a damn hard album to make, due to the complex song structures I had to drive myself to the limit to record the guitars, the drummer almost died in the strudio, haha He was actually very ill during the recordings his kidney wasn’t functioning properly, his doctor told him to take it easy and the next day he was drumming like a goddman madman, haha. METAL!!

BB: There’s a somewhat epic feeling in this album…  Has this anything to do with the album concept? Can you tell us about it?

Thanks, that’s what I was trying to do, combine epic feleing with harsh underground black metal.  Creating a epic feeling is something I think one can only write to some extend, it’s the whole feeling/package  that creates this atmosphere. You cant writ a blum like this, it just appears as you go along. When the album was finally done I first heard this factor, As you can imagine I was very pleased about this epic feeling. The concept is war, death, but then looked upon as if mankind’s wars and torture is inevitable, We seem to kill ourselves in mass every 50 years, very interesting stuff. Total destruction. I don’t see this as weakness but as mankind’s dark energy being released. I try to write the soundtrack to our battles with each other.

BB: A song that stands out from the rest, at least to me, is “Stalingrad”, this track shows a really aggressive war inspired atmosphere… What’s the concept behind this song?

-This track deals with the battle for the city in the winter of 1942, some German mags called me a right wing band, stupid ignorant idiots. I describe the battle using diaries from soldiers form both Germans and Russians. I used to be a history teacher so this subject was well known to me. The violent musical approach fits well with the lyrics, total war, certain death, die in the heart of winter. It was freezing 25 degrees, people where turning to cannibalism, their was nothing but death, very good for a Sammath lyric. It is one of our most violent tracks. The concept is certain death, whatever we do, we die, some violently others in their sleep, but how and when is not our choice, isn’t life great.

BB: What’s your favourite track from “Dodengang” album?

_ the title track itself, because of the epic feeling and the variation of the guitar lines, based around 1 single riff I take different lead structures and it sounds ver diverse.

For speed and aggression I enjoy imminence, war & death.

BB: Being Black Metal activist since 1994… Can you tell us your impressions about the progression of the Black Metal scene in these years?

The commercial side has killed the underground, but also made it a worldwide movement. Like getting in contact with you. But I still think the scene had more charm back in 92-96. The music is getting better but its more difficult to hear the good bands. Only labels with lots of money seem to get attention, but money and quality music are totally different things. So many bands are promoted as being extremely good, but then when you hear the album the recording is great but there is no spirit. I still think the scene is good, people who talk shit about it should just leave, nagging idiots.

BB: What were the most influential albums for today’s Sammath sound?

-Probably not as one might expect, and I don’t think you can hear much of in our sound  but bands as coroner, autopsy, bestial Warlust would be the bands that I listen to the most, daily for the last ten years.

BB: What bands are you listening to nowadays?

-Last weeks I have listened to a lot of old thrash albums, Kreator pleasure to kill and so on. But black metal wise I listen to the stone, brandhaard from Holland, new band but very strange and old school feeling. Also dutch bands such as salacious gods and the aussie gods saditsik exekution, I cant seem to get the kaos album out of my cd player. The track volkanic violence is probably one of my favorite black metal tracks of all times. Also mysticum demos.

BB: Despite of playing a somewhat traditional sounding Black Metal, your band image looks pretty far from the traditional corpse painted Black Metal band…  What’s your opinion about corpse-painting?

-I used to wear corspepaint back in 94/95 But I grew tired of it. Im not the make up person, it just did not feel right to me. Its just not my thing. I refuse to bow down to what is expected of me as a black metal artist and follow my own path. Bands should do what they want but keep it true. Meaning not true that everyone should look the same but black metal to some is more of a image then creating dark music.

BB: How would you describe one of your shows for someone who hasn’t seen you live?

- Very loud and somewhat chaotic, that mainly due to the complexity of the songs, not that hard to play but there are so many breaks and tempo changes that for some who don’t know the music it might seem very fucked up. We usually get a good moshpit. I enjoy seeing people go mad in front of the stage and chanting the lyrics. It makes one feel very good when you see people in front of the stage going crazy. I do the same with other bands. The atmosphere for me need not be totally black metal, I think a metal concert should be filled with beer and moshpits, but the elite black metal concerts where everyone just stands their looking evil.

BB: What about your future plans? Is there any other release on the way?

The next album will slaughter all!!! I am working on new material as of this month; it sounds a lot like this album but more technical and at the same time old school. I think ti will surprise many people. All I want to do is progress and create the ultimate best I can de with Sammath, metal metal metal!!!!

BB: Thanks once more for your time and words… Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?

-Thanks for the interview, support the scene, METAL OR DEATH!!! You do great work with your zine, keep it up!!Trades are welcome.