1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
(Crpyitc) Hi man, it is our honor to have this interview in the infamous Rotten Pages ! We're located at my father house in the south west of France, in the countryside small town of Brive-La-Gaillarde. There is no scene there. There was a band "Arsenic" which ended after a member was brutally gutted in the street with a knife, by daylight, and got his guts partially ate by a sick bastard. Also, there is the band Aryos, of our friend Napharyon, located nearby.
2. Let’s start with the boring basics. Care to explain to the unknowing precisely where in the world you emanate such an aura of evil from?
(Cryptic) The department of Corrèze is situated in the south of the region of the Limousin. The environments are rich, composed of forests, lakes, mountains and farming fields. Life here is quite simple, and the weight of traditions and the past still withstand through time.
3. I would like to know your beginning as musicians, can you name some of the bands who you first really admired and helped shape your future in music?
(Cryptic) As far as I can remember, Behemoth was the first extreme and satanic band I listened with their mighty "Demigod". Then, the revelation occured with the infamous DMDS and Transylvanian Hunger. Old school death metal,thrash and other genres of metal are also praised.
(Sire Smegma) I started to listen to heavy metal at a very young age, but the first record that really blew my mind was "Scream Bloody Gore" by Death. Since then I started to listen to more and more death and black metal especially first wave black metal with Celtic Frost and Bathory who really shaped my tastes.
4. As a band from Southwest France, how has your local music scene influenced your development and growth as musicians?
(Cryptic) There is no scene here at all but my parents and brother are all classic musicians so I always kind of had an "ear" and the basics of discipline when it comes to music.
(Sire Smegma) most of the local scene are side projects of Cryptic. We live in a very small city, I only know Aryos which is a project a friend of us.
5. Goatblood is comprised of two members. What is the spiritual ideology or philosophy that drives you both as individuals and as a band?
(Cryptic) I owe you some news, we're now a 4 member line up lusty to smear our plague in the pits. Corpse Extermination who vomitted througout the EP could not follow us for concerts because of his duty in army. Our philosophy rely on the cult of might, self improvement and elevation through physical trainings and the powers of dark arts. We exerce ourselves to reach a state of transe which connect us to our primal roots.
(Sire Smegma) We have similar tastes and similar visions in music. We're also lifting weight. We praise domination and aggresivity as well as masculinity. We worship the natural laws incarnated in the form of the Goat. As an individual my worldview can be described as the followibg words: Might is Right.
6. Your debut self-titled EP, delivered a powerful, massive, and malefic sound. How did you balance black and death metal influences to create a cohesive sound?
(Cryptic) I took elements of black and death that would serve the music the most evil and skullcrushing heavy sound. It comes naturally in the writing process, but has to be coherent in the wole atmosphere of the CD we're working on.
7. Can you give us a glimpse into the recording process? Were there any elements of the recording that proved particularly troublesome?
(Cryptic) I didn't know Sire Smegma by this time so all was recorded in the house by myself except vocals done by Alex (Corpse Extermination). It was done without much of troubles. Neighbours couldn't bear the reek of the riffs during guitars recording and we had to cool them off with a friend of mine. We have no problems when we rehearse into the basement though.
8. As always, our interest in bands and music goes beyond the music itself and into its contents. Your lyrical theme and concept, it feels, is very devoted to the satanic notion. What messages or themes do you hope to convey through your artistic expression?
(Sire Smegma) Satanism nowadays is flawed by enormous bullshit. Black Metal is infected by people who did not understood some satanic concepts as Self-Destruction or individualism. Self-destruction is for me the destruction of the weak self, our fragile incarnation that need to be transcended by pushing yourself to the limit. I can't stand the "crackhead culture" of modern black metal, they can lick my ass.
9. There is a Colombian label who has released your EP on CD format. Could you tell us some more details about it and I guess you´ve built a little Latin American audience already?
(Sire Smegma) Latin American black/death metal are a big inspiration, all hailz to Sarcofago, Holocausto and the maniacs of Goatpenis!
10. Your latest music offering “Transcendance Bestiale Demo” was released this past April and is the second record into the band’s career. Would you say there is some differences in contrast with previous EP regarding song structures and general musical approach?
(Cryptic) Transcendance Bestiale was wrotten and recorded before the EP. We lost the firsts recordings but two songs,used at the end of the Tribulacion's release. Transcendance Bestiale may be more raw , primitive , and had some tracks way faster compared to the EP. I didn't try to change anything to the formula when writing the EP but let the flow whispered by the unholy Goat
(Sire Smegma) I did not participate in the music of the EP, apart from the two bonus demo track of the Colombian edition released by Tribulacion. I mixed two different vocals styles to achieved the chaotic feeling of the screams. There's a difference in the bass sound as well, I play with finger while the bass on the EP was recorded with a pick.
11. How would you best describe this new demo? Can you elaborate on the writing process of these six tracks?
(Cryptic) I began to wrote Transcendance Bestiale Genocide and The Whore... in Winter 2019. I wanted to start new band with these tracks, something between black, war , and death metal. I wanted all the tracks to be live-efficiently. Crushing , obscure, heavy and relentless. I only wrote by night, with a lot of weed and beers.
12. When you release a record how much attention do you pay to things like track order, lay out and art work? How planned is everything?
(Sire Smegma) We agree together on a theme and I draw the artwork. I also spent a lot of time handwriting the lyrics of the EP in order to give a medieval feeling to the booklet. I think the visual side of a release is very important, I care a lot that the artwork reflect the lyrical content and the music, it create an atmosphere and gives sense to the physical release in a world of digital format.
(Cryptic) We chose the order of the tracks throughout the record in order to keep an even intensity and dynamic.
13. How do you define “underground” and where do you see yourself and your band in it?
(Cryptic) I think underground when it comes to a band, is the old school way of dealing influence, to gain in popularity by the very roots of the scene, and it comes by the local area of each members of the band. Approval of the elders metal maniacs of your area/circle rewards you for sure.
(Sire Smegma ) For me, the underground is like a worldwide cult. Everyone is in contact with each other and it creates an autonomous network of people working without the help of mainstream media. As Cryptic said, you gain respect by the approval of the elder in order to us to keep the flame of true metal.
We aim to be an international underground band, we do not want to be a « local band » that’s why we work hard and that’s what we live for.
14. American or European black metal. What unique has offered each continent to the genre?
(Cryptic) I would say the 2nd wave of northern black metal has shape the european black metal sound with its evil , cold and dreadful sounds whereas usbm has a more violent, bestial and warlusty atmosphere. The blend of these influences is an huge inspiration in Goatblood.
15. Digital versus Physical, Cassette, Vinyl or CD, which do you prefer? And how much of a collection do you have if I may ask.
(Sire Smegma) I have mostly CDs but I like Vinyl and cassette as well. Digital is less interesting but it's a good way to promote your band without spending too much money.
16. How do you feel the black metal scene has morphed in France over time? Is there anything you miss from the past, or anything you feel has changed for the better?
(Sire Smegma) I was born in 2002, so I never lived the golden years of the underground metal scene. Today scene in France is rotten by post-black metal posers, DSBM crackheads and old guys in slippers who pretend to be true and complaining that the underground is dead while promoting again and again the same bland shit from the Black Legions while pretending that "Goat bands" are not original... Fuck them. We will continue to bear the flame of true metal no matter what. We want to play metal the way that early Sodom, Kreator, Bathory or Sarcofago intended to. We embrace the influences from the old school death metal scene and the 2nd wave of Black Metal too.
(Cryptic) Same opinion, fuck them.
17. If people from outside France would want to travel to a location that has inspired you to write music in your home country, where would they have to go?
(Sire Smegma) We are very inspired by French countryside. I was born in one of the coldest place in France, in the mountains of the Cantal. It's a very savage place with a lot of legends about witches sabbath and sorcery.
(Cryptic) Defenitly Cantal, Corrèze and Dordogne. A lot of places there to see for nature's lovers, old things, and grim landscapes.
18. Thank you all so much for taking the time to chat with us. Honestly, it means a lot! Your final words please.
(The True Goatblood) Thank you my friend and thanks to all our heavy metal maniacs from South-America !
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