SEX, MAGICK and ROCK’N’ROLL

King Satan

Metal On Loud Magazine gave a listen to the debut album of extreme industrial metal band King Satan from Finland and decided to chat with King Aleister Satan, the founder of the band.

Hi, Aleister! Congratulations with the album release! Let’s talk about how things are going in the King Satan’s world… So, tell us what made you to start…not a melodic or folk metal band? We know that Finland is well known particularly in these metal music styles…

Hell-o! And thank you! It was sure a helluva ride to get it ready. It seems that stylistically we are kind of odd-balls in Finnish scenery, but apparently not just in Finland alone if I believe my eyes and ears. But, regardless of what others think or do, we do our own thing. The choice of style was a result of series of studio sessions and musical experimentation and long time fandom of industrial/electronica/hard rock/extreme metal, which born from a need of mine to find a proper way to express myself and the things I want to say. So, it was not really a choice after all, hah! ”When there’s a will, there’s a way”.

We want to know more about the band members. Please, introduce them to Metal On Loud Magazine readers, tell us more about their music preferences, professional background, if there are any personal secrets….- well, we are curious, hehehehe!

Oh, the line-up did change couple of times during the making process of ”King Fucking Satan” album as the making process of the album was also a kind of final breaking in and assimilation of the whole band into an entity that can hold and channel the energies we represent. The line-up was originally gathered in order to perform a live, since KING SATAN was more or less a solo project of mine in the start, but it developed much further. I still played most of the instruments on the album, but the rest of my people played something there too, more or less. The current line-up one includes yours truly, Kate Boss, Martin Shemhamforash, John Oscar Dee and our producer man Magister Demaniac who is kind of fifth member of the band. But all rite, let’s introduce the members!

John Oscar Dee
Guitarist and sound engineer who I did recruit to KING SATAN first to play some guitars on first demo live shows in mind, as I kind of know him very well from a long time and he is a guitarist of my other band, occult black metal band SATURNIAN MIST which I founded as a teenager in 2006. His musical background is rooted strongly in black metal and apparently besides industrial he likes stoner too these days a lot. As far as I know his favourite bands are Mayhem and Primus, and he’s avid fan of Ice Hockey. His personal secrets? Not many knows, but his big brother is Jussi Tarvainen, who was a professional ice hockey player, who was MVP in 2002 Finnish National League’s Championship games and was drafted to Edmonton Oilers in NHL and played in Finnish National team a lot. Explains why he’s into hockey so much! And I think John’s not gonna like it me spilling this together when talking about him hahaha, but you asked secrets!

Katherine ”Kate” Boss,
Plays synths, piano and sings female vocal parts and she did some composing to the album as well. Has a background in theatre acting too and has a strong interest towards occult. Her I recruited to play a part in ”Psygnosis” music video (plays mom there, by the way), where she was acting behind the scenes so frenzy and antisocial at the same time, like ”Enter Black Fire” lyrics of ours manifested in physical form, so she had to be recruited to the band. She’s not much into metal per se, but more into rock, electronica and classical music – and especially to all kinds of weird, eerie and experimental stuff that has to have melancholy in them. Her favourite music and inspirations include movie composers Joe Hisaishi and Hans Zimmer alongside with bands like The Prodigy, Radiohead and Lana Del Rey. Secret considering her? She can talk to animals. I mean really, it is so fucking scary.

Martin Shemhamforash,
Latest addition to our line-up. Synth player as well, and yeah, we do have two synth players, Kate being a lead one and Martin a rhythm and bass frequency one. When started recording synths to the album, there are so much of layers and tracks of synths, which makes our sound what it is. It is basically impossible to play these synths by a one synth player while live, so Martin was recruited to the band because of this. Before Martin, the rhythm synths came from playback, which was ok too, but this way it has more edge and real live music feeling, as music at best, is living thing. He has played in many bands during his years, most notable ones probably is atmospheric black metal band TOTALSELFHATRED where he is still playing synths live. His musical background comes strongly from black metal too and his favourite bands include Darkthrone, Mortiis, Triarii, Darkspace etc… His secrets? I think he’s German. Or his parents were. Or his dogs parents, I’m not sure anymore!

Magister Demaniac
Producer and sound engineering wizard who is like a fifth member of KING SATAN. When we played with PAIN and TURMION KÄTILÖT last November, he came after the show telling that ”Your show was fucking awesome, but your live sound lacked something that I could’ve fixed if I was your sound engineer” to which I then replied ”Well, do you want to be our sound engineer?”. The rest is history, haha. Album was basically recorded and mixed by me in a BLACKVOX STUDIO before when he came along, but as it turned out to be, he mastered the album and acted as a co-producer with me, without his efforts the album wouldn’t be what it now is, and he did fucking awesome job in the post-production phase and played some additional instruments that had to be fixed. He’s professional sound engineer and he gets kicks from such bands as Infected Mushroom, X-Fusion, Moonspell, Hypocrisy and so on. His secret is that he likes red wine and moonlight walks. Alone.

Aleister Satan (a.k.a. yours truly)
Ugh, I wonder what should I say? I am so shy. Like said I founded KING SATAN to be the ultimate channel of all of my artistic views and needs, where I can combine most of them at least, if not all. As a musician, I am a vocalist, I play guitar, bass, drums and synths but I see myself more as an artist than musician, since music is only one way of expression for me. I have written, edited and directed (or co-directed, co-edited depends on the video) all KING SATAN music videos, and I have done music videos for black metal legend BARATHRUM and my another band SATURNIAN MIST too and I have very strong interest towards visual arts, and hopefully I can do more videos in the future as well. Besides that I am an graphic artist, sound engineer for BLACKVOX STUDIO and record producer, and I have produced quite few albums there. I have a strong musical background in black metal and death metal, which can be seen best from my works in SATURNIAN MIST band, that I founded in 2006, but alongside with this, long time fandom with industrial, electronica and experimental music has dictated my doings. My musical preferences, influences are very wide, but to name a few acts to symbolize it would be probably The Prodigy, Mayhem, Behemoth, G.G. Allin, Deicide, CMX, Suicide Commando, Hocico, Skinny Puppy, Satyricon, Turbonegro, Slipknot, Darkthrone, Barathrum, Tool, The Doors, Slayer, Marilyn Manson to name some that gives me kicks and have probably played a massive role in my musical development. Personal secrets regarding to me? I’m not so sure if I exist at all.

You are the founder of the band, the composer. What inspires you to write songs, what bands, artists, events, emotions influence over the song writing process? How is this process set up?

I get inspired and influenced by everything that I experience, think and feel. Reality and beyond, through which I go and which goes through me shall be the pen with what I write. The artists I mentioned in previous question probably affects me if not directly, then subconsciously at least, but I just want to describe a feeling, or abstract emotion and/or thought pattern while I compose music, or then I just hear voices and sounds in my head that I need to get away from there. The process doesn’t really make much sense, even I try to rationalize it this way retrospectively, cos in other words I just have so much pressure in my mind that I need to get off from there by doing music and other artistic stuff. Not musicians, but as much if not even more important influences for me during the years have been the cinema artists Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch. This together with many writers from occult, philosophy and fiction like Aleister Crowley, Carl Gustav Jung and Mihail Bulgakov, to name a few – who all play a pivotal role in the influences that dictates how I perceive the world and therefore write music. While I write, I try to experience or express another side of reality through music, which is not visible to the naked eye. It is the ultimate self-expression for me, because like a picture can say more than 1000 words, good song can say more than 1000 books.

Who writes lyrics for King Satan? Why is this topic choice?

Basically, me. Kate did co-write the chorus of ”Dance With The Devil” with me, but rest comes from me. And, well, there are lot of topics in ”King Fucking Satan” album, as there is just personal angst, frustration, rage and melancholy, piled together with searching of the truth, practicing of occult and magick, philosophy, psychology, sociology, black comedy, satire, theology, anthropology, spiritual anarchy, sex, love, misantrophy etc… Basically everything I am interested of. And why I am really interested of these? It’s because I am interested of all sides of reality and to find out what it is really all about. Lyrically ”King Fucking Satan” is kind of a diary of the thoughts and emotions passing by at the time of writing. But one undertone and primary focus that saturates everything here, is of course, as the name could probably imply, my long time obsession towards the archetype of The Devil. And emphasis on the word archetype here, as The Devil is an archetype indeed (for me, and for us), can’t stress that enough. (”God” is also an archetype, just by the way). It can be found from all religions, cultures, mythologies in different names but sharing the same form. It can be found from popular culture as well as much as from the historical mythologies too. It can be perceived not only as a concept of deity, but also a symbolical structure, principle of nature, none of them and all of them. There are so many ways to interpret it, to perceive it, to experience it, or harness it… for which it is a massive influence, probably endless – which kind of works as inner debate I am going on with my works, and constant undertone in my writings too. Those who are not aware of the meaning of ”archetype”, it could be understood in Jungian sense meaning collectively-inherited unconscious idea, a pattern of thought that is universally present in individual psyches, but in art, anthropology etc… it is a constantly recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting or in mythology in various seemingly unrelated cases, sharing the same function. ”Prototype”. The whole album and the band is kind of formed above this foundation, the search of the truth, and the studying of ”The Devil’s” archetype in very different forms. Not all of our songs are about the devil, but the devil is in all of our songs. ”There are devils everywhere, but human itself to itself, is the king of them all”.

King Fucking Satan, your debut album, officially gets released on May, 26…What songs from the album are special to you? Why?

All of them. The whole album. It contains so much of strong personal experiences, tears, blood and sweat (all literally) behind the making and writing process that I wish I do not have to go through the same turmoil again. I destroyed my internal organs partially by getting wasted, and as I was shitting blood I ended up being homeless and then went into a psychosis, ending into a very suicidal thinking – before finding a reason for my being, for which the lyrics – I hope will explain the path a bit at least. The whole process was kind of ultimate, ”making the pieces fit” not only in my life but also in music and art of mine in general.

So…you have a recipe how to combine love and misanthropy…I love this song from ”King Fucking Satan”. What about you personally…are you a misanthrope? Or do you love humanity? What are your personal views on all what’s going on in Europe and in the world?

Well, all of my lyrics are written by me, and they are my thoughts. So, yes, I am very misantrophic person, and I kind of despise ”human” as an species, but I see the potential there and that is why the song title is ”Destroy The World Or How To Combine Love And Misantrophy” and it deals with this issue, because one cannot say it better than Aleister Crowley did, that ”Love is the law, love under will”, but it is not the ”human” I would love. When of lacking a better term let’s call it ”Soul”, which is more than a ”human”. Even I try not to speak with quotes, I cannot resist: ”Thinking human is a depraved animal” – J. Rousseau

If you had to introduce your new album to people who don’t know your band yet, what would you say? How would you “sell” to the listeners King Fucking Satan?

Do you like Industrial metal? Aggrotech? Hard rock? Spiritual Anarchy? Are you tired of hypocritical world views, empty words and pretentious cowardliness that is disguised as ”rules”? In art and music there should not be rules, if you find them, break them! King Satan bows to nothing and to no one and our blend of industrial metal means SEX, MAGICK and ROCK’N’ROLL

Where do you see the place of the band at the Finnish metal scene? Among industrial bands or among extreme bands? Or, maybe, just rock’n’roll ?

I don’t know, and to be honest I don’t really care! We do our own thing and do not try to adapt ourselves to any pattern. We have already shared a stage with black metal bands, death metal bands, thrash metal bands, industrial metal bands, electro bands, rock bands, aggrotech and EBM bands… so it seems that we don’t even have to adapt to anything! We are our own thing.

Many Industrial projects stay studio ones. Do you perform live? If yes, tell us about your craziest live performance experiences…

Oh yes we do. Well, one of the craziest probably is last January in JKL Metal Festivals here in Finland. During our second last song of the set, I started climbing on the stage structure above and accidentally put my hand into some sort of power outlet for power chords or lights or whatever, and I got quite severe electric shock. I fell down, and then I felt dizzy and nauseous, and as I tried to run to vomit next to the stage I fell and hit my head very hard and passed out. I awoke when technicians and organizers were leaning over me trying to see if I’m still alive or something. Everyone was very confused and trying to figure out what had happened. I felt very light and I still went to perform one last song of the set even the technicians/organizers advised not to, but I didn’t feel at all bad at the moment! So I went to perform one last song! After that in backstage, when the adrenalin started wearing off in my body, my head started to hurt like HELL and my arm and chest hurt and I felt very dizzy. We went to a hospital afterwards, because apparently it was a thing to do once you get huge electroshock. My heart was all fine but I had concussion from hitting of a head, and the nerves of my arm were little damaged. Funny thing is that I used to have little heart condition, and now after the shock, there were no signs of it whatsoever! My heart was fine! I had to rest for a week and a half after that though due the concussion.

What should we expect from King Satan in the nearest future? So, the album comes out… what’s next?

Let’s see. Lots of plans unconfirmed yet. Live shows for sure. I have already a follow up for ”King Fucking Satan” ready in my head, so we start to make that as soon as possible. Want to make more music videos too. And hopefully we get more shows outside of Finland. I might run for a president.

Your band is pretty new, we can call you newcomers at the metal scene. What would you wish to musicians who want to start a new project? How not to give up and reach success?

Well, even KING SATAN is a new project, I myself at least don’t really feel quite like a newborn, even the band is – as most of us have been part of Finnish underground metal scene with other bands ever since we were teenagers. So this is more like a lifestyle for us more than anything else, so to give any advices for that matter feels kind of weird… However if to say something that helped me and us (in music and life in general): trust your intuition and always keep true to yourself. Do not try to be success (What is success anyway? If it’s money, then don’t do art. If it’s popularity, go for beauty pageant or back to high school), but try to be you and find your own voice – even it might sound very vague, but it seems to be the hardest thing for not only musicians and artists, but every individual on this planet.

Your wishes and last words to the readers of Metal On Loud Magazine….

Never trust a god.

Thank you so much, Aleister, for the talk! Much success to you! Metal On Loud! m/

Thank you! FUCK THE REST SATAN IS BEST

Tania Legrand

Tania Legrand is a co-founder of Metal On Loud! This Russia-born metal lover currently operates from France. She manages the Facebook community and does interviews.

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