Untitled Document


	<< back Anael is a pretty nice surprise in the black metal field, but we all know what great bands Austria gave. I had a talk with their main-man, Seraphackh to see what's behind this music and this promising band. 1. Hello, Seraphackh! Welcome to Tempest Music & More Portal! How are you lately? Hails Adrian, I'm doing fine so far, our new album is out, we played a great gig on the Black Celtic Summit Festival in Italy last weekend, so no need to complain. 2. At first let me ask you about your pseudonyms. What are their meanings and where from did you take them? We invented them more or less, they are kind of a heraldic motto of it's owner. Seraphackh is a variation of "seraph" meaning "serpent-daemon", "Primeumathon" was taken from the infamous Necronomicon and "Angel of doom" is pretty obvious I guess. And "Chris" isn't really a synonym at all ... 3. Concerning names, I would ask you on the band's name, Anael. Where from? Are you aware of the French band bearing the same name? The name ANAEL is taken from "Conjuration of the four" by Eliphas Levi, meaning the prince of astral light of the trinity of fire there. Yeah, we are aware of the french band, we even talked with them about the fact with the name, it's no problem for us! 4. You formed this band in 1999. What made you do it? Were you already experienced musicians, or that was your first attempt? We weren't satisfied with just listening to music anymore, so we started to play it ourselves. We haven't been in any band before, but Primeumathon and I had practiced guitar together a couple of months before. 5. Until 2003, in 4 years you released a demo, two splits and two EPs. Can you tell us some words on each of them? Which one is you fave and why? Well ... the demo was recorded in september 2000 after just 9 months of existence of the band. It was never meant to be published actually, but it sounded too good for not being played to anyone, so we made around 100 copies for friends and some mags... Next recording was the song "Eye of the sleepless" for the split 7" with Buried God, they were good friends of us, so when Andy of Hatespawn Inc. proposed to do the split we agreed without hesitation. The "Infernal devotion" 7" was recorded around the same time, but in the studio a friend of us had in his cellar. It is a bit more rough than the other ANAEL recordings and was published by Marcel Spaller of Sombre Records. It is sold out and kind of a "hard to find release"! The split with LUST (Can) finally was recorded in the same session as our debut, it just differs a bit in the mix and the mastering from the actual album. Luca of Iron Tyrant Productions has done a fucking lot for us, so when he had the idea for this release we simply had to do it!!! It contains 2 new songs, a live recording from our first show, and a killer coverversion of DeathSS with me sharing vocals with Andy of Impending Doom. I don't really have a fave, that's hard to decide anyways as I've written most of the songs on these releases. "Eye of the sleepless" is kind of the most personal song of all these though. 6. That year, 2003 brought a good deal with two labels. How did you get to sign with them? Is it a long term contract, or you renew it after each release? And how come there are 2 labels taking care of you and not only one? Luca of Iron Tyrant Productions wanted to do a release with us for a while but we couldn't do it before 2003. In the same year, Blackgoat of Barbarian Wrath visited him in Italy and Luca played our songs to him. Blackgoat liked what he heard and offered us to release our debut. Our agreement with Barbarian Wrath contained the "Necromantic rituals" album and an option for the second album, which is released now. How I said before, Luca did and does a lot for us so we would be plain stupid not to work with him! And as Barbarian Wrath doesn't release LP's, Iron Tyrant Productions take care of that! 7. Please present us your debut album, Necromantic Rituals" and all that we need to know about it. OK, "Necromantic rituals" is our debut album, it contains 11 songs written during our first 3 years of existence as a band. It has a very oldschool, static, earthy sound like Celtic Frost, Bathory, Samael. It was released by Barbarian Wrath limited to 666 copies on CD and licensed by Iron Tyrant Productions limited to 500 copies on LP. 8. In September of this year the second album, "On Wings of Mercury" was issued by the two labels, Barbarian Wrath and Iron Tyrant. It seems you are pretty happy with their help so far... Am I right? How did they promoted your debut? They do what they are able to do, most of the promotion for both albums we did ourselves as underground labels tend to have not much money for promotion. I'm glad they helped us, as we probably wouldn't have those 2 albums released without their help! 9. Where was the new album recorded and how much time did it take you to do all the recordings, masterings and mixings? Who payed for the studio? The new album was recorded at the "Rape Of Harmonies" Studio in Triptis/Germany again, as most of our stuff. We needed about 2 weeks to get everything done, it was a very relaxed recording session for we work with these guys 5 years now and they know what we are about. Half of the recording costs were covered by Barbarian Wrath and Iron Tyrant Productions gave a bit money as well, everything else was paid by ourselves! 10. Please tell us some words on each of the 10 tracks existent on it. "Swords" - the spoken introduction of the album. It deals with the use of the sword in magickal tradition, kind of reveals a reason for the journey that is the album. "Children Of Besz" - the opener, a very untypical song compared to our earlier recordings. That was one of the reasons why we chose it as opening song. The clean vocals confuse a lot of the people who did not expect something like this from us. It intermingles the theme of shapeshifting with the god Besz. People who know a bit about this god might guess what the 2 themes have in common... "The Black God's Icon" - very doomy, introducing some leadguitars we have not had before within our songs. Anyone familiar with the initiation rituals of ancient times might get the lyrics, I think. "On Wings Of Mercury" - an invocation to the god Mercury in his manifestations as messenger and as master of all art. "Slayeress Of Kings" - in many ancient civilizations there exists a ritual of sacrificing the king, one of the tools used to do that was the double axe... One of the most intense songs to play of the album, this is gonna kill some necks if we ever decide to do it live. "Marching Annunaki" - this is the introduction for the song "Marching through Babylon's gates" so it is not named in the booklet, as these tracks belong together. It was written and recorded by Ashmedi, guitarist and vocalist of the Mesopotamian Metal Masters of MELECHESH. You can see the giant gods march when you close your eyes to this!!! "Marching Through Babylon's Gates" - one of the first songs we did for the album, with a quite oriental feeling to it. I had the initial idea for the lyrics when I stood in front of the Ishtar Gate that can be seen at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin during the livedates we shared with Melechesh. "A Storm From The Past" - the first song we had written for the album, again with some guitar leads. The refrain cites a passage from an egyptian ritual for the dead. The central lyrical theme of the song is the meaning of Seth... "Call Of The Eastern Tower" - an ode to the forces of air. The beginning has a bit of a Candlemass vibe to it, the middle part with the ritual breathing offers a short moment of rest within the eye of the storm that is the song. "Where Silence Echoes" - the fastest song of the album, as "The Black God's Icon" this was written by Primeumathon. Originally we had some soloing planned for the end of the song but due to some logistical issues it has a more confusing end now, culminating in the storm that already started the album. The lyrics deal with history and are a bit more personal than the other ones probably. 11. Who writes the lyrics and what inspires you? I write all lyrics for ANAEL, which is practical because I have to sing them. Pretty much everything can inspire me when writing the lyrics, for "On Wings Of Mercury" I was mainly inspired by occult topics, by some personal stuff too - that's always the best lyrics. 12. In my review I said you remind me of Eminenz, but I don't really know why. Maybe because of the atmosphere. Do you see any resemblances between the two bands? Well, we toured together, are quite good friends and both bands are located in former East Germany. But that are all similarities I can see between us. 13. The album cover is great! Who made it and what does it symbolizes? The cover was done by Pepe of Azraeldesign, it shows a wing and so symbolizes the album title. 14. If you were a metal fan, not part of Anael, why would you buy this album for? Because I like it! Seriously!! I like the songs on the album, they are maybe not very catchy at first listen but that's how they are meant to be, I prefer albums I can listen to for years without growing tired of it, always finding some new interesting detail. 15. Since 2000 you played with the most important bands in the black metal underground. Who are your best buddies between them all? What countries did you visited so far? Tell us some memorable moments from your live activity. Yeah, we played with a lot of bands and are good friends with most of them. I won't throw around names here because the ones I will forget to mention will be pissed if I do, haha! So far we played in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium but there's plans to play Spain, Romania and Britain too! Just some days ago we played in Italy which is always very memorable as people tend to like us there! 16. Who are Firewalker Promotion and how's your relationship with them? A close friend of mine does Firewalker Promotion, he helps the bands he likes to get known. 17. Thanks Seraphackh for this interview! The final words are yours. No problem, mate! It was a pleasure to answer your questions! Keep the dark flame burning! Seraphackh www.anael.de

<< back

Anael is a pretty nice surprise in the black metal field, but we all know what great bands Austria gave. I had a talk with their main-man, Seraphackh to see what's behind this music and this promising band.

1. Hello, Seraphackh! Welcome to Tempest Music & More Portal! How are you lately?
Hails Adrian, I'm doing fine so far, our new album is out, we played a great gig on the Black Celtic Summit Festival in Italy last weekend, so no need to complain.

2. At first let me ask you about your pseudonyms. What are their meanings and where from did you take them?
We invented them more or less, they are kind of a heraldic motto of it's owner. Seraphackh is a variation of "seraph" meaning "serpent-daemon", "Primeumathon" was taken from the infamous Necronomicon and "Angel of doom" is pretty obvious I guess. And "Chris" isn't really a synonym at all ...

3. Concerning names, I would ask you on the band's name, Anael. Where from? Are you aware of the French band bearing the same name?
The name ANAEL is taken from "Conjuration of the four" by Eliphas Levi, meaning the prince of astral light of the trinity of fire there. Yeah, we are aware of the french band, we even talked with them about the fact with the name, it's no problem for us!

4. You formed this band in 1999. What made you do it? Were you already experienced musicians, or that was your first attempt?
We weren't satisfied with just listening to music anymore, so we started to play it ourselves. We haven't been in any band before, but Primeumathon and I had practiced guitar together a couple of months before.

5. Until 2003, in 4 years you released a demo, two splits and two EPs. Can you tell us some words on each of them? Which one is you fave and why?
Well ... the demo was recorded in september 2000 after just 9 months of existence of the band. It was never meant to be published actually, but it sounded too good for not being played to anyone, so we made around 100 copies for friends and some mags... Next recording was the song "Eye of the sleepless" for the split 7" with Buried God, they were good friends of us, so when Andy of Hatespawn Inc. proposed to do the split we agreed without hesitation. The "Infernal devotion" 7" was recorded around the same time, but in the studio a friend of us had in his cellar. It is a bit more rough than the other ANAEL recordings and was published by Marcel Spaller of Sombre Records. It is sold out and kind of a "hard to find release"! The split with LUST (Can) finally was recorded in the same session as our debut, it just differs a bit in the mix and the mastering from the actual album. Luca of Iron Tyrant Productions has done a fucking lot for us, so when he had the idea for this release we simply had to do it!!! It contains 2 new songs, a live recording from our first show, and a killer coverversion of DeathSS with me sharing vocals with Andy of Impending Doom. I don't really have a fave, that's hard to decide anyways as I've written most of the songs on these releases. "Eye of the sleepless" is kind of the most personal song of all these though.

6. That year, 2003 brought a good deal with two labels. How did you get to sign with them? Is it a long term contract, or you renew it after each release? And how come there are 2 labels taking care of you and not only one?
Luca of Iron Tyrant Productions wanted to do a release with us for a while but we couldn't do it before 2003. In the same year, Blackgoat of Barbarian Wrath visited him in Italy and Luca played our songs to him. Blackgoat liked what he heard and offered us to release our debut. Our agreement with Barbarian Wrath contained the "Necromantic rituals" album and an option for the second album, which is released now. How I said before, Luca did and does a lot for us so we would be plain stupid not to work with him! And as Barbarian Wrath doesn't release LP's, Iron Tyrant Productions take care of that!

7. Please present us your debut album, Necromantic Rituals" and all that we need to know about it.
OK, "Necromantic rituals" is our debut album, it contains 11 songs written during our first 3 years of existence as a band. It has a very oldschool, static, earthy sound like Celtic Frost, Bathory, Samael. It was released by Barbarian Wrath limited to 666 copies on CD and licensed by Iron Tyrant Productions limited to 500 copies on LP.

8. In September of this year the second album, "On Wings of Mercury" was issued by the two labels, Barbarian Wrath and Iron Tyrant. It seems you are pretty happy with their help so far... Am I right? How did they promoted your debut?
They do what they are able to do, most of the promotion for both albums we did ourselves as underground labels tend to have not much money for promotion. I'm glad they helped us, as we probably wouldn't have those 2 albums released without their help!

9. Where was the new album recorded and how much time did it take you to do all the recordings, masterings and mixings? Who payed for the studio?
The new album was recorded at the "Rape Of Harmonies" Studio in Triptis/Germany again, as most of our stuff. We needed about 2 weeks to get everything done, it was a very relaxed recording session for we work with these guys 5 years now and they know what we are about. Half of the recording costs were covered by Barbarian Wrath and Iron Tyrant Productions gave a bit money as well, everything else was paid by ourselves!

10. Please tell us some words on each of the 10 tracks existent on it.
"Swords" - the spoken introduction of the album. It deals with the use of the sword in magickal tradition, kind of reveals a reason for the journey that is the album. "Children Of Besz" - the opener, a very untypical song compared to our earlier recordings. That was one of the reasons why we chose it as opening song. The clean vocals confuse a lot of the people who did not expect something like this from us. It intermingles the theme of shapeshifting with the god Besz. People who know a bit about this god might guess what the 2 themes have in common... "The Black God's Icon" - very doomy, introducing some leadguitars we have not had before within our songs. Anyone familiar with the initiation rituals of ancient times might get the lyrics, I think. "On Wings Of Mercury" - an invocation to the god Mercury in his manifestations as messenger and as master of all art. "Slayeress Of Kings" - in many ancient civilizations there exists a ritual of sacrificing the king, one of the tools used to do that was the double axe... One of the most intense songs to play of the album, this is gonna kill some necks if we ever decide to do it live. "Marching Annunaki" - this is the introduction for the song "Marching through Babylon's gates" so it is not named in the booklet, as these tracks belong together. It was written and recorded by Ashmedi, guitarist and vocalist of the Mesopotamian Metal Masters of MELECHESH. You can see the giant gods march when you close your eyes to this!!! "Marching Through Babylon's Gates" - one of the first songs we did for the album, with a quite oriental feeling to it. I had the initial idea for the lyrics when I stood in front of the Ishtar Gate that can be seen at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin during the livedates we shared with Melechesh. "A Storm From The Past" - the first song we had written for the album, again with some guitar leads. The refrain cites a passage from an egyptian ritual for the dead. The central lyrical theme of the song is the meaning of Seth... "Call Of The Eastern Tower" - an ode to the forces of air. The beginning has a bit of a Candlemass vibe to it, the middle part with the ritual breathing offers a short moment of rest within the eye of the storm that is the song. "Where Silence Echoes" - the fastest song of the album, as "The Black God's Icon" this was written by Primeumathon. Originally we had some soloing planned for the end of the song but due to some logistical issues it has a more confusing end now, culminating in the storm that already started the album. The lyrics deal with history and are a bit more personal than the other ones probably.

11. Who writes the lyrics and what inspires you?
I write all lyrics for ANAEL, which is practical because I have to sing them. Pretty much everything can inspire me when writing the lyrics, for "On Wings Of Mercury" I was mainly inspired by occult topics, by some personal stuff too - that's always the best lyrics.

12. In my review I said you remind me of Eminenz, but I don't really know why. Maybe because of the atmosphere. Do you see any resemblances between the two bands?
Well, we toured together, are quite good friends and both bands are located in former East Germany. But that are all similarities I can see between us.

13. The album cover is great! Who made it and what does it symbolizes?
The cover was done by Pepe of Azraeldesign, it shows a wing and so symbolizes the album title.

14. If you were a metal fan, not part of Anael, why would you buy this album for?
Because I like it! Seriously!! I like the songs on the album, they are maybe not very catchy at first listen but that's how they are meant to be, I prefer albums I can listen to for years without growing tired of it, always finding some new interesting detail.

15. Since 2000 you played with the most important bands in the black metal underground. Who are your best buddies between them all? What countries did you visited so far? Tell us some memorable moments from your live activity.
Yeah, we played with a lot of bands and are good friends with most of them. I won't throw around names here because the ones I will forget to mention will be pissed if I do, haha! So far we played in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium but there's plans to play Spain, Romania and Britain too! Just some days ago we played in Italy which is always very memorable as people tend to like us there!

16. Who are Firewalker Promotion and how's your relationship with them?
A close friend of mine does Firewalker Promotion, he helps the bands he likes to get known.

17. Thanks Seraphackh for this interview! The final words are yours.
No problem, mate! It was a pleasure to answer your questions! Keep the dark flame burning!
Seraphackh