INTERVIEW FOR THE FANZINE
CHANTRES DE L'EXTREME/ KASTRATÖR

1°) Pour commencer, peux-tu nous présenter en quelques mots ce qu’est Nihilistic Holocaust, et par la même occasion présenter celui qui se démène pour « vivre » sa créature si je puis m’exprimer ainsi ?

NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST is an abstract entity of leprozy and vile pus that lies in the deepest craters of the underground since the beggining of 1998! At the beginning it was a paper fanzine focused on old school death metal, Brutal death and the old school likes. After two serious issues and quite too much underground focus, I blow a big fuse and released a fanzine that kicked the ass of many shit "music" makers such as Gronibard, as well as cool and quite interesting bands who didn't deserve it! (Hu!). Then I did a necessary break, deeply drowned in my painting and drawings... after a year and a half, the burning urge of Metal could be felt once again as I started to work on few (unreleased) paper zines and (released) website for DISGUST (Fra), TORMENT (Fra), GERBE OF LIFE (Rip) and few others... I began working again on NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST and it turned into an extreme metal webzine around 2001/2002! Since then I keep on regularly reviewing underground releases, mostly more and more demos! On a personal point of view there aren't many interesting things to say: I'm 24 years old, finished my studies more than 1 year ago and searching for a job! Apart from my underground activities and the time I spend everydays sucking the perfect tits of the post office's sexy babe, my life is simply normal and flat: boring!

2°) Quand as-tu créé ton label Nihilistic Holocaust et qu’est-ce qui t’as poussé à mener ton projet à son terme?

At the beginning Nihilistic Holocaust was a paper zine (created in 1998).
I didn't consciously decide to create my own "label", it happened as a matter of facts: I was doing a fanzine since few years and had quite a good amount of contacts with bands and motivated activists, so around 2001 I decided to release a CDr compilation with the best or fave bands I could find in the underground! It was called "El grinding mafiozos" and was focused on Brutal death for half, and grindcore for the other half. This wasn't a label thing, really, just something released to help promoting some bands I found worth of interest! Eventhough this compilation was very minimalicstic on a packaging's point of view, I did a lot of trades with bands/distro and finally crossed the threshold of about 800 copies! Which was a nice test and left me hoping for more... I could say the "label" was really born when I released the second chapter of "El grinding mafiozos". It was much more professional and serious looking.
I couldn't really say I run a "label" since most of my releases are very "do it yourself" and there's not a business man with a will of ice behind it! I release what I like and the bands that seems like it won't please only my own personal needs.
To be honest, each new release more or less seems to be the last one. There are so much shits happening in the real world that running an underground label sometimes seems to be impossible, or at best possible on a short scale of time... but each time I have new ideas for interesting releases, and new possibilites!! So I keep on spreading some fucking metal of death (well, for a part) and keep on breathing the vilest underground putrefaction that rejoices me in nocturnal whoregasm! Ah Ah!

3°) Quelle est l’orientation musicale prise par ton label même si l’on sait qu’il se veut être assez hétéroclite?

At the basis I'm a Death metal fan so the highlines can only be Death metal, in the large meaning of the brutal word! (No melodic strawberry milk crap in my beer, please!). As you can see I also enjoy other kinds of metal such as old school Thrash, Heavy metal, plus other kinds of non metal stuffs like old school Grindcore or (very) few industrial, so if a bands kicks my ass enough and send me enough pink underwears I can increase my collection of crassy slips and release their stuffs! But the highlines are and will probably remain Death metal: Old school death, rather old school brutal death, few technical death... It rather depends on the quality of the music and the 'personality' of the band than the style they play, I don't want to be suffocatingly bound to a kind of metal only... But you're bound to the highlines of your label: for exemple if you release some strange music that has few to do with metal, quite a lot of your "trading partners" won't be interested because they won't be able to sell it in their metallic distro... so you'll have to trade it against some non-metallic stuffs you won't be able to sell or spread... So I guess I'll have to say: ONLY METAL IS REAL!

4°) Comme tu l’as dit précédemment, tu t’occupes d’un label, d’un webzine et d’une distro. Tout ceci ne devient-il pas trop insurmontable en terme de temps et d’organisation?

You need to know two things: few years ago I was still a student, and since I was a lazy teachers' pet I had quite a lot of free time to deal with everythings. I'm actually searching for a job so I still have quite a lot of free time to deal with the stuffs! It's obvious one who works daily can't deal with so much stuffs!
These 3 underground activites are more or less linked between each others and could be considered as a gain of time if you take it on an underground point of spike: for exemple I happen to review quite a lot of demos received in trades, no don't need to receive any kind of boring promotional albums anymore! An optimization of free time is the only way! More time for the good music, leave the crap to the metallic businessmen! (Who aren't happy when you don't want to receive their boring music anymore! For exemple Jf of DEADSUN was surprised when I told him promptly to stop sending me his own releases and those of his partners! These guys are so chained to their metallic business they sometimes have problems to understand how the underground fans live as well as the fact webzines are done by fans who don't give a flying fuck about their business and promotional activites!)
When things will get busiers and more exhausting, I'll concentrate on the most important: to keep my webzine alive and to decently spread my releases.

5°) Combien d’enregistrements et de groupes comptes-tu désormais dans ta production ? Est-il facile de dénicher des groupes originaux et ayant un bon potentiel aujourd’hui selon toi ? Quels groupes peux-tu conseiller à ceux qui vont dénier lire ce fanzine ou du moins le feuilleter (rires) ?

I have 8 releases in my bag of tricks, even though the really first one can't be considered as a real release: It was the Gerbe of life Demo, 200 promotional copies where sent to zines...
I can't say I've signed any band or anything like that! It's rather an agreement: The band agrees to be included on a release of mine and I help them to spread their music in the sickening subterranea! Sometimes some nice relations and exchanges are taking place, somekind of friendship is born and it motivates more promotion for the bands! I send more promos to zines, try to find the bands some interviews (or eventually build some websites for them... I recently did that for DEEP VEIN and the brazilians of HUTT), but the bands are free to do whatever they want! That's a strength of the deep underground: few business men, no ass-trapping-deals and apparently totally artistic freedom!
It's not easy to find bands who really kick your ass! Especially when so many "professional labels" release so much stuffs thanx to their urge for money! (Eventhough they might not win that much cash: some of them only want to be able to eat... But is that a good reason to pollute the underground with too much insipid releases? Some labels complain about the fact they don't sell enough albums anymore, but these clever guys go on holidays for a month in August! What the fuck is that? If the situation was as hard as they say, then there wouldn't be any room for vacations!)
Some bands who would need few more demos to really develop their style already have an album... Things are too fast! And it takes time to download a lot of Mp3s, try to trade with many underground distros to find something worth hailing!   

Those who read your fanzine need to hear these bands: old PESTILENCE, old MORGOTH, early OBITUARY (2 first ones), early ENTOMBED (Left hand path), old POSSESSED, the first AUTOPSY Lp, old GRAVE, the first UNLEASHED Lp, the first DISMEMBER Lp, and then they'll have a good overall idea of what pure fucking Death is! In a matter of old school Thrash I'd advice DARK ANGEL "Darkness descend"! One of the most brutal old school thrash Lp! Totally Metal state of mind, some ultra fast fucking shredding tremolos of death, a killer drummer and an abrasive sound to make it more extreme! Probably misunderstood and too extreme by many! A shame!

6°) As-tu des regrets concernant ce que tu as ou n’as pas réalisé avec Nihilistic Holocaust ? (En matière d’interview ou de production)

Of course I have some regrets! For exemple I was supposed to release a DISGUST/ KABBAL Split Ep in cooperation with DIAMOND Productions! KABBAL weren't financially able to record more tracks, so we were forced to search for another band... we thought about ACT OF GODS, but the band signed on OSMOSE few weeks later, and the label decided to release the band's demo as a MCD... We didn't find another band to agree on, and since we were all busy with other priorities, the split Ep died!
Recently, I wanted to release a split CDr with DISGUST and two other bands, we began discuting about it and one more time I turned in an enthiastic fool ;-)... but the band had just signed with a new-born label who wants to keep all their past and present tracks for future re-releases whateever... so it wasn't possible! It's especially unpleasant to me since I know and enjoy DISGUST's music since the first issue of my fanzine, and I always more or less supported them, but that's life! Gayball_Gayblow won't realize this secret dream ;-)

7°) Quel groupe t’a foutu une claque ces temps-ci ? Et à l’inverse lequel t’as le plus déçu ? Quels sont les enregistrements qui tournent le plus dans ta platine en ce moment ?

Well... This question needs quite a lot of thoughts since I didn't really find something new that really kicked my ass! The last stuffs that turned me into a a grinding beast were rather old albums I missed because the bands were quite unknown... I discovered quite a lot of good old Heavy metal albums from the 80's the last year (eventhough it was more something pleasant and surprising than a deep asskicking).
But I can say I have enjoyed quite a lot the albums of CONVERGENCE FROM WITHIN (Old school Death à la MORBID ANGEL/ All times. Nothing new, but it's played with enough burning passion and burning hatred to please the real Death metal fans!)
I also heard the demo of a Finnish old school brutal Death band called NERLICH who has some old school Death influences! I was pleasantly surprised and occured to bang my head a decent amount of times... They'll be a part of a next NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST Release to come out quite soon! :-)
I didn't know that well EXTREME NOISE TERROR... I'll quote them eventhough it's not metal, since SOME of their releases have some really angry riffs and a good state of mind! (For those who care, Mick Harris who was once a part of NAPALM DEATH occured to play with the band and record some Peel sessions with them).
Apart from these, I discovered a cool amount of cool demos! The bands aren't that ass-kicking or surprising, but they do it well in the tradition of the genre and it offers pleasant listenings with a good atmosphere!
I also like the LETHAL Demo released on FINAL PUNISHMENT Recs, it's cool very old school thrash! Some might thing it's too old sounding and quite cliché, but it has some good energy and some real Thrashing spirit! :-)

And since I'm not into the new trend of chaotic Hardcore grind nor enjoy that much the New wave of American crap metal (NWOAHM as they call it) with all these hardcore bands who begin to play old school thrash... I guess I won't have many mind-blowing discoverings, but rather cool or good ones...

 Concerning the Lps I happen to listen the most, it's quite varied... Lately I happened to listen to a bit of BROKEN HOPE, the first SINISTER Lps as well as the daily traded demos... But those who always come back on a regular yearly basis are the best metallic cult albums! Might it be Thrash metal, Death metal, old school Brutal death, some black metal... MORGOTH, PESTILENCE, SUFFOCATION, old MORBID ANGEL, old IMMORTAL, old EXODUS, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, old METALLICA, CARCASS, DEATH, POSSESSED, old BATHORY, and a nice amount of chosen others who rule supreme through the years! Only the best is real!

8°) Pour finir, quel est ton sentiment concernant la situation de la musique Metal aujourd’hui ainsi que le comportement de certains individus qui voudraient se l’approprier à tout prix ? La trouves-tu morose comme certains(moi y compris) ou au contraire est-elle bien portante ?

The current metal bands really lack of talent and personality! If you compare the current extreme metal scene to the one of the 88-91 epoch (for exemple) it's absolutely depressing! The amount of totally killer, personal, innovative and classic albums released at the time was very important... The best I can find nowadays are some good albums, some very efficient ones with good production, skilled musicians and well constructed tracks, with few really good ideas from time to time... but there's nothing really new, or really deep on an emotional point of spike! Only very few seems to be the chosen ones who still play it with the talent and inventiveness of the early Days!

9°) Les derniers mots sont pour toi, (prends la place que tu veux pour dire ce que tu veux et ce qui te passe par la tête (pas de tabous)), je te remercie.

Thanks for your cool questions! It's always nice to answer interviews, especially when the interviewer has just eaten a bit of honey and his tongue is perfectly licking the ass... Ah Ah! Just jocking! Hope you'll release at least 3-4 issues of your fanzine because if you keep it running more than 2 issues, then the most interesting things occur! The initial enthusiasm gives place to something deeper and stronger! Keep Courage!
Did you know there was an ass-licking party scheduled in your town? Your friend Christophe (More fanzines fucking shit!) who's also working on a zine is supposed to organize it and if things occur well, Nathaniel from MUTILATING PROCESS Zine and the guys of BLOODY SIGN might come in there as well! That would be the total ASS FUCK INFERNO!!! AH AH! ONLY PINK IS REAL!! Ah Ah!
Seriously speaking, I invite some of your readers who might be interested in more underground extrême metal to have a look at my webzine: http://www.nihilistic.ca.tc I regularly update the site with underground demos and fanzines reviews!
If they are curious and clever enough, they might find the hidden links to nude galleries of forested orgies and other nice stuffs... So keep an eye opened!
To conclude this conclusion, I'll say old School Death metal (The morbid one!) and old school thrash (The only one!) seems to be back for good, slowly but surely! And that's fucking cool! Support the bands who play it with the guts! DEATH IS CERTAIN LIFE IS NOT.