INTERVIEW FOR ABYSMAL SCRIPTURES Zine

1. How long have you been running your NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST Distro ? Who inspired you to start this investment in U/G Metal ?

Hello Mister! NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST was born at the end of 1997/ beginning 1998… At the time I was working on the first issue of my paper zine, that contained mostly old school death and brutal death bands, with few black or thrash if it didn’t sound too gay… The goal was already to support the deep underground and the demo bands who had problems to spread their names and music (There was no Internet back then). I released few issues on paper at this time.
My motivations came from some killer paper zines I read at the time (There was LIQUID OF LIFE zine who was very much into Death metal and brutal death, he reviewed many demos and it was imrpessive).
Then, around 2001 I began creating websites for local bands such as DISGUST, GERBE OF LIFE, or not so local bands such as ENCABULOS (Australia… Now CRUCIFIRE)… I also reanimated NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST as a webzine… Then, around 2002 I released my first CDr compilations, felt obliged to run a distro to make it work… And since then I’m running the webzine, label and distro at the same time, with to interruption… It’s a daily activity.

2. Does profit really matters for your business to continue and keep what are things really beneficial for NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST Distro ?

Profit doesn’t really matter, but when you run a distro you have to sell at least a bit of records, otherwize it’s depressing and totally boring… The goal of a distro is to distribute items to peoples, not to keep everything in stock to make a bigger list every week… I give some stuffs for free in orders, but I can’t give everything for free Ah Ah…

3. What can you say about labels like ; IRON PEGASUS, WILD RAGS (R.I.P), METAL BLADE, CENTURY MEDIA, MAD LION, NUCLEAR BLAST, EARACHE, OSMOSE PRODUCTION ? Are you against their system?

IRON PEGASUS: A bit too much vynil and heavy metal related for me, but old school peoples seem to like it…

WILD RAGS: He stopped his activity years ago… I did a few “business” with him in 1998, mostly reviewing his releases… Later I learnt he was very famous for being a bif Rip off, mostly unofficial releases and stuffs like that if I’m not wrong…

METAL BLADE: I even don’t know what kind of stuffs they releases the last 10 years… Didn’t they release CANNIBAL CORPSE CDs 10 years ago?

CENTURY MEDIA: I used to like what they released 10-15 years ago, good bands like GRAVE, UNLEASHED and few others… But I’m not interested in what they released later… Maybe the BLOODBATH CD? Didn’t listen to this for years…

MAD LION: I traded few CDs with him 4-5 years ago, there was a cool GROINCHURN CD with early recordings of the bands… I don’t know what he released… Isn’t he one of those labels who don’t trade so easily?

NUCLEAR BLAST: I used to like some Death metal or Grindcore stuffs they released in the 90’s… Now there’s a loooot of boring gothic metal or cash modern shits… Not interested in this kind of enterprises who do it for the money! There was a documentary on French TV that showed how they work, it’s an enterprise like another, their goal is to earn money, that’s all… Maybe they like the ABBA song titled “Money money money”? Ah Ah

EARACHE: Many of the albums they released in the 90’s are so great… It was clearly a leading force for Death metal and grindcore! I still listen regularly to killer albums of early CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, MORBID ANGEL… Later I think this label lost its identity and wasn’t a leading force at all, maybe they got lost in money whatever… I don’t care for what they release since 10 years or more… And it seems the boss, Digby, is very rude with the bands he currently signs, sometimes it seems to be pure bullshit…

OSMOSE PRODUCTIONS used to be a really killer label in the 90’s, they had so many great black metal albums… Then they tried to release “different” music such as RAISM/ DIABOLO RISING or THE ROCKING DILDOS or DISFEAR and the spirit got quite lost… I can’t say I’m a big fan of their current releases, but they still release some good albums from time to time, globally I think their last years show the picture of a decent label, even though there’s no real revelation anymore…

Some of the labels you quote aren’t really mainstream, it’s quite big underground labels…
Now it’s clear a good part of these work for the money!! They might have been real passionate individuals at the beginnings, now they make a living out of their enterprises and they clearly need to earn money… And so many decisions aren’t leaded by passion and lust for music anymore…
I’m not sure if bombing their mailbox would be really useful, did you try it? Ah Ah

4. I realize that majority of your stuffs cleared just by trading, is this your promotional strategy and how often do you send out free copies to magazines etc for review ?

I do a lot of trades, it’s true! I like to het my releases distributed everywhere (Or almost), I try to maintain a minimum of 1000 copies, so that peoples who want it can get it quite easily… And peoples who didn’t think about it, could also get it ahah… But I also send some promotional items for free, it’s needed if you want a decent promotion, maybe because peoples who trade do not review it half of the time…  For most of the “real” releases (Not the compilation) I send between 50 and 100 copies to webzines and fanzines.

5. How much longer do yoi thin this label will survive in U/G and till what age will you stop being a metalhead ?

I can’t say how long my label will survive… I would like to see it during endlessly, but sometimes I wonder if it’s really useful: I have so many distro stuffs at home, piles of demos, tapes, CDs… Sometimes peoples seem quite uninterested… I know I might need to release vynils and pro CDs to make the thing more efficient, but it wouldn’t be the same underground world anymore… A too professional attitude would tend to a loss of underground spirit and easy-going friendly attitude… Would you give 2 vynils for free in an order? Huh?

Would you trade 4 vynils against “anything” with someone from the other part of the earth? I’m not sure, postage might be too killer… But I keep on doing obscure trades on tapes and CDrs, I often achieve to find new peoples who release these formats, so all hope isn’t lost and there’s often more surprise!

And I should keep in mind the economical situation is quite shitty in there… Since the big bankrupt in Usa, peoples order fewer underground items (Unless it’s the last famous CD) and things might get better later… At least I run the distro since quite some time, so I’m in touch with some regular contacts who support my activities from time to time, and it makes it possible. Thanks to them!

It depends on what you mean with “Being a metalhead”… It can have various meanings… If it’s only about drinking beers, having long ugly hairs and being the most uneducated zombie that screams in every streets, then I’m not a metal head… If it’s about listening to extreme metal music with more inner understanding every year, and keep on being active in the underground, yes I’ll be a metalhead for a long time… “Metal” is only a word… Only the best albums and best riffs will remain engraved in the depths of our memories, for it was a bit more than simple music…

6. Do you release asian bands under your releases? What is the best release in your distro produced by NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST?

I don’t think some Asian bands were released on my label… I did stuffs with some bands from Brazil, but not South east asia… Maybe because their didn’t play the kind of music I wanted (Something between real Death metal and old Brutal death) or didn’t punch my face strong enough éhéh…
My best release? I still like the split I released with CARMINA, AMETHYSTE, ATROPHY and DARKLORD, especially for the CARMINA songs that still has some soul in me (Even if the artwork isn’t the very best)…
Then I also like some stuffs I did with IMPUREZA, maybe the tape that contains their 3 demos, because this band is very good and has a great potential… I still like most of my releases on a musical point of view, I was quite hardly selective with my choices so there’s no real deception few years later… Sometimes the artworks could have been a bit better, but I wanted to be quite “original” sometimes so the freshness might have gone…

7. Please comment on asian Metal bands, zines that you’ve listen or read? Tell us about your upcoming releases ?

I’m more or less a zine collector (Better said I like to ready many paper zines) so I could get my hands on issues of DOMAIN (Singapore) , NOISE ATTACK (Philippines), ABYSMAL SCRIPTURES, GUTTURAL SICKNESS (Philippines)… It’s easier to get my hands on zines from Europe or even Usa, for postage cost reasons…  Concerning the bands, I head a lot of bands from Asia, running a distro/label helps to getm any conctacts… The few that comes to mind my ringht now are: PATHOGEN (Death metal from Philippines), IRON FIST (Thrash metal from Singapore), DOWN FROM THE WOUND (Brutal brutal from Philippines), PUS VOMIT (Brutal death from Philippines), BLASPHEMOUS (Brutal death from Indonesia), ANATOMIA (Death doom from Japan)… And maybe SUFFERCATION from Malaysia! Héhé, it’s an old tape I got from someone…
The scene is asia is different from Europe… It’s more old school, the state of mind is different… But I guess every readers already know that…  You have a quite active scene, the difference is someone has to search in the underground to find the music, it won’t automatically fall into your email box without any little effort…
I don’t think about upcoming release right now, enough work with the current job, new glaukom songs, and big distro stock… Since I don’t want to release something in a rush, I prefer to take time… And there’s no urgency 

8. How do you find time to run the label, what do you work as? How old are you and do you have any girlfriend and else besides metal do you spend during leisure ?

I find time to run NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST and my othr metal activities, because metal is my biggest hobby! I spend most of my free time doing something underground or that has something to do with music (Or eventually drawings)… I have no girlfriend, I spend too much time in the underground for this!… And I don’t have a real regular job for now, so sometimes I’m for months the head in the dust and the underground scene can be a very good helper to keep your mind sane and active!
Other leisure time activities can be: Tv, computer, masturbation (No girlfriend, so… AhAh)

9. Tell us what made up your mind to realize GLAUKOM SYNOD and what is the meaning of the moniker ?

I was trying to make music on the computer since a long time, I learnt playing both bass, guitar and computer stuffs at the same time, around 1995… But nothing came out from the computer side in a good enough way…
Around 2004, I began to make better things, around the industrial metal and dark ambiant spectres…
Glaukom Synod was basically born from a deep boredom with the underground scene: Sometimes there’s no email, peoples become more and more lazy and it’s harder and harder to make an underground label or distro that remains underground (CDr and tapes, without commercial views)… And I don’t have a definite job, I mean I often change jobs, and sometimes I don’t find a work for some months so there’s too much free time and uncontrolled stress… Glaukom Synod is a good way to purge the overdose of stess…
The monicker didn’t mean a lot at the beginning, but if you think about it you could find one: The synod is an hierarchical in the vatican… So you could imagine the boss at the vatican is blind or something héhé

10. You sound very creative thru GLAUKOM SYNOD, so how many instruments have you mastered and how long have you learnt them ?

There are almost no real instruments in Glaukom synod… 99% is programmed or manipulated on the computer… Someone could hear guitars, but it’s only programmed instruments that come out from my mind… Years ago I used to play a lot of guitar and bass, but I almost stopped and my skills would be too low to make something tight enough for my industrial experiments… Now I only have to think, create the ideas, and materialize them on my old Fast tracker…

11. Tell me your musical influences and what can you say aboutjazz, pop, punk, blues, classical etc ? Comment on horror films ?

The influences of Glaukom Synod were basically old GODFLESH, early PITCH SHIFTER and other industrial metal bands from the beginning 90’s… I tend to evolve around more complex structures and found a lot of interest in FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY… You could find some old LAIBACH or DAS ICH somewhere as well… Obviously I can’t avoid to insert extreme metal influences, since it’s the kind of music I listened the most since 1994, but I try to make it quite different or “original”, so that it doesn’t sound too everheard, but I always try to make it sounding bizarre, wickedly complex or abnormal…
Jazz can be interesting on a technical point of view, but I don’t really listen to this… Concerning complex musics, I prefer some progressive stuffs (Not progressive metal, but prog rock) or some old Techno death like DEATH on “Individual thought patterns”.
Pop can be nice if it’s well done, but it’s very often commercial and so predictable… I have never been a fan of punk, it’s too simple, I’d rather choose some Crustcore like DISRUPT or old EXTREME NOISE TERROR.
I have never been a fan of blues, it’s a bit boring for me…
Classical music can be great, some composers used to compose some very deep, heavy and obscure stuffs… Mussorgsky has some ruling moments for exemple!

12. How do you write songs for GLAUKOM SYNOD and how do you manage to produce a strong material for band into industrial music ?

Things often begin with a little riffing idea, or a rythm… Then I add more samples, more riffs, more rythms…
It can take months to add more and more and more stuffs, until I have something that tastes heavy, obscure and complex enough… I have many unfinished songs on my computer, I rework them from time to time and on the long run I can finalize songs... But it can take time… For example I’m working on the last changes of musics that were began 2 years ago! On the other hand, some songs can be done in a very fast manner, if I have a lot of free time and the ideas flow…

13. What can you say about PITCH SHIFTER and GODFLESH? Is there vocals and lyrics for your music ?

PITCH SHIFTER used to be great on the first albums, but then they got too influences by “Dance” music and I don’t find it interesting at all… The first albums of GODFLESH are terrifying, some CDs like “Streetcleaner” were very important for me before (And it shows in some of my songs) but I was lest interested in their last albums, not to say it was bad, but the content was less impressive and I needed to explore other states of mind…
I have no lyrics most of the time, there are no real vocal parts most of the time, I often scream during 1 riff, and then there’s no vocals for 2 minutes… The music of Glaukom Synod doesn’t really recquires vocals (There are enough samples and sounds everywhere) and I’m not an especially good vocalist…

14. Is there really demand in France for ambiant and industrial music ?

No, there’s no demand for industrial or better said industrial metal music… Since the very big commercial success of Marylin manson (Around 1996-1997), peoples often confuse industrial for boring average music and bands who pay too much attention to their looks and provocative attitude… In Europe, there was a cool scene for industrial metal before 1996, some bands released some cool CDs, but now it’s all bored… In France some cool bands still release some cool albums (I think about the MUCKRACKERS) but it’s a minority… Some peoples who could enjoy industrial often listen to electro-gothic but it’s too much danceable (Or better said “Dark dance”) for me, there’s no more industrial or anything dark, it’s often goth bitches dancing on flat techno beats…
There’s also a little new wave for Harsh noise and dark ambiant in France, but while the first is often based on pure random noise (So without any music), the second is more on ultra long and quite boring moments of the dark that remain endlessly on the same patterns… So I don’t really feel “at home” with what could be considered as an “insutrial” scene in France… There are exceptions, but it’s quite few…

15. Tell me more about French metal scene ? What are the bands that you like could recommend the readers ?

The french metal scene is full of bands… There really are a lot of bands, including a good part of them who sound and act professional… But I feel nothing special with their music… Sometimes they sound too plastic and sterile…. I won’t make a very representative article, because it would takes more than a page, but you could put an hear on bands like IMPUREZA (Great technical death metal with spanish guitars and dark vibes à la Incantation), DEEP VEIN (They recorded a cool album, between Death metal and brutal death with some cool bleeding moments), PURGE (Quite cool old style Death metal band), OFFENDING (Something like quite efficient blasting death… An album should follow quite soon), FORBIDDEN CULT (Was quite cool at copying some Immolation/ Incantation… But they already split up!), MISGIVINGS (Not sure if they have really new stuffs… Cool satanic Death the old way, with quite technical guitar players… They covered a Bolt Thrower song for an Internet tribute, and it sounded quite 90’s!)… Of course there are a ton more bands, including some nice bands I forgot but since I got no fresh news from them recently…

16. Last bloody nihilistic spells to armageddon ! Thank you, good luck..

Thanx for the cool interview! I was surprised to read you like GLAUKOM SYNOD that much (Because I imagined you were some kind of old school integrist or something ahah) so tha interview was even cooler!
I wish you a good morbid luck with the band, and hope you’ll keep making things more technical and complex…
I’m into underground trades (Demos, tapes, CDr and underground stuffs like that !) so if you’re interested in promoting your music in France, get in touch ! Also, if you write a snail mail letter, I like to answer it (No joke) so you might not loose your time… DEATH METAL ETERNAL !