INTERVIEW SHAPELESS Webzien (Ita)

1. Hi G! Thank you for accepting this interview! So, happy birthday for Nihilistic Holocaust! What's your opinion about it, after ten years of existence? Satisfactions, regrets?

Hello Hellvis! Thanx for the questions, it’s cool! Yes, as you noticed NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST is ten years old! I do not really realize, since things move on so fast, sometimes I still feel the way I used to when I was 18 years old and working on my first issues, it’s really strange, you suddenly see the big “10 YEARS OLD!!!” sticker falling in your face… It might be due to the fact the substance of NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST didn’t change very much, I only grew old and things went more complex/ different, I also regularly do reviews, interviews and other related shits since 2002, so I kinda became the slave of NIHILISTIC for some obscure reason héhé! But I need it, so in this case enslavement is kinda good thing! I’d better be active as hell than bored and drowning in useless complains… I’m satisfied by the fact NIHILISTIC is still alive, and regularly offers its share of underground putridity: I have found a regular rythm of about 1 interview and 10 reviews a month, it seems to be the right amount for me, I can review what I like and that’s cool.
Concerning regrets, not really, maybe I would have hoped the underground didn’t change so much and I could have released more paper issues quite easily, it became harder to spread fanzines nowadays, and I already have my releases to deal with so the expenses would be too high… Few years ago I also did a paper zine that was quite special, I was bored with all the bands sounding the same and offering too average music, so I went for a big kick in the ass, but the reviews were much too short… It’s not really a regret in this case, but could have been more interesting… I don’t know how long it will last, since everything do not depend on my will, but I’ll do it as long as possible!

2. It's hard to be a real supporter of the underground? During your existence, did you never think to stop with Nihilistic Holocaust?

Of course sometimes it’s hard, there are various depressing factors that do not necessarily motivate the underground activism… The last years, I was often changing of job, I’m still in the beginning of my “career” (Computers) so I can’t find long duration jobs, and it’s not always easy to adapt and make everything fit right together, with the ultimate putridity of NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST! Ah Ah! There are also the problems of peoples who don’t give a fuck about deep underground music; and sometimes it’s hard to find new bands you enjoy enough to review/ interview/ support and kick your ass enough to revive the undeaded powers of the dead, my zine is really focused on Death metal and brutal death sometimes I feel like every bands sound the same and I wonder what more/ new/ interesting I could say… But I often find new cool bands to review so it seems the moments of metallic boredom do not last too long (Hopefully héhé).
I already stopped NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST one time, for real. I didn’t do anything about it for a year and a half, at the time I was involved in too much underground stuffs and I needed to put my nose into studies otherwise it would be catastrophic… So I shut down the whole affair for some time, and slowly came back with the undergroundness to finally revive NIHILISTIC on the web around 2001-2002. There are always moments when you’re not motivated or want to stop, but one shouldn’t care too much about some states of souls, otherwise you could change your mind and change activity every month, weren’t children and should do things seriously enough. Oh, and running a webzine in 2007 isn’t so hard, you only have to find cool things to review and review them that’s all… You don’t need to distribute the zine everywhere and get into money troubles, it costs nothing, apart from a lot of free time…

3. With your distro, you got always an eye on the international underground. Which are the more interesting UG bands that you discovered, in the last times?

Yes, I do a lot of trades worldwide. When I don’t have a job, (Such as today) I can do a lot of trades and take care of it as if it was my job or something… So I try to do ate least a trade per day, it helps me to reach a much better distribution for my releases, I can get a nice amount of reviews for each (About 100) and take care of the whole affair seriously (To forward every reviews to the bands is a cool thing, to decently answer every emails (If possible) etc…).
And yes I receive a lot of packages, I currently receive at least 1 parcel with music per day, so there’s a lot of music to hear. The trades and distro also feeds mu webzine, I like to review demos I got in trade, in this cas I don’t feel forced to listen and listen and listen to boring promotional CDs, and it’s cool for the bands: They get a bit more promotion for free.
The last bands I enjoyed recently are: NAUSEANT (Bizarre Death metal à la DEMILICH from Sweden), IGNIVOMOUS (Killer obscure death metal à la INCANTATION/ IMMOLATION from Australia!), INTERNECINE EXCORIATION (Interesting old styled brutal death from Australia, with a massive and rotting production), ANNIHILATION TEXT (Cool Death metal from Canada that sounds like MORBID ANGEL-Domination era), GRAVEHAMMER (A cool old school death metal band from Sweden, they’re young dudes and rather choose the satanic death than the swedish death), DR DOOM (Great grind from Holland) or BLASPHEMOUS (Old school brutal death from Indonesia, only for fans of UG putridity). As you might have noticed, ONLY DEATH IS REAL!!

4. As a label, you supported a lot of interesting bands, like Impureza, Arsonist, Black Bleeding, Hellspawn, etc. What's the reactions of listeneres and critics about them?

Cool to read you like them. The feedbacks are generally good, but obviously everyone has different tastes, so some peoples don’t like this or that band so much… I’m in touch with all kind of underground activist, so feedbacks tend to be very varied… For example a band will sound too modern for the very retro peoples, with some would be too sleepy and old styled for brutal death heads… All in all I’m satisfied by the feedbacks of listeners and reviewers… But I don’t like too much the current state of the metal scene: It’s abusively plagued with boring black metal (All these darkthrone clones and cheap bands with voluntary shitty sound) and peoples still don’t give a fuck about a recording if it’s not written: “PRO CD”, “RELEASED ON EXREMENT WORSHIP Records”, “ PRODUCED BY JAY STARSYSTEM666” and “MASTERED BY SATAN IN HIS UGLY CAVE” with a shiny promotional sticker… And some of these peoples think they help the underground as they buy CDs from bigger labels ahr ahr

5. So, let's talk a little about you! Introduce yourself to Shapeless' readers. When you started loving this kind of music? Had music a great role in your life?

My name is G.S., I’m currently 27 and discovered hard rock when I was 13 or something… My father used to listen to various kinds of music, including hard rock, so I could get my hands on cool Lps of ALICE COOPER, CACTUS, LED ZEPPELIN… Few months later, a friend and magazines helped to discover SEPULTURA, SLAYER… And we fastly got tuned on Death metal bands such as MORBID ANGEL (Covenant), DEATH (Individual thought patterns) and the likes… Few months later, I began ordering demos from some very small French bands, I liked what I heard so the flyers helped me to get in touch with more bands, zines, order more demos etc… And since then I’m more or less always in touch with the underground 
Music was obviously important, when I was young I spent so much time listening and (try to) make music… It took a big part of my free time (And school time héhé). I also liked to draw, and did a lot of drawings, paintings, but it wasn’t exactly the same, it wasn’t so alive and there was no underground scene for artworks (At least I didn’t know about it).

6. Then, what can you tell us about Glaukom Synod? When did you start this project? And what do you want to create with its music?

Eventhough I make music with computers and guitars since I’m 15, GLAUKOM SYNOD was really born in 2003-2004. What I did before was too amateurish and useless. The first songs of GLAUKOM SYNOD were some kind of hypnotic industrial loops and dark themes, but I needed some time to realize it was too repetitive for “external” listeners. So I became much more strict with the songs’ structures and didn’t hesitate to throw many too average parts, and kinda inserted a brutal death dynamic and construction in my music, plus I also thought injecting bizarre Death metal touches in the electronic motor would be a good idea! So I released the first demo, and since then I keep on manipulating and mutilating the computer with strange ideas.
I try to make something new, or at least that doesn’t too common… So I melt together Old school industrial, Dark electronic, Metal indus, Death metal, extreme metal, with few electronica, harshnoise… The feelings are quite different from a demo to another, but all in all this is about extreme inner struggles, you could find some dementia, depressive moments, hatred, super stress, kinda schizophrenic moments and the likes… I try to make something that comes from the depths of humanity and speaks to the inner of the human being, and something complex with various levels of listening, something you could listen on various point of view and in various states of mind, something that wouldn’t feel like it’s over after 3 small listenings…

7. What's the listeners' feedback about Glaukom Synod's music?

Héhé, it’s very mixed… Some peoples really get into my music, but some do not understand what’s happening or it doesn’t necessarily fits the criterias of each individual (For example: Too metal influenced and not beautifully produced enough for some industrial/ dark electro peoples… Too electronic for metal peoples). But I’m satisfied with my music, that’s the most important! Really, it doesn’t bother me so much if I don’t receive so many good feedbacks, I receive some interesting comments from time to time and I'm able to spread a quite good amount of copies through trades, so if peoples don’t like it, that’s Ok… The name keeps on growing very slowly, but surely, and I can keep on making my music in peace, without useless trendy pressure! I did my very best, and that’s almost what matters the most for me.

8. Have you got other projects beside Glaukom Synod?

Things are a bit more complex than main project/ subproject… When I make music, I don’t necessarily think about what project should absolutely “release” the song… I make the music first, I’ll think about it later… And sometimes, you find a good rythm with cool groove and sickening idea, but you think it wouldn’t fit for GLAUKOM SYNOD… So you let it sleep for months on your hard drive… But one day you have a great idea, that helps to radically make the initial part much more powerful! It gets emotionally boosted and finally fits very well for GLAUKOM SYNOD! So it’s good to take time… I also did a subproject called KATAPLASM, it was some kind of noisecore/ grind noise built from many micro samples, but it’s kinda asleep right now… Maybe I could say I have 666 subproject or something, since I often try to program many kinds of music (From harsh noise to electronic pop) but it rarely finished… So it keeps on sleeping until I find the killer idea to make something good of it.

9. What can you tell us about the future? Any new release on your label?

Not really, I’m in the present. I recently released the new GLAUKOM SYNOD demo entitled “Ogre” (there are 1000 pro printed covers, so it will take some time to spread everything) plus I have the IMPUREZA Tape (That contains the 3 demos of the band) and my REINCREMATION Split CDr (Impureza+Arsonist+Sudden death+Ingurgitating oblivion) isn’t finished (I will cross the path of 1000 copies soon, but would like to spread more), so there are enough things in the run. And I’m currently searching for a job, I have 2 good offers in the work, since I don’t know how it will occur and if the conditions would be right for more and more and more release (héhé) it sounds better to wait.
I have talked with a few bands about possible releases, but it’s far from being done. It’s only ideas and possibilities.

10. Well, this short interview is over. Last words are yours!

Thanx for the cool interview, Elvis from Hell! I hope my answers will please the Italian ladies and I will receive a lot of sexy underwears into my mailbox!
For more infos concerning NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST and GLAUKOM SYNOD, visit these two websites:
http://site.voila.fr/NIHILISTIC (My snail mail is inside, for the underwears! Ah Ah!)
http://glaukomsynod.site.voila.fr
I hope Mr Elvis from Hell will keep on running SHAPELESS zine and so support the real underground for a long time! Thanx for the interest, and have a nice beer! G