Greetings Incarnatus! It is great to be able to speak with you on this zine. First, can you introduce your last production, the "Unmarked Near Fields Forests Unknown" EP, released by Nykta Records? Given that the records have been done several years ago, was it supposed to originally appeared on "On the Path to Triumph"? Incarnatus: Greetings! "Unmarked Near Fields Forests Unknown" features two new Pagan Hellfire songs, one recorded during the “On the Path to Triumph” sessions and the other a year or two later. The title track was tentatively going to appear on the “On the Path to Triumph” album, but it would have made the album way too long. As it was a good song in my opinion, I wanted to use it elsewhere. Now based on when the songs were written and when they were released, it makes it seem like the songs are a bit old, right? Well, this EP was supposed to be released 2-3 years ago by another label. After constant delays and inactivity on their part, it needed to be moved to another label. Luckily, Nykta had been wanting to work with me for a while now, so it was the perfect opportunity to collaborate. I am pleased with the final result, both musically and visually. Where were taken the pictures used for the cover and inside the EP? Do these old ruins have a special meaning for you? How important is your environment and the nature itself regarding your inspiration? The front cover and inside jacket were taken by my brother in Romania many years ago. They are such great photos and I have been wanting to use them for years. There is really no special meaning to these runes besides the fact they are from ancient European times and thus present an atmosphere very suited to Pagan Hellfire. Nature at its best – cold and bleak. And yes, nature and all its might have always been the primary inspiration for this project. Its untouched vastness and silent desolation is what I try to reflect in my music and concepts (among other topics). Pagan Hellfire is active for more than 20 years now. Do you remember what motivated you to create this project? Why a solo project? How do you keep the flame alive since then? Right before Blackthorn and I started this project, we were in a death metal band playing stuff influenced by Carcass, Dismember, Bolt Thrower and so on. After hearing Mayhem’s “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” album and Beherit’s “The Oath of Black Blood” and “Drawing Down the Moon”, we instinctively and immediately started a Pagan Hellfire. The feeling and sound of pure evil and darkness from these albums really captivated us. We wanted to make music like this. Then of course, this led us down the path of discovering many of the great 90s black metal albums. From 1995-1998, Pagan Hellfire was Blackthorn and I. We also had a bass player on the first “Everlasting Funerals” demo. When Blackthorn left the project in 1998, it made sense for me to continue it alone. Normally a drummer only, I began playing guitar and bass when Pagan Hellfire started and contributed to the song writing during the first few years, so I figured I may as well keep going this way. Also, it would have been way too strange to bring in other members. It would have become a normal band, which is something I really wanted to avoid. Keeping the flame alive for so long is really just about letting things take its natural course. Trusting my instincts, not forcing the process and not caring what others are doing. There are periods of intense writing and recording and other times where I don’t feel like it so much. This does not concern me at all. This is truly one person’s vision and this vision will manifest itself and be documented when appropriate. It is not a regular band, there will never be live shows, etc, so I don’t follow the course of a normal band. But inspiration, darkness and belief are always present. Let’s take some time to revisit each of your albums. In which context were they recorded? Do you remember your mindset at the time? Do some albums required more effort than others? Looking back in time, which one(s) are you particularly proud of? How do you analyze your own evolution? A Voice from Centuries Away: I suppose this could be considered the first real Pagan Hellfire album, although I often consider Outlander to be the first album. Four Black Metal songs, one acoustic and two neo-classical tracks. This album was recorded by someone else on a digital 8-track device in various locations and took a lot of effort to complete. Fucking recording was much harder back then and the logistics of it all were challenging. I can hear my influences at the time – Black Metal, orchestral/classical music, Burzum, Mortiis, etc. Not many people know this, but right before this album, a label in California was supposed to release a CD of old re-recorded tracks from the early demos. They sent me a bunch of money and I went to a professional studio and nearly finished recording everything. Then the label and owner vanished. So I disregarded that and proceeded with writing and recording “A Voice from Centuries Away”. I never did collect those professional recordings because I thought the sound was too clean and polished. In Desolation, In Ruins: After a dormant period, I struck back with more aggression and just pure Black Metal songs, no keyboards or orchestral sounds like the previous album. This album has a lot of the ideas I always wanted to record, but had not had the chance to up until that time. Lyrically, its more violent as well – death, destruction, war and annihilation. This album, The Will of Night and Solidarity would all be recorded the same way, entirely by myself in various locations and with the same equipment. The Will of Night: A colder, freezing wintery sound and concept-wise, more focused on nature and night. The entire album was written and recorded fairly quickly. It’s the first album to be released by Tour de Garde, a relationship that continues to this day. Very proud of this album. One of my personal favourites. Solidarity: The songs on this one are a bit more mid-tempo and have a more Heathen feel to them. After the blazing wintery attack of “The Will of Night”, I wanted to focus more on victorious, triumphant melodies. Really satisfied with the riffs and melodies on this album. Full of Pagan Pride. On the Path to Triumph: The first album to be recorded in my new surroundings and new studio, by which I mean spare room in my house, heh. Was very inspired by my rural surroundings, forests, lakes and the desolate Nova Scotia wilderness. The songs are more hypnotic, using more simple blast beats for the most part. Listening to a lot of Blazebirth Hall bands at that time I recall. Perhaps the most focused album, meaning the end result is close to how I originally envisioned it. Can we say that you would try to complete a "mission" with this project (sorry for the messianic connotation!). Or you simply just looking to improve your art, in order to achieve a kind of absolute victory? I don’t really have a strict mission with this project. It is my representation of pure Black Metal, an ode to nature and resistance to this modern ill society. It will always be Black Metal as I feel it was meant to be. As long as I keep this in mind, I consider it a victory. Despite all the (deleterious) metamorphoses of the Black Metal scene, how do you manage to stay on track? Is a “one against all“ position is absolutely useful in those times of widespread decadence? Kind of what I said above, I don’t concern myself with what other bands are doing or what is in fashion at the moment. I only trust my instincts and follow my own path. Besides I’m not sure how else to approach music besides doing exactly as you envision. Anything else would seem insincere. I used to pay more attention to the Black Metal scene and what ‘s going on, what other bands are doing, but as time goes on its less and less. I guess its becoming more about my own path. Although Pagan Hellfire enjoys a very good reputation in the right circles, you stay quite well in the shadows and release your productions discreetly. Is this a real choice? Do you have the slightest desire to increase your audience? I don’t consciously choose to be underground or whatever, its just the way it is. I record an album, it gets released on a fairly underground label and distributed amongst an already small but over-crowded scene. And that‘s pretty much it. Who knows maybe there is more I could do, but once an album or EP is released, that’s that for me, move onto the next idea. Maybe I need more gimmicks, cool photo-shoots, or more snakes or triangles. I don’t know. If more people discover my work that’s fine and I appreciate it. If they don’t, that’s fine too. It won’t change the end result either way. In addition to your own productions, you shared some splits with bands like Sad or Evil. What are your common points? How did you accept these collaborations, and are you satisfied with the final result? Would you like to renew such experiences in the future? Any splits or collaborations I have done are the result of either being in contact with the band previously or with bands I very much respect. I have been in touch with Ungod from SAD for years, so the split EP was a symbol of our comradeship and respect. Of course I have known of Dark Fury and Evil for many years – true warriors from the old guard. I also worked with Warlord from Evil / Hammer of Damnation on a T-shirt release previously. So when the idea of a 3-way split arose, it was an easy decision and an honour to participate. And yes, I am quite satisfied with the end result of all the splits I have taken part of. I do have a preference to release my works by themselves and will mainly be doing this going forward. I will never say never when it comes to doing splits, but for now I will focus on releasing my stuff by itself. You work with Folkvang as a drummer. Knowing that it is a Belarusian project, how did you get in touch with this person? Why this band in particular? Generally speaking, why don’t you have launched parallel projects, like many other artists do? You can express everything you want with Pagan Hellfire? I really liked his debut album “World of Wisdom” when it was released and I believe I expressed this to Ancient Nation Productions when we were in contact. Eventually the idea came up to do a split release with Folkvang and have it released on Ancient Nation. This resulted in the “Firmament Eclipse” split album. At the time Folkvang only used programmed drums and so he was interested in me doing real drums on his tracks for the split. We tried it out and it all fell into place rather easily. I then agreed to continue doing drums for his project and participated on 3 more full length albums, plus a compilation. I did end up withdrawing my participation around 2013 or so. No problems or anything, it just felt like it was time to move on. It was really a good experience though and I am glad to have played on those albums. Hails to Folkvang! I never bothered doing any other projects in the Black Metal sphere because, exactly as you said, I can express everything I want in Pagan Hellfire. If I were to do any other musical projects, it would be another style, something different. Musically speaking, how much did you think you have improved your skills since your beginnings? Black Metal is not necessarily technical but a certain level of mastery is still needed, especially when you work on all instruments, right? I think I naturally got better at playing all the instruments as time went on, but really the only instrument I focus on getting better at in the traditional, technical sense is the drums. And I purposely play very simple for Pagan Hellfire, so it’s hard to tell, haha. So in terms of Pagan Hellfire the improvements have been around writing and arranging the songs, being more disciplined when recording, rather than any real technical improvements on the instruments. I know better now what has to be done to get the final result. Besides I really only play guitar, bass and do vocals in the context of this project. We feel that the themes in your music are most of the time secondary, regarding to your uncluttered vision and, dare we say, elitist vision of Black Metal music, which exceeds everything we could say about it. Is it, among others, the reason why you do not included the lyrics in your albums? I get asked this a lot and its really about how I want to present Pagan Hellfire. I feel its best to present everything very minimally and that in itself, I hope, maximizes the impact of the overall experience. I can say more with a few choice images versus cluttering the delivery with extras that don’t really need to be there. That’s how I have always felt anyways. I know some would appreciate the lyrics to be included, but hopefully they respect my point of view on this. I am proud of my lyrics and the issue isn’t showing them or not. It just does not fit into the presentation most of the time. Beyond that, I best experience Black Metal (and all music for that matter) by letting it take you to another plane. It never mattered when I didn’t have the lyrics to many of the great Black Metal classics of the early 90s or when its in another language I cannot read or understand. Did it diminish the power of the listening experience at all? Never. Once I discovered the lyrics later on, did it make the albums better? Not really. So I hope others can experience a similar effect with my music. While many Canadian bands are recognized for their Black Death metal, you seem to have been influenced mostly by the Scandinavian Black Metal scene from the 90s. This is especially the case on your first album. Is it totally true, and can you tell us more about your relationship to that music? Yep it’s true. When I got into Black Metal it was during the 90s and that’s the stuff that was mainly around. My first exposure to it. Ever since then I have preferred that sound. To me it was the best time for Black Metal. It had that youthful spirit and it was not very polished. I suppose the music you grow up with often has a much bigger impact on you then the stuff that comes later on, so its not surprising my music has always more or less resembled the early 90s Scandinavian scene. How is the collaboration with Tour de Garde since "The Will of Night"? Does it totally fulfills its role of supporting the cause with dignity without betraying? It has been an absolute honour to work with Tour de Garde from “The Will of Night” album until today. It’s a label that is really dedicated to the underground and has stood the test of time. I think his activities and releases speak for themselves when it comes to the integrity of this label. Although I do one-off releases with other labels, Tour de Garde will always be my main label until he gets tired of me! I couldn’t ask for more. Generally speaking, the Black Metal music may seems to have lost any form of magic and mystery since the 90s, some people still believe in it (ourselves with this zine for instante!) and tried to avoid to falling into a lethargic or parodic state. Do you think this kind of approach is like fighting for a losing battle (as the musicians on the Titanic) or can we still hope for a revival of the scene? Well I don’t think there will ever be a revival of the scene and I can certainly understand that it can feel like fighting a losing battle. But really, I think what happens is people create their own personal belief of the underground if you will, away from everything, and that’s what keeps it alive. It does not matter what’s happening all around us, we fight with this traditional spirit, musically and aesthetically. The underground is something inside of you and I. If we didn’t believe in it, we’d have no desire to keep going and create this kind of music, write paper zines, release cassettes and so on. This basic media what we call Black Metal music, isn’t it finally just a simple step to something bigger? Whether it is individual or collective, to me Black Metal is the soundtrack on my journey through this cesspool of a society, to my Pagan past, and to the march towards the final twilight. Do you find an interest, if you have time to listen to them, in the new Black Metal bands? Which ones? As a Canadian, do you care about bands from Quebec? Do you think the scene is so saturated as to make no allowance for any bands, or should we given the opportunity to those who can grasp it? Lately I like what’s coming out on the Résilience label, like Caverne and Nécropole. And not really a new band, but I have been listening to Sacrificia Mortuorum lately. Kind of rediscovered them. I’m not trying to promote French bands or anything, just a coincidence haha. Regarding Quebec bands I like a lot of them; Akitsa, Forteresse, Brume d'Automne for instance. Quebec the region with the most concentrated number of good Black Metal bands without a doubt. Definitely the scene is saturated with so many bands, too many for me to pay attention too. It seems I have a limited capacity to enjoying bands. I can only really fully get into a certain amount before it turns into just passive listening. Maybe that’s ok though. Music is becoming more passive and disposable, but if I really like a band, I do want to give them my full attention and support. Definitely though any new band is welcome if they have something sincere to offer. Who are we to dictate who does what? Not everyone was around in the golden age. It’s a good time for music because it’s easy to get your stuff out there, but bad because its being unleashed in an overcrowded sea. You sometimes play Indus/Martial music in your intro, outro or interludes. What is your relation with this music? Have you experienced the golden age of the genre, the times of cult labels such as Cold Meat Industry or Loki Foundation? No relation besides simply liking the effect and atmosphere those kinds of sounds bring. At times they have been appropriate for my music. I was into Mortiis, Vond, Blood Axis, Puissance, Les Joyaux de la princesse and Arcana a long time ago and I think these bands influenced some of the sounds on “A Voice from Centuries Away” and maybe the outro on “Hymns for the Galllows”. But I never really got into the whole scene around neo-folk or martial industrial. I really just liked a few of the bands. Apart from music, do you take the time to read? What are your favorite authors? How much culture, politics or history plays a role in your inspiration? I don’t really read much these days to be honest. Culture and history are important when remembering Pagan ancestry and its destruction by the Christian plague. This theme has been present in this project since its inception. Paper zines, do they still have any benefit, in these times where the slightest "article" on Facebook has the ability to generate hundreds of (useless) comments? Do the widespread mediocrity, or more simply the leveling down, is inescapable? Paper zines are a symbol of the underground spirit we are trying to keep alive. I respect anyone who puts in the effort into to do a paper zine dedicated to Black Metal, as I know it takes a lot of time and patience. Overall, I prefer reading on paper and having the physical item in my hands. It’s something tangible and carries more meaning. For sure is impossible to escape articles and interviews online and endless comments that are not important or relevant at all. But paper zines and physical releases of any kind are our continued resistance to all of this. I’d be more pleased to hear that 30 copies of a zine were sold than an article that got 1000 views. We are close to the end of this interview. Is a new album planned? Other short/medium-term projects? I am pretty much finished the recording of the new album apart from vocals. Not sure when it will be released, but ideally in 2017 sometime. Beyond that, Nykta is planning a CD release of rare, EP-only, compilation-only and unreleased tracks in the not too distant future. The cassette version of this should be released by Tour de Garde. Also, maybe the vinyl version of “On the Path to Triumph” will finally be released. I hate to even mention it as its been cursed. Thank you very much for your answers! We leave you the last words. Thank you for the interview and interest. All the best with your zine. Contact:  incarnatus@hotmail.com Interview: October 2016