“PRIMORDIAL” Interview by Shibalika Tamuli
Thanks For taking the time to answer some questions for us, it’s an honor and our pleasure to have you with us. Let’s begin..
For a start, tell us about Foresaken. How did it evolve into Primordial?
It was just our first name. Not great and soon in early 92 we changed to Primordial. There was also a doom band from Malta called Forsaken.
Tell us about the Sound Cellar. From the early mix of Thrash and Death metal to the road down to Celtic black and Extreme metal, was it only Alan’s idea/influence?
The sound cellar was a record shop we all went to when we were teenagers. Important place to hang around back in the day. Only my idea? I don’t really know what you mean.
I’m not sure about what genre to tag Primordial with, so I’ll just go with the term “extreme metal” from here. But however, I’m curious about what genre would you consider Primordial to fall into? Do the genre categorizing thing even matter?
No, we don’t really care. Extreme is even a redundant tag. It’s metal. It has its heart in black metal more than anything else.
You’ve talked about bringing your culture to the crowd. So basically Primordial is your own kind of a cultural messenger of the Irish artistic traditions and nationalism. Are you happy with the band’s success in acquiring this goal so far?
No, not at all. Read the lyrics. They aren’t about being Irish or Irish nationalism. They are cultural and historical but the themes are universal. Not specific to being Irish.
Following the same track as the last question, the band is known for its ideologies, the views on society and Nationalism. Where do you think it’s going these days? Did Primordial ever experience a change in the same?
For the record, we are not a ‘nationalist’ band if this is what you are implying, there are songs about the building and destruction of nation states historically and how we relate to history, but there is no agenda. Primordial has nothing to do with folklore or fantasy. The band has always had this historical, cultural angle but there are more songs about WWI than mythology.
Following the same again, would you rather prefer an audience that shares the same ideologies with the band over a sea of people containing what people call “posers”. As you’ve said the band is not for entertainment but art?
No, we don’t ask anyone to share our ideologies. People can interpret it as they see fit. Some people are completely into the cultural aspect of the band, some people like a good chorus. All are welcome.
You were a part of the second wave of black metal in your earlier days, can you see another wave of black metal (like I do) with all these new fusion sub-genres (Psychedelic Black and Black and Roll for example)?
Black metal is not meant to evolve or progress in its orthodox sense. Mix it with anything and it ceases to be black metal. We were never orthodox or strict in that sense but it was the scene/principles we were closest to.
Reason for loving Corpse Paint even though you can not completely be considered as a black metal band?
Why not? Is Mercyful Fate black metal? Or Hellhammer? Show No Mercy?…
Back in the days what was it like to be the first Irish band of your kind? Tell us about the scene please?
There were several other bands at the time. We may have been the first or closest to black metal in 91/92 but there were loads of active people. We were kids, it was our formative years. It was difficult but I look back with great memories.
Primordial always tend to have this beautiful, kinda Gothic Doom metal-eshque, dark style of lyrics. Where do you get influenced from?
Well I was always quite lucky to be good with words so it came quite naturally to me and I was quite the bookish teenager so this helped, from that angle I guess I was very into Clark Ashton Smith, Poe. Lovecraft and people like Yeats, Blake and Keats. I quite admire the ability to dress a simple gesture sometimes in the dramatic and tense lyric.
Tell us about the mixing of Celtic and Doom metal elements in your music?
There’s nothing Celtic…. I don’t even know what that means? If you mean Irish traditional music, then this comes from mainly Ciaran and the other guys. I was never into it, it just sat really well with our metal influences and they melded together into something original.
What are the band’s future plans? When can we expect a new album?
There is talks about talks :)…….
Excluding Primordial, what do you guys like to do? What are your hobbies? What other bands are you into these days?
Usual families, kids, responsibilities. Personally I play a lot of sports and like to travel. New bands?…….Well recently released by Gorguts, Eternal Champion, Downfall of Nur, Solstice, Summerlands, Deathspell Omega, Shape of Despair…..loads
Once more I would like to Thank you a lot for making time for us, we wish you all the best for 2017 and beyond, Do you have a closing message for your fans! And readers of this publication?
Take it easy. Like a sonntag morgen.
Shibalika Tamuli / MHF
