(for an Italian version of the Interview - Click here)

1. Primordial, after several albums, is considered a cult band. What does the word "cult" mean to you? 
ans : 
cult ?. 
are we a cult band ?, cult usually means to me a band who never gets the recognition they quite deserve ?. a band not for everyone, but for the people who do get it they love it, so in that sense i guess we are "cult". 

2. All the Irish bands I know (even Thin Lizzy!) are (or have been) influenced by folk anhd traditional music. Why this deep link with your origins? Not every German band plays pagan metal but it seems that every Irish band has something gaelic, even the Corrs! 

ans : 
not all irish bands are influenced by it alright but many commercial bands now how big the market is if you put something irish in there, its an extra selling point. ireland is an island and it has an island mentality, its also a small place and i think easier for our culture to have a collective influence upon our music. for us at least it could not be any other way. 


3. Listening to Primordial albums the words that come to my mind are Epic, Poetry, Pride but also Melancholy and Sadness. When you write down a song, do you consider the "effects" it has to give to the listener? In other words, which qualities must have a song to be considered 100% Primordial? 

ans : 
i guess what it needs to be is pure, honest and from the heart. sounds cliched but its true, we dont think about scenes or politics or whats going on outside the rehersal room etc, just concentrating upon the creation. primordial is tragedy and might !. 


4. Sometimes I think you are closer to My Dying Bride than to Immortal even if sometimes you are categorized as a Black Metal Band. What do you think about labels and cathegories in music? 

ans : 
personally i think we are closer to immortal, there is nothing similar between primordial and mdb other then perhaps the voice sometimes and some melancholic feeling...but even that is not so close. however the comparisons people make to anathema just baffle me ?, we sound nothing like them. primordial came from the second wave black metal scene and our hearts shall always be black. personally i dont care about labels or categories...there is only good and bad music. 


5. What do you think about the new trend of heavy/power, with a lot of keys and neoclassical elements? Do you think that real "Epic" can be played by bands like Rhapsody? 

ans : 
it doesnt bother me, i like some albums here and there by bands like kamelot and stratovarius, but i cant take too much of that kind of stuff its too saccharine sweet. im more into traditional metal or just heavy metal, not this double pedal clean heavy metal. im more into bands like lord weird slough feg, cirith ungol, manowar, virgin steele, doomsword etc. however the first rhapsody album was something different at the time...now several albums down the line its just got too ridiculous. 


6. Every musician starts to play or sing because he is literally struck from someone, be it Coverdale, Malmsteen or Lombardo. Who were the "responsibles" for your metal-career? 

ans : 
i guess the most influential over the years have been 
or when i was a kid and saw a band live or first got albums... 
they dont all make sense !. 
bon scott, angus young, james hetfield, bruce dickinson, phil mogg, robert plant, dio, martin ain, quorthon, leif edling, eric adams, joey demaio, leonard cohen, nick cave, johan lanqvist, slayer, dave mustaine, tiamat, samael, mayhem, king diamond...etc..... 


7. The Metal Scene in Ireland. Things you like and things you'd like to change. Bands, live shows, labels... 

ans : 
change ?,...more fans...more partisan fans who are willing to support good irish bands and not just follow the next trend. lots of foreign bands play here...perhaps some more traditional metal bands playing here and real underground bands. things are better then they were years ago, more organised etc. and more shows, better bands but there seems less fans. 
and some more fuckin die hard metal people... 
less of this opeth worship !. 


8. "A Journey's End" is my favourite Primordial album. I still think it is one the gloomiest album I' ve ever heard. Is there something behind that particular feeling? Particular happenings of that period? 

ans : 
i guess we went through a lot of shit to make this album, is why it turned out so dark. i think it might stand in the end as the darkest primordial album, although i think the new one will be a touch darker then the last two albums, we'll see. where we were recording it didnt help, bradford is the asshole of the world. 


9. Years ago, when I read in mags the Cacophonous promotion for your debut album they used the word black metal. How deep is your relationship with the "real" black metal scene? What did you think about the trend of burning churches? and about bands like Mayhem? 

ans : 
i still follow black metal and after all these years feel a great affinity with it...it is different to back in the early 90's-late 80's...and the old underground but there are bands out there keeping a good pure spirit alive. bands like funeral mist, truimphator, morrigan, urgehal, gospel of the horns, urgrund, taake, agatus, desaster, etc...i dont really think anything about mayhem anymore or burning churches etc. 
the only tiring thing now is things seem more forced then they used to be...and im really sick of this beherit/blasphemy worship trend in the underground !. 


10.The three bands of your life and the three records you'd like to take with you on a desert island 

ans : 
really hard to say.... 
perhaps 
iron maiden - iron maiden 
liam weldon - dark horse on the wind 
leonard cohen - songs of love and hate 
hard to say... 


11. Cradle Of Filth complained a lot about Cacophonous after their departure from their roster. Are those "gossips" about the label ripping-off bands true or not? 

ans : 
its a long time since we left cacophonous and im not going to bring that back up now. 
leave sleeping dogs lie. 


12. Last question: plans for the future and a last message to the italian fans. 

ans : 
hope to be in italy sometime this year... 
keep watching the blackened skies !. 
and our demo coming out with a few very special extra tracks. 
10 years after we recorded it !. 
a new album sometime to be recorded and some festivals !. 

resist 

Nemtheanga