LVCIFYRE
You once mentioned that The Broken Seal, released by NoEvDia (Europe) and Dark Descent (USA) in 2021, was an exhausting album to write. In fact, you spent seven years working on it. LVCIFYRE’s music has never struck me as particularly easy; it comes across as intense and demanding throughout. What made The Broken Seal a particularly challenging endeavor in your discography?
T. Kaos – Carving the trademark was always the hardest part. It is certainly demanding, and there is no universal key to it, at least I have not found it.
You often push yourself to find your own limits, but this last filter, getting rid of any leftovers that might remind you of something/someone, it was the last thing stopping me from completion. Well, it was frustrating to be stuck on some songs for years too. Here is the thing: I often wonder if I am looking for some kind of extreme clarity in music, and whether it is / will be the right medium? As I’m imagining it.
Each time we are ready to record, we must be certain that this is the highest sonic form we could possibly lay down; naturally, all the turbulence you get with it is what adds value to the art of unpredictability. We must each time die and be reborn again.
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I somehow managed to overlook LVCIFYRE until a few years after the release of the fascinating Svn Eater in 2014. It was actually our mutual friend, the late Timo Ketola, who suggested I check out your music. Timo, a frantic death metal fanatic, created artwork for LVCIFYRE…
T. Kaos – Correct, Timo took over from Sun Eater. I still find his lines mesmerising every time I look at his art – a form of perfect imperfection, I would call it simply Darkness alive. Timo always delivered divine purpose to the obscurity in the Death and Black Metal art, and very few manage to achieve it. We first got in touch before the Lvcifyre’s first album (The Calling Depths). Back then, I had already made a pact with Alexander Brown for the cover art, but everything that followed – t-shirt layouts – that was all Timo. I could not imagine anybody else more fitting for this position, he was quite literally part of the band for us. Graphic aesthetics are equally important and Timo could dive into our sounds and often bring to the surface totally unexpected things yet very coherent: always sinister and alive at the same time.
Since Svn Eater, LVCIFYRE’s music has developed a highly evocative quality. There’s something about it that seems to invoke resolutely sinister visions. This might sound like a banal comment, but in reality it’s quite rare. Within your style only a certain breed of Death Metal manages to achieve this.
Two decades ago, when you moved to London from Poland, you spent a few years working on dark ambient material instead of metal. Could this have influenced your songwriting, perhaps shifting your perspective on how to channel certain visions through musical language?
T. Kaos – I got sucked into it fully, for some time I even stopped listening to Metal. I drifted away into spheres of Dark Ambient and Metal started to becoming too structured. I wanted to venture out into the limitless abyss; I wanted to deal with sound that resonates with the primordial, and could shape the energy resonating with our own frequencies. Naturally, living under one roof with others who shared the same enthusiasm allowed me to experience this in a fairly profound way. To be perfectly frank, any sound experiments that lead us to different states of consciousness have my attention – they are like exploring our godhood, or rather the tool that helps us along the process.
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A while back, we were discussing your enthusiasm for MERCYFUL FATE. I certainly admire records like Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath, even though I’m not especially enamored with the vocal department. However, I must admit that artists like DIAMANDA GALAS, Filth by SWANS, early EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, or even WHITEHOUSE – who were contemporaries of those MERCYFUL FATE albums – are what get the most playtime in my abode when thinking of the early 1980s.
I don’t intend to pit them against each other. It makes more sense to see them as different manifestations from different angles, arising from various rebellious counter-cultures exploring the dark, each with its own distinct approach. That said, I must admit that as I get older, I feel there’s more mystery and more nutrients in the latter than in the former at this stage of my life.
T. Kaos – It all comes down to our consciousness, which expands with age. Years ago I found lots of releases to be great and they gave me a certain feeling of mystery and satisfaction; these days I see them as not that great, and I do wonder what was it that really got my grasp on it? Was it really just the wilderness? Once we as humans progress, so do the music styles that correspond to the time of their creation. Now we ask for more, we demand richer and more selective, more profound compositions – we almost want to touch the unseen by interacting with the music on a conscious and subconscious level. It is, however, mostly through our radiating ego and ignorance that we are able to overload atmosphere and imbalance ourselves. All these modern solutions in music are rather more repulsive than inspiring, and that is why I often return to classics, such as those two MERCYFUL FATE albums we have been talking about lately. They are absolutely necessary if only as a reminder of what quality music should be like. And why should we limit ourselves only to Metal? Elements of Chaos and Darkness can be found in several creations.
I was fortunate enough to witness Diamanda live once. I started my journey with Her from Litanies of Satan, and that was totally abrupt to me at the time in relation to the Metal genre; for some time it was that or CURRENT 93 Dogs Blood Rising and Nature Unveiled. I found myself exploring the extreme, and often very different, sides of sonic nature – even if our perception of music was, quite frankly, limited. I was craving more extreme sounds beyond the Metal genre and I suppose I wasn’t even able to understand this. For me, it is rather the first wave of emotions that counts the most, the one that leaves a sort of mental scar in our minds, something that we will not back away from precisely so we can experience it again. I guess back then Metal wasn’t giving me enough of that spiritual, ethereal essence – I mentioned before I found it to be too structured; even the best metal albums will still be somewhere near classical music, but never as liberated as let’s say LUSTMORD or COIL? So here it is, my dark electronic education, all of those mentioned artists together with few others have taken me elsewhere, to places where Metal could not, and they also helped me to explore Metal on a more profound level later on.
Beyond the evocative nature of LVCIFYRE’s music, which seems to tear at the very fabric of reality, one could argue that your music has an entheogenic quality. You wouldn’t have happened to experiment with psychoactive substances, would you?
T. Kaos – It just so happens that I have, and I have always felt attracted to anything that allows us to the see the world in different colours – or give us a sneak peek beyond the veil. Of course, I’m not talking about any party drugs, but rather a ceremonial approach to the substance. In the end, we see this as the food of Gods.
There have been a few sessions that had a significant impact on my life. I would not go so far as to say that this has totally changed the trajectory, but it has certainly altered the way we perceive the world around us. During the recording session of Svn Eater we used Salvia Divinorum, a condensed extract that we smoked with strength x 55, which teleported us immediately to a very violent and terrorizing realm, where a rather unpleasant intelligence manifested.
Throughout composing EP for DEATH LIKE MASS – we subjected ourselves to LSD each time we started to work on this, looking for notes while reading Crowley’s poem over and over again. I must admit that smartly applied drugs can elevate your inspiration, however I’m not here to persuade anybody. It is above all a personal choice as to how deep you would like to dive in, if at all. Most people will choose to stay in “safe mode”, reaching for more grounded substances while a minority dare to enter the limitless spheres. This is also not something you will subject yourself to too frequently or else madness will occur, as these substances can change you irreversibly and there are records of bad ceremonies and people that never managed to fully recover.
I met a gentlemen who has subjected himself to the shrooms practices some years ago. Unfortunately for him, it was a bad one that took him to a hell he has never managed to escape from, and he is still subjected to nightmarish hallucinations that appear randomly out of nowhere on a daily basis. There is always a risk, and to what degree I could not tell. Maybe it is a clear projection of a trapped mind, or a real connection achieved with one of the spheres beyond the veil that might remain more permanent than we might think.
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Speaking of the entheogenic, LVCIFYRE’s lyrics delve deeply into mythical and mystical topics related to the sinister, ranging from references to something as widely embedded in popular culture as Lovecraft’s mythos, to more obscure ancient beliefs like Zoroastrianism. However, I can’t say whether through this journey you have found a spiritual home – someplace from which you speak militantly today…?
T. Kaos – All of those religions/mythos you just mentioned have one thing in common – Chaos as the main dynamic cosmic force. This gnosis will make the journey as long as mass, flesh or any kind (submit to consciousness) form will exist. The power transition from one civilisation to the other, each of them holding their own beliefs, we can only comprehend a small part of it, as I believe you have to be born within it, to master the tradition and their language that fully corresponds to their practices. The transition of those archetypes will always be the subject for categorization within this complex mycelium. It is up to us to make it functional and cohesive.
I’m sure you have yourself felt tempted to explore sinister sides of several systems, right? I myself have always felt attracted to chthonic realms rather than solar, they have simply felt more like a “home” to me. This could be no more than a mental trap of programmed duality, and yet we subject ourselves to the sinister heritage of satanic traditions that we have nourished throughout our lives. With time we’re coming to the conclusion that it is not about praising the Chaos and Death itself, but rather to understand Life in Death.
I absolutely research different currents, as Chaos is present everywhere, and it would be a bold statement to point out one current or one archetype only,
Do you remember when you first realized that the dominant narratives of society were never going to be convincing enough for you to fit back into the mold?
In a way, you strike me as a very energetic individual who needs multiple outlets for your creativity. We ought to talk about DEATH LIKE MASS, SODALITY, and your comrade Mark of the Devil – who also makes another appearance on The Broken Seal – another time! Am I right in assuming that it takes a certain level of restless curiosity, but also a vital necessity, to explore so many branches of the esoteric and the occult?
T. Kaos – Naturally each of those creations sheds light on different shades of Black and Death Metal music as a form of magic. Mark and I share the same fascination to the “dark unseen”. When comes to music, he has the power to pull things out of me, and SODALITY is the best example of this, as he helps me to activate certain patterns within me to transmit this psychedelic and eschatological obscurity rather effortlessly.
Music has always been another language to me, and as expected I did rebel in my early teens, discovering Metal and adversarial powers set me free to a certain degree, gave me a glimpse of a so-called “liberation”, unlocked certain patterns in my mind, which naturally made me even more restless.
With time, I have come to understand that I’m subjected to this external force that one must be born aligned with, this force is responsible for driving our creativity forward. This “spirit” is assigned to us at the birth to accompany us through our life, something that Jung described as being “In the Grip of the Daimon”.
Becoming a forger of the sinister I see as challenging for sure. It serves as a reminder that this plane is not as it is presented to us and we should remain relentless in our ambition to discover the truth behind this mask. There is no peace within me and ours is a work of Chaos and for all this pain and sweat there is no greater prize than to see it manifest.
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Dehn Sora created a video for the song Headless Rite from The Broken Seal, and it’s a brilliant work as is typical of his high standards.
The video begins by introducing the song’s concept, which is rooted in Memphite theology, a spiritual and philosophical tradition of Egyptian origin. Interestingly, in this tradition, thought is located in the heart, and Ptah created the gods and the universe, giving them form and function by speaking them into existence. This is one of the earliest examples of Logos theology, where creation occurs through the spoken word.
T. Kaos – It was the toughest song from the album to brainstorm for the story line. Menthor and I spent many evenings contemplating a possible outcome, how to even begin to picture God? How to crystallize the logic in this paranormal and abstract vision? If you look closely you will notice that Ptah is not present as any kind of character in there, his presence is all around: in the emerging pyramid, in the creation of the land and two giants – Time and Space, necessary conditions to achieve human consciousness . Dehn Sora did an outstanding job and considering he did not fully stick to the script, the thing took a life of its own and found its own coherence in this rather strange macrocosmos. One could interpret this in several different ways; in my own experience, every time I contemplate on this I still find new things.
To begin with – the main idea, lyrics and concept came from our friend Carl Nordblom, whose depth of knowledge on the subject is more profound that mine. Prior, I had few meetings with Carl to discuss the details of mythical and mystical patterns of the Memphis cosmology. Our focus was mostly on the prime state of Chaos and the fact that Creation will always strive for its end. Ptah was a self-made creator emerging from Nun, the Waters of Chaos. Before he made himself from Thought, he was in a state of a perfect nothingness.
Our focus within it was to explain the motion of creation and that perfection (if such a thing is possible to comprehend) dwells in Uncreation and returning to the silent form of nothingness. The nothingness that we eventually strive for in our meditations, the perfect state of Nothing, when all of your bodily symptoms dissolve and no thoughts disturb your presence, and any kind of feeling is not there anymore, just the great Darkness that awaits to claim back what’s theirs.
Shortly after the release of The Broken Seal, you expressed the intent to perform live extensively. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t come to fruition, which is a shame because LVCIFYRE is truly devastating on stage. What got in the way?
T. Kaos – I’d say a series of unfortunate events played some part in it, but they were rather a small obstacle. The main reason why we reduced our performance is simply the fact that we could not see the point of carrying on, somehow it felt wrong to us to return to live activity after Covid, tuning ourselves to the Chaos current in front of a mostly drunk public raising their mobile phones felt often like bringing the hogs to the table of Gods. Still too many shows were disappointing to us regardless of the positive feedback. LVCIFYRE was always serving us as a chariot for our souls, containing spirit and temple in one and it does need certain conditions and the right atmosphere so we can become a fully open gate. We were always careful about who we perform with, you simply don’t want to end up with some unfitting bands manifesting the meaninglessness of mundane existence. In the end, we decided to play a limited amount of shows, only if the conditions are sufficient and conducive enough to bring this energy forth again.
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Everyone is probably familiar with Dario Argento’s 1977 film Suspiria. A remake, or homage if you prefer, also titled Suspiria, was made by Luca Guadagnino in 2018. I’m usually wary of such endeavors, but I must admit my absolute admiration for the outcome in this case. Have you seen Guadagnino’s version?
T. Kaos – The original by Argento did not do it for me, I could not feel the excitement there. On the other hand, what Guadagnino presented to us, homage or not, is something that may just leave you speechless; the entire screenplay is captured with utter finesse.
In one of the first scenes, we are witnessing that dance can be used as a weapon: once the powerpoints in one’s limbs are activated, throughout the transiting energy of dance the victim is targeted and her body is broken and paralysed, a great example of manipulation which can be witnessed in daily life everywhere.
Remember the words of the Madame Blanc: « The movement is never mute, it is language, a series of energetic shapes, written in the air, like words forming sentences, like poems, like prayers ».
I’m not that knowledgeable of cinematography, however I must say it is the first movie I have seen that explains the dark power of Dance. It lingered in my mind for a while afterwards. I also became more familiarised with the work of Alkistis Dimech – her art is grounded in Ankoku Buto (the Japanese dark dance) through which she becomes the embodiment of the goddess Babalon. Watching her performance, witnessing her body transformation and her eyes like gateways wide open sets you in a profound atmosphere, something definitely you should consider witnessing. It’s an alien language, something that might not be explained plainly due to the limitation of the human language.