Dargaard: Hi Aphazel, are you satisfied with your work on the new album?
Aphazel: Yes, I'm quite satisfied. Nothing you do is ever "perfect," you know, but I think the result was very good.
D.: What is the difference between your albums, in your opinion?
A.: Well, I think they all sound a bit different. In the early days ANCIENT had a more basic and rough sound, and later on we developed our own sound more. Today we still have a black metal sound, but with influences from many other genres.
D.: What about the female vocals?
A.: On the new album, we had a girl doing some vocals on the first track (just some spoken parts), and on the last track Omega did some vocals ;)
D.: What is the last track about?
A.: It's about a girl who is haunted (from the story in the title track). She's out in the huge forest behind her mansion, and while she's there one night, she gets to hear and feel a lot of scary and mysterious things, and visions, etc. It's a kind of sonic horror "film" — or at least that was the basic idea when we made it.
D.: The outro sounds a bit unusual. I have a feeling that it should sound especially meaningful to Ukrainian people.
A.: Well, yeah, it was actually just a track that was made here at my house, on my PC. Me, Dhilorz and Omega did it together. First we were just kind of playing with different kinds of sounds and effects, and in the end it turned out quite interesting and atmospheric, I think, even though some people would say it's mostly noise, hehe.
D.: What is the meaning of "true" for you?
A.: In the sense of "true" black metal: I think what matters is that you're doing what you do because you're really into it with your heart and soul, and you don't play black metal for other reasons — like wanting to be cool, or treating it as some hobby, or wanting to play concerts because it's fun, etc. — but that you really have black metal in your heart.
D.: What emotions make you create your songs?
A.: Mainly emotions like anger, hate, depression, dreams, the night, movies, etc. I live quite like a Night Creature and not like most people who wake up early in the morning and go to work. I kind of feel like I live in my own world a lot of the time.
D.: Were you a nice kid? Weren't your parents against your hobby?
A.: Hehe, they were quite against it. They don't actually care much about music in general, but they were always rather tolerant and we rarely had fights. I think they realized at an early point that I didn't care much about what they were trying to tell me, and I just did what I wanted to do, so I guess they kind of gave up, hehehe. When I was like 11 I had my room covered with posters of metal bands, so you couldn't even see the wallpaper behind them, hehe. They didn't like that kind of stuff, and the dressing with spikes and all that, but I didn't listen to them, so I didn't really have a problem, hehe. They did a bit though...
D.: Whose performances did you see and like lately? Which festivals did you go to as a spectator this year?
A.: I liked seeing DIMMU BORGIR and CRADLE OF FILTH this year at Graspop in Belgium (in June). They had a cool atmosphere and a good stage show. In the past I remember I enjoyed gigs by KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, KISS, ALICE COOPER, MORBID ANGEL and others. I also enjoyed the show by IN EXTREMO at Graspop, though I wasn't that familiar with their music.
D.: Which of the bands you listed in the previous question do you have a connection with?
A.: I don't know any of those musicians, just Sarah of Cradle... a bit.
D.: Tell us about your first live performance. What kind of impressions did you have?
A.: Our first performance with ANCIENT was in Bergen, Norway in August 1993. We had a session bassist (from Molested). We played as headliners of a metal festival, so there were a lot of people there and so on. I still have the gig on video. We played in robes and corpsepaint and all that. It was a good atmosphere and a good start for us in doing live shows, I think.
D.: What is your most vivid recollection from your childhood, and from your life?
A.: From my childhood: maybe when me and a friend hung Grimm (the ANCIENT drummer) up on a flagpole so he was hanging there and couldn't get down, hehe, while people were standing around saying we were bastards and all that. At the moment I can't remember anything in particular (we could email it to you later, when I think about it more, hehe).
D.: What Ukrainian bands do you know?
A.: I know NOKTURNAL MORTUM.
D.: And do you like them?
A.: Yeah, I haven't heard that much of them, but it sounded quite good — better than I expected, for sure.
D.: Your personal life philosophy?
A.: Do what you think is right and don't care too much about what others say. Remember that you only live once, and in the end you are alone…
D.: What do you hate the most?
A.: Stupidity, christianity and incompetence.
D.: Which of your own performances did you like the most?
A.: Wacken festival 2000 and Rochester, NY 1998. They were great gigs in their own way and the audience was really into it as well.
D.: In what country does ANCIENT feel most welcome?
A.: Heh, I really don't think there's one particular country we prefer, because it's different every time we play somewhere. But I think the places where we feel best playing (because of the audience) are South America, France and Holland. Every gig is different, but those places are normally very good to play in because the audience is really wild and enthusiastic about the performance, and that's inspiring and a good feeling for us.
D.: Which of the newly formed bands that you know could you call "promising"?
A.: HORTUS ANIMAE, EVP, FAUST and AMPHITRIUM for sure. But I haven't heard that many great new bands though. I guess I'm not so much into the newer stuff that comes out — I'm mostly listening to the same stuff as always before, you see.
D.: Should Ukrainian fans hope to see ANCIENT live in Kyiv?
A.: Maybe that's a question we could ask you, hehe. I mean, if a serious organizer from Ukraine offers us the possibility to do a gig there, we'll come for sure. It's just a question of money and organization, you know. But we pretty much play everywhere as long as it can be arranged well and without problems or bad promotion. We enjoy traveling around and meeting and playing for our fans all over the world.
D.: What would you like to say or wish to Ukrainian fans?
A.: We hope it will be possible to come over there and raise some hell on stage, and I want to thank all our fans for the support so far. Keep pushing concert organizers to book ANCIENT, and it will happen!