“Revered Lames” is one of my favourite albums of this year, so I thought it would be a wise idea to have a chat with a couple of members of the band who made it…
Lou: Hi, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! Before we go any further I’d just like to congratulate you on a superb album (“Revered Lames”). How long has the album been available and what has the general feedback been like for it?
Maul: Hi Lou! Thanks to you for all the nice words, we really appreciate them! The album was released February in Italy and April worldwide on Uk Division Records; and the general feedback is very good in our country but especially outside Italy, also considering that “Revered Lames” is our first album and it was the first experience in a professional recording studio. We suffered a bit from the comparison with the grandmasters of symphonic black metal (Dimmu and Emperor most of all), but we are satisfied with our work !!!
Lou: For the benefit of any Loucifer Speaks readers who haven’t heard you yet, please could you describe your music for us?
Maul: Nefertum is a Symphonic extreme metal band, our music is violent but melodic, fast but majestic, being influenced by many genres (Death, Black, Thrash, Folk). Melodies from guitars, bass and keyboards are intertwined on fast drumming and evil vocals, trying to create an enthralling atmosphere.
Lou: Who is in the band?
Maul: The band consists of 6 members: Innos (Vocals), Geny (Guitars), Uruk-Hai (Guitars), Tjhell (Bass), Max (Keyboards) and Maul (Drums)
Lou: How long has the band been together?
Maul: We are playing together for several years, since high school we can say. The last member, Uruk-Hai, joined us last year and we are very happy of him!
Lou: Where does the name Nefertum come from?
Geny: In the Egyptian mythology Nefertum is represented as the son of the gods Ptah and Sekmeth ,known as metaphors of creation (Ptah, his father) and destruction (Sekmeth, his mother). Nefertum is the synthesys of these two opposite forces, the metaphor of the balance between them.
Lou: You guys are from Italy – what is the metal scene like in Italy? Is it relatively strong at the moment?
Maul: Italy is full of talented musicians and good bands playing different metal genres (Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, Septycal Gorge, Kailash, Subhuman, Frostmoon Eclipse, and many many others). We played in different gigs in Italy, but now the desire to play live out of Italy is very strong.
Lou: What are your main influences – both musically and non-musically?
Maul: Each member has different musical backgrounds, but the main influence for all of us is experimental black metal, (Arcturus, Emperor, Borknagar, latest Mayhem, Ihsahn and so on), but we are definitely open-minded to different musical genres as stoner, rock, pop, ambient, classical and so on…I think it’s stupid to preclude any kind of music just because you are a metalhead…my favourite bands are metal bands, but their music strictly depends on wide influences from different genres.
Lou: How long have you each been playing your respective instruments?
Maul: I play drums since I was 15 (now I am 23); I started to play drums on a drumset that some friends of mine found in a deep ditch!!! I know it’s unbelievable…if one day I will become famous and I will learn to write (both unlikely) I think I’ll write a book hahaha !!!
Geny: About 13 years
Lou: Going back to the album… How long did the album take to write and record? Did you run into any difficulties along the way?
Maul: Difficulties? Of course… As I said before, “Revered Lames” is our first experience in a studio, we were also much younger and inexperienced (Tracks were recorded between 2006 and 2007), anyway, we decided to concentrate deeply to reach an excellent sound with a good performance in studio, also because our goal was to start with a nice full-length rather than release dozen of demos recorded in two days. This choice came also reasoning that the songs are quite complex and a bad production would have ruined the atmosphere we tried to instill in our music. We thank again Stefano Morabito of 16th Cellar Studios in Rome for his great work and patience, he is an excellent person !!!
Lou: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Revered Lames” is a superb piece of work. I’ve found that I’ve become ever-so-slightly addicted and so I’ve listened to it again and again! I’m currently completely in love with the track “Slaves of Darkness”. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about that particular track? What is the song about?
Geny: Thanks! I’ve imagined these “slaves of darkness” as the blind madness followers of a society based only on a material, consumistic and utilitarian behaviour. I’ve represented, in a visionary and metaphoric language, a kind of economic and well-studied hell in which our thoughts and our critical attitude are killed by our “necessary duties”. Darkness for me is the absence of living our life consciently.
Lou: What kind of lyrical themes are running through the album?
Geny: Most of the lyrics talks about visions try to explain a critic reflection about we see in the external world. They talk about perversions, a kind of sarcasm against the human convinctions and clichès, things that someone calls “truth”. Though this precise explanation, we always let everyone find his personal significance. Being considered by different points of view can be nice.
Lou: Which tracks are you particularly proud of from this album?
Maul: For me “Beneath The Ashes”, that is also the last song of the album we created. I love the main theme with that beautiful keyboards, the sharp vocals and the splendid riff (from 03:10)! Also Rotting Idle’s Inquisition is a very good song, maybe the most strange and experimental…
Geny: It depends by the moment, but the song Revered Lames and Beneath The ashes in my opinion have interesting and catchy moments.
Lou: The album artwork is fantastic! Who created it?
Maul: We contacted for the artwork Manuel Bravi, a talented graphic designer/photographer, he is a great artist and a good man, check his works at www.myspace.com/isahn
Lou: Are you currently touring? Do you have any plans to play some shows in England?
Maul: Now we are working for a new album, so we are concentrating on the composition of the new songs and it requires a lot of time and patience, also because we are trying to explore new sounds and new themes in our music…
Geny: Some gigs occasionally at the moment because of the new album composition. Then sure England will be one of our main objectives for the next gigs.
Lou: If you could tour with any band (past or present) who would it be?
Maul – Arcturus because it’s my favourite band, and Tankard for attitude ahahah
Geny: My personal utopia are Black Sabbath or Alice in Chains. There are a lot of band I’d like to tour with. With Emperor, Enslaved or Keep of Kalessin…it would be so EPIC.
Lou: Do you have any other albums, EPs or demos available? If so, where can we get them from?
Maul: We recorded a demo, “Demo(n)” but is not available anymore.
Geny: In addition, we have released a cover for an Emperor/Arcturus/Ved Dens Buende tribute by the web label Aspherical Asphixya .The cover is “Ye Entrancempeium” by Emperor and you can download for free the entire compilation from this link http://panacea.msk.su/ocns
Lou: Which song, by any other band, do you wish that you’d written?
Maul: “Galaxy Song” from Monty Python’s “The Meaning Of Life” !!!
Geny: Hope to make songs that others wish to would have written eh eh !
Lou: Do you have any final words to the readers of Loucifer Speaks?
Maul – Thank you again for this interview ! Check our myspace (www.myspace.com/nefertum) for news and next gigs. We are writing new material that I think you will like very much, so stay in touch (rhyme not intentional…) Bye !!!
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