Greetings Scars! Please tell me when, how and why was Christicide formed?
Hails. Christicide was formed in the year 2000 in order to do what I like as human ( i.e. black metal ) and to express my personal convictions/ideologies. It seems that extreme metal was the most “logic’ way for me to materialize my thoughts, agressivity and imagination and to eventually get some results/visions/reflexion. Despite the fact Satanism, including mine, has never need metal music to exists, I think creating Christicide is really useful on a personal level. And thinking about it, I don’t think I really have the choice.
As far as I remember I’ve always wanted to create a band which can be a source of Obscurity for me and why not for the others as well. So in the end of the nineties I’ve made some riffs and lyrics,but that was not until 2000 that I was able to rehearse with our first drummer but that was a waste of time. 2 wasted years to be exact. Then Christicide was really active.
What does Christicide mean and why you choose this name?
The name/word Christicide can be interpreted in different ways of course. The basic will to become the new blasphemic anti christian barbarian band, the basic murder of christ...
Honnestly that name was chosen in the very early days of the band just because it sounded good and violent. But through the years, the meaning behind the name Christicide moved on to become a kind of symbol, at least for us. Jesus christ being the most popular symbolization of goodness and light in our western society, the murder of him in oneself mark the will to belong to an other “way of life/thinking”, to destroy the norms we were raised in and set new standards. It’s a major step in the Satanist evilution of course, but it goes far beyond the basic concept of Apostasy.
France has a great black metal scene, at least a lot of bands are coming from there nowadays. Amongst all those bands Chrsticide sounds the most unique in my opinion. How come you don’t expose the band more? There is no website, there are no gigs and practically there is no official information about the band on the web. Is there any contact where people can get more information about the band? Also are you planning any live activities?
Thank you for those words. Though I’m not sure to fully understand the first part of your question. I don’t think we haven’t exposed the band in the past, to the contrary, countless flyers of our releases, bio, interviews were widely spread in order to promote the band. It seems you haven’t been striked by those promotion tool. In the other hand, we don’t want to be overmediatized, the only result would be countless materialistic fans who only buy our releases because we are the new trend or the band of the moment with some die hard edition etc ... So yes, we don’t have any website and yes , we don’t have any myspace like every bands nowadays. I guess we would be way more exposed/wellknown if we had a myspace, that’s for sure ! Be I don’t feel it’s gratifying or useful to have 12658 virtual friends if you want my opinion. Sure it’s maybe a cool way to expose its band to a larger level, but I often think it’s too much and not very honnest. And we want to have what we deserve. No matter if in 10 years we will be considered as a 3rd rate band because we don’t have the same success than for exemple Watain, no matter if we are cult or not. The important things is to be honnest and to have fans who like your music/concept for real reasons.
However I have to say we’ve never refused to answer an interview for a zine or a webzine.
I guess our best website is the one of Metal archives... You’re constantly speaking about the web in your questions, is it the real world for humans now ??? A virtual world ? Not for me thanks. There are numerous bands who are wellknown in the extreme milieu and who don’t have any website or myspace. Those bands will recognize themselves, some have my hails.
Well, you are not very well informed, we are a live band. For the moment and due to some line up and availability problems, we didn’t played that much but we’ve already played with Celestial bloodshed, Watain , Baptism , Inkisitor, Malhkebre, etc ... And there are 2 gigs planned in the comming month : The 23rd of january 2010 in Lyon/Fra with Temple of baal and the 27th of ffebruary 2010 in Speyer/Ger with Unanimated and Ofermod. A lot more gigs will take place, be sure of that. Also an European tour with Inkisitor will probably take place at the end of the year 2010, so peoples who are interested to bring us in their hometown are encouraged to contact us or our label (O.C.S.R@web.de) . And finally, to answer the last part of your question, peoples interested in the band can contact us at the postal address available at the end of this interview.
Prior to your full length album you released two demos; Destroyed Monastery and Apex of Negativity. How were those demos received? Are there still some copies of it available?
I don’t consider Destroyed monastery as a real first release of the band. It was only noise doing by 2 drunk guys when Christicide was just a side project. And to limit it to 30 is fuking juvenile and useless. The real begining of the band is the “Apex of negativity” demo tape. That’s where I put my first efforts and convictions in my music. The demo has a great success and thanks to it we received a lot of positive reviews, several interviews and a few deal proposals for an album. Yes the demo is still available. It was first pressed to 400 copies, but this edition being sold out, we decided to do an other edition to prevent the collector thing, ebay... So yes it’s still available directly from us and in a lot of UG distribution list.
In 2007 your self titled debut was released. Tell us when were the songs written and when recorded. What label released it and where can we get a copy of it? How do you think the album was received and are you still satisfied with it in 2009?
If you have the album in a concrete version ( LP, CD or tape , not mp3 ) , then you can see in the booklet that the musics and lyrics were composed/written between the year 2003 and the year 2005 , and that everything was recorded in the year 2006. It’s clearly stated, red on black.
The album has better answer than the demo in fact. We’ve received a lot of support from the international scene: Labels, zines, distro, gig organisators or fans and we’re still surprised by this support. The bad point is the lack of touring for this album, because of the above mentionned problems of line up etc ... But considering we’re not on myspace and so on, I think the album was really well received yes. After a few years we’re still satisfied of the album and see it as a first attempt to fix our beliefs/idea on a musical support, and the result is 98% identical compared to what we had in mind. The 2% being the snare sound and the fucking drummer. This album is a bit old now, but we take it for what it is: Christicide 2006. Now it’s time to look further.
What are your lyrics dealing with? Is there a message you would like to deliver?
Christicide can (I guess) be considered as a black metal band, so the band is about the very ideological fundaments of this genre : The Devil. Thus our lyrics are inspired, focused and oriented by/toward the Devil : Father Satan.
One could see this sentence as a rather simple statement, but one into Satanism will knows that this is an endless playground for the mind and body. Having Satanism as a kind of concept for its band is something that can give you a lot of opportunity. And I don’t speak here of basical anti christians lyrics even if we are clearly not on the side of christ/YHWH. No I speak about all the reflections that can be experienced, described and spread within the Diabolic realm. So our lyrics can deal with a lot of things and in many different ways. Death , life , the after, the beyond , violence, Evil and its origins, transe, notion of divinity , eternity of the soul, Darkness , etc ... Really it’s endless. The lyrics can be fictions, personal experiences, dreams/visions, personal reflexions.... They can be the fruit of long discussions too.
What is Andematunnum?
Andematunnum is a place with some portals to the beyond. Of course we would be dead if we were in direct contact with the beyond or the Devil. But this is a place with a lot of meaning for us and where we experienced a lot on a personal level. It definitely can be considered as a source of inspiration for the band and in our life/death.
What is the cover of the album representing? Why did you choose it?
Well ... you know .. that’s the Devil. Why we used it was really a question of feeling. When I first saw this representation of the Devil I knew it would be the cover of our first album. There is calm in this picture. There is also violence and a kind of fatality, something inexorable expressed in a very sober way. Add to that it’s really elegant, that it sets aesthetical standards for the band and that it became a kind of trademark for us.
In May of 2009 we saw another release from Christicide. I am talking about the split EP you did with Cantus Bestiae. Can you tell more about it please? When was the material on the seven inch recorded and how it came about?
The story behind this split EP bring us back in 2005. Both band being friends since years, after the gig with Inkisitor we went to the Cantus bestiae’s singer’s place and we took the decision to do a split EP with their last song available. We had a common friend ( Max of Worship ) who died in 2001, so we decided to dedicate him this ep.
It tooks some times for us to compose, to record the song and to find an appropriate label to released it. Cantus bestiae being not the most subtle band in the world when it comes to sounds, we decided to record our own song in our rehearsal place to obtain a raw sound .In 2007 we called a guy and tell him to bring his porta studio with him and we recorded the song Devil’s wonders ( Elixir from beyond ) in November 2007. This is a quite aggressive song with a raw treatment to don’t differ too much with the Cantus side. The lyrics can be considered as “abstract” to some, but clear to some others. I think they became quite obvious when you hold the cover in your hands.The Cantus side is one of their last song with vocals on it. Despite what everybody says, it was not meant to be a track for their aborted split with Deathspell omega. I can’t tell anything about the lyrics. I have my ideas, but I’m not the one who wrote them so I don’t feel allowed to describe them properly. Their sound is as always really raw and incisive. Really cruel.
Finally in 2008 OCSR proposed us to release it. The result is 100 % satisfactory and the EP was released in may 2009 and his limited to 400. It’s available directly from the label, I think he still have some copies ...
Tell us about your way in music. Do you feel any limitation in your style, in any
conception? Do you see any possible progress, of movement forward?
I hate the refusal of Evolution. For me spiritual staganation is the death of the soul. The prinipal aim one must set himself must be honnesty toward what he do and evolution through what he believs in.The only restriction we have put ourselves is to create dark music. But Darkness being perhaps the most important and effective sensation we can feel, it’s not a restriction anymore but more an open field of discovery, so no we’re not limited. To have limitations would be only for humans ( fans, labels or ourselves ) and knowing we don’t bow down before any human even if they are rock stars or respected/appreciated peoples, it will be very hard to feel restricted. So yes I think there will be progress in some senses. I consider music as a way to describe feeling/things/events that humans words can’t. To create new sensations, atmospheres and tones that can make the mind travel in the dark is a respectable goal. I think music can really have a big impact on the mind of an individual. I really don’t consider music and Christicide as a tool of propaganda. It’s not something supposed to touch the mass but only individuals who feel closed & inspired by our music/ lyrics and the aura around the band.
Can Black metal exist outside of Satanism? What is your opinion? Can acts of Black Metal exist only in music or does its meaning manifest beyond Black Metal's music, ideology and image?
Yes I do think black metal is inherent to Satanism. But Satanism definitely don’t need black metal of course. Black metal is just a music, so of course acts of black metal only exists in music. But I think what you wanted to say was “ Can extreme Satanics acts exists only in music ... “, then the answer is obviously NO. Peoples have to make the differences between Satanism and Black metal . Black metal is just the juxtaposition of music and Satanic ideals, so it’s just a tool. So of course Satanic acts can be perpetrated outside of music and its milieu. As much as music can be created outside of Satanism.
Does any member of the band participate in any other project beside Christicide?
Our drummer has a thousand bands.
What are your future plans? Can we expect the follow up to your debut full length?
We are actually working on our second album and 5 songs are now almost ready. I think we will take the year 2010 to compose and to record this 2nd full lenght album and I think it will be released in 2011. Maybe earlier, maybe later.
Beside that, we will play live as often as possible. 2 gigs are already planned, and some other will come and there is also this tour with Inkisitor ...
This concludes the interview. Any last words?
Thanks. Interested peoples can contact us for info, lyrics, gigs, interview, releases/merch etc ... at :
J . Marchand
Appt 1
7 rue du grand bie52200 Langres- France -Or directly with our label ( Email address above... )A . M . S . G
Scars , on behalf of Christicide, 26th of November 2009 A.B.
