Summon: How did the band get started?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: The band is the brainchild of Daemonikus Abominor ( DA) and Valac Nocturnum ( VN). Both had exited previous bands and wanted to create a purely second wave black metal band. Nox Invictus (NI) joined from there and I had been speaking to my comrade Lycaon Vollmond (LV) then of Ides of Winter. Having just finished tonsillectomy, I’d mentioned that I wouldn’t mind doing black metal vox in a year or so. An hour later I’d been volunteered for Idolatry. There was no choice. DA’s philosophical and mature outlook on the nature of black metal made it imperative that I get involved.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We play a cryptic, dynamic and shrieking black metal based on musical movement and catharsis. We create atmosphere; at times savage and melancholic.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: A genuine torrential flood of excitement. Most who trouble themselves to press play have been infected and want more. International response of late has overwhelmed us. European and Latin American fans are rabid and loyal. The web expands as we speak.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: It has several meanings. The primary one being to worship yourself as god or idol. You are the vessel by which reality is played out and the master of all enclosed therein. It also is a mockery of those who would place their fragile egos in the hands of non-existent beings put in lofty places..…
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Daemonikus Abominor beats the blood through Idolatry’s body. Creating its cadence and flow. Nox Invictus is the electric knife-wielder carving sorrow and discordance. Lycaon Vollmond also reaps lightening and by will of controlling its ground points, conjures hauntings. I am the Zarathustrian keeper of wisdom and shrieking spell-caster.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We all write the music. Initial ideas come from guitar parts and are fleshed out with all minds considered. Initially VN and DA wrote lyrics, but since my entry I’ve taken over as sole lyricist.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: A wide array of adversity, random frustrations, deathly memories, gaping chasms of sadness and loss, objectivist and Nietzchean philosophy. Satanic virtues, conjurations and stories/books. The lyrics Idolatry have penned do not fit into a mold. They are eclectic.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We are atheistic Satanists. The word comes from many cultures, but all mean “adversary”. This is what we are. We cannot be content to merely not be religious. We actively hate it and distain its ruin of the world by proxy of virtue reversal. Being powerful, confident and joyous is the natural desire of our species. Acting in contromacy of this on behalf of something nonexistent is evil. I personally see validity in the rituals and images of the occult. Though I do not believe in esoteric specters or demons, I do see high value in the expulsion of emotion towards an end. To have something sacred and devote energy towards that end. I also enjoy the images, the goat which represents man as an evolutionary being. It’s all quite poetic.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Currently we have our debut EP/ demo out and a 7″ split with Unrest from Ohio that we expect in hand within the next few weeks. We shall enter the studio in September to record our full length tentatively titled ” Visions from the Throne of Eyes”. This material is already written.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: The latest release is the split ” Infection Born of Ending”. Our music on it is called ” Clef au Chambre de Tristêsse/…. Once thought of Webs” and it’s a mid paced sorrowful track with a sharp fierce riff section at roughly the 2 minute mark that breaks it apart. There’s a discordant pause and poetic chanting over riffing to end it. The first section is all in french and about someone about to open a door to a room they’ve prepared for suicide. The poem is in English and is an abstract notion of villainy lurking in cities.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We do. DA is the busiest among us. He drums for Blëed, a thrash/groove metal band, Ivardensphere a dark industrial band. I am currently working on bass parts for an upcoming black metal release with Demonicvlt, some gore grind vox for a USDM band and also in summer I will record vocals for Ophidian Helix, black metal band from South Africa with Leighton Misticus of Nucleusophia/ Trance of Transcendence.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Idolatry as a whole listen to second wave black metal, the Finnish scene has been so potent in the last decade and much dsbm. Black metal itself is expanding and becoming more dynamic in its expression of dark art. Gorgoroth, Burzum, Inquisition, Xasthur, Immortal, and Silencer inspire us. Personal influences outside of metal for me are the Doors, Joy Division, much opera and severe triumphant classical music.
Summon: Which current bands?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Satanic Warmaster, Behexen, Shining, Absu, Horna, Asbel, Behemoth, Nokturnal Mortum, Orlok, so much excellent black metal of late…
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We are a ritual. Spell casting in darkness, corpse painted, spike laden. A ferocious incantation of raw emotion and theater. Angry, unpredictable and poetic. You cannot see us and go unchanged.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Apart we have. But as of yet not as Idolatry. The international interest in us is very high and that won’t remain so for long.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We have played minimal amounts of shows last year as we were focused on song craft and recording. There was a large outdoor festival in the summer and another in Calgary later on. Both were well received and drew crowds in the hundreds.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Shock, devotion. Frenzied at times. Much of what we do is unexpected. We pull them into the ritual and deny their attentions elsewhere. There are cathartic passages of music that cause an astonishment that I particularly savor.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: It flourishes, and yet it is crowded. Absu, Leviathan and Xasthur ( rip) are/were brilliant. Standouts are obvious. It is good to see that the quality bands in the us generally get shown the respect they deserve. I do not speak for the entire band, but aside from Incantation and Disma, I care very little for death metal. There are very talented bands in the genre and their fans are loyal, but I require more darkness out of music than I feel death metal embodies.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: With the amount of international activity surrounding the band of late, my eyes are really opening to how the various adverse living conditions can make for excellent hateful music. Latin America has rabid, proud fans and the European scene is second to none. I will witness Gorgoroth, Satanic Warmaster or Horna in Scandinavia one day.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Asbel, Nucleusophia (brilliant black/doom in vein of early Katatonia and Abruptum), Orlok, Rauhnacht, Noire, A Forest of Stars, Hate, Aenaon, Sarpanitum ..…
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Lörd Matzigkeitus: We are as we speak. The material for the full length is done, but we are very active, inspired and show no signs of slowing. A new LP for 2016 is not out of the question.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Lörd Matzigkeitus: Idolatry is relatively new, barely a year together. We shall plague the entire world with poison in time.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/idolatryblackmetal
