Would you say there was a defining moment or album etc. which got you interested in the Black Metal scene?
No, I wouldn't. My musical development was very natural, I think. I have been listening to metal all my life, as when I was born my dad listened to bands like AC/DC, Kiss, and Judas priest. My first own recordings were Iron Maiden (the number of the beast) and AC/DC (if you want blood…), at the age of seven, (believe it or not, that's the way it was!!!). And I still think that Iron Maiden until 1986 are one of the best metal bands ever.
The development went on, via bands like Sodom and the Death Metal stuff. But I soon got bored by this gore-shit, like Cannibal Corpse etc. and it all sounded the same. So I went on to Back Metal. The only Death Metal I listen to nowadays is the melodic Swedish stuff like Hypocrisy (from onwards…) or Dark Tranquillity. The Black Metal bands I prefer the most are Emperor or Dissection for example.
At the same time, from my 14th birthday onwards, I decided to refuse the weak Christian attitude, and that this can not be the truth. This also brought me in the direction of the Black Metal scene. You see it was a slight development towards the Black Metal scene, and it was even harder to find people involved in that scene…

In your band biography it said that you were involved in other bands before you joined Funeral Procession. Could you talk of these?
Well, I played bass in a non-metal band called Defect Hospice, but I slightly developed them towards metal, this was, I guess, why we split. I still have some ideas for this band, I will release a demo with the old stuff when I get the chance to record it, and I also have some new ideas, but at the moment Defect Hospice is frozen. I am still a member of Stoermflood where I am the vocalist and responsible for the lyrics. Its style is true East Frisian Pagan Metal and all the lyrics are in the Frisian language. I guess one can describe it as a mixture between Bathory's (Hammerheart) and the first Enslaved album.

Does the band or your self have a philosophy which you live by?
I don't think so. We all live very differently as we are all individuals. But I think I have a life style of my own, I wear black all day and it doesn't matter where I am, I choose my friends very carefully. A Christian, for example, could become my friend but defiantly not one of my nearest or best friends. And I am also not afraid of being solitary. Better no friends than bad friends! I often do things just the way I want, maybe it is wrong, but it is my life!

If one day you became the ruler of all Germany, what would be the first three things you would do?
I would forbid all weak religions like Christianity, (Judaism, Muslim etc.), then I would demote the Parliament so that they could not take my mite again, and I would use Satyricon's (Mother North) as the national anthem, of course, hahaha…

If the world was to end tomorrow, would you consider this to be a good or bad thing? Why?
Both. It would be a bad thing to loose all my friends, but I wouldn't cry not even a tear for all the scum on this world. I would have nothing against it if they all died. But I don't see why the world should end. Christianity and all other subhuman religions are at their end anyway, and I see it as a good sign that in the Celtic calender the millennium of the Fish is about to end. And the fish is a sign for the Christians, and look around, they destroy themselves...

Anything you'd like to add in conclusion?
Anyone who is interested in the band should feel free to write to me. But don't write this childish Satanic stuff. I wouldn't consider myself a Satanist. I am only antichristian… Greetings go out to Necrobiosis, Stoermflood, and all the other bands and individuals I am in contact with. You know who you are. Thanx to you, James, for this interview and good luck with the zine. Our debut demo will be out in about January 1999, I hope, check it out, it will be a masterpiece of aggressive Black Metal. Support the underground!!!!!!!
Count Gothmog can be contacted at: Funeral Procession, c/o M. Freimuth, Hohe Heide 13, 26789, Germany.
Or E-mail: count.gothmog@frisiancircle.de

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