BELIAL was one of the first Finish Death Metal bands to put off
the mental limits playing a dark and malign Death Metal which
nowadays came up a boon for current underground scene.In this
connection, it is true that their aggressive grim death tunes of the
early days was very influenced by sickmaniacs from IMPALED
NAZARENE but if we look back,they were not the only ones to do it.
Therefore it’s enough at instant to listen to the ton of Swedish bands
stealing ENTOMBED sound for saying that there was an opportunity
to take without going into rudeness. In my opinion Finish gloomy
atmospheres will remain forever in all Deathmetalheads spirits unique
and quite original to increase the abyss of slumber.After completing
the line-up,they had reheased hard and they played their first gig on
12/07/1991 in Oulu with DICKTATOR,IMPALED NAZARENE and
SENTENCED.Since then they have had played four more gigs with
bands like DEMIGOD,BEHERIT, MENTRICIDE,AMORPHIS, MALPLE CROSS,TEMPERANCE,CREMATORY(Fin) and BLACK CRUCIFIXION,BELIAL entered Tico-Tico studio on 5/06/1991 where
they recorded their debut demo ' The God Of The Pit ' with Ahti
Kortelainen.It was logical after having bought their great demo, i
asked a few questions to the very kind Jarno,one of the band’s
guitarist.
01 - To start this interview,it seems kinda essential to ask you a
short history of BELIAL…
BELIAL was formed in april 1991 by Reima and Jukka.Since then we
have done one demo which is called ' The Gods Of The Pit '.I hope this
is enough short.
02 - Please can you introduce us the members?
Guitarist are Jukka and Jarno A,bassit is Jani.Our drummer is Reima,
Jarko K on vocals.Line-up stays the same since the beginning.
03 - Well why did you choose this demon’s name for your band?
I don't know why but I think it's two totally different meanings and it fits
well to our lyrics, don’t you think?
04 - I find your logo doesn't really fit Death Metal,don't you think?
I'd not say it so.I think our logo is pretty original.Anyway I haven't seen
the same kind.And our logo is made by Jarno A.I don't know where he
got the basic idea for it but for us it's a great logo.
05 - Precisely, what’s the process to write your lyrics?
Describe the content for each one...
On the demo,' The Invocation ' have satanic lyrics,' Voices
Beyond ' speaks about one man who suffer from life,' Dead Zone '
currently we don’t like it anymore but it's a song against war, and
then ' For The Beast' is a horror history. Most songs that we
composed after the demo have satanic lyrics.For me me left hand
path is a subject what has some importance and so on.
06 - Then, how was the recording of the ' The Gods Of The Pit ' demo?
Everything went very well.All songs made well in studio but there
are some errors in the vocals part.When we mixed it,we had a few
different on the implementation of certain parts of the demo.
07 - So, are you satisfied of that first demo.I mean to the sound.
Firstly,of course we were satisfied with it,but nowadays it's not the
case anymore cause there's many things what could be much better.
But next release will be millions times better.And the sound should be
more darker and nocturnal,hope you understand what I mean.
08 - How are the reactions so far?
The reactions are really pretty good.Everyone like it a lot or someone
without more.
09 - What are your influences as well as your favourite bands?
Our influences are the music,movies and books.My favourites bands
are :Impaled Nazarene,Dead Can Dance,Demigod,Deicide,Ripping
Corpse,Bathory,Rotting Christ,Laibach,Entombed(old),Obscure,The
True Mayhem and so on.
10 - To this day,what are your five fave demos for this year?
Can't say five of them,but best demo in this year till' today is Black
Crucifixion'sdebut demo.
11 - I notice in Finland there's more and more Death Metal bands
actually,something to say about that subject?
It's true that there's more Death Metal bands,but there's many bands
with shitty rip-offering music.But there's also many great bands like
Demigod,Beherit,Impaled Nazarene.
12 - Do you have good gigs organizers there in Finland?
I don't know any organizers who arrange Death bigs here.But here
there’s few people who do that thing for it.I have myself once arranged
the ' Day Of Darkness'gig with good bands and that thing I will do again
for sure.In Finland there's not so many human beings who is into Death
Black metal which is a shame.
13 - Well Finland is a very cold country in winter.So do you like this
atmosphere or would you prefer to live in a hotter place like Florida in
USA?
Yeah,it's true that it's pretty cold in here in winter time,but why in HELL
you would be outside when you can be inside drinking some beer with
pretty girls.
14 - Do you know a few french metal bands? What do you know also
about my country?
I have on cassette a few french bands like : Sepulchral,Mestema,
Loudblast and a few others.
15 - Before I leave you Jarno,what will be the projects for BELIAL after
this cool demo?
What is for sure at this time is that we will go into studio to do a promo
demo.Nothing else we don't know at this time.What I know about France
is that you drink a lot of wine.That's very nice and there a lot of kind
people.
16 - Last words for my readers?
Order our debut demo which is for 5$ everywhere and thanks to you
Ronan for this interview.
Interview : Kanz-Noz
