The wrath of time it's occured the day when my particular intention to carry the stigmata
naturally let on 'Out Of Chaos Spawn'A
Mind Confused 7'ep up the darkness
gave me kicking ass, it was already the
first band managed by Kaamos vocalist
and Guitarist.Leaving the path a new
field opening perceptive things '
Anarchos ' full-lenght was the
achievement of an over time preparing
thus ultimate assault to coming in 1998
year changed the name for KAAMOS
under different line-up than A mind
Confused.Strongly anchored in the
Swedish tradition KAAMOS being a
revival with newcomers such Repugnant,Verminous,Convusion,Serpent
Obcence...propagating the terror and proclamting heresy to mortal slavery
reigning holy crap bible has ever. With clever questions Nathaniel founder
of Mutilating Process Zine(R.I.P) buried Konstantin Papavassilou guitar
player to know more on the contenuity of band after the infernal first
darker opus.
01 - So,Kaamos exist only since 1998 but you managed to impose a huge respect with your last last three productions.How comes that you knew exactly how to define your style in so few years?Its amazing to hear that you obviuously are strongly rooted in the swedish death metal from the beginning of the 90's and in the most dark and aggressive thrash metal,but you know how to perfom your own stuff without being any copycats at all...
Well....Fundamentally when we started up Kaamos(today it is only Nicklas and I from original members)there was a clear idea concerning what field we would be active in.It just came so naturally that the first three songs that we did,ended up on the promo/7".And came pretty much to define the path that we had entered.Having in mind that the bands and standard of death metal when we entered the scene was Altar of Madness ,Left and Path,Symphony of Sickness,Mental Funeral ect...I'd say that it came to pretty much standarduze our own musical taste.And naturally it is going to have an impact on what we create ourselve.We've nerver really tried to sound old school,that has come naturally.We do not have the intention of being copycats or being retro.And that I think show.
02 - Could you tell us how comes that Sweden seems to give finally a second birth for good and real death metal bands,especially in the Stockholm area?I think of Repugnant,Verminous,Interment,Strangulation, Serpent Obscene,Vomitory,Defaced Creation,Thronaeon from other parts of Sweden for example.Do you often party or play gigs with such bands?
I guess the reason is because people who listen to death metal miss the days when one could hear quality.At least from Sweden behalf in this genre.So decided to do it themselves.When the bands that were considered as gods an pionners in their field all of a sudden started mixing in non death,black,thrash elements.I knew for fact that many turned their back of them.Understandable and recommendable.However I do not think that many of the mentioned bands including ourselves has a goal to re-create something that has been dead for almost a decade.We just continue in that tradition and the spirit comes along tradition and the spirit comes along so to say.So it may look like that there has been a revival.But mind you that many of these bands were existent even during the big black metal boom/period.Thus far we have played with Vomitory,Throneaon and Repugnant from the mentioned bands.All have been good bands to play with.And as for Verminous,revenge for the klibba!
03 - If your drummer still in connection with Repugnant or is he full time in Kaamos now?Do you think that your line-up is stable from now?How are the relationships in the band?Is it like some metalhead connected by the love of death metal but not really authentic friends or are there strong links between the members?
Nope there's no connection left to them except that both Karl and chris once played with Repugnant.Yes the line-up is stable and has been for sometime now.As for relations in the band.Well fundamentally we have come to know each other though death metal.And it has from there on evolved to a strong friendship.So authentic,yes indeed.I wouldn't tolerate it any other way.Nor would the others.
04 - What is great with Kaamos is that there's a really thin evolution between each records but one can immendiatly recognize your style and the composition seems to still not have reached its limit.I'd like to know you meaning of this far way too much misused and misuderstood word called ' evolution '.Do you agree with the guyes from Decayed who say in an interview printed in Leather ' n 'Spikes # 6 that metal has its limits,and you must accept it or not being metal at all?
I can agree to a certain extent.Evolution to starters is something tat i do not think you can avoid.This because nothing is static.Who ever disagrees with this is a filthy liar!However you can control it.In our case it would mean that we stick to our feeling that says,this is Kaamos when working with new material.Metal has its limits when someone has defined what metal is.And as far as I know i have never read any definition that I truly support.For example,were we to exclude keyboard, alot of bands like Entombed,Dismember,Morbid Angel wouldn't pass the test.Female vocals and Celtic Frost wouldn't pass.I personally think that there are metal.So if the usage of non-traditional tools aids to express the idea I ma all for it.However a lot of bands fail when is the biggest lack that I see in bands today.Thus the result may still be metal per definition but reek if shit.However evolution is usually used when a band changes style as a masque.In a somewhat defence kind of way.In order to justify a change of style.Metallica as an exmaple has a rather good evolution during 4 albums is anotyher good example and not to forget Morbid Angel.
05 - Tobias from Repugnant said that he viewed death metal in a very strict and particular way because all the old bands where still experimenting something new back then,bit now people have to fully know the past of metal(and here especially death metal)in order not to produce crap and not to propose a vulagar copy of the ancients gods.What do you think about that?What do you think about all this' old school ' revival?
Perhaps that in the case if you are a new band that started today.Nothing wrong with that tough.But in Kaamos case we have been along since at least 90 so I'd dare to say that we know history.Imagine if a band like Mortem,Muder Squad,Revenge ect..would follow that statement,kind of bizarre but I dobt that is what he meant.But yes the history of a genre is always important especially if you and aim in actually belonging to the genre in question.I'd have a hard time with people who don't know Bathory,Venom,Dark Throne ect...And the same would go for death metal people who don' know Altars of Madness,Seven Churches. I dare to say that there would be somthing lacking and the sad thing is that this is usually the case today.As for the old school revival as you put it.I do not like retro for retros sake.However if you belong to a tradition then you do nothing to argue about.
06 - Another paricularity of Kaamos is the really great artwork is the really great artwork that gos with each of your productions.Did you take the Gustave Dore's artwork for your 7"ep because you know well the man's work or because you liked the Merciless ' The Awakening ' cover?Please,tell us more about Daythus artwork because this person really captures very well the atmosphere delivered by your music.Talking about atmosphere,what do you think of the last Immolation,Incantation,Funebrarum albums?What are the moodiest bands you enjoy to hear(metal or not)?
We chose Dore's artwork because we found it suiting rather well with our aura.His artwork is something tat we have seen quite a lot of in the scene.Both from the death and black metal camps.And having in mind why he even drew them is reason enough to make him interesting.However that motive in question I stole from my E.A Poe book that at the time I has recently purchassed.I was actually a bit suprised to find something from him that hadn't already been used by some other bands.So naturally it ticked my mind from the very start.But it was only decided uopn after the recording was a reality.I'd say we nailed that one rather good.Dauthus you say.Well,what can I say.For staters he is like the filth member of Kaamos.He has had an equally big role in forming Kaamos as we the musicians have had.Important indeed.One can say that he is in charge of our visual appearance.And he truly capture essence"of what we musically represent.So a natural outcome to say the least.Immolation suprised me big time with their ' Unholy Cult '.Man thats is good album.The funny thing is that I worship ' Dawn of Possession ' but I haven't liked a single one of the others until this lastest effort.With Incantation I prefer ' Diabolic Conquest ' best.The immense sound on that one s mind blowing.The lastest i have only heard in haste on cassette but it did capture my interest.And Funebrarum are sometimes a bit too doomy for my taste but I was impressed none the less.Non metal mood bands.Well aren't you romantic!forgot you are french hahahaYou can seduce me to the tunes of Dead Can Dance,Raison d'etre(or how the fuck you French spell it)Zero Kama,Bones and some others.
07 - How do you consider what some people called a kind of ' renewal' of death metal espcecially on the american continent with bands like Diabolic,Nile,Krisium,Cryptopsy,Dying Fetus,Hate Eternal.Do you enjoy these bands?I myself would rather give attention to bands like Infamy,Engrave,Insanity,Sadistic Intent.
I'm on your side on this one.But I woul put Diabolic in the latter one.Krisum as well if weren't for the latest two releases.Abhorrence does it better.
08 - What's great is that your music is brutal but not only for the sake of brutality only.Songs like ' Doom of Man ' or ' The Chasm' with their mid tempo parts are also really killer.How do you proceed to compose songs?Is it a kind of common contribution ot the songs or are you the main guy behind the riffs?How comes you used a spoken intro in arabian language for the song ' Doom of Man '?Is it as another reference to Abdul Al Razed,the man Arab one can find in Lovecraft's litterature?
The way of comosing songs differ raher much from song to song actually.In the beginningI pretty much did most of the material myself.But going with this line-up for sometime now we all contributate.It can be all from a riff or two to having half a song ready and presented.Rather varied as you see.And we do try to have some variation in the songs too as you point out.The Arabic intro thing is not connected to the Lovecraft myth,however I do understand that one easily makes that comparaison.It was actually Karl's idia to start with and since we know a bloke who studies the language we asked him to write down somthing and chant it.However it is a quite blasphemic so it woudln't suprise me if we can't visit certain countries die to fatwah hehe...
09 - Your lyrcis are really deadly without being cliché and one can feel a huge portion of darkness sweating though them.Who's the main lyric writer in the band?Which kind of litterature inspires you.Nietzche, Lovecraft,Cioran?What kind of books,movies do you enjoy Ingmar Bergman's cinema and theather?What's Kaamos biggest influence?
I am the main lyric writer.Well,the only actually.The lyrics exclusively deal with the left hand parth and areas in this field.Books that are related to the afomentioned topic are the main interest.And also what inspires me to write.However it is not exclusively books,but everthing that comes within this field such as art,Movies, musik, litterature ect....Of course Nietzche and Lovecraft are a must in my world.I'm not familar with Cioran though.However a writer that has taken a lot of my time recently is a countryman of yours called Hysmanns especially his book ' La Bas '.As for Bergman, he is most certainly a talented artist.The interesting thing with his movies are that they hold a strong theatre tradition,which is more or less dead today.Like for example also Leni Reifenstahl holds together with few others.I'd say is spirit and our biggest mission is too express it.
10 - Messiah Marcolin took part in the engineering of your album!!!It must have been great to work with such a cult guy.How did it happen?Lots of beers emptied with him?
That Messiah was on the record was a pure coincidence.Coincidence seem to be happening rather often when it comes to Kaamos though.The thing is that we booked the studio and when the day of entering came the owner and other engineer said that he was going to have a person doing some practice there cause he is studing engineering.He sais that his name was Messiah and perhaps we knew if him.We thought he was just messing with us.But along the road we were quite stunned.
11 - As a metalhead,I guess you enjoy to collect cool metal items.What are your jewels and are there some . demos,lp's,ep's,cd's you are actually looking for?What do you like to see in a coverart or to read in the lyrics of a metal band?What kind of riffs drive you insane?Are you also a huge heavy metal fan?Do you enjoy Metalucifer,Metal Inquisitor,Cirith Ungol and stuff like that?
As a matter of fact I do not collect as frequently as I used to.Perhaps because I already got what I want and only get newer stuff that comes now.But indeed I do ahve some jewels,Vupecula 10",the Abominations bootleg of Morbid Angel that is black and white.Man I love that one.What more,some Bathory,devil Dool,Zero Kama,Danzing,Morpheus mlp,Necrophobic 7" ect...We are of course talking vinyl now.But occassionally I do find very interesting titles but I do not actievely look for them,they just come my way.Well,I would like to get my hands on Protector though.Covers and lyrics should be representive of a bands ' aura ' and express an idea that has affinities with the band.As for Heavy Metal, not ahuge fan of it.I like Iron Maiden and they leave little to actually miss is that sphere.
12 - It seems that you don't play so often live,am i wrong?Now that you are on Candlelight,will it be possible to watch you assaulting the european roads one day?How are your relationship with Candelight and the other bands on this label?Do you intend to move from this label soon?What do you think of a label like Iron Pegasus?
Well,I think that we play live quite often.Or as often as we get the chance to.But of course it has to be a bill that we feel comfortable with as well as good arrangements.So we turned rdown quite a few as well.As for tours there are no plans that I knowof so the answer would be no.But we do assault Europe none the lesss with or without the aid of Candelight.We are going to Hellas in about a week's time and alos France wqill feel the wrth of the beast.And there is sime loose talk about Germany towards the autumn but nothing confirmed There isn't really any realtion between us and the other bands on Candelight.They do their thing we do ours.However it is cool to be label mates with Incantation.Relations with the label are occasionally good and occasionally they suck.I don't know too much about Iron Pegasus but I think Costa is a dedicated person that runs a label based on fan principles to metal.At least in tbe end you can't go wrong as long as that is one of your foundations.To bad there aren't more of those around.Instead you have persons who don't give a fuck about the music and think in terms of sold units.
13 - Please tell us what are the bands to keep an eye on in the swedish underground at the moment.Do you feel a strong connection between the UG bands in Sweden or is ut more like everybody following its own way?Are there some parts of the world that really impress you due ot the quality of the bands coming from the same area?I mean are you involved with what happens in South America,Asia,Eastern Europe,Europe?
Some bands I recommend would be Murder Squad,Repugnant,Craft,Watain.Well there is a connection between the undertground bands but i don,'t know it its' strong.There certainly is a mutual respect between most of us though.You usually know one ot two guys in almost every band so the connection usually comes from there.There aren't really any parts of the world that impress me currently but there are bands that do.Man have your heard ' Old death's lair ' with Throneum?( That is a good example of polish satanic death metal...But generally i have never had like a favourite country when it comes to death or black metal.Most countries mostly ahev 10 bands that are even worth mentionning in the end.
14 - Something I can't explain is what so many people dare to call them ' metalheads ' as they only follow the trendy shit,may it be fucking stupid goth/pseudo forest black metal or the lasr useless ultra gutteral and jumping so called death metal.I mean,bands like there are doing metalheads like Sadistic Intent,Pentacle, Repugnant,Evilution, Funebrarum,Nunslaughter and your band are left behind and it's often buried that people begin to worship them....Could you help me to underground this situation?
People have always let others decide what is good and not.So if a big gloosy famous mag says that this is awesome,their readers without hesitation will become followers of the band in question.Look for example at the phenomenon called Cradle of Shit.They don't even have credibility for the genre they say represent and still their fans call it Black Metal.An ironic thing is that death and black at least in the late 80's and early 90's to the metal scene that was represened in the big press.That is why we have such a long history and culture U.G.However that is almost people are like sheep,complaining as they are being brought to the slaughter.
15 - Your band has a Finnish name.Are some of you of Finnish blood?Have you has the chance to play in Finland?What and where are the best gigs you played with Kaamos?
Yes, i am party Finnish.And no we have never played in Finland,sorry to say.As the best gigs.I think it is difficult to say because first it is a rather subjective experience.And secondly because you can have a bad day but the rest of the band play great.But to answer your question.Deathfest in Gothenburg was quite alright.Also when we opened for the Haunted ages ago and the last time in Gothenburg too.
16 - Ok, here comes my current question in the veins of Unholy Terror...Please could you define what detah metal is for you?And if death metal was a beer,which one would it be according to you?
Humm....I don't know I can do this really.But i'll try.Death Metal is a form of expression that covers the black and darker currents.This means that in order not to undermine its reference it ought to be expressed with spririt.So that the musik actually can ' manifest ' itsleft in the listenners conscious and inspire him.Death Metal can't be a beer cause the buzz you get from it is but an insult to the genre.It is a hard drung that will fuck you up and turn you inside out.And then run you over 385 times.
17 - Would you like to ask me a question?
Not really but since you insist I might as well do it.Why do you wqant me to ask a question?(Nathaniel : Well,I mean that it can show what is preoccupying you.And as the interviewer is always putting a bit of himsleft in the questions he ask,it can be cool to see how the guy who's interviewed my react and how he would himself ask some questions.Moreover,it iften turn to be intesresting.Ha!)
18 - i think that this interview is over now,hope you didn't fall asleep too much while answering to my boring questions.Keep up the good work and please give the last words without forgetting to tell us a bit about the Kaamo's future!
Thanks Nathaniel for the support and an exhaustive interview.The future for Kaamos holds heresy and darkness.
Interview done by Nathaniel Colas for Mutilating Process Zine,issue # 1(R.I.P)/Resistance. It has never been published on any web sites till now)No preface was built also I made one myself to explain origin of Kaamos.Thank so much Bro for the support,youRULE !!!
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