Occult Black Metal Zine / SEIDE (Count D / singer)
1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Hi Occult Black Metal Zine. We leave time for the new album Auakistla to live its own life, to be discovered and shared by those who wish to taste it… We are also trying to find a way to rehearse, as we need contact with the public. We already have a gig planned for November with Coroner, Candlemass, Nightfall, Seth, etc. for the Metallian Birthday Party 30 years next November, if it still confirmed.
2.Recently you have released a new album, musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
It results from a chaotic creation process but in the end, it projects well the desired shadow. Dogma (2009) was a painful projection. Here Is No Truth (2011) was belligerent, and the audience had to savor Beyond The Fallacy (2017) for its wealth and decadence. This was what pleased our guests and friends, Niklas Kvarforth (Shining) and Blasphemer (ex-Mayhem, Aura Noir). Auakistla is an immersive experience, a dense load as unhealthy as it is cheerful. We approached it without constraint, allowing ourselves the right to modify structures and intentions until the end. The participation of Zarc from Enemy Of The Enemy on the saxophone is a very interesting experience.
Being free in black metal is a crazy idea for some, while it was the will of its creators, it seems to me. Auakistla’s production is also dirtier and more organic, and therefore closer to the emotions it conveys.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer release and also how would you describe your progress as songwriters over the years?
Dogma is an evil that gnaws at man from within. Reflecting our darkest and macabre representations, our music and our lyrics deconstruct in their own way the dogmas of the ego, family, religion, policy, and even music. On the other hand, no one is taught a lesson, because we are not much, like everyone else. Seide is just a garbage can for all we can vomit, reject, expel. We made this trash can, by our own hands, for music, visual paintings, lyrics, etc.
4.You also mentioned an interest in the Aztecs, can you tell us a little bit more about it?
I am personally committed to Mexican culture. The grandeur and the chaos, the fascination for life as much as this persistent impression that this same life is more fragile than elsewhere, all this is captivating. The pre-Columbian culture is profound, inspiring and should restore to the present peoples the humility with which they suffer terribly. We recall with the song "Noche Triste", this famous "sad night" of 1520, when Hernan Cortès tries to flee from Tenochtitlan (Mexico) and defeat in front of the Aztec people who do not let himself be controlled.
By the way, a thought for our Mexican friends from Throats Productions and Ascension Records who accompany us brilliantly.
5.When I looked at the band members names I noticed a Shub Niggurath and Wotan, does the band have any interest in Germanic Mythology and the writings of H.P Lovecraft?
Yes certainly, just as the lyrics of the song “The Outsider” from the EP Dogma refer to the universe of H.P. Lovecraft. I think the names we take as band members don't really matter. Today, many bands are anonymizing themselves. But it's a bit like a red button that shouldn't be pressed: the less they say, the more gossip-hungry audiences want to know. The effect is therefore missed.
6.I know that the bands name means 'a man with a blind and fanatical devotion', how does this name fit in with the musical style that you play?
He fully responds to the cause of the band. The minion (“séide”) is the blind follower of a cult or cause. The name of the band is therefore a cynical counterpoint to slave morality. Each song has a link with anti-dogmatism. Without sinking into the suicidal spirit, the painted picture is just a whirlwind of threads that pulls the individual from all sides, without really leaving space for free will.
7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
Our music is our own, our image too. We don’t “order” our visuals elsewhere. This painting was made for itself, by our guitarist Shub Niggurath because it reflected the darkness of a moment, a form freely inspired by decadence but also anger, and it married our music. It is taken from a series of three nudes made with Indian ink for the band’s illustration purposes. The three nudes represent exquisite pain, anger and abandonment. Guess which one was chosen.
8.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Strangely, it is in Germany that we have great memories, with Under The Black Sun Fest 2013, with Horna, Von, Koldbrann, Funeral Winds, … but also at the Iron Eagle with our compatriots Mortis Mutilati in 2018. The German public is alive, focused… Also, a dry and penetrating memory in 2019 in Paris, with the TH-Fest. We need an audience made of free spirits, sensitive to emotions and decadence.
9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
Nice, I guess. The press is generally very complimentary. But none of us show our dicks, slit a fucking goat’s throat, or wield a nasty ten-foot-high inverted cross, so the buzz is less obvious. It doesn’t matter. We go in the shadows, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied, but we are not lifted by any wave or fashion. Suffering and cynicism are timeless, my friend, when all of us, as we are, are going to die quickly.
10.Are any of the band members currently involved with any other bands or musical projects these days?
Yes, but that concerns them. Some of the projects are not even published or known. The most important is the music, not the band attitude.
11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I don’t know, except it will never be brighter. We are already happy to launch Auakistla in the face of the world and hope that it will provoke, whether it is fanaticism or hatred, disgust or fascination. May it awaken in those who listen to an instinctive and violent vibration, a burst of freedom in this putrid epoch.
12.What are you currently listening to nowadays?
Lots of shit that smell good, just imagine.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We would like to express our thanks to Occult Black Metal Zine for offering us a spontaneous interview. Auakistla is an immersive experience, a dense load as unhealthy as it is cheerful. For the rest, it is only a little flamboyant music in a little flamboyant world. So we’re not gonna throw too many flowers, nobody cares. Just listen.
Bandcamp: https://seide.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seideband
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1YEF_skK5RIiWSHdAdo5eA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seidebm/
.jpg)
