The reason is... because I am ABLE to, and because making black metal is something that I am dedicated to doing. I would also like to give a big fuck off to alot of the black metal hypocrites who 'boycott' Xasthur for 'releasing too many albums', you must remember, you are the ones who've turned on Xasthur and not the other way around, I have always stayed true to Xasthur's roots and most importantly, true to the self, I didn't do something like start making techno music or rock n roll after a few albums, I have and always will perform depressive and grim black metal, that hasn't changed, but the impressionable kids who can't make up their minds are the ones who have, monkey see, monkey do. Don't think that I need your 15 min of support, because I don't! I would dare and challenge the 'scene' to whine and complain about a few other bands that release just as much (if not more) material than I have, or you can just pretend that you didn't read this. I just wanted to take the opportunity to get that off of my chest, and let us continue with the interview.

No, I know for a fact that I'm not burning out because theoretically speaking, I know that the music is evolving and improving from song to song, album to album, I go on binges of recording, 'when it rains it pours'. If I push myself, its only because I want to perfect this craft.

I usually try to out-do myself from one album/release to the next, different methods to expressing the more or less same feelings, reflections and plots. I want my music to make humans feel like an utter failure, to kill the person in the mirror more so than smashing it.

Sometimes its like a scale that weighs my frustration and misery, weather I previously know it or not. A form of relief I would also make sense, as it gets my mind off of everything and anywhere, it tells me things are a lot darker and hopeless than I had already realized. I like the idea of pain being caught/captured on tape/cd.

Once I start on something, I don't usually stop, I keep the momentum going, it seems most music recorded comes all at one period of time, there are times (for example) where I wrote and recorded about 30 songs in less than 4 months, it basically starts with a couple ideas that will lead to a couple others and so on. Most songs are written/created on guitar, but the birth of some comes on keyboard or piano, I'll usually think of many other ideas I can add to something like a slow and dark keyboard arrangement for example, creating new music on the same instrument can get boring.

Wrest and I talked about a split for a couple years now and during the couple years, it just seemed more and more appropriate as time went on, yes I get along with Wrest, he seems to base his life around creating abstract black metal constantly, at not so much, 'the metal lifestyle', which is something I can appreciate.

The USA scene is okay, its getting better, there seems to be more 'atmospheric and/or depressive' bands in the US these days than there used to be, like Velvet Cacoon, Krohm, Draugar, Vrolok, Leviathan, Crimson Moon etc. and some others like Abazagorath, Ibex Throne, Nachmystium etc, I dont really have a favorite scene, I don't sit around watching black metal die as a hobby anymore.

I'm not sure really, but I do know that there's a split with Nortt coming in December and hopefully a new full length cd in 2005, I have no idea when or if that will be. Making black metal has NOT become redundant to me at all, but everything else in the scene has.

It's a difficult question, while Bush is mindless, I am rarley in favor of a democrat, liberalism and supposed democracy only seems to benefit a sub-society. I think one could end up letting this country be invaded by, taken over by, or turned to rubble by pissing off Iraq too much and the other could turn this into a communist country, if not this democrat, then a democrat to come. Neither is any good for this country, maybe all this is based on my perception and I will not share who I voted for.

Yes, I would be interested in leaving the US, indeed this is a very plastic and fake society, not to mention, corrupt, where the worthless are not only tolerated, but they're heroes! If one is gay, lesbian, negro, drug addict, ignorant, overbreeding or retarded... then all these things make you special in America, if you hate it, then YOU are the one with the problem, and YOU are the outcast and enemy, our laws and constitution are often twisted to suit the needs of the ignorant and to give a free ride to those who don't deserve it, kind of like the same way the bible is misinterperted, and there is only freedom of speech if you watch what you say! In other words, America is all about tolerance, Judas Iscariot talks about intolerance, so he left.

I would prefer that its total blackness and silence, no thoughts, no dreaming, no feelings, without time or the realization of resting in death, similar to the feeling of being put under anesthesia, as in having no recollection of the time (hour) you were unconscious, not knowing you're asleep, not knowing you're dead, I think this IS a possibility, if this is the case, then death isn't something to fear... it just isn't anything at all, this happened to me a few months or so ago and it was one of the ways I had always imagined death to be... others believe that there is some kind of life after death in the sense of why is it that some of us who don't even want to admit it that we've seen ghosts have? Then there are those who say 'hell is what we make of it'. I am not saying if I believe or disbelieve, just imagining what is possible.

I'm not going to give the answer you'd expect me to give, instead I will say destruction of the media and television, at least in America, it's the root of everything I hate. Anyway, that’s close enough to the answer you thought I'd give.

I wonder when it'll end, when it will finally end. I think it'll end in a nuclear... war to end all wars? I have dreams of tidal waves sweeping over tall buildings a lot, but the world ending in fire is also possible.

I invented that joke, people with a sense of humor are usually the most miserable, there are alot of dead comedians.

I don't know, I've never really had many 'crushes' , I'm too practical to fantasize about such things, I want what I have (my wife), I'd rather have something more to remember than one night.

For my paranoid thoughts that often become a reality to go way, silence and I can’t think of a third, my three wishes change almost everyday.

In no particular order:

Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée (but for a deserted iceberg)

Thergothon - Stream from the Heavens

Forgotten Woods - The Curse of Mankind

Drudkh - Autumn Aurora

Nortt - Graven

Graveland - Thousand Swords

Mütiilation - Vampires of Black Imperial Blood

My Dying Bride - Light at the End of the World

Poccolus - s/t CD

I can't think of a tenth one, I want to go to sleep.

...and it's telling us we need to kill ourselves.