The most important issue above all others is to have people reflect upon the fact that Black Metal is beyond music and standard Black Metal imagery, those two things are the mere wheels of the fire chariot that carry a very important message that must clearly at all times be projected correctly in order to carry out the reality of true Satanism and expose the dark magical mystique that lays within the obscure circle of the cult where only those who are willing can find the truth of what Satanism and the Luciferion knowledge truly is.

The hymns which Inquisition creates and performs may not be fulfilling to most who have created in their mind a standard vision of what Black Metal is and in their mind should be, I do believe beyond all truthness that we are doing what we do in the most appropriate manner when you focus your attention on what the essence of Satanic music should be and must be.

When we speak of sound, style, voice, concept and all musical execution in general the achievement we are thriving for is one that carries the listener far beyond his present moment of just listening to music. This is about black rituals in the form of music, in the form of Satan and Lucifer, darkness and fire. Ancient gods of the past being awakened through the spells of vocal incantations, Pagan war drum strikes and guitar melodies that only summon the demons of hate.

All this mentioned above is my reason for the existence of Inquisition, and this is why we create the dark invocations we do.

The simple notion that my spirit is as ancient as time itself, I am here in “modern times” but my spirit is very old therefore my inspiration is old and cryptic and this surfaces when I create the hymns of Inquisition, the thought of that, the belief in that inspires me greatly. Demonic art inspires me, to look at old diabolic woodcuts made in times when Satan was a real threat to people inspires me more than anyone can believe. I can stare for quite long periods of time just trying to look deep into the world of the woodcut I am staring at trying to understand what was going through the mind of the artist when it was made. Of great inspiration it is indeed.

The knowledge that I use as inspiration is gathered from books on the occult, the real occult. The art of Black Magic, demonology and Satanic studies based on the Christian viewpoint of what Satan and Lucifer are, not just the philosophical neo-Satanic form of Satanism. If you chant to Satan then you must study it’s origins both from the Christianized form and the Qaballistic form as well. The demons of Babylonian religion are important to me for inspiration. Baphomet, the mysterious war god demon of the Templars, not so much is known about “him” but indeed a large part of our focus point in Inquisition deals with Baphomet.

Astronomy, the eternal black universe, the cosmic sea of Lucifer. How can one not be enlightened by such greatness after a deep look into something so primitive, vast and timeless.

Many forms of music I appreciate and even influence me. I have music from a few different areas of the world, folk music that is of course, something that reflects a common cause of a culture and identifies them as a culture of there own highly appeals to me. Different forms of electronic music, I go very deep when it comes to dark ambience music. Brighter Death Now is a favorite for me, Genocide Organ is also highly listened to on my part. Suicide Commando performs some excellent dark techno industrial and of course every since I was a young kid I always enjoyed all the early Tangerine Dream albums.

Music of the early period, Gothic and Renaissance era is truly a jewel to me.

These days not to much Metal inspires me, of course I like Metal but after hearing so much for such a long time it can get quite stale if there is a lack of innovation. But on that topic, Bathory The Return is my greatest Black Metal inspiration, Burzum, old Immortal and the essence of the Polish Black Metal scene greatly inspires me. I have been for a very long time now a great admirer of the Polish circle.

The mindset I had with this album was highly focused on taking the listener onto a direct and straight forward path to the essence of Satanic strength, might and vision. With less complexity and emphasis on song duration and more emphasis on the message I truly achieved what I had planned for.

I wanted each hymn on this album to be much more memorable, not just musically but lyrically and by breaking down the song structures you allow for the music and the message to isolate themselves from one another much more and ultimately each entity individually stands out with greater highlight, speaking within the realm of music and verse that is.

How do I compare it to previous releases? Vocals are deeper in tone, guitars are brighter, drums are much more present, much more repetition of melodies enhancing the hypnosis effect, shorter songs. Overall, with these minimal modifications it is very Inquisition and most importantly still very true to the essence of Satanism which to me is more valuable than anything else in Black Metal.

The concept of the album is Lucifer, a name mentioned quite often but not well understood by many. To give you a perfect example of my Luciferion vision I must say that it has been entertaining to read and hear such comical comments in reference to our photos on Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer which is the result of the misunderstanding of Lucifer as I just mentioned. The images of us represent the son of the morning, the morning star, the sun, Lucifer, shining upon us. This is clearly something that was done to enhance the message of our glorification of Lucifer, bearer of light and wisdom.

The odd color of our cover art represents the old blood remaining from the rituals of the song Baptized In Black Goatblood.

Everything we do has a meaning and this can bring the ultimate satisfaction to the author when meaning stands in front of your music. We are both highly pleased with this release. These songs are truly the best live as well, for us anyway from a performance point of view.

It is the music that speaks for Satan, proves the existence of it’s force and Black Magic. It is the music of Black Metal that must inspire wisdom learned from the shadows. It is the dark fire torch of death and destruction that is only for the purpose of ending the faith that Jewish lambs and Christian sheep and shepards have in Jesus Christ and Jehova. The war must never stop against Christianity and the Jewish “Cult”. Those are the seeds that must be crushed. Lucifer proves to us that man will always, by true nature, be his own God at will and isolate himself away from the monopoly of false Gods.

Black Metal can have any form of anti-Christianity within the ideology since it is about the protest and denial of Judeo-Christianity as it’s first priority; but real Black Metal in essence MUST begin with the recognition of Satan as THE foundation of the Black Metal code. This is where Black Metal began and this is how it must be, always, there should be no doubts.

Just look around you, your society and it’s moral codes and you cannot help but see the obvious Christian presence everywhere and for this Satan and Lucifer must be invoked for the influence and inspiration of Black Metal with the mere purpose of enshrouding the realm of the white-light God and obscuring his presence through black magic incantations of grim hymns.

By glorifying Satan and Lucifer we become true enemies of God.

Modern day Satanism is only modern in the sense that we speak of it in reference to “Today” but this basically shows that Satan is more than just a force, it is an intellect as well, an attitude, a mindset and has always been in man by nature but the Christian values want to remove this from your persona.

The primitive aspect of it as you call it, and I can see why of course, is the visual symbolism that speaks for Satanism as well as the ritual side. This truly is the left hand path of Satanism itself, the dark side OF the dark side. This is where Inquisition belongs because our hymns are rituals, literally. This is the side where true power is obtained.

Both sides of Satanism are necessary, equally. This always shows through a person and or a band when they have Satan within them. There is no way of hiding this or posing as so, the truth of Satan and Lucifer radiate clearly from a true infernal soldier. This is what this is all about, this is it and both sides are my foundation of existence and that of Inquisition.

The only thing that MUST stay underground are terrorist actions against religion and it’s followers, underground war is a smart war.

Music however, the propaganda machine must reach many. True Black Metal is elite and elite people don’t let others degrade their art and value system just because it is being exposed to the masses so there should be no fear about that.

Different it is when a band reaches many on a big scale by compromising it’s ideology and softening it’s edge by “dulling the blade” a little just to appeal to more common people to sell more and become rock stars.

At times I feel that the same people that support you can become to controlling and they get a sense of ownership over a band and ultimately just want to manipulate what you should do. I refer to common Metalheads that criticize the growth of a band with the overused coin phrase “They sold out”. People forget that poser bands are not the only ones that can grow, well talented and true Heathen-Satanic artists will succeed always when they are true to their beliefs and live what they sing about.

We were very pleased with this show, after recently returning from our lengthy European tour this was a perfect extension of that tour here in the United States. Besides some very difficult people that would not give me space onstage and continuously grab me, touch my guitar and the one individual that literally shit in his pants, the show went very well.

Also, I must remind people that this show was almost shut down more than 2 or 3 times because of the ADL and ultimately our rituals of Judeo-Christian destruction became a reality, that is something that added to the meaning of this show being a “success”, the show became more of a symbolic action more than anything after so many problems.

I would like to explain this in the most simple way if I can. Incubus and I had to many problems finding a Bass player years ago, if he didn’t have a drug problem he lacked ideology that is so needed in Inquisition. This cult is meant to encompass the spirit of the underground and always recognize Satanism as it’s prime influence inside and outside, onstage and offstage at all times. How you live and how you act can seriously affect and influence your songwriting as well as the members that are in the band along your side.

Incubus and I share this mentality to perfection in my opinion and I do not want someone who is going to interfere with that between us two. We have the bare minimum needed to create Satanic music in the form of Black Metal, a guitar, drums and a voice. With this simplistic formula I believe that this adds to the magic of our hymns. You can do so much with so little, it is all about how creative you can or want to be, it is about your capabilities.

Also, we have never really been a “follow the crowd” type of people, I told Incubus one night “Lets do the best we can as a duo and display what talent we have as a duo in the studio and onstage”.

I believe that many have forgotten that Metal was always about going beyond the limits set by the standard music industry and being a two piece is one way of doing that...this is how we shall remain.

Brutality and dark atmosphere are not easy to combine when you want both elements to maintain their purity and not cross over, as a songwriter this is not easy to do when you try so hard to keep the songs flowing without any interruptions that can ruin a song just because you want to add a change from brutal to dark for example. Changes most of the time must be unnoticed and disguised but my favorite change is the obvious ones that if anything can make the song better by having this obvious change as a highlight, a strong tempo change or scale change for example.

In a live situation this of course will never be difficult for us because one thing about Inquisition that I always keep in mind when writing is that what we record in the studio must have the ability to be performed live with the same or at least close to the same aura as the studio version. Yes, I admit there are some things I do in the studio that I cannot do live such a second guitar performing a small lead but those are the songs that we just do not perform live. Most of our music is for a live presentation and Inquisition if anything is a live act, that is our strong side. Many people have told me that they did not like Inquisition until they had seen us live. I believe that is because they captured the atmosphere that not even on an album some people can capture.

The hardest thing about performing live - to answer your last part of the question - is having bad sound. No monitors, a bad drum kit, bad amplification, etc. The irony of the whole thing is that this movement is about music, sound waves flowing into your ears to produce pleasure... so why is sound so neglected in our movement when it comes to concerts and small shows? If it is about money than people without the proper funds should not be setting up shows and charging what they charge, it is unfair to those who pay to get in and unfair to the bands performing.

Not only in Colombia but from Mexico all the way down to the southern tip of Chile is Metal more than just a musical form of thought and lifestyle, it is literally an obsession.

Many second and third world countries have an environment in them that suits Black Metal and Death Metal perfectly. Heavy Catholic activity, civil wars, Mafia activity, etc... these countries offer excellent things that our country does not but also life in some of them mean nothing. The high social tension and rebellion in those areas of the world only intensify this music and make “evil” much more of a reality when you see “evil” with your own eyes. I can speak for myself, in the 80’s seeing people get shot and stabbed because the Cali and Medellin cartel was at it’s peak was very common, and still is. In the Metal scene this happened a lot, in the early Norwegian scene all the shit that was going on was already going on in Colombia 6 or 7 years before that Norwegian hype got so overblown into the media.

This is why there were bands like Parabellum, Masacre, Blasfemia, Inquisition, Reencarnacion, Astaroth and countless others in such early days. It was because what surrounded us was true darkness in flesh and blood.

The rawness of the South American scene is real, they are not trying to sound raw like some European bands, there is really no choice for many of them who cannot afford good equipment and their brutal and raw songs are inspired by what surrounds them and not only what is in them. Again I must say, the sheer rawness and attitude that comes from the South American scene is not formulated, it is real. Of course there is a great number of fakes but there are many more true warriors of the cult than one knows of.

Here in the United States our scene has an edge that is growing strong, I will say nothing negative about our scene because that will contribute nothing to it. All I will say is with so many strong bands how can we complain, our music speaks for us as the North American Black Metal movement and we do not need to become Satanic/Heathen gangsters to get the recognition and appreciation we so much deserve.

I believe that we are closely achieving the South American attitude combined with the musicianship and skills of the European scene, with more time we will evolve into something very strong if we keep advancing the way we are. This is how I view our American scene of the U.S.

Inquisition will continue offering strong, grim, entrancing invocations. We are going to perfect basically everything we have done on our past albums in our next album. Songwriting, production, etc... Vocals will remain as the chants of Satan, the essence will continue to grow. We will always offer something that is not found in many other areas of the scene because what we do is how we are asked to do things and how we are guided to do things so the message of the Fire pantheon is revealed as real and the destruction of God, Jesus Christ and all other lambs of Christ can be a stronger possibility.

I want Inquisition to achieve a level that though many may not like our music many can at least respect what we have to offer to the Black Metal circle, the real circle and above all our lord Satan and Prince Lucifer, the upcoming king of Hell. When the hymns of Inquisition bray, the reality of Satan and his music invoke, this is what the ancient cult is about.

Future projects will be known in future time, do not expect anything in the Metal vein.

Bathory – The Return: This has set the standards of what Black Metal is musically.
Venom – Black Metal: This set the standards of what Black Metal is in essence.
Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas: The foundation of the second generation of Black Metal, even the guitar work influences Burzum.
Immortal – Pure Holocaust: This was the steroids of Black Metal, fast and dark started here.