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Crimson Moonlight
are a very appreciated and talented band in the whole unblack scene.
This swedish group with his new album "Veil Of Remembrance" has
changed again his own sound and the line-up too. Only few times
after this release three members have gave up the band. Let’s ask
something about, but not only this, to the great Simon "Pilgrim" Rosén, singer and leader.
After
"Eternal Emperor", in black-dark style, and "The Covenant
Progress" that offers a fast and strong epic-symphonic black, we're
 listening now to "Veil Of Remembrance" a mix of black and melodic
death. Why have you changed your sound so many times? Which is the
true Crimson Moonlight's style?
The
original style of Crimson Moonlight is what we do nowadays. Back in
the early days we didn’t had the opportunity to do what we can now
because lack of speed, brutality and musical experiences. But to
talk about the early days I would say that I prefer "The
Glorification of the Master of Light" songs more than the "Eternal
Emperor" songs. Old schooled BM mixed the furious speed and good
production of today is the what I like the most. There are to much
soft-metal bands, we just wanted to take the brutality one more
step… I guess. And we also decided to skip the keyboard on the new
release since we realized that the sound could turn into a heavier
and rawer direction without it. And since a lot of us are much into
extreme deathmetal acts like: Nile, Malevolent Creation,
Living Sacrifice, Suffocation, Origin,
Bloodbath, Defleshed and Rotten Sound and also
more thrashmetal bands like Death, Believer,
Hateshere and At The Gates it had some effects on our new
sound…
After the release of your last album, three members have left the
group; why? How much are your different styles caused to your
frequents line-up changes?
Erik
(ex bass-player) left the band because he had finished his studies
in a town nearby us
 and then had to move back to his hometown (quite
far from us) again for working. Hubertus decided to left the band
for other musical projects and also for studies. Jani Stefanovic (ex Am I Blood, Sins of Omission now found in
Divinefire, Renascent) joined us just a month before the
recording of "Veil Of Remembrance" he were supposed to take over
Hubertus place. But after a month or two one of his other bands,
Divinefire got a huge record deal in Japan and things were also
getting better with Renascent so then he realized that he
didn’t have some much time over for Crimson Moonlight.
Of
course the line up changes has some effects on our sound. For
example some of the more Deathmetal influenced songs that Hubertus
made for VoR.
Alexander Orest was an extraordinary keyboard player! Is he still
playing? How is your relationship with the ex-members?
Alex
really knows how to handle the keys that’s for sure and he is still
playing I lot in different bands and projects. I have good contact
with some of the old members. Petter is for example a very good
friend of mine and we use to spend some time together and talk about
theology or history.
In "Veil Of Remembrance" the production has
improved compared to
"The Covenant Progress". The drumming has a sharp sound in your
last
album while in the previous the sound is deeper. Can you tell us
something about it?
We
got really satisfied by the sound and the prod on VoR. We had a
great time in the Panic Room studio with our producer "Plec" and I
guess the prod became better this time because we recorded and mixed
everything in the same studio and we also had far more better
equipment this time.
Gustav's drumming has had an impressive evolution as regard of
"Eternal Emperor"!, but all band's members have get better. What
have you done to reach this great level?
The
only answer I can give you is practice. Long hard time practice.
Gustav has played death/black metal now since 1993 so he knows how
to do extremely fast blast without get tired. He and the rest of us
has also listen to a lot of extreme death, grind and black bands
during the years and study their way of playing carefully.
Are you
satisfied with the sales result of the new album and with
the spread of your name thanks to Rivel Records work?
Maybe not very satisfied.. Covenant Progress were sold 2200 copies
last time I heard the
 result, and I think it’s still selling. I
don’t know exactly how many copies VoR has sold so far but I guess
it’s around 1500. It’s in way quite ok because it’s hard to sell a
lot of cds nowadays (almost all people stealing music from the
internet).
That's a question that I'll do to every unblack band: why do you
express your christian faith through black metal?
First of all we don’t like to call ourself for Unblackmetal or
Whitemetal, we play black metal. We believe that all kinds of music
is neutral in its self. I mean, a music genre can not be "evil" it
self. It all depends on the purpose why doing it and what the lyrics
is about. I will use a illustration to explain: a knife in the hands
of a murder can kill life, but a knife in the hands of a doctor can
save life. Now is the knife evil it self? No, it depends
 on how you
use it. The power in our hands to decide what we want to use music
for. I know that many blackmetal fans react badly when we use the
word
"blackmetal" to describe our music and we are sorry if we make
people up set for that. But for us BM is a musical genre. Listen to
"Veil of Remembrance" and tell me what kind of music it is..
I
know that all black metal music from the beginning were the all
satanic and occult metalbands. But today even the secular scene
saying something else, because there is a lot of bands with satanic
and occult lyrics (example Deicide, Morbid Angel,
God Among Insects) who are not called "blackmetal" and why is
that? BM has grown and chanced to become and musical genre. We also
believe that God has created all tones and forms of harmonies and
even styles of music. The humankind can use this gifts in different
ways and styles, but the main thought about music was good from the
beginning.
What do you think about the unblack scene? Which are your favourites
album? Which are the most interesting young bands?
Horde "Hellig Usvart" is definitely my favourite CD, all
categories!!! It’s the most true blackmetal I have ever heard and
that CD will always remain special for me. The atmosphere while
listen to it is really awesome. There are not very many christian
bands that play quality death or blackmetal but here are some
(black) albums that I really enjoy: Horde "Hellig Usvart";
Antestor "The Return Of The Black Death", "The Forsaken";
Slechtvalk "At The Dawn Of War", "The War That Plagues The
Lands"; Kekal "Acidity", "1000 Thoughs Of Violence";
Drottnar new album (coming soon); Renascent new album
(coming soon); Lengsel "Solace"; Frosthardr "Makeslös".
Your lyrics are always beautiful and elaborate, they
 express an
very deep faith! Do you write them personally Pilgrim?
Where do you take the inspiration?
Thank you very much. The lyrical concept on Veil of Remembrance is
quite much work on, they are "dark" and written in a poetical form.
Almost all lyrics is first made in swedish and then
translated to
english. Becase it’s a lot easier to express feelings and
experiences in the language we speak. All lyrics are kind of "real
life experiences" explained in a poetic way. Myself (Pilgrim) and
Gustav has write all of them. Since my wife left me a couple of
weeks before we released The Covenant Progress 2003 I have been
struggle a lot "In the Shadow of Death". The lyrics that I have written is
therefore a progress in my life from, (in order) "My Grieff, My
Remembrance", "The Cold Grip of Terror", "Intimations of Everlasting
Constancy" to more recent things described in "Embraced by the beauty
of Cold" and "Illusion was true beauty". In all this confusion, dark
grief and pain I have seen that our Lord Christ is the One he
proclaim. He is the light that never fades away and His love is
greater than all pain in the world. I know it’s true. So the lyrics
also point on a light and a hope in God. In my lyrics I use to take
a lot of inspiration from the scandinavian nature and use it in a
symbolic way.. Gustav’s lyrics is also personal experiences.
Different struggles and thoughts, his lyrics goes quite deep and
it’s a lot of reflections of life and faith from his own life,
written in a strongly philosophical way.
Why is there a satanic
 goat in the new band's logo?! I was a little
shocked the first time I saw it! Could you tell us something about
this choice?
I
hardly can’t understand your question now… First of all: There is no
satanic goats!! I believe that God has created all animals on Earth,
even goats and snakes. Second: There aren’t any goat in our logo!!
The eyes on the M in CriMson are reminding of my Viking mask that I
use to wear live, that’s what why Karl designed it that way… A wise
man used to say: "God creates, evil only perverts".
Oh I'm sorry!, well then
my mistake, but it seemed really a goat (symbol of Devil) the face on logo! ;) Other
question about this: there
are some christian metallers who absolutely doesn't listen to
satanic black; there are others who isolate this bad message and
consider only the music. What do you think about it?
Personally I don’t buy any albums at all with bands that have a
satanic or anti-christian message. But I use to listen to some of
them live (Wacken is great!!) or at my friends places just to being
updated about the genre, since we play the same music. I think it’s
important to be careful about saying that "I don’t listen to the
lyrics, just the music" because the message can reach you through
the music I think. But I don’t just listen to christian metalbands.
Here some secular bands that I like: Nile, Malevolent
Creation, Suffocation, Origin, Bloodbath,
Defleshed, Rotten Sound, Death, Hateshere,
Amon Amarth, Opeth, Dark Tranquillity, In
Flames, and At The Gates.
In the compilation "Songs From The Archives" there is a fantastic
demo, "Haralding The Dawn"; you haven't put this work in sales,
why?, it's wonderful!
Thank you!! I think we had plans to use all those songs for one
 up-coming full-length album back then.. But after some line up and
style changes
we chose to just use
"A thorn in my heart" on
"The Covenant Progress".
Do you love live dimension? Which is the best concert you have done?
Yes,
to play live with Crimson Moonlight is one of the best things I know
to do. It’s so much more than a concert… It’s like an inner cleaning
and also a proclaiming of the faith in Jesus Christ and it’s even a
battle in the spiritual world.
The
best concert? It’s hard to pick up one, but Element of Rock was
GREAT, especially the fans they were wild!! And the concert at Hedon
Zwolle in the Netherlands were also amazing, it was the best sound
we ever had. But the best concert so far were probably at Bobfest
2005 !!! 900 people, great atmosphere, great sound and we really did
the songs fast and good!!!
Are you looking for new members? How will be the stylistic direction
of Crimson Moonlight in the upcoming album?
For
the moment we have a new session guitarist. He name is Joans
Arvidsson and he will play some concert with us now. It’s a relief
to have all members again. I hope Jonas will join us for full time
later on. The new album… hehe.. it will not be pop music J
Is
there the real hope you will player in concert in Italy sooner or
later? ;)
That
would be real great !!
Thanks a lot for spending time and reading this interview!! We hope
to see you all on tour in the future. In main time check out our
homepage and write something in our forum or guestbook. You can
order CD´s and some Merchendise directly from us. The new awesome
VoR merchandise can be ordered from Endtime Productions…
www.crimsonmoonlight.com -
info@crimsonmoonlight.com -
www.durling.com/endtime
Stay
firm, stay brutal !! The Scandinavian Holocaust has begun…"Veil of
Remembrance".
Vaake
(with collaboration
of Ilaria Ricci)
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