Impure Worship is one of those black metal acts that adorn the Greek underground. Don’t try to track them down in social media, since they prefer to spread their music via the old-school way by trading and word of mouth. They are going to open the Black Spectrum festival, on 20th November at MODU, so this is the right time to have a brief chat with them…
From early 00’s as Helvete til present. What has changed since then? A flashback please from your early days until today….
Not much has changed since then. We have the same devotion in our music (both as fans and musicians) and the same thirst to write and play ferocious and blasphemous black metal.
Having recently again listened to your releases on your bandcamp page I can say that I am really impressed, since they are a black metal “punch” to the listener’s face! What was the process of recording these “beasts”?
I present most of the riffs and a basic song structure to the other guys during rehearsals, then we ‘play them to death’ doing some changes here and there until we are totally satisfied with the result. When we have enough songs we enter the studio (Eleventh Tower owned by Herald who is also the guitarist in Embrace Of Thorns to whom I also play) and with our ideas and some technical advises from him we get the result you experienced.
When should we be lucky enough to listen to your debut full-length? Any time soon?
I don’t have any idea when that will happen. Writing songs takes a lot of (my limited) time for me. I don’t want to release “filler” songs just for the sake of a full LP. We currently have 6-7 songs ready so as soon as I compose 2-3 more we are going to enter the studio. We play some of the new songs live so people who will attend our live appearances on 20th of November in Black Spectrum (Serpent Noir, Order Of The Ebon Hand, Akrotheism, Impure Worship) and then on 10th of December supporting the mighty Archgoat along with Dødsferd will have a chance to listen them.
You are going to appear live at Black Spectrum (MODU), along with another 3 great, underground black metal acts. What should we expect from this live?
We are very pleased to share the stage with them (Serpent Noir, Order Of The Ebon Hand, Akrotheism) as I consider all 3 of them masters of their craft and very important to the Greek underground scene. Having seen the other bands several times before, I know there will be a dense atmosphere and excellent musicianship/performance from all of them. On our part we only aim for total sonic devastation.
No social media, only a bandcamp page. Don’t you want your music to get to a wider audience?
We don’t really care about social media. We don’t want to have a page where our mothers and our friends’ mothers can go and “like”, “follow” us so that it will boost our ego. It works for some but not for us. People who should know us and will be interested in us will eventually get to listen to us. I do a lot of trading and I attend shows both in Greece and abroad and I spread the word about our band as much as I can.
Word of advice for youngsters who get involved with black metal music making? What should they avoid? What should they do?
1st step. Know your basics. No one will take you seriously if you start talking about Teitanblood but you have no idea who Bathory are. You might not like them (you should) you might think they are outdated (you suck) and you might not consider them relevant enough (fuck off) to today’s scene but you should KNOW them.
2nd step. Once you know your basics start digging deep in the underground. There are countless gems there to be found. Instead of following the newest release of a washed out band just because it features their logo on the cover, start listening to music with your ears and your soul. A fan that stops discovering new bands will eventually stagnate, lose interest and will wither away.
Which bands would you consider as your biggest influences?
We listen to the whole spectrum of black and death metal, so I guess we have a lot of influences among those 2 styles. Most notable and evident in our music would be, Impaled Nazarene (old), Beherit, Blasphemy, Archgoat, Bestial Warlust, Black Witchery and countless more bands that I could namedrop forever!!!
What’s next for Impure Worship?
As I mentioned before we have 2 upcoming shows supporting great bands and then slowly write new material for our first full length.
Ending this interview, what does black metal mean to Impure Worship?
I can only answer this question for myself. Black metal has always been my catharsis. I strongly believe that I have managed to stay a sane and calm person (despite all the shit we have to face every day) because I channel all my negative energy into listening/writing black metal.
Keep the black flame burning and Praise the Goat!
Christos Doukakis