Thomas: We never had this in mind when we first started rehearsing back in 1992, Micke and I started to play together in 1987 so this year we have spent 21 years playing together. When we first started jamming together in the ´80s we had this dream of getting a label and releasing an album... and here we are several year later with 8 full-length albums + demos, 7” singles, Ep’s, compilations and tours/gigs behind us. It feels very good to have achieved this, to have come this far without ever getting tired of it or ever giving up our struggle.

PW: As I mentioned I only personally have new album ‘The Black Curse’ and 2005 release ‘Nocturnal Beast’ what have I been missing out on and how would you say you have progressed as a band through the years?

Thomas: I myself consider all our albums to be unique (not very objective though) since all albums tends to differ from the other. However, the past years have been good for Lord Belial since we have found a good mix between all our albums – combining the atmosphere of the dark and slow melancholic riffs with the more pounding and fast parts with more aggressiveness and sinister touch to it.

When I look back on Kiss The Goat for example, I am very proud of it, but you can easily hear that this is the debut album of a bunch of guys who isn’t that technical skilled with their instruments or how to really perform the songs... but still I like it because of the passion you can hear in the songs.

I think we have progressed into a band which is more like a unit than a band; we have finally come to the clarity that this setting that we have now (the original setting as from the start in 1992) is by far the best we can have and Lord Belial is working better now than ever. All these years have totally welded us together and we are now stronger than ever!

PW: I noticed on Wiki that you have had quite a few flutists in your time. I believe Unholy Crusade utilised both flute and cello, which strikes as a very interesting idea. Is this something you have looked at bringing back to your music or strictly part of the past?

Thomas: We have talked about making some songs which will include these elements but on The Black Curse we didn’t feel the need to use it. We don’t want to use any additional effects/voices/instruments just for the sake of using it.

We are more than open for any future collaboration with instruments such as cello and flute again.

PW: I am sure you are always getting asked this but the band has no less than three Backelin’s in the ranks; I believe you play alongside a brother and cousin. How do you find working with other family members, I guess you are all pretty much on the same wavelength?

Thomas: Correct, Micke and I are brothers with Anders as our cousin.

You’re also correct about us being on the same wavelength, as the three of us grew up together and started to play together quite early (I was only 12 years old when I and Micke started what came to be Lord Belial) we had the same ideal and thoughts about having a band. We hardly discuss stuff about Lord Belial, we all have the same thoughts about it so we just go ahead making everything as it comes by.

PW: Is Lord Belial your sole concern at the moment, I notice that you are listed as being in many other bands in the past including Sacrementum, are you or any of the group still actively involved in any other groups?

Thomas: Lord Belial is for me my only concern when it comes to music, even if I have been involved with some bands before I never let those bands interfere with any of the plans of Lord Belial.

Niclas is still involved with Dimension Zero but apart from that we have no side projects at the moment. I do have my own (at the moment) one-man-project called Fleshbound but that will never cross the path of Lord Belial.

PW: From what I have heard the melody is a key aspect as far as your music is concerned it is something that really stands out and is rich and free-flowing. I take it that this is very important to you and you favour harmony over sheer brutality within your sound.

Thomas: I consider melodies being the very foundation of the song writing of Lord Belial, as you say I prefer melodies over brutality. However we are trying to mix these two elements making the sound more dynamically and interesting.

I myself find it very boring to listen to bands whose only intention is to play as fast as possible and totally neglect the atmosphere and/or feeling of the song, I want to have some sort of groove in a song occasionally to make it interesting and memorable.

PW: The other thing that really strikes is the lyrical concepts, firstly is the writing of these down to you or are all the group actively involved?

Thomas: I write all of the lyrics by myself, in the first albums the others contributed with a few lyrics but for the past 10 years I have done this solely.

PW: I take it you have an interest in demonology, Pazuzu is referenced on the new album and Lilith throughout your career?

Thomas: I am interested in lots of different things and demonology is one of them even if I don’t read as much about is nowadays as I did 10-12 years ago, I am still very interesting and find it very fascinating. When I write lyrics about certain demons or mythological events I tend to refresh my memory by reading about them again on either internet or in some books which I find very fascinating and educating. Lilith has been with us since the first album, and I thought it would be cool to bring her back in the ranks of Lord Belial for this album.

PW: It’s obvious that church going is not exactly high on the agenda either. Would you class yourself as a practising Satanist and ideologically what doctrines are important to you?

Thomas: I am not a practising Satanist, I do find lots of the essential ideologies behind Satanism and other satanic branches very interesting and close to me but I would never count myself to or stand behind something which is counted as some sort of religious organisation. I prefer being by myself and living my life from my own ideal and opinions.

PW: Your album covers are always very striking, I loved Kris Verwimp’s work on ‘Nocturnal Beast’ I cannot see a signature on the new one, who is responsible and how much creative input do you have into the artwork in general?

Thomas: The guy who made the cover art for The Black Curse is Marcel HVC who also made the covers for Angelgrinder and The Seal Of Belial.

For this specific covers I just threw him the lyrics and asked him to do something which could deliver a visual explanation of the concept of the album, something that would bind the cover together with the sentiment and message of the lyrics.

I think he did a very good job on this one

PW: You are pretty prolific when it comes to releasing albums in fact recently it has been every year and a half or so. Do you find that the writing process has become easier over the years and do you expect to keep this momentum up?

Thomas: I guess that after some albums you get into the song writing procedure more easily than in the beginning of a band where you haven’t got any routine for the writing. I find it pretty easy to make riffs and arrange them into songs which is the main reason for us putting out albums with such narrow space between them.

I expect nothing else than to keep up with this speed, perhaps not as fast as between these last two albums but at least not more than 1½-2 year between the albums would be good.

PW: Obviously the other aspect is the touring. You are just about to head off to places such as Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. I am guessing this could be the first time in these territories. I would not say you are the most prolific band when it comes to touring and you have never really played outside Europe looking at things on your site. Is there a reason for this, day jobs, booking agencies perhaps?

Thomas: Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia are countries which we never had the opportunity to play in, we went to Slovenia one time before but other than that this tour was quite a new experience for us with all these new countries and venues.

The main reason for us not being on the road as much as we would like or should is because of the fact that we do have families and ordinary day jobs which we have to attend to. We have a new booking agency which has bigger plans for us so hopefully we will expand on our touring some more in a near future.

PW: I maybe mistaken but I cannot remember you ever playing the UK, any chance of you rectifying that situation in the near future? I am sure I remember Sacrementum playing at the Garage in London possibly with Marduk or Dark Funeral, were you involved with them then and do you have any recollection of that?

Thomas: Lord Belial has never had the honour of coming to the UK which we have been talking about for many times but sadly this has never seen the light until now; I know for a fact that our booking agency is in contact with several promoters in the UK as we speak which will end up with us coming over there next year.

I never went to the UK with Sacramentum; perhaps they went there before I was in the band.

PW: I may well not get the answers back until after the tour as you are heading off in a couple of days. If so how did it go for you and what were the highlights, most fanatical crowd etc?

Thomas: Slovenia and Serbia was the best shows for us regarding the insane crowd and fans. LOTS of autographs and photo shoots all night long and the audience was fucking awesome. Also some of the gigs in Romania were excellent

The absolutely worst fucking gig was in Hungary where the people just didn’t seem to care about any of the bands... why even bother going to a concert in that case, fucking morons.

One funny thing occurred when we were in Bulgaria; in the night a couple of hours after the gig we forced entry into this military building which was in the same area as the open air we were playing. The thing is that they kept all the beer and wine in there so we thought we might as well go in there and get some barrels and bottles. But we didn’t know that they had silent alarm so within about 3-5 minutes there came military, police and security and after 30 minutes or so they wanted to throw us into jail so our tour manager had to pay about 600 Euro as a bribe for not locking us up. When all this fuss was going on Micke actually tried to persuade both the military and the police to let us go inside to get some of the barrels and bottles, I was laughing my fucking ass off over that scene! Well, a short story made long hehe

PW: Well that’s about it, feel free to make any parting shot.

Thomas: Thanks a lot for showing interest in Lord Belial and for spreading our Black Curse!

To all our fans in the UK - See you soon!!

Cheers!

For more on the band check out www.lordbelial.com
www.myspace.com/lordbelialband

Interviewed by Pete Woods

MTUK HOME