V666: We never set out to achieve anything back then. It was more an attack, destroy and pillage the local underground scene. We spearheaded the chaos in our homeland, declaring war on life metal posers from the early 90s to crushing the false black metal bands of the mid to late 90s. The only difficulty we had to face back then was the lack of financial resources.

PW: Would you ever consider returning to The Philippines and do you have any connections with any other bands there at the moment, are there even any of note?

V666: We are planning to do a South East Asian tour next year and that would include the Philippines as well. I am in contact with the hordes of Korihor/Maniak and Kratornas.

PW: Before you released the 2006 demo ‘Rapeslay of the Virgin Mary’ yourself and other original band member Sidapa relocated to Costa Rica. It strikes as another pretty far flung domain to pitch up in and continue musically, although obviously there are plenty of other musical cults of significance in South America, why exactly did you chose there?

V666: I went to Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica for a project that was suppose to run only for 6 months but an opportunity came to me while I was here in CRi so a decision was made to relocate the band here.

PW: What are the main differences of working as a band in Costa Rica and surviving in everyday life compared to how the situation was in the Philippines?

V666: The move here proved to be the right decision. We had a lot of limitations back in the Philippines from recording budgets to finding a decent studio as well as finding a drummer.

PW: Musically you are about as extreme as extreme gets and you are not a band who compromises in the slightest. You have gained a fair bit of press exposure around both your albums, was this something that surprised you at all?

V666: We already gained some notoriety with the release of our “Satanik Eon” album but the right promotion was not provided by our then label. With the new album, we have managed to create our own sound and broken down all the limits to extremity, this plus the great job done by HHR to promote the album enabled it to reach its potential and spread to a much wider audience.

PW: I can imagine that you also get reviews where the listener completely has no idea where you are coming from and cannot understand your musical output at all, has this happened much and does it tend to amuse or frustrate?

V666: Let them posers remain as what they are. It is normal for weak minds to not comprehend what we have done. All masterpieces in all forms of art are not understood by their contemporaries.

PW: How have things been for you label wise? You released the debut album on Morbid Moon Records from Canada, how did this come about and with new album ‘Filipino Antichrist’ you are with Hells Headbangers, again how did that collaboration take place.

V666: First we made our demo “Rapeslay of the Virgin Mary”. I gave it to some labels and most of them don’t even understand what we are doing back in 2006, some would say that the vocals are far out from what they consider black metal. Morbid Moon on the other hand signed us right away upon hearing the demo which resulted in Satanik Eon. There are only a few true labels nowadays that take the risk to sign bands that do something different. They always stick to their “whatever is the trend” safe business. Well, Satanik Eon has succeeded. The association with Morbid Moon was great but we needed a more experienced label in the underground that would be able to handle the proper promotions and distribution of our album, thus enters HHR. I have been in contact with Chase before and even before the album deal we already made the deal with the re-release of our demo 93. HHR offered us a deal that would be impossible to top by any underground label thus we signed the contract with them.

PW: There is one hell of a lot of care and attention gone into your merchandise and lots of different limited versions of your material for collectors. I take it this was always very important to you finding a label who would go out of their way to produce high quality vinyl for you too?

V666: Yes and only HHR can do them for us. We are more than satisfied with how everything turned out.

PW: The cover art for Filipino Antichrist’ is fantastic who was responsible for it, did they work on it from just being given the album title or did they listen to the music to get an idea of what you were looking for too?

V666: The cover was painted by legendary Joe “Motorhead” Petagno. It was surreal to get hold of him since we have been followers of his art since the early Motorhead albums and having him do the art for our 20th anniversary album is fucking great! Joe listened to some of the finished songs and got the titles and the overall theme of the album and I also gave him the ultramar image. The rest was all him and his killer ideas.

PW: The ‘bestial’ phrase is one that has been thrown around by many a journalist of late and it is one that perhaps could be considered synonymous with your music but how would you describe what you do?

V666: You could call our music Bestial Black Death or Satanic Bestial Metal! The problem is with the recent surge of all these bestial bands, 90% of them are posers or just using the bestial word to get into the trend. What they don’t know is that this is supposed to be still Black Metal where the main theme is the glorification of Satan! With this in mind, I rather you call our music as Satanic Metal!

PW: I won’t mention all the other bands that are quoted in relation to your sound but what other groups inspire you musically and are there perhaps any less extreme musical pleasures that you occasionally like to settle down and listen to?

V666: Our inspirations never changed since day one. 80s Venom, Hellhammer, first two records of Sodom and Sarcofago’s INRI then came Impaled Nazarene, Beherit, Blasphemy, Deicide’s 1st album and Morbid Angel. Perhaps the reason why we are different from all our contemporaries is because we are stuck in the 80s and early 90s. We try to compose our music as if we were in 1991! The only other bands that have struck us in the 90s and the 00s were Bestial Warlust, Conqueror and Black Witchery!

PW: Tell us a bit about the recording of ‘Filipino Antichrist’ was this done in Costa Rica and under what conditions, how long did the process take?

V666: It was recorded in the same studio that we recorded the EP “Satan Cult Baphomet” and was done in the most analogue way possible. There were no digital tweakings or plug-in enhancements done on the recorded parts. The guitar is how it sounds like coming out of the amplifier. The recording process took almost 24 hours in a span of 3 days then ensued countless hours of mixing.

PW: Another clichéd question but there is no ignoring the many references to Satan within your music and song titles. I assume you practice what you preach? What does Satanism specifically mean to you?

V666: We are practicing left-hand path occultists and ceremonial magickians. We follow the works of Levi, Waite, Mathers, Crowley, Spare and all prophets of the left hand path, separating the wheat from the chaff. Our Satanism involves conjuring and invoking fallen angels! Lucifuge Rofocale!

PW: In line with this, I was also wondering if you ever had any problems with people attempting to censor your work or prevent you playing live?

V666: There has been none so far.

PW: Speaking of which I see nothing about you playing live in the future. I can imagine it being a pretty damn destructive ritual when you do. I guess with location and the fact that your music only attracts a particularly fanatical maniac it is pretty damn difficult for arranging a tour in Europe or festival dates? Is this the case and are there any plans for shows in the future?

V666: There are already planned dates for November 2010. There will be three dates in Finland, four dates in Russia and seven dates in Germany hell! The tour will start Oct. 31 and end Nov. 18!

PW: ‘Chaos, destruction, hate, annihilation and extinction’ are the first five words that come into my head listening to your music. I take it that is pretty much the feelings you want to convey upon the listener?

V666: Yes! All for the glory of Satan!

PW: I read somewhere that you will never release an album without a Sarcofago cover on it. This brings me onto the last question, where do you go from here, are you already working on new material perhaps?

V666: Our next attack is the 93 EP which will be released by Hells Headbangers this summer. It contains the re-recorded songs from our demo 1993. Sidapa has started writing the songs for the 3rd album which shall be an early 2011 release.

Any final comments?

V666: Hail to you and all the maniacs that support us! Praise Hail Satan! Fuck off to trends! Fuck off to hypes! Fuck off to the false!

For more on the band check out http://www.deiphago.com
http://www.myspace.com/deiphago

Interviewed by Pete Woods

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