PW: Firstly and dispensing with an obvious question that should be of interest to those not in the know, what is the actual meaning of the band name Eibon La Furies?’

LEB: It has got many meanings really but the simplest way to explain it is that you have Eibon which is very black and taken from one of the first really dark art wizards who was ever talked about in history and if you look at the Book Of Eibon you will find out more about it. Then La Furies is really thinking of the Greek legend, the triple Goddess, basically the worst curse you could call on anybody. It is meant to be ambiguous; we never really wanted a name that said it all. As I say it has many other meanings and if you discover more, please let us know.

PW: Tell us a bit about the genesis of the band, whose idea was it to get things together? Had any of you previous experience in playing with any other acts before this?

LEB: Most of us have played in other bands, it was something I started when I was doing another project, which was just taking far too long and wasn’t anything to do with extreme metal. I kind of had a bit of a need to go and do something, so I wrote a few songs, recorded them and didn’t really think much of it. They were put on a couple of sites and people seemed to like what they were hearing. So at the very beginning it wasn’t even taken that seriously. Then it started to gather momentum, people were actually talking favourably about it and we started to push it that little bit further and think about it a bit more seriously.

PW: So you obviously found exposure easier to gain with the Internet and sites like MySpace.

LEB: Definitely, I think the Internet is something that is there to be used and if you can use it well it’s fantastic. The one thing you can’t do is put up a website or a MySpace and expect everyone to come to you. You have to actively go out and promote it.

PW: The first demo release was ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ Did you take this name from the Ray Bradbury novel, it does really kind of fit the somewhat dark and sinister side of the music.

LEB: We have been asked that before and actually no, it’s from Shakespeare [Macbeth]. It’s been used so many times and is such a fantastic title and I think it will be used by many more.

PW: At the time it seemed that you were certainly doing something different and had clearly defined ideas. There was a lot of curiosity in some of the song titles such as ‘The Lamplighter of Souls.’ Could you tell us a bit about the background narrative behind the music?

LEB: At that time it was really taking in a lot of the Victorian ideas but maybe it hadn’t quite honed itself. Taking something like ‘Lamplighter Of The Souls’ there is a book called ‘The Lamplighter’ set in Edinburgh 1886 and I would heartily recommend that to anyone, it’s by an author called Anthony O’Neil. I won’t say too much about it but go and search it’s a fantastic Victorian occult thriller. There were other ideas there, we had things like ‘Tears Of Angels’ which was looking at a lot of ideas. There was Crowley, the idea of mediumship and yeah it was quite ambiguous again but to tell the truth, a lot of our stuff we like to keep it that way. Also with the first one there was a certain amount of Lovecraftian Cthulhu influences as well.

PW: I seem to remember a stir being caused on certain forums over a cover of ‘Transilvanian Hunger’ complete with cello. What did you think of all this at the time?

LEB: Actually to tell the truth I was heartened by the amount of people who like it. It was a bit of a mad idea and I am very much into covers but only those where people take a song and try and do something with it. I think it was an idea to try and take something and try and turn it into something completely different, but also yes, there was a point in taking a song that so many people had heard and had something to say about, put our slant on it and see what happened. I think I was [prepared for it to ruffle a few feathers] and I think it did but it did get us a certain amount of notoriety as well.

PW: I also seem to remember you being somewhat surprised by positive reactions and reviews to the demo. Was it intended as more of a one off project or did you envisage that the band may take off and eventually find themselves signed to a label?

LEB: It was definitely a one off project, maybe a possibility of doing another demo which we did go onto do but then the germ of thinking, actually this is doing better than a lot of other projects I am involved in set in and I decided to put more time and effort into Eibon La Furies than anything else. Really the big change came on deciding this should be put together as a live band and I started to put together other musicians.

PW: One other thing I should mention is that you were also embellishing your albums with some very visual film clips. Tell us a bit about how you went about putting these together and was it very important to get yourself noticed visually?

LEB: Obviously the music is the most important part but I think anyone that has seen us live or our presence on the Internet, yeah visually it’s very important. I come from the days of Venom, King Diamond and Celtic Frost who all had very visual imagery. As far as the videos were concerned we were in a fairly lucky position where myself and Spectral Symphony [Keys, programming & creator of dark ambience] actually were making videos for various bands so we had the equipment and the skills and decided let’s do this for ourselves. Really it has been a lot of fun doing that and there will be more videos coming up. They did take a lot of time to put together as we all have jobs etc and we used a lot of inventiveness and a lot of goodwill from people as far as getting places to film etc was concerned.

PW: ‘Yours Truly... From Hell’ followed a year or so later. It very much strikes as a forerunner for the full length album having some of the songs that would appear later on it. Had anything changed behind the scenes as far as the band were concerned between releases and was this a serious bid to perhaps find yourself proper label support?

LEB: It was an intention to ramp it up, I think the difference was Spectral Symphony came in and started to do a lot more on that release, so it was really three of us involved. We were also trying to take it a little more seriously and think about the songs. We even discussed the artwork and whether we should put the picture of Mary Kelly on the front because the one thing I never wanted to do was go for the whole shocking thing just because but ultimately as it was all about Jack The Ripper, I had a thought and we had a chat down the pub and when I ultimately saw that picture for the first time Jack The Ripper stopped being just a legend and it sent such a chill through me to realise a human being could do that to someone else, I said it’s iconic to me and I cant think of any other picture. If we did anything else I would have felt we were just like a rock band with a top hat on the front.

PW: ‘From Hell’ obviously concentrates on Jack The Ripper and no doubt was inspired by the Alan Moore graphic novel. What was it that drew you towards representing this in a musical form?

LEB: The Alan Moore graphic novel is a fantastic study with a lot of the ideas in there. Something I thought that was really missed out when they did the film was the idea that the place itself and with so much blood spilled around it could start to create what a persons deeds were. I very much loved that part of the graphic novel so ‘I am Whitechapel’ very much deals with that thought.

PW: At this time I believe that you were looking at actually playing live but had not yet done so. How long did it take you before you managed to achieve your goal and what did you have to do to make the transition from a studio project?

LEB: Yeah that was a bit of a strange one. We had a few musicians in before we settled on the line up we ended up with but all of them, even if they have left have been very important and are still part of the Eibon La Furies family. It was ultimately from getting into the practice rooms about half a year to three quarters until we did our first gig and really that was as we were working out exactly how we were going to do this because Spectral Symphony didn’t want to do stuff live and nor did Lady Titania who provided the female vocals but we had musicians who did want to. So we decided to go down the whole sequencing route. In the future that is slowly going to change as I think Spectral Symphony’s going to start doing things live.

PW: How did you come to the attention of Code666, was there interest from other labels and what was it about them that made you decide to sign?

LEB: Ironically Code 666 actually approached us wanting us to send them a press pack. At the time we were actually sending them out to quite a few labels and we were getting some positive noises from them as you do. So we didn’t hear from Code 666 for a couple of months and in that time we played Bloodstock on the unsigned stage and they got back and said basically we really like what you do and would like to offer you a deal. We discussed that and knowing the genre and knowing a lot of the labels, I’ve actually always had a lot of respect for Code 666 and the bands on it and there was the fact that living in one of the smaller cities in the UK I acknowledged the fact that I see their releases in the shop so realised they had good distribution.

PW: How were initial reactions to the album, have you had much in the way of positive reviews for it and have you had anyone covering it that simply hasn’t got where you are coming from at all?

LEB: We have actually had reviews right across the spectrum. In a strange way I was expecting some absolute slatings as I do think we are trying to do something a bit different. We have had some glowing ones but it’s those in the middle where I think they are almost getting it but they are not quite there, I think by the second album we will have them. As far as the slatings are concerned I think they should read what Spectral Symphony has to say about them, he is always very vocal but I say you can’t say that to people!

PW: What is the situation with the band as far as playing live is concerned in the future, I know you were keen to get someone physically singing the female choral parts on stage and you have had flag bearers adding to the visual presentation in the past.

LEB: It’s all work in progress, if I say anything now it could all change over the next few months. I think you are always going to have the same hardcore three; myself vocals and guitar, Furious Host on bass and Battalion on drums. We are practicing over summer with Spectral Symphony and we are looking for a female vocalist to maybe join us depending on how much we use on the next album as we are actually looking on using choirs as well. Trying not to go down the full Therion route but there is an interesting sound there, which I think can be explored into the whole black metal thing.

PW: Putting you right on the spot how would you describe yourselves musically?

LEB: Ha ah. I could come out with all the we are Victoriana occult kind of thing but I think that really, ultimately we are a metal band and that’s what it’s all about. We love so many styles of music, so many different ideas, all that we really want to do is try and come up with something new. So I would say experimental black metal, avant-garde black metal, progressive black metal. We have been called them all by people and I don’t disagree with them.

PW: Thinking of UKBM and any scene that may or may not exist where do you see yourselves, an oddity out on a limb from other bands, or are there others that you would say you share any common ground with?

LEB: I actually think that when you look at the UK black metal scene there are a lot of bands who don’t sound the same. So we are starting to get a healthy underground black metal scene here. I think that we are one of the more oddball of them but I would align ourselves with somebody like Meads Of Asphodel, who have been going a lot longer and are a lot bigger name than us but in a way I think we are doing something just as odd as they are. Then there are other fantastic bands, you have Fen doing very well also on Code 666, you have also someone I see quite regularly and have a few beers with Self Inflicted Violence. I think people will start hearing about them soon, they are a bit like Alcest and melancholic, and also another band Old Corpse Road. We have played with them and I think they are absolutely fantastic and for anyone going to Bloodstock this year that’s a must see band.

PW: Do you intend to continue exploring “Victoriana Occult and Infernal Brigantia.” There are plenty of different areas you can cover, have you any ideas for the future as far as recorded works are concerned?

LEB: Yeah we are actually working on the new songs and at the moment the working title which will probably end up as the second album title is ‘The Immoral Compass.’ The reason being we realised there are so many fantastic individuals at that Victorian era who through some of the things they did, through some of their discoveries, were they immoral? I don’t know but there were certainly people like Crowley and all the Golden Dawn members and quite a lot of high profile writers and scientists as well and some of the things they went through to come up with those discoveries, you knd of think did they have to put some things aside, some moral judgements aside? In the end I’m a lot more interested in the darker side of humanity than I am about demons and all those sort of stories.

PW: Anything else to add?

LEB: We are going to be playing at Gathering Of The Clans in Coalville [Oct 16] and the line up for that is fantastic. Old Corpse Road are there, Wodensthrone who I think are headlining and we are really pleased to be asked to play, especially as it is a predominantly folk black metal festival. We are also talking about a mini tour at the very beginning of next year with Northern Oak, Old Corpse Road and Forest Of The Stars, so basically over a couple of weekends and a week get to all the major cities and put all four of us on.

The Blood Of The Realm is out now on Code 666 Records

For more on the band check out http://www.myspace.com/eibonlafuries
http://www.myspace.com/code666records

Interviewed by Pete Woods

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