This is one of this interview that always wanted to make. This band has been one of my favourite bands since I begin to listen this music. Sadly the band never have been very active recording new stuff, never even I saw the time to listen their full album. When I read that the band was active again and that they was gonna to release the expected, was like gift for me... Now the band is more active than never, making concerts, releasing stuff, and making interesting interviews like this. A chat with David Herrera never leave anyone indifferent...
Greettins Dave. We wanted to give you the welcome to the Necromancy Fanzine pages. How are you? Tell us how is your life in Huston. Is a good city to live?
David: Things are actually cold and dismal in Houston right now, this is rare but I like it. Houston, TX is my home. We are the 3rd/4th largest city in the US, so it can feel pretty cramped at times, we have a lot of transplants as of late. I was born and raised here, so no matter where I go or what paths I may take in the future I will always be here.
Imprecation is one of this bands that has backed in these days like another bands that we thought that was missing. What’s made that you back to together again? If I’m not wrong this is the second time that the band back to the scene, first was in 2002 in “Infernal Horde Manifestation Fest” and second and final in 20009. What really happened for decide twice to stop the band?
David: Well, the Manifestation fest was simply a reunion show to acknowledge what we started over 10 years before that. We actually formed in the autumn of 1991, but we developed our sound in the early parts of 1992, especially with the release of our demo "Ceremony of the Nine Angles". Technically speaking, Imprecation has only stopped once, and that was after 1998 seeing the initial demise of the band. In 2008 we decided to reform to accomplish a few goals that never saw the light of day, the most important one being that we never released a proper full length album. We did not reform to try to cash in on past glories, this was brought about for personal satisfaction on the parts of all involved, especially with Ruben and myself.
Is really curious that a band like Imprecation with more than 20 years of life, 22 years later when you release your full album. It’s the same like Sadistic Intent, that we never know if they will release a full album in their musical life. Apart the continuous line up changes, and band stops, in the active time of the band you hadn’t time to compose this full album that you have now release before?
David: I don't know why it never happened in the past. I was talking to Ruben the other day, laughing at the fact that my other band BAHIMIRON is about to release it's 4th LP and his past band ADUMUS recorded 3 albums, yet all we released from Imprecation for a while were demos and 7 inch records. Of course there was "Theurgia Goetia Summa", but that was mainly a compilation of the '94 promo, the "Sigil of Baphomet" 7inch and the "Ceremony...." demo.
Finally we can enjoy of your full album “Satanae Tenebris Infinita”. I must admit that at first listening was a little strange because I was so exited for listen your first album after 20 years of waiting, but at the third listening I was fully engaged to the nine tracks that compose this master piece. I have to say that you still transmit the same darkness and brutality. The atmosphere is the same heavy and infernal like in your old releases, but beside the actual sound and mastering, what main difference do you see compared with the old releases?
David: I really believe that it is just a natural step in our evolution as a band. Quite honestly not much is different in songwriting and overall approach from the early material, I can hear passages of the "Ceremony" demo in songs like "Blood Dominion" and "Angel of Salvation's Doom" and a ton of passages that harken back to the "Sigil of Baphomet" and "94 Promo" era with songs like "Chapel of Rotting Flesh", "From Beyond the Fiery Temples", "Hosanna Ex Inferis" and "Of the Black Earth". Only "Coils of Eden" and "Rancid Blood on Blackened Thorns" sound different to me. Nothing was forced to sound like our old ways, nothing was premeditated to fit in. It just happened. We are who we are and we will never change to please anyone. You can take it or leave it.
Like I have read in other fanzine, this title “Satanae Tenebris Infinita” its not the first one that you were gonna to put to the album, Which was and why did you decide to change it?
David: The original title of the LP was to be "Of The Black Earth", which was a title that I had put on our shirts in 1992 shortly after the release of "Ceremony of the Nine Angles". I placed that title under the "Necronomicross" drawing I did, to give our supporters a peek into our future LP. I held onto that title for over 20 years, hoping one day to finally use it on our debut. When we signed to Dark Descent records, our full intent was to fulfill that goal, and then out of nowhere a band called MAVETH popped up with the title to their full length on Dark Descent called "Coils of the Black Earth". To be honest, that really deflated me. Here we were set to release our LP, and after 20 years of a plan it just gets wiped away. The fact that they were on the same label, with their release coming out a couple of months before ours was too close for comfort. Plus we have a song on the LP called "The Coils of Eden". There were simply too many similar features to go on with the plan. The last thing we want as a band is to give the impression that we have to lift ideas from others to make it through. So the new title came to be. It is latin for "The Infinite Darkness of Satan". It also has a feel like "Theurgia Goetia Summa", so it just felt right.
How are you looking the answer of the people to the album? You're noticing that people and the scene in general have received back with open arms?
David: The album has been very well received. The only thing that really bothers us is the incessant comparisons to INCANTATION. Do not get me wrong, INCANTATION is a killer death metal band, one in which I am fond of but they are not and have never been an influence of ours. On a different note, it is nice that many maniacs are writing us and letting us know that this album will make their best of 2013 lists, it means a ton to have that kind of support.
Tell us a little the composition and recording process. Any funny anecdote that you can tell? There was any track that was composed in the old times?
David: Well, not really much to say except that everything went smooth in the studio. All tracks are new, nothing from the old days. As a matter of fact, there are only two songs from the old days when I was involved that never made it to a recording, one being called "The Unsleeping Black" and the other entitled "...And Blood Nourishes". Any evidence of those songs can be found on one single live video recording from back in 1993, but the quality is muddy and it is impossible to pick out those rhythms. So any chance to remake is gone.
We could say that your music is based in brutality and darkness, with the keyboards that give to your music this atmospheric point, but, what’s the main goal that you have present at the time of compose a track?
David: The end result to be crushing darkness in the name of almighty Satan.
Like I have read in the cd booklet, there are some tracks in this album that have been composed by Milton Luna and Danny Hiller, which is so curious because are new members of the band, how did you know them? Have been people always fans of Imprecation?
David: Yes, they are past members of Ruben's black metal band ADUMUS. They are like brothers to me, they are a perfect fit for Imprecation. Danny wrote "Hosanna Ex Inferis" and Milton wrote "Blood Dominion", "Angel of Salvation's Doom" and a track which is to appear on the upcoming BLASPHERIAN split "Unlock the Ancient Portals of the Faceless Lord". I think their talent speaks for itself, and the songwriting is excellent in my opinion. What I like the most about Milton and Danny is that they were fans of Imprecation prior to joining, so they respected the foundation that was built by the band over the years. Also their playing styles inject new venom in our sound and approach without losing the sound that was built in the old days by Phil and Ruben.
Before the album you released a 7”EP called “Sigil of Lucifer” through Negativity Rec, which is sold out in this moment. How many copies made of this EP? There are many people that would like to buy and its impossible if not in Ebay for a big price. Have you thought re release again?
David: I'm not sure how many copies were made, it's in a contract somewhere. But yeah, with the exception of a few personal copies it is sold out through Negativity and I believe most distros. That EP was getting back on the horse again, I would love to have a crack at it once more. Actually, we have been toying around with the idea of re-recording the song "Baptized in Devil's Blood" for the next LP. "On Cursed Heretic Thorns" will remain exclusive to the Negativity release. As far as a re-release, I don't think that will be happening, though if Gilles wants to do it then it is fine with us.
Imprecation is a band that born with the birth of Death Metal, making a very personal style based in darkness and blasphemy. Because there were very few Death Metal bands, tell us what of the bands of the era influenced you at the time to compose your first demo “Ceremony of the Nine Angels“. and for get this darkness in your tracks…
David: Well, Ruben and Phil had started developing the approach for the early Imprecation sound with their previous band DARK REIGN, which had a black thrash approach. When they formed Imprecation, Phil wanted to downtune his guitar for the new project as he was mightily influenced by ENTOMBED at the time. Ruben has always been a purist, his inspirations have always been bands of old such as CELTIC FROST, SLAYER, POSSESSED, MERCYFUL FATE, JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH and IRON MAIDEN. The two of them were also very keen on the sounds from bands like old SEPULTURA, MORBID ANGEL, TERRORIZER and INFERNAL MAJESTY. My personal influence was the vocal styles of Black Winds from the almighty BLASPHEMY, Jeff Gruslin era VITAL REMAINS, David Vincent's first spells, Tom Warrior's first spells and Ross Dolan from IMMOLATION. I was also inspired by the early sounds of DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM, IMPALED NAZARENE, and "Wrath of the Tyrants" era EMPEROR, even if my vocal style did not reflect that.
Do you think that the Imprecation sound make made school in Death Metal scene? There are many bands now that have a style very similar to Imprecation, bands that you have influenced strongly, what do feel being influenced of others bands? Would you highlight any?
David: I do not know if any bands have cited us as influnce. If there are some, then I definitely take it as an honor.
Your old guitarist Wes Weaver founded in 2004 the band Blaspherian, a great band that have a very similar sound with Imprecation, not only musically even aesthetically, blasphemy, inverted crosses, etc… So much so that I have listened for some people that Wes anticipate recording the album that all the people were waiting of Imprecation, What do you think about that? Do you like Blaspherian? What’s the relationship that you have in this moment with Wes?
David: BLASPHERIAN are friends of ours, and they definitely have our support 100%. Me and Wes go way way back, I will always consider him a friend. I like that within our city of Houston there are two true Death Metal bands that have allegience with almighty Satanas, and the fact that Wes kept the aesthetics of Imprecation intact when forming Blaspherian. The two bands will appear on an upcoming 7inch split in the near future on DARK DESCENT records, (already out...ed) so the union should tell all that we are allies and not enemies as some would like to gossip about.
If I’m not wrong is ready to be released a Split EP between Imprecation and Blaspherian. Tell us something about this release.
David: Yes, like I mentioned previously it will be on Dark Descent, and it will feature one track from each band exclusive to the vinyl. The cover artwork is amazing, conjured up by none other than Daniel Shaw (vocals/Blaspherian). I'm not sure what the name of their contribution is, but our song is entitled "Unlock the Ancient Portals of the Faceless Lord". It is an ultra aggressive song, to me the natural approach would have been to put a song on this release that would have a doomier aspect but to me that would be too expected.
Deathrune Rec. from Spain re release your compilation “Theurgia Goetia Summa” in CD and vinyl again, what can you tell us about this rerelease? Are you happy with the work of Deathrune?
David: I am happy with the vinyl release of TGS, but the CD and digipak versions are very unprofessional. You can tell that the print on the cd is a sticker of some sort, and the words of some other artwork unrelated to Imprecation is imprinted on this sticker.
I liked a lot the idea of re draw in black and white of Moyen for this new edition, who came with the idea?
David: Yeah I contacted Moyen and asked if he could pull that off since it had been so many years since the original one was done and he did it with no problem. And very quick too! It was my idea to do it in black and white, for a couple of reasons. First off, to me a Moyen piece just isn't the same UNLESS it's black and white, even though he has great color artwork. Second, I was not in the band anymore when TGS was released, there were so many flaws on the original that I wanted to distance the re-release from the Repulse one. So I thought that having a different approach to the cover would do the trick in seperating the two.
Again has been Chris Moyen the artist of your cover artwork with a new blasphemy creation. Do you have special devotion for this artist? Of who was the idea of the cover?
David: To me Moyen is like a member of the band. I'm sure there are many other bands that feel the same! His pieces have always spoke volumes to me, and the moment I saw his art I knew that he was the artist that I would want to work with in Imprecation. When TGS came out, I was happy that the guys continued the course in seeking Moyen for the cover, as they are all huge fans of his as well. The idea was mine, and it was translated in the utmost blasphemy through the mind of Christophe. The man is a genius.
Was planed at the beginning that this full album was reelased by Deathrune Rec.? Whats came to the decision to release the album through Dark Descen?
David: Deathrune was not a part of the plan to release the new works. In the beginning Mataei had asked if we would be interested in releasing the new stuff on his label and I told him that I was not certain on committing to that, as it was still some time til that would happen. Also I told him that I wanted to see how he handled the re-release of TGS before making that decision. First off it took nearly 3 years to release the Deathrune TGS from the original agreement, it kept getting pushed back with excuses. He was having problems with his relocation to Germany, but even after he got settled it still took forever to come out.
Then when it did come out, the quality was not too good. The vinyl was decent, but like I said the CD/Digipak came out sloppy. Some pages are backwards, the cd label I mentioned before, the fact that the videos included on the release do not pop up when you insert into the computer, it has to be "explored" to find the files. Another reason is that people were having great difficulty in obtaining this release, as he did not answer emails very often and other various reasons. I had so many people complain to me about this, but I had to let them know it was out of my hands. Look, the guy wanted to work with us and for that I hail him, but he couldn't honestly think that I would sign up for another round of that treatment. Working with Dark Descent is the best decision that we could have made with Imprecation. Matt is a pro, and very easy to work with.
Are you happy with the work of this label?
**see above**
Not many time ago we could read in a Spanish fanzine some not very friendly words to Dave Rotten? You seems not stay very happy with somethings? Whats happen really between Imprecation, Dave Rotten and Repulse Rec.?
David: Ehhh, I have answered this question many times. It's really old news now, but let's just say that the beef with Dave Rotten lies within the original release of TGS, the fact that me and Phil Westmoreland were two of the main writers of the material and not one mention of us. Also, concerning Ruben he told me about the fact that our material appeared on so many different splits and crap that was never approved by the band, and when D. Rotten wanted to sign Imprecation he came at the band with no respect. Basically he wanted Imprecation to fund the entire LP and he wanted to give the band something like 50 CDs as a payoff. Give me a fucking break. When Ruben tried to renegotiate the offer, he came back with the now famous reply within our band: "Who do you guys think you are, Morbid Angel?" hahahaha
I see you in your Facebook page that you are making many concerts in this moment, but all in the Texas area, have you thought to make a USA tour?
David: We will be playing in NYC once again in June of 2014, and then shortly after marks our first strike on European soil, scheduled for the beginning of September. Aside from that, we just stick around here unless a serious offer comes through. We all have our families and jobs to take care of, so going on a tour does not work for us. I sing about and praise Him, but Satan don't pay my bills hahahaha!
Many people ask too about a future first Imprecation European tour, any possibility? Would be possible to see in live one of the most awaited bands in Death Metal scene in the old continent?
David: As mentioned last, YES!! We are very excited about the fact that we are going to FINALLY play in Europe. The only downside is that we can only be there for a week, so we will only play 3-4 shows while we are out there. I hope that we can play in the almighty country of SPAIN, we shall see. We open the trip in Denmark, we will figure out in the near future what is possible to add on. I would assume that Germany would be a no brainer since it's right there. Maybe Sweden. Who knows?
Lets talk something about the Imprecation lyrics Dave. Focused always to Satanism, blasphemy and antichrist. In what do you inspire for write this kind if lyrics?
David: Satanas and the blasphemy of Christianity and all that is deemed "moral".
Do you think that still today Christianity is a threat for humanity? Don’t you think that islam is much more dangerous and any Death Metal or Black Metal never have thought attack it in their lyrics?
David: Christianity is nothing more than fleas that need to be rid of. I hate all moral religious views, and I really do not have time to dwell too much on the lives of the sheep, we are wolves to the flesh of christ and will always be. I do not have any interest in politics or fanatical islamic doings, only to see them try to attain a seat in the afterlife through violence is amusing somewhat. Other than that they can fuck off.
Dave, you live in Texas, a state which applies now death penalty. Are you agree with that? Do you think that this contribute to reduce the criminality and violence in general?
David: I really do not care about matters such as this. But I will say that I am a firm believer in eye for and eye. So in that rational, yes I am a supporter of the death penalty somewhat, though I think one should die in the way that they commited their murder. They should televise the executions as well, that way we can see the justice system do its thing!
Also I have read that you like weapons. Do you use for defend yourself and your family or only for collecting?
David: I am no collector. I believe in properly arming myself to defend the home. If someone enters my domain uninvited, well then I will excericise my right in the State of Texas to take them down. I will have no problem with it either. My family comes first, I don't care about your drug habits or whatever reason you have to try to take from me, I will not hesitate to pull the trigger and paint my walls with your mongrel blood.
Dave, you are one of this that be there when Death Metal born, what memories you have of this old times of tape-trading, fanzines, flayers,etc…? You still continue buying stuff and discovering new bands?
David: Nothing compares to the underground of the early nineties. Bands were simply better back then, you did not have the flood of crap that is around infesting youtube and social media. Seems like everyone feels the need to make their imprint on the "scene", and it really dilutes the true essence of Death/Black metal magick. If you have something to offer, then all means let me hear it. But it's gonna take a whole lot more than looking the part and growling or screeching over some crappy rhythms to make me even look. You have to be that much better to rise above the sea of mediocrity. And the "newer" bands that have are phenominal because of it. PSEUDOGOD, TEITANBLOOD, NECROS CHRISTOS, MORBOSIDAD, BEHEXEN, MARE, VORUM, NIGHTBRINGER, WRATHPRAYER, MITOCHONDRION, NEGATIVE PLANE, VASALETH, TERATISM, and some more that escape me at the moment
Mandatory question. Write us your top ten extreme metal albums.
1. Celtic Frost "Morbid Tales"
2. Morbid Angel "Altars of Madness"
3. Blasphemy "Fallen Angel of Doom"
4. Vital Remains "Let Us Pray"
5. Possessed "Seven Churches"
6. Slayer "Hell Awaits"
7. Celtic Frost "To Mega Therion"
8. Teitanblood "Seven Chalices"
9. Mayhem "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas"
10. Emperor "split" with Enslaved
My favorite album of all time is Danzig II: Lucifuge. But I wouldn't really call that extreme hahaha. Also Godflesh's "Streetcleaner"
Well Dave I think that I haven’t nothing more for ask to you. Hope you like the interview and tell what you want for finish it.
David: Thanks so much for the interview. Sorry it took so long, but I am absent minded!!! HORNS
INTERVIEW BY NECRO.
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