INTERVIEW: Anno Diaboli

If you had to imagine the ideal location for a bleak and brutal black metal outfit, you could do far worse than a heavily wooded, frozen expanse.  Scandinavia?  Not this time.  Try Siberia.  Anno Diaboli are a new band from Omsk.  Touting a style which combines the raw aggression of traditional black metal with the precision and technical prowess of modern death metal, the band are currently putting the finishing touches to their first EP.  Ahead of its release, they kindly gave me the time to answer questions about their upcoming record, gigging in Siberia, and the future and politics of black metal.



The first song released from your new EP, Lie Near My Throne, is a bleak and brutal blast of traditional black metal.  Can we expect more of the same from the rest of the EP?

Anno Diaboli: Our EP consists of 4 tracks - In the mist, Warmonger, March of howlers, Lie near my throne.  The 1st track is an introduction to the EP, it is charming, cold and symphonic.  We used several different live instruments while recording it.  So the clean electric guitar tremolo produces a good blend with the viola and violin parts and cello part makes an accent on the harmony.  Other songs are fast with grinding drums and sharp keyboard and violin arrangements and - yes - they are similar due that the EP is conceptual and dedicated to the apocalypse and extinction of humanity.

What inspired you to write this EP?
Anno Diaboli: When we started writing the material our main inspirations were: misanthropy, apocalypse and the end of human era, the weakness of human body and mind.

A lot of bands which started off in the genre, like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, and Satyricon, have deviated from the traditional black metal style.  In general, do you think that black metal can survive in its traditional form, or will more bands look to develop the genre into new and more accessible forms?

Anno Diaboli: Black metal can take different forms. But I hardly can call Cradle of Filth a bm formation though the band is VERY popular and frankly speaking it is not a bad band. First of all bm is antireligious and/or antihuman metal music and its form is a secondary meaning to the genre. Actually I think it is a kind of advantage to have such a number of musical forms that can be associated with bm ideology. To my mind it is right to think every metal or rock band to be some kind of biological system and it is ok that like bio systems bands have further developments of their musical forms. I don’t mind the “deviations” of Satyricon or Dimmu Borgir or other bands. There are still a lot of bm bands playing raw and traditional forms of black metal.

In the popular imagination of many in Europe and the West, black metal has long been linked to radical right-wing politics.  Is there the same sort of conception of the genre in Russia, and what sort of pressures does this put on a band like yours?

Anno Diaboli: Our music has nothing in common with the right-winged politics or any other one. There are some nsbm [national socialist black metal] bands in Russian metal underground but the conception is not popular here and I don’t find their existence to be important for the Russian black metal scene.

Anno Diaboli are based in the city of Omsk, which is in the middle of Siberia.  With other cities so far away, how does your location impact on your ability to tour and play gigs?  And has this resulted in a different approach to playing live music for you guys?

Anno Diaboli: Yes, playing gigs is quite a problem and not only due to the location of Omsk. There is no place to play metal music here except some rarely held open airs and a very small rock bar with a very small scene in it. But we decided that the location of the city mustn’t affect the number of our live performance and we make arrangements with local promoters from other cities and then play gigs there. Thus we have visited different cities in Russia and Kazakhstan and play gigs with different cool bands, among them is Hate(PL), Act of God(RU), Sinful(RU), Butterfly Temple(RU), etc. The real problem here is the total absence of competent and responsible musicians with the serious approach to the metal music. They like pearls that should be searched very intently.

Finally, where do you see Anno Diaboli being in 5 years time?

Anno Diaboli: Well, I can’t definitely say about such a long term but we are going to move to Moscow in 2014 year and try to start gigging over Europe. So I believe that in 5 years time we will be gigging and producing new albums.

Anno Diaboli's debut EP should be out towards the end of this month.  Stay tuned for a review!  In the meantime, more information can be found at the following websites:

http://www.annodiaboli.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anno-Diaboli/168285713258024
http://vk.com/annodiaboli
http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnoDiaboli